The document discusses how the film "Devour" uses and develops conventions of the zombie horror genre in its title, credits, characters, settings, costumes, camera work, and editing. For the title, the film follows conventions by using a one word title that foreshadows violence, but makes it unconventionally brief. The credits also use the same typography as the title for atmospheric consistency, placing some on screens and some in shots. The protagonist character is a lone female, as seen in research, and she and the zombie are dressed in typical clothing for their genres. Camera work establishes settings conventionally while adding pans for effect. Editing uses cuts and fades between shots to create pace and focus during action scenes.

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

2. Title of the film

3. Title of the film
The title of the film ‘devour’ was decided fairly early on in the planning and production process. I
decided to use this title as it reflects the narrative of a zombie horror. It would also foreshadow to
the audience that there would be a large amount of attacks and killings; mainly by zombies. The
title also follows the conventional themes of my genre. This is evident in the films ‘Night of the
Living Dead’ and ‘Dawn of the Dead’ which both indicate to the audience the presence of zombies.
However my title is unconventional in the way that it is only one word; rather than a longer title. I
think that the word ‘Devour’ is fairly self explanatory and doesn’t need to be explained further to the
audience; they can interpret it themselves.
I took inspiration from the films ‘World War Z’ as I thought the red typography on a black
background was very effective. I then found that the combination of red, white and black was even
more effective, so I added this onto my title in the programme ‘Live Type’. In terms of the way it
appears on the screen, I wanted it to ‘creep’ onto the screen slowly, to produce the atmosphere of
tension. In addition to this I cut all of the non-diegetic soundtrack that was playing from the
previous scene, to also keep the atmosphere of tension.

4. Credits
For the credits I decided to follow the same typography as the titles, due to the fact that I thought
the original typography was effective and should be used throughout the entire opening. I found
that this was generally conventional in my chosen genre of zombie horror films, apparent in the
films ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and ‘Night of the Living Dead’, two of the three films I researched at the
beginning of the project. I was inspired by these examples as I thought the typography should
remain the same all the way through the opening to keep the atmosphere created by them
throughout.
In addition to this, I needed to choose where and when the titles should appear on the screen. I
decided, taking inspiration from the initial research I completed, to place some titles on screens
alone, and then some onto shots in the film. These could then be positioned in the shot, so I placed
some in the middle and some in the left hand corner, or at the bottom, in response to my target
audience feedback.
In terms of what credits I put onto the screen I used the timeline I created earlier in the process,
taken from watching the film ‘Legally Blonde’. This helped me to see the vital elements that I
needed to include in my credits such as editor and director as well as cast.

5. Characters
I researched conventional protagonist characters,
as seen in the image on the left (Julie from Warm
Bodies). I specifically looked at this character
because it was specific to my sub-genre of
zombie horror films. This is also why I chose a
female to play the part of the main protagonist.
In addition to this I decided to only have one
protagonist in the opening sequence to make the
chase scene seem more desperate as the young
female is clearly all by herself.

6. Settings/locations
From research I found that the general common settings and locations in horror
films, specifically zombie horror films, were remote areas such as woods, But in
addition to this, they took place in deserted cities or towns (e.g. in 28 Days Later). I
thought that this was effective, but it wouldn’t be possible on a low budget film. So
from this I decided to go down the route of using a remote location, specifically for
the chase scene to emphasise the danger the protagonist is in.
If I was to create my film on a high-budget scale to a tent pole audience, I would
utilise the idea of a deserted city or town, as this would create a bigger impact on the
audience in terms of the scale of the zombie attacks. This is also one of the reasons
I created a range of establishing shots to indicate to the audience the scale of the
zombie attacks.

7. Costumes
From research I found that costumes for zombies were mainly ‘normal’ common
clothing. As my zombie character was a young woman I found that common clothes
of this age range was t-shirts and jeans. I also decided to use a white t-shirt for my
zombie so the blood on the t-shirt was more easily visible.
In terms of my protagonist character, I also followed the conventions of zombie
horror films by dressing the young female in a shirt and jeans with boots. This
followed the conventions of protagonist characters, as seen in the image below. I
wanted to present the character as an ‘average teenager’ as this would make the
chase scene more dramatic as it would show the audience ‘this could happen to
anyone.’

8. Camera work
From research I discovered that the camera was used conventionally in
existing zombie horror film openings to establish the location or setting of
the film. For example in the opening of the film ‘World War Z’ the camera
was used in a static position to show various locations in the opening
sequence. As I thought this was an effective way of establishing a
narrative I decided to follow the conventions of horror films, specifically
zombie horror films.
However to enhance this further, for the opening of my film I decided to
use a pan left and right in my establishing shots, so it would give the
effect to the audience of the scenes being ‘revealed’.

9. Editing
In my opening I decided to use a dual narrative, so the use of editing was
vital. To represent the change I used a ‘fade to white’ video transition,
whereas for establishing shots I used a cut between each scenes.
The editing in my film was used to create a quick pace, with many of the
shorter shots being cut straight next to each other. Rather than using a
longer transition in the action sequence (the chase scene) I used basic
cuts as this would help the audience to focus on the narrative, and the
fact that it is all sequential, with no large gap in time.
The image below shows an example of a video transition I used to create
the idea of a dual narrative. (Fade to white)