Research Essay: Codes and Conventions in existing teen horror film openings

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'.

Research : Codes and Conventions of Existing Teen Horror Film Openings (Wrong Turn)

The opening of 'Wrong Turn' which we have analysed in class.

Research : Codes and Conventions of Existing Teen Horror Film Openings (Dead Mary)

The opening of 'Dead Mary' for you to analyse.

Research : Codes and Conventions of Existing Teen Horror Film Openings (Dead Wood)

The opening to 'Dead Wood' for you to analyse.

Research - Conventions Commonly used in Horror Films

Conventions -Conventions are the widely recognised way of doing something which is to do with content, form and style.

Typical conventions that we would expect in a horror film consist of;

A large setting usually in the middle of no where                                                                                                                        We would expect to see a lot of area so that the character can explore, this is so the character has more hiding spaces, so there is a bit of time before the killer eventually reaches them creating a thrilling tension for the audience.

Above - The house that features in "The Uninvited" (notice the house is very secluded)


Another Media convention that is typically found in horror films is camping in the woods. 

           Shrooms is a prime example of a horror film set in a woods, in which teenagers/young adults decide to camp.
In Shrooms a character called Jake tells the rest of the group spooky stories said to be true about the place they have chosen to camp, this is a typical media convention that conveys to the audience that there will be trouble brewing.

Bad decisions is another typical convention of horror films. orphan is a perfect example of bad decisions. The main plot of this film is a family who had a miscarriage and although have children, always wanted another little girl so they thought they'd do a good deed and adopt an orphan. Although they were unaware how bitter and twisted this orphan actually is, the mother soon had a good idea of how scheming and evil this supposedly sweet and innocent girl really is. The father chose not to believe her although all the signs were there he thought she was crazy and decided she needed to move out if her behaviour towards Esther (the orphan) continued. This put his family into danger, as this so called 'little girl' is actually a fully grown woman with the intentions of killing his family. He chose not to believe his beloved wife that he has known for a lot longer. Another typical convention in horror films that Orphan displays is the idea that the female is crazy and delusion when she has ideas that something isn't right about something or someone. The husband in this film was in total disbelief of every word his wife was saying to him. This convention also features in films such as The exorcist there is elements of disbelief as a woman's daughter gets possessed by the supernatural and her mother is convinced that she can be cured by medical help as she believes it's just serious mental issues her daughter has developed.

Weapons - The most conventional uses of weapons in horror films include guns, knives and axes as well as house hold items such such as kitchen utensils, garden equipment for example chainsaws or garden knives. In some films, weapons are created specifically to be used on a victim, for instance torture machines that feature in 'saw'.

Picture from Teen Slasher, Sorority Row

Another typical media convention features the 'stupid girl' usually this role is played by a blonde girl 'the dumb blonde'. In teen slashers there's usually a blonde victim that is only interested in partying, getting drunk and having sex. This type of character is typically vulnerable and prone to danger, therefore they are almost guaranteed to die although they're usually last as crazy as it sounds! 

Research into fear

Lucy - Pink
Grey - Tyler
Jemma - Blue
As part of a set task, we were asked to get into groups and discuss and write down our groups fears.  We had to go into more detail about why we have these fears and how they might've developed.
The main purpose of this task is to research fears in order to help provide our group with ideas for the two minute opening of a horror film.

Main Task Set Brief

The titles and opening of a new teen horror film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

Preliminary task evaluation 

As part of my main preliminary task we were told we needed to create a short simple film telling a joke to one another. We were asked to make sure we demonstrate shot reverse shot, match on action and the 180-degree rule. This is to show our understanding and knowledge of each filming technique.  

Shot reverse shot: a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. 

shot reverse shot example 

 

Shot reverse shot example 

Match on action: Cutting on action or matching on action refers to film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot'saction. 

 

 

Match on action example – the previous shot then cuts to this shot 

180-Degree rule - The 180-degree rule of shooting and editing keeps the camera on one side of the action. As a matter of convention, the camera stays on one side of the axis of action throughout a scene; this keeps characters grounded compositionally on a particular side of the screen or frame, and keeps them looking at one another when only one character is seen onscreen at a time. The technique allows for an expansion of the frame into the unseen space offscreen. It is referred to as a rule because the camera, when shooting two actors, must not cross over the axis of action; if it does, it risks giving the impression that the actors' positions in the scene have been reversed. 

