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AS Film Evaluation

If You Go Down To The Woods Today…

Research & Initial Summary

For our A-level practical piece we were asked to create, film and edit our own opening to a feature film. For this piece we had to choose between the genres of horror and comedy, in the end we decided to do a horror extract. The main reasons we chose to do a horror opening was due to general knowledge and overall awareness of the genre, and also the sheer amount of research into the codes and conventions of horror we did for our written coursework piece.

After deciding we were going to do a horror piece, we then started talking over idea in our group, we decided to go for a relatively well known scenario of ‘found footage’ of some teens over the woods and some ‘being’ attacks them. After discussing this idea we decided to put our own spin on the idea as we felt it is over used in this genre, we decided that the characters in fact, would actually be A-Level students filming their own media piece, while filming, and pretending to be in a state of pure fear, real trouble would occur. Once we had came up with a basic outline of the story and what we want to happen in what order etcetera, we then wrote a script and a storyboard in order to help with the direction of the film extract.

We then had to present all of our ideas and intentions to the rest of the class and teachers, we made a presentation giving an outline of the entire project and our overall aims.

Film Planning

We chose the title ‘If you go down to the woods today…’ as it incorporates lots of conventions of the horror genre in the title alone, firstly, it sets the location of the extract, instantly giving the viewer a element of fear and secondly due to the well known nursery rhyme, the title will remind the viewer of children and happiness and put them into a false sense of security.

After spending around 10 hours discussing, planning and deciding on locations and props we were ready to film. We went up to a woody area near one of the teams house called the beezers, we choose this location as it provided the creepy backdrop of the woods while still being a suitable location to film. We did the filming over 2 weeks as we had many, many problems with the battery life on the camera, overall we spent around 4 hours filming the entire footage. When we got back to school the following week we spent time editing and shortening our footage, this was essential in order to make it ‘found footage’ as we needed to upload then add the static effect to disorientate the viewer, overall we spent around 2 hours editing.

Overall i am very happy with our piece as i feel it is different to your typical found ‘footage’ horror film but manages to keep to codes and conventions of the genre, keeping the best of both worlds. If i could improve the film however, i would be more efficient with the filming as the extract had to be under 2 minutes long and before editing our piece lasted 5 minutes. In these 2 minutes we would really have to work and developing the story and making the plot obvious to the viewer.

 

Film Evaluation

Synopsis

‘The 2 minute extract from the beginning of our film acts as an prologue for the rest of our production. In the prologue we are introduced to our 4 key characters, Jack, Tom, Sam and most importantly Brett. The four friends have came to the woods to film their AS-level media piece where they have been given the task of writing, filming and starring in their own horror film. All seems to be going well for the students and the opening shots of the film are completed, then however, the cameras battery runs out, forcing them to have to start to pack up shop and go back home. Just as they are leaving however, a heart-wrenching screech comes from the woods, it is now a mental and physical battle as their mind begins playing tricks on them, or in fact…they are not actually alone in these forsaken woods. ‘

In What Ways Does Our Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms Of Real Media Products?

I will take 9 screen grabs from our horror opening and consider the following aspects in our film;

1. Film title
2. Setting
3. Costumes & Props
4. Camerawork & Editing
5. Title Font & Style
6. Story
7. Genre
8. Character Introductions
9. Extras

Screen 1 – Title

We decided to go with the name ‘If you go down to the woods today…’ for a couple of reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that it instantly sets the location as the viewer can identify where the majority of the film takes place, being in the woods, a sense of fear is prominent . The woods is also, obviously, a convention of the horror genre and a well known ‘scary location’.

The second and in my opinion most important reason is that the term ‘if you go down to the woods today…’ is a line from a popular childrens song. As it is from a childrens song, the viewer instantly thinks of the song and even sings along in their head, this is in fact luring the viewer into false sense of security as the film is actually a horror and their initial thoughts are shown to be completely wrong. I believe this is a good title as it obviously contradicts with the viewers initial thoughts of happiness and children with the reality that death and suffering are soon to be seen.

