Evaluation Question 1 - In What Ways Does Your Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

In What Ways Does Your Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?



THIS IS A WRITTEN VERSION OF MY ANSWER:


Tiny Terror has established a variety of different ways in which our opening uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

The general conventions of a slasher film are:

The Killer

Usually male, with a concealed identity such a mask or dim lighting and camera work (like Micheal Myres in Halloween). He is mute and seemingly unstoppable. He may have had experienced a trauma in his childhood which makes him like he is today, which also attracts some sort of sympathy of the viewer.

The Victims

Tend to be young and attractive. Typical teenagers who engage in activities such as sex, drinking, smoking, taking drugs and involving themselves in crime. The killer may pick these teenagers because there is an unwritten 'moral code' which depicts bad behaviour. The audience may somehow want to feel like the victims deserved their fate - death.

The Final Girl

Almost always a peer of the victims. She does not go against the 'moral code' in drinking, drug taking, and is almost always a virgin (e.g. Jamie Lee Curtis starred as the Final Girl in Halloween, where her friends tormented her for worrying about forgetting one of her school books, yet she is left to deal with the killer at the end of the film whilst all of her friends are dead)

Jamie Lee Curtis In Halloween

The Scream Queen

Typical blonde, busty, popular sexually active girl. One of the main reasons for the scream queen is for the male gaze. Typically, she will be one of the first characters to be murdered by the killer (e.g. the scream queen from A Nightmare On Elm Street, Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Lagenkamp. Tiny Terror Uses A Scream Queen

Scream Queens From Scream 4

Nancy Thompson In A Nightmare On Elm Street

The Violence

The weapon of choice for most if not all slasher films is a knife. This may be because of phallic reasons, when the knife stabs the (usually female) victim, it acts as a penis, therefore the killer is metaphorically raping his victims. Tiny Terror Uses A Knife

A False Scare

This is where the audience is tricked into thinking that violence will happen, but doesnt. It is aimed to make the audience more anxious and make their hearts beat at an irregular pace. However, when the violence is about to occur, the character included in the false scare may jump out at the "victim". Tiny Terror Uses A False Scare.

Our film uses conventions by providing idents at the beginning of our production, we have our seperate idents, and our production company ident, named Barncasarn (Because my last name is Barningham and Tom's last name is Cassani)

Tom Cassani's Ident

My Ident

These idents follow the conventions of any film, not just a slasher film.

Barncasarn Production Company

Our working title: Tiny Terror could be a real dolls name. It is also catchy and memorable. This convention has also been used by Maria Lease's: Dolly Dearest.





 Our opening uses a stereotypical social class convention. The location of the opening is in a medium sized detatched house. This has previously been used in many slasher films such as Halloween and Scream.

Tiny Terror House

Halloween House

we wanted to get the same effect of the house from Halloween by leaving a room light on which is visable from outside of the house.








Also, the rooms in the house are fairly normal, just like any other home. This brings forward the idea that that the situation that the characters are in, can happen in any home, which could add to the danger of the film which adds to the 'scare factor'for the audience. 
The teenage girls bedroom shown in the
opening follows the stereotypical conventions shown of
a teenage room. There is also alcohol next to the bed which
signifies that this girl is not a final girl as she goes against
moral code.

Tiny Terror Doll

Chuckie

Slasher movies often conceal the killers identity. Tiny Terror does this by not showing the full physical description of the doll killer until right at the end of the opening. Also, "chuckie" in childsplay looks physically disturbing with slashes on his face etc, Tiny terror have developed the conventions of this with the doll that is used. For example, there is blood stains on its top.





The weapon of choice for the doll is a knife, this is following slasher conventions as the killer almost always kills his victims with a knife. Tiny Terror holds a small knife in his hands which could be a comedic reference from his height. Also, Knifes are often used as phallic metaphors in which when the killer stabs his (usually female) victim, he is metaphorically raping her.




Narrative Enigma is used when somebody knocks on the door and the scream queen goes down to answer, yet when she gets there, there is nobody at the door, so she goes outside to see who it may have been. There are POV shots used which face the scream queen, yet the audience do not know who is looking at the scream queen. This then leads to a false scare.




False scares are often used in slasher movies. Tiny Terror used this genre convention. Somebody knocks on the door, and their identity isnt revealed until a POV shot where said person walks up to Jodi (scream queen character) and scares her. She replies 'Damien you little devil!' The false scare can be used to play with the heartbeat of the audience, and put them "on edge" for the rest of the movie.

The music also plays a big part in putting the audience "on edge" it easily plays with the heartbeat of the audience. The more fast beated the non diegetic music is, the faster the heart rate will go. Tiny Terror have played around with the music too. Especially at the end when the colouring of the shot goes an orange colour and the diegetic laugh of the doll gets louder, this intensifies the scare factor for the audience.







We used intertextuality in the false scare scene with the scream queen Jodi saying "Damien you little Devil" From Omen film. Intertextuality is becoming more popular in recent years with films such as Scary Movie, a spoof film reflected from the Scream films which uses a lot of intertextuality from Scream. Intertextuality has not only been used in horror films. For example, Down With Love is a rom-com which provides a lot of intertextuality from the Doris Day and Rock Hudson romance.

"Damien You Little Devil" provides exposition of the boyfriend characters name.

The character we used for a scream queen goes against the typical representation of a scream queen, 'Jodi' has brown hair, is mixed race and is not necessarily wearing revealing clothing, yet she is obviously sexually active and doesnt appear to have any books in the mise en scene of her bedroom, connoting that she is not a 'final girl'. We decided to challenge the media conventions of a scream queen to add variety into the slasher opening, and also alot of companies are also beginning to challenge stereotypical representations.

Scream Queen in Scream 4

Tiny Terror scream queen

 

However, Luke (or Damien in the film) follows the conventional jock like character, with his clothing in the opening and his physical appearance. This has also been used in the first "Scream" film when the scream queen's boyfriend "Steve" ends up being tied up and killed by ghostface. However, before this, the scream queen describes him to be "big and he plays football" She then says "and he'll kick the shit out of you!" which would stereotypically make him a threatening character. But his fate is death, which could mean that in Tiny Terror, the fate of the boyfriend could also be death, later on in the film. 

"Damien" Tiny Terror Boyfriend

"Steve" Scream Boyfriend