The media product challenges some horror film conventions while following others. It challenges the typical portrayal of the victim being female by having a male character killed in the opening scene. It also does not reveal the killer's identity to create suspense. However, it follows conventions around using ominous music to set the tone, having the main character trapped with no escape to build tension, and using sharp editing to keep the audience engaged. The document discusses how the opening sequence develops different conventions of the horror genre.

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
 My opening sequence develops horror movie up to an expend.
This is because the majority of scary movies presents a female
actor that will die at one point. We have challenged this idea
and in our opening sequence we decided that a male should be
killed instead. This is because the usual target audience for this
type horror films is young males, therefore we decided to create
a film in which the lead character is a female, thus empowering
young female viewers and widening our target audience to a
larger variety of young people.
 In Scream and other well know horror movies the viewer is
presented to the murder; even though they might not see their
face (a mask always cavers the killers face); the viewer can still
engage with the killer as they are able to see them in action. We
decided to challenge this point by not revealing the killer to the
audience so individual can use their own imagination to create
a character for the murder. In addition to that we decided that it
will be more interesting because the viewers will want to watch
the rest to discover how the killer might be.

3.  Also, some horror opening sequences tend to have dark
lightening and shadowing. We decided to film with the lights
on because we get a better view of the scenes. In order to
find this out we filmed a couple of scenes with very little
lighting but soon after we decided to stick to our initial idea of
having the lights on though out the opening sequence.
 As presented in Scream the female actor that was getting
killed attempted to escape from the killer. We decided that
we’ll have our character in the living room long enough for
the audience to understand that they didn’t have the
opportunity to run anywhere. In a way this followed the
horror convention because our main character was trapped
in a room, creating a suspense and tension filled
atmosphere, usually observed in horror films.

4.  Another convention we decided to follow was
presented through our creative use of sound.
In the opening scene we used sinister non-
diegetic sound to set the atmosphere. This
sound amplified and made the audience
aware of the fact that the actor was not killed
straight away and it was leading to the kill
through Lucy’s conversation with the killer.
 This followed the convention of sound used
in horror films because many horror films
start with this type of atmospheric music to
not only set the tone, but make the audience
aware of the genre.

5.  When editing the only fades we used was
in the beginning and end of our opening
sequence. In between, one fade transition
was used to create an effect when the
male character was being killed, however
the rest of the sequence consisted of sharp
cuts. In most horror films this type of sharp,
fast-paced editing is common, as it keeps
the audience engaged with the action on
screen. Once again, it also reflects the
genre, as horror films are intended to scare
the audience, and this editing style portrays
this as it is quite spontaneous.

6.  We used a combination of long shots and close ups
to compliment this spontaneous, fast paced editing
convention. One shot we found crucial to the
opening sequence was the establishing shot. This is
because many of the horror films we analysed, for
example scream, set the scene with a shot to reveal
the location. Therefore, this made our film feel more
professional. Also, we realised that a mixture of the
establishing shot, sound and editing gave our
sequence a strong opening.
 Horror films often use different camera angles and
shots to reflect the storyline. We followed this
convention by using many wide shots. This is
because it makes the audience feel as though the
main character is being watched, which is the case.
Thus, through this they connect with the character
because they empathise with her.