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

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

2. By including certain elements in our film we had
hoped to make our audience feel tense and
scared. This is the common purpose of films in the
horror genre and so we researched the
conventions and common iconography of the
genre in order to make our film as tense and scary
as possible.

3. Iconography
In this scene there are two
conventions which we
used. Firstly, the theme
of darkness (which was
used throughout) in order
to cast shadows.
Secondly the use of
props symbolises that
Carlisle is the character
to fear.
In this scene the dark background contrasts
the villains pale face in order to depict him as
‘not right’ and ghostly to be more villainous.
The knife increases the audiences fear of
him.

4. Iconography
(In a similar way in which Insidious
uses this iconography) we used the
connotations of colours to present
our film as a horror. Such as the
use of red, like the lipstick the girls
wear; as this connotes danger.
Also having some of our scenes
are such low key lighting that they
appear black and white, for
example, in the torture scenes, has
connotations of no hope and
lifelessness, as there is no colour.

5. Iconography
Another common technique used in
horror films is close up shots of faces.
As well as showing emotion, this is also
because of the iconography of eyes in
horror films. For example Penelope’s
eyes begin to flicker and roll to
represent her mind being possessed by
Carlisle, whose eyes are also shown
close up, in order to show his scary and
menacing stare. By using close-ups we
could also show the gory makeup we
used, like bruises and fake blood. This
also makes the car accident more
believable.

6. Typography
Our titles were white to connote many different readings to the
audience.
Firstly, the colour represents the innocence of the girl being
tormented by Carlisle.
The colour white is also associated with ghosts and so forbodes the
inclusion of a villain in our storyline.
Finally, the light colour was also used to contrast against the dark,
creepy background and to stand out.

7. Narrative
At the beginning of our film, our titles
show the three teenage girl
characters getting ready to go to
the party. This introduces the main
characters to the audience and
also shows them how they came to
be at the party, which leads to the
significant car accident. Phoebe
being run over is followed by an
ellipse in time. Although a whole
day could have been missed out in
between, due the fact they appear
in hospital, it is clear to audience
what has happened in between.

8. Narrative
The opening two minutes
which we created is mostly
linear, as it chronologically
shows the run up to
Penelope being run over.
However, when she first
begins to be tormented by
Carlisle in her coma, the
cross-cutting of scenes
represents the parallel
events of what is happening
in the hospital and inside her

9. Cinematography
Although we used a lot of close up
shots, they all had a different
purpose in order to evoke fear. The
zoom shot of the car headlights
was also a point of view shot of
what Penelope could see, putting
the the audience in her situation.
The fact that all the shots of the
villain at first are extreme close ups
means that the audience cannot
see his face. This creates mystery
surrounding who he is, which
increases their fear of him.

10. Editing
Our title shots had slow transitions
between them and matches on
action to create a tense, eerie
atmosphere, which are needed in
horror films before something
scary happens.
In contrast to this, the argument
that followed had fast rhythmic
editing as it intensified in the lead
up to the car accident. Therefore
representing to the audience that
something crucial was about to
happen.

11. Editing
In order to make Phoebe
getting knocked down
as shocking as possible
and to create
verisimilitude for the
audience, we used a
sudden jump cut
between a close up of
her feet and a zoom
shot of the car

12. Sound
We used many soundtracks in our film to manipulate the audience's
feelings.
Firstly we used a quiet, slow,
piano track in the scenes which
appeared before action, like the
titles This non-diegetic sound
was in order to make the
audience feel tense.
As Phoebe first goes into her
coma, we intensify the
audience's fear by
accompanying it with non-
diegetic, spooky sound.
http://youtu.be/
W4REmIIRchA
(see 0:00 - 0:38
and 0:57 - 1:10)
http://youtu.
be/W4REmI
IRchA?t=1m
16s
(see 1:16 to
end)

13. Sound
Films of the horror genre are made to be as realistic as possible, as this
makes the audience believe that it could happen to them.
In order to make the party more
realistic, we put a piece of music
that the audience would expect to
hear at a party of teenagers.
The screech of the car is also used
to make the accident more
believable. Furthermore, the fact
that the the sound is sudden and a
lot louder than the previous sound
in order to shock and scare the
audience.
http://youtu.be/W4
REmIIRchA?t=39s
(see 0:39 - 0:56)
http://youtu.be/W4
REmIIRchA?t=1m7
s
(see 1:07 - 1:13)

14. Mise-En-Scene
The two scenes which were the hardest to make look realistic were the hospital and the
torture chamber, therefore we had to manipulate the audience by using props and playing
with lighting.
One way in which we made the hospital scene
realistic was by using: props, like beds and
drips; dressing Phoebe in a hospital gown,
sling and oxygen mask and the nurse in a
mask and gloves.
The only real trouble we had with the torture
scene was how to make it look scary, therefor
we used as little lighting as possible and had
Carlisle hold props, such as chains and
knives to make both the scenery and the
character scarier.

15. Mise-En-Scene
Although Phoebe is meant to look
injured, both in her coma and in
real life, we had to make sure the
audience could recognise the
difference in the parallel action,
therefore the characters hair is
down in the hospital and tied up
in the torture chamber. This also
shows where she is the most
venerable as she, symbolically,
has nothing to hide behind.