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

For our opening sequence we decided to follow the horror genre, we realised that in order to attract our target audience we need to follow the conventions often seen in other established horror films. 
After our research into horror conventions we found out what conventions our target audience would want to see in a horror film and we incorporated some of them into our opening sequence such as a masked villain. We often see masked villains in some of the most successful horror films such as 'Saw', it proved popular as the scariest element to

have in a horror as what’s behind the mask is unknown and people are often scared by the thought of the unknown. It’s also a frightening aspect because they are disguised completely of appearance or emotion, and the audience can make no connection with them whatsoever.  From our research we also found that young children were the most frightening character in a horror so we thought that the baby mask fitted in nicely to needs and wants of the audience. The mask is very distinct and makes the film more recognisable, everyone who has watched 'Saw' will immediately link the masked villain with the name of the film. 
The costumes contribute hugely to the horror genre, especially for the villain. In horror films very minimalistic clothes are worn. In many horror films the killer will most likely be wearing dark clothing which portrays them as evil characters, and perhaps a character in red may symbolise that they’re in danger. For example, in the horror film 'Strangers' almost all of the characters are in relatively dark, dull and boring clothing to portray the negativity that comes from a horror.
One example of a convention that we have used is the music. The music in horror films are used to increase the tension and fear, such as immediate drum type beats that increase in frequency and tempo and we often hear high pitched sounds too. In our film the music at the beginning links in with the villain, the child collector in a baby face mask as its music we could associate with young children, it reminded us of a music box that young children could of received in the past. It creates a sense of mystery and makes us feel slightly unnerved, it’s also very suspenseful keeping the audience interested in the film. 

A young boy is the victim in part of the opening, they are often the victims of wrong doing that make them become the villain such as in the film 'Bereavement' where the young boy is made to slaughter innocent people. However, we used a young child as the actual victim, but are more mentally hurt than physically because its considered ethically wrong and the audience would find it difficult to watch a young child being physically hurt or murdered, this is how we have challenged the genre.

We also used the typical horror convention of a young female victim, There is almost no horror film without a female victim, as they are portrayed as being vulnerable, weak and incapable of saving themselves which reinforces traditional representations of gender. This was also seen in the film Candyman where a young attractive female is murdered by the Candyman after repeating his name five times whilst looking into a mirror. This convention is often used in horror films as it usually attracts a more male audience because it encourages their instinct.
Another convention of a horror is the dark lighting, we had to post edit our film opening to make the lighting darker to create an eerie atmosphere that is often present in most horrors, for example in 'Se7en' the dark lighting to create a sense of evil and it comes across as quite sinister, by having the lighting in this way you are able to create shadows to emphasise the horror element of the unknown.

There are common sights that you are likely to see in every horror film such as weapons and blood. These sights are the things which allow the target audience to recognise this genre, and they expect to see these things again and again in horror films as it is conventional- without these sights, the film may not be a successful horror. We included blood in our horror film and tried to incorporate a weapon but as it was set in a park with young children present this was difficult to do, so we had to use other conventions such as the blood which we have used in our title sequence and after Lucy has been attacked by the Child Collector she is left with a wound to the head.
The titles on our film also represent the colours associated with horrors, black white and red. In almost every horror the title follows this colour scheme, for example the horror ‘Scream’.

Our setting was based in a park as this links in with the baby mask and young child victim, we thought that the man in the baby mask was perhaps a victim himself which made him the way he is a brutal murderer. His life was better as a child and is therefore reminiscing his early childhood at the park, but murders innocent people because of what happened to him, almost like revenge. The park is not a common convention of a horror but this makes the films more unique and because of the other conventions that we have included it is still identifiable as a horror film.

The shots that we used through out the film also portray the horror genre. For example, we used hand held shots to suggest that the person who's view point it is from is in panic, we had done this where Lucy is running to her brother as she heard his screams. This is often used in horror films to create that panic felt by the character onto the audience, usually during a murder or a frightening scene. Another shot that we have use is a low angle shot as the child collector climbs up the ladders of the slide, this portrays the villain as a dominant figure and all of those below him are submissive. It makes him seem like a powerful figure that could determine the actions of others and also portrays the strength that he has to brutally murder others out of revenge.
Other shots that we have used include flash backs, this often happens in the opening of a horror film in order to give background to the story about to be told. They often show murders without giving too much away. Flash backs are used in the horror film 'The Village' however, this is shown towards the end of the film rather than the beginning. In many horrors including flashbacks they are used to fill in gaps, this is how we have developed this convention because ours is at the beginning to set the scene for the film and so that the audience can gain some background knowledge into what happened to Josh.
Overall, we have used several conventions of a typical horror film so that we attract a wide audience, but we have still being able to develop and challenge some conventions too such as a flash back.

Flashback

Hand held shot

Low angle shot