The document provides an analysis of a horror film opening sequence created by the authors. It begins with an overview of the typical horror plot used in the sequence involving a psychopathic killer. It then discusses how the sequence uses and develops conventions like filming in an attic to convey danger. The killer has multiple personalities based on the seven deadly sins to add complexity. While conventions are not challenged, sticking to generic norms is intended to appeal to broad audiences.

1. Horror Opening Sequence EvaluationBy Jack White & Becky Fishwick

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Our media product, ‘Lucky 7?’ features a typical storyline for a horror movie; in which a psychopathic murderer is on the loose and is killing and attacking various victims as he desperately tries to gain attention. In the opening sequence, we wanted to convey the generic style of our movie, so we used a loft as the location to film. This is an example of using a basic convention. Out story is sadly not as original as we once hoped (we discovered the movie ‘Seven’ starring Brad Pitt whilst working on this), yet we have developed the regular conventions in this respect.The way that we have developed the conventions by giving out psychopathic killer 7 split-personalities, and his mental state reflects how he will kill and which of the seven deadly sins it will be based on. When researching the 7 Deadly Sins, we came across information stating that in 1589, Peter Binsfield (a German Theologist) assigned a demon to each of the sins. Thus these demons are the multiple personalities of our villain. We believe that this twist in the narrative would give the killer more personality and depth of character, thus making him more popular to the audience. This is yet another example of developing conventions, as often murderous villains tend to have no personality and are just made out to psychopathic with no explanation as to why.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?As touched upon briefly earlier, we used a loft as the location in which the hostage as being held. An attic space has connotations of evil, darkness and scary creatures, so we thought that this setting would be fitting for out cold, calculated killer to torture his first victim.Another way that we used real media conventions was by the use of many handheld shots, to give the viewer a view from the killer’s perspective. The killer references “you ar*ehole police officers” in the opening sequence also, so this suggests that the tape has been/is going to be sent to the police, a trait of many comic-book antagonists such as The Joker and The Riddler from the ‘Batman’ franchise. This style of villain is also referenced in the opening sequence in the rhetorical interrogative “Sounds like something out of a superhero movie doesn’t it?” This once again adds more depth to out character in terms of what his interests might be when he is committing ruthless murders.Conventions were not challenged in our movie and they were by no means subverted because we thought that with the current crop of movies featuring serial killers being remade (Nightmare on Elm Street, etc), we thought we should stick the generic norm as they made big money at the cinemas anyway.

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?Two social groups are represented in the social groups, one of which is teenagers, who seem to be the focus of many a hate campaign in the current time. Many young people are targeted as violent thugs wrongly, so wanted to portray someone young who was a real danger to the public with the charismatic, cocky personality of many comic book villains such as The Joker. As the film progressed, our killer could have been captured before he commited all his planned murders, only to rebel against the authorities. Whilst this was taking place, the merciless yet brash attitude could make for a very entertaining character who the audience like (similar to Dexter from the popular TV series of the same name.)An angry adult male is also represented in the movie, as he is the hostage. The man is heard yelling and seemingly in pain in the opening sequence and his last words showcase his anger. Any man with pride would be devastated that he ended up in the position he was in, so this ‘hot-headed male’ stereotype was appropriate in this scene. The bellows of agony also make the viewer feel sorry for the man as he is killed.

5. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?Our film uses forms of conventions of already established and popular media products, so like examples such as ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Halloween’, we want to reach out to as big an audience as possible, so the film could be purchased by cinemas all around the world. Our movie obviously features unknowns and many common horror movies such as ‘Paranormal Activity, ‘Saw’ and ‘The Descent’ are similar in this respect and they have all raised a staggering amount of money, so this is another reason why cinema would be the right path for our movie.After the promotion seen in cinemas, a DVD/Blu-Ray version of the film would be the next step for the movie. This would enable the product to reach an audience that perhaps didn’t see the movie when it was in the cinemas. Special content could also attract die-hard fans, attracted by our entertaining, ‘byronichero’ antagonist. Sequels would enable the product to last longer, and even if the film didn’t perform well in the cinemas, there would still be some fans interested in seeing a sequel or prequel even if it was only a straight to DVD release.

6. Who would be the target audience for your product?In our blog, we mentioned that the age rating for the movie is 15, thus reaching out to the most people we possibly could, whilst not watering down the scariness and gore of a typical horror movie. If I had to pick a precise age bracket that the movie appealed to, I would say it is for people between 15-25. This bracket of people are the ages of people who most visit cinemas, so by creating characters they can associate with or by casting actors who visually appeal to them in conjunction with conventions they expect to see, I believe that the finished movie would appeal to the chosen market.

7. How did you attract/address your target audience?In order to attract more publicity to the production of the movie, we decided that if we did film more scenes, we’d select random members of the public to feature as extras in our movie, similar to how the makers of ‘Atonement’ allowed members of the public to appear in a battle scene on the beaches of Redcar in 2006. This would appeal to a wider number of people, whilst many more people would go to see the movie to see themselves in it!If we were to eventually cast a protagonist who would try and stop the serial killer, we would also try and cast good looking actors and actresses so that the ‘sex sells’ ideal could drive more sales. Men are more likely to see a Horror movie, so by casting a ‘heartthrob’ as the male lead role, this could sway more women to watch the movie.

8. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing the product?Whilst making the opening sequence, we gained valuable editing and camera skills that will enable us to do better things in the future. Firstly in terms of editing, I-Movie has been a great learning curve, which provided us with an easy to use selection of tools, sounds and transitions to enhance our opening sequence.We have also used state of the art cameras to film our product, and these were very easy to use. We have also learned how to upload footage to a Mac, add titles to a video, make our own music with a piece of software called GarageBand, embed Youtube clips onto our blog and to enhance the layout of out blog using a theme.These may not seem like much but for two students who want to continue doing Media Studies and Production, we believe this task has been invaluable to us and has certainly made us more confident in trying to use more tricky and advanced software.

9. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?Jack: We both were in separate groups for our Preliminary Tasks but I can say that I have improved every aspect in the transition from the Preliminary Task to this product. I have took into account Mise-En-Scene much more, I have created an enigmatic and effective storyline which is reminiscent of big money blockbusters and I have also used interesting camera shots to create an unusual insight into what the antagonist is seeing. My editing skills have also changed dramatically as I have added consistent transactions, sounds and titles to my video. I am very pleased with the progression I have made and I am excited to make the jump from I-Movie to Final Cut Express and other more advanced pieces of software in the future.