Me, Tom, Lewis and Ryan sharing ideas on our pen portrait
Thursday
Planning: potential opening
who
who was involved in the horror film?
what
what happens in the horror film?
when
when did it happen( day/night)?
where
where did it take place from?
opening 1:
it start of with two friends that fall out with there parents and they run away together in the woods. they got lost in the woods and Stephen gets injured and that lead to them trying to find shelter and they found an abandons farm and decided to split up which then lead to mysterious disappearing.
opening 2:
it start with injured Stephen looking for shelter and the characters looking mysteriously at the barn house, then it goes to flash back of 100 years ago which shows that they s mysterious deaths of the former owner. then it went back to the normal time with lewis trying to get injured Stephen home and as they arrived home9 thinking safe for the night, mysterious deaths of the two characters then takes place.
Wednesday
Essay
In horror film, what most people don't have any idea about is that they are witnessing a massive amount of codes and conventions and they don't even realize but that is done to make horror movie what it is and another thing is that it is mostly related to teen horror genre.
They are two types of codes that are used in films:
Technical
Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film like the camera angles, camera movement ad camera shots and it is also the way that lighting is used in a film, what titles and sound (diegetic and non-diegetic- plus most important of them, the editing. when editing is used in a horror movie because it increase the horror aspects of it to give the audience a better experience to horror films and the face paced aspect of editing makes the audience feel involved in the film and allows them to witness the chaos from the victim or villain perspective etc. diegetic and non diegetic sound are also part of technical codes - diegetic sound such as walking, speech and other things to make the scene make sense and non diegetic sound is the use of background sound like creepy noises such as cracking, static noise to make the audience more scared of the what they are looking at. overall, technical codes make the film more professional and successful.
Symbolic
Symbolic codes is basically the main element of mise-en-scene and this is what the audience sees in the film e.g the costumes that is used in the film, the make ups, the setting and the props. for example, if man is wearing a tank top with sweaty all over him and his car with no gas in the middle of road with no one around. the facial expression from the character also gives more explanation on what situation the character is in and that make the audience feel like they are involved and they do this because of the symbolic value of the clothing and make-up.
convention
Convention is also what is used in film that attracts the audience to view the film.
Convention is been set as unwritten rules that is expected by the audience in films. for example, the victim dies in the first five minute in a horror film which is used to show that it is a horror films and that the audience should be expecting that they should be more deaths that will be coming later on in the film and this also sometimes shows blood in the film which also means that they will be more blood scenes in the film.
the three films that i am going to be analyzing is: dead wood, dead Mary and wrong turn and they are three different horror films with some similar conventions.
Dead Wood
In the dead wood film, there is a bird eye view shot in the beginning scene of the location which gives the audience the ideas that it is set in a secluded place which means the audience will get the idea that it will be hard for the victim to escape the situation they are going to be in. the way that the filming i been done from a quite place with non diegetic sound to the victim running of his life till he gets to the point of jumping over the edge which then gives the audience a proper definition that is he going to be the victim that dies in the first fie minute of the film.
The camera shot of the dead wood very cleverly done at the beginning when it started off at the start with the location looking very peaceful and the camera going down wards like it is zooming in to the end of the opening when the camera looking like it is zooming out and another clever thing with the start was when the shot was looking like nothing bad was going to be going on until the victim runs into the camera and it seems like a little falls jump that the film want at the beginning of the film.
A technical codes as in non diegetic sound was used in the film as the sound of nature which refers to as bird, squirrels etc. and that it used to show what type of location is being used for the film and another non diegetic sound that is used is when the victim was about to jump and suddenly birds starts to fly out of the woods with the non diegetic sound as a falls jump to show that danger is getting closer to the victim
One of the convention that was used in the film dead wood is the victim is close to close to escaping but failed because of an hazard that prevent them from safety and it is used when the victim was about to jump over an edge to the other side of the woods when i figured that it was too long for him to jump but when he jumps, he then was struggling to get over it because he find it extremely hard to climb over until he ran out of time which lad to him dying. another convention that was used in dead wood was the location was a secluded place like the other horror films and dead wood opening scene was set in the woods with no help around for the victim that is in desperate need of help.