Screen 2 – Setting

We chose to film our opening 2 minutes in a local woodland area. It was obviously essential for us to film in the woods due to our film title but there was also others factors which helped influence our decision to film here. We had to think about being the characters ourselves, and if we were given the task of filming a horror scene, what would be the most obvious choice for 4 teenage lads, it had to be the woods.

The Beezers location was chosen due to their being a very long pathway surrounded by hundreds of trees in the centre of the woods, this enabled us to safely run down the long pathway of the woods while giving the impression to the audience that the terrain was a lot more tedious. The Beezers was also our number one location due to the fact that it wasn’t that far away from one of our groups house in case we needed to recharge batteries or is the weather stopped us from filming, though being very close to houses, the location in the film seems very desolate and isolated, which of cause, is a convention of the horror genre.

Screen 3 – Costumes & Props

We did our best to keep all props and costumes stay out of the focus of the viewers eye as much as possible, though every detail on costumes and props had been pre-planned and we saw it as extremely  important to overall authenticity. The main prop that is key that we used is the tripod, without the tripod i believe it would be a lot more difficult for the audience to understand the mixture of professional and amateur footage.

With our clothing in the film, we tried to go for a stereotypical teenage group of lads look using such items like hoodies and trackies. The characters don’t however follow their dress code in the sense of personality as the louder, smarter, more casual looking character actually turns out to be quite the opposite when problems occur.

The final major prop/costume piece we used was some bright white eye contacts shown in the very last shot of out piece. Though a image of somebody screaming would make the viewers jump, we didn’t feel a normal looking person shouting would actually scare anybody, so we brought eye contacts to create fear as everybody knows whatever the monster is, it is not human.

Screen 4 – Camerawork & Editing

Though we did begin shooting with professional shots, with the camera set up on the tripod including filming techniques like panning across the screen it was essential we combined professional shots with amateur footage so it is obvious to the viewer that this was all the footage found at the location after the ‘events’. We shot the majority of our piece in the ‘found footage’ style of such existing products like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield (See later text for full comparison). Of cause this is essential to our piece for our story to work but also gave us the opportunity to make the film seem raw and live, almost like the audience themselves are one of the group of boys. Filming in first person prospective also gives a disorientating effect to the audience, which can increase tension and keep them on the edge of their seats throughout.

We filmed in such a way that the evil creature is never actually fully revealed, there is nothing more scary than being fully aware that something is out there, but having no idea what it is, and where it is coming from. This technique is often used in ‘found footage’ horror films to show that the characters have just as little idea of whats actually happening just like the audience. We also always performed the screeches from behind or to the side of the camera, to give a strong impression of being watched, followed and finally eventually chased.

Effects were also incorporated in to our film to help promote the found footage feel.We inserted odd-ly timed phrases of static in between clips to once again disorientate the viewer and forcing them to think about what has happened to keep up with the high pace of the ever changing events. We also managed to add a recording logo with time and date details which i believe really helps with the first person effect, forcing the idea of found footage to the audience once again. (I will discuss how we inserted static and recording logos in the extras area)

Screen 5 – Title Font & Style

The title we used wasn’t actually from imovie, i imported the font from a website called cooltext.com as i didn’t feel like the fonts on offer from imovie were scary enough to convey the type of feeling we were trying to achieve upon looking at it. We decided to go for a white font as appose to the conventional ‘bloody red’ colour, we decided to do this as we felt it suited the light filter effect which i have discussed in the editing area, more than a red font would.

The style of the font is also quite raw and aggressively shaped, much like the location of our shoot and the trees of the wood itself. We decided to play our title screens over the top of the opening footage as appose to having time set aside for the titles to bring the audience straight into the film and not waste any crucial time where we could instead be developing our story.

Screen 6 – Story

I have already spoken about the story that takes place in the woods, alone, it would seem like that is actual the entire, and very simple plot. Our story starts to unravel properly after we first hear the ‘being’ in the woods, we see the footage through the camera work filmed by our protagonist Brett, apart from one very short clip, the audiences view is quite literally in Brett’s hands for the entire duration.

