Q1 evaluation (Draft)

Question 1: 

We have created a short horror film that also fits within the mystery genre entitled, The Living Past. To summarise our film, the narrative of our film is based on two time periods, the 50's and 2016. The film begins within the 50's setting and follows Richard Williams a middle class columnist, who stumbles across a haunted office that claims the lives of those who step in. Through a time skip, the film turns to a new beginning in modern times, were this time the narrative follows Alan Smith, a blogger by profession, who mysteriously stumbles across an article regarding that same haunted office. Both Richard Williams and Alan Smith fall in to the trap of the haunted office. We have also created two ancillary products to market our film, a radio trailer and a poster. We have carefully considered the conventions of real media texts to construct all 3 products and have made decisions to include unconventional elements to all 3 products.

We have adhered to conventions of the horror genre and the mystery genre in our poster, this is because the typography, colours and iconography in our film poster adheres to a lot of conventions found within posters of the horror and mystery genre. For example, considering the colour scheme, we have used the colour black and navy blue as the background colour and this is a stereotypical colour associated with posters within the mystery genre, for example the poster for the film The Prestige (2006), whereby the background colour of the official poster is a block black colour.

This is because these dark colours symbolise the absence of light, which may connote to the absence of truth and for that reason these colours really do represent the essence of mystery films, which is about searching and investigating for the truth.

The iconography and mis en scene of our film poster both help to establish to our audience that our film is within both the horror and mystery genre. For example, in our poster we have layered behind the foreground image of Alan Smith a hand clock, which represents time and this is iconic to the mystery genre, because stereotypical narratives within the mystery genre focus on time, the idea of going back and forth in time, for example, the film Twelve Monkeys, which is about a convict that is sent back in time to collect information about a man-made virus effecting those in the present times. Secondly, the use of heavy artificial lighting is a horror genre convention that we also adhered to in our poster, this is because to create the shadows from the hollow areas on our actors face we shone bright artificial lighting and the creation of shadows helped our actors face look creepier. The use of artificial lighting is also seen in the poster of another iconic horror film The Silence of the Lambs (1991), whereby, there is heavy white light that lights up half of the face making her face seem pore less and on the other side of the face a dark shadow is created, thus the contrast creates a binary opposition. Adhering to these conventions found within the horror and mystery genre, I believe has possible helped our audience construct a narrative of what they think our film will be about, which agrees with Paul Auster who argues “we construct narratives for ourselves” and this may contribute to audience gratification (Bulmer and Katz), as our audience may find pleasure in figuring out how the use of the clock and the use of harsh lighting to emphasise the sinister expression of Alan Smith relate to each other and thus our target audience may predict a narrative based on this enigma.

In our film poster, we have also conformed to poster conventions, through this we believe that we have created an industry standard poster. For example, in our poster we add film/institution credits at the bottom of the poster, which is the conventional position and the used the conventional font to write this. Conforming to this convention has allowed us to appeal to a niche audience in our target audience who are film fanatics and may only wish to see a film because of the institutions involved, such as the production company, director, or sound editor. As a result, this helps us to gratify our niche audience within our target audience. However, me and my partner are not a well-established production company, so in our case, including film credits may encourage individuals within our target audience who know us personally to view what we have created.

Conventions found within radio trailers for horror films are often within the manipulation of sound codes. These include, the addition of crescendos in the non-diegetic incidental background music and creepy dialogue. In addition, conventions found within radio trailers for films within the mystery genre do not differ too much from horror film radio trailers, but one large conventional difference would the use of ambience sound and the heavy use of dialogue from the film in mystery radio trailers. In our radio trailer, we have conformed to these conventions, for example, in the beginning of our radio trailer there is a brass crescendo and this has been used to represent the 50’s period, as the brass instruments are stereotypical to the 50’s period. Moreover, the use of a brass crescendo helps to build tension within listeners, as the gradual increase of volume has effects on the body, as it stimulates the production of adrenaline, thus contributing to a faster heart beat and so tension. This agrees with Bridgid Cherry that cinema codes are manipulated to bring about physiological and emotional responses. However, we have developed this convention by including the brass crescendo right at the beginning of our radio trailer, this helped us to add to the horror effect, as listeners may feel thrown off due to the brass crescendo being very immediate in the timeline of the radio trailer. As a result, my audience may have a negotiated response to this, as the more academically mature individuals of my audience may interpret that this crescendo connotes to danger, while other target listeners may think that the brass crescendo simply connotes to the 50s period if not then just the “olden time”. This applied Stuart Halls reception theory. .

