Evaluation Question 1

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

Throughout the process of constructing my horror film I had to think about the many conventions of horror, deciding whether to incorporate these elements within my film or to go against them, challenging them. Because my film is very much that of a Slasher/ supernatural horror film you can see that I have taken two main genres of horror and collaborated the ideology together to form one subgenre of horror which would relate back to films such as "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity" where the antagonist of the film is a supernatural being that kills off the protagonist. This is shown within my film by the protagonist "Bruce" investigating an 'Entity' that is causing paranoia through the school.

Upon watching my horror film one convention that stands out that my group and I looked upon would be the ideology of the supernatural elements within the film. During the build up to the end, the camera, from subjective movement, captures glimpses of the "Entity" that is creating this tension. The mise en scene that was used through costume would portray the "entity" as a very dark figure of death and evokes ideology of a sinister like nature.

As I've previously mentioned in the introduction, two main films focus upon this idea of a paranormal being. "The Blair Witch Project" is a great example of using a sinister like antagonistto build tension, only seeing shadowed glimpses of the dark/shady character throughout the film.  The audience are now more anxious to find out the identity of this 'being' and thus more involved within the film. This idea of subjective camera work is also featured by the movement of 'Bruce' with a hand held camera and is the main focus upon the Blairwitch project. The use of a hand held camera indicates, to the passive audience, a sense of realisation, including the audience to make them feel as if they were there.  If you click on the link below it will direct you to a great representation of how the use of tension is built up.

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allowing the audience to engage with the film, knowing that something is coming, the audience are more on the edge of their seats even when they haven't seen the supernatural "Witch". This idea is shown in the build up to the death of the protagonist in the last sequence. Again just like "The Blair Which Project" I have also incorporated the convention of having subjective lighting and camera work. The use of this allows the tension to build, not knowing what is in the dark being the character 'Bruce' as shown in the images portrayed.

The next  convention that I focused upon throughout the creation of the film would be the use of location.  I followed my original plan, whichwas to include the location of a school to fit with thestory line of a teenage characterinvestigating supernatural elements within his school. The use of this location would then hit my appropriate target audience and thus creating the sense of endangerment as the audiencewouldbe in the process of leaving school.

From the use of mise en scene with location,  thesetting in which the film is based upon, having a student of the school investigate at night brings a tension based structure throughout. From using  bleak, darkened hallways the ideology of death was looked upon. One section that worked wonders with the tension becoming built would be when a hallway is lit by a flickering light and in the background the shot of the "Entity" is portrayed. The use of having this hallway and infact this location of a school connotes ideology of isolation and seclusion from the outside world. The audience then come to realise that

there is only the antagonist and protagonist, nobody else. With the convention of an isolated location I would bring into reference the film "scream" with the opening scene.

Even through the location is different, the use of seclusion from the outside world is focused upon.  I chose to look into this type of secluded location to fit with the appropriate target audience that my film is aimed towards. The audience could have just left school so brining realisation towards the film would trigger a frightened response.
This two minute clip helps to portray this idea of isolation. You look upon the protagonist "Cindy" that speaks to the antagonist through a phone, the shots of her walking through her house implies that there is noone else around and this evokes ideology of wariness and brings a frightening sensation towards the scene, Just like I have done within my film withthe isolated school and gloomy corridors lit by flickering light.

 

Another Film that looks upon the convention of isolated locations would be "Halloween". Throughout  almost every scene where the antagonist "Michael Myers" kills, he and his victim are isolated from the outside world. This is usuallydone in a secludedarea such as a house. This clip portrays the killings that progress in many of the "Halloween" films. The mise en scene of location isn't based upon a school setting but the fact that in every murderous scene the use of seclusion is focused upon with the characters being isolated from the outside world. . The Director has incorporated this idea ofseclusion to darken the feel towards Michael and the audience themselves can become wary of this. My film, as I have previously mentioned features the use of seclusion to evoke tension towards the audience just like this film and "Scream" have done.

The Film "Creep" uses conventions of isolation throughout the film where thereis a paranormal entity killing people in an underground. The fact that the characters are alone and that the location is so deep underground evokes ideology of complete seclusion, not being able to run down the road to find help, but by being completely trapped underground. I have chosen, within my film to focus upon the secluded side of horror but created a scenario that would appeal to my audience more by using the setting of a school. The convention therefore is still the same but the choice of mise en scene has been carefully chosen to link with its audience.

One convention that is typical in most slasher films would be the use of a mask that is worn by many of the antagonist characters. For my film the "Entity" wears black mask that restrains the view of his mouth and allows the audience to focus more upon the eyes that evoke a sinister feel. The use of this mask allows for the capture of innocence and replaces this feeling with mystery and creates a dark powerful figure. Thus use of a black mask helps to link with the costume that symbolises death. One film that uses a mask to portray the antagonist in an overpowering evil 'being' would be "Friday the 13th" this film looks upon the antagonist "Jason" who kills children at a campsite. The use of his iconic mask helps the audience to create a fear of it purely because the mask portrays no emotion.

