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

The Title Of The Film

The title for our film is simple yet effective. Keeping it short helps to attract the audience, which is what we wanted to do as the title is a main feature of any film. Common horror films are also single word titles as it grabs the audience's attention e.g. Halloween, Saw etc.

We decided the leave the title of the film until the end of our two minute opening. This allowed us to create suspense in the opening and for the audience to straight away be involved within the film and have their attention focused right from the start.

We decided to use a black screen with our title written simply in a white font. This allowed it to simple but still had an impact. It allows the audience to focus solely on the title of the film 'Isolation'. I think that this adds tension to the opening as the word isolation emphasises the condition that the young girl is in, creating the tension and fear for her from the audience.

Setting/Location

I feel that the setting we chose to film in, being a garage, allowed us to have good use of mise en scene and made the opening a lot more realistic. It also emphasised the fact that she has been kidnapped by her neighbour, and she is being held in his house which could happen to anyone. It allows the audience to feel vulnerable as they realise it could even happen to somebody like them.

Costumes and Props

As you can see in the frame, the costume we decided to give the character of Sam was very simple in the flashback scenes. The white top and shorts portray her innocence yet show the torment she has been through and what she is being subjected to wear. In the present shots, her large top and trousers create a rough and messy look which further emphasises the poor condition that she's being kept in.

The kidnapper character's costume was simple and everyday style wear. This is because we wanted him to appear a normal man and have nothing suspicious about him in the very beginning as it is more of a shock when the audience realise that he is in fact the man who has kidnapped.

Camera Work and Editing

The frame shows a close up of Sam's hand during a flashback scene where her hands were being tied up. We also chose to use sepia tone as it was a flashback so we felt it showed the transition from present day to the past much clearer and shows us that it has already happened. I chose this frame to use for this section as I felt it was a key part of the film as we experience some of what the character has been through.

Title Font and Style

We chose to use the font Papyrus for our titles as we felt the way it looked fitted in with our genre and gave it a mysterious and edgy feel. We decided to include a 'fade in' before the title came on and then a 'fade out' as it went off screen. The same font is used throughout on all of the titles.

Story and How The Opening Sets It Up

I decided to use the frame of when the male character picks up the missing poster of Sam. This is the first inclination in the opening of a real story behind what is happening on screen.

Genre and How The Opening Suggests It

The frame I chose to use is one of Sam being tied up and gagged which straight away shows that there is a background to the story and suggests the horror theme as we can see she has clearly been taken. This shot, like other thriller/horror genres, entices the audience in as we want to know how and why she has ended up where she is.

How Characters Are Introduced

I chose this shot as we are viewing the male character acting 'normally' and as anyone else would in an everyday situation. This automatically confuses the audience as we don't know what he's doing and what the significance of the missing poster is yet.

Special Effects

We didn't really include special effects as these aren't always used in the type of genre that our film is, plus we don't have the equipment to create effects that would look natural or realistic. The frame I have chosen is simply a shot with a sepia tone as this is how we chose to show situations that Sam's character was put in.