Evaluation Question 1: In what was does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Setting & Location

In 8 of the 9 shots that i've taken from our film opening you can see a number of the different locations that we shot our film in. The first is an establishing shot of the supposedly 'haunted' house. The house is is located in the countryside, as an old farm house. It is currently uninhabited and although it's fairly modern inside, the exterior appears, as said, to look old and derelict. This lends itself to support the conventions of a supernatural horror movie that takes advantage of the archaic features of a landscape. In shot 2 we similarly use another exterior, establishing shot of the house to show the audience that our opening/the entirety of our film will be based on this particular house. Whilst it is usual for most supernatural horrors to set the film in an immemorial building such as The Woman in Black (which is set in a desolate, yet grand Victorian house, surrounded by marshes), there have been many modern supernatural horrors that use a modern building instead e.g. Insidious. However in reflection, the only reason for films such as The Woman in Black, using an old building as the main location for the film scenes is due to the historical context of the movie rather than in doing so to create more tension. It probably would have been an interesting idea to have filmed in a modern house so that the verisimilitude would have been enhanced but our choice to film in an old house is still an effective one since it is a convention of supernatural horrors to do so.

In some of the other shots you can see that the interior of the house is unfurnished which is unusual for many horror films and other genres aike since they use furnishings to create a realistic environment. I believe that in keeping the rooms bare it helps to create tension because the lack of features makes the building appear less like a 'friendly' home although be doing this we are subverting the conventions of a supernatural horror.

Costumes & Props

In shots 4-6 you can see one of the most fundamental props used in our film opening and that is the small doll. This doll, as said before, is over 100 years old which intensifies the tension in our opening because it is realistically old. Dolls have been used in many supernatural horrors since they connote innocence but also corrupted innocence because our interpretation has been distorted as a result of the number of horror films that have demonised the dolls e.g. Chucky. So in using a doll in our film opening we are conforming to the conventions of a supernatural horror movie.

As for costume, the medium close-up (shot 4) of Indya shows that she is wearing a black, smart dress. This connotes power and sophistication. The audience is therefore already given the reading that Indya is playing a character who works in an office job. The fact that we have immediately introduced the audience to a stock character in formal attire rather than someone in more casual clothing shows we a subverting the conventions of a horror movie because very few supernatural horrors introduce a character in such a way e.g. The Woman in Black shows 3 young girls (stock characters) wearing white dresses (of which connotes innocence, purity and vulnerability/fragility). However in The Ring the young girl wears smart clothing (probably school clothing), but the way in which blouse has been undone in an informal fashion and the fact that the skirt is quite short  shows she isn't dressed formally to appear as sophisticated as Indya's character does. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gIuCfnmPQg ) Furthermore shot 4 shows Indya wearing earrings and her appearance, including the way in which her hair is styled, is also very formal and sophisticated which further establishes an importance about her character although she is in fact a stock character, not entirely important. However the clothing choice does help to establish her character as an estate agent (office worker).

In shot 8 you can see that i'm wearing a white dress. This subverts the conventions of a supernatural horror since many films have the antagonist wearing black e.g. The Woman in Black and Insidious. The colour black has connotations of death, impurity, mystery, evil and power. It also connotes grief which can be used to indicate the plot of a film e.g. The Woman in Black mourns the death of her son and takes revenge on the children of other adults. On the other hand films such as The Grudge and The Ring have the antagonist wearing a white dress to suggest purity and innocence in the way a child is represented (suggesting the antagonist is a child) whilst showing that the innocence is lost because of the juxtaposition of this against the make-up and hair style of the character. For example, The Ring has the girl wearing very dark make-up and long black hair that covers her face sinisterly. In our opening my hair is bright in contrast with the environment but the make-up is dark around my eyes, with the hollows of my face accentuated, and then light around the rest of the face to create the effect that i am dead. We do conform however, to the conventions of supernatural horrors in the way that the antagonist is wearing a dress. The stereotypical female would usually wear a dress as dresses connote femininity, beauty, elegance and yet again, innocence. All of the supernatural horrors i have looked at depict a female antagonist in this way to clearly show that the antagonists are women and by using dark colours the power is enforced, giving the audience the reading that the antagonists are far more dangerous than their archetypal appearance as a fragile and weak female character.

