1. In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products? (i.e. Of Film Openings)
Title of the film
Our film being called 'Obsession' makes use of the widely used convention in real media products which is power of suggestion. It does this as the film name is displayed at the very end of the film opening so the audience have seen the film opening first and are then introduced to the idea that the killer has an 'obsession' with murdering people and the rest of the film would show a bigger picture. This does follow the convention of slasher horror films as it puts emphasis on the fact the murderer has an 'obsession' with multiple homicides which is what happens in the majority of horrors in the slasher sub-genre.
Setting
The two locations in the film opening are a house and a walkway/subway. The first location (a house) goes against conventions in slasher horrors as in regular films as you would regularly see the murderers house in a horror film be untidy or they would be situated in a gloomy, dirty location such as a barn. However, the house shown is well kept and tidy to challenge the convention and shows that a mass murderer could be living anywhere, making our film more relatable and scary.
Costumes and props
We have developed the regular conventions of a killer in horror films in our film opening using costumes. We have our killer dressed in smart attire to illustrate that our killer cares about his appearance and being neat, as shown in the opening where the killer adjusts his tie and carefully places his shoes down when he takes them off. This is to portray the fact the killer in our opening isn't the typical large, dirty looking brute that would normally be committing murders in horror films, this character is a smaller, intelligent and calculates what he is doing when he murders his victims. The props shown in the film opening mainly follow the conventions of a horror film. For example the knife subtly shown under some papers hints at the murder weapon being used, which is always a sharp object in a 'slasher' genre film. The book of victims used as a prop does follow conventions in a slasher as it portrays the killers many victims.We did go with a convention with the victims clothing however. This is because when the audience see the victims in regular clothing. The first victim is wearing jeans and a jacket, which is a worldwide fashion and follows the effective convention of having the victims be more relatible to the target audience. It makes the victims more realistic and the audience think it could happen to anyone as their clothes are regular.
Camerawork and editing
With the shots we used we tried to use as many as the top 10 horror shots as possible, following the main conventions in terms of shots and camerawork to get the best effects possible form different shots. So we tried to use; the off kilter shot when the killer is walking towards the camera. This is to make the audience feel uneasy and to indicate something is wrong with the fact the camera isn't positioned properly. The over the shoulder shot was used when the killer was approaching the downed victim as to place the audience in the midst of the action. A close up of weapon as included whilst the killer was walking as to place emphasis on the murder weapon. When the victim comes to the realization that the killer is coming to murder him, a close up of fear is used to clearly show the whole face of the victim to tell the audience he is feeling extreme fear. A shot of the victims was shot with a high angle to make them appear small and vulnerable they appear as to make the audience worry for them. To oppose this, a low angle shot of the killer is used when the victim is on the floor to give the killer more power as he is shown in a situation of power and appears more dominant as he is above the audience. Point of view of victim shot was used when the second victim is looking around for the missing first victim. This gives the audience a view of that the character is looking around at and immerses the audience in the scene. It may be following the generic conventions of real media productions, but they come up with the best results and effects, which is why they are used so often in the horror genre.
Title, font and style
The opening logo fits in well with our film as it transitions from normal font, to bloody with blades going through the words. This may be regarded as following conventions as it quite stereotypical for a horror genre film to have a bloody font or connotations of blood in many aspects, but it does have a good effect that lets the audience know the tone of the film from the beginning. Our opening credits also have a flickering effect when they come up on the screen, making the audience feel uneasy.
Story and how the opening sets it up
We make good use of the power of suggestion in the beginning of our opening, including the book of victims and the flashbacks to their dead bodies, implying the killer has committed these murders without having to show the actual act of him committing the murder, leading the audience to make those assumptions themselves. These lead the audience to believe the story will be explaining the killers various activities and will focus on victims he has/will encounter.
Genre and how the opening suggests it
The first thing shown on our film opening is our production company logo which immediately illustrates that our opening will be a slasher with the inclusion of blades stabbing through our writing. The uneasy music played throughout the opening also portrays the fact the opening is a horror film as it makes the audience feel uneasy with droning sound and out of tune notes. The dark setting in the house the audience is introduced to is quite mysterious and
How characters are introduced
We decided to go against the norm in our introduction of characters as you would usually be introduced to the main victim characters first as the audience will get to know them better but we have chosen to introduce the killer first. This opposes conventions in horror films and is more original, as the audience are made familiar with the killer, whilst he is still kept mysterious as the audience aren't shown his face, but see what he is capable of.
Special effects
A filter was put onto the scenes of the victims where it will alter the colour of the film and makes the scene a different, uneasy colour to make the audience more uncomfortable as it is unusual. This is used in real media products for the same effect and we have used it to make our film more effective at making the audience uncomfortable.
Similar production companies which specialize in the Slasher sub genre are Ghost House Pictures, Dark Castle Entertainment. Looking at the Dark Castle Entertainment logo, uses only tonal colours and is mainly dark as to fit with the tones of the films it produces and to link to the 'Dark' in the title. The words are also only partially written with gaps in the writing to give the font a worn out appearance, fitting with the battered, untidy themes in the horror genre such as houses and killers clothing. 
