Evaluation - 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media pruducts?

I have kept mostly to the rules and conventions of a slasher horror. For example, I have kept the usual opening scequence storyline. A teenager in a secluded area, in mine they are in the woods. Usually doing something they shouldnt, like in mine they're smoking weed.

Then they get murdered by a masked murderer, just like in mine. I have a killer who is mysterious and scary, you don't know who he is and he is masked so it makes him even scarier, this is common in a slasher horror.

 I have also got an attractive female character, who is only in the film briefly but it still shows I am sticking to the codes and conventions of a slasher horror as they always have an extremely attractive female.

The main characters are all popular/attractive people who are usually the main characters in these type of films.

I have challenged the conventions because usually they have the first victim as a female which in this century might be seen as sexist so I chose that a male was going to be killer. I also challenged the conventions because I have blended a slasher horror and another horror genre together. The characters have nightmares of how they are going to die and then the killer murders them the way the dreampt it. This is like "Final Destination" and "Scream" mixed together. I didn't want to change it too much as it might effect how well it looks. I decided to keep it roughly the same as typical slashers because I know they are successful and I wanted mine to be as successful as them.

Permission for Music

We used the song Monster by Paramore in the opening sequence in our movie. I researched into the institution that owned the song. I had to research the record label, Fearless Records, and see who owned them. Which was Warner Music Company. Then I sent a message on their contact page, asking for permission to use their piece of music.

Also I phoned the company asking for an email address so that I could contact the company directly, however, I was not given one.

Synopsis of Film

In my film it starts out as a teenage boy called Michael waking up from a nightmare/vision and he then gets a text to meet up with his friend Peter. He leaves to meet his friends and they decide to do some drugs in the woods. However, they are being watched by a disturbed killer. The killer then runs up behind Peter and slits hios throat. Michael tries to run away and is being chased by the killer. He runs into Ashley and jumps and tries to warm her but they are murdered.

It then goes to a school in the morning and there are posters saying that Michael, Peter and Ash are missing. Then the killer, Adam, walks past and rips the poster down but you dont see his face so the audience dont know who it is. It then cuts to the main characters Damian and Sam who are to popular best friends and they both know the missing teenagers and get a bit worried.

It goes through as them at school and introduces you to the main characters. The main characters trying to figure out where the missing teenagers are and one by one they have nightmares on how each other are going to be killed by a murderer. The only way they can stop it is if they figure out who the killer is. The characters slowly start to get killed off. The main female character, Leona, thinks that Sam is the killer so she runs away from him and calls the police on him.

Then to get away from all the stress, and they think they have caught the killer, so they go to one of the weekly house parties that the popular crowd get invited to and they are having a good time. Then Sam arrives at the party and says how he was let go because he couldnt have been the killer. Leona and Sam go upstairs and make up.

The killer is seen at the party and Damian goes off to get some more drinks and doesnt return. When Leona and Sam come downstairs the house is almost empty, everyone has gone home. Leona goes into the kitchen to get a snack and sees the kitchen knife is gone and she freezes. Sam walks in and looks at her weirdly. The killer comes up from behind him and stabs him in the back. Leona runs out the kitchen and hides in a cupboard. She find blood smears on the inside of the door and Damian is dead behind her. She jumps out of the cupboard and the killer attacks her but she runs away. Sam, who is bleeding out badly, tackles the killer to the ground and Leona calls the police. The killer and Sam fight and Leona hides. It all goes quiet. Leona walks out to find Sam dead and the killer gone. The police turn up but cant find the killer.

End of the movie.

Actor Profiles

Sam: He plays Michael

Age: 16

Bio: Michael is a shy teenage boy who lacks selfconfidence. He is easily pressured into doing things, an example in the film is to do drugs. However, he is image conscious and has a certain fashion sense. He wears bright coloured clothes to get the small bit of attention he craves. In the film he is the first person to have a vision in their dream of them dying.

Appearance: He is around 5ft 8in. A regular build. He has long dark blonde hair and he wears bright coloured clothing and is well known for his blue and orange NIKE shoes.

Alex: He plays Peter

Age: 17

Bio: Peter is very much a leader or a trend setter in his little friendship group and is always the first to try something out. He often breaks rules and see's what he can get away with and is a bit of a comedian. However, he is also known for his unfortunate addiction to smoking.

Appearance: He is extremely image conscious. He has to look "Perfect". He also has his hair all perfect and has a good fashion sense. He isnt afraid to wear outragous clothes and set trends. For example he wears green jeans and chequared shirts.

