In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge
conventions used in todays media products
The Common Conventions of
Horror Films
Through our research (Initial product research) we conducted we
were able to see some common recurring factors in each of our
products. Examples of this would be the high-action camera-work
& almost constant eerie sound laid over the scenes. Films in
Horror are commonly narrative driven with lots of action sequences
to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat when they watch
it.
An example shot from one of our research Products, 'Jaws'
The Cinematography
In our film, I was the Cinematographer and I wanted to try and
keep a high-action feel to our product. I planned on doing this by
using classic techniques such as the tracking shots, panning and
wide shots to keep all the action in the frame. This was to keep
the viewer watching to compensate for our lesser narrative driven
storyline. I found shooting like this difficult, particularly the
tracking shot as it was my first time using a Dolly. Next time I
make a Media Product in the style of this with high action shots I
will be more adept with the Dolly to do so with this as prior
experience.
A Dolly of the same style of the one used on the day of the
shoot
The Story
Our Products story does not follow common media product
convention in the horror field. Most Horror products are driven by
the actions within the scenes and not the context or productive
value, in our product we tried to convey a story within the limited
time we had and lacked much action but what action we did have was
slightly over-the-top.During the shoot, several things that we did
not have planned happened which, open to discussion, improved our
product. An example of this would be that the scene where the
protagonist flips the tray of biscuits out of a secondary
characters hands, everything goes flying and it amplified the
tension in the scene even though we did not plan for this
initially. Next time, even though this time it worked in our
favour, I will try to keep things more controlled just in case it
were to be a negative thing.
The Scene were our 'accident' Occurred, although turning out
betterThan expected.
The Sound
Our product follows a limited amount of common media concepts in
this regard. We utilise the eerie sounds used commonly in horror,
but we do not overlay it across the whole sequence. This is so that
our viewers would focus on the dialogue more than what action may
be coming which would make the action more surprising and so that
they actually pay attention to the storyline more over the action.
To get the eerie sounds I used on the product I used free sound
database which is a site which offers free to use sounds under the
'Creative Commons (2002)' copyright. This was useful because it
meant I did not need to apply for copyright usage of the products
& could focus more on my product. This is a process I will most
likely use again the next time I create a media product unless I
can create the sounds myself.
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