The document provides a detailed summary and analysis of how Emma Bradshaw and her group developed conventions of psychological horror genres in their media project film opening titled "Aura". Key points: - The title uses font, colors, and placement on an establishing shot to create tension and unease. Locations like woods were chosen to feel isolated and scary. - Dream sequences and flashbacks were used to explain the disturbed characters. Costumes made the characters seem realistic and relatable. - Shots like panning mediums were chosen to put the audience in the "villain's view" and make them feel apprehensive. - Editing in Final Cut Pro allowed many clips and effects to play seam

1. Emma Bradshaw- Media Evaluation Question 1
1.) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
The Title
The title of our film was excellently thought off by my group member Zak Rodgers, which you could
kind of say was a eureka moment. In the picture below you can see our title for are horror film
opening. I found there are many ways in which our title links in to the psychological genre and by us
making it look psychological horror genre was helping us draw in more viewers by representing our
film as professional. The first way of linking in to our psychological horror genre was by using the
correct font. The font we used was called ‘Times New Roman’. We thought this presented our
horror title in a bold, serious and very dramatic way, which helps remind the audience into
remembering the film genre they are about to see is horror. The font we have chosen is nice and
readable for our audience by its simplicity,
however by us placing it on a white background
gives us a very disorientating feel which is key for
our viewers as it reflects on the psychological
side. We chose using the colours black and white
as we thought using black against the white
would background would help it stand out more
clearly than any other colour and helps us
represent our victim.
We thought the black could represent the tragedy and history within our film, as we thought we
needed to look at it from a serious side. We also thought we could link
the colour white to the vulnerability of our characters, or the ghostly
side from other films like paranormal activity, the ring and more. We
decided we didn’t want to use the colour red in any of our credits or
font within the film. But before deciding this as a group we looked and
researched the openings to other psychological films and decided we
didn’t want to use red as this looked less professional and more horror
based. We also found out form researching other films openings that
most of the titles appear on a separate blank screen, we found this
very common with a lot of films which made it very predictable which
we didn’t want. So we decided to come up with the idea of putting it
on our establishing shot, making it very unpredictable and
disorientating for the viewers to watch.
Choosing our name like I said was kind of a eureka moment. My group member Zak Rodgers started
to do some good research into looking at other films names that have become very big and
successful, then by doing this found out we needed to link our title name to the theme of a
psychological horror. This is when he came upon the name of our psychological horror film ‘Aura’.
We found out that Aura was usually linked to paranormal activities and spiritual links, this was
therefore appropriate to our film as the child is who seems to be missing is dead, but comes back to
see if the girl could help him to finally be at peace. We also found that the official definition of aura

2. Emma Bradshaw- Media Evaluation Question 1
which was very useful, here is the example; the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to
surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place: the ceremony retains an aura of mystery.
In spiritualism and some forms of alternative medicine, a supposed emanation surrounding
the body of a living creature and regarded as an essential part of the individual: emotional,
mental, and spiritual levels form an energy field around the body known as the aura muddy
colours in the aura indicate negative emotions
Any invisible emanation, especially and odour: there was a faint aura disinfectant
Medicine a warning or sensation experienced before an attack of epilepsy or migraines some
The name ‘Aura’ helped us give an understanding and meaning
to the audience, that one of the characters has come to back to
life to finish some unfinished business. The editing software we
used to edit our title and credits was called Final Cut Pro, which
was on the school Mac computer. As you can see from watching
our film we made the title appear as if in the form of a typewriter
and the credits to appear fading in and out whilst being blurring
for a disorientating feel. We did this to help us with our
psychological horror film genre and to help evoke the audience’s
emotions excitement, tension and confusion. Overall I am very
pleased with how we created these emotions in our audience.
Research
For some extra research I decided to watch many horror film openings to look for the different types
of conventions that occur within a horror film and what conventions my group want to use in our
horror film to help combine our whole group’s ideas. I very much liked the idea of a psychological
horror and to try to include various psychological horror conventions. When I was watching the clips
the weapons you tended to see were not physical weapons that man have made, but they would
tend to be more psychological and supernatural.
Some of the main settings we
found I would see time, time
and time again this meaning
it challenging the convention
which are newly moved into
big empty houses,
woodland/forests, schools etc. This is helping the target
audience to create realism by relating to film on some level,
helping increase the fear factor for the audience and they begin
to picture themselves as the victim not villain. We really liked
this idea of making a sense of realism for the audience,
therefore we decided to use the conventions of a newly moved in empty house and forests. We
showed this in our real film by having white cloths round the house with no mise-en-scene to
represent it has been newly moved into. I found out that regularly in a psychological horror film

