EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Frame 1: The title of the film- We chose the name '666' for our film because the number 6 is closely associated with the devil. This is a connotation of the film genre of horror. The film 'The Omen' has a similar title to our film because it is short and simple and also the word 'omen' represents something sinister that will happen in the future, it also signifies the devil. We would have prefered the size of our font to be bigger, in order to shock the viewer, but due to the technology we had to settle on a smaller size. We would have also prefered the font to have a dripping effect to depict the blood falling down. Another connotation of the horror genre is the colour red and we chose this colour to reflect blood. The black background helps the redness of the font to stand out.

Frame 2: Setting/location- Our film is set in the modern day. We used a mixture of interior and exterior shots. Most of our film is set outside to show how everyday and public our storyline could be. In order to show that the character of Katlyn was sleeping, we filmed her in a bedroom. The bedroom we used showed how ordinary the girl is, showing pictures of outings with her friends on the wall. This makes the audience think that this could happen to anyone. The exterior shots we used, such as the woods and the open field, show that the character of the devil is following Katlyn.

Frame 3: Costumes and props- We decided to dress the girl in a long white night gown as it is a good contrast to the black of the devil. The colour white also shows her innocence and purity. This is similar to the clothes worn by the girl in 'The Ring', she wears a simple white gown and has her hair over her face. This effect looks quite terrifying. We did not use many props in our opening sequence. The only prop we did use was fake blood. We used this in order to show what the girl does when she is possesed. Blood is a denotation btu the connotations are that she may have just killed someone or has just harmed herself.

Frame 4: Camerawork and editing- In our opening sequence we used a wide range of shots such as over the shoulder, high angle and extreme close ups. We also managed to stick to the 180 degree rule. The editing of our film is quite fast paced which is a common feature of horror films.

Frame 5: Title font and style- The way in which the credits of our film were presented were influenced by the film 'The House of the Devil'. A rock style song plays and as the names of those in the film appear, the frame stops. This emphasises the names and shows their importance. We used the colour white in order to show that the film has gone back to normality.

Frame 6: Story and how the opening sets it up- '666' is a film about how a young innocent girl begins to suffer from horrific and terrifying nightmares which are controlled by the devil. These dreams, which often see her murdering people, then actually come true. The devil is secretly controlling her every move. The opening sequence shows Katlyn washing blood off her hands and viewers find out that the blood she washes off is in fact the blood of someone she has killed. However, as our opening shows, these shocking events only happen at night and the end of our opening shows how in the day, Katlyn lives a normal life.

Frame 7: Genre and how the opening suggests it- The genre of our film is mainly horror, however it could also be linked to the thriller genre so it is in fact a hybrid. The horror conventions shown in our opening include the fast pace editing, the fake blood and the connotations of murder. The thriller aspect is portrayed by the character of the devil and the theme of possession.

Frame 8: How characters are introduced- The character of Katlyn is the first to be introduced. We first show her having a restless nights sleep and it then quickly changes to a shot of the girl possessed in the bathroom. This immediately shows the two different side of Katlyn, the ordinary normal girl and the possessed evil girl. The character of the devil is introduced in the fast pace exterior scenes, this evokes the idea that he is chasing Katlyn.


Frame 9: Special effects- In order to show that the girl was having a dream we used an effect called bloom. This highlights the point that she is having a dream because there are different effects between the dream and real life shots. We also used an effect in the chasing sequence to confuse the reader into thinking whether this is real or still part of the dream.