The document summarizes how the media product uses conventions from real horror films to appeal to its target teenage audience. It introduces the main characters of Niamh and Lilia who are teenagers to relate to the audience. The opening sequence establishes the key prop of a necklace and introduces the main graveyard location used in many horror films. While some elements like lighting and titling don't fully follow horror conventions, overall the product uses suspenseful music, camera shots and a flashback effect seen in real horror films to develop tension and mystery for viewers.

1. 1)In what ways does your media product use,
develop and challenge real media products?
Evaluation

2. How our product would appeal to the
target audience?
 Our media product is aimed at teenagers, more specifically, aged 16-19, therefore we used many
media conventions used in real horror films , in order to make our film appeal to them. Firstly, we
used two group members to play the protagonist(Niamh) and antagonist(Lilia).This is usually used
in real media products as if a product is aimed at young people, the characters are almost always
young people. Moreover, when we did our questionnaire, all the teenagers said they liked young
people in horror films, therefore, we believe we picked the right character that would appeal most
to them.
Like this, the audience would be able to like the film as they will see people their age are in it.
In order to have made it better, I could have made it clearer that the characters are young such as shot
close to a college or an area with many young people. Many horror films I have seen such as the one
used in my product research “ the ring” had the teenage girls dressed in a school uniform to show
they are like the audience and make clear they are teenagers and the film is aimed at them.This
could have been done in a number of ways in my film; in the flashback, she could have been
wearing a uniform or one scene could have been done with her in a school.

3. The Narrative
 Our opening sequence uses the typical elements a real opening sequence would use. Firstly, we have the
introduction of the main prop, which is the necklace as the actress is seen holding it in the graveyard. In
the product research I had done, all films had an introduction of the key props at the beginning such as
“tears”, which was the swing”. I believe we have done this correctly as the audience will understand that
the necklace plays an important role in our film as it appears in two of our four storyboards. It also creates
suspense as people wonder what is so important about it. I believe this was established well and the
audience will know that that prop is key to the story,.
 Also, we introduce the main two characters in the opening sequence which is Niamh, who appears
throughout and than the antagonist, which is Lilia. Once the last storyboard turns to Lilia, we understand
that she is the one speaking to Niamh and therefore the establishment of the narrative: she is haunting
Niamh and the necklace triggered this as it has something to do with the person who died and she was
laying flowers for. However, I do believe that our cliff-hanger could have been better and much more
intriguing as it is not made clear that the voices heard by Niamh comes from Lilia the antagonist as when
the camera cuts to her, she has already said everything.Therefore, this could create a bit of confusion
whether she is the person haunting Niamh or a completely different character. For example, the opening
sequence of “The black dress” has a cliff-hanger at the end of the opening sequence as to what the girls saw
that made them throw themselves out the window and what would happen next.
 We introduced the key location very well I believe.We started our film with an aerial shot of the
graveyard, which shows it is important.The fact that it appears inn three of our four storyboards suggest it
is the main location.Also, the voice over telling her to go back to it emphasises how important it is and the
action will be based their. It is also the location of the flashback showing the beginning of everything was
their, which means it is a location of extreme importance in the product.

4. Mise-En-Scene
 We were very careful in picking the key location as well as the others for our opening sequence.When we
had done the questionnaire in the audience research we placed much more emphasis on what the
teenagers in our target audience liked and we saw that many of them liked graveyards in horror films.
Therefore, we made sure that our main location would be that.This also follows real media products as
many horror films are done in graveyards such as “A haunting”. Like this, our film seemed very realistic
and appealing to our audience.
 In our questionnaire, we also saw that quite a few people liked horror films in churches. Our group found
the idea appealing so we decided to go to Saint Paul’s Cathedral to do it as it makes the horror film much
more sinister. Many horror films such as horror film on possession make use of holy locations and objects
such as crosses in their films as well as in other types of horror films, therefore, we thought it would make
our film much more sinister as it does in real media products. So I believe that the locations chosen were
good for our film as it is very similar to real media products.
 The members who were taking care of mise-en-scene looked at our product research and tried to follow
the conventions as much as possible.We thought Niamh would be a good actress as she had very dark hair;
in real media products the bad or dark characters usually have dark hair, so this connotes that Niamh is
quite dark as well as a negative character. The fact that she uses black throughout the opening sequence
also emphasises that. In films such as “The Ring”, the evil character has dark hair as well as a dark blazer.
The antagonist also has dark hair and dark clothes to connote the same things. Moreover, she has pale
make up as antagonists such as in “Jessica’s Room” usually have, which makes it much more similar to a
real media product.

