Stock Characters in Horrors

These are popular Stock characters within Horrors most films with in the Horror genre  use these characters to develop the stories they are often the ones to get killed with the few exceptions like The Final Girl.
This gives me an idea of what my stock characters should be like, there characteristics and personality. as there is a lot of repetition within these stock characters audience members will be able to recgonise these characters automatically which can be a positive and a negative.

Exploration into Genre: Questions 1 and 2

Films belong to a wide range on genres from western films to action films. The Mis-en-scene, typography and colour scheme all make clear indications to that particular genre.

Genre refers to the theme and supplies audience with expectations, also they are based on visual elements. Genre's are useful for audiences to understand what there going to see.

1. What do you understand by the concepts of repetition and variation of a genre?

If something is recurring frequently enough it will tend to be believed and remembered, applying this to films is when they use the same content to make it more accurate and relatable for their audiences, anther reason they use repetition of content is because it sells and makes the industry a large profit. Also if the content of the film is repeated it starts to become acceptable within society e.g. Pre marital sex

2. Provide a definition of the concept genre. Use examples to illustrate the points that you want to make.  

Genre is a type or category of media product, it has certain distinctive features that are coherent. For example in a action film the audiences would expect there to be some sort of binary opposites such as conflict or good and bad character.  

The genre refers to the theme and overall meaning to a film, it also helps with the audience’s expectations.  Genre is a process of categories, based on visual elements. Its useful for audiences to understand what they want to see and important for film makers to know what they want to produce.

Film School Session 2

Film School Session 2

We had another talk at film school from Jesse O’Mahoney; he came to talk to us about plot. He first spoke about himself and told us he was a writer from Eastenders and Hollyoaks and he informed us of his most favourite writing, The killing of Heather from Eastenders and the explosion in the church in Hollyoaks.

He spoke about how the plot can make the film relatable and understandable.

In our Media groups we spoke about Horror films ideas, we then developed one idea:

1. Lonely/ Outcast girl – life in secondary school (hard , stressful, no real friends)
2. Major Halloween party of the year is going on in the next few weeks and everyone in the school is invited
3. She wants to be part of the event and gets dressed up for the occasion (High school scary girl)
4. Finds out a boy she likes will be there and wants to grab his attention
5. Everybody in Halloween party has mask on or really scary face paint (make up)
6. Everyone in the party is wondering who this girl is because she looks different in costume
7. She attracts the boy she like and starts to get flirty with him
8. Party goes on............
9. Boy clocks on who she is (lonely/ outcast girl in school)
10. Clock strikes 12 and everyone is stuck in costumes/ Girl gets stuck in costume
11. Ends up killing or injuring people at party and boy she likes.

We also learnt that when developing a character we must have the 3P’s Personality, Problem and Profession.  This is what the Protagonist characters must have in order for the audience to understand the character. From this session we gathered some movies/series that will relate to our story- so we should watch them to get ideas from.

           ·     Cabin in the woods

   ·      Scream

   ·         Never been kissed

   ·         Pretty Little Liars- series 3 (Halloween)

   ·         Mean Girls 

Film School Session 1

Film School Session 1

On the 9^th October we started film school which will help me develop my skills within filmmaking. I hope to learn different techniques during Film school like camera techniques, how to write a good plot also I would like to better skills that I already have for example, Editing and Makeup.

This week’s film’s Cool was led by Kate Hardie an Actress, Writer and Director, who grew up in North London and has been in many TV series and movies such as Casualty, Criminal Justice and The Krays.

Kate introduced her self and gave a brief bio about herself, her life before being an actress and where she was at now. She then went on to explain what a genre is.  The genre is what makes a film grab the audience’s attention it’s they recognise more but in order to have a genre first you must have a Idea, a concept or an  issue that you want to talk about, once you have that then you can apply the genre to it.

The issue you want to express could be Bulling or self esteem once you have this you can apply genre to it, you can have and action movie where someone gets bullied and then a anti bulling hero comes and saves the day.

Once you have your idea it’s easier to fit your genre around it and then start creating your story line.

After listening to what Kate had to say it really helped me in terms of my own film story line.

Trailer structure

Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in 5 stages.

weather it be a narrative with the genre of horror or action.

1. Equilibrium - Normality/Balance ( Although not always happy)
2. Problem introduced /Disruption
3. Recognition of the problem
4. Conflict
5. Resolution

This narrative arrangement can be applied to many typical film narratives.

