Angel.With.E
Horror
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Horror movies tend to use abandoned location settings such as old churches or houses, this is to connote the effect of a 'haunted' building or place where supernatural things occur. This also stays in their audiences memory, helping them to find anything run down or old to be symbolic of something that should be feared or that causes fear. The protagonist usually has a group with them to ensure that they defeat a great evil also known as the antagonist. The antagonist is stereotypically an entity that has been angered by the protagonist or their ancestors, who returns to exact vengeance and wreak chaos, this is a very common story line within horror movies.
The colour scheme within this genre usually consists of dark colours or costumes covered in blood, worn by antagonists and neutral tones possibly also covered in blood worn by the protagonist and their company. Blood has negative connotations, that brings the audience to believe the tense atmosphere of the film and 'life or death' scenario that is often depicted in horror movies. The costumes worn within horror movies are often also ripped or torn depending on the subgenre, this is to show the distress the character is under or malice they cause (if the character is the antagonist).
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When filming, filmmakers may choose to use the handheld method as it adds a shaky element to the shots. Using hand-held camera technique gives the shot a sense of reality, which makes it more likely for the audience to have the desired emotion of fear from watching the movie. Another popular technique used when filming a horror movie is close ups; Close ups display the characters emotion and facial expression for the audience to view. This helps to connote the affects or ramifications that the antagonist has caused the protagonists.
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Comedy
Comedies are light-hearted dramas, crafted to amuse, entertain, and provoke enjoyment. The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters.The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, foibles, and frustrations of life, providing merriment and a momentary escape from day-to-day life. They usually have happy endings, although the humour may have a serious or pessimistic side
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Characters in modern Comedy films wear casual, fashionable costumes but The costumes also relate to the setting of the main characters and their demographic. For instance, the teen comedy movie 'The DUFF' is based on suburban teens and is therefore set in a suburban school of 2015 consisting of trending; jeans, hoodies and trainers. The costume and demographic of the characters, immediately tells the audience the personality of the characters. Comedy films tend to use media generated extreme stereotypes such as the 'all jocks are rude and handsome', this is done to create an extreme reality filled with drama for the audience and add depth to the story.
Romance
The romance genre usually has a topic that explores an issue within love, including but not limited to : love at first sight, forbidden love, love triangles, and sacrificial love. The tone of Romance film can vary greatly. Whether the end is happy or tragic, Romance films aim to evoke strong emotions in the audience.
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Romance films have a varied choice of outfits. The costume usually relates to the setting of the main characters and their demographic. For instance, the teen romance movie 'High school musical' is based on suburban teens and is therefore set in a suburban school consisting of colourful; jeans, hoodies and trainers. If the film set in a city filled with business workers or street workers, then the characters wear more neutral tones in suits and dresses, or tops and fitted jeans. The costume and demographic of the characters, immediately tells the audience how the movie is stereotypically going to go and the personality of the characters. Romance movies tend to use media generated stereotypes such as the 'dumb blonde' connoting that all blondes are ignorant to create an extreme reality filled with drama for the audience.
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The story structure of Romance films tend to follow, Todorov's narratology theory, starting with an equilibrium of two characters meeting and coming together for a common goal; a disequilibrium of which outside forces tend to bring the characters apart by pitting them against one another; the recognition and attempts, where one character makes a grand declaration of love after realising they were wrong and truly did love the second protagonist; and a resolution; usually a happy ending in which the two main characters end up together or remain friends and live their separate lives.
Action
Action films are built around a core set of characteristics: spectacular physical action; a narrative emphasis on fights, chases, and explosions; and a combination of state-of-the-art special effects and stunt-work. Action films tend to be energetic and fast-pace, For this reason camera shots such as tracking shots are used. Tracking-shots allow the camera to follow the character whilst eliminating the shaky element of a hand-held technique; this makes the actions that are displayed from the characters appear flawless and as though they are real even though they are not.