We have also conformed to mystery radio trailer conventions by using in film dialogue for most of the dialogue in our radio trailer. This convention is found in the radio trailer for the film Shutter Island (2010), where we hear Leonardo DiCaprio’s (who plays the main character “Edward Daniels”) voice in dialogue that seems to come directly from the film throughout the trailer. Therefore, we have conformed to this by using dialogue from the modern and 50s section of the film from the characters Sofia, Richard Williams, their ghosts, and Adam. This is effective in giving our audience an idea as to the personalities of the characters in our film and decide whether these characters are relatable or/ and scary. In addition, within our listeners there may be a dominant response, as listeners may interpret form the use of dialogue from characters in both periods, that there is a time skip in the film. However, a small proportion of our listeners may interpret that the 50s and modern period interlink with each other, thus they have a negotiated response.

Lastly, conventions of radio trailers include features such as mentioning the name and release date of the film at the end of the trailer, such as the radio trailer for the horror film The conjuring (2013), where the date of cinema release was mentioned at the end of the radio trailer(https://vimeo.com/78269665). We have conformed to this by doing the same, as we mentioned the release date of our film at the end of the radio trailer. Moreover, we developed this convention mentioning a season release of our film for Halloween in October. This is effective, as it highlights to our audience that our film is the perfect film to watch during Halloween and thus connotes to our audience that our film is worth watching. However, at the end of our radio trailer, we used a demonic voice to mention the tagline of our film, this is unconventional to radio trailers, as the mentioning of the release date is the stereotypical signal to end a radio trailer, but we continued our radio trailer by including the tagline of our film after the release date. This I believe, provided a unique element to our radio trailer that can gratify our listeners.

Conventional music techniques used in films within the horror genre are the use of strings, high pitch sounds and long durational sounds. These are the conventions that we adhered to in the music score of my film. The use of long durational and eerie strings is seen in the title sequence of the film Insidious (2010), whereby as the camera moves around the house creepy high pitched violin strings can be heard and each time the violin piece is played the volume increases until, an old woman is seen. This is evident in our film, when Richard Williams and Alan Smith see the spirit of Sofia Williams and Richard Williams in the mirror of the haunted office, to support the action low pitched strong wind blowing strings can be heard, which increases in pitch until a glissando is reached. In both the modern and 50’s section, the use of the creepy and long strings is used to represent the disequilibrium (Todorov linear narrative) created by the ghosts and this aid to build that tension and create that jump scare, because throughout the film, the music score is eerily quiet until the ghost arrive. Moreover, the use of shaker percussion at the end of the film contributes to emphasising the urgency of Alan Smith as he runs down the stairs, because this sound effect works in cooperation with the quick cuts, which is unconventional in horror films where mostly piano and string instruments are used to increase tension within the audience. However, the use of the shaker percussion connotes to the mystery genre, for example fight scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, whereby the shaker percussion is used as a sound effect to show sand falling from the ceiling. This emphasises the action and the urgency in the characters, which is also seen in our film.

Conventional mis en scene in films within the horror genre consist of dark low key lighting, the use of blood and the use of gory or scary makeup. These are the conventions that we used in our horror film and these conventions are seen in mainstream as well independent films, such as the use of scary makeup and blood is evident in the franchise film Insidious, as well the Grudge franchise and short YouTube film “Don’t Look” (2016), whereby contact lenses as well editing is used to make the eyes of the protagonist all white. In our short horror film, we used makeup to create a ghostly look on our actors, to represent them as dead spirits, we used blood which is iconographic to the horror genre, to represent them as being avenging, because the colour red connotes to danger and thus our audience are likely to understand that these spirits are evil and are after human soul. However, in our film, the use of the convention dark lighting was developed as it was prominent mainly in the modern section and thus the second half of our film, this is because the 50’s section represents the equilibrium and thus we used high key lighting to represent that everything is orderly, as high key lighting is symbolical of goodness and happiness. However, in the modern section of our film, the disorder is created, thus low key lighting is used to represent darkness, which connotes to evil and mystery. Typically, horror films use dark tones and low key lighting throughout most of the film. Such as the film Paranormal activity, whereby the paranormal bedroom scenes where shot in almost complete darkness. In contrast, in our film we use both low and high key lighting, throughout the film, which creates a binary opposition, as the use of high key lighting represents the equilibrium in our narrative, such as when Richard Williams is moving in to his new office, connoting to celebration and good fortune. However, the scenes within the haunted office have low key lighting, which represents the the disequilibrium and the source of disorder (Noel Caroll) in our narrative, as the use of low key lighting may connote to evil. As a result, our audience may begin to consider our horror film to be unconventional in the category of lighting, thus giving our audience something new to feel gratified by.