Dead Mary
In the horror film dead Mary it start of with a close up of what the secluded place looks like which means they have less chance of escaping the danger and the lack of escaping gets worse when to shows that there car had stopped in the middle of nowhere and to make that even worse the phone as no connection at all which means they can get any help at all in the middle of nowhere, it then goes to an extreme long shot of something coming towards the victim but it turns out to be another victim that is in danger of being killed by the villain.
Dead Mary used similar convention as the wrong turn and one of the convention was that the victim is a female, they use this because female in a horror film are classed as more vulnerable and are more likely not to be able to defend themselves as males are classed to. another convention is the secluded place and the secluded place in dead Mary is in the middle of nowhere that was abandoned where their vehicle had stopped with no help around which lead to the male fetching for gas while the female is been left alone which made it more scary for her because there is no help around. another convention that is used in dad Mary is that the phones as no connection at all which means she can get any help from anyone if she is in danger, this is shown when the female is trying to call someone and the phone didn't work but she also tried lifting up the phone to try and get connection but nothing happened to till the point that she chucked the phone away out of frustration.
Wrong turn
The wrong turn film starts of with a birds eye view of the secluded place which means that the victim will find it hard to get help and then goes to a camera shot looking down at the male and female victim from there rock climbing, which then lead to the killer killing the male victim first which gives the audience an idea that the female is going to die next and the need that she needs to escape before it is too late.
The editing that is used in wrong turn is very effective when it comes to fast cuts of the female as she is trying to escape the villain but the clever thing was that they started the cut very slowly till they get to the point of the female struggling to escape and this is used to build up the tension that they was the audience to have to make them get involved in the reaction they was the audience to have.
The camera angle at the beginning of the film is a shot of the camera looking down at the victim which shows that the villain is in control which means the killer as got more power over his victim and this will give the audience the idea that the victims are about to die
One of the convention of the that was used in wrong turn was at the beginning when it started with a birds eye view is the location being a secluded place and it is secluded because it is based in the woods and as it is based in the woods, it shows that it may be that they are the only one in the place which lead to no help for them when they are in danger. another convention that is mostly used in lots of horror films is when the victim get very close to escaping and something happens that made it impossible for them to escape before the villain gets to them and this convention is used in wrong turn when the victim is running towards her car when she was been chased by a villain and unfortunately the villain trips her up which lead to her falling on the fall which then makes it very easy for the villain to get his/her victim. another convention that is used in wrong turn is that the victim dies in the first five minutes and this is used because it is a horror film and they use that to point out that they is going to be more killing in the film and it is also used to give the audience the idea of how the villain are going to be killing there victims. another convention of the film wrong turn is that you don't get to see the killer in the beginning of the film and this is also used in both dad wood and dead Mary and it make it very interesting because it gets the audience thinking in their mind of how they would imagine the killer to look like and this is mostly used to get the audience involved in the movie.
A symbolic code that is used in the three films is that the female left a lot of body uncovered which is aimed to the female as it shows that they move vulnerable victims and this is showed in "Dead Mary" as the female was dressed in a tank top and shorts which means many parts of there body is uncovered and this is also used in the film wrong turn as the female victim is also wearing a tank top and short trousers while the male is wearing cloth that covered most parts of his body. another symbolic code is when the victim in the film dead wood is being chased, the make-up that is used as in the blood in the victims face which shows that the victim was in a form of victim before and the killer isn't finished with him.
Overall i think wrong turn uses more of the codes and the convention from the camera angles that was used including the camera angle that shows the location that they are which is a secluded place and also shows shot looking down at the victim which shows that danger is coming for the victims cause they have less control of if they are going to die or escape and the editing that was also used as when it starts of slow till it gets on a fast pace when the victim is in danger was about to fall. the sound that was also used get the audience involved as well when she was escaping the danger. they was also symbolic code on how the female dressed to the way the male is dressed that shows that the male is more covered up other than the female who is a lot exposed with her clothing. and the death in the first five minutes shows that the way the killer kills his victim make the audience think that there is going to be more unexpected deaths in the film later on.
They are two types of codes that are used in films:
Technical
Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film like the camera angles, camera movement ad camera shots and it is also the way that lighting is used in a film, what titles and sound (diegetic and non-diegetic- plus most important of them, the editing. when editing is used in a horror movie because it increase the horror aspects of it to give the audience a better experience to horror films and the face paced aspect of editing makes the audience feel involved in the film and allows them to witness the chaos from the victim or villain perspective etc. diegetic and non diegetic sound are also part of technical codes - diegetic sound such as walking, speech and other things to make the scene make sense and non diegetic sound is the use of background sound like creepy noises such as cracking, static noise to make the audience more scared of the what they are looking at. overall, technical codes make the film more professional and successful.
