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

Narrative

The Narrative of our film was to clearly address the template of our film through the predictable set of events found in the horror genre. Without our narrative structure it would be difficult for the audience to establish the genre of the film.

Narrative inspiration We were inspired by Todrovs’ narrative theory of

equilibrium – disequilibrium – resolution. The equilibrium within our film is represented

through the college montage which shows the state of normality of the teenage characters lifestyles.

The disequilibrium is shown when Kai is being bullied by Taylor and his friends which disrupts the calm atmosphere within the college classroom. Kai reacts to this with a plan to kill Taylor.

The resolution is not shown within our opening two minutes which is what we believe the audience will want to find out by watching the rest of the film.

Stock Narratives and Themes The primary aim of the narrative to our

media product was to set the framework and the tone of the story to engage with the audience to understand what the film is about and establish who the characters are. We also tried to make it entertaining by addressing a progressive build up to the utterly shocking moment of the innocent looking and vulnerable character of Taylor holding a knife ready to kill Kai.

Violent iconographyThis shot sums up the effect of Taylors abuse towards Kai taking him all the way to the edge of destruction and to finally seek his revenge and kill Taylor. This is a nerve racking and genuinely shocking moment of the film.

It is often a stock setting of the horror genre to conceal the killers identity behind a mask. Which is shown in our film with Kai wearing a scream mask.

The knife represents the evil and violent side to Kai and gives an insight to his brutal mind.

Stock Characters

Kai and Taylor were the main characters within the film but we also needed a lot of extras to effectively create an atmosphere of the college and the teenagers preparing for the party dressing themselves in Halloween masks.

KaiKai is the loner who is normal looking and doesn’t dress in a way similar to the rest of the characters. He keeps himself to himself and tries to blend into the background away from the ‘popular kids’ . He is viewed as being physically and emotionally weak which leaves him being the perfect target for any bully. He doesn’t say much and he keeps his thoughts to himself but there's only so much grief he can take until he snaps.

We challenged the conventions of the typical horror movie by addressing the weaker character as the murderer.

Taylor

Taylor is the popular boy who seems to have everything going for him. He is always wearing nice clothes and looking very up to date with the latest fashion trends. He is the leader of the group of popular boys who all want to be like him. He enjoys to make the weaker characters feel socially weak with his constant physical and verbal abuse which he uses to enhance his own reputation.

The horror genre always includes a character who is the victim and Taylor turns out to be this character.

Stock settings With our primary audience being teenagers,

the setting of the film was within a college which represents normality and acts as a safe haven within the teenagers lives.

Once the characters have left the college they are open to the wider world without the supervision of the teachers and having to obey the college rules which exposes them to many dangers. This breaking of the rules is represented by Kai when he takes a knife from his house ready to kill Taylor.

Part of the college montage representing a ‘safe haven’

Styles of presentation We noticed from other teen horrors we had

watched during our research there is usually a theme of violence and a sense of isolation created by shooting the scenes in low light levels. This sense of isolation increases the vulnerability of the characters.

We developed these conventions when showing the vulnerability of Kai. He is always shown to be by himself.

When Kai prepares to kill Taylor he conceals his innocence behind a mask to make himself look threatening.