The document discusses conventions used in the production's short horror film and related promotional materials like the poster and double page spread. For the film, conventions like low-key lighting, close-ups of characters, and voiceover narrative were employed. The poster featured staged imagery, dark colors, and the film title as is common for horror posters. The double page spread included images, pull quotes, and the film name consistent with the genre. Some conventions like jump cuts were considered but not used due to the narrative style. Overall, the production made strategic use of horror genre conventions while also experimenting with some unconventional techniques.

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

2. Short film - genre conventions
- One of the most common conventions of the genre of
horror is low key lighting, we made use of this convention
throughout the whole of the film. The shots at the sleepover
were all in low key lighting and created shadows around
the girls. This increased the tension and the fear of the
unknown as well as the binary oppositions of good vs evil
and safe vs unsafe; as the what can be concealed within
the darkness is never clear. We think we made good use of
it and followed this horror convention especially well when
Ellie passes the torch to the next girl but Ava picks it up.
The audience can’t see what is happening due to the low
lighting and Ava’s face comes as a bigger surprise and
creates a higher visceral pleasure. However, the shot that
we initially filmed had to be edited as the low lighting was
too extreme for a very long time, this was done by blading
the video and cropping part of it which was too dark. The
lighting is ambient when they are on screen, this is
conventional as it is presenting the equilibrium, however
at the moment of disequilibrium, when Ava drowns him it is
still ambient, this could be argued to be unconventional as
low lighting is used to create opposition. We did this on
purpose because we wanted the audience to feel
comfortable, and not suspect anything would happen
between them, this would also appeal to the secondary
more sophisticated audience and we believed we have
achieved this successfully.
- Another very common convention of horror films is close up
shots of the characters, mainly the victim. Our production
contains a good number of close ups of Ellie while she is
telling the story, however, maybe we could have added more
close ups of the rest of the girls, because even though Ellie
is the protagonist, the other girls are still victims.
Furthermore, Jonathan is the main victim and there is not
many close ups of him, this was intended as the relationship
he had with Ava was more intense and his death was more
unexpected. We didn’t want the audience to think something
bad was going to happen to him hence why we used more
medium shots on him. In our horror short film, we also made
us of close ups of the antagonist, Ava, this was to show her
intentions and for the audience to fear her. This was carried
out quite successfully although maybe there were more
needed after she finds the doll to see her change more
drastically.

3. Short film - genre conventions
- Jump cuts and quick cuts are present in most horror films.
In our production, we probably should have used more
quick cuts and have at least one jump cut in order to create
more tension and make the next shot unexpected and
come as a surprise. We didn’t make use of these because
we didn’t think they matched with our production in the first
place because it is very narrative and continuity led so
therefore, using jump cuts would have stopped the
continuity. But after watching it we don’t think one would
have looked bad either. Maybe after the first shot of the doll
when it cuts to the girls screaming.
- Moreover, hand held camera is normally present in horror
films to create confusion amongst the audience and make it
more difficult to see what is happening and create an
unsettling feeling, this can connote danger and violence,
we did not follow this convention in our production because
we wanted the audience to feel comfortable. By having
steady shots, we are contradicting our narrative, the
audience should feel unease but the lack of camera
movement means that whatever happens next, they will be
less likely to be expecting. In horror films, certain binary
oppositions are usually present like good vs evil, unknown
vs known, natural vs unnatural. All these are clearly
present in our production.
- Finally, the use of voice over is a common convention in
horror movies. We think we made effective use of it and
made the storyline of the ghost story clearer for the
audience. The fact that a girl is narrating it makes the story
more effective for the audience, it connotes innocence.

