Evaluation Question 1

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

'Red'

• Our video uses titles composed with the '28 Days Later' font, and coloured in red; the font style has been taken from another famous horror/thriller film, therefore relating to the genre of our 2 minute snippet, as it features an unorthodox young teenage girl struggling to cope with a multiple-personality disorder. 
• Furthermore, our opening titles conform to the strategic layout of most real media products, by using the animated film companies at the beginning, before transcending into the written titles, including the film companies, followed by the actors, (or in this case, the one actress), the crew members, and last of all, as with other productions, the Director. 

• The character in our film uses, and develops the forms and conventions of real media products pertaining to this particular genre as it does not follow the stereotypical representation, or portrayal of a young teenage girl; females of such age are often reflected as relatively innocent and naive, not psychologically unhinged, or dangerous. You could argue that the protagonist that features in our film compares greatly with the character played by Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining', who appears completely normal on the exterior, but as soon as everyone leaves the hotel for the winter, slowly loses his mind and goes insane.  
• It could be argued that we have used the colour of red, not only for the entitlement of our film production, but also to develop upon the general theme of films, such as 'The Shining', which often focus around a particular character that experiences some form of breakdown, psychological transformation, or personality defect; as a colour, red is incredibly interesting, for it pertains a great number of connotations, such as love, lust, rage, and anger.
• We used red to develop the symbolism of human emotion within a horror/thriller film, for the human emotional range is incredibly complex and diverse, with numerous emotions contrasting and conflicting with one another. 

• We used a song by Beethoven, which we thought would nicely juxtapose the mood of the video, and further perpetuate the unhinged mind set of the protagonist, red; the song itself, though dreary, does not perceive the tone of anything particularly sinister or bizarre. In this instance, we have challenged the conventions of a other real media products that fall under the bracket of horror/thriller, as with other films, such as 'The Shining', the music is incredibly creepy and eerie, excellently foreboding and reflecting the true horror of the events that prevail. Even during the opening titles, the music seems to almost build up into this tense frenzy of anxiety and foreboding, as the crane shot follows the lonely car driving along those remote winding mountainous roads. 
• By extension of the ever present, red element to our video, both in the title and in the character, the costume used for the protagonist also develops the forms and conventions of real media products, as the presence of the young girl's red cloak is a continuous reminder of her unhinged, unstable and complex mind set; not typical teenage girl would wear a long red cloak on a regular basis. 

• In some respects, our media product challenges the forms and conventions of real media products, for it is a twist on the classic tale, 'Little Red Riding Hood', where instead of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf being separate creatures, with conflicting ideas, they are in fact combined in 'Red's' head, where her schizophrenic tendencies cause her own voice to fight and argue with the second voice in her head, which of course, has essentially been transferred from the wolf. 
• The use of black and white at the beginning of the video enables the viewer to visualise how Red used to be, and that she wasn't always an insane, sociopath, who ran around the town dressed in a red cloak. In this respect, our film uses the typical forms and conventions of real horror films, such as 'The Shining', where the protagonist starts of sane, before turning completely mad after some terrible tragedy.