EVALUATION - Question 1

Storyboard for my opening sequence of Hostility:

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

There were many parts in our opening sequence of hostility which used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of real media products. To follow the general conventions of a typical horror film we decided to use black and white colouring throughout the whole of the opening sequence. This gave off a scary looking feel to the atmosphere of the scene which in turn created tension which we hoped would grab the audience attention. The black and white affect meant that we could film at any time of the day which worked at an advantage for our group as we could film at a time that would be both suitable for all of our cast. We also used the sin city affect for our colouring which would also draw the audience in to identify a dead body. For the sin city affect we used a black and white background and made the blood on the body stand out by colouring the body in bright red.

Picture below shows the sin city affect in our film compared with another film:

We decided to challenge the general forms and conventions in a horror by using a male protagonist instead of a female protagonist. In a usual horror you would have a female protagonist who gets attacked or chased which shows the weakness of the character in scenes. We decided to use a male protagonist which is less common compared to a female protagonist. We used a high angle shot at the beginning of the clip to show the weakness of the character and to identify this person as the protagonist.

As a group we decided that we would follow the conventions and forms of a general horror when it came to music. The music was used as the main feature in our opening sequence to make this opening sequence as scary as possible. The editor for our opening sequence made sure that the music and the footage was timed and in correlation with the next scene, e.g. if a new title appeared or if our actor went round a corner. Towards the end of the clip the main soundtrack changes to a more fierce and screechy track to show the protagonist laying on the floor showing suspense over how he died.

The location/setting of our opening sequence was in a typical type of horror location which was developed to follow the genre of our choice. The location was an empty looking road where the character was uncomfortably looking behind him which created suspense for the audience where something dramatic could happen. It was also set in a forest looking setting with trees and bushes which would be very common in a horror. When our antagonist was running through the forest we used diagetic/ambient sound to hear the rustling of the leaves when our antagonist was running through the forest with heavy breathing to establish his character. Our non-diagetic sound/soundtrack was used throughout most of our clip as we felt this would have been the most important sound to use for our opening sequence.

In relevance to all the camera work that was produced, as the cinematographer I believe that the camera shots and movements were executed very well with a variety of shots. At the beginning of the clip we used a high angle shot to show the protagonist walking down a less busy road, this followed the usual conventions of a horror this shot showed the weakness of the character identifying him as the protagonist. We followed the conventions of a typical horror by using a P.O.V (point of view) shot for the antagonist showing him looking for his victim. The point of view shot is also used for the protagonist looking around with fear, which would usually be used in a horror so the audience can feel tension and be put in his position to show his fear. The P.O.V shot is a classic shot in typical horror films and complemented well with the making of our opening sequence. I do feel as the cinematographer that my shots could have been professional looking but I did feel that there was a variety of well grafted shots which made the opening sequence as scary as possible.

We decided to challenge the usual forms and conventions of horror by disguising the death of the protagonist. At the end of the clip we used a feet shot of the antagonist walking over both dead bodies to give off a suspense effect to the audience to how the protagonist died. This would be uncommon compared to famous horror films like “scream”, “Freddie vs. Jason” and “jeepers creepers”.

In terms of editing, I helped with our logo for our film. Firstly, I helped with the special affects which was used on the text and filters of our logo (MTJ productions), for example I applied an earthquake effect on the logo and text at the beginning of the opening sequence via the video transitions/distort and adjusted the settings. This added a distorted theme to the sequence which has previously been done in horror movies; this effect is used to disorientate the audience’s expectancy of the film.

When it came to the titles our opening sequence it followed the conventions of a typical horror film with a black background with the titles appearing throughout the first few minutes. Our title colours and fonts were consistent throughout the opening sequence. The job description e.g. “Filmed by” for the group member/cast remained in a white colour and very readable font with no movement on the screen. This can be compared to the group member/cast name which was in a red font and used as the same font as the job description name, however this title shook in the same manner as the logo giving off special effects.

Description of the two pictures above:

The two pictures above represent differences and similarities in the clothing of the characters. The picture on the right is “the killer” from the movie “Scream” and the picture on the left is the antagonist from my opening sequence of Hostility. The clothing of “the killer” is very dark cape with black gloves and black boots with a ghost mask and a knife in the killer’s right hand. The description of the characters clothing identifies him as the main antagonist in the film. There are some differences and similarities with my characters clothing description which would usually be in real media products. My character has dark clothing, a mask and boots which are the main similarities, however the main differences are that “the killer” has gloves on and a knife in hand compared to my antagonist who didn’t have any gloves or any prop of any kind in his hand.

In relation to the title our opening sequence we decided that we would follow the conventions of a typical horror name and call our opening sequence “Hostility”. This is a spooky name which identifies that this film would be in the horror genre. The title of this film we hope will draw the audience in and the name doesn’t really give away what’s going to happen in the film. We decided on this name as a group as we feel that this title goes in well with our opening sequence.