After hearing the sound a couple of times we are still unaware of what is actually out there as the ‘being’ has not been fully unveiled, after a burst of static our characters begin to flee from what can only be the monster, we then hear the director screaming in agony as the creature catches up with him, but all his fleeing friends can do is continue to run for their lives as it is too late. The final clip we see is the three lads hiding from the creature in some bushes, as the creature approaches, Brett foresees his own death and makes a run for it, unaware of what Brett was about to do, our other two characters are heard screaming as the creatures produces his final screech and Brett runs away to safety. Having a role reversal in character when an horrible event happens is a convention often seen in horror films, i will later compare Brett to other horror film characters who have an dramatic change from mr.cool to a coward.

After the camera fades from static to darkness, we next find Brett being spoken to by an figure of authority known only as Mr. McCarthy. He explains that the bodies of the boys have been found dead over the beezers and that nobody knows what happened apart from Brett, as he is the only survivor. We can see Brett is mentally scarred from whatever happened as he doesn’t respond to Mr. McCarthy, it is only when he grabs Brett and yells at him that Brett murmurs two words…White eyes.

The opening 2 minutes of film act as an prologue for the story of the actual film to unfold, after speaking to Mr.McCarthy in more detail at a further date, Brett is forced to go down down to the woods with a group of police and detectives looking for the answers and to find and kill whatever is out there. In the sense of going back to the scene, our film is similar with The Hole.

Screen 7 – Genre

I think the genre detection is pretty obvious from the first time we see the title comes across the screen in our imported font. Throughout the entire piece there are codes and conventions that are often found in the horror genre. The first of many conventions is the group of characters chosen. The group of teens staying/going to a remote area alone is a well known basic foundation for a plot that is used over and over again in horror films. Also the found footage filming style is only ever really seen in horror movies, as all it would do in any other genre is make the film difficult to watch. The same can be said with the recording symbol we added to our screens, its only ever really seen in horror films, and if it is in other genres, it won’t be just the found footage screens, there will likely be a sot of somebody showing somebody a tape. Another convention that shouts out horror genre is the green contrast filter we added, having an effect of the colours of the footage can increase viewer attention while making the location more scary looking. Static is another key feature for the horror genre, it creates a sense of disorientation to the viewer and keeps them constantly on their toes.

Other obvious conventions in our film is the actual events that take place, they include;

• A distant noise heard which depicts suffering, or madness which is often screaming or roaring.
• The group going to investigate something mysterious.
• Frantic running away from some sort of monster.
• One of the group (never the essential character) being killed off very early.
• The group being extremely frightened while discussing how they can survive/what they can do to escape.
• The fearsome shot of the monster wearing some sort of scary accessory.

Screen 8 – Character Introductions

We have four main characters in our film opening, Sam, Tom, Brett and Jack. The characters are not hugely introduced or given any sort of background due to our piece being found footage, but some basic personalities can be assumed from various actions that take place.

• Brett – First seemingly the ‘cool guy’ of the group, wearing the most fashionable clothes and acting the least bothered about filming their as media piece. When all other characters begin to become anxious and fearful about the initial sound they heard, Brett laughs it off and evens starts to make fun of the groups fear. Brett’s tone soon changes however when Jack is heard shouting in pain from behind, instead of looking back he runs as fast as he can to escape, he has no care for his friend when his life is at risk. Brett’s true colours finally become clear as he leaves his friends once again to die as he cowardly runs to safety.

• Jack – Shows very little friendship in the rest of the group showing him to be a bit of an outsider, very keen to finish work to his standard and takes control when filming, letting others know to carry on only after he is happy.  Most nervous about the scream heard where as others are just curious.

• Sam – Easily the quietest character in the group and very clumsy. Puts in very little input into ideas when filming and hides behind the rowdiness of Tom.

