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

Horror can be defined as a macabre genre inspired by the literary work of romantic era poets such as Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker, these classical works are exemplified in horror films possessing distinct characteristics applied in fiction. Various traits of these include isolated locations, frightful weather, human revulsions,illustrated in the works of the primogenital French horror Le Manoir Du Diable (1896), in which the devil is embodied as a bat. This work also exposes the constant theme of sub genres in horror which, in this case is religion. Other conventions include the five type ensemble in relation to characters that can be stereotyped as; the slut the jock, the brain, the doofus and the virgin, whom typically survives. These are excellently highlighted in the 2011 film “The Cabin in the Woods”.

My short film conforms to these codes of the horror genre in the style ofcinematography utilised, for example there is a night vision point of view shot by our antagonist stalking its victims. This approach can be observed in other classic cult horror films such as “Silence of The Lambs” (1991) where, we witness Buffalo Bill pursuing our protagonist using similar goggles. This conjures fear in the audience as viewers recognise it as a predator stalking its prey by consequently making the victim appear minute and powerless. In “Vengeance” there is further reference to “Silence of The Lambs”, as dramatic irony is employed in this scene, as we know the victims are being hunted whilst they are unaware.

                                  

                      Source: (http://pyxurz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/silence-of-lambs-page-7-of-7.html)

Furthermore the movie complies to horror conventions as the villain can be observed wearing a mask identical to Jason Voorhees; the antagonist from the renowned “Friday the 13th” franchise. Completing my research I deducted masks are a recurring motif in horror, being employed by a number of prototypal horror films such as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) to contemporary horror films such as the independent horror Film “Your Next” (2011). In which the antiheroes are presented as wearing animal masks. The use of masks are designed to play on our inherit psychological fear of the unknown as through visualising people's faces it provides us with information such as gender age and financial status.

(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ogSS72bY_uk)

Alike the previous “Friday the 13th” reference the title of my plot “Vengeance” holds similarities to other classic horror films such as “Drag me to Hell” 2009; in which a gypsy hexes a young accountant to be dragged to hell by a demonic force for not aiding the women with her financial issues. This is a convention of horror as vengeance is often seen as a likely killer motif which is often paired with vengeance for crimes such as rape displayed in multiple horror films, such as the “I Spit on Your Grave” franchise and “Hard Candy” (2005).

Many horror films apply decaying isolated sets as a critical part of the plot/mise-en-scene to ensure the audience and characters feel detached and helpless. This is concurrent in multiple horror motion pictures such as “The Evil Dead” (1981). In which a group of friends holiday in a dilapidated shack in the woods and inadvertently summon demons ultimately leading to their peril. As illustrated below my setting has took heavy influence from “The Evil Dead” location.

             
 

Source: (http://2020iscoming.info/else/evil-dead-2017-tree-rape-scene.coming)

My horror film contradicts certain horror stereotypes for example using weather to conjure fear, as rain automatically creates a loss of visibility which naturally unsettles the audience and also aids, in the composition of jump scares when paired with non-diegetic sound. this has been illustrated in multiple lucrative films such as The Conjuring 2 (2016) as demonstrated in the scene below. I felt this convention was unnecessary to my film as I did not feel the need for jump scares as I aimed to build tension slowly, hence it was not a climactic scene like the scene below which is a final pivotal moment.

(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TKV7qeHAmLM)

My film also challenges the portrayal of women in horror, who are presented as hyper-sexual helpless maidens as displayed in the German expressionistic film “Nostferatu” (1922) where it defines the female character as a “women who is pure of heart”. My film accomplishes this by portraying males as the victims defying archetypal gender roles, my reasoning for this was to counterbalance the negative gender labelling in horror tailoring the film to a liberal 21st century audience.

                                            

In conclusion by conforming to certain horror conventions and challenging others, I was able to construct my film in a way that I felt was respective of the genre whilst developing and modifying the tropes of horror to improve the classification.

