The document discusses how the media product, a horror film opening, uses and develops conventions of real horror films. It analyzes several key conventions used in existing horror films that were then incorporated into the opening, such as: - Using the theories of Todorov and Propp to establish equilibrium, disruption, and a new equilibrium as well as character roles like hero and victim. - Choosing a park location rather than a stereotypical forest to make it less predictable, while still including trees in the background. - Developing characters with unique personalities while still including vulnerable teenagers and females as main characters and victims. - Using dark lighting, ominous sounds, pathetic fallacy of stormy weather,

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

2. 2
SCARLETTWe researched existing horror movies and their conventions in order to
create our horror film, which was inspired and developed through the existing
openings. However prior to this we held discussions in which we decided what
sort of themes we would like to follow. As a group we agreed that our film
opening would be under the sub-genre of slasher. Therefore we researched
the horror slasher films to get an insight of the conventions we must include.
The films we looked into detail with were: Chucky, Scream and Unborn.
Chucky was the main horror film which we analyzed as it was closest to the
narrative that we had thought up (a killer doll). Chucky had iconic themes
such as the location of an abandoned house, the pathetic fallacy of stormy
weather through out, the youth and the feminine gender as a victim (due to
the convention in all horror movies that these 2 types are most vulnerable),
dark lighting, slow and creepy non diegetic sound as an element of mood
music which builds suspense, and the red font used on the title to establish it
is a horror as red connotes to blood and danger. We used all of these main
conventions to develop and challenge our film opening so that it was as
believable and realistic to the actual film industry.

3. 3
NARRATIVE
Horror films use the theories of Todorov and Propp. Todorovs theory entitles
that there is equilibrium, a disruption of the equilibrium, disequilibrium and
then a new equilibrium. Propp’s theory states there are set roles of each
character e.g. a hero, a damsel in distress. We have began to use Todorovs
theory in our horror film opening as we began with the group of teenagers
laughing, drinking and relaxing in the park this was representing the
equilibrium where everything is normal, we then introduced the disequilibrium
with a flash forward showing the doll tormenting the girl. This also introduces
Propp’s theory as it shows a protagonist survivor (Riley) no other characters to
be seen, the audience decodes this that the other characters are dead. Also a
villain is shown as a killer, which is the doll (Scarlett) A disruption to the
equilibrium is also used when the doll is seen swinging on the swinging in light,
showing she is around, and that something is going to cause disequilibrium.
These theories were used in existing horror films. There is always a villain or
killer and in our film opening we have created a doll who is a killer called
‘Scarlett’. Films that have used this theory and who we have been inspired by
are ‘Friday the 13th
and Nightmare on elm street.
LOCATION
A stereotypical and common location used for horror movies is the forest and
is highly used for AS horror movie openings, therefore we challenged this
convention and went against it as it felt too over used and too predictable.
We chose the location of a park due to its convention to horror movies of
vulnerable children and it represented youth and innocence, which
juxtaposed against the idea of a film as then an innocent doll becomes
corrupted and kills. Although we didn’t use a forest there is one clearly
visible in the background of the park, which adds an eerie feel and conforms
to the convention even though the action doesn’t occur in the forest. Our
location was shot both in light and dark, the light showed the audience our
location as when it is dark it isn’t easy to see, however the darkness in the
flash forward brought an eerie and spooky feel to our film opening which
seemed vital to our genre.