Heres a couple of films that back up the suggestion of the 5 stages.

eg

Limitless - Action

Applying Tim Burtons Theory

There are a number of commonalities for the horror genre. This proves the theory of repetition and variation as well as genre features.

Here are three synopsis's that have been highlighted according to the key elements.


Protagonist

Stock characters

Plot and stock situations

Icons

Background and décor

Themes

Final Destination

After boarding an airplane destined for Paris, Alex Browning, a high school student going on his senior trip has a premonition about the plane exploding after takeoff. Scrared and freaked out, Alex tries to tell everyone about the explosion causing him to quarrel with a fellow student, Carter Horton which gets them both kicked off the plane. Along with them, Carter's girlfriend Terry who follows Carter, Alex's best friend Tod who gets off to make sure Alex is okay, Billy Hitchcock who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, one of the faculty members Ms. Lewton, and Clear Rivers whose motive for leaving was just out of belief of what Alex saw. Soon after the plane takes off, the students watch as it explodes sending fear and curiousity into their hearts. A little over a month goes by when one of the survivors turns up dead. After that Alex begins to question whether or not himself and the rest of the survivors are in danger. Could there really be a design? Does death really have a pattern planned out for everyone? And if so, after cheating death once, can you find a way to do it again?

Curse of chucky

After the events of Seed of Chucky, Nica, a young woman forced to a wheelchair since birth, has to regroup her sister, Barb and her brother-in-law, Ian for a funeral after the death of her mother. While dealing with Barb, Ian, along with their 5-year-old daughter, Alice; Nica receives an odd package - a creepy doll. After people start showing up dead, the fearless Nica soon suspects that the creepy doll is much more than just a doll.

Insidious

The teacher Josh Lambert and his wife Renai move with their three children, the boys Dalton and Foster and the baby Cali, to a big house. When Dalton is exploring the attic, he falls from the ladder and hits the head on the floor. On the next morning, Dalton does not wake up and stays in coma, but the doctors are not able to diagnose his problem. Three months later, weird things happen in the house and Renai sees apparitions. She is sure that the house is haunted and convinces Josh to move to another house. Sooner Renai sees ghosts in the new house and Josh does not believe in his wife. But his mother Lorraine tells him that she had also had a vision of a fiend in Dalton's room. They invite the medium and Lorraine's old friend Elise Rainier, who brings her team of ghost hunters Specs and Tucker to investigate the supernatural phenomenon. Elise explains that Dalton is a traveler with the ability of leaving his physical body and travel in astral projection. Now his spiritual body is lost in a place called Further that is not for the living and entities are gathered trying to get inside his empty physical body. Among these entities there is a demon that needs Dalton's body to cause pain to the others. Further, Lorraine discloses that Josh is also a gifted traveler and must seek out Dalton in Further and bring him back.

From this exercise I have realised that horror films do have  the same key elements that link them together, this sometimes makes films recognisable to the audience.  a lot

when planning this will help me because it shows me that horror films have of key elements repeated and they are successful so i will do the same  and follow suit. this will help my audience understand the genre im try to create

Exploration into Genre: Question 3 ,4 and 5

3.Summaries the key elements that the concept of genre relies upon.

•               Protagonist- These are the lead characters that can be male or female. These characters can become very predictable across a lot of genres. The males can be courageous and good looking and the female also good looking.

•               Stock characters- Stock characters are identifiable but are minor characters

•               Plot and stock situations- these are storylines that are predictable because they have been repeated in many films e.g. when someone turns up from the past.

•               Icons- Icons are symbols, objects or backgrounds that are associated with a particular genre eg seeing saloon doors and cowboys would make you think of the Western Genre.

•               Background and décor- this is a recognizable place or backgrounds that become distinctive (they also become icons)

•               Themes- the themes  are idea that run throughout , some themes are common to genres.

4. What do you understand by the concept of a 'genre formula'?

Genre formula is the add up of all the elements above, which are headings for the items which could be seen in all genres. Audiences with knowledge of this formula helps them know what is going on and gives them the pleasure of feeling on a familiar ground.

5. Does the fact that many products work to a formula make them boring?

I feel that products working to a formula doesn't make them boring, because it lets audience know what there in for and this then helps members of the audience not waste money in fact it gives the audience a sense of power as they have the knowledge of knowing what elements are involved and whether or not they will like it. 

