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

We chose the horror genre and the sub-genre of psychological thriller, and aimed to display this through every part of the film, both by using and challenging the genre's conventions.

The work we did on Levi Strauss's narrative theory of binary opposites was very influential in incorporating many of the signifiers and iconography of the psychological horror/thriller genre.

• Good vs. Evil
• Hero vs. Villain
• Light vs. Dark
• Female vs. Male
• Cleanliness vs. Dirty
• Quiet vs. Loud
• Stable vs. Unstable
• Vunerable vs. Powerful
• Ability vs. Disability

We combined all these aspects by partially using the conventional narrative pattern of Todorov to introduce our style, characters, themes and location but using the genre signifier of suprise by adding a twist at the end.
 

Our opening sequence fills the functions of introducing the...

• 
  
  Style (gritty realism) by presenting many key genre and style signifiers and iconography and using realistic lighting/background sounds.
• 
  
  Location (house in the suburbs) and the characters placement to one another (through shots like the 'through the floor shot' early on)
• 
  
  Villain (enigma code used with ECU on face, shadowy lighting, mysterious/unexplained actions and objects)
• 
  
  Genre (psychological horror) via the signifiers of the attack, tension building music, scratched/spiky/spindly titles and shadowy/contrasting lighting)