Evaluation 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Since the very beginning of the task, ma and Xiangyu felt that the audience for our media film opening would be teenagers 15-19. We chose this age as the actors in the film were of this age and so would be easier to appeal to rather than any age group. Additionally, the characters within the film opening fit with the stereotype of teenagers who go out late at night and get up to no good. Taking into consideration factors the setting, the time of day and the age of characters, we thought that the easier age group to relate to the product would definately be that of teenagers. The teenagers watching the film will see the characters in the film, and be able to realte to them as they are living in a life similar to them. I also think that some of the themes of the film, murder, isolation and quirky nature of the film would be unsuitable and not understandable for people of a lower age than 15.

Also, I believe that anyone about 21+ would be able to watch the film and perhaps be suited to, but I don't think they would in the majority relate to it as much as teenagers would, due to factors such as the lifestyle of the characters. Also, I don't think that my film would be an 18+ because although it is a film of a horror-thriller sub-genre, it does not at any time in the film feature mass gore or blood etc, as this is not what we wanted the moral of the film to be about. In terms of gender, I do think that this film apply to both female and male teenagers as although the actors in the film are all male, this is not a variable which has a impact on the film. Female teenagers would still be able to realte to it as they are likely to live a similar lifestyle (going out late at night) to the characters within the film and so therefore I think gender within the film is irrelevant.

Evaluation 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In order to get a good idea about what kind of media institution would distribute my film, I thought that it was necessary to look at films that were similar and see how they were distributed. As my film was produced outside of a major film studio, it can be classed as an independent film, or 'indie film' for short. The factor of budget, as my film cost near to nothing to produce, also is another reason why my film fits into the category of independent films. Below is evidence that of research into some independent thrillers and horrors and a comparison of these films towards my film.

Whilst researching I came across the website http://www.independentmovies.net/. I found this to be a useful website for my research as it showed a list of independent films from a variety of different genres, including the two I was researching - thriller and horror. I decided to look at some notable independent thrillers and see how they were distributed.

First of all, I decided to research an independent thriller- Stephen King's The Dead Zone (1983). Here is the opening to the film, which is has similarities with my film in terms of both setting and lighting, and the fact that it is an opening which is very eventful:



As a result, from looking at this film which contains similar conventions to mine, particularly in the case of the lighting and the location, I think that it would also be similar in terms of institution. Therefore I think the type of media institution that might distribute my media product would be an independent institution, mainly due to the fact that like most independent films, the budget was considerably low.

Evaluation 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 The characters in the opening of my film are all male teenagers and are middle class. The clothes of the characters are not designer or from other expensive brands of clothing and so this could connote this to the audience. The setting of the film, which is near the centre of town and the time of day could, along with the clothing, connote that the teenagers are having a night out with their friends. Therefore, this links with the stereotypical view of society today that young males of this age group, particularly who are out late at night, are always the cause of negativity and are related to issues such as vandalism more than any other age group.

There are also aspects of the narrative which play a key role in the representation of the teenagers in the film opening. For example, when the two teenagers are going to knock for their friend, they enter the house, as the door is unlocked, without permission. This could connote to the audience therefore that the teenagers are naive and are also rude for just entering their friend's house without asking. Therefore, this could go some way to agreeing with the ideology that teenagers not only do not have a lot of manners, but also perhaps think they are less mature than they would like to think they are.

The teenagers choose to not opt for the help of police for example, when they find no-one inside, and take a huge risk by entering without the house without checking what is inside. They rely upon themselves to solve the problem and as a result, are perhaps not entirely aware of the potential problems and dangers they could be in by entering. This shows a lack of responsibility which is further reinforced by the making of the decision to send one of the friends, Greg, upstairs on his own.

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

There are many ways in which my media film fits with the codes and conventions of real media products. For example, many aspects of the mise-en-scene were inspired through watching and understanding the aims of real films of the horror/thriller sub genre. The staircase scene in our film opening is an example of this, as it was a sequence that I had found to be typical of films of the thriller/horror genre.