Kuleshov effect

The Kuleshov effect is a film editing technique that was created during the 1910's and 1920s by Lev Kuleshov .

The theory states that when one puts an image next to another it can have a certain effect, and then when one puts the first image next to an entirely different image it can have a completely different effect.

 In term of making my own film trailer this effect can help me get across the emotions that I want to portray in my trailer. Audiences bring there own emotional reactions to the sequence this also gives the audience a chance to interpret the shots in different ways.

Sergei Eisenstein + Montage

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His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage":



Montage

 

Explorations into Trailers

A Trailer is a short preview of a film, it is shown in advance of the film. A trailer consists of selected shots of the funniest or the most exciting bits, the goal of the trailer is to attract the viewers attention.

These trailers give you clues and ideas what the film will be about.  The film titles and typography  help with the genre.  We associate images with different words and emotions..

I think that words and images in a trailer are as equally important but they don't always depend on each other

Why is a Trailer important

Film Title	Connotations	Typography	Connotations
Scary Movie	The title has associations to horror, something that is frightening  and you likely to feel scared about	The font is big bold red letters.	The colour red is normally related with danger anger and blood. And making the font bold could indicate how you have to act in order  to watch the film
The Princess and the Frog	It’s not normal for you to have a princess and frog  together so it makes me think of something from a fantasy genre	The font the “Princess” is in gold and it’s in italics and the “Frog” is in a gold green font.	The princess is in gold showing her high status and it’s in italics showing her elegance  the frog is green as its the literal colour of a frog and it bold showing the difference of the two characters
The Conjuring	Seeing the title will make me think that the film has something to do with magic	Serif font The font is straightforward and neat and it has a precise layout.	I think the straight forward font can play tricks with you mind because it’s simple but the film has a deeper meaning.
Burlesque	The title makes reference to dance but doesn’t tell you a lot.	Bold pink glittery letters	the colour pink is a “girly” colour which could tell you who the film is aimed at.

Applying targets from The meeting

For us to to evauluate  our skills in the basics of continuity editing and filming, in groups we came up with ideas about a film. a short sequence along the theme of The meeting.

We came u with initial ideas and we spoke about what type of meeting we wanted we chose the narrative that the people would meet up after contacting each other via the internet.

Split ends (sound bridge) editing- Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

A screenshot of our sequence in the middle of split end editing and trimming

In class we were practicing our skills of editing on Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. We imported our clips then arrange them into place so that they make sense, and then we added split ends into the sequence so that it adjusts the relative staring point of the video and audio so that the audio of the same clip starts before the clip, to soothe the transitions.

Representation of women in a Horror Trailer

Tucker dale vs. evil

In the film Tucker and dale Vs evil throughout the film the women are wearing minimal clothes and showing a lot of flesh and revealing clothes.

This is showing that woman are placed in films as a sex object, something for male heterosexuals too look at. Right through there are close shots of the women’s cast chest areas.

Later in the film the go skinny-dipping and there’s a long shot of a woman taking her clothes of, the camera lingers on her proving Mulveys theory right that woman are seen as sexual objects too satisfy men.

 They way she moves are slow and seductive attracting men

As it is a Horror there are a load of people screaming but the majority come from the women and are very high pitched this is reinforcing the fact that the women are weak and vulnerable.

 They start to challenge the stereotype when one on the women appears to be doing a masculine job but she’s doing it in minimal shorts and showing her belly. This is showing the representation of the women sexual

This film really proves Mulveys and shows the male gaze is true this film is designed for a male audience.

The " Male Gaze" - Laura Mulvey *

The concept of Gaze-  (For Feminist)

•               How Men look at Women

•               How Women look at themselves 

•               How Women look at other Women

To look steadily and intently, as with great curiosity, interest, pleasure, or wonder.

The male gaze is a feminist theory that the film audiences have to view characters from the perspectives of a heterosexual male.

In films females are seen to be second best to men.

There are certain features of the male gaze that include film cameras lingering on the body of a women and also women being seen as status objects.

Also women are also sexualized in things that are not intended to be sexy in the first place e.g. Perfume ads and music videos and certain sports-wrestling.

On the other had is there a female gaze where men are seen to be status objects. In some films men show of their chest, this is there for women to take second glances and stare.

Women also look at women but it’s not sexually motivated they look at their clothes and there style.