Evaluation on conventions

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

2. Our media product
Our media product, Porcelain was inspired by lots of
different horror films that already exists. Not only was the
the idea inspired by other media products but so were the
conventions used. However I don’t think that we have
challenged any of the media conventions as we use the
typical stereotypes and conventions of the horror genre.
The structure of the opening sequence and the
cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound and editing used all
help convey to the typical stereotypical horror film.

3. Inspiration
• The main films and TV show that I took inspiration from were the
Woman in Black, Durham county and Se7en.
• These films all come under the horror genre and after doing
research on them I found myself wanting to take some of the ideas
and parts of these films and Tv show and develop them and
incorporate them into my horror piece.

4. Cinematography
• The shots that I think really showed the horror genre were the close ups of
the doll. Having close ups of an old creepy doll really stands out to the
audience as it somehow makes them have a sense of fear from a thing that
should be seen as innocent as its only a child's toy.
• The inspiration for this came from the doll used in the woman in black
opening sequence.
• Two similar shots can be seen below.
Woman in Black Porcelain

5. WomaninBlack
Porcelain
The other shots that we incorporated into our piece were the close ups and long shots
of the children playing with the dolls. I felt that this kind of shot shows the child's
innocence and how they are completely oblivious to what's going on and are just
playing with their toys. I felt this would help to engage the audience as they would
feel sympathetic towards the child and it builds up the dramatic irony before the film
has really even begun.

6. • As well as using a different
range of shots and camera
angles we also used camera
movements.
• For example the shot shown to
the left is a slow tracking shot
of the dolls hand. Using a slow
tracking shot helps to build up
the tension making the
audience nervous and
uncomfortable.
• We wanted the audience to
slowly be shown different
parts of the doll as if they
were unraveling something
which again helps to build up
tension and we did this
through movement and focus.
• Another shot which is show to
the right is a close up of the
dolls foot being brought into
focus.

7. Mise-en-scene
• Location was a key aspect of our opening sequence and it was very important that we got the
right place. The majority of our sequence takes place in the woods when the dad is trying to get
rid of the doll. We thought that the woods conveyed to the horror genre as it is normally where
the character is alone and can be used to make the audience fear what will happen as no one
knows what is amongst all of the trees and bushes.
• We took inspiration for this scene from the Blair Witch project as it was really effective in that
and thought that it could be just as effective in ours.
Porcelain
BlairWitchProject

8. • The actors in our piece are quite stereotypical to the horror genre apart from
Paul Wood the dad.
• This is because even though he is viewed as the hero he is also the only one
that gets broken by the doll showing that he is weak and vulnerable.
• This challenges the conventions of other media products as normally the
hero has no fear but in this case he does and he is only the hero because he’s
also the weak victim and the only one aware of the doll being possessed.

9. Editing
• Typical conventions of editing are the fast cuts between shots and the highlighting of significant
colours such as black and red.
• For a title sequence I really wanted to make a montage of fast paced cuts between shots after
watching the Se7en title sequence as I thought it was very effective, keeping the audience engaged
and curious throughout.
Porcelain
Se7en

10. • Colour was something that we took a lot of time on whilst editing because something
that is bright and sunny doesn’t match to the horror genre. So to begin with we had
bright sunny shots and we changed the colours to make them more dim and more
creepy.
• We got inspiration to do this from the Durham County title sequence, where in certain
shots only the colour red stands out and watching it I thought it was really effective and
drew my attention to the object in red so I thought it would be effective to use it a
similar technique in out title sequence to grasp the audiences attention.
DurhamCounty
Porcelain