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Characters within action films are commonly identified as either hero's or villain's. The Hero character is the protagonist pf the film and usually has attributes of being confident and strong, their costumes can range from different colours depending on the subgenre of the movie but will always contain a token of their personality. The most common token for a protagonist in action films is sunglasses, that they commonly wear towards the end of the movie after they have saved the day from peril. Sunglasses are a symbol of confidence and usually better show the audience that the character is confident; which is often what audience want to see in a hero.
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Action movies use Levi-Strauss' structuralism theory to identify to the audience the difference between a hero and a villain. Within this genre villains are stereotypically old and ragged or bold and disabled whilst the hero is youthful and attractive, this imagery causes their audience to connote appearance to the two words and create a contrast of the two. This denotation however, creates a negative reading for the audience and causes them to apply this to reality.
SCI-FI
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar travel or other technologies. Sci-fi films usually use neales theory of genre, in the early 2000's sci-fi was thought to be aliens with green or blue skin and UFO's with flashing lights, but as time progressed they began to apply the third law within the theory, familiarity with innovation, adjusting to the ideas and convention of the earlier sci-fi movies whilst adding newer adaptations and technologies such as marvels 'Guardians of the galaxies ' sleek Benatar spaceship in contrast to the chunky circular model of the UFO's of the 2000's
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The lighting within Sci-fi films tend to be high-key lighting, blue light or low-key lighting for ominous scenes. There is more potential of seeing blue-light lighting being used within the sci-fi genre as it adds blue streaks and colourful flares to the setting, giving it a futuristic tone that excites the audience and distinguishes the films world. The Low and High-key lighting used within Sci-Fi movies not only contrasts with the blue-light at times to keep the sense of realism whilst also embracing the futuristic image, but also highlights scene's of distress or peace for the characters; which stands out from the story plot as Sci-fi movies have limited amounts of peaceful scene's within them.
https://www.thefader.com/2016/08/12/science-fiction-fashion
'In science fiction cinema, costuming has an innate morality. Brave explorers wear astronaut white. The downtrodden but determined wear earth tones. Entry-level evil troops rely on the oft-masked anonymity of uniformity. And villains, somehow, know to cover themselves in impenetrable materials — plastic, metal, heavy-duty leather — almost always rendered in black '. Within Sci-fi films. the villains are often dressed in dark colours such as black or dark red, these colours symbolise danger and bloodshed; connecting to the audience that they are the antagonist, foreboding their future actions of malice to the protagonist. The protagonist of the story is stereotypically a traveller or 'lone wolf' character who is against the government of the new world. They are often seen in colours such as white, symbolising their importance and saviour trope that is often used in the Sci-fi genre. However, in most cases the protagonist tends to be in hiding from something or someone within the film (the antagonist) so they tend to wear tattered clothes in neutral tones such as brown and grey; This represents the broken state of society and the suffering of lower classes in reality; Sci-fi films often use these colour schemes as a representation of current world problems set in a future.-tense
Drama
Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. The Drama genre presents characters with a natural and credible aspect, that makes them more relatable to the audience.
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Drama's use long takes when filming, as they are better for the numerous dialogues the characters are given, these long takes are often accompanied by soundtrack or score. The music chosen by the drama determines the mood of the scene and acts as a guide for the audience for how they should feel about certain characters. Drama's also use score for certain characters to portray whether they are a protagonist or antagonist, this is known as a theme song.
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Drama films have a varied choice of outfits. The costume usually relates to the setting of the main characters and their demographic. For instance, the teen drama 'Euphoria' is based on suburban teens and is therefore set in a suburban school consisting of neutral and colourful toned; jeans, hoodies and trainers worn by the characters. The costume and demographic of the characters, immediately tells the audience how the movie is stereotypically going to go and the personality of the characters. Drama movies tend to use media generated stereotypes such as the 'dumb blonde' connoting that all blondes are ignorant to create an extreme reality filled with drama for the audience.
Fantasy
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, although the genres do overlap.
