Evaluation 1

Evaluation 1

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

(Georgina)

Opening sequence conventions, as researched before, include:

• Title of film
• Credits featuring cast, directors, editors
• Introduction to setting
• Introduction to Main Characters
• Studio Logos of Company 
• Soundtrack and Ambient sounds
• Narrative Enigma

Horror Genre Conventions, as researched before, include:

• Eerie Soundtrack
• Low Key Lighting
• Vulnerable Characters
• Editing techniques
• Settings
• Long Shots

As a group we tried to incorporate all the conventions of a opening sequence. Using the examples we analysed we were able to identify and apply it into our own opening sequence.

Title:

The title of the film is priority in the opening sequence to allow the audience to get an insight into what they films about. Its also a major indicator to represent the genre of the film. The slightly distorted letters create an eerie atmosphere and the jumpy of the letters are conventional to a horror genre. 

 

Credits:

As stated above opening sequences usually contain credits throughout featuring the cast and editors. We decided to feature the credits on a black screen at the start of the piece. This is because we wanted the audiences to focus on the footage rather than reading the credits. Instead of stating all the names in the group we found it was easier just show the names and not have any explanation to what they did as we all shared the workload. This challenged the conventional opening sequence credits but due to the horror genre we found it was effective. The font is conventional to the horror genre as its looks old and mysterious.

 

Setting:

Instead of showing the whole setting like other opening sequence we decided to show a little part where Ophelia walks up to the door. This creates a mystery adding to the narrative enigma of our piece holding the audiences attention. The low key lighting with the main light focus of the door compares Ophelia's two sides and she is coming out of darkness to become a normal human within her home.

The settings of a conventional horror film usually are based in isolated areas with no protection putting the victim in danger. We decided to follow this convention and have the setting in an abandoned dark alleyway allowing the audience to sympathise with the victim and make them want to find out who did it.

In comparison the kitchen/dining room setting is the complete opposite with many people gathered around acting like the perfect family. In addition the bright lighting exposes everyone which is ok until Ophelia is shown thinking showing her distorted mind.

Institution:

To be able to give credit to the institution its essential to include their names into the opening sequence. The distorted word is a play on which relates to her state of mind adding the horror genre. Having the letter twist also adds an tense atmosphere as the audience will be focused on the movement anticipating something is going to happen. 

Camera:

The camera work in horror films scenes are very shaky due to them being in the point of view of the actor. We included these hand held shots to represents the situation of the girls mind. It also created enigma within the audience to whose behind the camera and why. Camera shots are varied with close ups of lily's face to show the damaged caused gaining the audiences sympathy. This is usually used in horrors to represent the victim. The tight frame adds to this sympathy as it makes her look more vulnerable.

Additionally, we used long shots (which are conventional in horror genre) when showing the body in the alley representing how alone and isolated she is.

Props:

The conventional prop in a horror is usually a knife or weapon that is used to represent a killing or murder. The constant showing of the knife allows the audience to engage with it and connect the two scenes together creating more narrative enigma.

 

Colours:

Colour is the visual iconography that helps convey the genre. Red and black are the main colours that are conventional in representing the horror genre due to the significance of danger. The main colours we included were black and white as the contrast symbolise the innocence within the danger of the characters. In addition the red velvet cake conveyed the power and danger within the red  that Ophelia is containing inside.

Characters:

The most vulnerable characters in horror films are females. This is because they are stereotyped as the weaker sex and make the easiest victims. We chose to follow this convention and have our victim as a young women.

 

Sound:

The soundtrack in horrors are usually very slow and eerie made out of classical instruments. Our soundtrack is conventional but unconventional. The music we used was a hush which was eerie and slow creating tension. To add to this tension we added a heartbeat which is very low then increases creating anticipation within the audience as they wait for something to happen. Its also very mysterious as it builds up with the dramatic irony griping the audience.

This soundtrack was played throughout and on the party scenes it acted as a contrapuntal sound which showed that Ophelia was distorted throughout.

There was little dialogue in our opening sequence just like other horror films because it build up tension and allows the audience to concentrate of the visual images engaging them more.

  

Editing:

Our opening sequence is unconventional as jumps cuts are used when editing most horror films. We preferred to miss this out of our opening sequence due to the quick and panic atmosphere it gives off. We decided to build the tension up slowly instead to edging the audience to make assumptions and engage better with the characters. This is why we chose to uses cross dissolves as it transfers them slowly and naturally.

In contrast to this our editing is very fast pace with a lot going on throughout the montage. This delivers information that will make the audience feel on edge and wanting to watch more.

Slow motion is usually only used in romances or actions to look more special and stand out. However we developed this and added it into our horror opening sequence to show the impact of the knife and allow the audience to catch on to the knife being the same. Getting the audience involved creates dramatic irony which excited them wanting to carry on watching.

Narrative:

Identifying the killer in the first 2 minutes of the film is very usual in the horror genre. As a group we decided to reveal the killers identity to the audience as it helps them understand the two sides of

her personality. The contrast of family and murder scenes represents the differences and creates enigma within the audience so revealing the killer answers these questions but ends up creating more.

Theories:

Overall we have tired to include most of the horror genre conventions however as Steve Neale suggests a genre is not something static and always evolving so we have tried to push the boundaries and include some unconventional elements to engage the audience further.

In addition most horror films use Rick Altman's genre theory to convey their conventions and we used more of the syntactic element to convey ours than semantic elements as we wanted the audience to feel more emotionally involved and sympathetic.