The document analyzes how the opening sequence of a psychological horror film uses conventions of the genre. It begins with an establishing shot to set the location and introduces the protagonist with a long shot. Throughout, it uses lighting, camera angles, editing and sounds typical of psychological horror to build tension and mystery around the unknown antagonist. It aims to engage the audience by challenging expectations and keeping the antagonist's identity a secret for as long as possible.

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

2. Genre
• The main feature that gives away the fact that our
opening sequence is a psychological horror one is
the fact that the antagonist is unknown by both the
main character and the audience. This makes the
viewer think that the antagonist is potentially an
abstract, form of killer which emphasises the
psychological feature of the horror. As at the end of
the sequence, the audience can see a hand
grabbing the protagonist, they get more interested
in finding out who the antagonist, by questioning
themselves; this is how the psychological horror
genre works and engages with the audience.

3. Narrative
• Mine and Adrianna’s opening sequence was about
a teenage girl whose mental fear was darkness; As
a typical feature of a psychological horror, we have
started off the opening sequence with following the
Classical Hollywood narrative structure: at the
beginning the protagonist which is a female, is the
hero however, in order to obtain a powerful
dramatic impact on the audience, we have broken
this conventions by having the protagonist losing
against the antagonist.

4. Ideological theme
• The message we have tried to get running through
the narrative of the psychological horror was the
vulnerability of the girl blending with her mental
fear, which was the abstract side of the sequence.
By making use of this ideological theme, we met the
typical features of a psychological horror film.

5. Setting and Location
• The location where all the action takes places is
revealed within the first shot of our opening
sequence, as the house is shown; this was done because
as a typical psychological horror feature, the audience
needs to be informed immediately about the location of
the story. The next location shown is the protagonist’s
bedroom, which allows our audience to sort of gather
information themselves about what kind of person the
character is. This was followed by the showing of the
kitchen, where the light gets darker; this was done to
build up tense, suspense and interest towards the
audience and also to inform them that something bad is
about to happen to the protagonist. The build of the
tension and the mixture of locations are again typical
features found within a psychological horror.

6. Camera work
• The first two shots of the opening sequence consist of an
establishing shot and a long shot. The establishing shot
informs the audience where the action takes place; this
is a typical convention of a psychological horror. The
long shot of the character introduces her to the
audience and also lets them know a bit about her;
because she is taking a suitcase out the care, viewers
are able to figure out for themselves that she is moving
into a new house which was shown in the establishing
shot. Furthermore, another shot that hints at the
conventions of psychological horrors, is the close up of
the key going inside the door, which lets the audience
guess whether that is done for a purpose and if the door
handle will appear again in the opening sequence.

7. Lighting
• Near the end of the opening sequence, when the
character is in the kitchen, the lighting is maintained at a
low level so it is dark in order to create suspense and
tension, but also not too dark so the audience can still
see the protagonist and what is going on within the
scene. The reason why this was done was because the
film we watched to inspire from had similar features and
the low lighting is also a typical feature met in the
psychological horror films. The tension building up by the
use of low lighting makes the audience more interested
in what is bound to happen . However, at the beginning
of the sequence, we had the daylight so that we can
show the audience that everything is alright and normal.

8. Editing
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•
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The opening sequence starts with an establishing shot so the audience is
aware of where the action takes place. The reason we started with an
establishing shot was because that is a typical editing feature found in the
psychological horror films. Then we cut to a long shot for the protagonist to be
introduced. We then went to an over the shoulder shot for our audience to be
informed on what is going on. This is another typical feature of a
psychological horror as the audience needs to be permanently aware of the
realistic action that takes place, however more or less unfamiliar with the
abstract actions of the antagonist.
We then cut back to a long shot, so the audience is brought back to a reintroduction of the character, which was followed by a close up of the key
going into the lock. We then made use of a mix of shots such as medium
shot, long shot; low and high angle shots were also used as they are typical to
any psychological horror and they also helped build up interest and tension.
We then used an over the shoulder shot again to re-show the door handle.
Also, we cut to various close up shots of the protagonist’s face to portray fear.

9. Sound
• In our opening sequence, we have made use of both
diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The diegetic sound
could be easily identified as we had the protagonist
speaking when she walked into the house. Also, the
viewers were able to hear her typing on her
laptop, which is another diegetic sound.
• Throughout the opening sequence, we made use as well
of the non-diegetic sounds, these consisting of various
music in the background which only the audience could
hear. The non-diegetic sounds were also parallel as the
music in the background was matching with the
image, which helped building up tension and suspense.
• Both sound categories are a typical features within
psychological horror films.

10. Introduction to the
character
• The main character is introduced in the second shot
of the opening sequence, this being a long shot
showing the character taking a suitcase of out the
car. We have used a long shot because we felt like
the audience needed to be aware of how the
protagonist looks like head to toes; the reason why
we didn’t show the antagonist, was because we
wanted to keep the mystery at a high level and this
is why the opening sequence is called
“Unknown”, the protagonist nor the audience is
aware of whom the antagonist is.

11. Film title and Credits
• The credits are ordered in a way typical to the credits
found in any psychological horror film. The production
company shows up first on the screen, for people to
know it and then the name of the film which is
“Unknown” comes up in white. The colour of the font is
white because we wanted to create a juxtaposition
between the negative connotations of the antagonist
and the colour white, which has positive connotations
such as pure, innocence, etc. We have chosen to have
the credits fading in at the bottom of the
screen, because we wanted the actual footage to be
the most important and the credits to sort of blend with
the action taking place in the opening sequence.