The document discusses how the filmmaker developed their horror genre short film by analyzing conventions from other horror films. They looked at elements like setting scenes in dark woods, using a dark color palette and ominous music to build tension. They also examined how films like Scream used distinctive killer costumes and how films like Paranormal Activity 5 crafted an unsettling editing style with jumps and silence. The filmmaker applied these lessons to their own film, such as opening on a group splitting up in the woods at night to foreshadow impending danger.

1. Question 1:
In what ways media product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
Genre-horror
By Emily Neilson- Director

2. Narrative:
• We looked at different horror films and found out
what all of them do and what colour scheme and
type of music they use during the film to make it
more scary and appealing to the audience. We also
look at costumes the ‘Killer’ normally wears, so
they stand out and the audience can tell the roll
they are. We looked at different horror films and
why they are appealing and bared this in mind
when we was establishing the plot for our film.

3. An example of a movie we
looked into is:
This is the film we based our film on, because we liked the woods,
because it does automatically look scary and creepy and people
know straight away that something is going to go wrong and it is a
horror film. Also by this image you can see that it is dark when it
was took, and we thought it looked even scarier being dark (this
leaves more to the audience’s imagination which is more
frightening), this is why we chose to film our movie in the dark.
The photo to the right is a shot from our film and you can see that
we have made the woods dark and more creepy and there is light
in the background to make it look more interesting.

4. Genre:
• We made it look like our genre (horror) as most of
our film Is based in a dark wood and by having a
dark background it makes it look more creepy and
the audience will the know something bad is going
to happen. Also by having black and white it
makes it look more mysterious and knowing
something or someone is going to appear. Woods
is also showing the genre of horror as woods are
not a good place to be at night and it can be quite
scary at night, this is because anyone at night can
be walking around and not up to any good.

5. Another example we looked into
was:
Sleepy Hollow is another film we looked into, form this film we got the idea that a
white torch would be good to use in the dark scenes because it makes the actors
stand out more but look more black and white which will get people thinking more.
Also it makes the woods look even darker which makes it scarier for the audience
watching the film.
On the right is the screen shot of our film with a white light pointed on one of the
character, this makes the audience know that he is going to be the next one to get
into trouble and the one that the bad thing is going to happen to next. Also it makes
the background seem much darker so the actor stand out more.

6. Editing
• We made the editing look like our genre as we made the scenes build
up so the audience would have the impression that something was
going to go wrong during the night of the camp out. Also we made the
scenes go a bit more dramatic during the night, as people were going
missing and that always leads to no good. We used various different
sounds to build up the tension for the actors inequality. When the
slender appeared we used a big bang to made the slender man stand
out and look more scary. Also the music the background playing
constantly this also bring the audience thinking and getting anxious on
what is going to happen next and they automatically know that
something else is going to happen to one of the boys.

7. The film that gave us our idea’s
for editing was:
I chose to look at the editing on paranormal activity 5
because it has a really good build up, and it makes scary
things jump out even more because of the big build up.
The editing of the film bring tension towards the people
watching it as they know something bad is going to
happen.
The photo on the right is showing our build up to our film, they
are all stood together talking about what they are going to do,
and they decide to split up, so the audience automatically know
that something bad is going to happen as splitting up in the
woods isn’t a good idea. Also the boy who is holding the light,
is foreshadowing because the light is on him and he is the one
who is going to get killed by the Slender Man first. The light
shows that he is the most important at this stage of the film
because the tension that is building up is due to his death.

8. Sound
• Sound also plays a big part to the genre as we involved big bangs
which made the film more jumpy and scary. And after the bang we
had a little bit a silence which makes the audience more on edge and
builds more tension. During the woods little bit of background music
was playing and there was a little bit of wind when they was entering
the woods but this makes it more creepy as the music is slow and
dramatic itself, wind is the Diagetic sound used in our film. The wind
also brought tension to the film and made the clip seem more creepy,
the film that gave me this idea was ‘Cabin in the woods’ this is
because this film makes the wind really effective and makes it more
scary and build up the scenes better to make the audience build up
more tension.

9. Mise-en-scene
• Woods is a scary place to be and is extra spooky at night
and a lot of horror films is based in the woods so we
thought this is a good idea to place our horror scenes.
• Costumes- we made the main character wear casual dress
codes as they just thought it was going to be a normal day.
On the other hand one of them was wearing a red coat
which indicates blood so it is a bit like foreshadowing, and
the other two was wearing dark clothes which is also a
sign of threat. The Slender man was wearing black and
white costume with a mask, this shows the audience that
he is the enemy in this film and he is the one that is the
threat to the other characters.

10. The film ‘Scream’ gave us the
idea of the costume:
• ‘Scream’ was the film that we looked at
the costume for. We chose this because
we thought that the ‘killer’ looked really
effective in black and white because it
makes the ‘killer’ stand out more and
people know that black and white never
suggests good news. Also it makes the
character look different from anyone else,
so people know that if they see that
costume it is the ‘bad man’.

11. Typography
• The font we used for the names was white, this
symbols the slender mans costume and mask
colour so this is also a way of foreshadowing. The
type of writing itself is a bit strange and weird
looking which makes the start of it not look
normal and like something is going to happen.
• After the names appear ‘SLENDER’ then shows,
this is in grey which is showing the writing is
getting darker and the boys are leading to further
trouble. It is still in a dull creepy writing not the
ordinary type which makes it more mysterious to
the audience.