Evaluaton Question 1

HOW DID CHASING SHADOWS DEVELOP AND CHALLENGE  FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS 

I have produced a mini director's cut describing the  conventions of my genre ( Horror). 

CONVENTIONS IN CHASING SHADOWS

Our key objective when producing chasing shadows was following the conventions of of a horror/pschopathic film. In order to make this successful we had to have an inspiration and these were the films insidious, conjuring and scream 4. 

Image taken from Chasing Shadows 

Image taken from scream 4 

As you can see we followed the conventions of a horror movie, using a similar costume to the antagonist in the horror movie Scream 4. This was effective as the audience were instantly able to establish the genre of the film - horror.  In addition, the use of the mask keeps the killer unknown and this is what generates fear within the audience as "we fear the unknown" a majority of horror films ensures that the identity of the killer is unknown so again, this is another convention we used. We didn't challenge the conventions as we wanted to ensure that our movie was clear. 

SOUND 

Sounds & Music are essential in a horror movie. The use of scary sounds create a scary, mysterious atmosphere and builds tension. We acknowledged that it was vital to import scary sounds at times when the guy in the mask appeared. 

• Sound of heartbeat 
• Scary monster scream 
• Scary sounds that gradually when the tension increased (during the dream ) 
• Creepy doll music at the beginning to create atmosphere 

All of these sounds were included in our film opening to follow the conventions of a typical horror movie. 

STORYLINE 

Our first initial storyline included a range of events that occurred between the guy in the mask and Marcus. Alternatively, in the opening of a typical  horror movie, little action takes place and to be honest it's normally boring as the opening of a horror movie normally establishes the location, characters,protagonist and antagonist. Before our rough cut was produced we had to delete many scenes as we realised we wasn't following the conventions of a horror movie, we tried to include to much action and w were forgetting that it was THE OPENING 2 MINS of a horror film. After we had discussion we made an agreement of a final storyline which was 

Marcus friend persuades him to go home however Marcus has to leave

Marcus ( Protagonist ) Is in detention completing his work

• 

  Marcus falls asleep
  
  

  
  

Marcus has a nightmare and this is the first time we see the guy in mask 

Marcus Wakes up surprised and learns he has overslept and he is alone

Tries to go into the lift to get to the lower ground to see whether anyone is around 

As Marcus comes out of the lift the guy in the mask from the film appears behind him, Marcus is unaware of this but the audience are. 

Marcus hears a loud unusual sound and turns around instantly only to see an empty lift - this creates suspense  

We thought that this storyline is more effective as it contains less action making the opening more conventional.  

         

        ORDER OF TITLES IN CHASING SHADOWS 

We followed the normal order of titles as we realised a majority of horror films follow the traditional order of titles. The traditional order of titles where the distributor ident is followed by the production

Music by in Chasing Shadows 

A film we were inspired was insidious so we followed the titles in Insidious 

Music By in Insidious






You can identify the similarities such as the red font used in both our titles.