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The narrative themes of fantasy usually contain features such as good vs. evil, man vs. himself or nature, love, betrayal or tradition vs. change. In all of these the main narrative is always cohesive with todorov's narratology theory. Fantasy films follow a strict beginning to end story plot unless they are series then cliffhangers are to be expected.
It is common to see shots such as; close ups to display the characters emotion and view the situations effects; establishing shots to display the world of the characters and the dangers or problems they face and tracking shots, usually to display the fast pace action that often occurs in fantasy films.
Learning Aim A
I heard it too-
Matt Sears
In accordance with Todorov's Narratology theory, the equilibrium of the short horror story plot starts with a mother reading her child a bedtime story before she heads to sleep herself. In the middle of the night, the child is awakened by the sound of the mothers eerie calls, but when she calls out for her mother; she receives no response, this strikes the audience as the beginning of the disequilibrium; when the conventions such as jump scares and long pauses for suspense in a horror film start to take place. The child steps into the hallway and is instructed by the mother to come and meet her downstairs, before she can go downstairs she is grabbed from behind by her real mother who tells her 'i heard it too'. The child tells the mother that she saw the monster that pretended to be her after being abducted, the mother decides to call for help, but her phone is dead. Instead, she ushers the child to hide and attempts to kill the monster herself, however, this recognition and attempt fails and pans the camera out to an empty room where the other once stood. The audience is put on edge by this scene and question whether the mother is dead or alive, engaging them in the film. The story concludes with a cliffhanger, the child attempts to hide from the monster but being caught, this leads to another convention of horror films; a jump scare of the monster roaring at the child.
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The young toddler in the film wears a purple polka dot pajama costume with a pink bow on the collar. Purple and pink represent femininity and often symbolises something that is precious, the young girl wearing this colour within her costume color scheme connotes to her child-like nature and age, this shows the audience her innocence and naivety to the situation happening around her, making the suspense of the horror film increase.
The low-key lighting within in the film, makes this appear darker than it would be; this could forebode the danger the two heroine's are soon to be in. The colour pink is stereotypically associated with young girls as it is a soft colour that adheres to their nurturing nature, this once again plays on the audience natural instinct to protect the young and causes them to instantly feel awe within the first scenes of the short film. The mother wears a pink top and jeans ; this casual attire voices to the audience her maturity and nurturing nature she has towards her child.It also speaks towards the use of a child within this short film . using children within the horror genre is often a stock situation, the children are more likely to hear or see something that the adults will not. Despite this usefulness, the audience is likely to be more on edge when a child character is presented within a horror film as children are symbolic of naivety and beginnings. Children are one of the most vulnerable members of society and older members of society put it upon themselves to protect them from dangerous situations. The irony of children being within horror movies causes audiences to be more on edge and to relate the film to their everyday lives even more. This attire also connotes to the costume conventions within the horror genre. Characters often wear casual attire in horror films to add realism to the scene's this also works to show the paranormal nature of the antagonist and stereotype them as the villain of the story.
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The short film uses low-key lighting and natural light throughout the scenes. This makes it seem real and authentic, increasing the suspense for the audience; as they start to relate the characters action to their own. This sense of realism causes a facade of fictional hysteria and paranoia, The Horror genre uses this grim lighting to intensify and heighten the senses of the audience.The film uses a series of creaking when characters walk or open doors and scores throughout, The creaking sound of doors and floor panels, are very common sounds within the horror genre; the creaks signal for a pause or silence before something terrible happens and irritates the ears, causing audiences to tense at the sound, this also helps the audience relate to the characters, as sounds such as creaks from doors or floors are common within the audience's everyday life . This increases the fear of the audience and reinforce the paranoia they feel, which slowly builds up to the climax of the jump scare. The low timbre drone sound of the score also adds to this fear of the unknown that the audience, this links to Barthes theory on enigma codes; the scattered use of creaking sounds causes the audience to question 'who' is making the noise, leading to a mystery that both the audience and characters are left tense, puzzled and intrigued about. This technique helps the audience relate to the characters but also adds tension within the scene and fear within the audience.
