Subversion of conventions

• We play with our audiences expectation of genre narrative to produce an anti-climatic ending. From looking at the feedback on Lovefield, we understood that many audience members were getting tired of the same unoriginal, monotonous narrative used in many horror/thriller films. When the audience realises that she is not in any danger at the end of the film, they might consider whether she was just paranoid. This is what we want the audience to consider. As a psychological thriller the purpose of our text was to highlight psychological issues that some people struggle with. Although the audience assumes that the depictions of the antagonist are all real there is nothing to say that some of the shots were just her imagination.

Film codes and Conventions

One convention of the thriller/horror genre is the use of red to connote danger. Our films setting in the woods may also connote danger through the connotations of little red riding hood. Red jackets are used to highlight vulnerability in females particularly the young in such texts as little red riding hood and Schindler’s list (pictured left). In the film a colour filter was used to highlight this. Although we did this in our preliminary filming we chose against using a filter in our final edit as we felt the coat stood out well as it was. Also, from feedback received from our target audience, we thought we would attract a larger audience by applying no de-saturation filters. Another convention used is that our vulnerable protagonist is female like in Black Swan. We chose to use stereotypes to make our ending more surprising and dramatic.

(Our film pictured bottom left)

Black Swan

Codes and Conventions Continued:

Our film contains a lot of close-ups shot; a feature of psychological thrillers. Close-ups are used to convey emotion. It also connects the viewer to the protagonist. Shutter island is a professional text that uses a lot of close-up shots. This indicates the mental state of the subject. In our film you can visibly see her becoming more distressed as she becomes paranoid.

Phallic symbols are used in our film to make the antagonist more sinister. They are commonly used in horror films to sexualise and objectify women. The purpose of these shots is to plant the seed in the audiences mind that the antagonist could be sexually pursuing the girl.

“The Final Girl”

We’ve used the horror genre convention of “the final girl” to imply to the audience that she might survive. The final girl is the term used to describe the last surviving girl in a film. This usually refers to a slasher/horror film. Our protagonist is the only girl featured in our film but we've used a number of codes to indicate that she follows the conventions of what the final girl is often like.

• Although she acts in a feminine way she is covered up and is not wearing sexually provocative clothing. This follows the conventions of the final girl who is often more pure.• Another convention we used is that she is intelligent. Codes used to connote that she is clever include the helmet and the photography assignment. • She is quick to notice danger