media evaluation

4. Click to watch!

6.  However, we feel as though we developed the
trope of some unknowing teen dying at the
beginning of a horror film, as it is Sebastian- a
boy, who dies instead of conventionally a girl
screaming and being killed after wondering
through some woods or being attacked by a
killer. This subversion of gender stereotyping of
a girl dying at the beginning of film makes our
media product different from convention, whilst
still partially adhering to the convention.
Despite this, the use of titles at the beginning
of the film is very conventional to many
horror films, showing the idents and having
diegetic sound be heard off screen under
titles. We did this to create the feeling of a
horror opening.

9. In the first shot, we see the bold text over the sound of feet
walking. We chose this to be our opening as it adds tensions to the
film, as we do not see whos footsteps they are, are they a threat?
A friend? This is used often in many horror openings to credit the
production company whilst also adding suspense. This was also
used in the beginning of Saw, which I learned from my horror step
outline.
This is conventional of horror film openings, adding tension and
mystery to the beginning of the film in order to get the audience
more involved. This also occurs at the beginning of Halloween, a
horror film with the same target audience as Exposure.

10. The first shot we see of Sebastian is from ground level,
of his feet. We did this as it places the audience in the shoes
of the protagonist, watching him walk away and forces the audience
to physically follow his journey, making them more inclined to follow
his
journey in terms of narrative.
We introduced Sebastian and Daisy in the opening scene as it is
conventional for horror films to introduce their main characters in
their opening sequences. This is conventional to horror films, with
Funny Games (2007) using a similar technique in the opening scene
by having the camera follow the car and introduce the character in
the car in the opening as we follow their journey whilst getting the
feeling they are being watched. We chose to do this as it is
conventional of the genre.
Funny Games

11. However, we subverted from convention of horror films
by revealing the identity of the antagonist right at the beginning
of the horror film in the opening. We did this because the zombie
is not the central antagonist and there would be a variety of
different zombies throughout the film who would be a threat to the
protagonists so felt as though revealing the threat right at the beginning
of the film would throw the audience into the dangerous world the
protagonists live in, without the need for a secret identity for the antagonist
as there would be no one major antagonist like there is in the beginning
of A Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream where Wes Craven in both
films keeps the identity of the killer hidden.
Scream
A Nightmare on
Elm Street

12. The final scene of our protagonist shows
us that Daisy will be the ‘Final Girl’ as she is the
one that survives the beginning of the film,
the ending of it on a cliffhanger connotes that
she will survive until the end of the film as she survived the
beginning. The trope of the final girl is conventional to
the horror genre and so we incorporated this into our film.
Scream is a good example of the use of a final girl through the use of Sidney
Prescott, however she is not present in the opening scene
and is introduced later in the film, different from our film.