The document discusses the conventions of supernatural horror media that the student's media product does and does not follow. It examines the plot, mise-en-scene, sound, editing/color/typography, camera work, and social representations in the student's opening compared to conventions. The student challenges some conventions, such as using more blood than typical and not including typical props. However, it also follows conventions like having a simple costume, low key lighting, and being set in the protagonist's home.

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

2. Plot
Conventional supernatural horror plots:
 A family or person moves into a house where the previous residence have been murdered by something else
living there. E.g. Amityville Horrors (Andrew Douglas, 2005)
 Something has happened to a person and a spirit posses/haunts them. E.g. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi, 2009)
 A character is one the audience is led into believing are safe but suddenly they actually become evil. E.g.
Paranormal Activity (Oran Peli, 2007)
 The discovery of the spirits past: this involves the protagonist exploring their house and finding clues
that further inform them of the life the spirit once had, why they are being haunted and what they can do to
solve it.
The spirit is possessing
the girl in both ‘drag me
to hell’ and our piece
The plot we followed in ours is the first one, the
house that Hannah lives in is cursed and every time
someone moves in their, they get possessed by the
spirit after finding the music box. However, in the
full movie the spirits past is discovered by the
protagonist- Bridget, which is also conventional of
supernatural horror.

3. Mise-en-scene
Costumes
It is conventional in supernatural horror to have simplicity and everyday clothing. So
therefore we dressed Hannah in jeans and a white top and nothing revealing. Her makeup
was natural, and the colours she wore were neural blending into the background of the
piece.
Props
Supernatural horror has less blood than other horror sub genres, for example Slasher
horror. However we have opposed this convention, and instead used a lot of blood in the
opening. Also, everyday objects, framed family photos, dolls, toys and rocking chairs
are also very conventional props in supernatural horror however we didn’t use any of
these. Instead, we created our own props, which were paper cranes. This was the unique
aspect of our horror opening, the iconography is depicted by the paper cranes because
they symbolise all the people that this spirit had possessed and killed.
Lighting
In supernatural horror, candles re often used to create lighting because they give a
flickering effect, however we didn’t use candles but we did have a few shots where the
lights were flickering as Hannah entered the room. Also, we used a large lamp to create
lots of sharp shadows and silhouettes which portrayed darkness. The low key lighting of
our piece connotes darkness and the outside shots are unsettling because of the gloom.
Location
Supernatural horror are conventionally set in the home of the protagonist because it
allows the audience to relate, and scare themselves even when the film has finished.
Therefore, we did just this and set the opening in the home of Hannah which is later to
be the home of Bridget. Other conventional supernatural horror locations are churches,
relating to Christ and also woodland areas, where the spirit is seen lurking behind
trees in the darkness.

4. Mise-en-scene DECONSTRUCT A FRAME
White top- her clothing is
simple, but a effective
The lighting has created a
dull effect which has
created lots shadows
The blood challenges the
conventions of
Supernatural horror
Her collar bone and boney
hands imply she is not
herself

5. Sound
We used non-diegetic sound, such as fast pace orchestral
music to build up the tension, when the title appears we
used the sound of violins as it writes across the screen. It
is conventional to have recurring sounds that the audience
associate with the antagonist and protagonist. We used a
loud noise whenever the antagonist appeared, which repeated
a few times to scare the audience and make them jump. We
also had the sounds of a music box to bring back childhood
memories and create a spooky atmosphere, this is called
contrapuntal sound (sound that doesn’t match the scene). It
is used to create a juxtaposition of sound and image, the
sweet sound (of the music box doesn’t match the horror of
the spirit but instead creates an enigma.
Conventional supernatural sounds we did
not use were creaking of doors and
floorboards. We also said in our plan that
we were going to use asynchronous sounds
of whispering, as if the spirits were
whispering, like in Poltergeist (Tobe
Hooper, 1982) however we didn’t end up
using this idea, although it would have
created another dimension to our sound.

6. Editing/ Colour/ Typography
Editing
At the start we used long takes and few cuts to create
tension. When the action sped up the cutting rate also sped
up, creating a fast rhythmic pace. This meant we had to keep
continuity perfect.
Colour
In supernatural horror it is typical to have a colour wash
over the clips, therefore we used an effect on all our work
and took out some of the brighter colours to reinforce the
dull atmosphere. To make it our own, we used after effects
to blacken out Hannah’s eyes which portrayed her as being
possessed.
Typography
The text in supernatural horror is often red to connote
blood and death, so we used a dark brown red which implies
just this. Also our title is very bold and obvious, to allow
the audience to see the name and understand what the opening
and film is going to be about. The title is written by
itself, reinforcing the idea of the supernatural.

7. Title order
5
1
2
3
6
7
8
4
We ordered the titles, with the
distributor first followed by the
actors, then the producers, the film
editor and finally the director because
the director is seen as the most
important. Finally we had the title of
the film come up ‘Possessed’ across the
screen and the opening continued. We
put the tile in the middle of the
opening so that it didn’t look like a
trailer.

