TASK 1 - "IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?"
In our final piece we tried to convey a modern twist on a well known cult sub-genre. The conventional zombie movie is a tongue in cheek brain eating monster but we wanted to give the zombies a bit of character. we used a zombie as our main character much the same as in the horror classic “day of the dead” . We also wanted to make our zombie intelligent, we got this idea from the movie “resident evil extinction”.
Whilst we were trying to break stereotypes we also tried to keep to the conventions of a traditional zombie movie.
Cult classics such as "night of the living dead", "dawn of the dead" ,and "the evil dead" also heavily influenced our final product. We decided to splice and dice shots of our modern zombie/action hybrid in with some more classic-style shots. Such as the Sam Raimi- inspired "pile of leaf" shots and the dawn of the dead feeding shots.
This helped us develop a final product that would hopefully not only attract a modern teen audience but also an older generation. Our product should definitely appeal to avid cult movie followers as it has strong references to the classics.
Due to the fact that our main target audience was mid-adolescence we decided to use teenagers to convey the protagonists. We did this solely because teenagers like to have a character that they can empathise with. We used the rule of characterisation Tropes to flesh out the characters by giving them social identities and distinct characteristics. This was difficult to accomplish as the characters had very little screen time in such a short extract. However we felt that the development of the characters was important to establish so that we could give the audience a selection of characters that they could empathise with.
Whilst we were trying to break stereotypes we also tried to keep to the conventions of a traditional zombie movie.
Cult classics such as "night of the living dead", "dawn of the dead" ,and "the evil dead" also heavily influenced our final product. We decided to splice and dice shots of our modern zombie/action hybrid in with some more classic-style shots. Such as the Sam Raimi- inspired "pile of leaf" shots and the dawn of the dead feeding shots.
This helped us develop a final product that would hopefully not only attract a modern teen audience but also an older generation. Our product should definitely appeal to avid cult movie followers as it has strong references to the classics.
Due to the fact that our main target audience was mid-adolescence we decided to use teenagers to convey the protagonists. We did this solely because teenagers like to have a character that they can empathise with. We used the rule of characterisation Tropes to flesh out the characters by giving them social identities and distinct characteristics. This was difficult to accomplish as the characters had very little screen time in such a short extract. However we felt that the development of the characters was important to establish so that we could give the audience a selection of characters that they could empathise with.
We chose to set our horror somewhere different to other zombie horrors because we wanted our horror sequence to stand out from others of the same sub-genre. We chose to film it in a place that could be realistic but it might not be your normal horror setting being at a school or a skatepark. We also got inspiration from the horror films "28 days later" and "28 weeks later" as we looked at the costumes they used and the realistic makeup they used on the zombies.
We decided to put our title "Subject 17" on a black background to make it clear to the audience because it stands out as there's nothing else on the page. The title at this point is the only thing the audience should be looking at as it's in a simple font, and in the middle of the screen which makes it clear to the audience watching. We used the black background because it would create suspense and tension for the audience that are watching.
We decided to put our title "Subject 17" on a black background to make it clear to the audience because it stands out as there's nothing else on the page. The title at this point is the only thing the audience should be looking at as it's in a simple font, and in the middle of the screen which makes it clear to the audience watching. We used the black background because it would create suspense and tension for the audience that are watching.
In our horror we used a variety of shots to keep our audience interested and on edge. In our horror we have a high angle shot of the victim lead on the table in the science lab. This is to show that they are vulnerable because the camera is looking down on them like they are weak and helpless to whats happening around them. We also use close ups of the Zombies faces to frighten the audience and to see how scary and realistic the zombies look in our opening title sequence. We use a point of view shot when the zombies are trying to attack the person who is in the car. the shot is there to make the audience feel like it's them who is in the car and them the zombies want to attack.