Symbolic
Symbolic codes is basically the main element of mise-en-scene and this is what the audience sees in the film e.g the costumes that is used in the film, the make ups, the setting and the props. for example, if man is wearing a tank top with sweaty all over him and his car with no gas in the middle of road with no one around. the facial expression from the character also gives more explanation on what situation the character is in and that make the audience feel like they are involved and they do this because of the symbolic value of the clothing and make-up.
convention
Convention is also what is used in film that attracts the audience to view the film.
Convention is been set as unwritten rules that is expected by the audience in films. for example, the victim dies in the first five minute in a horror film which is used to show that it is a horror films and that the audience should be expecting that they should be more deaths that will be coming later on in the film and this also sometimes shows blood in the film which also means that they will be more blood scenes in the film.
the three films that i am going to be analyzing is: dead wood, dead Mary and wrong turn and they are three different horror films with some similar conventions.
Dead Wood
In the dead wood film, there is a bird eye view shot in the beginning scene of the location which gives the audience the ideas that it is set in a secluded place which means the audience will get the idea that it will be hard for the victim to escape the situation they are going to be in. the way that the filming i been done from a quite place with non diegetic sound to the victim running of his life till he gets to the point of jumping over the edge which then gives the audience a proper definition that is he going to be the victim that dies in the first fie minute of the film.
The camera shot of the dead wood very cleverly done at the beginning when it started off at the start with the location looking very peaceful and the camera going down wards like it is zooming in to the end of the opening when the camera looking like it is zooming out and another clever thing with the start was when the shot was looking like nothing bad was going to be going on until the victim runs into the camera and it seems like a little falls jump that the film want at the beginning of the film.
A technical codes as in non diegetic sound was used in the film as the sound of nature which refers to as bird, squirrels etc. and that it used to show what type of location is being used for the film and another non diegetic sound that is used is when the victim was about to jump and suddenly birds starts to fly out of the woods with the non diegetic sound as a falls jump to show that danger is getting closer to the victim
One of the convention that was used in the film dead wood is the victim is close to close to escaping but failed because of an hazard that prevent them from safety and it is used when the victim was about to jump over an edge to the other side of the woods when i figured that it was too long for him to jump but when he jumps, he then was struggling to get over it because he find it extremely hard to climb over until he ran out of time which lad to him dying. another convention that was used in dead wood was the location was a secluded place like the other horror films and dead wood opening scene was set in the woods with no help around for the victim that is in desperate need of help.
Dead Mary
In the horror film dead Mary it start of with a close up of what the secluded place looks like which means they have less chance of escaping the danger and the lack of escaping gets worse when to shows that there car had stopped in the middle of nowhere and to make that even worse the phone as no connection at all which means they can get any help at all in the middle of nowhere, it then goes to an extreme long shot of something coming towards the victim but it turns out to be another victim that is in danger of being killed by the villain.
Dead Mary used similar convention as the wrong turn and one of the convention was that the victim is a female, they use this because female in a horror film are classed as more vulnerable and are more likely not to be able to defend themselves as males are classed to. another convention is the secluded place and the secluded place in dead Mary is in the middle of nowhere that was abandoned where their vehicle had stopped with no help around which lead to the male fetching for gas while the female is been left alone which made it more scary for her because there is no help around. another convention that is used in dad Mary is that the phones as no connection at all which means she can get any help from anyone if she is in danger, this is shown when the female is trying to call someone and the phone didn't work but she also tried lifting up the phone to try and get connection but nothing happened to till the point that she chucked the phone away out of frustration.
Wrong turn
The wrong turn film starts of with a birds eye view of the secluded place which means that the victim will find it hard to get help and then goes to a camera shot looking down at the male and female victim from there rock climbing, which then lead to the killer killing the male victim first which gives the audience an idea that the female is going to die next and the need that she needs to escape before it is too late.
The editing that is used in wrong turn is very effective when it comes to fast cuts of the female as she is trying to escape the villain but the clever thing was that they started the cut very slowly till they get to the point of the female struggling to escape and this is used to build up the tension that they was the audience to have to make them get involved in the reaction they was the audience to have.
