QUESTION 1 - IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR

CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

GENRE CONVENTIONS Based on dominant social issues Visceral pleasures Providing a sense of mystery Relatable locations Be selective with shot types in order to present the correct

connotations Realism Creates discomfort by exposing common fears Female victim A disturbed, tormented individual An ordinary person who ends up exerting the horror onto

the other characters Lack of weapons Low key lighting

DID YOU MEET THESE CONVENTIONS? COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING

CONVENTIONS?I believe we met - Based on dominant ideologies – Mental illness (schizophrenia) Visceral pleasure – The drowning scene would give the audience adrenaline

and increase their heart rate. a Sense of mystery – We put across there may be a supernatural threat but also

the question “did the protagonist kill her friends due to mental illness?” We never fully clarify this leaving the audience with enigma.

Relatable locations – As we used a forest and a school, this will apply the gratification of personal identity to our audience.

Realism – People really do have mental illness which includes realism in our production.

Discomfort – By exposing the common psychological fears such as drowning. We used a female protagonist. We used a disturbed and tormented victim. We used an ordinary person however it is never clarified in the film whether

she killed her friends or if it was a supernatural threat. The lack of weapons used introduced psychological torment instead of physical

harm. The death of our characters at the beginning is ambiguous as no blood or gore is shown. This gives the audience enigma as they have something unknown to solve.

Low key lighting – We included low key lighting briefly in the bedroom scene to connote the fear and stress felt by the protagonist when she wakes from a nightmare.

I believe that we could have improved the unrealism of our production. This is because psychologist Dr. Glenn D. Walters stated that one of the three primary factors is including unrealism so that the audience knows that at some point what they are watching is not real. This is so they can continue to watch it and not become too disturbed. Our production seemed very real which could lead to some of our audience becoming too afraid to continue watching it. If we were to do this opening sequence again I would suggest including more elements of unrealism to create a sense of safety for our audience, but still give them the thrill of being scared.

FORM CONVENTIONS Attention to detail Engaging Flashback Production logos and credits Foreshadowing

DID YOU MEET THESE CONVENTIONS? COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING

CONVENTIONS? We made our opening sequence engaging by including a

sense of mystery and excitement. Our protagonist is seen running away; this will engage the audience and make them question what she is running from.

We also paid close attention to detail as we wanted our opening sequence to look as professional as possible. We did this by asking all of our actors and actresses to take their role as serious as possible and to make the right facial expressions and gesture at the right time to create more realistic scenes.

We also presented our production logos and credits in order for our genre: Production company, distributor, actors names, casting director, writer, producer, director.

If we were to do this again I think we could have included some more obvious foreshadowing. Our protagonist commits suicide at the end of the film so we could have hinted at this by including a shot of a rope or a bottle of pills to connote the suicidal thoughts of the protagonist.

INSTITUTION CONVENTIONS Below the line marketing No A-list actors Sophisticated narrative Co-funding/ co-produce Sub-genre – psychological – less special

effects and CGI helps low budget Film festivals Cheap locations

DID YOU MEET THESE CONVENTIONS? COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING

CONVENTIONS? We used below the line marketing by creating a Facebook page. We chose not to use A-list actors or actresses to stick to our low budget. We chose a sophisticated narrative to engage our audience as we could

not include CGI or special effects in our opening sequence due to our low budget.

We co-produced with film4 as it allowed us to receive funding that we could use to add things to our production to make it better. As film4 is a British independent film company owned by channel 4 it allowed us to advertise our film on another media platform. (TV)

We used a subgenre of psychological horror as it focuses on the minds horrors instead of lots of blood and gore. This helped us to save money as it was not necessary to include special effects of blood which is normally needed in a normal horror film.

We marketed our film at “Bel air film festival”. We marketed it here because we wanted to secure distribution from overseas.

We used a school, house and school forest to film. This meant that the locations we chose were free to use which helped us save money for our low budget.

The think we followed our institution conventions well.

TECHNICAL CONVENTIONS Orchestral score Dark, creepy location Low key lighting Close ups Establishing shot of the main location Contrapuntal sounds

DID YOU MEET THESE CONVENTIONS? COULD YOU HAVE DONE BETTER AT MEETING CONVENTIONS? We used an orchestral score. We used a woodland area which is a gloomy and chilling location

which helps connote the isolation our protagonist is feeling. This location also created realism as it is a place where most of our audience would have been before which creates an eerie sense of fear as it portrays that the situation occurring could happen to anyone.

Low key lighting was used in our production during the bedroom scene.

We used an establishing shot of the woodland area. We used a flashback within the protagonists dream. We used close-ups to connote strong emotions. We could have improved the amount of low key lighting used to

represent the protagonist’s severe isolation and create a foreboding sense of mystery. If we were to do this production again I think including more low key lighting would have been a good improvement to make.

DID YOU PURPOSEFULLY CHALLENGE ANY CONVENTIONS? WHY?

We purposefully broke the convention of using contrapuntal sound. It is normally used it contradict what is taking place on screen to confuse the audience, however our audience said they wanted to hear parallel sound like the breaking of a twig. We used this as we believed it would increase realism and make the experience for the audience visceral.

We also decided to break the convention of using any voiceovers or dialogue to create a more remote atmosphere for our protagonist and for the audience.

LOOK BACK AT YOUR THEORETICAL RESEARCH AND APPLY TO YOUR PRODUCTION.

We applied ‘genre theory’ to our production. This is because we believed it was vital to include ‘repetition and difference’ as without this we would not be able to attract a large audience. We believed that it was very important that we included conventions as it allows the audience to relate to other films and hence simplify what was happening so that they could understand. We also believed that it was important to include difference as this is what attracts and entertains the audiences and keeps them engaged. The audience like to observe how the conventions of films are manipulated and the way in which this changes their expectations.

Repetition was included. We included difference by challenging other conventions such as

the contrapuntal sound. We also had a USP which was seeing the characters drown; this is

unusual to be seen in a psychological horror film. We did not reveal whether it was the protagonist’s mental illness or

an evil supernatural threat that killed her friends as we believed that this would engage our audience more and encourage them to keep watching. It also leaves a sequel option open.

COMPARE YOUR PRODUCTION WITH A SIMILAR PRODUCTION – WHERE ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES?

Kill List is a 2011 British crime-thriller psychological horror film directed by Ben Wheatley, co-written and co-edited with Amy Jump, and starring Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley, and MyAnna Buring. The plot consists of a British soldier returning home from Kiev and he joins an old friend as contract killers. His disturbed past surfaces as he spins out of control during jobs and ominous employers raise the stakes.

Similarities include: “Apparition” is also a psychological horror film like “Kill List”. Both films are independently produced. Total Film rated the film 5/5 stars and said that as well as being a horror film it was "also a mystery movie”. “Apparition” also has a sense of mystery included as we never fully clarify whether the female protagonist is being haunted by her conscious or by an unknown supernatural threat.

Differences include: Although both films are produced by Warp Films, “Kill List” was also produced by “Rook Films”, “Film4 Productions”, “UK Film Council “ “WarpX” and “Screen Yorkshire”. Both films are distributed by different companies. “Apparition” is distributed by “StudiocanalUK” and “Kill List” is distributed by “Optimum Releasing” (UK) and

“IFC Midnight” (US). Another difference between these two films is the gender of the main protagonist, “Apparition” has a female protagonist and “Kill List” has a male protagonist.

MORE SIMILARITIES

The setting in both ’Apparition’ and ‘Kill List’ follow the stereotypical conventions of a psychological horror. Both characters look isolated and disorientated. The woodland area also creates realism for the audience as it is an everyday location.