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

My media product connotes a real media issue, which is what can happen to teenagers and the disadvantages of them drinking underage; therefore being irresponsible and drinking too much. This is a big issue ingeneral media, of what teenagers do and what happens to them after they have had too much to drink – when they are out of control. In this media product I was able to convey several different things that happen to people that drink over their boundaries, which is why these terrible things can happen to them. One of the ways that I conveyed one of the ways that alcohol affects you, is by having the camera quite shaky; this connoted what peoples eyes can become like which is why they feel disorientated, and confused by their surroundings. To product this effect I used the camera at a hand held position, making sure that it wasn’t completely smooth and still the whole time. Teenagers behaviour can be affected in different ways for different people but as the girls were stumbling around it helped for the drunken affect shine through more prominently, which helped create the atmosphere for the audience as they could see the shadow of the killer behind them – whereas the girls probably wouldn’t notice them. The tension gained from these shots was chilling and eerie, especially with the music fitting perfectly and changing to different melody and key when different scenes approach i.e. the titles that went in an equal sequence, were all set to a beat in the music – showing the pace.

As my project was aimed to be a horror movie, I decided that a predictable killing or murder scene would happen at last evening night time, so I chose to keep it the same and follow the tradition that was horror movies and the build up to the killing scene. The idea of keep the movie at night was highlighted by the film ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ as the most frightening thing for anyone is not knows what could be lurking in the shadows of the night, which is why many have a fear of the dark as children, its all in the mind but with this movie…is it all in the mind – that is the message that I wanted the viewer to receive from watching it. But to increase the spine-chilling atmosphere of the film the day that I filmed it was very foggy, which made the roads look very creepy when the cars were coming towards us with headlights on. From the horror and thriller movies that I researched on my blog a lot of the killers were either masked or unseen, so to relate to this I decided that the killer was going to be hooded – therefore not allowing the audience to see the face of the murderer straight away! Using these different techniques the audience were thrown right into the action of the story; bringing the story to life.

The different angles made it possible for the audience to what was happening in the scene from a variety of different shots, connoting the story in further depth. As well as that it connoted what type of setting they were in and what surroundings they had, therefore connoting that the girls were pretty much isolated from civilisation. By doing this it relates back to the alcohol in their systems, which proves that teenagers do not know what is happening and where they are all the time, because their reactions are too slow to defend themselves and find it difficult recognising their surroundings. When referring back to the research I have looked at on my blog, we see in horror movies they use many jump cuts when building up to an event, such as a chase or killing, this lures the audience in and makes them want to watch what is going to happen but at the same time scared for the character, as they have made a connection with them and feel empathy form them.