Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The popular British zombie-thriller film '28 days later' is full of conventions from the horror genre. Here is a trailer for the film:

Darkness is used a lot in the film to create a unease in the audience, for instance, and we used darkness extensively in our major task.
Our first shots are effectively stills such as an empty road, a shot of Reigate from Reigate Hill and a shot of the house which would later be the focus of the film. These shots had a lifeless Mise-en-scène and were used to tell the audience that there was no remaining life and to give an aura of sad, loneliness. These slow-pace shots could be said to challenge the conventions of the horror genre which typically would be restrained to a faster pace, but in a similar way to '28 days later', we would use them in contrast to faster-paced scenes later in the film.
Our next shots were of me running from 'something' through a graveyard and up a road in the afternoon to late evening. This running is a typical convention, as is not being shown what the victim is running from -- fear of what we can't see is a basic human trait and conventions like this play on that innate fear. 
To make the audience more empathetic with our victim, we used a shaky 1st person camera shot which demonstrates a chaotic and fearful air which the audience are forced to sympathise with. 
Another convention was the use of a little girl in the house; often used by horror films, children are scary because the audience knows that they are threatening despite the fact that they are small and seemingly innocent. 
A final convention we used was to use teenagers in our final scenes. Our target audience is 16-21 year olds and the characters are of a similar age who are strong but ignorant. This means the audience might find it easier to relate and share the fear of the characters.