This is an example of following the 180-Degree rule as the camera has not been placed on more than one side of the 180 circle around the talent. 

Filming process (production) 

Before filming the short film piece I created storyboards and watched short videos with clear explanations of the camera shots I was instructed to use; this enabled me to get a better understanding. This prepared me for filming, as I had storyboards as guidance for filming the different shots. However, due to absence of my other group member, and another student leaving my group changed throughout this process. I had already created a film with Danni (absent) although it was unfinished. The other group, Jemma and Mandy had produced some filming although it wasn’t suitable for editing. As Mandy had then left the schoolJemma and I had to recreate a film ourselves at short notice.  We didn’t create storyboards for our filming due to our last minute change of group; therefore there is a lot of room for improvement. 

The editing stages of our preliminary task (post-production) 

Editing the clips and putting them together was something I was unfamiliar with to start with so admittedly I did struggle. Editing involved adding non-diegetic music, transformations between shots, cutting shots and deleting some diegetic audio from some of the clips. I didn't have a lot of time to edit the short media clip due to having to completely re-do the filming with short notice.  

Evaluation 

The end product in my opinion was satisfactory, I'd added music, a couple of transformations between shots and used a range of different filming techniques such as The 180 Degree rule and tracking. I also used different shots such as a mid shot and a long shot.  

To improve my final piece I could've added subtitles and end credits, more transformations and improved the audio quality of the dialogue.  

The film wasn't very well planned out as we didn't have enough time to create a detailed storyboard for each shot and we had to use any available setting suitable at the time. 

 If given more time we could've planned things out carefully and properly, we didn’t have time to take loads of filming of the joke being told so we couldn't get the filming as accurate as I would've liked.  

However, this was all due to the situation we were in, we had to reform as a new group, although the end result is far from perfect we did it and managed to show a reasonable amount of understanding of the different key features of making a great media film piece.

Final piece - 'The Joke'

Preliminary task - 1st ideas

Basic Camera Shots

This is a close up shot.

This is a medium shot.

This is an over the shoulder shot.

This is a point of view shot.

This is an extreme long shot.

This is an extreme close up.

This is a two shot.

OCR Guide - Basic camera shots

OCR Guide to Basics of Camera movements

OCR Guide to Basic Camera angles

OCR Guide to 180 Degree Rule

Embedding a Powerpoint

 I have created a PowerPoint based on some technical media terminologies for camera techniques. I have embedded this PowerPoint as an example to show I have the knowledge to insert a PowerPoint into my blog. 

Media from Lucycannellx

Preliminary task

Preliminary Exercise

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Media specific terminology

Filming  - Filming is when a video device of some sort eg. phone or video camera is used to record a video of anything. 

Editing - Prepare for publication by correction, condensing or otherwise modifying it.Character - A person portrayed in an artistic piece, such a a drama or a novel.  

Dialogue - Speech which can range from a word or a few sentences in which a person has verbally communicated as a feature of a book, play or film.

Me as a consumer of media

We all consume media in many different ways. Media consumption is the sum of entertainment and information taken in by a group or individual. Some of the ways we consume media may be through reading magazines, listening to the radio, social networking sites, YouTube or watching the news. Personally, the main ways I consume media is through reading magazines such as "new

" which is a magazine focusing on stories based on celebrities. "New magazine" also have an online website making their media content easily accessible. www.new-magazine.co.uk "New" offers the latest celebrity gossip and fashion trends. I also watch many videos on YouTube and MTV to keep updated on the UK top 40 charts music as I enjoy listening to modern dance, pop and RnB music. My favourite song as of September 2014 is Sam Smith - I'm not the only one.

Sam Smith is a very current British singer who often features in the "MTV UK Top 40"

Another artist I enjoy listening to is Ed Sheeran who is a British singer/songwriter who also makes a regular appearance in the UK Top 40's charts. In my opinion Ed Sheeran writes fresh, beautiful music. These are two of my favourite Ed sheeran songs taken from Ed Sheeran's 2014 album "X".

Social networking sites are becoming increasingly popular worldwide! However, I only tend to use facebook. 556 million people now access this site; This could be for personal use, or to promote businesses, companies, charities etc. I enjoy using facebook because it's very easy to communicate with others using the facebook chat and also it allows me to see what my friends are up to! I can also share pictures and memories to friends and family.