Evaluation Q1:

Q1:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Conventions of real horror products:

Mise en scene

ICONOGRAPHY -  is the use of images and symbols to portray a subject, movement or idea. cons for horror movies may include young girls, haunted houses, and contrasting shadow and light in darkened places.
Bad guys often wear black to symbolize evil and leather jackets, often black, are worn by rebels or tough guys
REFERENCE: http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-iconography.html#HziHIttWQECs6SXA.99

MISE-EN-SCENE
SETTING

Horror movies often set movie scenes in isolate, abandoned dark settings, this is useful for making the audience feel alone and as if there is no one to call for help. It helps to the illusion that there is no one to save them and nowhere to hide or run. This was very effective in The Woman in Black, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and many other horror films.

 

The Woman in Black (Journey to the House)

For our task we decided that it was best to have two locations as we thought it would open the film up to more possibilities. Both although public, were empty. When watching our finished product we found that this was much more effective as there is much more focus on characters and it gives the illusion that there is no one else around to help them.

We also decided that it was best to film in outdoor locations as it was winter time and for the times we were available to film at, the atmosphere outside was dark and gloomy. This was perfect as darkness connotes evil, mystery and death. Darkness is very difficult to use to portray a positive meaning and we found that it did its job in our film opening.

Gif of park                                           gif of train station.

PROPS

We didn’t think of any specific props even though in most horror movies a very significant prop or motif is used. For example a ‘Chainsaw’ in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the ‘Knife’ in the famous shower scene from film ‘Psycho’, We wanted the protagonist to have its own power rather than it having to rely on a weapon or such. The girls however did have props, but only everyday items for example; a water bottle and two handbags (and the contents inside).

COSTUME AND MAKEUP

The girl’s costumes were all casual and modern clothing that girls of this generation wear. Their outfits were age appropriate, location based and weather appropriate. We thought it best to dress them in common modern day clothing as our audience can find it a bit easier to relate to them, ergo sympathizing with them. The clothing they wore; jeans (black or blue), trainers, tops and a coat as it are very cold.

The protagonist, Toby however was dressed in all black clothing (black trousers, black Hoodie, black coat, black scarf) and identity was hidden by black scarf covering face so no makeup was required.

LIGHTING AND COLOUR

For the majority of our film opening we thought it was best to have only natural light and low key lighting as many horror movies use the same. Low key lighting often alienates the viewer as the darkness may make them feel lost and out of place.

When filming at the park, shots were not as dark as we had hoped for in comparison to the shots from the train station so in order to make the shots darker, when editing we lowered brightness levels and increased contrast to give it a reddish tone with some tones of blue. Both are common tones not often used together but we thought that we used it effectively as it does make viewers feel uneasy.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND BODY LANGUAGE

In horror movies, for a majority of scenes actors play characters as scared after the villain is shown to the audience.

CAMERA

For our film opening, we used mostly midshots at eye level as we thought that it was very important for viewers to see characters facial expressions clearly and for them to be comfortable at eye level as it lets the viewer divulge in the scene easier. In addition we used a variety of shots including; Long shots, mid-long shot, close up shots, shot reverse shot, tracking shots, establishing shots, low angle shots and an extreme long shot.

Long shots are useful for displaying the whole scene and shows the figure and background in detail.