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

CINEMATOGRAPHYFor cinematography I mainly focused on capturing specifics shot to conform to our sub-genre, Romantic-Horror. I had to carry this effectively in order to produce an excellent opening. Basic shots such as Mid Shot, Long Shots, allowed us to show our audiences what was going on and also to recognise characters.

Close UpWhile filming, my main focus was not only to conform to common shots used in the genre chosen, but to follow the feedback given from our audience research. Most results came to terms of using a lot of close ups. The effects of close ups intends for the audience to become paranoid as they do not know what’s happening outside the frame; this also creates a thrill that most people enjoy about watching Horror films

CINEMATOGRAPHYFocusWe took the focus of the camera to our advantage. The camera focusing in and out, allowed us to send a message that something wrong is going on which conformed to our genre and narrative. The camera not being in focus also allowed us to challenge ourselves to see if audiences actually understood what was going on and this was shown through feedback received.

MISE-EN-SCENEMise-en-scene impacted our film massively! We really nurtured how our characters were portrayed to conform to the codes and conventions of our genre.

CostumesWe kept our costumes to a minimum. There was no specific reason for this, we just implied that it would make it easier to understand the stereotypes of the characters. For example, Annabel was dressed in a pink cloak, to exaggerate how feminine she is. In addition, the male characters, which stuck to their costumes to a simple colour, which conforms to the simplicity expected for male characters

MISE-EN-SCENEMake-upMake-up allowed us to create effective images to follow codes and conventions of our genre and to also thrill our audience. For Jason’s make-up, we received inspiration from well-known villain ‘The Joker’ from batman. The joker’s well-known for being crazy, which we wanted to portray for Jason. Doing this allowed audiences to instantly understand the characteristics of our villain.

PropsProps that were effectively used are the pictures in Scene one and the gun. This helped me to construct our narrative. The use of the pictures helped portray Jason’s obsessive and crazy characteristics. In addition, as the gun helped portray danger to conform to the genre of Horror.

LOCATIONLocation scouting was a problem. We debated over two locations. Our first initial location was more proficient than the location used in our film, because it’s surrounding were more drastic where as the one used was found to be basic.

However, the location used still allowed us to conform the horror genre. The forest emphasised the thrills we were trying to convey.

Haggerston-Location weFilmed at

Hackney Marshes-Initial location

SOUNDWithout sound, I believe our opening would have meant anything. Sound allowed us to emphasize mystery, horror and impact onto our audiences.The music used at the beginning conformed to the psychotic behaviour of Jason. The heartbeat used helped to create paranoia and allowed the atmosphere to be tense. The sound effect of the gunshot helped to create realism as the gun used was fake.

What we intend to add is a voice over of Jason to easily explain the narrative as this was one of the problems people found watching our film.

GENRE THEORY: STEPHEN PRINCEHorror genre is significant as it differentiates from other genre’s massively. It causes you to look deeper, for example, questioning human existence. This comes from the author Stephen Prince of the book ‘The Horror Film’.

He says, “Here lies the special significance of horror, the factors that truly differentiate it from the other genres and that make it conform most deeply with our contemporary sense of the world.”

We used this towards the characteristics of Jason as he doesn’t act like a normal human being.

MORE GENRE THEORY: NICK LACEYLacey advices to include the ‘repertoire of elements’ when creating a film, to suggest that it belongs to a particular genre.

The action, which was Jason attacking Annabel and Bryson, referred to Lacey’s idea of a specific narrative device.We developed our narrative through our characters, for example, a villain, damsel in distress and a false hero. Example: Generally in horror films, the villain is defeated. However, we added a plot twist where the villain was never really defeated.

Horror genres have a location, but it’s changed overtime. Our location being the forest.Our product follows the iconography suggested by Lacey. It contains visual and audio, that becomes instantly recognisable to the horror genre. Example: Dark and gloomy colours with, sinister music. Diagonal camera angle to communicate something’s not right.