The document provides an analysis of a film opening created by the author's group for their media production course. It examines how the film opening both challenges and develops conventions of the horror genre. Key conventions used included dim lighting, costumes, editing techniques like fades and a non-diegetic eerie soundtrack. However, it challenges norms by having a male victim and female antagonist, rather than the typical female victim. The analysis discusses how techniques like cinematography and sound engage the target teenage audience and maintain suspense through the film opening.

1. Evaluation of our film
opening.
By Rebecca Harris.
In what ways does our media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

2. Research
As a group we researched a timeline of our chosen genre (horror) and this
helped us realize the forms and conventions of real media products today.
For example, ‘Insidious’ is a typical horror genre film which I have
analysed. My group and I also researched other horror films such as ‘The
Boy’, ‘Woman In Black’ and ‘Ouija’. Analysing these trailers, we found that
the conventions were:
 Gentle diegetic or non-diegetic sound to start off with, which is also known
as equilibrium.
 Lots of fast-paced shots and sounds that compliments the action shown
on the screen.
 Distributing shots of dead or hurt victims.
 More cuts and transitions used during the disequilibrium scenes.
 Uses Propp’s theory of including a victim and antagonist.
 Text cards.
 Scare shot at the end of the trailer.
 Title card and credit book.

3. My group and I challenged conventions of a stereotypical
horror film opening by having a young vulnerable male as
the victim. This portrays the conventions of a horror genre
due to a vulnerable female usually being the victim.
Also, the antagonist used in our film opening is a female,
which (again) portrays the conventions due to a male being
an antagonist. This challenges normal conventions.

4. Mise-en-scene
Firstly, the mise-en-scene used in our film opening were dim lighting which is a key
convention of the horror genre due to majority of horror genre films using dim lighting as it
creates a tense atmosphere and makes the audience wonder what’s happening in the
scene due to most of the props being covered and characters are silhouettes. Using
Barthes Enigma Theory, the The hermeneutic code is used.
The hermeneutic code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and
hence becomes a mystery to the reader.
-The full truth is often avoided, for example in:
-Snares: deliberately avoiding the truth.
-Equivocations: partial or incomplete answers.
-Jammings: openly acknowledge that there is no answer to a problem.
The purpose of the author in this is typically to keep the audience guessing, arresting the
enigma, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and
closure is achieved.
Our film opening used equivocations by only showing the after effects of the event as well
as props, which does not fully explain the plot and story and makes the target audience
watching want to watch more to discover how everything happened.
Reference: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/articles/barthes_five_codes.htm

5. Mise-en-scene
Furthermore, the mise-en-scene used are the costumes which were
casual wear as the film opening was set in modern times. For example,
jeans and plain tops. However, our antagonist wears all black to
connote death and emptiness.
In addition, the location of our film opening was Tim’s house due to our
story being based on a stereotypical teenage sleepover, where
everything turns out wrong and the teenagers put themselves in danger
by playing with tarot cards and receiving the three negative cards.
This helped us as a group choose whom our audience was, which in
this case were 15-21 year olds due to this being a teenage horror/thriller
genre. Linking this to GEARS, the gender which our target audience is
can be either male or female; the ethnicity is mainly British due to the
location being in England; there is no religion related to this movie; and
the socio-economic group is D/E due to these type of people (who are
working class) being more into films which are fictional to help them
escape reality.
This also links with Young and Rubicam’s 4C’s model, the socio-
economic groups D/E’s will be classified as the strugglers, whom are
people who seek escape from reality by watching fictional films and like

6. In addition, the editing which we used within our video were mainly
fade-in’s and fade-out’s to blend in each scene together with the
credits too, helping the video remain at a slow pace, which is another
key convention of the horror genre due to it building tension and
fearing the audience as well as making them question on what may
happen next, which will make them want to carry on watching the film
opening.
Also, blackouts were used to also blend in the scenes and credits
together as well as linking it to the dim lighting to build tension and
suspense for the audience watching. Again, this is another key
convention of the horror genre, linking to Barthes Enigma Theory, the
hermeneutic code is used, which keeps the audience guessing,
arresting the enigma of the untold plot of the film opening, until the final
scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure
is achieved.
Furthermore, during the editing process, we used colour correction to a
white hue, which removes the green effect as well as any other odd
colours shown within the film. This made the film look mor relaistic to
the target audience watching due to the room looking like a normal
colour, but still having the dooming dim lighting effect.
Editing

7. In contrast, the cinematography used within our film opening
were mainly point-of-view medium established shots as the film
opening was a walkthrough of the teenager’s house. This
engages the target audience watching to question on what may
happen next (Barthes Enigma theory- Proairetic Code).
Also, extreme close-up shots were used to focus on the props
such as the tarot cards, candles and knife. This is to emphasise
on the darkness of the props and also show the audience that
these are the key conventions of a horror genre, as well as what
caused the teenagers to die.
Furthermore, a close-up shot was used on the teenagers face to
show that they’re dead and emphasise the innocence on his
face. This also engages the audience to watch more of the film
opening to then be shown why he is dead (Barthes Enigma
Cinematography

8. There was no use of diegetic sounds due to the film
opening only being a walk-through and there are no
characters talking.
However, there are non-diegetic sounds such as hysterical
screaming at the beginning of the film opening when the
title is shown. This makes the audience question on what
may have just happened and therefore persuaded to watch
more (Barthes Enigma theory- symbolic code). Also,
hysterical screaming is a key convention of the horror
genre due to stereotypically a vulnerable female being
attacked, therefore, the audience will also question if an
event has occurred or not.
Also, there is a non-diegetic sound of slow-paced eerie
music playing at the background throughout the whole film
opening. This is to maintain the tense atmosphere to
Sound

9. Conclusion
In conclusion, my group and I have produced a product
which challenges as well as meeting forms and
conventions of the horror/thriller genre. For example, our
film opening looks like a typical horror/thriller trailer by
using conventions such as eerie slow-paced music as well
as using dim lighting. It looks realistic and would easily sell
to our chosen target audience due to our film opening
being engaging, which will attract them to watch.