Conventional camera work used in horror and mystery films are the use of slow tracking movements and specifically to the horror genre, the use of canted angle and hand held camera is conventional to the horror genre. Slow tracking movements is seen in the film “The woman in Black”, which horror film, with the mystery sub-genre and the use of tracking is very prominent, for example at the end of the film, a little boy is tracked as he walks across the train station platform in to the train tracks. Although, the use of this camera movement is conventional, we did not adhere to this convention, because, we did not have a dolly and our hands were not steady enough to complete a tracking shot. In the 50’s section of our film, low canted angle is used when the door handle rattles on its own and this is also seen in the horror film “Lights out”, when the female protagonist is seen opening the basement door, while holding a torch. This type of angle, is effective in distorting the setting and thus helps to bring about an unsettling feeling, because from the canted angle everything looks out of place and abnormal. This connotes to uncertainty, which is often viewed as a weakness and thus our audience may begin to feel subconsciously insecure and threatened, because the setting does not look normal. In addition, the use of hand held was prominent at the end of our film, whereby the protagonist of the modern section Alan Smith, runs out the haunted office and down the stairs. The use of hand held camera is conventional in films, whereby the camera operators happen to be characters within the film, such as The Blair Witch Project. The use of hand held camera gave a sense of urgency and desperation. As a result, this helped to build stress within our audience, as the intentional bouncy and jerky movements of hand held camera, helped our audience to feel like they are magically involved in the action, like they are there but not actually there, thus giving voyeuristic values to that part our film.

Conventional editing techniques within the mystery genre include fast paced editing when there is quick action, we used this in the end of our film, when Alan Smith runs down the stairs, in this scene quick cuts are used to increase the pace of the film and match the high energy in the running scene. This convention was scene in the film for example, in the ending scene of the mystery film 10 Clover field Lane, when the female protagonists tis attempting to run away from attacking creatures. Specifically, a conventional editing technique in horror is the use of slow paced editing, which is what we adhered to in our film, for instance when Richard Williams from the 50’ slowly opens the door to the haunted office and slowly steps in. This is also evident in the horror film Evil Dead (2013), whereby at the end of the film, slow-paced editing is used, to show the possessed female protagonist turn around and say to her brother “David, why are you hurting me?”. The use of this editing technique was helpful in building suspense and anxiety within our audience, which allowed us to produce a fake jump scare. This is because, as Alfred Hitchcock argues “There is no terror in the bang, only the anticipation of it.”, our audience considering their positioning (Stuart Hall), our target audience have existing knowledge on the conventions of horror films and based on this knowledge they may believe, if horror films slow down, it means a monster or a ghost will pop and scare them and thus our audience psychologically built fear within themselves. However, as nothing happened, the large jump from feeling scared to feeling relaxed also helps to leave an impact on our audience, making them feel rushed and unbalanced.

In our film, we used green screen in moments the ghost appeared in our film and this is a convention found within the horror genre. The use of green screen allowed us to manipulate the ghost scene footage, so that along with the ghostly makeup, our ghosts looked freakier and grotesque. For example, in the ghost scene of Richard Williams in the modern section of our film, we increased the pace of certain parts of the footage, so that it seemed Richard Williams was moving his neck in an abnormal matter. The use of this effect, made the ghost of Richard Williams appear as if he was cracking his neck, which is seen in the final scene of the horror film The Grudge 3 (2009), whereby the female protagonist confronts the female ghost, as the ghost reaches towards the female protagonist cracking her neck. This increased the scare factor of our film and made our ghost seem realistic, in the sense that the Ghost of Richard Williams seemed less like a human and more of an evil spirit.

We have developed film conventions in our short horror film, by not following the linear narrative structure introduced by Todorov. Todorov argues, that every film starts off with an equilibrium whereby everything is normal, then the film moves to a disequilibrium due to the introduction of a problem in the narrative and lastly, a new equilibrium is created whereby the problem is solved and everything returns to normal. We decided to not conform to this convention, by ending our film on a cliff hanger, which provided our audience something to talk about and perhaps encouraged our audience to create a narrative for themselves to satisfy their curiosity, which agrees with Paul Auster, who argues “we construct narratives for ourselves”. Moreover, we developed Noel Carroll’s, 3 act horror structure, that in a typical horror film, there is an onset phase, then a discovery phase and lastly a disruption phase. We developed this narrative convention, by creating a discovery phase in the 50’s section, when Richard Williams sees the ghost of his wife in the mirror and in the modern phase where Alan Smith sees his ghost Doppelganger (Richard Williams) in the same mirror. Through developing this convention, we think we could offer our audience something new to see in our horror film, to feel gratified by. In our narrative we can apply and develop Propp's 8 stock characters, which is a theory that suggests all films will contain certain 8 characters in one shape or form. This is evident in our film, because the princess is represented by the wife of Richard Williams, who is Sofia Williams, as she is who Richard Williams attempts to search for after she goes missing in the 50s section of the film. The villain is represented by the spirits in the haunted office. On the other hand, we developed Propp's theory as instead of having one hero, there are two heroes represented by Richard Williams and Alan Smith, who both attempt to figure out the mystery of the haunted office, but both in the end are defeated by the villain. Therefore, we have challenged Propp's theory and added an unconventional element to our film, in doing so, we believe this gives our audience a different ideology of a hero, that not all heroes succeed.