The document discusses how the media product follows conventions of real horror films. It includes: 1) A prologue showing the killer for the first time in a secluded forest location, isolating the victim like in Jaws. 2) Opening credits with a crow symbolizing death, like in older horror films. 3) Stereotypical costumes and character types representing a jock and nerd to mirror Cabin in the Woods. 4) A masked killer in dark colors wielding a knife, emulating iconic killers from Scream and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The goal is to feel retrospective of past horror films.

1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms &
conventions of real media products
QuestionTwo

2. Use of a Prologue
When looking at the conventions of previous
horror films I noticed that many start with a back
story or a prologue which reveals the killer for the
first time. Normally the characters who are in the
prologue have nothing to do with the rest of the
film as they are killed off within the opening few
minutes of the film. As stated there is normally a
killing/ murder within the prologue of a film which
is how the killer is revealed. Films like the women
in black and Jaws both use prologues to reveal the
killer. Sometimes if the killer has a weapon of
choice this is also revealed.The prologue usually
takes place in a secluded location to cut the victim
off from any outside help or interference.
I wanted to follow these conventions as having a
secluded location would show how the victims in
the prologue were cut off form the rest of the
world and how the killer had isolated one of them
within the forest. As a group we chose the forest
location because firstly it was very seclude and cut
off and this was helped by the trees towering over
the victim and secondly we wanted a darker
atmosphere and with the lack of light it gives the
impression of danger and like something bad is
going to happen to the character in the situation.
This related to an existing product which was
Jaws, apart from the complete location change
the women is also stranded by herself and she is
vulnerable like our victim charter in the opening
prologue.

3. Throughout my research I found that earlier/ older horror films brought there credits up
during the opening sequence of the film. I wanted to use this as it showed that our own film
could be associated with older horror films which can be perceived as classic films.This is
why I chose to have the credits appear in this fashion. I found that the text varies in colour
but normally holds it bold text which makes it noticeable whilst on screen. I wanted to
conform to this older horror film stereotype as it shows how our film is respectful of the
past and that it is linked to early classic horror films. Along with the text we used the crow
to symbolise death and in other products by payday productions I would expect to use the
crow as the logo but have it as apart of the film.The crow is the first shot in the opening
and it is a stereotype of death so I thought that it would be very important to set the tone
through this straight away. For example in our film we had it fly off of the branch. I decided
that the should be sharp and edgy to set an eerie tone to the opening with slow fading cuts
between each shot to create a sense of mystery as the credits appear on screen.
Opening Credits

4. Location/ Set
We decided to follow the conventions of a
stereotypical location for the killing/ murders to
take place. We chose a forest as it is an isolated
place where I thought that victims could be cut
off from the rest of the world. This location
chose can also be seen in other horror related
media products including Predator and Cabin in
the Woods. Both these films use the forest/
jungle to cut the victims off from the rest of the
world and leave them at the mercy of the killer.
We decided that the forest would work for our
piece and due to our opening starting with a
prologue the location could become the place of
choice for the killer to murder his victims.
This location is choice is very stereotypical of
horror films and we wanted to follow that
stereotype as we thought that it was important
for the audience to be able to related our film
to existing products which are available to buy.
The location is retrospect of older horror films
which use similar locations for there films.
The other main reason for picking the forest is
that it is dark and shadows are cast all around
which follows the conventions of dark/
mysterious places being dangerous and eerie .
This follows the conventions of a typical
conventions of horror films in terms of location
and set.

5. Costume
We wanted to follow the conventions of costume as we wanted to stereotype the character
within the film. This would allow the audience to easily recognise the character types with the
film, for example the jock character seen in the top images.
For the jock character we wanted to visually stereotype him through the use of costume. As
seen in other media products like Cabin in the Woods the character wears a bomber jacket
which is associated with sports and I though that our character should wear a jacket similar to
this. The audience could easily recognise this along with the rest of his costume which also
emulated the character from Cabin in the Woods. We thought that our actor should have the
same/ similar hairstyle to the similar character type from Cabin in the Woods to emphasis the
fact that he was also a jock like character. We thought that the character from Cabin in the
woods was ideal for our opening as he completely stereotyped our own character with the
choice of costume.
From the other character in our opening we also wanted to follow the codes and
conventions to show this character a weak/ nerdy character. For this costume we also got
the idea from Cabin in the woods as seen in the two bottom images. I noticed that the
character wore plain cloths with colours like blues and greys which didn’t stand out on
screen. We wanted to follow this as we wanted to show that this character could be
forgotten about during the film as they could slip into the background. For our character
we used a blue jacket and a white t-shirt, which didn’t stand out to show this character
type. We cast our actor to also have the same hairstyle as the character from Cabin in the
Woods as we thought that this hairstyle also help this character to fall into the background
and be noticed. We though the nerdy/ weak character from Cabin in the Woods was the
ideal character for our opening so we decided to take some points, in terms of costume,
from that film for this character.

6. Killer
We wanted to follow the conventions of a stereotypical slasher
killer. During my research I found that some stereotypical
conventions were that the killer wears a mask that covers there
face. This cuts the audience off from seeing any emotion form
the killer which we also wanted to emanate as this will allow
the audience to gain a connection between previous horror
films and our new film. The killer normally wears black or very
plain colours like greys and blues which give no hints towards
the characters background or personality. This also cuts the
killer off from any other emotions whilst killer a victim. We
decided to follow this convention as we wanted our product to
be retrospective of previous horror films. The audience should
be able to look at our killer and be reminded of other killers like
the killer from Scream especially but also other killers From
films like Texas chainsaw.
The killer normally has a chosen weapon of choice which they
always use to kill there victims with. This can be seen in Scream
where the killers chosen weapon is a knife and in Texas
chainsaw the chosen weapon is a chainsaw. We decided to
have a chosen weapon for our killer and we decided to use a
knife as his chosen weapon because this weapon is associated
with lots of famous and past horror films . We decided that we
wanted to follow these conventions as they are important in
creating an atmosphere around the killer and these elements
help to create this feeling.

7. Killer
We wanted to follow the conventions of a stereotypical slasher
killer. During my research I found that some stereotypical
conventions were that the killer wears a mask that covers there
face. This cuts the audience off from seeing any emotion form
the killer which we also wanted to emanate as this will allow
the audience to gain a connection between previous horror
films and our new film. The killer normally wears black or very
plain colours like greys and blues which give no hints towards
the characters background or personality. This also cuts the
killer off from any other emotions whilst killer a victim. We
decided to follow this convention as we wanted our product to
be retrospective of previous horror films. The audience should
be able to look at our killer and be reminded of other killers like
the killer from Scream especially but also other killers From
films like Texas chainsaw.
The killer normally has a chosen weapon of choice which they
always use to kill there victims with. This can be seen in Scream
where the killers chosen weapon is a knife and in Texas
chainsaw the chosen weapon is a chainsaw. We decided to
have a chosen weapon for our killer and we decided to use a
knife as his chosen weapon because this weapon is associated
with lots of famous and past horror films . We decided that we
wanted to follow these conventions as they are important in
creating an atmosphere around the killer and these elements
help to create this feeling.