1. QUESTION 1-IN WHAT WAYS DOES
YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF
REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS
Erica Hall
2. As part of the task of our media products we had to
consider many different horror conventions. We
could either use some that are already exits as
horror convention, play around and develop them
further or challenge them so its different. The main
horror conventions that expected to see in most
horror films are isolated
location, sound, blood, death, final girl, jock, and
geek girl and boy.
I have selected 11 frames from our final product
explain the conventions uses.
3. Frame 1
In this frame in the background there is a
school, with three schoolgirls walking out of it.
This suggests that they are very innocent and it
sets the scene of the horror film, as you wouldn't
expect anything happen to the girls. Also the fact
that the girls are leaving at quite a gloomy and
dull time it makes the girls look vulnerable and
this makes it appropriate for a horror film.
Furthermore the girls look very involved with
school due to that fact they are holding folders
and books, which show the audience, they are
willing to work.
Also in this scene we had the camera on a tripod
and the effect it gave was very professional as
the establishing shot of the place was very
noticeable and also made the people stand out
within the shot. If this part was hand held I don’t
think it would have looked as effective because
we wanted it to stand out that the school was
significant to the personality of the three girls.
4. The clothes that they are wearing are typical
American film style clothes that they would wear
in a horror film. One of the films in which gave
us the idea of this is "Friday The 13th". The
clothes are very casual and also one person is
in sports wear in which Ericka is in ours. We
have played on the fact she is wearing sports
clothes is because its meant to represent that
she is a strong character and would be able to
defend and protect herself but actually she is the
one that week and isn’t able to escape the killer.
I think the idea of having quite chilled out clothes
makes them all seem the same. In a horror film
this is key because it’s a mystery and nobody's
know who the killer is and it makes him or her all
look similar.
5. Frame 2
This frame is showing the girls walking towards
the woods entrance. This shot we decided to
focus more on the location of the place. From
frame one the shot is very open and freely but
suddenly it brought to a narrow and more
compact setting. This mean the girls with in the
shot have to become closer to on another which
emphasis the fact it’s the last time they will be
this close together. The setting and the way the
characters act can give hints to the audience of
something that might happen. Furthermore the
lighting within the clip is very gloomy and most
horror films have a gloomy effect to make it
more dramatic and horrific atmosphere.
One of the films that we were influenced by was “Blind Alley” and firstly I like
the idea from the title. The word Blind suggest if you go down an alley you
wouldn’t know what to expect and this is what we want the audience to feel
from our movie. The fact that the walls are enclosing the area it show the
audience that there is no where to run and once they are there then it means
there is no way out. In our film we have showed this more through one
character, as she is the one that gets killed.
6. Frame 3
This frame works a lot on how the camera is
positioned as it is through the trees. The trees
give the spookiness of the horror film as they
scatted and enclosed to the entrance of the
woods. This is from the killers point of view so it
emphasis that something bad is going to happen
and the fact that it is before they arrive at the
woods it suggest that the killer has its eyes on
the target. Point of view shot are a conventions
of horror are this reflect how the killer is feeling
and what he may do to strike a scene
This picture has the same effect that we do in
our film as it show the killer want to strike and
hurt the girls. The fact in our horror film has
three girls it shows the innocents that girls can
have. The picture is a shot from “Night Mare on
Elm Street”. It seems that most of the shot from
the killer’s point of view are in medium shot this
is probably because the killer is able to see the
area that they are in and who there victims
7. Frame 4
This shot is similar to the one above and
links in with the points that I made but the
killer has its eyes more on the target of the
victim that it wants. We can tell from this
shot as it victim is close the killer is staying
in a more significant hiding place and this
is suggest by the tree having leaves and
the camera is looking through a smaller
gap. I think this creates suspense to the
audience as we to hints that something
might happen now. Also the lighting in this
scene is dull around the leaves and
brighter where the girl (Ericka) is walking
past and this shows her innocent life and
how chilled she is.
8. Frame 5
This shot is of the killers feet which is a
little bit of iconography because when ever
the audience see this they will be able to
tell that the killer is there. The fact that
there is a close up on the feet shows that
the killer at the moment wants to keep their
identity hidden and this happens a lot in
horror films. Furthermore the fact that it
looks like the killer is taking small steps it
suggest to the audience that he is creeping
up on it final out come. This was done
effectively in scream, as you never actually
knew where the killer was only by the
iconography of the weapon and mask
9. Frame 6
This shot suggest a lot about horror films. Firstly the
location as it is set in woods and as the place isn’t full of
people and not popular it straightaway suggests that it’s
a perfect place of a horror film to take place. People
tend to avoid woods as it enclosed with trees and
isolated from anything else. This frame shows Ericka
looking around as she noticed some kind of noise.
Another thing that is very effective is as part of the
sound and the diegetic sound of the twigs cracking as it
sounds like something is approaching and with the fear
on the girls face we can tell that so is suspicious that
she can hear something that is around her. Also from
this we can tell that is a stereotypical sports person as
she is grabbing her basketball as part of her defence
This is a shot from Cabin in the woods and I thinkdoesn’t want to lose it.
and this
has influenced, as most with the staging and the look
we wanted to get across to the audience. This is shown
through the fact that the person is in fear and has
something as part of their defence. Also there is no one
else within the shot, which then again suggest that they
are alone and has no one for protection. Furthermore in
horror films the killer will often victimise the people who
are alone because there is none to get for help and it
makes it easier for them to attack.
