Evaluation: Question 1

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

One way that our final product uses the general conventions in a horror production is through the use of symbolism i.e. white. We have used white for the dress of Evangeline as she is a young girl. 

However, she is possessed by a demon and this challenges the convention at the same time as using it. This is because there is a juxtaposition through the symbolism of white; youth, purity and innocence whilst the child is possessed. This is then supported by the blood that is shown on her dress, face and hands which shows danger and death. Furthermore the black around her eyes contrasts the white even further as it shows the darkness within Evangeline. Moreover, there is no specific angle to this shot which means that Evangeline is composed in the centre rather than being shown as vulnerable through the use of a high angle. This adds to her demonic behaviour as she is portrayed as a powerful character.

In this shot also, we get to see her emotions. This is another convention that is used within horror films, so that we can see a characters fear, joy etc. In this shot we can see that Evangeline is almost emotionless, she has no remorse. Her eyes are vacant and there is no expression on her face which is how we, as a group, have developed this convention.

As well as this we challenge the conventions further as we have used a female as a killer instead of male. The majority of horror films show a female ,who is vulnerable and feeble, in the opening. This female character is suddenly disposed of, due to her vulnerability which is shown through the miss-en-scene, camera, editing etc. but we have challenged this by the female character being the most powerful in our product. In addition, as Evangeline is young and a killer it challenges on the symbolism of innocence.

Another way that our product uses the conventions is by the use of blood. We have used blood on almost every shot for our product, in some ways we have challenged it. So for example when we see a hand, covered in blood, next to a white teddy.

The two contrast each other and the shot is quite striking due to this. This is seen in quite a few shots, including those with Evangeline. She is plastered with blood and this challenges the convention as she is a youth. The audience can also see this in our titles as we have produced a white text that contrasts with the blood splatters and black background that surround it. 

We then developed this idea by using a normal girls laughter, from FreeSound, and changing the pitch and making the sound reverberate. This made the laughter sound disorientated and sinister as it created an eerie echo and the pitch contributed to the youth being portrayed. Along with this, the music box added to this further as it challenged the visuals as it sounded sweet and child-like, but the shots are vivid and quite malevolent.

A third way that we used conventions was through the use of black and white.

This created a mysterious atmosphere to our final outcome as not all of the image could be seen properly, which was intended, to add to the possession of Evangeline. Although she appears to be innocent, she has a darker side which is what we needed to work with.

Through the use of sound, we have developed the convention as we have used samples from freesound.org which enabled us to create our opening. 

I have already looked at this sound before, in my research, but it is relevant to our work as it also combines  samples. You can hear, in our opening, a music box, laughter and an exorcism. We then distorted the clips by reverberating and changing the pitch so that it sounded sinister. We developed the convention by using a music box, which conveys a child's possession, quite literally. This added to our project effectively as it allowed us to challenge innocence of a youth further. To summarise, the laughter also added to this concept as it sounded child-like, but at the points where it can be heard the project appeared to be more of a horror. 

Looking back at our research and planning, when we looked at the openings of Dead Wood, Dead Mary and Wrong Turn, I feel that we have challenged more conventions than developed or used them. This is because we based the whole project on the innocence of Evangeline rather than anything else. However, the main point is that she is a youth but also a killer, which is unexpected and this is the major impact of how we challenges the conventions.