3. Emma Bradshaw- Media Evaluation Question 1
there are numerous amounts of flashbacks or dreams to help the audience to view why the
victim/killer is disturbed and to explain to then what happened, we also really liked this idea
therefore decided to incorporate the idea of using the dream convention to help tell the story. The
common sounds we found in a psychological film was a contrapuntal sound which means a sound
that doesn’t match the action on the screen to help create a disorientating feel (example orphan
trailer). I also found out the characters are mostly tormented or disturbed individuals that usually
come back to revenge their victims. Sometimes the
victims may differ but a high percentage of victims
where children and females (example orphan and
the omen.) When psychological horror films use
children as the killer again, the victims tend to be
female. This could maybe have something to do
with the fact that mothers are maternal and the
female audiences watching would be able to relate
to the character in some way. However we wanted
to us a boy character for the villain instead of a girl
to subvert the conventions, making this un-expecting for the audience. As a group we decided that
this type of horror would be more suitable for our final film, as we would have less bloody gore and
physical harm that would be visible to the viewers. This type of horror also helps create discomfort
and tension for the viewer from exposing fears and common psychological vulnerabilities. It has
splashes of paranormal that the audience which they cannot relate to but helping exposing the evil
that hides behind normality.
Settings and Location
In our psychological film opening Aura there was a total of two locations we decided to use. Our
dream shots were very much mostly important to us as it gives us an inside clue or information
about the boy, these shots were shot in Baulk Woods, Langford, Bedfordshire. We decided to have
our dream sequence set there as we like the objects that were in Baulk woods and the different
Landscape you got i.e. from a forest to a lake and even to a meadow. We thought this could help us
add to the disorientated feel as we wanted to receive when people watched the dream section. My
favourite shot however of the dream section was of the boy playing in the meadow with his dog, I
liked the way this emphasised his age to the audience, but to make it even more clearly we decided
to add our own scripted nursery rhyme. The reason why we decided to shot our dream section in the
woods over all was because we thought it was the correct conventions of being dark, isolated, scary,
derelict and disorientated. It also has a sense of realism as most people have been to the woods
before, which we liked.
In this picture you can see a medium shot of the
playground the boy was playing in with the
camera movement panning. This type of shot is
very typical within a psychological horror film
opening as they have put the audience not in the
persons view point but as if they are watching
them which makes the audience feel quite tense and apprehensive of what has happened to the boy

4. Emma Bradshaw- Media Evaluation Question 1
at his location. It also gives a clear understanding for the audience of the mise-en-scene in the shot,
what is happening in the shot and the environment the character is in.
To help with our horror film location I made an audience survey questionnaire asking the public
what their favourite horror location would be. As you can see from the graph the most popular
location was a house and the
least popular location was used
places i.e. hotels and hospitals.
I knew the house from the
beginning would be one of the
most popular ones as it is a
classic convention for horror
film openings. Having it set in
an ordinary house helps set the
realism for the audience, letting
them know that this could
happen to anyone and how it is
not ordinary consequence. We also set our other location in the woods which was proved from
other questionnaires very popular. The purpose of the forest was to show the death location of the
missing boy, we showed this by the audience’s knowledge of how hard it is to escape from a forest.
Making the audience feel worried, anxious and scared, showing the emotions that my group wanted
the location to create so I think using the locations we used has turned out very successful.
Whilst finding out this information I and my group tried to find popular horror/psychological films
that used these types of locations within their horror films, by researching this we found lots of
successful horror films which helped inspired us to pick this location for our film opening. The films
we found where;
The Women in Black
The Shinning
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Blaire Witch Project
The Ring
The Omen
Orphan
When me and my group watched and researched these particular films we all released that each one
had used either both or one of our particular locations with our psychological film opening that

