Evaluation Question 1

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

This picture depicts our main character drawing murderous pictures, on the floor of her bedroom. We have used low key lighting to create sharp contrasts between the character's shadow and the one single light, which makes the paper and the character stand out. This is typical of the horror genre, because the use of shadows creates an air of mystery and suspense, that things are being hidden from the audience. We chose to do this because normally, children are afraid of the dark, so it makes our character seem quite creepy if they are quite happy to sit in the dark. The fact that the paper is scattered around shows that she is continuously drawing more, which means that our character has many evil thoughts, which scares the audience, because this character is not normal, and because there are so many pictures, it means that they must have some kind of emphasis in the film, which the audience doesn't yet know. The camera angle we have used here is a bird's eye view which is also an over the shoulder shot. This means that the audience cannot see the face of the character, which invokes fear because a lot can be received from facial expressions, such as how a character is feeling or even what they are thinking, but this is all kept from the audience, which would be a scary viewpoint.

This screen grab shows our main character sitting cross-legged on the floor of her room, holding the Rag Doll. Again at this point we have used low key lighting, which shows that something is still not right, as the lighting is not natural. The fact that it is dark either shows that it is night time, which is not a normal time for a child to be up and playing, or she is deliberately keeping the light out, which gives the impression that she is neglected, or wants to shut herself away from everything. This kind of isolation is typical of the horror genre, because many characters from horror films are alone which means that they are vulnerable and may get attacked. However, in our film we have used a role reversal because the character that is alone, is not really vulnerable, but instead a character to be feared, because she is different and misunderstood. This is portrayed through her childlike positioning, i.e. sitting cross-legged like they would in school and holding a doll, yet there is an underlying theme that something isn't right, as she is surrounded by frightening pictures, and she is not smiling, like a normal child, which creates an eerie situation. The camera angle is low angle, here which gives the character power, making them seem 'above' the audience, which again lessens her vulnerability and instead invokes fear.



This screen grab shows a high angle viewpoint of our main character. This contrasts with the angles often used in a typical horror film, because usually this angle makes a character seem powerless and weak. Whereas in this case, our character is gripping a doll, and again the face is hidden, so the audience still feels like the character has some kind of power, something that they do not know about. The drawings are placed in a circle around the character which creates the themes of isolation and claustrophobia which are popular themes in typical horror films because they make the audience feel that there is no escape. We have created this theme by making the room so small, and the circle of drawings is only just big enough to surround the child, no room for anything else. Our child is wearing a flowery dress and plain white socks, which resemble innocence, yet our character is not innocent, the iconography we use makes her seem young and innocent, i.e. a young girl playing with her doll on her bedroom floor, but the darkness and the drawings represent another theme that is not made obvious, that there is something about our character that is suspicious, and the rest of the film may explain this further.

This screen grab shows our main character sitting on a swing in a park. She is not moving, and again her face is hidden, which creates an air of mystery. She is wearing the same clothes, which depicts that this is the same day, which creates continuity in our film. We have used a slight canted/oblique angle here to create confusion and disillusionment, which also adds to the tense atmosphere. The fact that her face is hidden signifies the lack of contact with the audience, we never see her face, which emphasises that there is something wrong with her, it hides part of her personality from us. This is typical of conventional horrors, because they frighten the viewer by hiding things from them, and making them believe that something is there, but they don't know what. However, this screen grab is also unconventional because very often, horrors will use pathetic fallacy to reflect the story, but in this case the weather is sunny, yet there is an underlying theme of danger, the idea that the character cannot be predicted and the audience does not trust her. In other films when showing something scary it will often be night time because the shadows can be used to hide things, yet here we have done the opposite, where everything is in broad sunlight, which means that if anything happens, it will be seen, so the audience fears what they will see.

This picture portrays our character walking up a large hill into the distance. This is unconventional of a horror film, because often, when a character is depicted 'walking off into the sunset' it means that they are going to live 'happily ever after.' So by including this clip so close to the beginning of our film, it automatically means that things are different, and it seems confusing for the viewer. As she is seen walking up the hill, she walks purposefully, which proves that she has an agenda, but the audience doesn't know what. After viewing the way she handled the doll and the drawings she created it becomes apparent to the viewers that she is not a regular child, and is not in any way the generic stereotype of a young girl. The fact that the hill is so long, also emphasises the idea that she has a purpose, there is something that she is going to do, and the audience worries about what it is. The camera does not move along with her at this point, instead it stays still as the girl walks away from us, this creates suspense and mystery because we don't know what she is about to do, or how she will come back, the lack of information the audience is given is frightening.




At a first glance, this second character seems quite sinister, because they walk into the room as if they do it all the time, and again they are silent which seems suspicious. The use of low key lighting here also casts their shadow on the wall. They are also holding something, which the audience does not know of. Again the personality of this character is hidden, and the automatic assumption is that they are some kind of relation to the girl, because they are in the same house and do not seem fazed by their surroundings, as if the are used to it, or have accepted it. This can also make a different assuption that they are a naive character, because they do not fear the girl. Here the audience knows something the character doesn't, they have previously seen the girl walking away, and so she could walk through the door at any point, which invokes fear at this point. This is conventional because characters personalities are normally hidden until later on in the film to create tension and suspense. The fact that they are holding a piece of paper could make the audience think that it is another one of the girl's death drawings, or something that could give an idea of who she is, so the audience keeps viewing to see if they are correct.





This is a photo of the name of our film 'The Rag Doll' we chose to use coloured paper for the letters because it is something that a child would often play with, as well as drawing a hopscotch on the ground in chalk. We chose to do these things because they are very childlike and emphasise the innocence of the child, which is ironic because the child in our film does not seem innocent in any way. Although it cannot be seen in this screen grab, we also placed the girl's shoes at the foot of the hopscotch, which gives the impression that she had previously been playing on the hopscotch another childish element, we also placed the Rag Doll at the side of the hopscotch, which defines that this particular Rag Doll is key in the film and has a direct purpose. This is similar to the title of The Wolfman, where the wolf is portrayed in the picture, because it is a key element in the film. We also picked the colour red for the title because red has connotations of anger, blood, danger and fire.




This screen grab shows my name in the title sequence, each of the people in my group used a different colour and placed our names on different parts of the park. i placed my name on the climbing frame, which is rusty and worn in this picture, which could resemble lack of use, it also echoes the urban setting, as does the graffitti and the broken swings we used for the other memebers of my group. Surrounding the climbing frame is weeds and a broken fence, this reflects the isolation of the main character, in the park, that it is not taken care of, like the girl who is also neglected in this way. When filming this part of the titles we zoomed in, but also used jump cuts so that it wouldn't take so long. This makes this particular part quite abrupt and 'in your face', there is also no sound effects at this point, which adds to the eerie effect created from the creaky swings and the sound of the wind. This all adds realism to our film, which also makes it scary because it doesn't seem fake, when things seem real, people think that it might happen to them in real life.