Evaluation Activity 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

 

 
1.  This shot helps to establish the location of our flim by showing the outside of the house, and that it's dark outside, this helps to emphasise the change in dimension that our film is supposed to have. As when we shoot the alternate dimension, the light was obstructed by clouds and it was beginning to get dark, which made a washed out pale effect.
2. We filmed this shot by putting the camera inside of the fridge and facing the victim, we wanted to build suspense by showing the victim acting normal and doing things that people do everyday, as this helped to build tension, as the audience didn't know when the victim was going to be attacked. The shot worked very as well, as it fit in with the stereotypical, conventional shots that you usually see in horror films.
3. We used a few props in out opening two minutes, but the only one that is actually seen properly on screen is a glass that the victim drinks from. Before this, we see the victim filling the glass with water. We used this close up to emphasise the normality of the characters action, helping the audience to relate to the character, and think that this could happen to anyone. We also hoped that this would help the audience to sympathise with the character, as everyone has been home alone and though they heard a noise in their house.
4.  We used this font for our title as we wanted to break the convention of using blood splatter fonts and other's like that as it made the film seem slightly cheesy. We put this at the end of the opening scene as then we could really create suspense and build an atmosphere without having to stop for the title
5. The opening sets up the story by creating a tense atmosphere, and slowly building up to where the victim is killed. Although the 'main character' of the opening scene is killed, it didn't give too much away with the actual plot of the film, as it is never explicitly mentioned that they are taken to an alternate dimension, it is only shown through the editing and colour of the death scene.
6.  The film starts off with me, the victim, asleep with a scary film on the tv. I get waken up by the loud scream in the film, the fact that my character was asleep suggests that he is bored by horror films, and that he knows they are completely fake. Which ironically, ends up with me being killed. Abbie's character, the killer, is introduced as she walks towards the victims house.
7. We decided to inlude the clip of our film institution's opening, as it made the film seem more authentic and real, it also helped to set up that the film is a horror, as Twisted Pictures are a well known horror film distributor.
8. We used special effects such as a crash zoom, which helped create the atmosphere of an alternate dimension. It also made the frame look unstable and as if you don't know if the victim is going to fall off the roof or not.
9. Our film fits in with the genre of horror films, as it meets the convention of having a character die in the first scene, which helps to set up the story and the rest of the film. We used things such as fake blood and special effects to help emphasise the supernatural side of horror's, whilst also using things like a glass and keys to show the normality of the film.