Question One: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products?

My film is an amalgamation of two different genres; horror and drama. Though horror is the clearly the more predominant of the two genres within my two minute clip. With this in mind, my film uses principally the conventions found in a horror film.

Conventions Used

One of the conventions used is the manipulation of colour. In my film I darkened the colour of my footage to create an obscure, nightmarish ambiance about the film. This in tern intensified the frightening feeling one would expect from watching a horror movie. I have also used an eerie soundtrack to accompany the movie, which helps to build tension whilst reinforcing the creepy nature of the occurrence on screen. For the movie I also adopted the Paranormal Activity philosophy of achieving scares; by adding loud noises. I did this via boosting the volume of the music unexpectedly at pivotal points in my film. Like many horror movies I have used blood/gore to effect. I have used blood create an element of realism about the death of a character, this as blood is a key way in which to display realistically a violent and gory element in a film. It is rare to find a horror film which does not feature any blood. In reference to my textual analysis on This Is England, I have also used inanimate objects to develop the personality of my character, this was done by the inclusion of the board games and swimming certificates scattered around the bedroom. This is done in much other drama’s to give the audience an incline of not only the age and gender of the characters in the film but the social class of the characters.

Developed and Challenged

I have also developed the role of children in horror films. For example in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Danny an eight year old boy is used merely to play upon the symbolic disposition of the child, as they are usually a symbol of both innocence and vulnerability. In my film I develop upon this as my young protagonist is also used as a symbol of innocence and vulnerability, though asserts himself as fearless. I have also developed upon the role of the child in a horror movie via casting a child as the protagonist, and in doing so I have challenged the genre convention as children are usually cast as throw-away character, the causation of the horror or minor characters. One of the few films to challenge this convention is The Sixth Sense, though the child character within this film has a very low level of subsistence. This differs from the young protagonist in my film as he is essentially alone throughout the movie, making him a fairly strong and almost unique horror character.

I have also combined two genres when making my movie - so therefore this challenges the conventions which make up a horror/drama film. This is shown via the use of the construction of the character in the first two minutes, this is very rare in a horror as the characters that usually feature are throw-away characters and has no character development, this can be seen in conventional slasher movies such as Scream ect. My film also tries to create a sense of morale, unlike many other horror films which only serve the purpose of entertaining and scaring their audiences. The film also challenges conventions of the drama genre, this is via the use of a science-fiction element (the flashforward), this is as drama's usually try and keep within the realms of realism.