How The Film Appeals to its Target Audience 

The film appeals to its target audience which is women and makes it suitable to women because it represents all sides of femininity, for example the main protagonist is a female that can relate to a modern female audience as she has stereotypically masculine traits for example she is seen as powerful and strong as she is a key part of ending The Perrons family poltergeist problem. The film also appeals to women because there are other characters such as Carolyn Perron who can be categorized as a stereotypical housewife who looks after the children and is the primary caregiver in the home which represents a big part of the female population, so there will be a lot of women who can relate to this. Also with it being a largely female cast there are other characters that have different traits that will relate to a diverse amount of women therefore making the movie suitable for all women. The film is also suitable to its target audience because it has the sub genre of supernatural horror and therefore greatly differs from Nu Brutalism films such as Saw (2004) which are very gory and graphic, these films target men however, The Conjuring is very different to these films as there is little blood and gore, the film is more intellectual in how it gets a reaction from the audience because of this it appeals to women. This film is a psychological horror rather than a slasher.

The film also is suitable to the target audience because of the celebrities cast for the movie for example McKenzie Foy who has been in films such as Twilight New Moon Part 2, which has a target audience of 12-30 year olds. (http://www.slideshare.net/alanacoulter/target-audience-twilight). Therefore fans from her previous films that have similar target audiences to the movie will be attracted to The Conjuring. Also the actress herself is 15 therefore teenagers who are The Conjuring’s target audience will relate to her as they are her peers and will be interested in watching the movie because of this.

The Conjuring adapts to its target audience through the music it features, as the band that’s music is in the movie, Ryan Gosling is the lead singer of who will not only attract females to the movie because he is very attractive, but also he has been in movies that have a large female fan base that The Conjuring is targeting.

Legal and Ethical Issues of The Conjuring

Ethics are “the moral principles, as of an individual" (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ethics) an ethical issues The Conjuring may have is through its portrayal of women as 100% of the thirty men and women I asked in my questionnaire replied to the question "how do you think the clip portrays women and men" all stated a positive opinion of men for example 50% of the participants said strong and 20% said being protective. This is because in the clip Ed prioritizes his wife over his job insisting they do not get involved in the case in order to protect her from the evil in The Perron house. The subjects of the questionnaires opinions differed greatly however, in the way they felt women were portrayed, which 30% said they were exhibited as "damsels in distress" and they other 70% thought the film made them appear as “weak”. This characterization of women is an ethical issue as it reflects stereotypes which are “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing” (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stereotype) most women would not be happy being represented in this way as it does not mirror as large percentage of women in society. The Conjuring also portrays women as being very talkative in the opening scene of the film whilst the male is sat back not talking at all which is a cliche but not accurate of reality, in this scene the women can be described as being very frightened which also reinforces the idea that women are weak because of their intense terrified reaction of the demonic activity going on in their home opposed to the male friend in the opening scene who is a lot calmer, we can tell the women are in fear in this clip  as it is exhibited in their tone of voice. Another way women are represented as weak in the clip is the two females are desperate for help because of the paranormal activity going on in their house therefore it gives the impression to the viewer that they are incapable of fixing their problems, which gives the reader the idea of fairy tales and as women being damsels in distress who need to be saved.

A moral panic could be classed as an ethical issue as it is term coined by Stanley Cohen its definition is “An instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society”. An example of a moral panic is the Mods and rockers riots 1961. The Conjuring did not create a moral panic therefore this is not an ethical issue as none of the character were represented as bad or dangerous.


An ethical issue of The Conjuring is in the clip and throughout the film the only ethnicity portrayed is Caucasian therefore it gives the idea all Americans are white and because of the locations used in the clip it additionally makes us think they are all from middle class backgrounds (E.g The Perron farmhouse) as the only person of an ethnic minority in the film is Ed and Lorraine's assistant Drew played by Shannon Cook, this could be an ethical issue as he is presented very stereotypical of the Asian community for example he is very nerdy which could offend Asian viewers as it is labeling them, the character also has a minor role in the film therefore The Conjuring has only reflected a very small part of society in the movie being middle class Caucasian individuals. The subjects of the questionnaire picked up on this too as 50% of them said the characters were represented as white/Caucasian and the other 50% said they were either middle class/ upper class.

