Coursework - Evaluation - question 1

Coursework : Evaluation question 1

In what ways does your film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real Horror/suspense media products?

To find the conventions of media products, we did a lot of research into films in this genre.

Costumes and props:

Uusually in horror/suspense films the type of props used have some form of weapon. I think our costume challenges the Conventional Costume of Cult Horror as the usual costume is dark clothing, strange masks and dark makeup to make them look old and mystical. Whether as our costume is we chose black trousers, a white blouse and a green flowy jumper. As shown partially in screenshot 7.

Title: 

The typical title for a horror/suspense film is usually one word, occasionally two words such as 'the ring'. Conventionally films are one word as they are easy to remember and pass word on. However the title for our piece  'Merz'  is rather unconventional as it is french. Most titles are in the same language as spoken in the rest of the film, as the rest of our film is in English it breaks those norms. This is effective as it immediately draws attention and interest to the film as people will want to know what the title means. The short title almost represents the short snappy shots in the opening 2 minutes. 

Camerawork and Editing:

Conventionally the editing of a horror is short harp editing followed by jump scares, however some can be soft and smooth depending on when it is set, for example if it is set in the past then the shot will more likely be soft and flowing with jump scares however if it was set in the future the shots would be fast paced. Therefore I think our piece meets the conventions

Age:

Usually actors and characters in horror suspense movies are much older than a teenager, they're usually in their mid twenties to mid fifties, having a teenager as the main character makes everyone feel uncomfortable as they think could someone that young could have that much of a twisted mind, it raises questions and definitely challenges the conventions and norms of a horror suspense genre film

Setting/Location:

Conventionally a setting will be introduced in the opening 2 minutes of the film however in our opening 2 minutes a setting is not introduced, we are only introduced to a dark room. Normally, locations used in horror films are historical buildings or modern hideouts. Our lack of setting allows the audience to focus on whats happening in the opening 2 minutes.

Title font and style:

Normally, horror films have a dark scrawled titles that have an eerie atmosphere as if you were to have a really scary scene that cut to bubble writing you would ruin the msie-en-scene of the film. 

Our title mostly sticks to these conventions. It is dark, hand written and photographed so it is completely unique to our piece, there is not a font that people can copy.

Character 

Our character challenges the conventions of any horro/suspense media piece dramatically.  Most 

Similarly to how the story is introduced, the characters are usually introduced through narration or dialogue. This usually occurs straight away, and the characters are immediately introduced. 

ML