The document discusses how the media product conforms to conventions of the horror genre. It analyzes elements like sound, location, mise-en-scene, characters, and props. The opening uses an ominous soundtrack and takes place in domestic locations like the family home and basement that create fear. The antagonist is dressed aggressively while the protagonist is dressed innocently like the typical victim. It includes stock characters of the antagonist and protagonist with a plot involving an existing relationship between them. Finally, the weapon of choice for the antagonist, a wooden pole, requires brute force similarly to other iconic horror weapons.

1. Q1: In what ways does your
media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?

2. Our film opening does not challenge the conventions of a horror film but
reinforces them a great deal, for example:
Sound: Our opening uses an
enigmatic soundtrack that fits with
the teen genre as not only was it
made to build suspense but also
to sound not too far off the type of
music teenagers' listen to with lots
of drum beats and techno. This
conforms to the horror genre as
almost all soundtracks build up to
create suspense for a moment of
action during the opening of a film.
Also, our use of amplified digetic
sound, when there are kicks and CLICK THIS LINK TO
the creaking of the door, is very HEAR THE SOUNDTRACK
typical of the horror genre and is
apparent in films that we studied
such as ‘The Amityville Horror’.

3. Location: Scream
The location we chose to use in
our opening is probably the
most conforming aspect to the
horror genre, the family home.
We researched films such as
‘Scream 4’ and ‘The Grudge’
which all take place within the
family home as it creates fear The domestic environment used in
through the idea of the place scream. is very similar to our own .
that is supposed to be safe but
can be one of the most
dangerous. The other location
we used was the basement, the
lair of the antagonist. This also
Lurk
conforms to the horror genre as
the killer is often portrayed as a
lonesome lunatic such as in
‘Saw’.

4. Mis-en scene:
To create the sense of teen in our
characters, Mis en scene was a very
important aspect as it allowed us to
show a characters' age, style and the
difference between the innocent and
aggressor.
The antagonist was dressed in an
Adidas track suit ,tracksuits being
stereotypically worn by ‘Hoodies’ who
are seen as boisterous and try and
show masculinity through crime and
aggression. This is an image
reinforced by the media in the 2012
riots and very easily digested by an
audience as it does not challenge the
media representation of aggressive
males trying to prove masculinity.
This conforms to the horror genre and
is apparent in films such as ‘Dead
Mans Shoes’.
The protagonist in contrast does not
conform due to the fact he is male,
not female, but in clothing and
conforms to the innocent portrayal of
the victim in the horror genre. We
conformed to the costume of the
victim by dressing him in skinny
jeans, very common of teenage kids
in the UK and also with a mid length
coat with a furry hood, also favoured
by the teen fashion icons. This allows
the audience to relate to the
character and build a rapport with him
and this then allows the audience to
choose a side which is what we
intended.

5. Stock Characters/Plots and
Locations:
Our film opening conforms as it has two
main characters, the antagonist and
protagonist’ an almost universal feature
of horror.
The plot is quite complex, but overall,
the idea of the killer already knowing the
victim or having met him before is quite
conventional e.g.. ‘Scream 1’.
The locations also reinforce the teen
horror genre with the use of the
domestic environment as seen in ‘The
Amityville Horror’ and also the other
location we used where the killer comes
a dark place, for example the attic in
‘The Grudge’ which resembles quite
closely the cellar within our opening.

6. Props:
In the horror genre the killer The iconic
usually has a weapon of scream knife
choice and our film opening
was no different. Where
‘Scream’ has a knife and ‘The
Amityville Horror’ uses a
shotgun, our opening chose a
wooden pole. This was used
because it is a weapon easily
accessible by a teenager but
also quite a masculine weapon
as it requires brute force to
inflict damage. This reinforces
the conventions of the horror
genre through our antagonist.
Our own
weapon
,connotes
masculinity.