The film is shot in one location for all scenes, this a modern day family home. This is a common convention for short films, as they usually take place in under 10 minutes, This film uses a house setting to establish the everyday life of the characters and how common they are. This causes the audience to sympathise more with the character and also intensifies the paranoia. The props used within this short film consist of everyday mundane items but this most noticeable are children's toys and photo holders. The childrens toy is given a close up on 0:45, this denotes a pink bunny that looks old and worn; Toys such as bunnies have connotations of a gentle natured child or the easily frightened nature of children, which is similar to that of a bunny. This further causes a calm paranoia in the audience, they know something will happen to the child but are also aware of how defenceless children are.this links to Levi Strauss's structuralism theory, Childrens toys are often used in horror films as they are the antithesis of the genre; children are bright and playful while horror is grim and scary.
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Towards the beginning of the video, the short film uses a variety of close ups to display the characters and items of significance. The camera shot of close up, is often used for this exact purpose of veering to something of significance that could explain a part of the story, The audience is given close ups of the mother and the child multiple times throughout the short story; this signifies to the audience that they are the main focus and characters of the film. As a transition between scenes, the short film uses a series of straight cuts, this is a common convention of short films, as they tend to be home made movies; this adds more realism to the film, the lack of extravagance in the transition gives the scenes an edge that causes tension to grow within the audience. The film also uses a hand-held camera technique, this provides a jerky effect when filming a scene. This technique is a common feature of both short films and the horror genre. Within horror, using a hand-held technique creates a sense of realism but also adds an aspect of anxiousness to the screen, as audiences are used to seeing cameras that are mounted to operators.
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Locker Room- Greta Nash
In accordance with Todorov's Narratology theory, the equilibrium of the short drama story starts with a young teenage girl and her male friends hanging out together after school, she shortly takes a toilet break. This scene firmly establishes the girl as the main character and gives the audience a hypothesis of what the potential dilemma could be.When the female protagonist returns to her friends, they are all huddled together on the bed watching a film on a laptop. The moment they realise she has returned, the boys slam the laptop shut and act as though nothing has happened; This brings the story to its disequilibrium, the audience and the main character begin to question what the boys are hiding, creating an enigma. The boys begin to file out of the room and make their way downstairs, each giving the girl an awkward smile as they pass her, telling her 'it was nothing'. The protagonist, being curious, decides to sneak a look at what the boys are watching but is caught by one of them, this creates a future rift between her and the boys and is the start of problems for this friendship group. The boy tells her what it is she is seeing, a secret group chat for the boys on the football team to discuss women. The protagonist tells him she won't tell on them and leaves to go home. However, once she arrives at her home, she feels a sense of dread; knowing what her friends are doing. She feels disgusted over the fact she was going to cover for them, and instead reconciles by consulting the an adult on the matter.The story concludes with the boys being scolded on their actions, they immediately go from being the girls friends to insulting and degrading her. The protagonist is left crying on the field, but another girl comes to comfort her and thank her for what she has done. This is a typical drama genre plot, the stories often end in sadness or with small gesture that are predictable to the audience.