• Tom – A slightly less confident version of Brett but shows a uncaring attitude towards filming the actual piece. When noises are heard very keen to leave the scene and shows no major interest to find out what the monster is.

Screen 9 – Extras

For our found footage to feel real we were certain in planning that we wanted to have static in between shots, as we went to add the effect into our piece from imovie it was not an option. We then had to search youtube for a clip of static and then import it into imovie. As i have already mentioned the static really helps disorientate the viewer.

We also decided to add a time and date signature at the bottom left of the screen and a recording logo at the bottom right. Both of these texts make the screen look more authentic and aesthetically pleasing to the audience.

We also finally had the option to film in HD, but we decided against it as we felt a lower quality camera would be more realistic for the students to be filming with.

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

The group our film represents is a modern group of all mate teenagers, this is due to a few reasons shown visually and via the groups dialogue throughout the film.

We first see the stereotypical British youths who are quite arrogant and using slang as if it was their first language, this is prominently shown by the character of Tom. We then, on the contrast however see that the students are actually putting in an effort and trying to produce a good piece of work for their studies. As the characters are just getting their filming off to a good start Brett asks Tom ‘who he is texting? Lauren? which gives the audience the assumption that Tom gets around like the media’s  stereotypical teenager would. This in group banter is obviously short lived however due to the battery running out. Personalities and values soon change however when the possibility of death is on the cards for each and every character. I feel like we have successfully portrayed a group of friends and how they would act around each other while also including lots of different character types.

I will look in detail of the character of Brett in our film and compare him to another character who has similarities in an existing film, Geoff Bingham, a character from the British horror film, The Hole.

Similarities of Both Characters

• Both known as the ‘cool kid’ to other group members.
• Both very fashionable, take pride in their appearance.
• A lot louder and attention seeking than the rest of the group.
• Laugh off any danger like they are not at all bothered.
• Deep down, under the act, they are often the both more anxious than anybody else.
• More focused on having a laugh than any task.
• Make fun of other group members fear/nerves.

Callum Barker Audience Feedback & Tom & Sam Interview

General comments of the entire process and feedback from an audience member.

Location of Set

This is the main area we filmed out opening in, a local wood called the Beazers Forest. We chose this location as it provided many different types of woodland relatively close together so that enabled us to show progression through the wood and as if we had ran a major distance in order to flee from the monster. Another reason that we chose the Beazers is that though it may look like complete woodland, it was very close to one of the groups house which allowed us to film for longer periods of time that we usually would without the worry of losing battery and having to call it a day. The third reason we filmed here was that we needed a woodland area that looked very desolate, filled completely with trees but had a pathway for us to sprint down without the risk of injury. Our final reason for filming here is that the place is actually scary, a scary setting being an essential factor in providing fear to the audience.

What kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Product?

I believe the best production company to distribute our product if it was a full film would be Film4. They are a well established institution and have produced lots of high quality, successful British films over many years and as our film is a British independent film i believe Film4 would be the perfect institution to distribute our product. Examples of previous successful Film4 films include This is England, Bunny and the Bull and Happy go-lucky, obviously apart from the genre i believe the films are very similar. A production company watches over proceedings of the entire film, from the concepts to the final product, they also provide the backing for the film. A good distributor for the product would be Optimum Releasing as they are heavily linked with Film4 for previous works. The names of the entire group are given at the start as we were all seen on screen acting but also all shared the editing/post film work, they are in no particular order apart from Mr.McCarthy at the end for a cameo appearance.

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Our main target audience is teenager do young adults so 15-25. We aimed for this area as we felt the film can appeal to an audience of that age more than people who haven’t experienced modern day events of being a teenager. Its one again easier for an audience of this age to relate to as they are the same age as the actors in the film. Generally speaking, it tends to be the male gender that have a better opinions of horror films so having the main actor male is a big selling point for the boys. There is no real direct type of teenager that would enjoy this film, it is open to anybody  as we tried to have a variety of characters in the opening 2 minutes so more people could connect with them.

