Evaluation Activity 1

1. Evaluation Question 1:
In what ways does your media
production use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of
real media productions?

2. Information
• As our sequence is of horror genre we decided
that we wanted to include a verity of different
codes and conventions of the horror genre
that our target audience would be
comfortable watching and enjoy throughout

3. The title of our production
• When thinking of a concept for our production it
came quiet easily but we found it hard to think of
a name for it. After going though our concept a
couple of times we thought that a simple name,
“The Darkness,” would be best for it. It kind of
summed up our concept and it was the best name
we had thought of. We decided that the colour red
on a black background would be best to use
because in most horror films red connotes threat
to a character or a band of characters. We thought
that black would be a good colour for the
backdrop because it is another convention for a
horror film and it really brings out the red.

4. The title of our production

5. Location and Setting
• We decided that we were doing to set our
production in a house. We thought this would be
best because we have all seen various horror
films where their main location was a house, for
example, the Scream quadrilogy, Insidious and
Paranormal Activity. We also thought this would
be a good place to set it because your home is
meant to be a safe place and the fact that we
have made it an dangerous place for our
character to be makes the sequence build more
tension and suspense for the audience to want to
know what happens.

6. Location and Setting

7. Camera work and editing
• As I was the camera person I had to work closely both
the director and editor. I wanted to make sure that I
had enough shots for the editor to work with.
Throughout our opening sequence I wanted to make
sure that I used a lot of different shots to make it
interesting and exciting for the audience. We used a lot
of the shots to show conventions of a horror film. The
establishing shot right at the beginning of the
production show a shadowy ghostly figure allowing the
audience to understand that it is a horror right from
the start. Then the different uses of close ups to show
the different significant parts of our main characters
like her facial expressions and extreme close ups to
show specific facial features to show her fear.

8. Special effects
• To make it even more of a horror we added a
special effects. We wanted to give it an
inhumanly affect so at the start of the
sequence we added a ghostly figure dressed in
black and they walk pass the camera, this is
meant to be our antagonist, Lucy.

9. Special effects

10. Costumes and props
• Protagonist: As Rachel is going to bed to make her wear
plain and simple clothing (white top and black leggings). We
decided to dress her in white because as she is our
protagonist she is meant to be seen as pure and innocent
and this is what protagonist usually represent.
• Antagonist: Our shadowy antagonist, Lucy, was dressed in
all black. We did this because they are meant to be polar
opposites so while Rachel is pure and innocent, Lucy is
dangerous and risky.
• Props: Because our production is called “The Darkness” and
our antagonist only appears in the darkness we knew that
our most significant prop would have to be something to do
with light so we decided to use a side lamp. This would
allow the audience to understand our concept more but
also to understand the characters even more.

12. How characters are introduced
• Lucy, the antagonist, is the first character to
be introduced. You see her ghostly shadow
walk pass the house through the first couple
seconds of the sequence. This adds to the
conventions of a horror film that the audience
would be able to establish. Rachel, the
protagonist, is introduced next. Her face isn’t
seen straight away but her hands can be seen
while she washing them.

13. Genre and how the opening sequence
suggests it
• Other codes and conventions under mise-en-scene that
suggest it is a horror are low key lighting so the
audience know it is night and they are creating an
environment that the audience will understand as a
horror. With their costumes you can understand the
difference with the two characters, which are for good
and evil. The diegetic whispering that Rachel can hear
after Lucy appears and the non diegetic soundtrack
that will help build suspense and tension which are also
conventions of a horror. You can also hear little things
like a creak of the door that create a verisimilitude
atmosphere for the audience.

14. Story and how the opening sets it up
• The sequence starts with an establishing shot
on the house and the ghostlike figure of Lucy
walking pass allowing the audience to identify
that it is of a horror genre.