IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

By Sharmin

Comparing our media product to The Exorcist

After looking at the opening scene of The Exorcist, our media product is quite different to it because of the change in conventions and ideas that we have now compared to 1973. There are similarities with the conventions that both opening scenes use and they follow a psychological theme.

As they are both psychological there is a supernatural being needed to create the problem and in this case both victims are being possessed. This ideas is similar to Todorov’s Narrative Stages theory where there is a disruption and the characters begin to recognise this.

Both opening scenes use eerie sounds for suspense to make the audience feel uneasy. They also have a victim who is usually dependent on someone else are need of someone else’s help in order to fight back. The conventions of a horror film usually follow a traditional view of women by representing them as fragile. This is why our media product has a female as the main character with a close relationship with her mother who is possessed. It uses the Feminine Mystique theory to show the weakness.

The Exorcist has a victim that is haunted by a demonic being and needs help to repair the problem. We followed this convention of a victim being haunted by also having a victim possessed and needing a close relative to help.

The change or challenges that our media product makes compared to real media products are having secluded streets which are dark and away from the street where the victim would get help from. Staying away from busy places shows the audience the loneliness and helpless the character will be because they have no chance of reaching out for help. Also the audience can feel what the character feels as they will be trapped and feel vulnerable to the situation or problem that they are in.