In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We chose to compare our horror opening title sequence to three well known and popular horror films which follow the slasher/paranormal genre. The three films we chose was Saw (2004) (Film) Sinister (2012) (Film) and Paranormal activity (2007) (Film). We took ideas from all three films to try and make our film as appealing and successful as possible and also so it will link in with our set genre.
What we incorporated from the three films we looked at.
From the three films we looked closely at different camera shots they use to create the true horror effect. One of the key shots we thought was worth copying was the mid shot of the killer/spirit which is conveyed in Paranormal activity (2007). Paranormal activity uses very similar shots throughout the sequence where the killer/spirit appears. These shots consist mainly of midshots which show clearly the killer/victim and also the setting he is in. We thought this would be effective in our film as we needed to see that our killer was in a school, so through using a mid shot we could clearly see the killer stood in the door and the school background behind him.
OUR FILM PARANORML ACTIVITY
OUR FILM PARANORML ACTIVITY
We also chose to look at the film sinister (2012) as this was very similar to the genre we chose. In Sinister there is a constant use of low key lighting which makes the shot look dark and gloomy and creates the real horror fear effect. We found this effective when having a shot with the killer in as the darkness makes him look more evil and sinister. This appears in the film sinister (2012) when the character is outside looking at the figure in the bushes.The time of day was night which means the shot was already dark but through ways of editing the shots darkness was increased so the shot was extremely dark which creates as said earlier a scary gloomy effect to the sequence. It is also effective as not a lot is visible through the darkness which creates suspense as the audience are anticipating something to jump out. We incorporated this into our horror by decreasing the brightness in the scene where the killer (The caretaker, played by Nathan Evans) has made his appearance in the door way. The brightness was decreased so that the killers face was not visible to the camera which creates a more horror like effect as the audience is left wondering who is the killer and is he a spirit or in fact a psychopath.
OUR FILM SINISTER
OUR FILM SINISTER
The third and final film we looked at and based our opening title sequence around was the first saw film (2004). We looked closely at this one as we was looking to take notes/tips on how people are killed in slasher films and how the weapons are conveyed. From this we picked up on the re occurring close up shots on the killers weapon. The close up shots focused clearly on only the weapons making them center of attention. They also show precisely what the weapon is which creates a sense of shock and surprise in the audience as they are horrified by the weapons the killer has chosen to slaughter his victims with. This occurs in saw when we see a close up shot of the strapped together knifes piercing through the victims face. We chose to use close ups on the weapons in our opening title sequence as saw's genre is one of the genres our horror includes which means it was key that we somehow show the weapons on choice for the killer and we found the most effective way to show this was the close up shot. We zoomed in on 5 tools on the table which include mainly gardening tools and construction tools which through research we found out that these were the sort of tools a caretaker would use in his line of work. This makes it ever more shocking as we are now seeing his tools up close in which he is later going to be using them to butcher his victims
OUR FILM SAW
OUR FILM SAW
We challenged certain horror conventions throughout our opening title sequence. The most obvious thing we challenged was the sight of activity theory. This theory consists of the female role being killed first as there is usually suggestions she deserves it. This is usually down to her drinking and having sex under age (doing the things she shouldn't be) However we have challenged/gone against this typical horror theory as the first death in our film is the male character. Although the male character fits the same position as the female theory (drinking and having under age sex) we have decided to go against it to add a different approach to horror theories and to maybe create something new and different.