The camera angle at the beginning of the film is a shot of the camera looking down at the victim which shows that the villain is in control which means the killer as got more power over his victim and this will give the audience the idea that the victims are about to die
One of the convention of the that was used in wrong turn was at the beginning when it started with a birds eye view is the location being a secluded place and it is secluded because it is based in the woods and as it is based in the woods, it shows that it may be that they are the only one in the place which lead to no help for them when they are in danger. another convention that is mostly used in lots of horror films is when the victim get very close to escaping and something happens that made it impossible for them to escape before the villain gets to them and this convention is used in wrong turn when the victim is running towards her car when she was been chased by a villain and unfortunately the villain trips her up which lead to her falling on the fall which then makes it very easy for the villain to get his/her victim. another convention that is used in wrong turn is that the victim dies in the first five minutes and this is used because it is a horror film and they use that to point out that they is going to be more killing in the film and it is also used to give the audience the idea of how the villain are going to be killing there victims. another convention of the film wrong turn is that you don't get to see the killer in the beginning of the film and this is also used in both dad wood and dead Mary and it make it very interesting because it gets the audience thinking in their mind of how they would imagine the killer to look like and this is mostly used to get the audience involved in the movie.
A symbolic code that is used in the three films is that the female left a lot of body uncovered which is aimed to the female as it shows that they move vulnerable victims and this is showed in "Dead Mary" as the female was dressed in a tank top and shorts which means many parts of there body is uncovered and this is also used in the film wrong turn as the female victim is also wearing a tank top and short trousers while the male is wearing cloth that covered most parts of his body. another symbolic code is when the victim in the film dead wood is being chased, the make-up that is used as in the blood in the victims face which shows that the victim was in a form of victim before and the killer isn't finished with him.
Overall i think wrong turn uses more of the codes and the convention from the camera angles that was used including the camera angle that shows the location that they are which is a secluded place and also shows shot looking down at the victim which shows that danger is coming for the victims cause they have less control of if they are going to die or escape and the editing that was also used as when it starts of slow till it gets on a fast pace when the victim is in danger was about to fall. the sound that was also used get the audience involved as well when she was escaping the danger. they was also symbolic code on how the female dressed to the way the male is dressed that shows that the male is more covered up other than the female who is a lot exposed with her clothing. and the death in the first five minutes shows that the way the killer kills his victim make the audience think that there is going to be more unexpected deaths in the film later on.
Monday
Planning : Initial Ideas
In this task i had added different ideas as a brain storm with my group gathering ideas together to make a good horror movie of our own, the thing we came up is a hunted house and an asylium but we have decided that the haunted house if the best ideas for the type of film we are going to do and we also have an idea of the victim making bad decision to be in the in the haunted house. our working idea is "the last night"
Thursday
Research: conventions commonly found in horror films
characters ignoring threats
In most horror film, they are mostly situations when people know that certain places are dangerous and they end up putting it out of their mind and making bad decisions even though the place there about to go gives them a sense of danger in its appearance and the people chose to ignore it.
secluded locations
In horror movie, victims tend to end up in secluded location probably from the beginning of the horror film or later on in the horror film. the find themselves with no help around and mostly places that has a history with bad things happening, places like the woods, ghost town, abandoned places, abandoned religious places and a place in the middle of nowhere e.t.c
power cut
In horror movies, power cuts always are a good scary part that is added to it and it takes place usually at the scariest moment of the movie for example a victim is alone with the killer about to kill her then there is a power cut to make the victim even more scared.
phone lines are cut
In horror movies, the killers mostly cut phone lines sot the victim wouldn't get any help if with their phone if they are in danger and that is added in the movies because it makes the victim more hopeless of surviving and get the audience thinking about how the victim can escape the danger.
someone runs upstairs instead of outside
This is a stupid decision that a character makes in an horror movie of going to hide upstairs instead of running outside and i think this is used because they want the victim to remain in the danger zone because the audience will be expecting the killer to find the victim after the bad decision
someone investigating a strange noise
This something tat victims do a lot in scary movie which is investigating strange noise which i find is a stupid thing because they should be running away but instead they choose to investigate which means they are more likely to get killed if they make the bad decision
victim cowers in front of a window or door
victim cowers in front of door or windows in horror movies is what mostly tend to happen and that isn't very smart due to the fact that the killer can easily break it down and this gives the victim a more likely chance of getting killed by the killer
victim inexplicably falls over
this is used in horror movies a lot and this is a part of the film that most people are expecting to see when a victim is trying to escape and the thing that makes it worse is they don't get up straight away but they tend to start crawling instead which give them less chance of escaping.
