Evaluation question 1

Our media project was to plan and film the first two minutes, which was the title sequence of our proposed film. The film my group made was called “The Undead Rush”. The plot was four young people running away from zombies in a building. Later on Monroe (me) comforts Erin (Kisha) after the deaths of her boyfriend James, her friend Anna and another friend spencer.

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

We have mainly developed rather than challenged the forms and conventions of real media products. We used the convention of a group of people running away from zombies. This is always used the horror genre and especially in zombie films. The diegetic sound of footsteps and a few gun shots can be heard while we are running to emphasise the dramatic effect. 

The zombies cannot be seen while we are running which adds a feeling of dramatic tension because the audience do not know what they are running from. This develops forms and conventions used in horror films. We of course used the form and convention of guns which is always used in zombie films to fight of the zombies, kill zombies or protect members of the group. The character, James, uses a gun while the other three don’t.  This conforms to the stereotypical male leader. 

Furthermore, there is death in our film which is an important aspect in all horror films. The audience is informed that the character of Erin’s boyfriend died earlier on. This adds an emotional aspect so that Erin can be filled with hatred for the zombies and also that without James is vulnerable. Both of these aspects of our film develop forms and conventions used in real media products. The character Anna also dies; this was not intentional. 


We planned that no one would die, intending to challenge the horror genre. However, the actress who played Anna could not come on the day we filmed the emotional scene. We therefore added a line, and later on a scene to show that the character died. I think this turned out to be a positive change because it added to the sadness of the scene and fitted more closely to the horror genre.