5.  The lighting used is quite conventional to what is seen in horror films. It is mostly dark as in most
horror films which makes it much scarier and increases tension.As we saw in the product research
and most questionnaires, there is dark lighting, therefore, it appealed to the audience as well as
resemble a real horror film. However, in the first two scenes it is daylight, which challenges what is
really used in real horror films and perhaps doesn’t make it as scary as a real horror film would be.
 As mentioned before, there is one key prop in the opening sequence as well as a main location,
which is what is usually seen in opening sequences.Therefore, our media product does resemble a
real opening sequence as the main elements are established.
 Moreover, in the flashback scene, Niamh wears much lighter clothes to connote she was much more
positive and good before finding the necklace.This is seen with most good characters in films such
as in ”the ring”, where the blonde innocent girl wears light clothes.Therefore, as in real media
products, we tried to create ideas about the characters through mise-en-scene as well as the other
various elements.

6. Editing
 In the flashback storyboard of our product, we decided to use a sepia effect on the scenes, in order to
show people that it isn’t reality, but something of the past as sepia has a sort of “old” connotation.This is
also used in real media products in order to stress something is in the past, therefore, I believe the
flashback scene follows real media conventions effectively as it is made clear that that scene is a flashback.
 While making my transitions from one scene to another I didn’t use as many as in the horror films I have
researched, there wasn’t a great deal of transitions apart form cuts, so most of the transitions used are
simple cuts. For the opening scene we decided to use a fade in as it was also used in “tears” and it creates
suspense.Therefore we didn’t use transitions such as wipes as it isn’t used in horror films and wouldn’t
mach the sinister atmosphere.Therefore, our transitions try to resemble the ones of real media products as
much as possible.
 The titling sequence diverts a bit from real horror media products. Firstly, the colour blue is used to
present people’s names.The light blue colour doesn’t really match the mood of the opening sequence and
is quite a happy colour to have and in real horror films white and darker shades are used.Therefore, some
aspects of the titling sequence challenge real media products.When the name of the film appears “The
stone” it is in white, which resembles more a titling sequence of a horror film as white is quite ghostly.
The transitions used are slow which accompanies the slow and sinister mood of the film as done in media
products where the pace of the titling sequence accompanies the one of the film.Therefore, I believe that
that made it seem much more real and similar to a real horror film.

7. Sound
 In our media product, we decided to add many types of sound and music as we thought it would
create ideas about the characters as well as the atmosphere. Most films have a sound which is the
main one and runs throughout it; we have done that in our film as it is the music that is most played
unlike the others who are for particular scenes.Therefore, in terms of how the music is laid out, it
is similar to real media products.
 For the scene in St Paul’s Cathedral, we added a different sound at the end when she Niamh, the
protagonist, suddenly disappears. A special sound of a violin was added to play exactly when that
scary or sinister moment happened. We decided to do this as in all the media products we analysed
which were horror films, most of them had this sort of sound such as in “tears”, when something
scary happened. In our product it is when the protagonist unexpectedly disappears, similarly, in
“tears”, it is when the zombie unexpectedly disappears. So it is very common to what is found in
real horror films, so we tried to develop that and incorporate it into our own product to make it
seem real as well as scary.
 We went against a common aspect of opening sequencers, which is dialogue. Instead, we decided to
use a voiceover of a group member’s voice to make it seem like it is the antagonist's voice and show
only the protagonist can hear it.This isn’t really used and perhaps we could have made the fact that
it is the antagonist’s voice much clearer by perhaps filming her mouth moving with the voice.
Therefore, we made our media product much different than what real media products would use
and perhaps it should have been made much clearer not to create confusion to the audience.

8. Storyboard
 In our film, we used a variety of camera shots.We saw that many real media products didn’t include
a framing shot, however, we decided to use it as we believed it would look much more sinister in
the cathedral, therefore, we used different camera shots that many real opening sequences do not
use, however we managed to explore them and make them match and add life into our film as well
as the high angle shots.
 Many of the horror films we watched in our opening sequence contained a variety of camera shots,
which we also decided to use, such as wide shots, long shots and extreme close ups.
 Overall, regarding the starboards, we followed what the real media products usually do , but added
to it to make it much more likely and interesting.

9. The end