10. Frame 7
This frame also emphasis on her
stereotype of a good sports person as she
is running as she hear lots of noise and
saw someone in the distance. To add to
this we have challenge the fact of her
being the jock as stereotypically it’s the
male character in this play this character
because they are shown as stronger. The
fact that she is running suggest that she
will be quick enough to escape from the
killer but yet to know she doesn’t really
have any common sense because after
this she just stands behind a tree, instead
of escaping. This is where we challenge a
convention because the audience will
expect her to be a strong and fast
character that would be able to escape and
protect anyone else but she is the one who
is hurt. I think we did this effectively
11. Frame 8
This is another significant screen as it shows a lot of
iconography. One that we already said was the shoes
but there is also the rope and the mask now. I think this
has been done very well as the identity of the killer is
still being hidden behind the mask and we can’t tell who
at all who it is. In this scene we focus completely on the
person/killer because this is the first time we able to see
the whole body. The film “Friday the 13th” influenced
the looks of our character.
We liked the idea of the mask covering the face so we don’t know who it is
and also gives a spooky look with it being whit and because when people
going white it means there is something wrong with them and this
demonstrate that the killer (Jason) is different and strange to anyone else.
On our mask we decided to cover it in blood to show that the killer has
done other stuff before and so it afraid of anything. Also with Jason from
Friday the 13ths his jacket is similar colour to the wood as it is brown and
blends in well so he is well hidden, we have also gone for this effect so it
shows like it the killers home and is use to the area in which he
committees murder in. Lastly we decide to challenge the weapon that we
choose to use because most horror films use knifes and axe as their
weapons in which they kill with. As children like to make swings out of
wood in woods we thought this would be a really good weapon to have as
we have a setting of woods.
12. Frame 9
This frame really reflects the personality of
Ericka and how she doesn’t have common
sense. The first thing that is noticed is she is
looking the wrong way and lets go of her
basketball which then tells the kill where she is.
There is suspense also created in this clip
because we know the killer can see her and we
don’t know when he will strike, I think the
iconography is effective because the killer
himself makes him stand out. I think this
because of the fact the killer is holdings the rope
which suggest to the audience that it will be
used very soon and also the way that it is being
held with both hands and the look that the killer
is giving the girl. Through my research in an
audience point of view of watching a horror I see
people like hiding in a cupboard in which they
can’t get out and this straight emphasis that they
going to get killed, so by the ball rolling we have
13. Frame 10
The fear on Ericka face is very strong as
she doesn’t have any back up to help her
only option which she took was to scream
but by the facial expression on her face
she knows it’s too late. Most horror film
have a very dramatic and horrific scene
when it comes to the victim getting hurt by
the killer as it takes time and build up to get
to this part so the directors like that part to
be the most significant and this is what we
have done through different camera angles
and sound through out our clip to lead up
to this.
14. Frame 11
This is one of the main conventions within
a horror film and that is the blood. This is to
make is more dramatic as when people
see blood that know something horrible
must have happened. The challenged this
a little as most horror film you expect to
see a lot of blood but we decided to cut it
down and have a little dripping down from
when she was hung. The colour of it is red
which emphasis the angry and
determination that the killer has with
hanging people and making people suffer
through pain. I think scream was the film
that influences us most on how much blood
we were going to use because the killer
gets straight to the point in our film and
also scream. In scream he usually stabbed
someone once and then he is finished and
the blood that he sees is mostly on his
15. Sound
The sound is a key convention of horror as it builds up the main part of the
horror film. From listening to different sound track we were mostly
influenced by the tract from “dead silence” as we wanted something that
built up to the thing that happened. The music that were thought would work
best is music that fades in and gets louder and it makes the audience think
of when something might happen and leaves them in suspense as they
have no idea ad the track them repeats itself.
16. Conventions not Included
Jock- We did include this but our jock which was Ericka as she was
made out to be the bigger character was soon lost due to the fact we
played around with her character to make the audience have different
opinions on her as the film goes on.
Geek girl/boy- we decided not to have these, as we want a group of
friends that were very similar to get other and had the same sort of
personality just different hobbies. I think if we had included this our film
wouldn’t have worked as well as there would have had to have been
more dialect and the amount we had was very effective and it was very
mystery like.
Dumb-We didn’t really have a dumb character that was very
emphasised; we just had a character without common sense. We
decided to not use this as we wanted it to be more original and not
common so it create suspense to the audience as they wont know
what might happen.
17. Theme
The theme of our movie was teen and slasher as the three girls attend a high
school and this is suggest right at the beginning when the are walking out from
school. I think by having a teen cast shows the innocent within the characters well
because they are only young and only just staring life. Furthermore it is slasher
because of the killer going around and killing people, I think before of the themes
work well together. This was influence through scream as this is the same sort of
thing that we wanted to do but we attempted it in different ways.