 

Eleanor: Ash

Age: 17

Bio: She is a girl who knows she looks good and she has a massive crush on Michael so she tries to show herself off to him by wearing low tops. She is very funny and good to talk to. She is underestimated for her intelligence but she is also very sensible. For example she wont go and do drugs with Peter or Michael, she walks off by herself.

Appearance: She has dyed red hair and wears makeup. She is very attractive and she tries to show that off. She does this by wearing a unique style of clothing. For example, she wears boots and she also wears such clothing as corsets, which is sexually appealing and I think it would be to our target audience.

Mark: He plays the killer.

Age: 17

Bio: You dont know much or find out much about him until the end of the film. He is a teenager who is troubled by his past and takes it out by killing pupils from the school he was exculded from. He was abused and bullied by everyone and he snapped and took it out on unlucky people.

Appearance: He has medium lengthed dark hair. He has piercing blue eyes. He also has a twitch in his eye which makes him look synster and creepy. However, you dont see much of him because he wears a face mask which is a skeletons skull. The type of clothing he wears is dark and mysterious.

Costumes & Props

COSTUMES

Sam
Sam wore a chequared shirt and slim fit jeans and bright shoes, this is to show the style of youth today and show he is young and fashionable. We did this to make him look like a fashionable person and so he can keep the audiences attention, so they will pretty much look at him first before anyone else because he stands out.

Alex
Alex wore a shirt and green slim fit jeans, again this is to show the style of young people and the fashion in this modern era. We made him have brightish colours because that shows that he is full of life and approachable and friendly.

Eleanor

Eleanor wore a low top to show her cleavage because that would appeal to our type of teenage audience, she is also wearing dark clothes, this is to make her seem mysterious and so that in the film when Sam runs into her, she can be mistaken for the killer because she is also wearing dark clothes.

The Killer

The killer is wearing mainly black. Black shoes, black jeans, black top, black hoodie, black coat and a black skeleton mask. This makes him mysterious and seem dangerous and threatening. He wears black because its dark and hints that the character has a dark mind and the colour black conotates evil and fear. He has a black skeleton mask to hide his identity and also to scare the audience and victims because you dont know who it is and it has a skeleton on it and skeletons are dead people.

PROPS

Ipod - Sam uses his ipod in the opening scene to show him switching off his alarm, we chose this instead of an alarm clock because it means he can put some music on after to be in the background of the film and also because it shows we're in the 21st century and that it is a modern film.

Cigarettes - The cigarettes are meant to represent drugs in the film and show how young people try it out. It is also meant to be seen as a negative representation of young people.

Killers Knife - The killer has a knife, this is his the weapon he uses to kill the other actors. We chose a knife because its silent, easy to hide and it means that he has to get close to the victims and usually it causes a lot of blood and gore which is associated with this genre.

Settings Board

Sams House
We chose Sam's bedroom because we wanted it to seem like just an ordinary place, somewhere familiar and nothing is more familiar than your own bedroom. His house is also quite modern so modern audiences would find it familiar. We also chose it because it had enough room to film in and had a big window so we could use the natural lighting instead of providing our own. It was a lot easier to get to than Alex's or my house aswell so it also meant that we could film it a lot easier without much hassle.

The Woods
We chose the woods because it is a secluded place where no one goes and also because it was very close to where we live so it was easy to get there and easy to film there. We could also use natural lighting again so it made it a lot easier. However, we chose to film at a poor time and its right next to a rugby picth so when we first filmed you could hear rugby players shouting.

Institutional Research

In the 'Real World' I think the film we've made would be owned by Dimension Films. Dimension Films are owned by The Weistein Company and they specialise in making films/ movies. They have made some big movies like the new Halloween, The Fighter and 1408. There main way of making money is through film.

Our film is similar to some of theres because they made the Scream movies, which is the same genre as ours and they both have similar qualities in them. I think that our film would look like a product they would seel because their films and our film are all very similar. They make films for almost every genre and they have got a Slasher/ Horror Genre and I think that our film would easily fit into their genre. I research the Scream movie as that is the same genre as ours and in the Scream movies they had a budget of around $15 million so i would expect us tp have around the same budget in 'real life'.

I think my film would be shown in main cinemas, it is a mainstream film for teenagers who like horror and i would expect large audiences to watch it so i think that it would be shown in cinemas. If it was shown on cinema, I think it would be on Film4 or Channel 4 when they have fright night as usually they have one of the Scream films and ours is the same genre as that.

If my film went on the internet i would make sure it was on top well known websites so more people would see it.