Evaluation Question 1 Plan pt 2

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

When creating our media product we ensured to adhere to a variety of forms and conventions, in order to give the project a similar overall aesthetic to existing examples of productions in the industry.

Firstly, we had to consider the choice of sound in our film, starting with the use of a non-diegetic soundtrack. During the decision-making process, we analysed many existing horror productions, and used films such as The Ring as a style model, as the tension that it helped build was very effective. Based on this observation, we decided to choose a track that was tonally similar to The Ring's opening soundtrack, in that it mostly consisted of atmospheric synth and string sounds, with some underlying and also more enhanced percussion. Furthermore, in the post-production period of the project, we altered the volume levels in some areas of the track, such as by introducing silences followed by loud impacting noise, as done at 1:48, with the CCTV sequence. This allowed us to build the tension quickly in the film and increase suspense whilst startling the viewer somewhat. In addition to the non-diegetic sounds in the piece, we also incorporated a variety of both synchronous and asynchronous diegetic sounds, such as the bleeping of the CCTV camera, the dripping of the blood, the breathing and speaking of the character, and the splashing of the feet in the blood puddle. Also in post-production, we added various reverb effects to this audio, allowing us to create a sense of space and emptiness in the room, which is typical of indoor scenes within the horror genre. Similar effects were used with great success in the torture scenes in the Hostel films and the inside scenes in Silent Hill, and help to create a greater sense of atmosphere in the room, which was what we intended to achieve.

Next, it was imperative that that we conformed to the conventions of horror by choosing a suitable location as a setting for our film, in order to create the realistic and unsettling overall mise-en-scene that we were hoping to achieve in the product. After extensive location research followed by scouting, we decided to use an abandoned redoubt fort that included a heavily vandalised derelict building. From researching conventions of horror films prior to the production, we found this to be a popular type of setting in many horror films, as the idea of abandonment creates a sense of loneliness and therefore vulnerability, making the viewer empathise with the character further and therefore feel a stronger emotional connection to them as there appears to be less hope for the victim due to him being cut off from help. The appearance of graffiti and shattered glass helps to reinforce this image of abandonment, but also shows that visitors to this location may be criminal or villainous. This type of location was decided upon after observing the effectiveness of similar types of setting used in the 'I Spit On Your Grave' films, particularly in the underground and abandoned house scenes, as they create the impression, that the victims are helpless as the locations appear so isolated, that we wanted to reconstruct. On the whole, i believe that the way we conformed to this horror convention was very effective and that it was a large contributing factor to the success of the scene, as it imitated a location that may be used on a larger scale horror production.

Following this, the type of character that would generally be used as a protagonist in horror films was also standardised in our film. From carrying out primary research, and observing the rough demographic of the character types in a variety of films, such as Scream, Shrooms and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre we discovered that frequently, the protagonists in many horror films were young adults, both male and female. We used this as a guide to casting our protagonist, and decided upon a 20-year-old male. We chose this age and gender of the character as it matches the rough target audience of the film, due to the film being classified as a '15', meaning that as a viewer, the character will be more relatable and therefore will appear more realistic, making for a better viewing experience. Similarly, more recently horror films have began to change from using the stereotypical middle-aged killer or antagonist to a younger one or in some cases just the presence of a 'creepy girl' character is becoming more common, for example, the characters in The Grudge and Silent Hill. We decided to conform to this pattern in modern horror, as we felt that the juxtaposition of the usual 'innocent' young girl to the 'villain' character would be very effective, and would create a feeling discomfort for the viewer, due to the assumption that young children would not be associated with sadism but rather innocence and harmlessness. Watching the openings of films such as The Woman in Black influenced this, as the characters introduced at the start, who appear to be harmless young girls, seem to appear possessed, making the viewer feel extremely uneasy, which was a feeling that we intended to replicate amongst the audience.

In total, we incorporated 13 title screens into our film opening. In order to continue the theme of the product, we ensured that the title screens fitted with the pace of the footage, but also the conventions of the genre as a whole. Of the existing products that we analysed, we considered the most effective title sequence to be from the horror/thriller films 'Se7en', and '23' so we loosely based our choices on these examples. Similarly to in Se7en, we used a style of typography that lacked standardisation, with non-uniform kerning between letters for example, in order to create a gritty, irregular feel to compliment the footage being shown on screen. We also achieved sense of irregularity by creating a series of different title texts of different positions and sizes for each title, and then cutting quickly between them so that they flickered and appeared sporadic, which is an example of typical horror iconography. In addition, contrasting to most examples that we looked at, we capitalised the text as we felt that it conveyed more aggression. Overall, I think that the titles were one of the strongest aspects of the product as they closely imitated that of an industry standard product, in my opinion, due to the aforementioned points.

One area that we decided to challenge the conventions of was the narrative structure. Generally, we gathered that most films follow Toderov's equilibrium theory, suggesting that cinema will usually begin with equilibrium, and will be followed by a disruption of order (disequilibrium), a recognition of the disequilibrium, an attempt to repair it before finally reaching a state of equilibrium once more as the crisis is resolved. Usually a horror film may follow this structure by opening with a series of sequences that establish the characters and a sense of their day-to-day lives. An example of a product where the narrative structure begins at the disequilibrium stage however, was The Evil Dead, a film that begins with a demon being burnt alive. We considered this to be distinctly effective and therefore decided to transfer this idea into our own product. We felt that this was a more interesting way of presenting the narrative to the audience as it would encourage viewers to get hooked immediately upon starting the film due to the enigma that it would create, influencing them to continue watching the film. Although it was a risk, I am glad that we made this choice to challenge this particular convention as from gathering audience feedback, it appears that this choice was received positively.

In addition to the above conventions, we also ensured to use appropriate props in the production, in order for the audience to be aware of the genre. From research, we found that the use of props was vital for the horror genre, as many props used in existing horror products are iconographic, meaning that the audience can easily make references to the genre from looking at the props. Due to this, we used regular props that would often be found in existing products. For example, we made use of rope fake blood, to show injury has been inflicted, rope, showing the victim's restrictions, a cctv camera, to create the feel of the victim being watched by a higher entity, and old fashioned dolls, as are popular in current horror films, such as Annabelle, The Conjuring and The Woman in Black, foreshadowing the appearance of the young female antagonist. 

Finally, we considered the use of costume and make up essential in our production. Firstly, we decided that the protagonist would wear clothes that a normal teenager may wear, this would create further relation to the audience and therefore create a sense of reality, as this reinforces that bad things can happen to normal people. In contrast, in our production, the antagonist wore an old style white frock dress. The colour white challenges genre conventions, as normally darker colours such as black or red are associated with the villain character, which have connotations of death, darkness and evil, whereas white usually carries connotations of purity and cleanliness. This use of juxtaposition creates a sense of irony, which would again make for a more uneasy viewing for the audience. This costume was based upon the costumes used in The Woman in Black, as we felt that it helped to reinforce the young age of the girl, which is successfully conveyed in The Woman in Black, whilst also showing that she'd been there a long time. Finally, the protagonist wore strong make up, consisting of blood and flesh-like colourings and textures. Once again, this shows infliction of injury, reinforcing the sadistic nature of the villain, also making the viewer feel empathy.

In conclusion, our production mostly adhered to conventions of the horror genre and existing productions, as we felt that most industry quality productions were exceedingly successful in creating a gripping watch and a realistic mise-en-scene. Although, we did not conform to some aspects, we found that many existing horror films also challenged conventions occasionally, as it makes for a more unique and therefore competitive product. Furthermore, many of these were only small changes that did not affect the narrative or the success of the production, which we established from audience feedback.