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

1. By Rachel Picton

2. Throughout our film we use common conventions found with horror/teen
slasher films. Our plot line also stands by these conventions. In our film we
have a female character called Jess who is being chased by some unknown
masked figure. Using dramatic irony the audience already know who the killer
is as that is revealed at the end of the starting scene which could be seen to slip
from convention in the case of similar films such as Scream as you don’t know
the killer until the end as a way to build on tension and have a climatic ending.
Although many teen slasher films do give you an idea at least of who the
masked killer is, such is the case with Friday The 13th and Halloween.

3. As our credits start almost immediately there is not much to say in reference to
before them except for the decaying hand that falls into shot with our production
logo. This sets up the idea of the film being about someone being killed and also
makes the film non-linear as it then jumps back a month or so as a way of telling
what has happened up to this point.

4. Below: 00:03 Below: 00:43
Above: 01:55
I think the best parts of the film that are similar to the genre they represent are
scenes such as the decaying hand, scared character in the woods and the
weapon being shown.
Clips shown at
approximate time of
being saved.

5. For our film’s sound we have used short sound clips of sharp, high pitched
metallic music. This has connotations with horror as it is representative of
metal weapons such as knives being dragged along other solid objects. Also
the noise tends to be rather eerie too as it is only sort and rather quiet though
with how high pitched it is in can hurt your ears whilst listening to it making
your ears feel like they may be bleeding with adds to horrific atmosphere of
the film.

6. The main connection to horror our Mise-en-scene has is the woods that Jess
walks through at the start of the sequence, woods have always had a large place
in horror history due to their eerie appearance and atmosphere. With one
character being the killer we also have a slight costume change during the
sequence when the killer has to hide the gasmask which hides her identity and
black jacket and swap it for a larger winter coat, this has been used before in
other films to make it seem has though a certain character has nothing to do
with the murders.

7. The title of our film is written in red which has connotations with danger.
When seen the title appears to flicker and twitch which can also be
connected to horror as it has a rather unnerving and uncertain quality to it.
Our production company logo sticks with horror conventions with the
“Amicus” being written in dripping blood letters.

8. Our iconography includes the use of a weapon for the killing, in our case it’s a
kitchen knife that is seen at the end of our opening sequence like the use of a
knife in Scream. Also the gasmask which is used to cover the killers face and
hide their identity in a similar way to Slasher films such as Friday The 13th and
Halloween.