The solid hockey mask has the same blank expression that makes the killer look psychopathic, portraying no emotion to anything.  Whist looking for inspirational and iconic masks that I could use to portray the supernatural "Entity" I came across the mask/restraint of "Hannibal Lecter" from the film "Silence Of The Lambs". My mask was based upon this character from the use of audiences being able to focus upon the sinister like eyes portrayed in the antagonists. The reason why I wouldn't class his mask as that of "Jason's" mask would purely be because his was more used as a restraint when placed in a straight jacket to elaborate on the ideology of a psychopath.

  But the use of this mask was portrayed through my film and connoted ideology of death that I was aiming for.  The convention of using a mask indicates to the audience that the antagonist doesn't want to be seen, that he is hiding to keep his identity a mystery either for the purpose of not being caught or for the purpose of audience questioning.

The director has chosen to include the use of a mask to also build the tension as the audience keep guessing who the antagonist is. From viewing a masked figure you are more intrigued to find out who this person is leading to questions left unanswered by the film. This has been shown through a variety of films, using masks to hide a face such as the film "Saw, where the use of a masked figure is shown through a television screen that leads to both the audience and the characters within the film wondering who the antagonist is. The ideology of mystery is one feature that comes with the convention of a mask and this has lead to our film making audiences eager to find out who the antagonist is.

One convention that is featured through many horror films is the use of subjective camera movement. To make my film more realistic my group and I used the idea of having a hand held camera to document "Bruce's" experience with the Entity.

This was done purely to place theaudience within the film, experiencing the film as if they were there themselves. This would then lead to the audience feeling more wary of what would follow and thus creating a tension building sequence. This has been looked upon in the film "The Last Exorcism" with the use of a hand held camera to document the experience of demonic possession through a young teenage girl.

The film in fact covers a lot of conventions that I have looked upon, the use of camera work, the age of the protagonists and also , the use of secluded locations and also this genre of supernatural elements as the key focus point. From the use of having hand held camera work the audience and look upon the facial features that "Bruce" is using through my film. This would then help portray his characteristics and responses to the strange and terrifying occurrences that are happening. it also allows for a first person shot so that the audience can feel more involved within the film, as if they were actually there with "Bruce". This then evokes a fearful emotion that the audience will feel whist the lead up to the death is happening.

Linking to ideology of subjective camera movement the focus upon subjective lighting was used throughout my film to focus upon one section of either a face or the surrounding. This was shown through two key section of my film. The first section where subjective lighting was used to evoke a threatening tension was through the use of flickering light beaming above the camera that lit up the gloomy corridor and also captured a glimpse of the "Entity".

The audience would then feel more wary due to the lighting that is portrayed. From having this effect the audience are left with a sense of fear by the shadowed figure just watching over the protagonist, The fact that the use of first person is shown also makes the audience feel like the entity is watching them, evoking panic into the audience. The use of a flickering light would help to portray the fear. From having shimmering glimpses of light the tension is built, not knowing what is in the dark.

 

The second scene where subjective lighting was used would be when one light source is shone upon "Bruce" from below enabling the audience to see the glow of face, enabling facial expression to be shown. Also the same lighting was used to light the face of the entity, allowing the audience to cower in fear from the appearance of the evil 'being'.

The use of lighting has been shown in the film "REC" where subjective lightingwas used to light up certain feature of either a face or a surrounding. With the ideology of darknessbeing the main source of focus the use of light helps to eliminate this darkness but also allows forother elements to being in focus such as an antagonist. This image of the child lit by subjective lighting helps to convey the sinister like nature of the film. From having the child alone surrounded by darkness it suggests to the audience that no one is safe. Also linking to the ideology of seclusion and left with the antagonist, alone.

The use of sound is a key convention in any horror film to build up tension that would frighten the audience. Throughout my film the use of non diegetic sounds were used to create a tension building scene, having some very eerie sounds to make the audience feel unsafe, knowing that something is about to happen. The sounds we acquired were from a range of different websites and also form the editing software itself; by placing these non diegetic sounds over the performance during the editing stages it added to the tension that was already being built. The fact that alot of non diegetic sound was use instead of diegetic would be the fact that if the sound were diegetic then "Bruce" would be able to hear the noise, enabling him to know something is coming, So from having the non diegetic sound this does the opposite, the audience know something is going to happen but "Bruce" is totally unaware which creates a highly intense scene. One film that looks upon the use of non diegetic sounds to evoke fear would be "Halloween" where the use of the same sound is used in every killing scene, the audience are then fearing for what is about to occur but the actors within the film have no idea.

The use of quick cuts alongside tension building sounds enable the audience to cower in fear knowing something is about to happen. This is the link to the nondiegetic music that is played before a killing, from the nature of the sound , being eerie and terrifying the audience would then find the film overall that bit more scary than if the killing were to just occur.

Throughout the construction of the film I had to think about editing. This is a convention that is used in every horror film , it allows for the audience to either witness a certain camera movement with effect, or to just compile to sections of a clip together to make the clip run smoothly. One use of editing would be to take clips and combing them togetherhaving the effect of quick cuts back and forth. This type of edit helps to build up the tension throughout a scene from seeing the protagonist and antagonist gaining closer to each other.  Even some of the first horror films used these techniques, not just with today'stechnologyavailable. One film that looks upon this idea would be Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". The direct has used 70 different camera angles intermixed with quick cuts to portray an intense scene. From my film the use of quick cuts are shown , looking towards the protagonist "Bruce", when an intense scene is buildingI used quick cuts of different camera angles to support the ideology of tension dramatically building.