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

We were inspired by the scene in Halloween (1987) through using the below picture and incorporating it in our media product, seen above, reinforcing our specific genre of psychological thriller. The framing of this shot was inspired by 'Halloween' as the character is walking and notices something strange, which we tried to develop into our media product by showing Megan appearing paranoid after her fight with the unseen ghost figure of Lauren. Plus our media product develops the conventions seen in the horror 'Halloween' as our film takes place in an urban area, seen in the below picture.

Similarly we used the classic film Cat People (1942), as the character is walking down the street alone, as she notices someone following her. Both 'Cat People' and 'Halloween' were existing media products that we used for our final 'Submerged' as they use a female protagonist who is in a vulnerable situation which we developed through our protagonist Megan and the fact that her dead friend is encouraging her to take her life enforcing the supernatural horror genre. However unlike 'Cat People' we chose to use a daytime setting, challenging conventional forms of a real media product as it seemed it would be more realistic for our target audience whilst highlighting our character's vulnerable position as she is mentally alone also.

We challenge conventional horror forms as we chose for the antagonist, Lauren, to be female which we thought would add to the sinister nature of the narrative. However we did find some horror movies that included a female killer like the 2009 film 'Jennifer's Body' who creates discomfort for the audience as she is the opposite of conventional horror villains. Classic horror films normally take place at night where it is dark like Insidious (2011) but again we thought we could challenge these forms making the opening take place during the day in a suburban setting, adding to the realistic atmosphere.

In this scene Megan appears to be taking her life due to the paranormal forcing her, possessing her mind, which is typical of films like Below (2002) which were water based horror movies. This is also apparent in scenes from Dark Skies (2013) where the main characters become possessed developing the supernatural horror form. The inspiration for this shot was from real media products like the film Below where a character falls into the unknown, contributing to the unsettling story. The costume that Megan is wearing is typical of teenage fashion which we hope would impact the audience of our film as it adding to the relatable story.

We used conventions of a real media product mainly from the film Dont Be Afraid of the Dark (2011) through their use of isolation, water and stalking - all conventions of a horror movie. We developed media products, for example in the film the protagonist is attacked by creatures while in the bath, which we tried to incorporate in our opening with it ending on the character of Megan looking up to the ghost of Lauren. For our opening we were inspired by the Final Girl concept where the main protagonist, who is vulnerable, is targeted throughout the film, usually being killed in the end. We developed this from Dont Be Afraid of the Dark but chose to have Megan as a teenager and not be in a vulnerable state until her best friend comes back to haunt her as a ghost.

Megan is introduced first to highlight to the audience that the story focuses around her, suggesting that something eventful will happen to her character. She is introduced as someone unseen tells her to go under suggesting that there is something unusual about Megan's life.

The typography we chose adhered to the horror genre and were inspired by the pictures below. We used conventions from real media products like Scream (1996) where we have taken the inspiration to use a black background with white text. The text was also a similar style to the film Prom Night (2008) but we challenged conventions by not choosing to have the text aligned or the idea of a dripping effect, to reinforce our films genre of a psychological thriller. The unaligned text gives the idea that our character is unstable and she is drowning due to the pressures of her friend haunting her.