The only other type of person i can imagine liking the film as much as the youth is a specific horror film fanatic, and though they may not be able to link directly with the characters due to lack of same experiences, i believe if we did make the entire film it would be pleasing for somebody with a love for the genre to watch due to quality of the overall product.

How Did You Attract Your Audience?

The main way we attracted our audience was actually through the events that take place and the characters in the film itself. We tried to make the film in such a way that it could be very easy for the viewers to relate to the characters and the comments/decisions they make. The idea that the characters are going out to film their media work will obviously grab the attention of people who study media and who are in the 6th form studying. Of cause its not just students who would be attracted to our piece, horror film fanatics would also be keen to view the film from the opening 2 minutes due to lots of codes and conventions used from the horror genre. Some of those key horror features include;

• Mysterious Creepy Setting.
• The found footage style of filming.
• Our title font and messages it gives off.
• The idea of the students initially thinking in scary terms when coming up with ideas.
• A distant scream to alert the audience that theres something out there.
• The chase scene.
• The fact the monster is never fully revealed developing tension.
• Death of one of the group.
• Fearful emotions portrayed.
• Only one survivor.
• Mentally scarred character.
• A frightening monster like creature.

Similar products

The Blair Witch Project – Found footage style, unidentified monster haunting the group

Cloverfield – Fout footage style, unidentified monster.

The Descent Part II – The idea of having to go back to the scene of the deaths to search for creature.

The Hole – Mentally scarred character must tell authority figures what happened.

What Have You Learned About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Here is obviously the most important piece for equipment we used during the filming of our piece, the camera. We were use to using the camera due to filming our preliminary task but had never used the camera in hand the produce the found footage style. There were no major issues with the filming of our product apart from the running scene and the scene where Brett runs away. The running scene was a problem as we wanted to make Brett, Sam and Tom seem like they had some genuine speed to have a realistic representation of what the characters would actually be doing if a monster was chasing them, running as fast as they can. As Brett was near enough sprinting it took a couple of takes for us to manage to get the speed of the movement while capturing what was actually happening instead of looking straight at the floor and woodland all the time.

The only other minor problem we had was the scene where Brett throws the camera on the floor and runs away, this was a problem as we wanted to achieve quite a wierd angle on the camera like it had been dropped but we obviously couldn’t just throw the camera on the floor and hope for the best. We then came up with the spontaneous idea of putting down a lot of padding in the form of coats and bags so that there was a specific area for the camera to be dropped into while retaining the one sided shot.

We also had the option to film in HD but we decided against it for the found footage parts as we realised shooting in HD would loose the footages rawness and unedited effect. We did however shoot in HD for the scene where Mr.McCarthy interviews Brett about the events.

The second piece of equipment we used was a tripod, though the majority of the film was filmed by hands, the tripod was essential in order to get the establishing and panning shots as the characters film their first shots, we also used the tripod for the interview scene in.

After we had finished filming we then uploaded our footage from the camera onto an apple iMac and more specifically, the software programme called iMovie. After we had finished importing the footage into iMovie we had around 8 minutes of footage and ideas we had filmed while we were out filming. We then had to choose our essential clips that we thought were needed in order for the film to flow fluently, after doing this though we were still only down to 3.30 minutes of footage. We then had to once again cut out lots from our footage, there was contrasting views in the group on what footage to cut as some of us wanted for the opening to make the most sense possible and others wanted to include the best technical shots, in the end we decided that telling the prologue plot was more important. From iMovie we managed to add an effective filter effect, opening credits and a transition to show an obvious change from the found footage to the questioning.  We did however have to import our title as there was not much variety in fonts and had to get static off a video clip on youtube and import that itself into our iMovie project.
When we had finished editing our piece we uploaded it onto Youtube for the rest of the world to see our work. This was also a good tool for us as it allowed people to create feedback for us without having to show everybody individually. As i have mentioned Youtube was also the source that provided our clip of the static.

Looking Back at your Preliminary Task What do You Feel You Have Learnt in The Progression From it to a Full Product?

