Evaluation Question 1

'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?'
Our film opening follows quite a few conventional features of a film opening of the genre (psychological horror). We named it 'past revenge' because we feel like it is quite a chilling title and fits in with being a horror. We subverted the archetype in some ways, like the costume of the character compared with the location. Usually, a location such as the one we used would be associated with middle class characters, as it is normal to have a middle class area with large houses and lot of countryside, but we subverted the archetype by going with a stereotypical lower class character, with a hoodie and mainly dark clothes, which is conventionally associated with those of a lower class. However, we fitted many conventions and went with many archetypes, such as our character having a typical middle-class dog (a westie) in the area in which we filmed. This reflects the conventional themes of the genre because there is a vulnerable young woman being victimized by a larger man, in dark clothing. This fits the conventional themes because there is normally a young, vulnerable person being chased by someone bigger and more intimidating than them. Conventionally, a film opening will open with an establishing shot, which is what we have done.  The music we have used creates an atmosphere, which makes the audience go on edge. Our area in which we filmed fits with the genre because it is a typical middle class location, and this is shown through the conventional sight of the countryside and antiquated style of houses in the background of many of the shots.
We also fitted the conventions of the openings of a horror film by using our music. When the establishing shot is shown, we have used creepy music to fit the conventions of the music used in a film opening.
A typical convention of a film opening is to have an establishing shot- an example of this is in the film Forrest Gump. They have a shot showing the place in which the whole movie is filmed, and this helps the audience to start to relate and understand the film. If this is done in the opening, it keeps the audience attached to the film and more likely to sit through the whole film. We used an establishing shot in our opening. This is read by the audience in a way to get them to connect with the film, and I believe this is what our establishing shot did. Also, the typography of our credits is fairly similar to those of similar conventions because they are quite short, which keeps the audience hooked to read the next one. Our typography was inspired by the films we researched of a similar genre beforehand, this included films such as 'Carrie' and 'Sky-fall'. They contained similar credits that appeared for the same amount of time and didn't bore the viewer.

As for the location, our opening was filmed in a very typical middle-class British surrounding, which is a Cotswold background with lots of countryside. This fitted the conventions of the openings because our actress is meant to be a typical middle-class, vulnerable young person. There was a change of plan when it came to our location, but thankfully it still all fitted with the conventions of our genre. The camera shots and edits were also conventional of an opening- it goes from shot to shot fairly quickly which keeps the audience interested, and also the sound and titles fit with conventions. We have a variety of shots, such as worms eye views, long shots and close ups, which again fit with the audience pleasures. We used a dual narrative, which keeps suspense, and also in the film opening we are setting up a crime, which means we are setting up the antagonist before the film even properly begins, and the protagonist isn't shown at the start of the film which keeps it on a cliff hanger, helping to set up the narrative.