Evaluation Question One

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

We decided on a non-linear narrative to use in our film because we thought that as this is the beginning of a film it needed to be exciting and action packed. We also wanted it to be confusing for the audience because if we could have, the full film would be how the nights events leaded to what happened, so the beginning is flashbacks of the what happened. Even the flash backs weren't in order. We did this to confuse the audience so they didn't know what was going on.

We chose to do a psychological horror because it is a genre we are all, as a group, interested in and we all liked the idea of researching and making one ourselves. There are points in our film that do create the psychological genre feel we wanted to create. For example, when Violet is crawling around in the dirt she is staring slightly to the side of the camera and it gives the impression that she is looking at something and the audience wont have a clue as to what it is. The clip is very slightly sped up so that she looks odd. The fast crawling has parallels with other horror movies and that is why we all decided that it would be a good idea to do so. Obviously the way Violet is dressed and is behaving is creepy and indicates that there is something strange going to happen. She is smiling in a way that suggests that she is happy but obviously there is something more sinister to it than meets the eye.



The next shot is when Charlotte is running from something and Violet just steps out from behind a tree. This is a classic scene used in typical horror films to scare the audience. It is the classic 'she's behind you' situation and we wanted to use this so that the audience assume that Charlotte is in trouble. Charlotte is lent against a tree and is using a stance that indicates she has been running away from something. We wanted Violet to be in a long shot because we wanted her whole body to be seen as she steps out from behind the tree. The audience needed to see clearly that it was Violet stepping out. Her skirt is flowing and she is stood awkwardly to one side to show that there is something obscure about her.


The continuity of our film doesn't flow very well because for the atmosphere we wanted to create it needed to be jagged and out of proportion. Throughout the two minutes, different points of the evening are shown and this is to show that Violet's memory, from the previous night, is hasty. The clips do not flow from clip to clip but this is not noticeable to an audience because we have put audio over the top of the whole clip to create a sound bridge.

The main sound used in our film are clips recorded to resemble voice mails. We changed the effect on them so overall it sounds quite tinny and very similar to what a voice mail would sound like. We used these so that audience are reminded that Violet is having flashbacks and these voice mails are the triggers to this. These voice mails switch between being diagetic and non-diagetic. They're diagetic when Violet is in her room and listening to them but as she remembers and the scene switches to her thoughts they are not. There are diagetic noises such as screams and heaving breathing and both of these noises are associated with being scared and usually horror.

There are only two props used throughout the film. The first is a small knife that isn't as visible as i would have liked. We used this to show that Violet is a violent person and she isn't afraid to use a weapon. It is small because we had to consider health and safety.



The second prop we used is a phone. This prop is key because it is a way of connecting the morning after to the night before. If no phone was used then the voice mails wouldn't have been able to play. We also used an over the shoulder shot to show that it is voice mail being called. It is visible to the audience what is happening.

The full costume analysis is here.