This document discusses how the student's media product uses and develops conventions of the horror genre. The key conventions of horror include themes of good vs. evil, dark iconography like blood and weapons, abandoned or dark settings, and an evil being trying to kill the protagonist. The student's work fits these conventions by including a protagonist and villain. It also challenges conventions by killing a male character early on rather than the typical female character. The opening scene kills off a character using a knife, fitting with horror conventions. Dark settings were used to maintain suspense. Overall, sticking closely to genre conventions made the student's film more effective as a horror piece for this coursework.

1. Question 1 – In what ways doesyour mediaproductuse, develop or
challenge formsand conventionsof real media products?
The conventionsof our chosen genre,
which is horror, are that there is a theme
of good vs. evil, the iconography is very
dark and uses propssuchas blood,
knivesand other formsof weaponry, the
settings used are abandoned buildings,
dark environments, settingsare key as
they create the mood. Common
narrativedevices are that there is some
sort of evil being tryingto kill or scare
the hero or protagonistor hero. Common characters in horrorsare
the stupid teenager that gets killed, the villain and the hero.
The research we concluded prior to our construction was that we
found outaboutthe conventionsof horror, wedid this by analysing
films, such as Halloween, Insidiousand The Conjuringetc. we found
out about the conventionsand learned how they are used in a title
sequence. This also gave us some ideason what to includein our film
and how to do them correctly and properly.AlthoughI am nota big

2. fan of horror films, I decided to watch someas extra research; this
gave me a better idea on what elementsto includein my film.
Our work fits with these conventions well; there is a protagonistin
our film and also a villain who is tryingto kill him. This also
challenges the conventionsasin most horror films it is the female
character who dies earlier on in the film, but in our film it is a male
character therefore this stretches and challenges that specific
convention of horror.
A good example of this is the film ‘Psycho’ by Alfred Hitchcock. A
short while into the film the filmsantagonist kills off the leading lady,
Janet Leigh. This was effective because it was shocking in world of
film as it has never been donebefore so wetried to do this in our
film, to break away from convention.
In this scene in Psycho the main character is killed off in the opening
scene and also in our film, one of the characters is killed of/captured

3. by the villain in the opening. Asyou can see in the video above, the
death also fits with the conventionsof horror, as the character is
killed usingknife, a key style in horror films. I f you turned on this
film, at this pointin the film you would know it is a horror film, which
I think is key when constructing a film. This would give a
In our film we tried to stick to conventionsof the setting by shooting
our film in a dark footpath that was outof the way from civilisation
we decided to stick to conventionsbecause wethought it would be
hard to make a bright area fullof peoplelook ‘scary’ and ‘suspicious’.
This wasalso crucial when setting the story for our film, as if we
filmed in a light environmentin would notmakessense, and again
wouldn’tfitwith convention.
In our film, we stuck to conventions,
because the best horror films always
stick to their conventions, this
therefore makes the film better and in
doingso I think madeour film better. If
we broke away from conventionstoo
much, the film would driftaway from
the genre and that’s not what was
intended when completingthis
coursework piece. Although some
horror films break away from

4. convention, for exampleof this is ‘Cabin in the Woods’. In the film the
openingscene, it shows two peoplein a room, showing that the
‘horror’ that is about to happen is staged. This breaks away from the
conventionsof horror as horror, in films, is usually deemed as
‘realistic’ and it actually happens. Butin this film it does not, hence
why it breaks away from convention.
Also in the film it useshumour, another example of how the film
breaks away from the conventionsof horror, as in horror films are
generally not meant to be humorousand their objective is to scare
the audience. So in our film, to be moreprofessional, and stick to
conventions. Wedidn’tuseany humour at all and tried to be serious
at all times, in all scenes of the film.
In our film, we created an ‘Enigma Code’; we left the audience
questioningwhat is happeningnext. Weleft our film open ended by
not really explaining what is going on, notgiving our ‘killer’ a motif;
this will make the audiencequestion what is going on and therefore
it will be moreenjoyable and engaging. Also we left the main
characters fate unexplained. In doingso it will make the audience
question and wantto know what happensto the character, this will
create sympathy and thereforeagain makethe film moreengaging.