I think i have learned a lot in the progression from our first given task to completing our opening scene, the main thing though is not to do with editing and camerawork, but the actual planning and composition of ideas. With the preliminary task we tried to incorporate too much of what we had learned in this course into our preliminary task, i feel this made the task look a bit too frantic as we were constantly changing shots and angle while always sticking to the 180 degree tule.

As we filmed the majority of our film in the found footage style there was no need to incorporate such camera techniques as match on action and shot reverse shot and stick to guidelines such as the 180 degree rule. When we go back to civilisation after we have seen all the footage however, we stuck to the guidelines we had been given. There is also an establishing shot in the woods which pans across the display showing the 180 degree rule. We finally used more of the editing tools on the iMovie software but i feel this was down to the choice of genre and the need for filters and effects than learning new skills.

Final Predicted Grade

40 out of 60

If i had to rate our film to a level, i would rate it as level 3 with a mark of 40 out of 60. Though it was not done to perfection, i believe our film ended up very accurate to how we planned beforehand. The only two things i would improve include our tittle screen and brightness of the footage itself, though we changed the settings and lighting effects i feel it would have worked better if we had filmed at dusk or a night to give a convention of horror.

AS Media Blog

What Constitutes A British Film?

Though nationalism isn’t as obvious in Britain compared to places like the US, there is still a certain pride and sense of belonging when we class something as British. Hollywood is the big cheese in the movie industry, so when a British film is a big success, the fact that it is actually British is constantly thrown around. It’s not as simple as one would think to have a film be classed as British, the film must go through a cultural test set up by the UK film council in order to get the all singing all dancing ‘british film’ title.

The UK film council logo

The UK film council is a lottery funded government agency that was created in the year 2000 to help to fund and promote film making in the UK, so far the agency has backed over 900 films, of cause all being classed as British. The UK film council’s long term goal is to ‘stimulate a competitive successful a vibrant UK film industry’.

Slumdog Millionaire made over $375,000,000 at box office.

We have recently seen more and more British films being a huge hit,’Slumdog Millionaire‘ for example, the film was a massive hit at the box office all around the World and won many  prestigious awards. One main benefit to the actual film from being classed as British is the UK tax relief, if the film has a total expenditure of under £20 million the production company can claim cash rebate of up to 25% of Uk film production expenditure. To recieve these benefits though, as i have already mentioned, the film must pass the British culture test. In order to pass the test the film must get 16 or more marks out of 31, the scoring of the test is divided into four opening areas;

1) Cultural content – 16 points
2) Cultural contribution – 4 points
3) Cultural hubs – 3 points
4) Cultural practitioners – 8 points

In each of these sub-headings the test shows how points can be achieved for individual points about the film, the more British the point is, the more points are rewarded. For example, 4 points can be awarded for each of the following;

The film is set in the UK

The films lead characters are British

the films main subjects involves British matters

The films main dialogue is in English

As the importance of each point goes down, so does the marks given for successfully completing it. In cultural practitioners, individual marks are given to the staff used in the filming and production of the film. Examples of these key staff include:

• Director
• Scriptwriter
• Composer
• Producer
• Lead actors and actresses

The remaining unmentioned marks

Generally, it is quite easy to achieve the British film title if the film has anything to do with the country playing a major role, whether in be location, language, actors or subject matter. If a film was to be based in Britain, points would always be included along with the key point of setting, instantly classing it as British. An example of a film that gained a British title that I have looked at is a horror film called The Grudge. The film is based in Asia, consisting of asian actors and actresses, containing issues completely lacking in relevance to Britain whatsoever but still managed to get the title due to lots of other minor marks in the test.

How is Britishness typically represented?

When a film is trying to represent Britain, there are many obvious denotations in the mise-en-scene that instantly tell the viewer that the film is heavily involved with Britain. These denotations give British films a distinct difference from any films set elsewhere. Some key features from british films include;

• Accents
• Locations
• Dry, Sarcastic Humour
• Activities (typical British sports)
• Terminology
• Cars
• Props
• References
• Multi-cultural Characters

This scene from ‘This is England’ can show many British themes, including strong accents, humour and the actual setting. Even though the title does give it away, any British viewer would be immediately able to tell where the film is set and spot similarities.

