Main Task - Evaluation - Q1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For this question I will be discussing whether our media product is similar to those that we researched.

We decided to use the horror genre for our film opening, which is between one to two minutes long, giving us enough time to develop and include different techniques in our film opening. Furthermore, we were able to add in key camera shots, inter titles etc. Before we decided to use horror as the genre, we looked at horror films so we could get an idea of real media products, these included The Woman in Black, The Conjuring and Jaws (1975).  After writing up deconstructions of each film, including  the synopsis, distributors, timeline. Also the analysis of costume, makeup, sound, music and credits, helped us to decide what we needed to include in our film opening. After analyzing The Woman in Black we decided to challenge the real media product by using the idea of a woman in black but instead we decided to do a man in black as it is stereo-typically known for a man to be the evil character.

                                  
                                                        Gif of the man in black
Editing

We looked at the different editing skills used in the other real life media products that we analysed. We noticed that most horror films use a dark tone which means low key lighting is used quite often throughout horror films. We liked the idea of using dark tones as it created an intense atmosphere. but instead of just using dark tones we decided to use both dark and bright tones to represent good vs evil theme. Our conventions represent conflict.

                                                      Establishing shot of the park 

Camera

We decided to use quite a few close up shots as horror films mainly use close up shots as it creates atmosphere and it increases the audiences fear as it shows the facial expression's of the characters. I found out that a theorist named Goddard believed that close up shot’s were invented for tragedy. He believes that 'close up shots  reveal an emotion and  create emphasis'. However horror films often use extreme close up shot’s as well as adding dramatic effects to the shot's e.g. low key lighting. We used a variety of different shots such as; mid shot, low angle shot, tracking shot, high angle shot, eye level, point of view, long shot, close up, establishing shot. We used a low angle shot to show the face of the man in black because we thought it was effective because it shows the audience how the man in black dominates over the girls and has the most power. The low angle shot also helps the audience feel as if they are looking up at the man in black and feeling his dominance. We used quite a few long shots as we thought it will help the audience recognize the whereabouts of the characters in the scene. The scenes are set in harmless locations which creates a twist because the audience will not expect anything to happen.  We also used tracking shots to connote the movement, we thought it was very effective as it showed that the girls were being followed and watched, it also helped to represent the girls' fear. Another reason as to why we used a tracking shot was so could establish park scene to create suspense as it was the last shot so the audience could think about what is going to happen to the girls next. We also used a over the shoulder shot to show the man in black stood by the girls who were the victims. We thought it was the best shot to use to create tension as the audience got to see the man in black at the same time as the girl noticed him.  

                                                    Over the shoulder shot 

                                                         Tracking shot 








Mise en scene
Costume of the characters: We chose casual clothing for the girls' costumes as we thought it suited the story line the best. We decided all three girls will be dressed in modern day clothing which is in fashion as it is set in the present time. These types of clothing consists of: jeans, trainers, jumpers etc. Lastly, we have the character who plays the man following them, Toby. He will have no identity revealed as he will be wearing all black with a mask, similar characteristics to ‘Slender man’. We had a slight issue with the costume of two of the girls whiles we were editing because they were wearing all black as well as the man in black so it made it difficult to make the man in black stand out.

Location: We decided to use two different locations for our film opening as we thought it would make the film opening seem more mysterious and interesting. The two locations that we decided to chose for our scenes were a train station and a park. We felt this would create a good plot twist as they are normal settings so the audience will start building expectations and then the action takes a different turn. We chose external locations as we wanted a gloomy atmosphere so we decided to shoot it outdoors so the weather could enhance the atmosphere. We were fortunate with the time of year because it was winter.

                                                 This shot shows the characters' costumes

                                                             Shot of the train station 

                                                           Shot of the park 
 
Title 

We have the title appearing at the end of our film opening. We have used a thin off -white outline color with the man in black in the background. We used an off white color because it stand outs well over he black background so it is easy to see. The color white connotes purity and innocence which is the opposite to our film opening genre which is horror. The main colors of the title, which are black and white create a dark and eerie atmosphere for the audience. The font used is thin an creepy which is used to foreshadow the events to come. Most horror films would use black or red title to represent horror, however we chose white so it was challenging the normal horror convention. It is clearer to see and it does not give too much away. We used serifs because we recognized that most horror films use serifs so we decided to use this convention as it was effective.

                                                      Shot of the title 



Music&Sound 
The music we chose to use for our film opening is from the horror film Insidious. The music is very scary and eerie which is quite a common convention of a horror film. In the first couple of scenes which are at the train station, we have not used any music as we thought that it would divert the attention from the dialogue. However, we have used sound effects in the first few scenes, the sound effect we have used is a train sound effect. Another reason as to why we have not used music straightaway is because after analyzing other horror films we recognized that the background music is usually built up slowly. The music starts when we introduce the park scenes, the music starts off at a constant sound and you can hear violins in the background. Whenever we have a shot that pops up, we have a bang sound to add more of an effect to it. This makes the scene more scary and tense as you don't know what's going to happen. We have faded the music in at the beginning and at the scene when the man is walking towards the girls. We have edited the music using the fade in and fade out transition so it sounds more professional. We have also fitted in another 'bang' sound for when the title pops up.