EVALUATION

In what ways does your product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.


During the making of our Revelations (2009), directed by Millie Driver, we tried to keep the same conventions of stereotypical horror or thrillers with our own originality and twist. If the film was made as a whole it would have been stereotypical of the female victim in a vulnerable situation, with a male protagonist and others trying to, essentially, harm her.
For the opening sequence, a viewer could guess that the church is isolated as there are no other sound coming from outside and the design of the church does not look as though it would be in an inner city. It has the stereotypical architecture you would find in a church, and this creates quite a significant scene, as a church lend quite. Isolation tends to make people fearful and this could be one aspect that adds to this. It starts out as a track across the back of the church following a vicar or priest through the church. The silent atmosphere of the church accompanied by the woman, or nun playing piano and singing silent night lends a nostalgic and stereotypically Christian and normal scene. At this point the lyrics to silent night stick to the original score. The main theme this deals with is satanic abuse and devil worship and this can first be seen when the camera pans round to a nativity scene in the corner of the church. This would possibly give the viewer a sense of happiness due to emotion reflective of Christmas. The nativity set then bursts into flames and this is when the lyrics start to subtly change. This change, I feel does challenge social conventions of modern horror, due to subtle changes in lyrics and can be quite chilling when listening to the lyrics accompanied by the montage of satanic images and burning nativity sets. Essentially, the silent night singing could be seen as a commentary of what is to happen in the rest of the film. A church, especially in satanic films, is stereotypical because it challenges religion and that is basically what Satanism s the dark forces against the light forces, and churches tend to juxtapose this, and we use this to our advantage.
We mainly got ideas from existing media products, “The Wicker Man” (1973), directed by robin Hardy and “The Omen” (1976), directed by Richard Donner and “Rosemary’s baby” (1968), directed by Roman Polanski. The omen ties together well with our media film due to the themes of devil worship, satanic abuse and the coming of Satan’s son. It has the normal stereotypical conventions of horror, with the female one of the main antagonists and a victim for the main protagonist, Satan’s son. This again keeps within the same conventions as it is a boy.
The ending sequence of the wicker man reflects strongly in the first part of the opening sequence with the nativity set bursting into flames. In the wicker man they burn a huge effigy of a wicker man with the main antagonist inside. Watching this and my media product they look very similar and stay within the confines of convention. Rosemary’s baby deals with exactly what our media product is. There is not much challenging in our opening sequence. However it develops on the idea as women being a victim in horror. For the montage sequence we used a dark cellar, and this deals with the themes of claustrophobia and Nyctophobia and lends a further thrilling air

I feel that our media film develops a few media conventions, but mostly stays within the boundaries of a stereotypical horror, with the same conventions.