8. Camera
Birds eye shots for the establishing shot are quite
often used in supernatural horror, however we
challenged this convention by having an establishing
shot placing you with the character Hannah in her
home, so she was more relatable. Also handheld camera
shots are quite often used, which we used in the
shots when Hannah saw the spirit twice in the room
suddenly. Shaky camera work is sometimes used to show
the fear of the characters, however we kept most of
our shots quite still so that when the cutting rate
sped up, it would build tension.
One of our shots was inspired by Donnie
Darko. The shot when he gets out of the
bus and it turns from the side to
straight. The shot creates a sense of
unease and make the viewers feel on
edge, that was our aim with our shot.

9. Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

10. Social Groups
Characters
 Hannah is a young, white, American, middle class girl, which could be seen as stereotypical as she is
vulnerable, and weak and ends up killing herself.
 The spirit is a women which isn’t stereotypical, because she is the killer and possessor – this was
inspired by The Women in Black (James Watkins, 2012), as the spirits past experiences have led her to
become this evil creature.
 The main protagonist, Bridget, is a young, white, British, middle-class girl who destroys the possessor
by the end of the film.
All the characters are white middle class,
teenagers, this is because it’s aimed at young
adult marker, who are more attracted to own age
group. There are no black, ethnic, minority groups
and no males in our opening. If we made the rest
of the film, males would appear but we have no
males as main characters. This reflects the film
as non-patriarchal because males aren’t dominant.

11. Representations
 Hannah is represented negatively because she is
easily led to be possessed, she shows no bravery
or ability to fight for herself, this therefore
reinforces the residual ideology that women are
weak. In The Blair Witch Project (Eduardo Sánchez
and Daniel Myrick 1999) the lead character is a
women who ends up being taken by the witch, and
throughout the film becomes weaker and weaker.
 However the main protagonist from the rest of the
film beats the evil spirit. The binary opposition
challenged the residual ideology that women are weak. A
male doesn’t have to come and save the day, Bridget
fights for herself portraying a strong woman.
For example, in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) the
lead women get’s away from her mad husband with her
little boy, and she shows herself as independent.
 The ghost is represented negatively because she is a
killer, but at the same time she is a women and has the
ability to be strong and powerful which isn’t
stereotypical. This is a regressive ideology because
there is a strong female in the lead. If all the women
in our opening died then the film wouldn’t survive in
this modern day.

12. Construction
Mise-en-scene
 The tear that falls from her cheek connotes her
vulnerability by non-verbal language
Sound
 When the music box is heard, it immediately brings
the audience back to a childhood noise, which could
compare her to a child or compare her actions to
those of a child because she is unable to control
herself and easily led.
 Throughout the opening the girl doesn’t say a single
word which reinforces the residual ideology that
women are ‘seen and not heard’ again like a child. The
only time we hear her make noise is when she is
chocking which implies she is vulnerable.
Camera
 The extreme close up shots we created show her
emotion and the fact she’s being so possessed by this
monster
Editing
 The black eyes we edited on Aftereffects show that
she is possessed easily and therefore is a weak
character.

13. Construction
The shot is a close-up
showing that she is
completely under the
control of this spirit
The blackened out eyes
portray Hannah is
possessed

14. Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?

15. Online tools
The Internet (Google)- I used Google to search ideas, for example conventions of the genre and also
other title sequences, overall it was there to help me do research.
We live in the modern world with we media/ web 2.0, meaning that it gives audiences the ability to
interact with media content. “We” implies that the Internet is a participatory media, so it allows us
to personalise content, including media content. That’s why the internet would help us promote our
film opening to audiences.
Prezi- I used Prezi to present ideas for our concept development, this meant I could visualize our
finial project and develop our ideas.
Survey Monkey- this allowed us to create a
survey and question people on our ideas, then
we got feedback for our final piece.
YouTube- We exported our finished production
onto YouTube so we could market it through
various forms of media such as social
networking. I personally used YouTube to
research title sequences to analyze and also
shots that inspired me from films to use in
our opening piece.
Facebook- YouTube enabled me to post our
horror opening on Facebook so that my friends
could view it, and some of them shared it so
their friends could view it.

16. Filming our work
When filming our work we used
 Alex’s canon 60D camera for all the shots
because it creates clear shots that were perfect
for our piece and we could easily adjust
brightness and contrast
 A tripod to keep the shots as safe and still as
possible
The issues with the camera
 We had to use lots of lighting, like large
lights to brighten our set so that the shots
weren’t grainy. It meant we could always edit
the shots and make them darker afterwards., to
create a spooky effect.
 Also we had to board up one of the windows in
the garage, so that the camera couldn’t be seen
in the shots.
Issues with lighting
 The only problem we faced with lighting was
keeping the continuity perfect, this meant we had
to keep checking the shots so that the lighting
didn’t differ too much.

17. Aspects of editing
What I did?
 I put titles onto the opening with the title font ‘suicide draft’, and I used a red-brown colour on the
font to connote horror and blood
 I also added in the sound with Alex:
-non-diegetic background ambient sound constant all the way through
noise
-high pitch noises for shocking / jumping effect
the throat and chocking
-jump sound when the spirit appeared
The editing in our piece
 Aftereffects were used to blacken Hannah’s
eyes so that she was ‘possessed’
 We added a colour wash over the whole
thing
 We had to make sure continuity was
perfect, which was really hard because the
set design was so complicated with so many
cranes.
-music box
-diegetic = cutting of