Question 1

Amelia Ryan

Conventions

The conventions of psychological horror that we included in our opening came from our research into similar films such as Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001). We took inspiration from other films that also used a dream sequence in their opening such as A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984). We did not really challenge any existing conventions of horror film and kept to the guidelines of a traditional form of the genre.

ConventionsA Nightmare on Elm Street: This film features elements of the dream world that intrude into the characters’ lives’. It is about Freddy Krueger jumping in and out of reality from the world of the children’s nightmares to haunt and kill them. The character formation is also a feature we developed from this film, that is the final girl and the male antagonist.

Donnie Darko: This psychological horror presents a teenage boy who suffers from schizophrenia allowing him to create the character of Frank through his deranged psych. Our opening contemplated with the idea that the antagonist’s appearance outside the dream was because of the positioned protagonists figment of imagination.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: This film features elements of the dream world that intrude into the characters’ lives’. It is about Freddy Krueger jumping in and out of reality from the world of the children’s nightmares to haunt and kill them. The character formation is also a feature we developed from this film, that is the final girl and the male antagonist.

ConventionsA Nightmare on Elm Street: This film features elements of the dream world that intrude into the characters’ lives’. It is about Freddy Krueger jumping in and out of reality from the world of the children’s nightmares to haunt and kill them. The character formation is also a feature we developed from this film, that is the final girl and the male antagonist.

Our lead character, Jane Doe plays the residual representation of the final girl in horrors. This was a feature common in horrors from the late 1970’s such as Halloween (Carpenter, 1974). We show a contrast with the other girls in the opening as they are shown to be weaker with features such as how one victim is shown to be on her phone. Doe dresses in a suit which connotes a smarter, more level headed female who we assume will protect herself when in danger and survive till the end of the film.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: This film features elements of the dream world that intrude into the characters’ lives’. It is about Freddy Krueger jumping in and out of reality from the world of the children’s nightmares to haunt and kill them. The character formation is also a feature we developed from this film, that is the final girl and the male antagonist.

Form

Many techniques of mis-en-scene, sound, camera and editing come from our research into other real media products that have the same format as ours; horror film openings. We

rarely challenged or developed these forms as one of the criteria we

decided on was to reflect everything that is generic about horror.

The Hitcher (Harmon, 1986) features a close up side shot/profile of the protagonist dropping their head forward as they fall asleep. We took this shot as inspiration because we understood it to be very effective in suggesting that the character was falling into a deep sleep.

The framing adopted the generic rules seen in film. This is that the subject is positioned in one third of the frame. It guides the eye of the audience and has a cleaner appearance that allows for both the subject and scenery to be observed.

Another technique we adopted from The Hitcher (Harmon, 1986) opening was the shot where the car headlights point directly at the camera. This distorts the image that is seen creating a spooky image. The bright light emphasises the darkness around it. The effect of the

shot is that it is very invasive as it is pointing straight at the audience and has an almost blinding consequence. We liked the idea that the antagonist in some way threatened the audience as well as the protagonist, which further positions us with them.

Shadows are a very generic feature of horror films and especially in openings to give clues about what will happen (foreshadowing). For this reason we felt like it would work well in our opening. We noticed that shadows were used in films like Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999). They are incredibly menacing as they only give the audience an idea to what is causing them. To create the shadow we had to use low key lighting supplied by a torch. We chose to cast the shadow across the murder board because it allowed the audience to interpret the idea that the murderer was approaching it.

We took inspiration from a scene in Insidious () were a vision is shown and as the antagonist is revealed there is some non-diagetic sound, this is then heard again when the antagonist reappears. We had a sound that played when the murderer appears and grabs the victims. In every shot outside of the dream only diagetic sound is heard until the antagonist appears. This makes a clear connection for the audience. It contemplates with the reality of what Jane Doe sees. This is a narrative device we used to break the wall between the dream and reality.

This shot was designed to imitate the first appearance of Frank in Donnie Darko. It is a very long shot, it challenges the traditional invasive presentation of evil. However this has an almost agoraphobic effect and is still incredibly frightening.