Evaluation In which ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. The common codes and conventions used in my media product are an easy recognisable plot as the main character, Charley, is being haunted by a little girl called Victoria. There are also themes in horror films such as death and supernatural elements, we used these for Victoria as she is a ghost. We chose to use an isolated house as an icon of a horror so the audience felt frightened yet excited. Within the codes and conventions there are icons of a horror. These are symbols of death and screaming victim. We chose to use an isolated house as an icon of a horror. In our production the use of a protagonist and antagonist is included as we found that was the most typical horror film roll. Our protagonist is a blond girl where as our antagonist is a little girl. In our questionnaire we found that our audience preferred a little girl to a little boy because it portrayed a sense of twisted innocence. When the protagonist and antagonist are together this creates a binary opposite which illustrates good versus evil we used this idea when these two characters where together in the bathroom. We wanted to create a scary horror film opening so we chose to create supernatural horror as we believed it was the spookiest. We used low lighting in the bathroom and bedroom to show it was night time. This may have triggered some of the audience to feel their fear of the dark and the fear of the unknown. We tried to use as many different camera shots as we could to create suspense. Sound in our production starts with soft piano music and then when the signs of Victoria occur then it starts to build up and becomes extremely tense. When Victoria is seen on shot there is a sudden bang noise to make the audience jump. We decided to use develop the idea of just an 18 year old protagonist as we do not know her history or life at home. We believed this would appeal to our target audience. We chose to develop the idea of the antagonist convention as being a young blond girl ghost. We believed she would be a better choice between a younger girl or boy. Our decision to include a young girl was so we could dress her in a nightgown which is similar to old fashioned style, Victoria came from the olden times therefore is dressed in old clothes. We also believed we could make her hair messier is it is longer. When the protagonist and antagonist are together in the bathroom it creates a fear that something is going to happen, we then chose to develop this to Charley trying to get out of the bathroom but the audience cannot see what is happening until she runs out with scratches and bruises on her back. We chose to only use camera shots outside of the bathroom when the two characters are in there as it makes the audience think of the worst to happen, then when Charley runs out of the bathroom the audience can feel relaxed but Victoria is soon following Charley down the stairs. This makes the audience on the edge of their seat as they are not to know what happens after that moment. We decided to use supernatural element to our horror production as it showed just a normal girl house sitting but finds herself getting haunted Victoria. This idea was aimed to enhance the audience’s fear of the unthinkable happening, the dead coming back alive. We chose to use the convention of a doll as the prop that awakens Victoria from her grave as many people have fears of dolls. Our media product is not typically conventional as we used young characters whereas usually in real media products they use adults to show their wisdom and experience or protection of their family can lead to their death, this can be shown in paranormal activity. We decided to challenge the traditional conventions of a horror film. Our location was a house that had recently been lived in because Charley Ballow was house sitting. This contradicts the idea of the typical haunted house setting and creates a feel that the situation could happen to anyone even in a normal house. There are certain aspects of our production that challenge the norm in the media industry today. The typical antagonists is a sexually repressed male who is evil but we chose to use a young girl. There
are horror films that have child antagonists, for instance, The Ring and The Exorcist. We chose to include a protagonist that is an 18 year-old as it meant she is innocent. In the typical horror film, protagonists are usually presented as virginal. There are many themes running through our horror films that are similar to the norm, for instance, nightmares, vulnerability and terror of the unknown. We did not use loss of identity or fear of sexuality as it did not fit into our plot.