Evaluation Q1

Script for Q1



For my As Media studies, I had to construct an opening scene of a film which had to be from the horror genre. So to make the best horror opening possible I did some research on horror films. This included the history, sub-genre's, hybrid-genre's, the macro elements which are gender,audience, narrative, representations and also micro elements which are mise-en-scene, sound, editing and camerawork. So then I took this research and spent a lot of time into evaluating the macro and micro elements in the first 2-3 minutes of openings of different horror films. I then was able to apply these real media products to my own piece.




Firstly, I watched the opening of Blade (1998). From this scene I got inspiration from the camerawork. There was many different shots, such as dolly shot, giving different perspective of the location and tacking shots to follow the character which both created tension and an unease to the film. So I took note and used similar shots in my own piece to create the eerie suspense in this opening. In addition, Blade consisted of good iconography of the horror genre. The setting was in a crowded room in a rave situation, or known as 'Blood Bath' which was important as isolates the victim. So we used this idea and brainstormed our ideas around isolated locations, we ended up with a elevator as its different as well as a quiet and alone location allowing us to isolate the victim. Elevators are also a stereotypical good setting due to being easy to make completely black, which relating to my research is more effective at making a horror scarier as dark locations connote danger which creates more suspense and builds that thought of the sense of the unknown, devil or paranormal character. This all links in with use of low key lighting. The rave music also played a part in the non-diegetic sound used in our opening, this is because it helps build suspense due to be fast and loud, therefore we used a non-diegetic sound of a song which gets faster and louder creating suspense. However, from Blade we did not use the sub-genre of horror because it involves to much make up and effects. This is the blood and deaths, which are hard to execute in pursuing the most realistic opening. Therefore, we didn't use the slasher type sub-genre of horror as would be very unreal which then leads to the audience being less scared which is obviously not the aim of a horror film.




Then moving on, I analysed the 1996 horror sensation, Scream. The opening of scream was very iconic as the death of the women was famous as it was Drew Barrymore, famous from Charlie's Angels. This death was also famous due to Drew talking about horrors and portraying all the horror conventions without realising she was in the same situation as the generic slasher horror film genre. I found this very intriguing and wanted to use this idea as it helped create tension. However, noticing this scene created suspense and tension through its dialogue, I had a change in mind as I realised how hard it is again, to execute an opening to look like a real media product when including dialogue. So although I didn't end up taking this idea, it awakened me to give me the idea that I didn't want dialogue or very little if there was to be because it would most likely ruin the suspense of the opening, which now I would create through non-diegetic sound. On the other hand though, I gained many inspirations from this film, which has been used in our opening such as the mise-en-scene, specifically the costumes. In scream the victim wears cream and white clothes, in our opening the victim wears a white top and has white cream shoes. The reason for this is when I evaluated and analysed scream, I pointed out that the clothes was chosen on purpose so that the victim had the stereotypical feature of innocence because the colour white connotes purity. To add, Scream himself wore all black clothes, which then I gave our antagonist all black clothes. This was to portray the character as evil and the antagonist due to the colour black connotation evil, dark and death. However, we did not use the slasher sub-genre genre idea again as well as the stereotype of the victim being a female and antagonist being a male.




This then leads onto the third film that took influence on our opening, The Woman In Black. As I mentioned we did not use the stereotypes of character roles in horror films and went against the conventions. I got this influence of using a female antagonist from the film, The Woman In Black. The reason I took inspiration from this idea because our sub-genre's of horror films are the same, the paranormal idea. Women therefore can be as scary or even scarier in this type of horror as they do not have to be intimidating or big or strong, they just have to have unrevealed identities and look possessed with a creepy sense to them. I then took aboard this as casting was easier and portraying a evil, possessed look was more successful to carry out, as you could use ideas such as placing the hair over the face to add to the possessed behaviour. We then took the idea that our antagonist needed a trait of how she possesses her victims. The Woman In Black inspired me to come up with the idea of something deep inside her 'blacks out' the soul and body of the victim. This generated from the idea that The Woman In Black can possess the victim with a look, which rolled onto the idea of our antagonists eyes turning black as well as anything she wants within range. Hence leading to our title 'BLACKOUT'. This supported my research as I evaluated how black and also red is used mostly in horrors due to them connoting death and evil, therefore the title for our opening in theory, suits the horror genre. The last inspiration we took from The Woman In Black was the credits. This is because our title has black within it and so does The Woman In Black, so it made sense our titles were black just like the titles were black for The Woman In Black. This also links to setting the narrative because black represents death and darkness, therefore the audience knows its an horror film from the titles, such as funky titles would be used for a comedy.




Finally, using my research on different theories, our opening applies the uses and gratifications theory. This is because the audience uses our opening and gratifies this media in ways such as escapism. Our opening would be used as escapism because its paranormal, which is mainly viewed as something that does not exist therefore this is escapism for the audience because they are watching the media to escape from life and reality. The main part of the opening that would be escapism is the blacked out eyes as they are representing possessed and abnormal features.