The fake scare
I think fake scare are used to make the audience get a felling of what they need to be expecting to happen and it is very much used in horror films. i also think it is used to give the audience like a demo reaction of what is going to happen later on in the horror film.
vehicle won't start
one of the stupidest things that happen in horror films is vehicle not starting at the most point of need which always seem like a curse but i think it is used to make the audience have less hope for whoever is going to escape.
someone is killed in the first 5 mins
this is a good thing that shows the audience a sign that it is going to be a horror movie and there is going to be more killing involved for example the movie scream, the victims die in the first five minutes to show the audience the style in how the killer kills their victims.
x years before and after
this is the convention that is used a lot in horror films where something may have happened in a place in the past that involves people possibly dying and the future comes back to the same place where different people ended up and the same things from the past continues.
In most horror film, they are mostly situations when people know that certain places are dangerous and they end up putting it out of their mind and making bad decisions even though the place there about to go gives them a sense of danger in its appearance and the people chose to ignore it.
In horror movie, victims tend to end up in secluded location probably from the beginning of the horror film or later on in the horror film. the find themselves with no help around and mostly places that has a history with bad things happening, places like the woods, ghost town, abandoned places, abandoned religious places and a place in the middle of nowhere e.t.c
power cut
In horror movies, power cuts always are a good scary part that is added to it and it takes place usually at the scariest moment of the movie for example a victim is alone with the killer about to kill her then there is a power cut to make the victim even more scared.
phone lines are cut
In horror movies, the killers mostly cut phone lines sot the victim wouldn't get any help if with their phone if they are in danger and that is added in the movies because it makes the victim more hopeless of surviving and get the audience thinking about how the victim can escape the danger.
someone runs upstairs instead of outside
This is a stupid decision that a character makes in an horror movie of going to hide upstairs instead of running outside and i think this is used because they want the victim to remain in the danger zone because the audience will be expecting the killer to find the victim after the bad decision
someone investigating a strange noise
This something tat victims do a lot in scary movie which is investigating strange noise which i find is a stupid thing because they should be running away but instead they choose to investigate which means they are more likely to get killed if they make the bad decision
victim cowers in front of a window or door
victim cowers in front of door or windows in horror movies is what mostly tend to happen and that isn't very smart due to the fact that the killer can easily break it down and this gives the victim a more likely chance of getting killed by the killer
victim inexplicably falls over
this is used in horror movies a lot and this is a part of the film that most people are expecting to see when a victim is trying to escape and the thing that makes it worse is they don't get up straight away but they tend to start crawling instead which give them less chance of escaping.
The fake scare
I think fake scare are used to make the audience get a felling of what they need to be expecting to happen and it is very much used in horror films. i also think it is used to give the audience like a demo reaction of what is going to happen later on in the horror film.
vehicle won't start
one of the stupidest things that happen in horror films is vehicle not starting at the most point of need which always seem like a curse but i think it is used to make the audience have less hope for whoever is going to escape.
someone is killed in the first 5 mins
this is a good thing that shows the audience a sign that it is going to be a horror movie and there is going to be more killing involved for example the movie scream, the victims die in the first five minutes to show the audience the style in how the killer kills their victims.
x years before and after
this is the convention that is used a lot in horror films where something may have happened in a place in the past that involves people possibly dying and the future comes back to the same place where different people ended up and the same things from the past continues.
Research Essay : Codes and Conventions in Existing Teen Horror Film Openings
Please find below the title of the essay you need to complete by 3pm on XXX. This essay will be valuable for your planning and evaluation.
- This essay should be done as a post to your blog. You can, if you wish, punctuate your essay with screen shots from the openings.
- The word count should be targeted at 750 words
- You should select appropriate examples from the openings to illustrate the points that you make. You do not have to write about everything that you see and hear.
Analyse the codes and conventions of horror films as shown in the openings of 'Dead Wood', 'Dead Mary' and 'Wrong Turn'.
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