Throughout the scenes, the characters are dressed in either sportswear or school wear costumes. Both of these costumes worn, often has connotations of youth and athleticism. Sportswear also has connotations of masculinity as boys are stereotypically seen to wear them more. The girls within the short film wearing sportswear costumes as well, subverts the stereotype of women being seen as weak and unathletic and connotes their strength and possible challenges of fitting into society to the audience. The costumes all consist of neutral colours such as grey, black and white; these colours mixed together often connote formality and normalcy, mixing them creates a serious atmosphere for the audience and forebodes the potential of unbalance amongst the characters. The use of a predominantly neutral color scheme rather than a bright playful color scheme, alerts the audience's mind to small details that may contain hints of future events within the film. The character demographic for this short film consists of young suburban teenagers. You can tell this from the choice of school location, the school is denoted as clean and modern , connoting that the film was recently made and that the characters are young and smart. The denotation also connotes towards the characters being middle class or wealthy as the school they attend seems to be in good shape. This short film, used multiple locations for their filming. Locations such as gymnasiums, locker rooms and a school field. These locations are stereotypically used by a demographic of teenage students. NVC:
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The short story uses Low-key lighting throughout the scenes of the story. One example of this would be at 0:41, when the girls are in the dressing room. The use of low-key lighting in this scene makes it a more sombre scene than it is, it keeps the audience questioning and also alludes to the disequilibrium of the story. Another example would be the use of low-key and natural light at 4:57 , The scene begins with the use of natural light whilst she is spending time with her friends, producing a light and casual scene in which the characters enjoy themselves, rather than the dismal beginning of the story. This is one of the common stock situations used in the drama genre, and meets the conventions of the genre; it is often used before an obstacle is introduced to the audience that causes a rift within the plot. The use of this situation disalarms the audience by using a casual scene that the audience can relate to their life, but after witnessing what was on the friends laptop; the scene applies low-key lighting. This demonstrates the transition from the equilibrium to the disequilibrium, the setting switch connotes the problem and the gravity of the situation. The low-key lighting also creates a sombre realism for the audience, giving them a glimpse into the protagonist's thoughts before revealing what it is that causes these thoughts.
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Throughout the film, the characters are filmed using objects such as basketballs, normal everyday household objects and computers. The use of these props connotes to the audience that the film is set in a modern time in which they would see themselves using these props too; this leads the audience to relate better to the characters and find themselves comparing themselves to the character and asking themselves what they would do in their situation. This is often a convention of the drama genre, it is an exaggerated version of reality, and therefore causes their audience to know what to do in situations such as the ones presented within the drama short film. The use of a computer and basketball prop is also symbolic of young people and teenagers, television often stereotypes that teenagers are athletic and know how to use technology. The stereotype adheres young audience's to want what these teenage characters have and also to relate more personally to them due to their similar ages.
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At the beginning of the story, the shots are taken in mid shot frame with tracking, hand-held movement. The mid shot frame, establishes the character and their physical appearance to their audience. Physical appearance is often of big importance within the drama genre, the genre often stereotypes attractive individuals to be good and kind, due to this stereotype audience's often expect there to be attractive individuals within drama films. The short film upholding this stereotype adheres with Neale's genre theology; the audience find pleasure from watching this short film as it contains attractive individuals, increasing the chances of success for the short film. The tracking and hand-held movement makes the characters action look more realistic and detailed. Target Audience's of the drama genre often enjoy this sense of realism and are more likely to enjoy a short film that meets this convention. Short films are often low-budget films, the denotation of hand-held camera movement connotes this to the audience and differentiates the production from hollywood style film production, that is more likely to use motion machinery than hand-held movement when filming. The movement also connotes towards the characters and their actions, showing how immature and childish they are with their actions and thoughts, they lack to see the consequence and often find themselves in situations of drama.
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Learning Aim B
Script
Risk assessment
Location Recce​
Sound log
Video log
Equipment booking
STORY BOARD
Learning Aim C
TRUTH OR DIE- MAKZ STUDIOS
Unit 10 Eval
GENRE , CHARACTERS, EDITING
The genre chosen for my short film was thriller. Thriller as a genre consists of high action shots and storylines that engage the audience and evoke extreme emotions within them. My team and I chose this genre because it would be the most appealing and interesting for the target audience of 15-24.
For this short film, we chose to use 6 main characters between the ages of 17-18. The group of six are on a school trip to a quaint woodlands resort. The trip was paid for by their school. Unbeknownst to the characters, the forest in which their holiday is taking place has been possessed by a truth-seeking demon by the name of Calux. One of the six friends, Jay, who knows about the demon, asks his friends to summon it with a game of truth or dare. This results in deep secrets that they have hidden from one another coming to light, resulting in some of them losing their lives.