4. Poster - genre conventions
- The photo of the girls in the poster is staged, it is part of a
scene in our short film; the girls at the sleepover. A staged
image present is a convention of the horror genre that we
managed to follow and that creates a better understanding
of the narrative only by looking at the poster. But again, one
of the girls is missing, so it could be argued that we also
failed to follow the convention of having a staged image in
our horror poster.
We had a number a issues when it came to getting an
effective layout for our film poster. Conventions of lighting at
times were at times restrictive, at first we had an image of
Ava, that was not a staged image and the lighting didn't
match the one of the girls either and the title of the film was
place on a side, which was very unconventional. However,
the image of the girls was staged and they were all present.
In order to make the lighting better on the image of the girls
we had to retake the photograph and that meant that one of
the girls, in fact the main one, who played Ellie’s characters,
did not show up to the shoot. When it came to where the title
was placed, we couldn't make it conventional having the
image of the woman present so decided to change it to the
doll instead to meet the convention of the name being in the
middle. Furthermore, the lighting on the dolls face and
around the girls is more conventional than what it used to be
on the first draft.

5. Poster - genre conventions
- Because our genre is horror, dark colours are a
convention in posters of films with this genre. Our
poster’s background colour is black therefore we have
used this convention. This allows us to make a mystery
of the things that might be hiding in the dark and ready
to attack the girls, which links to our tagline. It creates
enigma for the audience. A convention of horror posters
is to feature the protagonist or antagonist. We failed to
follow this convention as we had planned that the
antagonist was going to be present in our poster but
due to some inconveniences when editing, we had to
get rid of her. This caused us to use the doll instead,
which can be argued to be the protagonist/antagonist of
the film as it is the reason why Ava killed Jonathan. In
our poster the girls at the sleepover are present,
however, Ellie the main protagonist isn’t. This is
something we didn’t mean to happen but the actress we
used wasn’t reliable and didn’t show up to the shoot of
the poster. This therefore meant that she wasn’t present
in our poster, when it would have been better if she had
been.

6. DPS - genre conventions
- The conventions of a horror double page spread are
similar to those of a film DPS’. There aren’t really many
differences when it comes to different genres. The first
convention that we followed was having the name of the film
in the article. We used the name of our short film in order to
make the audience familiar with the name so they are able
to find more about it.
- Another convention of film DPS is having a large image, in
our case because our DPS has a lot of different images
which are big but aren't as large as taking up a whole page.
This is a convention we challenged because due to our
production being a short film and the type of magazine we
intended to create, we wanted to appeal to a more
sophisticated audience and bigger images are more
appealable to mass market you readers. As well as those
big images, smaller ones are preset which is also a
convention. We made use of these because we wanted the
readers to learn more about the film and what happened
behind the scenes. The shots we used in our DPS are from
behind the scenes but we think that this is probably not very
clear, still they are unseen images that the audience hasn't
seen.
Pull quotes are very usually present in movie’s DPS’s. We
made use of one because we wanted the readers to
engage what with us, the directors thought of the film, and
why we chose the genre of horror. Furthermore, the
background colour of the DPS was influenced by the fact
that our short film was a horror, we wanted it darker in order
to connote the disequilibrium and make the readers of the
magazine feel a little uncanny and intriguing.

7. Short film - form conventions
- In short films, one of the main conventions is a small cast,
not featuring a lot of characters in it. We tried to follow this
convention, at the start we thought we were going to have 7
characters, we thought this was possible but when it came to
planning, getting all of the cast members together was
challenging, this is why we decided to take it down to 6 by
getting rid of one of the girls at the sleepover, this made the
filming and getting all the girls together much easier. In our
opinion, we could have kept the cast smaller and have 4
actors but the narrative would have had to be different.
- Between some of our characters there is dialogue going on,
a convention of some short films. It makes it easier to
understand the characters and the narrative which can
sometimes be challenging in such short time. We followed
this convention as there is dialogue going on between the
girls, however, there is non going on between the couple as
the lack of dialogue is also a convention of horror films so we
tried to follow both. However, having dialogue between the
girls was effective but due to problems of the sound clips
while editing, some of the shots where the girls were
dialoguing had to be omitted. Even though we had planned
and scripted a good amount of dialogue, in our final draft of
our short film, there is not much dialogue going on, but
enough to get to know some of the girls a little bit better. One
of the other reasons dialogue between the girls had to be
omitted is because some of the girls weren't very confident
when it came to acting and it made scenes look bad, as what
they were saying wasn't done with much enthusiasm.
One of our characters, Ava, throughout the short film is the
most developed, this is a convention we followed (one
specific character being develop) because we wanted the
audience to connect with her and learn more about her.
This was a challenge because she has no dialogue and we
never get to listen to her, it is all portrayed in her acting and
through the shots. We think we managed to do this
effectively with help of the voice over and Kirsty’s acting.