5. Emma Bradshaw- Media Evaluation Question 1
made our idea for our location set in stone.
Costumes and Make-up
The pictures which are shown help show and represent the
costumes and make-up we prepared and added on to our actors.
For both of our characters we decided to have them wearing natural
no make-up, we decided this because we thought it would make it
easier to help make the character resemble more to the audience,
we also thought it makes them seem younger therefore adding to
the convention of them seeming vulnerable and innocent. However
the only bit of make-up we used was on our boy character, we
added mud to his face and clothes to help show he has no home
and maybe has been living in the wilderness for quite some time.
For the girl we created a costume to help make the sense of realism
more real to reality, thereby dressing her up in casual clothing which
were slippers, leggings, a cardigan and a black vest top making her
look like a normal person, helping again the audience relate to the
character of what she is wearing, making her look and seem more
realistic making the sense of realism much more clearer thereby
making her seem like a threat to the audience. From research we
found out that lots of horror films give the victim a very casual
costume for the same reasons I have said. For example ‘Scream’, ‘The Shining’, ‘The Ring’ and
‘Paranormal Activity’. The costume and makeup we picked for this character also helps show that
she is a teenage who is a well educated middle class girl.
The next character we have is a young boy; we dressed this character in a plain, dull costume. He
wore black school trousers to help show the audience his age group and a white top and walking
boots. We chose the white top to help show the innocence side of this character and the walking
boots to help represent his last moments. The reason why we chose this character to wear such dull
clothing was so that he wouldn’t have any similarity to the children, as stereotypically children
would be dressed in colourful clothing. We thought this characters costume and makeup helps show
his age and as an un-educated lower class boy. Helping make the audience unclear whether his is a
threat or not.
Here is a screen shot of an image from the main climax of our
psychological film opening, to help show the characters face in a
disorientating way. As it is set in a dream we decided to have
this image quite unclear to the audience so they know what the
boy looks like in some way, but it being very unclear. We done
this to make the character seem secretive and powerful which is
quite contrasting further on and to also help build tension in the
audience.

6. Emma Bradshaw- Media Evaluation Question 1
Camera Work
Throughout the whole media task of us creating a film opening, I realised that the skill camerawork
was one of the processes that I found I enjoyed the most and improved on dramatically. I also must
have learnt a variety of skills as well for example; learning to pan, tilt and do a tracking shot
smoothly. In our horror film we used lots of Tracking shots, Low angle shots, High angle shots
Extreme close ups and Long shots. By using these shots we wanted to portray certain emotions and
feelings to give the audience a clear understanding of the story we are trying to portray.
In this photograph you can see a medium shot
of the playground the boy was playing in with
the camera movement panning, which I took
myself. We found this type of shot very typical
within a psychological horror film opening as
we believed it puts the audience not in the
persons view but as if they are watching them
so in the villains view, therefore making them
feel uneasy and tense on what may happen next. We also found it gives a clear understanding for
the audience of the mise-en-scene in the shot, what is happening in the shot and the environment
the characters are placed in. We found this shot very hard to produce as we did not have the correct
equipment to make produce it; therefore we had to work with what we got. So to produce this shot I
had to strap the video camcorder to a bike and slowly wheel the bike in the direction and movement
I wanted to create. Overall I think that this shot worked really well and successfully portrayed the
victim as vulnerable.
Editing
I and my group edited out horror film opening with an Apple Mac computer on the program Final
Cut Pro. We used the specific editing program instead of other programs that came with it like
‘Adobe Premiere Pro’ and ‘Sony Vegas Pro’ for lots of reasons. Whilst using Final Cut Pro I found out
it is very fast. As when we uploaded all of our photos it stacked up a lot of clips and effects but
however many we put on them it seemed to play them all seamlessly. It also allows you to edit the
footage you have taken directly from your memory card and the replace it with the media on the
hard disk once the transfer has been completed. Which unfortunately we only just found out after
we had finished editing out film, I also like the little finishing touches which I have spotted whilst
editing the film, for example the way the edit point turns red when you select it if the out and in
points are at the outer limits of the clips.
The only bad and un-faulty things I found with using this programme is that it takes a very long time
for the multiple maker colours to be added and that you need an open CL-compatible graphics card.
I and my group got quite stuck and confused through the editing process of making our horror film;
we found out that the best way to find out or solve a problem we couldn’t solve was form the
internet. We used the internet to fix lots of problems and questions we came across using Final Cut
Pro, the main question we couldn’t solve and was stuck on for a long time was in the dream section,
of when the clip moves in a fast forwarding motion but then goes back to normal.