The ideas for our media product was influenced by looking at other opening sequences. Watching Scary Movie 1 and The Ring (both Horrors) we saw the effect of having the forest as a setting as it creates mystery and fear. We saw the importance of making the person isolated and alone this makes it easier for the audience to recognize them as the victim. We noticed that these horrors and thrillers tend to place a female to play the victim to emphasize vulnerability. We chose to apply these conventions in our own product by making Helen the victim be a female, and shooting shots of her alone.
.
For sound we used conventions similar to that of Psycho
The soundtrack is repetitive, meaning that it plays the same notes again and again. It has one note that stands out from the continuous thumb which can suggest hope or adventure. This convention creates sense of danger and makes the audience suspicious, so we wanted to find a sound that can convey the same features. We choose a sound that clearly creates mystery and reaches a climax to suggest hope or adventure. The sound also helped emphasize the cinematography, by staying in rhythm with the voyeur shots to confirm that Helen is being followed.
Regarding cinematography we used and developed the conventions used in Final Destination 3.
We followed these conventions in our own media product by maintaining voyeur shots to show that someone is hiding whist watching. We keep the viewer concealed by not showing anything that can be used to reveal them, this makes the suspect follower the audience. In this way we maintained the questions asked during Final Destination 3 concerning ‘Why this person is hiding,’ ‘Who the person hiding is’
Our editing was inspired by Brick, which slowly reveals the main character by showing her costume and props to slowly build her character before finally showing her face. In Brick, the audience can tell that the person is a female because of the skirt and heels, her age is also revealed by the fashionable bright coloured bracelets suggest she is young. The whiteness of her blouse portrays her as innocent which suggests she is the victim.
We used these conventions in our media product as we reveal the gender by the long hair with blonde highlights and the studded handbag suggest the person is a girl. The suit is tightly fitted around her and her notepad is bright orange, this suggests that she is young possibly a student or a young worker. With these conventions the audience are familiar with the character before even seeing her face.