Furthermore an ethical issue of The Conjuring is it states at the beginning of the film, “based on a true story’ however as it is a horror film things will be sensationalized (presenting stories in a way to give a scarier more sinister effect an example of “The Conjuring doing this is though its use of music for example in a scene where one of the family members witnesses a demonic presence the song “In The Room Were You Sleep is playing by dead Mans Bones, this is sensationalism as it is an intense sinister piece of music, so it makes the audience feel more uneasy and scared than if the music wasn’t in the film. Therefore it is unethical as it is suggesting to the viewer that everything in the film is real even though they could be changing parts to keep it suspenseful they could also change the characters to make them more interesting for the film. This is also the case in the New Line 2005 film “ The New World” as this is a film based on the Virginia settlement however people have criticized its historical accuracy; for example Professor Cathy Schultz, Powhatan's people "were far from the innocent, childlike creatures we see in the film."

The MPAA (American Film Regulatory Body) was founded in 1992 in order “to promote and defend http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/130/590x/17f32mods1-476488.jpgthe First Amendment and artists’ right to free expression.” New Line Cinema that is the production company that made The Conjuring is a member of the MPAA therefore they have to conform to the MPAAs rules and regulations for example in 1922 the MPAA was create to “ensure absence of offensive material” (http://www.mpaa.org/our-story/).  This is an ethical issue as The Conjuring has material, which is offensive to certain groups in society for example there are moments of blasphemy for example when the demon is mocking the trinity by banging on the walls at night in threes.
The conjuring is the film has content, which is highly inappropriate for children, for example the possession scene towards the end of the movie. Regulators like the BBFC which is a is  “a trusted guide to media content. Working as an independent, self-financing and not-for-profit media content regulator, the BBFC operates transparent, consistent and trusted co-regulatory and self-regulatory classification and labeling systems in the UK”; will take issue with this as one of their issues is to protect the public from inappropriate content with children being in particular they also have a role to give power to parent to decide what their child can or cant watch. This can be considered an ethical issue as the conjuring has explicit language adult topics (e.g. demonic entities) this makes it not appropriate to children but in order to stop children watching the film, which will protect them, it got given an R rating for sequences of disturbing violence and terror, other agencies such as The Advisory Panel on Children's Viewing also protect children from this content.

Also The Conjuring’s content is not an ethical issue because if the film breaks some of the BBFC regulations such as “to protect vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content” (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/guidelines);the BBFC can ban films such as Freaks (1932) The British Board of Film which was set up in 1912 can overrule the BBFC and pass films it has rejected or banning films that BBCF has allowed.An ethical issue that should be considered is if The Conjuring was ever to be broadcast on UK television, it would have to be televised past 9 o'clock at night. This is because this is past the watershed which is a time used to broadcast things so children will not see them, so they are protected from harmful materials. Broadcasting inappropriate material past the watershed is one of Ofcoms most important duty; which is a regulatory body in the UK that "regulates the TV, radio and video on demand sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate". Also if The Conjuring were to be broadcast on UK TV it could not be broadcast on any channel as if it were broadcast on a channel such as CBBC which is a children's channel which has a "core audience is primary school children aged six to 12-years-old "(http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/cbbc-channel) it breaches its certificate which is rated R and does not protect children from harmful content which Ofcom states is anything violent, sexual graphic distressing or contains explicit language. A suggestion of a channel that would not cause any ethical issues if it were broadcast on is The Horror Channel as youngsters are not exposed to this channel and the name gives people a clear understanding of the content that will be broadcast on that channel.A legal issue The Conjuring my face is in its representation of characters, as the characters in the movie are real people, therefore if they feel like they have been represented in a negative way that is not true to their character they can sue The Conjuring for defamation of character.

Another legal issue the Conjuring faced was in order to portray Ed and Lorraine Warren the renowned paranormal investigators. New Line Cinema first had to get the rights to the case files of Ed and Lorraine's work, which had already been bought by Tony DeRosa Grunds Media Group. This media group also had the right to the title " The Conjuring". Therefore in order to obtain the files in late 2009 New Line Cinema made an agreement with the Tony DeRosa Grunds company to use 25 of the 8,000 case files of the Warrens work; two of these cases were the 'Perron Farmhouse" case and the "Annabelle" case. However since then Warner Bros have been sued by Evergreen Productions, for withholding production credit to DeRosa Grund. In the case the plaintiff demands an injunction while Warner Bros, is attempting arbitration and mediation to settle the case.

