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

2. Horror Conventions Horror films have many obvious conventions, some we have linked to our own film in more detail than others and also put our own stamp on it to make it unique. Tension through sound is one main element you would link to a horror as you get enthralled into the scene and can feel the suspense coming which causes people to get scared and jumpy when watching them as in faster scenes the sounds get louder but the quieter scenes have more of a chilling effect to them as they set out to shock the audience without them expecting it.Also throughout our filming we used Orphan for inspiration because we believed it tells a really in depth story and links to a physiological horror convention and because it’s quite unique we thought it would be alot more interesting.

3. Genetic Conventions – Voices In our opening sequence we have thought about these elements in many of the scenes through the power of sound instead of action, the first element we use is at the beginning of the scene when there is a small child speaking in quite a angelic and slow way which is why its more thrilling than speaking it at a faster pace because it just wouldn’t have the overall horror effect. The reason we have used this sound effect for the beginning of our film is because I think it immediately draws the audience into what’s happening because of the chilling voice of the girl so would grip them suddenly to focus on the sequence. This type of sound has been used in other horror films throughout the years but ours is unique and is developed because normally you would expect a horror film to begin dark and deserted but ours is the complete opposite showing a bright sunny setting with characters in which makes it a lot more unusual and doesn’t signify main elements of a traditional horror film.

4. Genetic Conventions - Flashback When this sound has finished and has showed our main character sat in a park setting writing in a diary there is then a close up on her face showing it going into a flashback but again adds suspense because it includes background noises of crows which are significant to a horror film as they are deadly and symbolic to the convention. We decided to use this instead of average bird sounds as they wouldn’t fit the horror convention and wouldn’t link into our sequence at all.

5. Genetic Conventions – “last girl” In many horror films around today and that have been created over the years they all tend to include a vulnerable victim and we decided to keep to the pattern and include one in ours because its again linked traditionally to the horror convention, theorist Laura Mulvey says that young males are quite prepared to identify with the female in jeopardy as they are normally quite obvious to find in a film as they are normally the “last girl” standing and a key component of a horror narrative. I agree with this theory because its very traditional and what many people do expect to be in a horror sequence, the most famous film that exists today that I would link to this theory is probably scream because the girl character always lasts till the end of the film because of her tactile approach to the situation, although she seems vulnerable and weak the strength is brought out in her survival skills.

6. Genetic Conventions - Scream The traditional scream of fear is also used by the girl throughout the film to show she still has a vulnerable side to her and is actually scared encase she gets caught by the attacker and when this is heard you instantly focus harder on the scenario and get immersed into the storyline. Taking all of this on board our main character does use these elements throughout the sequence but we also got some of our inspiration from the film Orphan as the character Esther in that film seems very childlike and angelic but really she is very weak so has a split personality so this is the type of thing we wanted our character to have so we challenged the normal “last girl” theory by making her look like a sweet young girl who immediately you wouldn’t link to a horror film and then throughout the beginning sequence you see her getting stronger and stronger as she escapes from the “killer” but she does experience parts of weakness as he is attacking her which is expected but then will power takes over to then become dominant female.

7. Genetic Convention – Running Scenes She then takes part in a running scene which is her getting away from the “killer” of the film and this really tackles the suspense of a horror film as viewers then tend to wonder whether the victim is going to get caught or survive so is a vital point to the convention as you expect it in many films as it is the most suspense created throughout the full film, we turned these scenes to black and white to add the traditional dark and chilling vibe but challenged it from a stereotypical film because we have started it with colour then suddenly changed to black and white to indicate a flashback which shows we have developed it to our own and not followed the trend of existing films. Linking back to the main running scene our sequence uses props in this to add more tension as you wonder whether she is going to get it off in time so she can run faster and get away, this is conventional and by using rope it is simple but effective as although it is very thin there was a lot of it which could get tangled up, although rope may not be the main thing existing films as we have challenged the original convention they do use a range of different obstacles to stop the girls getting away for example the chilling horror Orphan I spoke about previously includes a scene were the foster mum and tries to kill Ester as she suspects something is wrong with her but it doesn’t go as easy as she expected because ester fights back but at the end she does come out on top through alot of struggle.

8. Genetic Conventions – Villain The killer (villain) has to be included in horror films to link closely with the convention because he or she are the main elements of the terror and suspense created throughout the sequence. To me the best known serial killer would be Freddie Kruger in “Nightmare On Elm Street” because he is very distinctive and well remembered for that role because of the “claw hand” he uses to attack each victim in their dreams as they have no one to defend them but with our sequence we challenged the usual stereotypical killer by making ours look more genuine and someone who would fit in with any other character in the sequence as we wanted it to be more of a surprise when the viewers do realise who he is as at first you only see him tieing the victim up and even when there is a close up on he’s face you still see the truth and believability in he’s expression whereas further on in the scene you can see he’s evil side come out when you see him taking photos of the victim struggling to breathe attached to the chair and he gives out a dark chuckle which immediately indicates he is the villain of the sequence.

9. Genetic Conventions – Mise En Scene However we also challenged the mise en scene of the horror convention costume wise because our killer is wearing everyday clothing, which puts more of a modern stamp on the convention whereas previous horror films include the killers wearing dark clothing and sometimes capes and masks to hide their identity which links to the film scream as he’s identity is never found but he is always successful in committing murders throughout each of the films but because the storyline of our film includes various male characters that are linked to the murder of our main character we need to show clearly their identity so viewers can have the chance to guess throughout the film who has committed this horrifying crime which I think shows we have used our own ideas to develop and challenge the traditional horror convention.