This document discusses how a student film used, developed, and challenged conventions of real media products in its genre. It used the stereotype of the unintelligent blonde girl but did not give her a strong accent, altering that convention. It developed the convention of haunting by having the character haunted during daylight hours rather than at night. This challenged horror film conventions by contradicting the typical atmosphere created by nighttime hauntings.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. The Use of Forms and Conventions In our film we used the stereotypical convention of a blonde girl; lacking intelligence and being slow to understand what is happening around her. This is something that most films that fall within the same genre as our film; being a cross between a horror and comedy use. Example: In the scene where the character Lindsey notes down the message ‘You will die in seven days’ emphasises on how slow the character is, for she failed to notice what she was noting down.

3. In films where the protagonist is a blonde girl it is the norm for her to have a strong accent either a American or regional. This adds humour to everything the character does therefore, it used a lot. In our film the character Lindsey does not have a accent. We altered this convention by developing the character in having no accent, however, we still managed to humour the audience. By having the character not having a accent is something we challenged, because we used the other conventions of having a blonde character however have not given her the strong accent.

4. In a typical horror film the scenes with the ghost haunting the protagonist is always filmed in the night. This is used I many film; our film, has scenes where the character is being haunted but it is not in the during the night. We developed this convention by having the character Lindsey being haunted during daylight hours. This challenges the forms and conventions of a horror film, for our film contradicts with the atmosphere of what is actually happening.