The document analyzes the opening frames of a horror film to show how it conforms to genre conventions. Key shots include an unfocused house view to build suspense without revealing details, beach shots to establish the eerie setting, and character introductions using a first-person handheld style similar to popular horror films. Random cuts to a character running and panting are meant to hint at danger and potentially scare viewers. The opening ends by cutting to black for three seconds of uncertainty before revealing the main title in a style comparable to other horror films.

1. In what ways does my product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
For this question I have chosen to snap shot all the different frames from my filmopening
and analyse them. By doing this I will be able to show how my film opening conforms to the
convections of horror.
I decided not to start my filmopening with the main title because from my research I
discovered that most horrors like Insidious and Paranormal Activity also conform to this
style of film opening. This shows that my product is following the conventions of my genre. I
chose to use this shot because I believe that it sets a softer, eerier tone. I think that it also
gives the effect of confusion or distortion as you cannot clearly see the location which
connotes with the way that the characters will feel later on in the film.
Inbetween each of the shots I chose to place credits. I believe that this slows down the film
and adds to the tension creating suspense. It also clearly lets the audience know who is in
the film and who it is made by.

2. For the second shot, it shows a sunset at a beach, which is a very calming and beautiful shot.
This challenges the forms and convections of horror as it is not an ‘intense’ or ‘scary’ shot. I
used it, as it is the location where I filmed and I believe that the innocence of the shot is
quite creepy as it is unusual to see in a horror.
After this shot, I chose to include another beach shot. This time it is from a different angle
and shows more of the sea. I did this because I wanted the audience to have a clear
understanding of the location. It also shows the sea moving in slow motion, which adds to
the eerie feel.

3. This shot is an unfocused look at the house in which the filmis based around. I chose to
make it unfocused because I didn’t want to give away too much right at the beginning. I did
this to add suspense and make the audience wonder what the house clearly looks like. I also
believe that this shot is as if it is from a first person point of view, which may make the
audience feel as if they are really there. This shot follows the convections of my genre as the
‘first person’ feel is frequently used in horrors.
In the next shot I begin to introduce the characters. Something that you cannot see in the
screen shot is that one of the characters is behind the camera. I did this because I wanted
to, again, use the first person view which also leads to hand held camera filming. I believe
this is one of the best ways to shoot a horror as it really makes the audience interact and get
to know the characters better which may lead to an emotive response when anything bad
happens to any of them. I also chose to film like this because it is used in a lot of horrors
such as Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project.

4. The sixth shot is when one of the characters is running through the dark whilst panting to
create realism. This shot is meant to make the audience wonder what is happening and to
hint at what may happen later on in the film. By suddenly cutting the previous shot I wanted
to perhaps scare the audience, which follows the convections of horror. Whilst editing this
clip I took into consideration that the audience would not be scared if I played it for too long
as it would perhaps become boring so I decided to cut the clip so that after about five
seconds it would cut back to the previous scene. I did this twice, cutting back to the running
clip randomly.
On the third time of cutting to the running scene I cut to black at the end of the clip and cut
the music as well. At this point nothing is happening for around three seconds, which makes
the audience worried and scared about what is going to happen. After the three seconds it
fades into the main title and low droning note fades in too. As seen in question three of my
evaluation, my main title is very similar to the insidious, which shows that my film opening
follows the conventions of real media products.