There are three options you can focus your work around these being:
-Representation (of gender, youth or ethnicity)
-Generic conventions (what makes the type of film fit that category)
In the end I chose horror as my genre focusing on the sub-genre of supernatural. I opted to look at the generic conventions exploring what makes a horror supernatural. It is important to choose a genre which is accessible to you. For example if you choose to do a DVD on a space documentary how realistic are the chances of you being able to go up into space to take your pictures. So make you sure you think logically.
Once you have chosen your topic you will be then faced with your 3000 word essay. Now I know it sounds daunting, trust me I've been that girl sat in the glass with her head slammed down on the desk thinking 'my life is over'. Now I can tell you honestly it's not. This is what you need to do...
Your first step is pretty simple, you need to choose two existing trailers to analyse that are classed as your chosen genre. Or if you was doing representation on women perhaps find a trailer with negative connotations of women and one positive then you have a contrast. But as I was doing generic conventions of supernatural horror I put my focus on 'Oculus' trailer and 'The Conjuring'. The quicker you choose your trailers or even DVD covers the faster you will be on your way to making a start.
After you have analysed your data you can then begin. You basically need to explain your findings and support them with quotes. Find out how the genre came about, what's typical about it, rankings, grossing, stock characters, the mood, iconography. All things that make it typical of the genre.
TIP- always link or make a note of where you have found this quote from. For example a website link, a book (don't forget the page number) or theorist. These will need to be referenced in your bibliography to exclude you from plagiarism.
If you want to see my finished DVD cover and poster I may import pictures of my work so you can see how my production reflects my findings. If your production doesn't reflect what you found then it's easy marks missed.
I got an A for this work, four marks off top marks.
An
investigation into the genre conventions of horror films focusing on the
sub-genre of supernatural with specific reference to Oculus and The Conjuring
trailers.
Daniel
Chandler explored the conventional definitions of genre and found that they
tend to be based on the notion that constitute particular conventions of
content and form which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging
to them. In terms of historical values horror was once much simpler. In 1990
Steve Neale focused his research within the repetition of style within films
that later became recognised as an influence of genre. “Specific systems of
expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and
which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing
process.”
Supernatural
films are often anchored with themes of ‘gods or goddesses, ghosts,
apparitions, spirits, miracles, and other similar ideas or depictions of
extraordinary phenomena’ , however, until recently, supernatural films were
presented in a comical, whimsical, or a romantic fashion, and ‘were not designed
to frighten the audience’. Due to the genre’s constant development, and ongoing
social changes, horror is often divided into sub-genres or mixed with another
genre becoming a hybrid ‘There are also many hybrids that have combinations of
fear, fantasy, horror, romance and comedy.’ (Film site)
The
subgenre supernatural is a successful genre however recent movies exploring the
genre have been less so. According to box office ‘The Sixth Sense’ ranks in at
number one for the best-selling supernatural film bringing in a life time gross
of ‘$293,506,292’ when released on the 6th
august 1999. Almost 14 years later and the film ‘The Conjuring’ ranked in at 5
bringing in a lifetime gross of $137,400,141 in the
year 2013. It made not even half the amount implying perhaps recent
supernatural films are not as popular. Theorist Marxism (Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels would say that this is due to class struggle as they believed social
change occurs because of the struggle between classes in society who are
constantly competing to improve their conditions. (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=supernaturalhorror.htm)
The Conjuring trailer
opens with a transition of Warner Brother’s production logo; the lighting is
low key and the screen is filled with a dark sky making the colour palette very
dark. This allows the audience to identify the anchored genre of what they are
about to see. For audience appeal non-diegetic music has been added to the
transition of a thunder like noise which connotes a storm and implies the
action is going to begin straight away. ‘A play with diegetic and non-diegetic
conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror)’ (http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm) The
audience are then shown a horror trope, generally used within sub-genre of
supernatural, of a home filming of the action. This provokes the audience into
believing the story line as it looks more realistic especially because The Conjuring is ‘based on a true story’
the tracking shot has been used to follow the action along. However, the camera
itself is shaky causing the meaning of this to be ambiguous implying fear of
the unknown, a theme of horror, and/or the fact that the person filming is not
a professional. The diegetic music within the scene of a child’s laugh enhances
the fear in the scene as children connote innocence, so it acts as a paradox raising
the tension.
The genre
gets anchored to supernatural when a close up is shown of a flyer to a lecture
on the supernatural ‘seekers of the supernatural’ The camera angle of the over
the shoulder shot implies the audience is within the audience, this allows them
to learn the background of the supernatural genre before the film progresses
further.
The
trailer is filled with conventional iconography such as religious aspects i.e.
a cross, a lone house, children’s toys, and video camera act. ‘From the very beginning, religious
themes, stories, and metaphors were prominent in the cinema, at times taking on
epic proportions and frequently carrying enormous symbolic freight.’ (http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/sanctifi.htm) The supernatural activity happens within the
protagonists own home inflicting fear to film. The protagonists in this case is
an ‘ordinary family’ consisting of dad, mum and in this case several children.
With the stock characters being normal, dressing like everyday humans (jeans
and a shirt) this makes the story relevant to the audience as they can identify
as it fits with today’s society - a family moving into a new house.
There are
a numerous shots where the characters are woken up from their sleep screaming.
With the connotations of nightmares, being woken up by something ‘scary’. We
then see that the characters are living a nightmare. This build-up of tension
implies there is no escape as life to them has become their worst nightmare.
