Evaluation Question 1:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

From the research I did surrounding real horror film media products, I got a real understanding and knowledge of how films in the particular genre are made, from the 1930’s to the 21st century. Each member of my group chose to analyse one horror film title sequence in great detail and also semi-analyse, one or two other title sequences to give ourselves a wider range of ideas and techniques we could use in our own personal title sequence. I myself chose to analyse “The Omen” title sequence in detail, not because of its simplicity, but because of how something quite simple could have such an imposing effect on the audience through the use of special effects lighting, imagery and mise-en-scene. From the analysis I took away the importance of low key lighting and techniques like backlighting to highlight the subject in the shot, commonly the antagonist by making it look like no light escapes them. To assist in the production of the film I decided to half analyse three individual horror film title sequences of some varying success. They were: Shaun of the dead; Childs play; The Shining. Shaun of the dead, being a successful Working Title film, stood out to me the most as it was directed by Simon Pegg a renowned individual with obvious directorial skills. The sequenced stressed how valuable a tracking shot can be in conveying the surroundings/location of the film, instead of having to use an establishing shot.

Research

This analysis and research helped outline to me the common/popular conventions of films in the horror genre, a few being the household, deadly murder weapons and the outlandish costumes the antagonist wears, the low key lighting, mysterious sounds and a series of different audience theories followed to meet the expectations of the target audience.

Mise-en-scene: Setting comparisons to real media productsThe setting we decided upon was not one that met the popular conventions of psychological, slasher horror film as they are usually set in secluded, uninhabited, rural areas where the victim is miles away from help and the antagonist is far away from justice. Films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The hills have eyes follow this convention closely. Instead we chose a similar setting to Shaun of the dead, The Exorcist and Scream films. This was because the location fit well with the plot narrative, and it didn’t make much sense for a clock type object being related to the wilderness. The urban setting makes the film more familiar and relatable to the target audience of 16 – 21 year olds, and uses the idea of populated areas being somewhat safe, to surprise and shock the viewer when something bad inevitably does happen. The fact that the victim reaches his house and the audience expect him to be safe, in his own home with his family, and the antagonist is just waiting there for him showing that no matter where you are you are never really safe. The setting we have chosen is not very popular with the types of sub genres that are film falls into, usually urban areas are used in Zombie horror films to show the mounting odds of death, the more people turn into zombies. However, the timing of which our title sequence occurs makes up for this by having very few pedestrians walking late at night, an lots of cars driving past, too busy to stop and help someone, especially in the next setting on narrow back roads and allies. Although we went against a few horror conventions, we managed to make it work by successfully creating an atmosphere containing low key artificial lighting, ambient sound, non-diegetic and diegetic soundtrack. We made the area seem isolated, by having most of the action happen on the other side of train tracks, under a flyover, blocking the victim off from the rest of society when the most bizarre thing happens. The last part of our title sequence was set in the victims house, providing the audience and the victim with a false sense of security.

Exorcist

Shaun of the dead

PalliumPallium

The difference between the house in our film, and the one in “The conjuring”. One is in a secluded, hard to access area,; the other in a densely housed and populated area.

Mise-en-scene: Lighting comparisons to real media productsIn regards to the lighting, I did not have any of the

professional means to influence the lighting in shots dramatically, however there were a few ways in which we dealt with this problem of being low budget. Firstly, in some areas the camera made the shot darker in comparison to what we could see with the human eye, to counter this each member of my group used the light on their phones to aim at the subject on camera, and light the shot up as much as possible and was needed without getting the phone in shot. An example of where this is necessary is the shot of the antagonist on the bridge. Secondly, due to the title sequence being set late at night we could use the street light to our advantage, in lighting up certain shots, specifically the two shot of dialogue between the victim (Max) and his friend (James) to help see the communication, was shot directly under a street light, providing a spotlight effect.

Finally, we acknowledge whilst filming that although some shots could not be lit up anymore than was possible to us, we could increase the lighting through the editing process by manipulating the ratio of dominant colours in certain, extremely natural low key lit shots. An example of when this was done is the long shot in which the victim (Max) begins to run away from the antagonist, special effect lighting was used, as you can see in comparison to other shots. The shot was initially extremely dark, as it was filmed under a flyover on a narrow back road with little to no street lights. Considering all of this we still managed to conform to the conventions of the horror genre, by each shot being artificially low key in the lighting aspect. I used the shot from Shaun of the dead where most of the lighting comes from windows on a door (top left corner, highest image) , as inspiration for a mid shot of the door in the victims house, using the artificial street lighting from outside. This shot then using a backlighting technique once the victim has entered and is stood directly in front of the door.

