In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
VICINI both challenged and presented convention of horror films throughout the opening sequence. You ever actually see Mr. Vicini's face until later on in the opening and we wanted to produce a sense of mystery and fear of the unknown. We wanted the audience to be asking 'what is he doing?' and 'why is he doing it?' Our camera shots were placed so that his face is not seen within the first minute of filming and you can only see his actions of crossing out houses and chopping carrots. Also, when he chops the carrots, we wanted to make it seem violent like he was hacking at a body part or something. We derived this from the opening of Dexter, in which he does every day normal things but does them very violently (like tying his shoes as if he was strangling someone. This was basically the whole jist of our film, to make someone who seems like a normal person, murderous and evil.
Despite VICINI's horror background, we went completely against the horror genre half way through by replacing the tension music with comical music to make the scene seem funny now that he has killed Malcolm. This is challenging a convention since people we show something like killing someone as comical and funny where as it would normally by horrible and vile. We wanted to make it seem scary as well on how he just does it so casually and out of the blue, like he could strike at any moment. The use of a small child as well is a big convention in horror. People care about kids and don't want kids o be bought into the harsh world of adults, the bad side of it anyway. That's why, for example, there are no children found in Grand Theft Auto. The use of the boy Malcolm as the first person you see being murdered was made intently on making the audience feel uncomfortable as that could be their child or a child they know but we hide how brutal it is up with the comical side of it.
One of the main props of VICINI was the butcher's knife in which Mr. Vicini uses to cut carrots. Like I said before, he does tis rather violently and uses a butchers knife (which is use to cut meat) to cut a carrot. We wanted the audience to think why he is using such a big knife and then link it to him being a bloody murder who chops up bodies and so on. Knifes are always a huge convention in horror movies. Used by slashers and even victims in their time of need. This is because knives are scarier, guns are quick and the kill doesn't last long but knives are just that more gory and you can do more with them, making the person die slowly would make the audience feel uncomfortable... I mean who honestly wants to see someone bleed to death from 7 stabs to the stomach or hacked to death by an axe, not me.
To link in with the knife and death and so on, we used an arm of a dead body to represent that someone is dead inside the in bag. We used Harry's real arm to do this so it looked more realistic and this shows the audience what the fuss is about the bag and why he gets rid of it so quickly. A body in a bag is a usual thing seen in horror films. The whole 'treating humans like rubbish' symbolism like in The Lovely Bones when she is put into a black bag and then locked into a safe.
Overall, we wanted to create a horror movie that would play around with the audiences head through false convention and mystery. We tried not to reveal everything too quickly so that it would keep the audience watching and keep guessing on what's going to happen. If we did a whole movie, which we can't, we would probably stick to the same thing and not reveal everything about Mr. Vicini until the very end. Cliff hangers are always good conventions in horror movies anyway, the character moments from death then bam! Film ends. We wanted to show he was a killer who kills like he is washing the dishes or something, just normal behaviour.
VICINI both challenged and presented convention of horror films throughout the opening sequence. You ever actually see Mr. Vicini's face until later on in the opening and we wanted to produce a sense of mystery and fear of the unknown. We wanted the audience to be asking 'what is he doing?' and 'why is he doing it?' Our camera shots were placed so that his face is not seen within the first minute of filming and you can only see his actions of crossing out houses and chopping carrots. Also, when he chops the carrots, we wanted to make it seem violent like he was hacking at a body part or something. We derived this from the opening of Dexter, in which he does every day normal things but does them very violently (like tying his shoes as if he was strangling someone. This was basically the whole jist of our film, to make someone who seems like a normal person, murderous and evil.
Despite VICINI's horror background, we went completely against the horror genre half way through by replacing the tension music with comical music to make the scene seem funny now that he has killed Malcolm. This is challenging a convention since people we show something like killing someone as comical and funny where as it would normally by horrible and vile. We wanted to make it seem scary as well on how he just does it so casually and out of the blue, like he could strike at any moment. The use of a small child as well is a big convention in horror. People care about kids and don't want kids o be bought into the harsh world of adults, the bad side of it anyway. That's why, for example, there are no children found in Grand Theft Auto. The use of the boy Malcolm as the first person you see being murdered was made intently on making the audience feel uncomfortable as that could be their child or a child they know but we hide how brutal it is up with the comical side of it.
One of the main props of VICINI was the butcher's knife in which Mr. Vicini uses to cut carrots. Like I said before, he does tis rather violently and uses a butchers knife (which is use to cut meat) to cut a carrot. We wanted the audience to think why he is using such a big knife and then link it to him being a bloody murder who chops up bodies and so on. Knifes are always a huge convention in horror movies. Used by slashers and even victims in their time of need. This is because knives are scarier, guns are quick and the kill doesn't last long but knives are just that more gory and you can do more with them, making the person die slowly would make the audience feel uncomfortable... I mean who honestly wants to see someone bleed to death from 7 stabs to the stomach or hacked to death by an axe, not me.
To link in with the knife and death and so on, we used an arm of a dead body to represent that someone is dead inside the in bag. We used Harry's real arm to do this so it looked more realistic and this shows the audience what the fuss is about the bag and why he gets rid of it so quickly. A body in a bag is a usual thing seen in horror films. The whole 'treating humans like rubbish' symbolism like in The Lovely Bones when she is put into a black bag and then locked into a safe.
Overall, we wanted to create a horror movie that would play around with the audiences head through false convention and mystery. We tried not to reveal everything too quickly so that it would keep the audience watching and keep guessing on what's going to happen. If we did a whole movie, which we can't, we would probably stick to the same thing and not reveal everything about Mr. Vicini until the very end. Cliff hangers are always good conventions in horror movies anyway, the character moments from death then bam! Film ends. We wanted to show he was a killer who kills like he is washing the dishes or something, just normal behaviour.