Therefore, by implementing this within our film, the aim was to trigger in our audience's mind memories of similar scenes they had seen in similar types of films. In this way, the use of conventions of our genre, in this case 'the stairs sequence' allowed us to give the audience a strong idea about what the genre of the film was, without actually having to tell them, as it fit their expectations.



There are ways in which the film also develops/challenges the conventions that would be seen as typical of films of the horror/thriller genres. For example, while the opening of our film is very similar in some aspects of a typical horror/thriller film (e.g.location and lighting), there are subtle differences in comparison to your typical modern horror/thriller film. As the aim from the beginning was for the film to be more thought-provoking than scary, it doesn't entirely fit with your typical horror. While many horror films tend to have an eventful opening (as our film does), they also, the majority of the time, show lots of blood and are graphic, especially if they are modern.. We purposely chose not to do this in our film as we wanted the audience to focus on what Greg sees right at the end of the opening. 

We knew that by not including blood in our film, which is what the audience might have expected to see in an opening to a horror or maybe even a thriller, we had to make it clear to our audience that they were still watching a film from this genre. The time of day in particular is one of main factors which meets the typical conventions of a horror/thriller film. We knew that by setting the film at night, the audience would immediately relate the film to the horror genre as we as humans relate the dark to danger. So much so in fact that the word 'night' has been included in the names of many successful horror films of several generations , and features as a prominent theme.

How our film compares with the Codes and Conventions

Now that we have done research into both the codes and conventions of thriller and horror genre, we are now going to see how this compares to our film. We are going to see whether our film is very typical to the genres, and also in what ways it differs in terms of the individual aspects.

Setting - The setting for our film is more typical of a horror genre than a thriller genre. This is due to the fact that the setting is a house late at night, which gives it a sense of tension and connotes danger to the audience due to the time of day. The time of day chosen by us not only connotes to the audience the idea of something evil, but also gives it more a sense of isolation than perhaps there would of been had it been set in the middle of the day. The location could still be seen in a thriller film though, as it is set near the middle of town and so therefore allows the audience to make the link with civilization and reality when watching it.

Lighting - The lighting of the film is dark for the majority of the opening, which not only creates suspense with the audience but also was intended to add a sense of confusion, which is something that both thrillers and horrors tend to do. Despite the lighting being dark on the outside, there are brighter parts in the opening, particularly the bathroom (hence the title 'Don't follow the light'). This differs from what the audience might expect in a thriller or a horror as it is normally in the dark where the danger lies, due to the lack of visibility. We expect as an audience for the light to provide some sort of clarity to the situation, or maybe even hope, although our film in this way is quite the opposite, as it only adds to the confusion.

Here is the opening of a famous horror film - Halloween II, which also uses location, time of day and lighting to create a sense of danger and suspense in a similar way to our film:



Typical Character Types - In terms of a typical character types to our opening, our film doesn't entirely meet the conventions of a either genre, due to their being only male characters in the film. However, although there isn't a female character, there is a vulnerable one who separates themselves from the rest of the group, which is something that is particularly seen in horror films. When a character is alone, this also connotes a sense of danger to the audience as when we are alone we have no-one to defend us. In this way, our film fits the conventions of a horror film, while also could be seen as typical of a thriller due to the psychological edge that is present throughout.

Costume - The costumes of the actors in our film were purposely chosen to be normal clothes that weren't too expensive and so therefore ensured that the characters would not become too distant from the audience. Unlike films of a similar genre that I had researched, such as Seven, the characters did not wear any clothes that added to their status. This is because we chose the age of the characters and the clothing to specifically appeal towards a teenage audience. However, despite this difference with some films such as Seven, the clothing of the age group was very typical in terms of both horror and thriller films. This was used as another way of linking the audience to reality as it gave the impression through the generic clothing that the teenagers were quite relaxed about life before entering the house.

Conventions and Conventions of Thriller Genre

Now that research has been done into the codes and conventions of the horror genre, here is evidence of my research into the thriller genre. As our film is intended to be a sub genre of both horror and thriller, our research into the codes and conventions of both of the genres will tell us whether or not this actually is the case, and how we have done/not done this within certain aspects.