Transitions
are used throughout the trailer breaking up the action. The black screen with
white writing is shown several times. Levi Strauss’ theory claims narrative is
run by conflict and here we have the conflict of black vs white which could then
be interpreted further to good vs evil. By using white writing on a black
screen also draws the audience into focusing on the writing ‘there is one so
disturbing,’ the pause between this and the next line raises the tension as the
comma indicates the sentence has not yet finished and more is about to be
revealed. This leads us to the next line ‘they’ve kept it locked away’ which pragmatically implies to the audience that
they are going to be let in to something never seen before, that this film is
something new, a secret is about to be revealed. This adds enigma encouraging
the audience into wanting to watch the film in order to decode it. The use of
direct mode of address ‘you’ brings you into equation making you feel a part of
this supernatural action.
Enigma is
built through the whole trailer as the supernatural source remains faceless. We
start off by seeing the lower half in a foot to knee camera shot where we
notice the demonic/satanic sources body is dead as her feet are above the
ground suggesting she has been hung from the tree, this is then confirmed to
the audience as we receive an extreme close up of rope that has been prepared
for someone to hang themselves. The next shot we get is a high angle shot where
the demonic source is on top of a wardrobe this angle connotes something that
is powerful and dangerous, but again still faceless, shown only the body shape
which jumps in an almost animalistic way. An extreme close up of the eye is the
next closest thing we get of the character being revealed. The character is not
revealed until the last second of the trailer this allows the reader to feel a
sense of satisfaction as one of their questions has been answered and then have
a face to be fearful of. At this point the trailer starts with the same noise
at the start, a thudding noise, as it is startling fitting with the genre to
scare the viewer.
Similar to
The Conjuring trailer, Oculus has generic conventions
stereotypical the sub-genre of supernatural. The trailer opens with a high
angle shot of Karen Gillan pulling a sheet of an old mirror portraying Karen Gillan
to be a victim as she is presented as submissive. She touches the mirror as
though in recognition talking to it as though an old friend ‘hello again’ this
indicates to the audience that there is an untold past about to be revealed.
The film
is anchored to the sub-genre supernatural through the white sheet covered
figures in the background which appear to represent ghosts in an archaic
manner. This links to the idea of the unknown inflicting fear as when Karen Gillian
turns around she realises they are in fact objects covered in white sheets. A
theme that is identified from the trailer is deception ‘what is deception’ the
idea that our mind is playing tricks on us is an ongoing theme throughout the
supernatural genre as ghosts and spirits are often portrayed to torment the
protagonist. ‘Perhaps
the most frightening of all horror films are those where there are no monsters
and no demons other than the psychological states of the characters’ Another stock character to this horror would
be the father and his questionable mental state ‘sick man who killed our mum’ (http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/sanctifi.htm)
Oculus holds lots of iconography and
typical situations conventional to its genre such as the use of children,
blood, mirrors, action within the protagonist’s home. By making the focus piece
of the movie a mirror it allows the audience to experience a sense of paranoia
next time they pass or come in contact with a mirror as subconsciously the idea
will be in the back of their mind. It could be argued that this acts as the
ideology which has been encoded ‘Media texts always reflect certain
values or ideologies though sometimes we may not be aware of this.’ (http://media-studies.tki.org.nz/Teaching-media-studies/Media-concepts/Ideology)
Throughout
the trailer it is iconic and expected in a horror for the supernatural action
to occur at night thus oculus conforming to this convention. At night the
lighting becomes low key creating a haunting atmosphere. The general idea of it
being dark is not knowing what is lurking around. A lot of the action is shown
with closed framing which suggests entrapment, no escape. ‘They must give the
appearance that the outside world is shut off from the viewer’ (Exploring Digital Cinematography -
Page 113 - Cengage Learning, 2007)
In conclusion
the key generic signifiers of supernatural horror are the fight for survival as
the main theme. We also see conventional situations – the chase, the quest to
find the supernatural and the final battle. Horror films more often feature
helpless, vulnerable children who are affected by the spirits. The typical
setting of the genre is a ‘haunted house’ or an isolated place. Typical
iconography of the genre includes haunted houses, ghosts, blood, video cameras,
researchers of the supernatural etc. These films use low key chiaroscuro
lighting to create a suited atmosphere of darkness. A greying/desaturated
colour palette adds to the oppressive mood of the film. Supernatural horror
plays on the audience’s fears by repeating generic conventions which audiences
expect.
Bibliography
BooksBlizek, W (2009). The Continuum Companion To Religion And Film. A&C Black.
Donati, J (2007). Exploring Digital Cinematography. Cengage Learning.
Grant,BK (2012). Film Genre Reader. University of Texas Press. 179.
Jones, T Fraser, F Arnold, H (2005). A Level Film Studies for WJEC . Hodder Education.
Kernan, L (2004). Coming Attractions: Reading American Movie Trailers. University of Texas Press.
Wells, P (2000). The Horror Genre. Wallflower Press.
Websites
http://www.filmsite.org/horrorfilms.html , 10/11/14
www.revok.com/ghost.html, 10/11/14
www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html, 11/09/14
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=supernaturalhorror.htm, 10/11/14
http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm, 5/11/2014
http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/sanctifi.htm, 12/11/14
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/science_and_reason_in_film_and_television/, 7/11/14
visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/.../intgenre/chandler_genre_theory.pdf 13/01/15
http://thealeaneyhorror.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/clovers-theory-the-final-girl/ 13/01/15
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