8. Poster - form conventions
- One of the film poster conventions is to have the reviews and
ratings the film has had. Our poster has these at the top of it. It is
a convention we wanted to follow because our secondary
audience is sophisticated and having reviews from The Guardian
might make them more likely to go find out more about the film. I
think we used these effectively in our poster however, maybe
having the writing in bold would have created a greater effect on
the audience.
- Having the name of the director present and other films they
have directed is another convention for film poster. However it is
more commonly used with directors that are famous whose films
are mainstream We are not famous and this is the first film we
have directed so there was no point on our names being present
on the poster, however they were included in the institutional
information at the bottom.The same happens with the name of
the actors, which are normally focal points of the poster. Apart
from this, in conglomerate backed film poster the release date is
always present.
-A convention that we followed was having a tagline present in
our poster, it gives the audience an idea of the narrative and
what will happen in the film. It can grab their attention to make
them watch it, which is the whole purpose of the poster. We
believe that the tagline we used “Innocence can’t save you” is
effective because it creates enigma as to who can’t it save you
from. Also, the name of the film having a big presence is a
convention we followed, we placed it in an unconventional place
however, it is in the middle lower top of the pages and we think
this grabs the attention of the audience. It is something new and
that not many short films have done and is therefore a different
visual marketing technique.
- Because we are an independent producer and our
film is going to be exhibited before a main stream
horror film, this convention didn't apply to us. This is
why instead of a date we used “coming soon”.
- Certification of the film, the logos of both distribution
and production company are always present and we
also included them, this is essential information for the
audience, in case they are not allowed to watch it or if
they are drawn to watch it because of who produced it,
this is more linking to our secondary audience, who
might recognise our production company.

9. DPS - form conventions
- One convention of a film review is a synopsis of the film
present at the start in order for the audience to read it and
see if they would be interested in the article of that particular
film. Wr decide to follow this conventions because, not only
it would get the reader more interested in the film but it will
also give an insight of what the review is reviewing and
allow the readers that haven't watched the film to also relate
to what is being said in the review.
- Furthermore, a percentage is present indicating what the
critic feels the film deserves as a score, this is appealing to
those younger readers of our magazine that care about
what others think, that do what the mass does, the mass
market readers (only a few) that our magazine would have.
Because our film is appealing to a mainstream audience, we
wanted to add some elements in our review that would
appeal to them and we decided that this could be good.
- These are all conventions of a film review, however, we
found it really hard to find conventions of a short film DPS
because they don't have a big enough market appeal. By us
creating one we are making our product more unique and
appealing to a more niche audience.

