In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Our 'Media Product'

• We have created the opening two minutes of a horror film set in modern day Surrey.

• In the creation of our film we have developed the use of stock narratives and themes along with stock characters and settings to represent our horror film.

Research

• Through research of the internet we have learnt some stock narratives and characters.

• We have also sat down and watched many film openings from our genre so we could pick out things we did, and didn’t like.

Common Stock Narratives

• The film begins straight into action, we see the antagonist and the protagonist in a bad situation then we flash back to where it all began.

• The film begins with a ring of the phone, we see the ‘dumb blonde’ stock character pick up the phone and the antagonist is on the other side of the call

Common Stock Narratives

• The film begins on what appears to be a normal family doing every day activities like taking the kids to school, the first 5-10 minutes do not have any hint that something bad is about to happen. Then the family’s problem suddenly appears.

• The film begins on a family recording themselves on a video camera usually so they can keep memories of a certain event. Upon reviewing the camera footage the family find something that isn’t natural...

Stock Narratives and themes

• We wanted to use a narrative structure that is used often in horror films.

• We wanted to make a film that gradually developed into the actual genre, like we see in other films that we have researched we wanted the opening to be similar.

• We wanted to combine two of the stock narratives to make our story.

• We wanted to start the film like any other, using Syd Fields study we needed to introduce the characters that will be involved and we needed to get the audience’s attention so that they would want to carry on watching the film.

Our Storyline

• We wanted to create a sense of mystery in our film opening. We adapted ‘The Possession’ as we also wanted our character Emily to reveal a box that had sentimental value to her.

• We came up with the idea that the box would be hidden in the final box and she would find it and pause.

Comparison ‘The Possession’

We liked the way this scene was introduced. We start off with a long shot where we can see her looking at something.

We then cut to the old lady looking at this box with absolute terror.

We liked the way this scene was introduced. We start off with a long shot where we can see her looking at something.

This is where we introduced the box, comparing it next to ‘The Possession’ we felt we could of had a better establishing shot and thought that with lighting set up correctly, the box could have been easier to see.

We liked the way this scene was introduced. We start off with a long shot where we can see her looking at something.

This is where we introduced the box, comparing it next to ‘The Possession’ we felt we could of had a better establishing shot and thought that with lighting set up correctly, the box could have been easier to see.

This is the point. and that all of our group agreed on that we missed. Not having this shot of Emily close up and looking worried does not let the audience sympathise with her.

Stock characters

• The Innocent victims - although not represented much in the first 2 minutes of our film, both our characters Emily and Josh are portrayed as the innocent victim.

• They simply could not afford to keep their child at a young age and as punishment they are being taunted by the ghost of their child that ended up dying in a care home.

Stock characters

• The Innocent victims - although not represented much in the first 2 minutes of our film, both our characters Emily and Josh are portrayed as the innocent victim.

• They simply could not afford to keep their child at a young age and as punishment they are being taunted by the ghost of their child that ended up dying in a care home.

We see this in ‘Insidious 2’They are just like any other normal family, and their child gets possessed and eventually so does the dad.

Stock characters

Josh and Emily are both innocent victims in our film. They have moved on from giving their child away and just want to live life normally.

Then they experienced an uninvited guest from the past...

The possessed girl

• In almost every horror film you watch now there will in some form be a possessed child. We wanted to develop this character and use this in our film.

The possessed girl

• In almost every horror film you watch now there will in some form be a possessed child. We wanted to develop this character and use this in our film.

This is an example from ‘The Ring’This is exactly how we wanted our character molly to come across as.

The possessed girl

Long straight hair covering face

Long white gown

The possessed girl is often found to be in a white dress or dressing gown with long hair covering her face and a teddy bear in her hands

The possessed girl

• In almost every horror film you watch now there will in some form be a possessed child. We wanted to develop this character and use this in our film.

• In our film the girl is the antagonist as she is the one that is going to cause severe harm to Josh and Emily.

Stock settings

Usually stock settings include : •Abandoned towns•Abandoned houses •Dark scary woods •Isolated cottage surrounded by nothing but silence.

Stock settings

Usually stock settings include : •Abandoned towns•Abandoned houses •Dark scary woods •Isolated cottage surrounded by nothing but silence.

‘The Blair Witch Project’

‘Cabin in the woods’

Our Narrative

• We wanted to begin the film slightly hinting that this wasn’t just a normal family, and something else is happening to them.

• We wanted to combine the normal family opening with a sense of mystery. By adding this sense of mystery we were hoping to attract the audience and have them wanting to keep watching.

Our Setting

• In our film we have set it in an ordinary town and what looks to be an ordinary house. In research of films like Insidious at the start of the film we see a setting of a normal street. This gives the audience a sense of realism and makes them think that they can relate to the characters.

Cinema Verite• Another convention that we also

used was the use of video cameras, we wanted to shoot a low budget film and wanted the audience to still be scared regardless of its cost.

• With the use of video cameras in other films we have studied we believed they have given a sense of belief for the person reviewing the film as they know that they had shot it themselves, so it gives the character a sense of realism and increases the shock that this is

happening to them.

Cinema VeriteParanormal Activity 4

Using this convention of using video cameras both POV and pre-set up. The audience can see things that the characters can’t. This is a great technique used as sets the audience up as they are preparing for the worse to happen to the character.

Negative space

• Negative space is the area around the subject of the image. Negative is often used to startle the audience and can be very effective.

• The only problem we found when using this in our film is that some of the test audience we used, did not even realise the girl appear in the reflection in the

mirror

Negative space

• Negative space is the area around the subject of the image. Negative is often used to startle the audience and can be very effective.

• The only problem we found when using this in our film is that some of the test audience we used, did not even realise the girl appear in the reflection in the

mirror

Before

After

Negative Space

• To make sure the audience didn’t miss the girl in the mirror, as it is a vital part in the audience being hooked we added a ‘sting’ similar to the one the John Carpenter uses in his films, such as Halloween.