Setting - When doing my research into both of the genres, I realized that there certainly were some overlaps within the codes and conventions of the respective genres. Although this was the case with some of the aspects of a thriller genre, this was not entirely the case with the setting. While I found our that horror films can often feature settings which are isolated and away from civilization, it is sometimes the opposite with thrillers. Many well-known thrillers tend to have busy, hectic locations e.g. city centres. This is down to the fact that thrillers play with the idea that with a busy location, it is impossible to see everything clearly. Thrillers follow the theme of what you can't see, as oppose to people not seeing you. An example of this can be found in the Bourne movies (extract below).



Typical Character Types - Thrillers often follow a protagonist who loses something near the beginning, whether it be their friend or members of their family for example, as seen in the Bourne film series. As a result of this, the narrative of a thriller is often based on the losing of a possession e.g. a person as it appeals to the audience through their own experiences that they have been through. There is often also the character type of the antagonist who is the reason behind the suffering of the antagonist. Although the narrative may be based often on the protagonist's quest for revenge on the antagonist(e.g. Kill Bill films), there may also be a sidekick to the protagonist who follows them throughout the film. They may even be killed off in order to fuel the need for revenge of the protagonist.

Lighting - The lighting of a typical thriller film is similar to that of a typical horror film and therefore is one of the examples in how the genres overlap each other. The use of a lack of light is a way of signifying danger to the audience without them having to see the antagonist. This is therefore a way of building up the tension and suspense which like horror films, thrillers tend to typically do. Below is an extract from the opening of the successful thriller film Seven (1995) which shows a lack of light being used to create tension and connote danger to the audience.



Costume - When doing my research into the clothing of characters in a typical thriller, it was clear to me that most of the characters in a thriller wear very typical and generic clothing, although this depended on the type. For example, in the thriller Seven (as seen above), the characters do tend to wear generic clothes however the police uniform offers some of the characters a sense of authority about them. This is how I have found clothing to be used in thrillers. Similarly to horrors, clothing is used to relate to the audience and to make it seem like they live the life that they do and therefore that also to connote that whatever happens in a thriller is plausible in real life. The colour of the clothing is a factor also, just like in horror films, with dark clothing tending to be worn by the villain (connoting danger) and bright clothing being typically worn by the protagonist (symbolising hope).

Conventions and Conventions of Horror Genre

Below is evidence of research that has been done into the genre of our film. The reason that research was done into multiple genres was due to the fact that we decided to make our film a hybrid genre of both horror/thriller. Here is some research into the codes and conventions of the different aspects of these genres, as we are going to see how it compares to our finished film.

Horror Genre

Setting - The setting in a horror film is generally used as a way to connote danger. It can sometimes be an isolated location, for example, as seen in this extract of the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre. By having a location away from civilization, this connotes to the audience the idea of something unknown, as well as there being a lack of help at hand.



Lighting - The lighting in a horror film is often used as another way of signifying danger. The use of a lack of light can be seen as a way of hiding something that we would be normally able to see as people. In horror films, lighting is often used to play with our fear of the dark as it connotes due to use not being able to see what is there rather than being able to see something. This is what gives a lack of light an element of danger. It is also sometimes the case that horror films contain scenes where there is a contrast to lighting to connote danger. A switch from one scene to another where the lighting changes can often change the mood to the film. This is shown from about 8 minutes on, in the film extract above.

Typical Character Types - There are different kinds of character types that are in typical horror movies. It is not always the case that there is a set number of character types or one or two types. However, there are often common themes within characters in horror films. It is often the case that there is a protagonist and antagonist. However, it may be clear who is the protagonist and they may not even be seen much throughout, which adds to the element of mystery to a film. There may be a vulnerable character who is killed to connote the theme of the film. This is seen, for example, in the opening to the film Scream (1996) below.



Costume - Costume tends to have a lot of purpose in horror films, even if it may seem as if doesn't. The majority of characters often wear normal clothes e.g. t-shirt and jeans for male. By having characters wear clothes that your average teenagers would wear, not only does it appeal more to the audience and make it seem more real, but it connotes the idea therefore whatever happens in the film could happen also in real life. It makes it seem more possible if the characters are average people in an average life and therefore subtlety adds an element of danger to the film.