Question 1 - Conventions

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

Our film had challenged a few conventions and also adhered to some conventions. We had challenged conventions by dressing our main protagonist in black symbolizing darkness and evil. We had chosen our antagonist to wear white clothing to symbolize purity and innocence. This challenges the convention of good and evil as it shows our main character who is the victim as being the darkness and the ghost being the good.

Ghost Wearing White Clothing

Jasmine Wearing Black Clothing

We had also challenged the expectation of a typical horror film's of scenes starting in darkness such as 'Knowing'. We had done this by having our opening scene being in broad daylight with the sun shining bright. However we also adhered to conventions and used them such as having dark room's such as basement's and nightfall with some small climax's. We had also followed our narrative of Enigma Code with the film starting with a mystery and ending in a cliffhanger. Our film is also aimed at usual teenagers and young adults.

Screen Shot of the Basement Scene

Main features in a Horror film include darkness and a lot of silence an scenes that create suspense. Our film follows these features but had decided to decrease scenes with a lot of darkness in order to challenge audience expectations. Most of the scenes are during daylight hours including our opening scene. This was to divert the audience from expecting a typical horror film set at night such as 'Insidious'. From the characters clothing the audience would be able to make out the characters profile and try to understand the story behind their character. For example the ghost, it is not clarified to why the ghost is haunting Jasmine, which leaves the audience to decide on who the real villain is. Unlike many other horror films where the villain is clearly outlined or unmasked during endings or in the climax of the film, we decided to divert from such an idea to challenge conventions. 


To add, Jasmine's profile also challenges conventions as she is unlike the typical girl who is being haunted. Instead of running away from her problems or acting as if she is in a state of panic, she decides to investigate the root of her problems. For example the scene where she is in the library where she searches for a variety of sources to help her. This clearly shows that she is not like the ordinary frightened being but instead a intelligent girl who is able to work calmly even when she is in a state of fear internally. 


The ending like many horror films had used the convention of ending in a cliffhanger. Most horror films end this way and I had chosen this particular ending as it is effective in leaving the audience wanting to know more and also still keep the suspense intact.