By using young characters, we had to meet the genre conventions of thriller with regards to how they acted, dressed and communicated with one another. For this reason, we chose to have each of the characters wearing a specific colour at all times which would help the audience identify the role of the character. For example, we chose for the female heroines to wear bright colours such as pink and purple. Pink and purple are symbolic of femininity and are often worn by female leads within the thriller genre. Female characters also tend to wear bright colours within thriller to depict their social status, The female leads within our thriller short film, showed this through the colours of purple and pink but also through their constant use of their phones.
During the beginning of the short film, I wanted the female leads to constantly be on their phones within the equilibrium; scrolling, texting or just taking pictures; no matter what the action their phones were on them at all times. This connotes to the audience the youth and naivety of the characters, how their whole lives are based on technology, which brought irony to their situation of a woodland resort for choice of vacation. The female leads using their phones all the time, also connoted how distanced they were from their friends despite being with them in body, it was the first instance in which the audience viewed the psychographic of the characters and how they valued the digital world over the real world, and their own friendships.
The male lead, Khai wore binary colours that were symbolic of heroism such as reds, greens and army blues. The use of these colours connoted the characters' status within the short film as the main protagonist and all-round person to root for. This gave the audience someone to look towards to save the day, the colours also signifies the character’s athletic prowess, framing him as the teen jock that is a commonly used stereotype within the thriller genre.
During the editing process, I focused heavily on colour correction and sound editing. These were the two main features that needed to be detailed and polished in order for the story and scenes to make sense.
For the sound, I chose to use copy-right free non-diegetic sound; I did this to ensure that no creative rights were infringed within the creation of the short story. I chose to use mellow beats such as the one heard in the equilibrium, this set the scene for the audience and established a calm ambiance.
Alternatively, I chose to use darker, grimmer sounds for the disequilibrium and resolution and attempts; Within Todorov’s narratology theory, it states that the disequilibrium is a phase of discord for the characters, where the problem is introduced, in order to inform the audience of this problem I chose to use grimmer and more distorted soundtracks.
Within the short story the main antagonist is meant to be a scary demon that the main characters fear, in order to aid the audience in envisioning this, i added a whisper SFX everytime the demon comes into pframe, to signify their presence.
I also edited the actors voice into a design SFX, that made the audio sound more distorted and resonant effect for the target audience, this would evoke emotions of fear and reverence and also give them a memorable sound to relate to the project.
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EDITS
When editing, some of the clips had a different level of light and focus. For the clip below, I edited the temperature and hue to make it appear lighter and warmer, like the other clips. I also did this to give the clip a sunny appearance helping to create the illusion of daytime for the audience.
For this clip, I added a transition to stylise the clip and make a smoother change to the next clip. I chose to add a simple dissolve transition, to keep the transition simple and keep focus on the next clip as it held important information for the audience
I created an overlay for this clip to make it appear as though there were flies. I then altered the image, making the flies red instead of green, to add to the dark colour scheme, I then layered the image on top of the clip, using ultra key to remove the background. To complete this illusion, I added a fly SFX to enhance the audience’s experience.
I had to alter the sound quality of this clip. I decreased the volume because of the distance that the speaking character stood to the camera. This made it more clear for the audience to identify who was speaking at different times and also made the clip sound smoother. I also had to enhance the voice of the character over the background sounds.
During the shoot, I was unable to film at night which was a problem as a lot of the scenes took place at night. I increased the exposure and contrast of the clip, giving the audience a clear view of the character and creating a darker appearance around the focus point. I also lowered the saturation and temperature of the clip, to complete the night/ early morning look, giving the target audience the illusion of nighttime. Within many thrillers, the disequilibrium and majority of problems happen at night, so to meet this convention, I made the choice to edit the clips so that despite being shot in the day, it would appear as though they were shot at night.