1. Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Laurel Parfitt 9241

2. Conventional supernatural horror plots:
 A family or person moves into a house where the previous residence have been murdered by something else
living there. E.g. Amityville Horrors (Andrew Douglas, 2005)
 Something has happened to a person and a spirit posses/haunts them. E.g. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi, 2009)
 A character is one the audience is led into believing are safe but suddenly they actually become evil. E.g.
Paranormal Activity (Oran Peli, 2007)
 The discovery of the spirits past: this involves the protagonist exploring their house and finding clues that further
inform them of the life the spirit once had, why they are being haunted and what they can do to solve it.
Plot
The plot we followed in ours is the first one, the house
that Hannah lives in is cursed and every time someone
moves in their, they get possessed by the spirit after
finding the music box. However, in the full movie the
spirits past is discovered by the protagonist- Bridget,
which is also conventional of supernatural horror.
The spirit is possessing the
girl in both ‘drag me to hell’
and our piece

3. Mise-en-scene
Costumes
It is conventional in supernatural horror to have simplicity and everyday clothing. So
therefore we dressed Hannah in jeans and a white top and nothing revealing. Her makeup
was natural, and the colours she wore were neural blending into the background of the
piece.
Props
Supernatural horror has less blood than other horror sub genres, for example Slasher
horror. However we have opposed this convention, and instead used a lot of blood in the
opening. Also, everyday objects, framed family photos, dolls, toys and rocking chairs are
also very conventional props in supernatural horror however we didn‟t use any of these.
Instead, we created our own props, which were paper cranes. This was the unique aspect of
our horror opening, the iconography is depicted by the paper cranes because they
symbolise all the people that this spirit had possessed and killed.
Lighting
In supernatural horror, candles re often used to create lighting because they give a
flickering effect, however we didn‟t use candles but we did have a few shots where the
lights were flickering as Hannah entered the room. Also, we used a large lamp to create lots
of sharp shadows and silhouettes which portrayed darkness. The low key lighting of our
piece connotes darkness and the outside shots are unsettling because of the gloom.
Location
Supernatural horror are conventionally set in the home of the protagonist because it allows
the audience to relate, and scare themselves even when the film has finished. Therefore, we
did just this and set the opening in the home of Hannah which is later to be the home of
Bridget. Other conventional supernatural horror locations are churches, relating to Christ
and also woodland areas, where the spirit is seen lurking behind trees in the darkness.

4. Mise-en-scene DECONSTRUCT A
FRAMEWhite top- her clothing is
simple, but a effective
The blood challenges the
conventions of Supernatural
horror
The lighting has created a
dull effect which has created
lots shadows
Her collar bone and boney
hands imply she is not herself

5. Sound
We used non-diegetic sound, such as fast pace orchestral
music to build up the tension, when the title appears we used
the sound of violins as it writes across the screen. It is
conventional to have recurring sounds that the audience
associate with the antagonist and protagonist. We used a loud
noise whenever the antagonist appeared, which repeated a few
times to scare the audience and make them jump. We also had
the sounds of a music box to bring back childhood memories
and create a spooky atmosphere, this is called contrapuntal
sound (sound that doesn‟t match the scene). It is used to
create a juxtaposition of sound and image, the sweet sound (of
the music box doesn‟t match the horror of the spirit but instead
creates an enigma.
Conventional supernatural sounds we did
not use were creaking of doors and
floorboards. We also said in our plan that
we were going to use asynchronous sounds
of whispering, as if the spirits were
whispering, like in Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper,
1982) however we didn‟t end up using this
idea, although it would have created
another dimension to our sound.

6. Editing
At the start we used long takes and few cuts to create tension.
When the action sped up the cutting rate also sped up, creating
a fast rhythmic pace. This meant we had to keep continuity
perfect.
We had to be careful to keep continuity
perfect, and this was very difficult with all
our props, like the cranes. A key example
of perfect continuity was when Hannah
put the book down on the bed, the shot
showed her perfectly playing it down.
hted

7. Colour/ Typography
Colour
In supernatural horror it is typical to have a colour wash over
the clips, therefore we used an effect on all our work and took
out some of the brighter colours to reinforce the dull
atmosphere. To make it our own, we used after effects to
blacken out Hannah‟s eyes which portrayed her as being
possessed.
Typography
The text in supernatural horror is often red to connote blood
and death, so we used a dark brown red which implies just this.
Also our title is very bold and obvious, to allow the audience to
see the name and understand what the opening and film is
going to be about. The title is written by itself, reinforcing the
idea of the supernatural.

8. Title order
1
2
4
3
8
7
6
5
We ordered the titles, with the distributor
first followed by the actors, then the
producers, the film editor and finally the
director because the director is seen as
the most important. Finally we had the
title of the film come up „Possessed‟
across the screen and the opening
continued. We put the tile in the middle of
the opening so that it didn‟t look like a
trailer.

9. Camera
Birds eye shots for the establishing shot are quite often
used in supernatural horror, however we challenged
this convention by having an establishing shot placing
you with the character Hannah in her home, so she was
more relatable. Also handheld camera shots are quite
often used, which we used in the shots when Hannah
saw the spirit twice in the room suddenly. Shaky camera
work is sometimes used to show the fear of the
characters, however we kept most of our shots quite
still so that when the cutting rate sped up, it would build
tension.
One of our shots was inspired by Donnie
Darko. The shot when he gets out of the bus
and it turns from the side to straight. The shot
creates a sense of unease and make the
viewers feel on edge, that was our aim with
our shot.

10. Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

11. Social Groups
Characters
 Hannah is a young, white, American, middle class girl, which could be seen as stereotypical as she is
vulnerable, and weak and ends up killing herself.
 The spirit is a women which isn‟t stereotypical, because she is the killer and possessor – this was inspired by
The Women in Black (James Watkins, 2012), as the spirits past experiences have led her to become this evil
creature.
 The main protagonist, Bridget, is a young, white, British, middle-class girl who destroys the possessor by the
end of the film.
All the characters are white middle class, teenagers,
this is because it‟s aimed at young adult marker,
who are more attracted to own age group. There are
no black, ethnic, minority groups and no males in
our opening. If we made the rest of the film, males
would appear but we have no males as main
characters. This reflects the film as non-patriarchal
because males aren‟t dominant.

12. Representations
 Hannah is represented negatively because she is
easily led to be possessed, she shows no bravery or
ability to fight for herself, this therefore reinforces
the residual ideology that women are weak. In The
Blair Witch Project (Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel
Myrick 1999) the lead character is a women who
ends up being taken by the witch, and throughout
the film becomes weaker and weaker.
 The ghost is represented negatively because she is a
killer, but at the same time she is a women and has the
ability to be strong and powerful which isn‟t stereotypical.
This is a regressive ideology because there is a strong
female in the lead. If all the women in our opening died
then the film wouldn‟t survive in this modern day.
 However the main protagonist from the rest of the film
beats the evil spirit. The binary opposition challenged the
residual ideology that women are weak. A male doesn‟t
have to come and save the day, Bridget fights for herself
portraying a strong woman.
For example, in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) the
lead women get‟s away from her mad husband with her
little boy, and she shows herself as independent.

13. Construction
Mise-en-scene
 The tear that falls from her cheek connotes her
vulnerability by non-verbal language
Sound
 When the music box is heard, it immediately brings the
audience back to a childhood noise, which could
compare her to a child or compare her actions to those
of a child because she is unable to control herself and
easily led.
 Throughout the opening the girl doesn‟t say a single
word which reinforces the residual ideology that women
are „seen and not heard‟ again like a child. The only time
we hear her make noise is when she is chocking which
implies she is vulnerable.
Camera
 The extreme close up shots we created show her
emotion and the fact she‟s being so possessed by this
monster
Editing
 The black eyes we edited on Aftereffects show that she
is possessed easily and therefore is a weak character.

14. Construction
The blackened out eyes
portray Hannah is possessed
The shot is a close-up
showing that she is
completely under the control
of this spirit

15. Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?

16. Online tools
The Internet (Google)- I used Google to search ideas, for example conventions of the genre and also other
title sequences, overall it was there to help me do research.
We live in the modern world with we media/ web 2.0, meaning that it gives audiences the ability to interact
with media content. “We” implies that the Internet is a participatory media, so it allows us to personalise
content, including media content. That‟s why the internet would help us promote our film opening to
audiences.
Prezi- I used Prezi to present ideas for our concept development, this meant I could visualize our finial
project and develop our ideas.
Survey Monkey- this allowed us to create a
survey and question people on our ideas, then
we got feedback for our final piece.
YouTube- We exported our finished production
onto YouTube so we could market it through
various forms of media such as social
networking. I personally used YouTube to
research title sequences to analyze and also
shots that inspired me from films to use in our
opening piece.
Facebook- YouTube enabled me to post our
horror opening on Facebook so that my friends
could view it, and some of them shared it so
their friends could view it.

17. Filming our work
When filming our work we used
 Alex‟s canon 60D camera for all the shots
because it creates clear shots that were perfect
for our piece and we could easily adjust
brightness and contrast
 A tripod to keep the shots as safe and still as
possible
The issues with the camera
 We had to use lots of lighting, like large lights to
brighten our set so that the shots weren‟t grainy.
It meant we could always edit the shots and make
them darker afterwards., to create a spooky effect.
 Also we had to board up one of the windows in
the garage, so that the camera couldn‟t be seen in
the shots.
Issues with lighting
 The only problem we faced with lighting was
keeping the continuity perfect, this meant we had to
keep checking the shots so that the lighting didn‟t
differ too much.

18. Aspects of editing
This here is the paint pallet that we
used to to change the colour of the
font to a red-brown to connote horror
and blood.
This is where we
changed the font,
we choose
‘suicide draft’
which we
downloaded from
a website, it is
long and slanted
and gives a
spooky effect to
our piece.
We placed the
text around the
sides so that
the action
wasn’t missed
Font and Text

19. Aspects of editing
Colour Grading
This is a key shot
where the colour
grading has been
used to create a
dark shot which is
very effective in
our piece, it
creates a sense of
suspense because
Hannah is walking
through the dark
towards her fate.
The contrast and brightness was
also pulled down a little bit,
portraying the conventions of
dark, scary horror movies
We pulled the
saturation down
a lot to remove
some of the
colour, and
create a dull
effect

20. Aspects of editing
Sound editing
- diegetic = cutting
of the throat and
chocking
-jump sound when
the spirit appeared
We added sound
to create tension:
- non-diegetic
background
ambient sound
was constant all
the way through
- the music box
In this shot where Hannah is shown slicing
her neck, a sound effect was used for the
slice. This was used to create verisimilitude,
as if she had actually sliced her neck