Evaluation - Question 1

In this blog post I will be exploring the ways in which my media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products. 

When previously analysing professional productions we researched some of the common forms and conventions of the opening of a horror film. This helped us when planning our own opening as we were able to have a clear idea of what our piece needed to contain in order to look professional and have a convincingly scary feel to it. 

Music - 

The most common convention of a horror film opening is to have scary and creepy background music. We followed this as we thought it worked effectively in the films we researched and so felt that it would enhance the overall opening sequence. In our analysis of 'The Woman in Black' we noticed that the background music built up slowly. This lead us to experiment with the use of fade in and fade out of music at the beginning and ending of our opening. 

Introducing Characters - 

Another convention that we noticed in 'The Woman in Black' was showing the character from behind but not revealing them. The intention of this is to make the audience intrigued and make them want to continue watching to find out more about the character. We had lots of shots that contained the main character from the back but we decided not to show her face as it creates more mystery and suspense. However, we did decide to show the face of the victim as it shows they are more vulnerable. This is similar to 'The Woman in Black' where the faces of the three children (the victims) are shown throughout.

Colours - 

A convention that was present in all three of the openings I analysed was the use of dark colours. The fact that this is used in all three of the film openings suggested that it is effective and creates a convincing atmosphere. Initially our footage was quite light and bright, this contradicted the atmosphere we were trying to portray. This meant during our editing process we tried out different methods of making the footage darker. Once we had applied effects to make our footage darker, the overall effect of it was more convincing and had a scarier atmosphere about it.

We also developed the use of dark colours by adding black and white filters to the beginning few shots and end shot of our opening. This was a convention that used to be used in horror films but is not used as widely in present day. We chose to use this to represent that there was a significant amount of time between the two scenes. 

Sound - 

From my analysis of 'Lights Out' I noticed that the dietetic sound of footsteps was used at the beginning to add emphasis to the fact that the warehouse was large and empty. We used this idea at the beginning of our opening sequence to create the same effect. Our main character Evangeline was running under a bridge and the sound of her footsteps on the wet ground made an echoing sound. This created the sense of isolation which is typically associated with fear and abandonment; one of our key themes in the movie. 

Clip from our film opening 'Evangeline'

Clip from 'Lights Out' 

Editing - 

Our editing challenged to typical conventions of a horror film. We used the 'dip to black' effect between each of our clips in order to slow the pace of the opening down. However, in all three of the films I analysed they used straight cuts to transition between shots. This created a faster pace and made the audience feel more worried and tense. 

We also challenged the conventions of the three films I analysed by having our credits and title run over the top of our footage. Although this is not always the case, the three films I analysed did not have credits during the opening of the film. We chose to add our credits at the beginning because many people leave the cinema or turn off the DVD as soon as the film is over meaning the people who worked on the film don't get the recognition for their hard work. 

Setting - 

The setting of our film, the woods, is stereotypically seen as a scary place. Although none of the films I deconstructed were set in a wood, the setting still uses a typical convention of horror films. 

Font Types - 

The font we chose to use as our credits and titles was Adobe Carlson Pro in italic. We chose this because it was smart and professional looking but also had a creepy and horror feel to it. After researching fonts and typefaces we recognised that many horror fonts used serifs. We decided to use this convention because it was simple but effective and created the professional look we wanted. 

Camera Angles - 

Some of the camera shots and angles we used in our opening scene were; pan, tracking, point of view and tilt. We used a pan in conjunction with a POV shot to show the surroundings of the character. This is a typical convention of horror films as it allows the audience to feel like a part of the film and feel the fear of the victim.