Evaluation of Film Question 1

As our Film is within the Hidden Footage genre we were heavily influenced by the current conventions of certain media products. For instance The Blair Witch Project was viewed to be the best form of the genre, that was achievable to re-create a similar film within the group. We used the certain conventions like uncomfortable close-up shots of faces to portray the queasy feeling Hidden Footage films attempt to create to cause a reaction amongst the audience.

Another convention we used within the Hidden Footage genre is blurred, bad camerawork. This is necessary for the plot, as well as the effect for the film, since the bad camera work reflects the purposely mediocre skill of the students to create a more realistic feeling towards the film, and to make it more believable. The film uses this convention to seem as honest as possible to a real documentary and to keep the tone of the film at this point as gimmicky as possible, before the tension rises.

The Final convention we used  was a "interview" scene. This is quite popular in Hidden Footage media products like REC, Blair Witch and even Cloverfield at times. This scene consists of a character talking, or discussing some information, possibly needed in the plot, whilst standing outside a location that links to the information. Using this convention helps to establish the plot and setting by briefly mentioning factors in a scene styled like a documentary.

For our Film, there wasn't really any development or challenging of the conventions of  Media Products, because it was thought that to keep as truthful as possible to the media products, like Blair Witch helps to achieve a realistic and believe plot, setting and theme. If the conventions were challenged, or developed, like seeing ghosts or creatures, it wouldn't feel as natural as it possibly could be if we kept to the conventions used in the media products. Even films like Paranormal activity use the theme of not being able to see exactly what is going on, so if demons were included there wouldn't be much development anyway.