Evaluation question 1

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

Common conventions of black comedy/teen comedy.

After reasserting into several different black comedy and teen murder films such as Heathers  Donnie Darko Pretty in pink  and Wish you were here and analysing them, I came to realise that there were a few main conventions currents in all of them. These included; the cast being a mainly teenage audience, an influence of death and violence in the story line and both a protagonist and antagonist that are binary opposites and many more.
My opening; 

When it came to my opening I both followed and challenged certain conventions. 

To start with our titles were not typical of a teen murder or black comedy films but i wanted to create a school or college environment and this is why I choice the ones I did. Films such as donnie Darko and Heather used more Sans-serif titles, Donnie Darko uses a white font which usually is uses in documentary style films but this could highlight the factual aspect to the film and heathers uses a pink font with has girly connotations and I think as the protagonist is a female this is why it has been used.

My titles however are a very college like or school like font, but not bold as they are almost faded i felt like these would work well as the majority of the filming and screen time is in a school i also though that the dessert look gives a sense of mystery which helps with the genre and narrative of the story. The text I used is also in white which I choice because I think gave a sense of sophistication and responsibility because white font is normally used for documentaries. 

In my opening I used a protagonist that was different from the other girls in the opening , she was almost singled out which is a common convention for teen horror, Donnie Darko for example has a male protagonist who is seen as weird and differs to everyone in his family and school, another example is Heathers as the protagonist is a girl who breaks away from the stereotypical girl group that she was in to start with and become more of an individual. We not only included this because its a common convention but also included it as we wanted to show the aspect of stereotypes and how women and girls are stereotyped all the time. 

The music that I used in my opening helps to connote murder and teenage murder through out the opening . The music I choose is much like music used in the teen murders or black comedy film for example pretty in pink includes the same type of music as I created, the heavy loud and metal type genre of music helps to connote violence and negativity. 

Other aspect of out opening that follows very strongly to the conventions of teen horror and black comedy film , is the aspect of domestic life and home life that helps us build up a character profile of the protagonists and antagonists. 

The bedroom scene in which she is getting ready in our opening helps to keep a realistic and relatable context to the scenes, they help us target our audience and help them to engage with whats shown in the mais en scene. Things in the frame such as makeup, clothes, beds and eve just mirrors are all signifier of the home life and domestic feel. Films such as Donnie Darko and heathers also show the characters at home in their everyday environments and this could help us connect with the actors , it helps us to understand the characters more by building up narrative enigma around the character. The scene in which the girls are both getting ready in our opening also helps to show binary opposites which is also a common conventions in black comedy films. Through these scenes we gain knowledge that helps us understand the narrative of my opening for example the faces on the wall helps us to understand that she is going to get rid of kill someone as she crosses the furl face on the wall, the graveyard scene then reinforces this idea. 

Many films in the teen harrow genre are set in a school or college/university setting. I followed these conventions. The majority of my opening is set in a school setting, which not only follows the conventions but also ensures the opening is relatable for our primary target audience which is teen girls. We have many signifiers in the opening that help connote that its a school setting for example we have lockers, corridors  and class rooms as well as the outside of the school which also fits the stereotype of english top class boarding type school that many Americans have on Britain. This has been supported by the film Wild Child that was a big success in America for its countryside and boarding school setting. 

When editing my opening i used many techniques that are typical of black comedy/horror film. For example the colour was changed and the exposure levels etc. this helped the opening have an early feel to it and it also gave it a more professional look. Slow motion was used when in the school scene and the graveyard. This helped highlight points of the film that we wanted to be obvious and that would help make the story line understandable, it almost acted as a brake in the film in which people could make sense of the story line and allow thinking time. Prom blood bath is a good example that used slow motion to highlight some kind of emotion that the protagonist was feeling, in Prom blood bath this was angry and humiliation whereas we used it to highlight eagerness and obsession. Therefore I was following typical convention when adding extra features to my editing.