Eval 1- conventions of real media texts

In what ways does your media product use,develop or change forms and conventions of real media products?

With our film we tried to use some of the common conventions for example the scream queen,the killer. But also we wanted to challenge it in a way not common with these slasher films. We wanted to take slasher characteristics but change them such as having a weapon but it not being a knife and the opening just containing the scream queen however a brunette scream queen.

Intertextuality

And a good example that i looked at for influence was the babysitter wanted because in this film they start with the killing . This is also a modern film which i wanted to re create so it was very useful to look at.where there's body parts being shown an quite music building i also looked at cry wolf as i wanted to look at the idea of these being cross cut. This lead me to look at eden lake where i could see how stories could work to be cross cut this took the idea away from a typical slasher.  so this helped me a lot to keep the basic conventions that make is slasher however cross cutting the equilbrium and challenging the theory.

Killer

As for the killer in our film we've chosen to stick to the common convention with our killer being old and a male with a  hidden identity. Also we used Mike Myers from John Carpenter's Halloween as an influence because of hidden identity, and so that we keep with providing narrative enigma instead of giving exposition for the killer's identity.Our killer however uses the a typical basic weapon however not a knife as we needed something big and effective bang to work at the end. i chose to use a mallet at the end as it was big and would look effective been hit against the face. as the guy also has a tool box and is a handyman this puts a twist on it as perhaps she knows him.

Narrative enigma

In my production i show narrative enigma whenever the killer is shown. By dressing the killer in a black hoodie the audience are never able to identify him, this along with the shots of only the killers feet gradually being cut into the action helps create narrative enigma. The audience get to see the killers hands , with gloves on work boots and trousers. From these few shots they without showing the identity of the killer you create tension within the audience. These phew shots also show the characters background such as the work boots , tool box etc. This same concept is used in lots of slasher films. A well known example is the Friday the 13th franchise where Jason is always seen wearing a mask to hide his identity.

 Barthes theory links strongly with the use of narrative enigma , because his theory is about codes of narrative enigma. Hiding the face creating tension within the audience . To look further into this the enigma code this is the theory that suggests that any text such as television , film , a poster etc makes the audience question something and intrigue them to draw them in. I have used this by not showing the killers face , but showing shots of the killer, this then has the audience gripped and wondering who has done it .

Casey

Scream Queen

And with our scream queen we also stuck with the common conventions with her  not academic and sexually active, however she is not stereotypical scream queen. She has brunette hair however has the same appearance we would expect of our typical scream queen. we can see she is sexually active and is the scream queen the narrative as she is wearing tight clothes and low tops. also in the torture part she is wearing minimal clothing also suggesting she is the scream queen due to her nice figure and her being attractive.As a good influence i looked at was Casey in Scream ( Wes Craven, 1996 ) as she was blonde, but also she was vulnerable and useless in fighting the killer i also wanted to see how she acted to make it so realistic.

Final Girl

Then for the final girl character i looked to Halloween for influence here as there's a scene where Laurie Strode , The final girl, was walking with her friends whiles she was carrying book and they were talking about their boyfriends, whereas Laurie didn't have a boyfriend and was more interested in studying. I have taken this on board and made shore i havent used any of this for the opening as it is the scream queen getting killed.i have this in mind for the rest of the film this is when i would bring in the final girl who actually will survive.

Titles

Also for our titles sequence i looked at scream opening to have a loud noise then the final title come in.

And with our titles we choose to show the actors names as they're usual revealed at the start but because our actors haven't been in any films before we used the title 'Introducing...' because this is what's commonly used when an actor is being revealed for the first time. And to show that we understand the common conventions for the titles at the start of the film i made out that we had a star and it was starring rosie waterman. 

Shower scene

Editing

Then with the editing we also showed some common conventions of editing that would be used at the start of other slasher films, for example layering and cross cut shots very fast pace. showing all shot variety and building up. Also for our violent scene we used the common convention of 'fast paced editing' where we chopped up long clips into much shorter takes and used takes from different angles, so that it gives a more realistic feel to it but you don't actually see any violence it just makes to feel like you have because it happens so fast, however in our violent scene i did slow down some clips and reverse to get the final impact. a good example that we looked at was the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960 ) where they chopped up their takes in the scene and used lots of short takes, and they also used non-diegetic sound to good effect with the sound of high pitch violin, and we also used a non-diegetic soundtrack with our violent scene so we've also shown a common convention in this way.

Sound track 

with the non-diegetic soundtrack we've also shown how we understand the common conventions this way because we made our soundtrack so that it builds up the tension with long drawn out notes which are quiet and subtle but not too heavy. But also we've included diegetic sounds which are commonly used in films , for example in our film i have a lot of screaming and noises made by scream queen , door banging , footsteps.

Mise en scene

And for the mise-en-scene aspect of our film we've also demonstrated commonly used conventions, for example with the fake blood that we used on the girl to fake her bruises and cuts. i also used candles which i had previously scene work well in past as coursework the cellar. This worked well i thought i could create the same look which proved very successful.

Target Audience

The characters in the film are  15 and 16 so this also appeals at the target audience as they can relate to this this is a very common convention in all slashers as it what brings in the target audience.. And when we got feedback from a group of teenagers where i realised  alterations so that my film was more effective i constantly did this to keep my video to be the best and allow for any changes.