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

I have tried to follow conventions of a real media product in order to make it look realistic and to show that I understand how a film in the real industry would work. However, I have also tried to challenge these conventions where appropriate to give my product originality. These includes, editing, mise-en-scene and the characters.

TitlesUsed: I have used titles in the opening of my film to keep with conventions of real media products. The order in which I displayed them is correct also, meaning it fits in with real films. Developed: In my opening I have made the titles relevant to my film using appropriate colours and fonts. This means I was able to display my genre more appropriately.Challenged: As the titles arent at regular intervals as it usually is on real media products its slightly different.

LightingUsed: The alteration with the lighting is used to emphasise the scenes that are happening. This involves darker lighting for more negative events, such as the murders. Developed: The second murders shots have been saturated to show the negative outcomes. This is developing the original skill by using extra tools whilst editing to make the scene look more effective.Challenged: Some parts of the opening to my film have been made darker, but by doing this the intensity of the colour is increased. This means its the opposite of the saturated scenes we see later in the film. This means its challenging the conventions as the scene begins to look slightly unnatural. However, that links with the unnatural themes and scenes.

EditingUsed: The editing processes used are to give a hint as to whats going to happen next. For example, with the first murder, the pace of editing increases just as its approaching the murder. Developed: The switch to the victim and then the hiding murder allows the audience to make links as to what is going to happen. This could be seen as developing the usual conventions of just using the skill involving the pace of editing and including the angles as well. Challenged: I have challenged the conventions of fast paced editing in horror films as well in some parts. For example, the lead up to the second murder where the murderer is approaching the young girl cooking, is one long shot with a voice over. This means the pace of editing was not fast and therefore breaks conventions.

Mise-en-sceneUsed: I used stereotypical props for the opening of my film. For example, the murderers weapon was a knife. I also used stereotypical conventions by using a situation for the murder that would be seen in real life film products. This includes being on the phone to a loved one perhaps with a stereotypical stalker-like approach from behind something. Developed: I developed this convention by having the second murder in a different location. This took place inside the womans house. So rather than having all the murders in the same location, it varies it slightly.

Actors/ActressesUsed: In the opening of my film, I followed the stereotypical conventions by having a man as the murderer. This is a stereotypical convention as men have deeper and more powerful voices and therefore are just generally seen in films to be the violent characters.Developed: I have developed this convention by using women as the victims. This is a stereotypical convention for media products as they are generally displayed as weaker and more vulnerable.Challenged: I have challenged this convention by using a woman as the police officer as in most film products the police officers are men.

Horror GenreUsed: I used conventions from the horror genre as I took influence from the Psycho films murder scenes. This involved putting two and two together to realise that someone has been murdered without actually showing the violence.Developed: I developed this further by using the stereotypical stalker scene in the garden, and having the murderer slowly approach the victim before murdering her.Challenged: I challenged the horror conventions in the sense that the lighting was fairly light, being in the daytime, whereas most horror films are set in the dark at night where its generally more scary.

Relating to other films in the horror genre:My film opening relates to the Woman in Black film that I deconstructed and researched as part of my planning, by the use of colour. This is because the negative/ scary characters in both my film and the Woman in Black is dressed in black. The dark colours help connote these negative characteristics. It also uses the convention of increasing the pace of editing and music which enables the warning to a scary scene or event and allows tension to build up for the audience.The only way my media product is similar to the Possession opening is the violence. The use of violence can be used to represent the horror genre and make it obvious to the audience what the film is going to be like. I could have perhaps used the ariel and establishing shots in order to emphasise the mise-en-scene and location of where the film is taking place, like the Possession opening does.

The film Cabin in the Woods, is very much based around real life people and normal everyday events, in the opening anyway. This relates to my film as my opening refers to average events such as being on the phone and walking out the gate and cooking. This is done to enable the audience to relate to the events and make the general story more realistic.