Camera work & Editing

At the start of our opening we added slow motion to our shots to enhance the tension and intensity the audiences' fear. This is conventional of horror movies because it builds suspense. For example, towards the end of Insidious' opening you can see that the shots they have used have had the same technique applied to make the audience feel apprehensive. Shot 2 tilts upwards showing a medium shot of the side of the house whilst shot 4 pans to the right, revealing the doll. I think both editing techniques are effective in building tension through the way the shots are very slow and when coupled with the music, build suspense. Shot 6 tilts up slightly also, when tracking the doll as Indya picks it up. This creates the effect of continuous action and makes the audience/viewer feel more involved with the events of the film opening, as if they were in the scene themselves. Most shots vary in terms of whether they are close-ups, medium/ medium close-ups, or long shots but shot 8 is indefinitely an over-the-shoulder-shot which gives the viewer the perspective that they are in the scene with the 2 characters, thus intensifying the fear.

Typography / Titles

Shot 2 and 3 shows some of the text that we used in our film opening. I have already explored the fonts and sizes in previous posts. In shot 2 the text needed to have a shadow put behind it for the text to be seen above the shots where it would be lightest. Unfortunately this text is thus slightly different to the rest of the opening credits. Nevertheless we have tried to keep the text font, size etc. the same as possible to maintain continuity in our film. We chose to use white writing because it helps make the film more haunting and it is also conventional of many supernatural horrors to use white text. I am aware that many horrors might conventionally use red informal and 'messy-looking' typography to reflect the conventions of horror films of which there are connotations of blood. Insidious does this, for example. Our title in shot 9 fades in from black just as the music fades slowly in again. This creates a scarier atmosphere to our opening. The use of the formal, white typography makes the film look more professional and thus gives the film realism and credibility.

A convention of film openings is the credits. These usually include the production company, actors, director and most importantly, the title of the film. Our opening conforms to the conventional title sequence in the way we have an extensive list of credits that are conventional of film openings.

How does the opening set up the story?

In our opening we have a small preamble at the start as a way of introducing the audience to the general plot in which there is a type of spirit haunting a house where nearly 30 years ago a family of four were mysteriously killed. This is a technique that The Devil Inside uses to establish fear within the audience (911 call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDGxt1aiBJ8 ). The plot itself is quite conventional of supernatural horrors and so the audience is given the reading that this film will involve the murder of more individuals. In our opening is a close-up of a newspaper article we created, along with a document labelled 'Moors Estate Agents' which helps to establish to the audience that Indya (who is then immediately seen in a medium shot looking down at the papers) is an estate agent looking at the house. Thus the story is set up this way. Finally as Indya's character makes her way into the room with the antagonist in, the audience is then given the understanding that the story is based around this ghostly young girl/woman.

How does the opening suggest the genre?

I have already explored many aspects of our opening that have meant our film opening either subscribes or subverts the conventions of a supernatural horror movie. Many of these aspects include costume, location, props and also special effects (filters).

How are the characters introduced?

Between shot 3 and 4 is a shot showing a newspaper article and document made by the group. Following this is a medium shot of Indya which pans to the left revealing her character for the first time to the audience. It is then in shot 4 that we first see the doll. Even though it is not a character, the doll is substantially important to note down in the introduction of characters, since leading on from the sighting of the doll, Indya's character instigates the introduction between the antagonist and the audience e.g. the camera tracks Indya's movements towards the door where we are then introduced to the antagonist in shot 8 (over-the-shoulder-shot).

Conventionally the characters introduced into a film opening are the protagonists however there have also been films to have introduced the audience to stock characters just as we do in our film opening. So just as we may be challenging the conventions of a film opening we are also subscribing to them.

Are there any special effects?

The only special effects that might be considered to be effects are the filters that we used in our opening. We experimented a lot with the intensity of our filters and whether we wanted them to be darker or lighter for certain shots. Many of the outside, establishing shot have had a darker filter applied to them whilst the inside of the house has a much lighter filter because the lighting was particularly dark in the house (which made lightening the shots a necessity). The use of the filter helps to create a more ominous mood/atmosphere and intensifies the tension in our film opening. The fact we use one also subscribes to the conventions of supernatural horror movies since many use one to create the right atmosphere e.g. Insidious uses a subtle blue filter. Without the filters i don't think our opening would be as effective as it is now in its completion.

I used the Apple Macs to edit the pictures together but to do this i had to use Photoshop- as seen above.