Evaluation Question 1

SCRIPT

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

For research I have watched some film introductions such as Blade and Scream in order to get an idea of what I needed to incorporate in my film in terms of the micro elements and macro elements. However to be more specific to our film sub-genre I watched films such as Insidious and Paranormal Activity which are part of the Paranormal horror sub-genre. This helped to benefit our film as we could use similar camera angle shots as well as sounds which help to create suspense and add a sense of horror.

 The main evaluation of research was shown through textual analysis. Here I assessed how camera angles and movement, editing, sound and mise en scene helped to create a sense of horror to the audience.  I have also done research on credits, looking at the Zombieland opening credits gave me ideas for credits we could use in our opening – they were 3D and gave off shadows meaning they stood out and could be fashioned in ways to create a sense of horror. Also I researched the genre by looking through the history of horror genres and how they have changed over the years and what people are frightened by now. What seemed to be the current fear was the fear of the unknown and not knowing exactly what was happening or what the antagonist is.

 We applied ways of creating suspense such as non diagetic sounds building to a climax as seen in Blade during the club scene. Our sound was researched on sites such as Purple Planet Music and Free Sound Effects. These effects were then used for noises such as the swish of the antagonist when in the elevator and also the opening.  We also used camera angles to show horror, for instance when the elevator moved down the camera is looking down on our victim almost foreshadowing his fate and that someone is watching him. This can also be seen in Scream as the killer is looking at the victim and the camera shows this Point of View shot. 

 We successfully applied all of this research and other groups gave successful feedback on how well we had applied research and evaluation to our main brief in order to give us an understanding on where we applied research well or where we slipped up and need improvements. However on the whole we were successful in creating a horror opening that met the requirements of our sub-genre. Our micro elements especially the sound was a key role in creating horror. For example we managed to build up this sound and suspense with our victim listening to his music and when the kill gets closer the music gets louder and picks up its tempo. This music was non diagetic much like the music in Blade.