10. Short film - institutional conventions
-A convention of independent films is the fact that they try
to avoid typical conventions of mass market films that
audiences are used to and use unusual filming
techniques. In our production because our primary
audience is the mass market, we challenged this
convention of independent production companies, we had
quite common conventions because of the genre of horror
appealing to a mainstream audience. However, we did try
to add some elements in order to appeal to a more
sophisticated audience, however this wasn't necessarily
any conventions, but elements, symbols that would
require the audience to think why they are there, give
them a mystery to resolve; intellectual pleasure. The fact
that it was postmodern also aids to appeal to the
sophisticated audience as it made it more challenging and
niche. In terms of interesting camera techniques we didn't
really use any. We kept it as simple as possible in order to
make it more effective and don't let the audience know
that something bad was going to happen. We could have
use a variety of different shots to appeal to a sophisticated
audience when we filmed the sleepover scene. Maybe the
shots were quite repetitive and we could have used some
more interesting shots like more long shots or high angles
on the girls as there are most medium close ups of Ellie.
- Independent films have a low, limited budget that only
allows them to have a few location, us as a small
production company have followed these conventions.
We stuck to having two only two different locations which
was an advantage because we didn't have to carry all the
equipment with us from location to location. Normally,
independent films have more dialogue, because ours is a
horror film, we didn’t follow this particular convention.
However, as they have a low budget, they cannot afford
especial effects, the lack of these is a convention for
independent films, therefore another convention that we
followed. However, the doll, main prop in our film had
supernatural powers that could have been more
noticeable for the audience if we had used special effects
but our budget restricted us from doing it and also we
though that through a clear narrative we could create a
similar effect and let the audience know the doll had
supernatural powers.

11. Poster - institutional conventions
-Because of our limited budget and as a very small
production company, we couldn't afford a big advertising
campaign so we had to use a cheaper and effective way of
advertising our short film. We decided to use Web 2.0 in
order to get a brand identity on sites like Facebook, Twitter
or Instagram, all these are free and our primary are active
on all of them as they are digital natives. The links and
symbols for al these social media sites were present on the
poster in order for the audience to access them and be
able to learn more about the film.
-The name of the director can be present in a film poster,
more usually on conglomerate backed film ones. We chose
to challenge this convention because as independent
directors that haven't done any other films before, it would
be irrelevant. In addition to this, in our film poster the name
of the actors aren't present either because, again , they are
not well known A list actors that would bring people to
watch our film.

12. DPS - institutional conventions
-We both challenged and follow different conventions of the three
main magazine types: Total Film, Empire and Sight & Sound. The
magazine we based out own production on is Empire, from which
we took different conventions in order to appeal to our readers and
make them engage with our review and encourage them to watch
our film. The first one we made us of was having a summary of the
film, magazines like Total Film don't use it because the films they
review are mainstreams and well known. But our short film needed
this, it is something maybe some of the readers of the magazine
haven't heard of and needed to read a summary of the plot and
who directed it. Magazines like Empire and Sight&sound both make
us of the four column system because their articles are more text
base, we decided to challenge this convention because our text
wasn't long enough, and if we had made it in columns, it would
have looked empty, not appealing to the the sophisticated readers
that our DPS has. We don't think four columns of text would have
worked for our own production and are happy with only having two.
-The language that we used in our review was quite formal and this
is a convention we wanted to follow and managed to in order to
appeal to the more sophisticated readers that are short film fans.
We did not use any slangs which is a more common convention of
Total Film as they have a more mass market appeal than Empire.
We used an image that came from a scene from the film and this
meant that we followed one of Empire’s conventions and maybe we
should have use one more because the rest are from behind the
scenes, maybe an element of what was shown in the short film was
missing and we could have achieved this through instead of using
photo of Ava, had another shot of the couple of just her that came
from the film.
From Sight&Sound conventions, we followed the fact that in
the interviews, the question is always in bold with the initials
of the interviewee, this is for the readers to follow the text
more easily and make the reading experience more enjoyable
and personal as the readers would be very interested in it.
Again, we included a synopsis of the film, but not as longs as
the ones on this magazine are.
Conventions we followed from Total Film magazine were the
use of pull quotes, we used one from what the actress had
said and we made this a key focus on our DPS. Maybe we
should have made it smaller and created the doll the main
focus, make the image a bit bigger, in order to have a wider
appeal with our DPS, and not just have sophisticated niche
readers. We didn’t have a very clear house style at the start
and this made the first draft of our magazine to be quite
unconventional for a magazine based on Empire.