In my media product, I tried to use and develop lots of different conventions usually found in similar horror films, such as Resident Evil and DOOM. But as well as using conventions, my media product also challenges a few horror conventions, which is what hopefully makes my film different from other real horror media products.
In my media product, I tried to use and develop the convention of not actually seeing the attacker/predator/monster that was used in the famous horror movie, Jaws. This convention leaves the imagination of the audience to decide what it is and what it looks like, which can often cause them to create an even scarier image in their mind, increasing the fear caused each time it attacks. I developed this conventions by not only using first person attack scenes so the attacker couldn’t be seen but I also used a special media effect called ‘Blue Screen Key’ that allowed me to cover someone with a blue sheet and turn the sheet invisible. The invisibility isn’t perfect so it left a slight mystical figure, so I used a scene with that in so that the audience could tell that something was there.
Another convention I used was the use of darkness in my film. In media products, especially films/ TV programmes, darkness is used to symbolise, or even sometimes foreshadow, death and fear. By using this in a horror film, it not only makes it harder for the audience to identify everything, and increase the chance of something jumping out from the dark, but also instantly makes things seem more sinister. At the same time however, I also challenged this convention by filming in the daylight. Normally in media, the light is used as the opposite of dark. Light normally means hope and salvation, which is why if in a film, someone finds an exit from a cave or a creepy house, the exit always has light shining through. So by filming in the day light, but using a lot of darkness at the same time, my film shows the conflict between the light and the dark or even ‘Good vs. Evil’, such as my characters vs. the attacker. By doing this I hoped to increase the idea of my film having good and evil involved.
Another convention that I tried using in my film is the use of the ‘First Person Camera Angle’. This convention is not used very often, but can be extremely effective. The horror film DOOM produced a 3-4 minute first person scene towards the last battle in the film, and it creates a feeling a victory or even ‘ass kicking’, and gets the audience excited. However, the main reason for DOOM including this first person sequence was because it was based upon a first person shooter game that had been around since 1993. When filming this sequence they came across some problems such as the fact that the gun covered part of the screen much like they do in games, and covered up part of the action that was happening. So to get around this, they had the gun moving around, being lowered when not in use and raised when fired, as well as some scope zoom scenes. With my first person scenes, I also tried to make sure that nothing important was covered during the shot, as well as include realistic camera movements, as if it was actually first person of the character
Like almost every other film, I tried to give a quick basic idea on what the film was about in a short amount of time, allowing the audience to have some sort of idea on what the film is about. But I also leave some bits left for the audience to question, such as what the mission was, what attacked them, why they were there and why were they attacked. By doing this, its more likely to get the audience watching a bit further on into the film, if not all of the film (hopefully).
With the music for my film, I tried to make sure that I used eerie spooky music when nothing was exactly happening, but then when an attack was about to happen, I changed to a more pulse raising fast tempo panic music. If these scenes had been left with no music, they would seem boring and dull. The music can have a great deal of effect with certain scenes, sometimes it’s what makes the scene work. All films try to use appropriate music in different scenes, including horror films. Quite often, horror films use more orchestral music, which is what I tried to use in my media product as well. Somehow, using high strings and a deep percussion can easily create a spooky sounding track. Often, people find that the percussion represents the sound of a heart beating during the scene, often increasing in speed and volume.
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