4. 4
CHARACTERS
When creating characters we ensured that
each one had a different personality to the
other, we also made it so the definition of
each name matched their personalities
(research can be found on the blog).
Although this wasn’t a convention for
horror movies it showed modern day
adolescence in which everyone is different
and original, this challenged horror
movies. However in horror movies women
are often used as the main character as
their feminine gender is represented to be
over emotional and they often convey fear
to the audience. We used our characters as
adolescence as it gives the audience can
relate to them due to our certificate being
15+, also they can understand their
reactions and language, making it more
enjoyable. All though we used adolescents
as our main characters our main
protagonist in our film opening was ‘Riley’
the female survivor and ‘Scarlett’ the
female doll. Both of these challenged our
genre because in horror films because as
I’ve already mentioned women are used to
convey fear and be feminine and over
emotional, therefore they don’t often
make it to being the survivor. It is also
common that the ethnicity of ‘Black’ is
normally the first to be killed however we
challenged this and chose our Black
character to be the survivor. This made
our horror film-opening stand out from
other horror openings created. One of our
main characters, the doll, Scarlett, was
inspired by our main inspiration for our
film opening, Chucky. Chucky inspired our
mise en scene with his costume, he looked
quite child like with his dungarees,
freckles and stripy top so for our killer doll
we a sweet little dress with knee high
socks and bunches with ribbons in her hair.
However to create a horror vibe we put
scars on her face with make up and we
made her eyes look really big so it gave a
feel that she was threatening and always
staring. We also made her seem quite
spooky by incorporating her laugh during a
scary moment and having her swing on the
swing, in a children’s area making her put
people on edge. Also we put in a children’s
play saying ‘ready or not here I come’,
which also puts people on edge.
LIGHTING
The conventions for lighting in horror films are dark as
they create an eerie/mysterious film, and predict bad
things are going to happen. In the flash forward of our
film opening we used dark lighting as it was at night
and represented this through the use of night vision on
the digital camera, the night vision part has come out
green tinted and you can tell that it represents
darkness. The lighting before the flash forward is in
daylight and this represents the equilibrium of the
story and suggests everything is fine, this also shows
that is the beginning of the film. However it is not
bright day light, it is a dull day, suggesting something
bad is going to happen.
PATHETIC FALLACY
Pathetic fallacy is a main convention in horror and the
definition is when the weather acts, as a human
emotion for example when a sad moment occurs in a
film it is likely to be raining. Pathetic fallacy is
majorly used in horror films as it sets a scene and
creates an atmosphere; Chucky used pathetic fallacies
such as storms within their film to express distress
and panic. We also used pathetic fallacy in our film
opening, the weather was windy and rain which
predicted something bad was going to happen, this
also made it follow the conventions of not only horror
but our main influence, Chucky.

5. 5
SOUND
A convention for horror films is to use non-diegetic music that builds suspense
and unnerves people as it creates an element of fear for the audience. We
successfully used this convention by gaining music off of a website called royalty
free music, we found the appropriate sound track by searching under the genre
of horror on this website. In the end we used a track called ‘evening of chaos’
which had low pitch sounds and effects of knifes being sharpened which suggests
murder within the horror field, this also acts as an enigma code for the rest of
the film. Diegetic conventions of sound are as follows:
 Laughing
 Screaming
 Heavy breathing
 Footsteps
Chucky used such diegetic conventions and as a main influence, we incorporate
sounds such as the screams, the laughing and the heavy breathing. We recorded
these separately to the sound of the camera with a microphone and a boom in a
closed in space so the microphone couldn’t get wet, Another main convention of
sound that is shown in the horror film openings is a diegetic sound of laughing,
screaming and heavy breathing. The difficulty with this was syncing.
THEMES
The theme of our film followed Propp’s theory concerning characters as it
was good vs evil, the protagonist survivor vs the villain. The good characters
of our film opening were represented to be quite vulnerable which was
shown through their age, which was shown through their actions (getting
drunks in a park). The killer doll Scarlett was represented to be evil due to
her action such as torturing Riley in the flash forward and the mise en scene
of her make up represented her to be scary. Such themes exist in Chucky
(our main influence) as chucky s represented to be evil through carrying
props such a s a knife and carrying out killer action, the girl in the film is
represented to be good through trying to escape/defeat the killer doll.
Although our theme of evil has been challenged as more than often the evil
character is male and we used a female doll, which is unlikely as usually the
female characters are good and represented as a sexual object and a victim.

6. Evaluation
question 1