Qu e s t io n 1 - In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

product?

• The genre that we chose for our opening sequence is Horror/thriller. These types of films look for a way to provoke a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. The most important characteristic is that they astonish the viewer through scenes of ghoulish and the supernatural. Horror films mostly deal with the audience’s nightmares, hidden worst fears, and fear of the unknown.

• A film is categorized as a horror film if it contains a plot about death, and serial killers. Themes that are most common in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and serial killers and the list can go on and on.

• Examples of films that are recognized as horror movies include Universal's Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931) and paranormal activity.

• A film can be seen as a horror movie by the atmosphere created in the movie e.g. through mise en scene, lighting and the setting. Lighting is used to create shadows and put emphasis on specific things for example on the eyes or the hands and this creates tension and enigma. The shadows created add a mysterious mood and makes the audience pay more attention because they don’t know what’s happening in the background and the audience will pay attention on the thing that the light is concentrated on e.g. the eyes.

• However, the mise en scene has a huge impact on the atmosphere of the movie because all the audience can see is the camera frame and everything in it is the mise en scene. Blood, shadows, sudden changes all signify horror. The narrative structure of any type of horror/thriller is different but all have a pattern of increasing tension.

• For example in our opening sequence the main protagonist first comes into the house then she starts hearing sounds in the house and this scares the audience creating tension and enigma and the audience what to know what is happening e.g. who is making the sounds? Then she finds out that her mother is the person who is making this sounds and she sees her crying and holding a picture of her with a candle next to it suggesting that she’s dead,(but she doesn’t know that) at this point she discovers that she’s been strangled and dead. This bit is the twist and it shocks the audience.

• Our opening sequence represents different age groups in particular teenagers and young adults which are our chosen audience. This is because it reflects their rebellious nature and their love to go out to parties and get drunk without any help or guidance about anything which makes them more vulnerable than the other age groups.

• As a result, in our opening sequence the main protagonist is killed because she couldn’t defend herself from the person who killed her because she was too drunk and this is demonstrated by the way she is dressed and the way she walks into the house.

• This also can represents the British culture because the most age group that die are teenagers and young adults due to being unable to protect themselves for the reason that they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

• Gender plays an important role because I think that females are most likely to be killed due to their soft and caring nature. Making them more vulnerable than males and this is due to the males having an aggressive and stronger nature.