Lina Inam

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Title:

Initially, we had struggled to come up with a title for our production

so when we finally chose one, which was fairly simple yet still
effective in regards to our production, we felt that it represented the
idea of our sequence well. The term fearful frights links to our
production as the concept of frights is portrayed constantly with
Sarah when she first sets eyes on the possessed girl and Adam
when he supposedly gets attacked by her. It also reflects a clear
enigmatic nature to the audience as it is made clear that the
production will be aiming to frighten them however it doesnt give
too much away as it doesnt display anything about the
supernatural content within the sequence thus enabling the
audience to gain an interest in the actual narrative. The sequence
also ends with shots of an empty hallway due to both characters
being haunted into vanishing thus creating a sense of fear within
the audience themselves. We chose the title Fearful Frights as it
linked to the storyline conveyed within our production and also
reflected the codes and conventions of a supernatural horror.

Our title also correlates with the typical conventions of horror and
the use of alliteration contributes to the frightening and suspenseful
effect we conveyed throughout the entirety of our production.

Title font & style:

Lina Inam

The title above is in the colour red,

which does seem to be the norm
within most horror films. This colour
symbolises both danger and blood,
which can be further reinforced by
the design, which reflects the idea of
blood dripping off each letter. The
reason we decided on the colour red
was because we felt that it linked
well with the concept of our production. This is because our
sequence consisted of many attacking scenes and despite their not
being any blood or visual violence; our title could be used to
foreshadow the aftermath of the disappearances of the two
characters. The black background and capital letters has the effect
of highlighting and emphasising our title and also foreshadowing
that the cliff-hanger within our production will be attended to maybe
with the introduction of blood.

The setting/location of the production:

The setting of our final

production was located
within our school in an old
classroom. The number of
narrow hallway and
corridors can be deemed
as effective as it
exemplified the lack of
space for the protagonists
in school and could be
seen as intimidating for both the characters and audience as they
face the possibility of the antagonist appearing from any of the
classrooms. As a result, increasing tension within the scene by
creating the concept of them being trapped and having no- where
safe to go. This idea is further enforced by the low key lighting
which could represent the darkness the characters are going to face
by the antagonist.

The idea was to portray a school haunting and this could be argued
to challenge the stereotypical codes and conventions of a
supernatural horror as it does not conform to the genre. Despite
this, it reflected a unique storyline, which you wouldnt really see
within many mainstream movies of supernatural horror. However,
the 2003 supernatural horror The Craft was also based on the idea
of high school kids attending school and experiencing a series of
supernatural events. We evidently took this idea on board.

The reason to why we chose this particular location to set out

production is because we felt that our target audience would be
Lina Inam

more affected by it due to the majority attending a school and so

the frightening ideas within our production may also take an effect
on them during their after school hours.

Camerawork & Editing:

Our production consisted of a
variety of shots, ranging from
extreme close ups to establishing
shots. As the director I worked
closely with the cameraman and
editor concerning the types of
shots we had altered by giving my
constant input regarding any
changes.

Throughout our production, the

editing was fairly slow paced and this contradicts the fast paced
editing within most thrillers. We did this in order to build up the
attention and curiosity for the audience until the antagonist was
finally revealed making the plot line clear for them. Our production
began with a wide shot, establishing the idea that both characters
are in school together, revising. Making it clear that our horror film
production will be set in school. The extreme close up was utilised to
display the protagonists phone receiving an enigmatic text. As they
begin to leave school, a number of POVs shots are used from each
characters end to create a sense of suspense as it engages the
audiences attention directly on the character in focus. Further on in
the production, the use of establishing shots also continually used to
display our location and its long narrow hallways where we first see
the demonic girl, which only adds to the suspense. Shots of her
teleporting are also shown, enforcing the conventions of a
supernatural horror.

Props & Costume

In terms of costumes for our
characters, we aimed for our
antagonist to stand out to the
audience regarding her costume. The
long black dress she wore was to
connote the ideas of death and
mortality as this linked to the codes
and conventions of our sub-genre.
Furthermore, hair and makeup was
also considered to ensure that the
nature of her character was
effectively represented to the
audience. The bruised look on her face was to connote that she was
representing the dead and how she is now here to inflict this on our
protagonists.
Lina Inam

As our production was set in school, both teenagers had to conform

to the typical school uniform (blazers and school bags) in order to
establish their identity and the verisimilitude of the scene. It could
be argued that although this established our storyline, it challenges
and contradicts the typical conventions of our genre as you wouldnt
see the protagonists in school uniform. However, Scream does
demonstrate this countertype of characters attending school and
experiencing horrific events.

In terms of props we acquired a low budget for our production so we

were limited to only a few. We used a watch in order to exemplify
the idea of the time the characters had until their attack and this
was evident from when Adam was attacked straight after checking
his watch for the time.

The lack of props can arguably be deemed as an advantage to our

production as by using too many our audience may have become
distracted by the exciting idea of knives and blood resulting in them
not being able to comprehend the narrative clearly. Furthermore, as
our production was set in school the use of dangerous props
wouldnt really contribute to the realism of our scenes as you
wouldnt expect to see weapons in school. As our antagonist
connoted the idea of a supernatural ghost it would be ineffective for
her to use such weapons or display any signs of blood due to her
being a symbol of immortality.

How does the sequence portray the narrative?

Our film is linear which means that
our sequence displays the actual
opening of the film. It focuses on a
high school couple who are shown to
be crushing on each other but
encounter a supernatural haunting
during their after school revision
hours. This is to engage the audience
from the beginning and to intrigue
them into wanting to watch more
than just the opening of the film. I feel
that this is effective in terms of
attempting to capture the audience as if we were to adopt a non-
linear approach to our film it would mean showing the audience the
end/middle and therefore they wouldnt feel that watching the film
is necessary as they already know what happens in the end. As a
result our approach can be seen as effective as it portrays the
disruptive narrative from the beginning from the supernatural girl
vanishing along with the two characters intriguing the audience into
wanting to know where they have gone and what happens next
instead of giving it away.
Lina Inam