This document summarizes how the media product uses and develops conventions of real horror films. It analyzes the film's cinematography, sound, editing, mise-en-scene, iconography, setting, characters, and narrative structure. While some conventions are followed, such as the use of red colors and low key lighting, others are challenged or developed in new ways like having a male victim rather than a female one and switching typical gender roles during an argument scene. The psychological horror genre is explored without relying on monsters, scary locations, or graphic violence through mise-en-scene.

1. INWHATWAYS DOESYOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMSAND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

2. At the beginning we conducted research into the horror genre and the horror sub-
genres, this allowed me to understand the forms and conventions of real media
products, which helped us when plotting the story for our sequence
As a group we looked through and analysed many horror films
Such as Insidious, Durham County and Se7en.
From analysing these films, we discovered the typical
Conventions of horror films.
Cinematography (Camerawork is important with creating fear in horror movies)
- Point of view shots are effective as they allow the audience to see the point of
view from either the protagonist or the villain.We used an over the shoulder shot
at the beginning, showing Angus on his journey home, this allowed our audience
to become more involved in our story.
- High and Low angle shots connote fear and vulnerability
A low angle shot was used when Angus and Scarlett were having an argument at the
dinner table scene.This helped to emphasis Angus' becoming increasingly more
angry about Scarlett's confrontation.

3. - Handheld shots tend to cause the audience to be unaware of what it happening or cause confusion and fear from
camera shake. At the beginning of our sequenceAngus was using a video camera to record his message to
Scarlett.
This was inspired by,The BlairWitch project.The entire film is done using a handheld video camera.
Sound
-We used Gentle non diegetic music on the more everyday scenes (such as Scarlett preparing the dinner) to create
Equilibrium and a feeling of normality for the audience.This was inspired by Hannibal, the cooking scenes had
classical music playing in the background (conforming to stereotypes of serial killers being associated with
classical music).This also gave it the creepy horror essence as well as creating a calm everyday environment.
- We wanted to use our sound to create a thrill so we changed our soundtrack at certain points.This allowed
each scene to have a different impact on the viewers.
Editing
- Whilst the sound created equilibrium in our sequence we wanted to use some of the conventions that we
researched so we disrupted the continuity by adding jump cuts.This followed the typical convention of
disequilibrium in horror films.The jump cuts were inspired by paranormal activity.

4. Mise en scene
–The mise en scene in our horror sequence was a typical from the majority of horror films.The sequence did
not include many knives, fake blood or any other typical items seen in a horror film. Instead, we used more
conventional items such as dinner plates, normal cutlery and food items as we didn't think that, being a
psychological horror, we needed a large amount of violent pieces of mise en scene or any particularly scary
costumes.
Iconography
- Red and black are typical colours of a horror film, they connote, blood, danger and evil.
We followed this by givingAngus a red tie.This also created a connection to his character, as the audience can
now associate Angus with his costume.A prime example of this is Jason Vorhees and his link with his mask
- Lighting is expressive and non-naturalistic.We used low key lighting on our opening scene to create dark
shadows in the background and on Angus' face, this was also taken from the Blair witch project.

5. The setting for our horror sequence did not follow typical conventions.
As it was not based in an eerie location like a forest or a haunted house.
This was mainly due to the lack of budget we had, but we also felt that we did not need a scary setting to
produce a psychological horror.
The use of monsters are popular in horror films , however, being a psychological horror we did not feel it
was appropriate to use monsters or any supernatural form.
We challenged conventions when deciding on our characters.Typically there is a more vulnerable
character and a villain . However it in our sequence our more vulnerable character developed into the
villain/ killer. Despite this, psychological horrors tend to focus on the developing behaviour of the
vulnerable character, as there is a high chance that their characters traits can trigger a bad past memory
and take a wrong turn.
We had a young vulnerable male as the victim.This challenges conventions as usually the victim is a fragile
female.We also slightly switched gender roles during the dinner table scene where Scarlett dominated the
argument and showed her ability to hold her ground against Angus.
- We followed narrative conventions of horror films by using a hero protagonist, (either male or female)
Which can involve the protagonist embarking on a quest or mission to solve problems, an example of this
used in our sequence isAngus setting out on a mission to get revenge on the boys that bullied him as a kid.