For the first question I have to
show how our film uses, develops or challenges conventions of existing horror
products. I will do this by finding 9 key images from my film and 9 images from
existing films and talk about how they show conventions and how they inspired
us.
Conventions of horror films are
almost like laws you have to follow in order to create a successfully, frightening
horror movie. There are different conventions for different sub-genres; these
are a few conventions for the ghost/demon sub genre and how our film
represented them.
This
is the Red Letter Studios logo used in the opening of their films. The use of red
to create the cross looks quite gruesome, as it looks like splattered blood. Crosses
are religious but because of the colour and style it has been drawn in we know
it represents something dark. The
font used is also effective because it looks aged and it is a conventional horror
font.
This
is our logo we have created for our production company, Satanic Productions. We
have used the blood convention and smudged the words to make it look like blood
dripping; also the colour of it is red. We have used a symbol, which most
people can relate to as a witchy/evil symbol. We used a black background
because we found most horror production logos do this, we can relate the black
background to horror because evil usually takes place in the dark.
This
image is from the ring. We can see it is from the sub genre, ghost/demon
because we have a dead girl climbing out of a well. We can tell she is the
threat character because of the convention used, black hair over her face. Also
because of the mise en scene, she is crawling out of the black water, black is
associated with evil.
This image establishes our sub
genre, ghost/demon. It uses the conventions developed from the ring; in the way
our threat looks with long black hair, pale skin and dirty clothes.
We also used elements of the way
Samara climbs out of the well, in a very un-human distorted manner.
This image is
from the ring. The character, Katie, is clearly a young teenage girl; in horror
films we usually find the victim is a girl. We can see from her facial
expressions she is scared, this is a typical convention of ghost/demon. She is
wearing a short skirt, which is something young teenage girls do.
From
this image we are introduced to our character, Robyn. The mise en scene, she
has a drink in her hand and is on the phone, develops conventions of a typical
teenage girl. We have also used the convention that the victim is often a girl.
Also the dark window behind her is quite spooky, we already know something is
watching the house but we can’t see anything.
This shot
shows good mise en scene as it not only establishes location but also shows the
mother leaving her child home alone. We used the horror convention by
positioning the camera behind a bush to make it look like something was
watching the house.
This is an
establishing shot from the ring. The mise en scene shows us that it is nighttime.
This is a convention of the ghost/demon sub-genre because usually bad things
happen at night. The mise en scene shows us where the characters are, in the
bedroom as it is the only light. It also shows us that the house is quite big,
the location in the sub genre is usually a big, haunted house.
In this image
from the ring 2 we can see Samara reaching out towards the woman sat in front
of the TV. The colours are very dark and dull representing evil. The position
of Samara suggests she is trying to grab someone, developing the conventions of
ghost/demon sub-genre because the threat is always trying to get somebody.
In this scene
we can see the threat is stood in front of our character when she lights up her
phone after the power cut. We believe this is a key image because it shows the
climax of our film; the threat finally meets the victim. We have used
conventions because ghost/demon films have jumpy scenes where the threat is all
of a sudden just there and this is a jumpy scene where the threat appears out
of nowhere.
This image shows a ghost
standing behind the girl who is looking in the mirror. We can tell she can’t
see the ghost because of her facial expression, this challenges conventions as
the ghost is stood behind her but she isn’t scared. We can tell she is a ghost
because of her pale pallor, long wet hair and smudged makeup, conventions of
ghost/demon sub-genre.
This
scene is key to our film because we are introduced to our threat, it is the
first time we properly see it. The threat pops up behind where the victim was
stood, the victim is unknowing. We used this convention, where the characters
have no idea what is coming for them. We also used the convention of the pale
white pallor, so you can clearly see the threat through the black window.
This
image is from the ring, I thought it was key because it represented the first
time in the film that Katie knew something was wrong. Her expression is
conforming to the conventions of horror because she is scared.
Also her gender and age
conform to the conventions of horror as she is a teenage girl.
I
think this image is key because it is also the first point where Robyn realizes
something is wrong. We have conformed to horror conventions by making her get
up and check what has made the light come on, often in horror films the
characters get up and walk into the pitch black cellar to check it out.
I thought
this was a key image in our film because it kind of shows that can’t escape it.
We have developed the convention that the threat can be anywhere, one minute
you see it on the stairs, then it is in the bathroom, it is closing in.
This image is
from the sixth sense, when Cole helps the ghost Kyra. It uses the conventions
of a child being the victim. We can also see the child is scared, so it
develops the conventions of fear, we also know that he is about to face
something because we can see his hand getting closer, it is building tension.
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