Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film "Haunted", both respectively conforms and also challenges the typical codes and conventions of other films similar to ours. The film we have created is a psychological thriller/ horror hybrid which invites intrigue and tension for the audience. The film follows a young teenager named Chloe, who is at a troubled time of her life, with the passing of her sister not too long ago. The audience goes on the unforgiving journey with Chloe as she struggles to face her new reality.

For instance, we have included continuity editing in our film. This is a common feature in modern cinema today, which is done so that the audience can easily follow and understand the plot of the film. Continuity editing includes the editing processes of Shot- Reverse Shot, Match On Action and the 180 degree line rule. Each of these editing techniques combined allows for an understandable plot. We have used these techniques in our film also, in order for the story to be able to flow clearly. An example with the use of Shot- Reverse Shot is the 'Canteen' scene. This scene involves two characters talking about what they are going to do at the weekend. To show which character is talking at a particular time, the camera changes focus from one character to another switching between two different medium shots. This scene also implements the 180 degree rule, to maintain the characters positions. 

Match On Action is used throughout our film in many scenes in order to connect them logically. Such as, when the main character Chloe is walking into college, the shots used match to the actions the character is performing.

Our film is influenced by many films of the thriller and horror genre, which have helped to shape our film into what it is now for our final product. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Thrillers generally keep the audience on the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax, which usually includes a plot twist, an unexpected ending and or leave the story being open ended. During the main feature red herrings are included to confuse or drive the audience towards a different idea of the conclusion, allowing for a plot twist have much greater effect. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. Some sub genres of thriller include; psychological thriller, horror thriller, crime thriller, supernatural thriller etc. There are some typical features of the thriller genre like; jump cuts, fast/slow paced editing, transitions and many other forms of editing are used to create a successful thriller or horror film. For instance, the film 'The Sixth Sense' was a major influence for the narrative aspect of our film. We have translated the narrative beats of 'The Sixth Sense' and created a homage of the twist reveal from the film.

Our film can be regarded as conforming to the ideas of Richard Dyer's Utopian theory of audience pleasure. This theory suggests that the audience actively participate in choosing what film they watch, in order to experience a certain emotion from it. These emotional experiences are characterised into five different Utopian Solutions. These Solutions are; energy, abundance, intensity, transparency and community. The Utopian Solution that we applied to our film is the solution of Intensity. This particular aspect of Dyer's theory has been applied to our film, as we aimed to have the audience experience strong emotions throughout the film and experience a wide variety of emotions.