In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Forms and Conventions are the things or signifiers that a person expects
to see when they watch films or TV. These conventions help provide
anchorage of the genre but they are not genre specific. Many of the
conventions of horror are the same as comedy or sci-fi.
By looking at film opening from horror as well as other genres it is easy to
note down a few of the things that are common. Here are some of the
ones that I think are important general conventions:
- At the very beginning of the film are the idents. They are normally
accompanied by music. These don’t reflect the genre of the film
most times although some companies (such as Warner Brothers)
change the colour of their ident to fit with the film they are
producing.

- - Titles
appear after the idents before film in many older film but no they
are now they are more likely to be placed into the first few minutes
of opening, these then fade out which signifies the end of the
opening . What is common in the comedy genre is to have them
actually place into the shot by props for example in the film
‘Napoleon Dynamite’

- The opening shot- this is normally the extreme long shot/

establishing shot. This provides anchorage or the location and time
period but the film is still very much polysemic at this point.
 - There is always a whole load of shot variation in films especially
high budget cinema released films- these can include but are not
limited to jump cuts, fades, shot-reverse-shot.

- It is normal for the main character to be the first person shown in

the opening. This signifies that we are following their story and we
are either going to sympathise with them or hate them (usually we
sympathise).

- The mise-en-scene and the way the set designers dress the set play
very important part. We get a lot of the exposition from the setting
and everything has to fit with each other (in context) Verisimilitude
is something else to note, making sure nothing inside the world we
see on screen shouldn’t be there, this relates to the location and
time period. Having a film set in the 50s but have a band new Audi
wouldn’t be right.

- Music is played throughout the opening, both diegetic and non-

diegetic. Typically a soundtrack or just a few notes are played
through the first shots eg the establishing shot.

- The openings of many films follow Todorovs Theory of Narrative- by

showing the equilibrium then a brief part of the dis-equilibrium
(something that disrupts the equilibrium). After this has been shown
the opening is over, the audience have met their main character/s,
know they time period and have an idea of the setting and the
genre.

How our text compares to the general film conventions.

Convention Out Text

Idents- Having the appear right at Both the idents of our production
the start of the film accompanied by company and distribution appear at
music. the beginning of our film opening.
These aren’t as good as the ones
we looked at but that is expected as
we are amateurs and we don’t have
the same high tech equipment as
them.

Titles- Having them either appear Our titles appear within the first
before the opening or during. minute of the opening. We did this

Opening Shot- Normally extreme
long shot/ establishing.
Shot Variation.
Main Character- Protagonist/
Antagonist.
Mise-en-scene- Props
because we wanted to follow the
convention of what we saw when
watching other openings, which was
having the appear laid over the
opening. We chose to have them in
white writing so they stood out but
didn’t draw attention away from the
film.
The opening shot of our film is an
establishing shot of the salon we
used. This stays on screen for 3
seconds, we feel this is long enough
for the audience to understand this
is the setting. We didn’t want it to
be on screen for too long.
We feel we did have shot variation.
We had close up, extreme close
ups, jump cuts. We could have had
more shot variation but then again
so could most films.
The first character you see is
George-the male suspected killer-
we chose to have him seen first
because we want the audience to
follow the preferred reading and to
think he is the killer.
We used props for example we used
scissors to build up tension and to
imply a killing is going to take place.
We also tried to make sure we had
some interesting shots where some
objects were just into the shot to
draw the attention. We also wanted
to make sure our character wore
clothes that represented the time
period which is the current day. By
choosing to make the film in the
current day this made it easier for
us to use our location because we
didn’t need to change the design of
the salon. Just add in the things we

Sound- Soundtrack, Diegetic and
non-diegetic
Todorovs Theory of Equilibrium
Conventions of Horror Openings and how our text compares
The titles in horror are usually in a
red colour or they fade to red. Also
the font is ‘Serif ’. Although this is
more common with the traditional
horror films. They also normally
appear on a plain black background.
The setting is very important in
horror films. Usually the location is
somewhere isolated without many
people around. Places like woods or
lakes are commonly used because
they are deserted and not many
people live there. The setting helps
to create tension it also makes it
unlikely for the victim to get away.
Having a male killer is typical in
horror films. Having female victims
is also very common.
wanted such as changing the place
of the sofa.
We chose not to have a soundtrack
playing throughout the opening but
instead we went for instruments
and notes that will build up tension
and create the sound we wanted.
We followed Todorovs theory by
starting off with a normal day at a
typical salon in a middle class town.
We placed subtle signifiers into the
text to signify to the audience that
violence/ a killing was going to take
place. The dis-equilibruim is when
Katie (the salon owner) kills Colette
(the female client) we did this right
at the end of the opening as in most
films.
In our text we used a white coloured
font and had the titles laid over the
footage. We also used a sans serif
font because we thought it would
look better. We thought a serif font
wouldn’t really fit with our preferred
reading.
Our film isn’t a typical horror film in
this way. We used a salon on a busy
road in the centre of a town as our
location, partly because we wanted
the killing to come as a surprise and
shock our audience and also
because of our time and the
possible choices we had.
We decided to go for a female killer
to go against the typical stereotype.
We used low angle shot to signify

Hiding the killers face. Many films
such as ‘Halloween’ where the
killers face is hidden. This helps to
create suspense as well as making
it seem more realistic because the
audience can’t see the facial
features of the killer. It means that
it more scary for the audience
because in their minds the killer
could be anyone.
Using strings for high pitched noise
and keys for low pitched noise is
something we noticed as common.
The low pitched long notes help to
create tension as well as slowing
down the heartbeat of the audience
so that they become more scared
when quick notes are used.
Stereotype of blonde ‘scream
queen’. This is a blonde with
moderately large breast, a slim
figure and who is attractive and
stupid. This character is always one
of the first to get killed off. This
character is only in the film for the
katies
power as
well as
when she
says
‘Times up bitch’, this gives Katie
more power . We wanted to put a
feminist spin on the typical horror.
We had a male as a suspected killer
to ‘trick’ the audience. There have
been other stereotypes for example
in television series ‘dark angel ‘
featuring Jessica Alba who plays a
hero who has to kill to defend
herself.
We chose to hide our killers face
until the very end, this helps to
create suspense. Another reason for
us to choose to hide her face is to
keep the focus on George as the
killer.
We used high strings during the
beginning of our opening so that the
audience would suspect George as
a suspicious character. We also had
very low notes to create an eerie
feeling.
We wanted to have a scream queen
in our opening to follow this
convention. Our female victim is
blonde and pretty. This is so men
will be attracted to her and want to
watch the film. She gets killed by
our killer Katie. She is a countertype
‘Male Gaze’. This is the idea that
women are only on camera for the
purpose of attracting men and
having men ogle at them.
of the scream queen, she does have
large breast but we couldn’t really
do anything about that other then
dress her in something that didn’t
show them off which is what we did.
She has brown hair and isn’t stupid
seeing as she runs her own salon.