1. The document discusses how the author's media production used and developed conventions of the found footage horror genre while also challenging some conventions. 2. The author researched found footage films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity to understand common conventions like characters holding the camera and lack of non-diegetic music. Footage was shot handheld rather than on a tripod for more realism. 3. The production developed conventions like enhanced gore but challenged conventions by not stating why the main characters were in the forest, unlike most found footage films.

1. 1.) IN WHAT WAYS DOES
YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
By Shani Casey

2. WHAT RESEARCH I DID
History of Horror – Found
Footage
When my group decided to do the found
footage genre, I conducted my own research
on what types of found footage films there
were already on the market. I studied films
such as the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal
activity as they had the most common found
footage conventions. We made these
adaptions such as the actors holding the
camera and no non-diagetic music added.
In addition to this before we actually began
our media production, we researched various
different types of Horror ranging back to the
early 20th century.
I felt that the fact we used a hand held camera
instead of putting the camera on a tripod
really set our film out from the rest of our
class, and was a good convention to use,
because the film comes across slightly shaky.
This however gives the audience something to
relate to, verisimilitude, because it gives the
film a more realistic feel and therefore makes
it more frightening.
One of the main aspects which were keen to
avoid was the night vision filter. The Blair
Witch Project uses this sort of filter and we felt
that even though it would made some of our
scenes in our media product appear darker, it
would also take away some of the key points
in the film.

3. WHAT WE DEVELOPED AND
CHALLENGED
In our media product we developed various conventions in the horror
genre, for example we enhanced the gore aspect of our film because
we felt that the found footage genre didn’t involve enough gore. We
wanted to show that whatever the unknown villain that kills our main
two characters is that it can in fact cause the characters harm. We
also challenged the found footage genre because we haven’t actually
stated why the two main characters are in the forest during the film
whereas most found footage productions would tell their audience
slightly more about what the characters are doing in the film.