1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
By Dominic Morgan
2. Horror Genre Conventions
In my opening sequence I have tried to match our production to the conventions of a
typical horror film. Some of our conventions are matched like the mysterious killer and
the remote location this location is good because it connotes seclusion, but we also
missed out but on other conventions.
For example one of our themes is the revenge slasher type of film and we incorporated
these really well, but we didn’t have a good vs. evil theme to it because our main
characters weren't in any struggle for there lives in the opening sequence.
We did incorporate some iconography because we used an axe which is a key signifier
to the films genre. We didn’t have any female characters in our films and they are
generally the main target for the deranged psychopathic killers.
3. Opening Sequence Conventions
In our opening sequence we followed the traditional path for most films we
put the titles in the conventional order of who appears first, we also
introduce the antagonist and protagonist.
5. Enigma codes
We tried to make our main antagonist scary by not letting the audience see
his face this raises suspicions and it makes the character appear more
mysterious and more illusive. We also didn’t show why he was killing his son
and this would be shown later on in the film so the audience will be
wondering why and what is happening to the boy. This makes the film more
appealing and watchable because people like to know answers and so this
will keep them watching.
6. Action Codes
At the start of my opening sequence, we have a lot of action scenes and we
matched this in with some calmer scenes these are opposites and this should
balance it out. The main action code is the use of weapons, we chose our
weapons well because we can associate an axe with most slasher films this is
linking to back to our initial genre of choice-Horror. I Edited ours to show
some parallel action between what was happening in the present day to
what was supposed to be happening in the past, but then matched the two
together to make it look like the killer was still in the house after some years.
7. Titles
Just like a normal professional media product, I have included some
titles, these titles are of the people that have contributed to my
product by helping me film, edit and act in my opening sequence and
I have made them in a specific font to make it look more sinister; this
will link back to the Horror genre that I chose .
8. Binary Opposites
In our film we included some binary opposites, the main one would be the
good characters and the bad evil character, they are thrown into contact
with each other when the unsuspecting teenagers come across and old
abandoned house and they decided to spend the night.
The killer has been in the house for a number of years and so they are on his
land so they have a close encounter with the psychopath and come away
unscathed but haunted by the meeting.
Another binary opposite would be the timid scared and weaker character
(Gus) and the more dominant powerful character (Richie) and the more
dominant characters bully the weaker one into venturing upstairs to find out
if this house is actually inhabited and its Gus that has the strange encounter.
10. Production Logo
It is conventional to have a production logo in any opening sequence or film
and I decided to make mine a blend of sci-fi and horror because aliens can be
scary and so if mine was for an independent film company then it can branch
out into the two different genres.