Some of these denotations also occur in some of the British horror films i have studied.

What Institutions Are Involved In Producing & Distributing Films?

Institutions help set up and fund films, these institutions help overlook the entire project. I looked into the horror genre of British films and the institutions that help make the films happen. In my opinion British horror films are just one step ahead of any other genres, and have been the most successful around the world. The 3 British horror films i looked into were;

1. 28 Days Later (2002)
2. The Descent (2005)
3. The Hole (2001)

28 Days Later (2002)

Director – Danny Boyle

Producer – Andrew MacDonald

Writer – Alex Garland

Starring – Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley, Christopher Eccleston

Studio – DNA Films/ British Film Council

Distributor – Fox Searchlight Pictures

Budget – £5,000,000

Gross Revenue – £50,000,000

Jim flees from the infected

28 Days Later follows the life of Jim, a bike courier who was woke up in a post-apocolyptic Britain, 28 days after the ‘rage’ virus has broke out. Jim then walks around the deserted city, looking for answers trying to discover why is he is alone…or so he thinks.

Britishness

• Obvious British accents
• Establishing shots show landmarks of London
• Well known British items (Chocolate bars, drinks)
• Infamous London Taxi and Red Bus

Horror

• Violence
• Blood
• ‘The eyes shot’
• Normal people in awful circumstances
• Stranded characters
• Silence
• ‘Un-social’ music

Enigma Codes

• What is Rage?
• Where did monkeys get ‘rage’ from?
• Where has everybody been evacuated to?
• Why was Jim in a coma?

The Descent (2005)

Director – Neil Marshall

Producer – Chris Colson

Writer – Neil Marshall

Starring – Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza

Studio – Lionsgate

Distributer – Pathe/Lionsgate

Budget – £3,500,500

Gross Revenue – £35,000,000

Sarah fights, for her right...to survive.

After loosing her husband and daughter in a tragic car accident, Sarah is taken away by her thrill seeking friends to descend on a cave expedition. When they reach about 3 kilometres, the cave falls in and they become trapped. With limited supplies and rising tensions between the girls they discover that they are not alone in this cave, and must literally fight to survive.

Britishness

• Accents
• Activities
• Mention of location
• Weather
• Multi cultural

Horror

• False sense of security
• Blood and gore
• Despair and tragedy (screams and death)
• ‘Un-social’ music
• Flashing of lights to disorientate the viewer
• Running in fear
• Isolation
• Forest setting

Enigma Codes

Why is there tension between 2 of the group?

Why doesn’t 1 friend comfort her after the tragedy?

The Hole (2001)

Director – Nick Hamm

Producer – Jeremy Bolt

Writer – Ben Court

Starring – Thora Birch, Keira Knightley

Studio – Pathe Films

Distributor – Pathe Films

Budget – £4,000,000

Gross Revenue – £15,000,000

The gang first gain entrance to The Hole

In an attempt to avoid a boring geography trip with their school, 4 public school students find a bunker on the schools grounds where they can have ‘the most exclusive party ‘, unable to escape the ‘war proof’ bunker they are reported missing. Jealousy, rivalry and murder occur in the bunker. Liz, the only survivor reveals what happened in the hole but after being unable to recall everything, she must go back.

Britishness

• British countryside
• British architecture
• Accents
• School uniform
• Rugby
• Car

Horror

• Hidden identity
• Blood
• ‘Un-social’ music
• Jump cuts
• Disorientation
• Isolation
• Screaming
• Heavy Breathing

Enigma Codes

• Where are all the missing pupils?
• Why is she alone?
• Why is she covered in blood?
• Why is she so sensitive when touched?

What are the Codes and Conventions of the Horror Genre?

