Question 1

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

I think that our film did observe the conventions of continuity pretty well because we filmed the full scene in one day, which meant that there were no issues with clothing. The clothing that we used matched the scenes that we filmed because Greg who played the boss was in a suit while the other employees were wearing normal day to day clothes, which made the film more realistic and it didn’t break continuity. We also did not break continuity with the time of day because we filmed the full scene of the same day meaning that if the weather changed the camera would capture to change.  Our group followed the 180% rule throughout our film so that it followed the conventions of continuity and convention. This was helped by us using static cameras as they don’t move as freely as handheld ones meaning that it is harder to break the 180% rule.  

In planning and creating our product we used various examples of the language of film and editing such as diegetic sound, non diegetic sound, jump cut editing, establishing shot and over the shoulder shot.

I believe that our film does reflect the conventions of a thriller/horror film because of some of iconography involved in our film. One use of iconography is the Jacobs Ladder head shake effect which we used in our film. Another use of iconography is possession which is used in several horror films such as The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror and It. We also used iconographic isolation and silences which were both used in The Woman in Black. However it doesn’t fully fulfil the films genre as our film was filmed in daylight. This was because we chose to film in the daylight; we did this because it seems more realistic in terms of normal life which in turn makes the violence in our film more shocking. In this way it is more like the novel The Dice Man and the film No Country For Old Men. There is no parody in our film however we do copy the Jacobs Ladder head shake effect.  

I am quite confident that our film provided pleasure in the form of a thriller/horror film would do. I think this because of the violence and the twists of our film happening in daylight to ordinary people.