Mise-en-scene: Costume & Prop comparisons to real media productsAfter doing my research I came to the conclusion that almost every

antagonist in a psychological, slasher horror film has an iconic, distinguishable costume and weapon. For example, Scream has a killer in a Halloween costume and Skull mask with a carving knife or dagger, and Jason in Friday the 13th is suited in a mechanics jump suit and usually armed with an axe or machete. Our title sequence and film narrative includes an antagonist that is a sort of hybrid between these two villains, however instead of it being a full body cloak it wears more of a hooded cape, along with black clothing and a mask leaving the question unanswered to whether it is human or not. Similarly to Jason our antagonist is armed with a machete, which is incredibly jarring to the victim a such as weapon is not used in urban areas, let alone in rural areas of the United Kingdom. In regards to the conventions of costumes and props, we have conformed to them closely, including the use of a dark coloured costume on the antagonist and the mixture of dark and light coloured clothing on the victim and his friend. The victim (Max) is relatable to the target audience of 16 – 21 year olds due to him wearing a popular fashion of clothing at this point in time, e.g. skinny jeans. The black colour of the villains clothing represents a kind of lifelessness, lack of emotion, mystery and power. The mask it wears makes it hard for the characters in the film and the audience to tell if it is human or not, the only basis of the assumption that it is human comes from its human like shape and features. The fact that the antagonist will attack someone like Max suggests that he doesn’t discriminate and will attack anyone of any age, based on the popular view of the public that even adolescence are still children and have a long life to live.

Scream Friday the 13thPallium

Camera shots and movement comparisons to real media productsFrom my research I have gathered that the majority of camera shots and movements used in horror films are: close ups, mid shots, long shots, dolly/tracking shots, high angle, low angle shots, handheld shots and POV shots. After watching a lot of horror films over the years, and recently I have acquired a greater understanding of shots and movements used in horror films along with their affects on the viewer. I have implemented some of the most effective shots and movements from other horror films into our title sequence. One of these shots is the high angle shot of the victim (Max) walking up stairs, which is similar to the shot used in Shaun of the dead, showing the character as being vulnerable and inferior to the antagonist. It makes him seem like prey to a bird, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike. Another valuable shot we use to convey emotions, such as fear and confusion was a close up of the victims face after he has seen the antagonist, showing zero movement from the character as he is frozen with fear. Initially we did have an establishing shot at the very beginning of our title sequence, which we decided to cut out as it took a long time for anything to happen with this shot and also it wasn’t very useful in the grand scheme of the title sequence.

The Omen (1976)

Shaun of the dead

Narrative and Title comparisons to real media productsIn the creation of our film we decided that we would challenge some of

the conventions that we view as quite old fashioned and not representative of todays society. One audience theory in particular that we disagree with and challenged was the final girl theory. This is the theory in which the protagonist and main victim of the film is a female character and is usually the only survivor at the end of the film. Our title sequence does not contain any female characters apart from the mention of the victims mother, but there will be females in the actual film itself. We chose to go against this because times have changed a lot since the theory was first established in the 1930’s-40’s, and women have gained many rights to gain some equality with men, appearing as professional athletes and politicians, by conforming to this theory it would enforce the view that all women are weak and all men are strong, which in fact is not true. Having the main character be a male individual is a popular idea that is beginning to make its way into new horror films, such as the film “Sinister” and “Woman in Black”. There are still only a few of these films though, which gives our film some individuality, uniqueness and sets it apart from the most popular horror films of the past. However, our film does not challenge all the conventions as it would not be a horror film if it did, and conforms to Levi Strauss’s theory of binary opposition. This theory suggests that there is always one extreme vs another, e.g. black vs white and good vs evil. It follows this theory because our title sequence contains an evil character stalking and killing a good character. Due to our film being in the horror genre, it suffers great criticism based off of the desensitisation theory, meaning we have to create a structure that throws the audience off slightly throughout the film and title sequence, doing something unexpected keeping the viewer on edge.

Sydney Prescott in Scream, following the final girl theory.

Max in Pallium, challenging the final girl theory.

The titles in our title sequence are a mixture of red and white and of varying size, switching from 55 to 77 and back. The colour red is symbolic of the blood that will be spilled as well as anger and animosity of the person or thing doing the killing; the colour white represents the innocents of the victims and the ‘divine’ place where they will be going. Our title sequence contains a heavy use of sound, specifically ambient, non-diegetic, diegetic, contrapuntal and dialogue throughout the title sequence and relies on this along with a mixture of shots and movement to cause a reaction from the audience. The sound should create tension, suspense, intrigue and anticipation. The interest should be developed from the dialogue and suspense by the gradual increase of the ticking speed. The varying speed of ticking compliments, the fade transition, cliff-hanger ending where it fades to black yet the ticking continues for one more second before stopping at the reveal of the films title. This makes the viewer want to continue watching, as they want to know what happens next in the film and who this death affects. A comparable title sequence I watched to influence sound decisions was “Child’s Play 3” due to is repetitive high pitched non-diegetic, mechanical noise throughout the sequence. This gave me the idea that the ticking should be present throughout our title sequence and slowly escalate until the end. We also downloaded two royalty free soundtracks from the website www.purple-planet.com, to accompany the characters journey before he meets the antagonist and after.

Narrative, Title and sound comparisons to real media products continued…

The name of our title sequence is Pallium, meaning Cloak in Latin, a dead language making it a mystery of what the film is about, influencing people to continue watching and try to make an inference them self. It is also more eye catching than the word cloak. The film is closely linked to the title sequence, with the victims friend slowly discovering the reasons why he is dead and who is committing these murders. The only real special effect we used in the editing process was the manipulation of lighting, by the colour contrasts giving the shot a distinct tint in comparison to the other shots.

Narrative, Title and sound comparisons to real media products continued…