There are many codes and conventions of every genre in film, though horror has a few conventions guaranteed to be in every film.  Some are more obvious than others, but when combined together these codes and conventions can instantly change a chick flick in too a mass murder apocalyptic epic.

Blood

Obviously blood is a huge tick on the horror checklist. It instantly shows the viewer that there has been violence, gore and horror. Blood is essential in all ‘death’ horror films because without it they’d be no lying evidence or suffering. Blood can be used in many ways, 3 of the most popular include;

‘The Splatter’

Splatter

Blood is thrown all across the mise-en-scene an even sometimes on the camera. This usually happens as we see a kill to add to the effect and involve the viewer more.

Body Paint

‘The Body Paint’

This is when the character is literally covered in blood, often used at the ends of films to show how they have progressed from a normal person, to a killer throughout the entire film.

‘The Wallpaper’

Wallpaper

In the wallpaper, we see a room with blood thrown around everywhere, this shows us the scale of damage the killer can do and also provides up with an enigma code, the wallpaper is also good for the shock value.

The Villain

Even more essential than blood, the bad man. If there was nobody causing problems in the first place then the whole kind of fear aspect of the film would fall apart. These crooks are often masked to intrigue the viewer and generally make them more scary. On the other hand though they don’t nessacerily have to be gruesome and half dismembered, the villian can often just be mentally unstable, causing problems for people all around them. Examples of this could be found in all 3 horror films i watched.

Un-social music

Another convention bound to be in a horror film is eire, dramatic, high pitched sounds. This helps build tension when the viewer is in suspense for something evil to happen. Music is often in the style of serialism having no basic rhythm, chord progression or structure. Examples of this were found in all 3 of the horror films i watched.

The well known theme for the film 'Psycho' helps build immense tension.

Shaking Camera/Flashing Lights

Often used just before the villain attacks the victim, the camera shot is purposely wobbly and unfocused to give the viewer disorientation, leaving the viewer unprepared. The same applies for flashing lights, it is often used in horror films so the viewer becomes unaware of what is actually happening, resulting in a even bigger shock when something does occur.

How is Narrative and Representation portrayed?

The horror genre uses both linear and non-linear narrative in explaining their storyline, where as 28 Days Later and The Descent are in a linear narrative, The Hole prefers to use a non linear fashion with flashbacks. It depends on the actual story in my opinion as to which type of narrative is best, but if i had to choose i would choose linear narrative.

With linear narrative you are reacting as the characters does and i feel more involved as a viewer, where as when watching a film in a non-linear narrative, even though you are with the characters in the flashbacks you still know that certain characters survive taking away a sense of fear for the life of the character.

Like with the codes and conventions of horror, i feel there are certain set out characters that are usually included in the film genre to help have a variety of reactions and views in desperate and horrific times. There are examples of a couple of the characters in the films i looked at such as;

'The Jock' - From Dr.Cool to Mr.Fool before you can say Jason X

Always the really popular kid at the school or the adult equivalent, acts very cool all the time until the crunch. When the crunch arrives the roles played is reversed and we see the true identity as they cowers while seemingly less powerful people take control and remain calm. This role is portrayed by Mike Steele/’Frankie’ in The Hole

Lizz Dunn - The Unsuspected Hero

Always though upon as a loser and a freak until weird circumstances bring them into the popular group. Once in trouble become the sensible leader of the pack calming everybody down and trying to think of positive ways to get out of the situation. Normally the one who survives, or lives the longest. This role is portrayed by Liz Dunn in The Hole

Jim - Mr.Avarage

Quite familiar to Liz Dunn in The Hole, the character isn’t the biggest, isn’t the best, fastest or most intelligent but simply a normal person. When the situation occurs though they are resourceful, careful and efficient in trying to escape. This character is often most easy to relate to from the viewers point of view as they act in a mutual way the rest of the population would. This character type is portrayed by Jim in 28 Days Later and Sarah in The Descent.

All of the main characters in the films come under one of these 3 stereotypical character types, there true colours are only revealed when a group is formed, making them wide in variety and somebody to relate to for every type of viewer.