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.
Lina Inam

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

production is because we felt that our target audience would be
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

Lina Inam

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.

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
Lina Inam

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.