Demographics of The Conjuring's target audience

Investigate how your chosen media product reaches its intended audience:

The Conjuring when initially released on August 3rd 2013, was featured in multiplex cinemas, “A multiplex is a movie theatre complex with multiple screens, typically more than one screen within a single complex”. However was not shown in independent cinemas for example “Side Cinemas”, as these films mostly cater to the older upper class audience, as many films they show are foreign, unique and unusual films. This differs from multiplex cinemas that show a variety of films for all audiences, but they mostly show Hollywood blockbusters, which The Conjuring is, as in its first weekend of release it earned $41.5 million dollars. By it being shown in multiplex cinemas, it reached its intended audience as students are much more likely to go to a multiplex cinema such as ODEON rather than an independent one, as these types of cinemas appeal to teenagers through their teen and student ticket offers, as shown on ODEONS website (http://www.odeon.co.uk/students-and-teens/).

 It also appeals to students more as the actors in blockbusters are linked to teen pop culture so they will be interesting in the movie if it has these types of actors. By the film being shown in the cinemas, it does not reach its social class that its intended to; as shown in the statistics below the lower middle class are in between the second and third least social class to go to the cinema.

 In contrast to this, MPAA data shows females are more likely to go to the cinema than males; which is The Conjuring’s target audience; (http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/mpaa-data-shows-that-women-are-still-the-majority-of-moviegoers). The Conjuring is available on DVD from websites such as Amazon and shops such as HMV.

Its DVD sales were very successful is shown in he graph below.

However it is not available through streaming websites such as Netflix and Amazon prime or the internet, therefore in this way it does not reach its intended target audience as the highest percentage of people who watch Netflix (49%) is 18 year olds. (http://www.factbrowser.com/tags/netflix/). This also makes it not as widely accessible as some other movies, which target this age range. The Conjuring is also not accessible, as in the UK it is rated certificate 15, therefore anyone wanting to see the movie under this age is not eligible. A counter argument to this however, The conjuring was released in 57 countries these include, America, Australia, Canada, Spain and the UK, therefore is was accessible to many people all over the world and all cross sections of society; The Conjuring is a motion picture it is not available on radio stations. 

The Conjuring is advertised on Warner Bros. website which is a production company known world wide; this reaches its intended audience as Warner Bros. makes films, with a similar target audience for example “Annabelle” (2014), which also targets people from the lower middle class. Therefore people who are interested in that film may research it on the Warner Bros. Website and come across The Conjuring therefore reaching its audience. 




The trailer for The Conjuring, is available on YouTube  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k10ETZ41q5o). Which is available in 87 countries world wide with 1 billion users, this enables it to reach all cross sections or society and its intended target audience because of the vast population it is accessible to. The poster for the film, was available on public transport when it was released, for example buses and bus shelters, this means its intended target audience is met as the majority of people who use public transport, are people who are not old enough to drive (teenagers) which is one of The Conjuring’s key demographics. However this does not make it available to the lower middle class, as they are associated with owning their own vehicles so they will not use public transport. It was also available on billboards in the USA and Canada reaching the middle class as the places the billboards were, were middle class locations, such as Big Spring Texas. 

Also because of the sinister poster this made it spread online through social networking as shown in the example below, in which it has its own Facebook page. This reaches women, which is the films target audience as 76% of all social networkers are female (http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/) and 89% are in the age range bracket of 18-29, which is closely related to the films target audience. 78% of people who use Facebook in the USA earn around £79,000 yearly this makes them the middle class and the films targeted audience. The Conjuring not only had a Facebook page but a twitter page to, therefore promoting the film even further.

The Conjuring’s $20 million dollar marketing budget was also used in the following ways; they first released promotional pictures in November 2012 of stills of the characters and the sinister poster. They also released the official trailer in this month at New York comic con 2012 where cast interviews were also held. In the films marketing, conventional horror techniques were used such as “based on a true story”, in their trailers and teaser trailers, they also used real Pictures of the Perron family such as this one; the family in which the actual events centered around.