Forms and conventions define a genre and are the way in which something is done. Within my work i have used, challenged and developed some of these forms and conventions. My film comes under the sub-genre of psychological found footage. This is not as much of a popular sub-genre compared to others so therefore there are not as many codes and conventions, however the prime example of the genre is the Blair Witch Project which I took a lot of inspiration from.
Many horror films have similar themes traits and styles that have been developed over time. One of the typical conventions of mise-en-scene, more specifically the location are characters being somewhere that lacks access and has no one around to help. For example, the woods is where I decided to locate my film as it's away from civilisation conforming to the stereotypical convention of the characters being isolated away from help, enhancing the difficulty of their situation and creating fear that something bad will happen to the characters. 'The Blair Witch Project' which i was inspired by is filmed in the woods so it was my ideal location. Films of the horror genre tend to be set at night time or in darkness as it forces the characters to naturally be more alert making the audience more on edge. My media product uses this convention as I decided to film later in the day so it would be dark. Another aspect of the mise en scene are props, typical props that have come up in horror films are guns, knives and sometimes a painting/antique or something ancient to create a sinister atmosphere. Specifically in a paranormal/psychological film they have bibles and crucifixes to involve religion and symbolising the devil which is often used to anger something that is haunting the characters creating more violence. However, I decided to challenge this and not use any props of that type, this is due to the fact I'm following the sub genre of a psychological found footage so it needed to be as realistic and believable as possible.
Sound/music in horrors is an important factor as it tends to become more tense and fast paced as we are lead into a tense scene. It indicates to the audience that something is going to happen creating more fear and excitement There's often exaggerated digetic sounds that create lot of tension. However, I didn't use any pre recorded added sounds due to my subgenre of choice. As my characters were filming themselves it would seem unnatural to add music into the background and would take away from the realistic aspect of the footage. In terms of characters, I had an all female cast that didn't come conform to the typical female characters that are found in the horror genre. For Instance 'the blonde' that usually dies first and has the 'slutty' costume or 'the Virgin' who is always the character that survive as they are pure and not affected by evil. I found that creating a short film meant it was more difficult to create detailed characters that the audience could form a strong relationship with. Another character I did not conform to because i had an all female cast was the typical 'Jock/Athlete' that's everyone looks to for guidance and saves the day. But this may be due to the fact that these type of character is usually found in teenager horrors. I personally think that my media product challenges The Male Gaze Theory that is usually applied to horror films. The male gaze theory is the way in which women are visually represented in the media presenting them as objects of male pleasure. I think I challenged this through my actors costume as they were wearing clothes that covered up their bodies preventing the opportunity for my audience to sexualise them. In the horror genre the female characters as previously mentioned can be presented as 'slutty' and weak creating the 'damsel in distress' persona. Although in my short film the actor's begin to disappear one by one and can't seem to help themselves the 'damsel in distress stereotype doesn't appear as there are no male characters available to save them.
Iconography is an area where my short film used the conventions of real media products. The fear of the unknown has become more popular in recent films more specifically in psychological/paranormal horrors the characters fear the unknown which leads the audience to also be scared. I applied this to my film as the girls disappear one by one but it remains unknown as to why, how or where they disappear to. Jumpy scenes where things tend to pop up in front of the screen with loud sounds or unexplained noises are also very common. In the scene where one of the girls (Yasmine) runs back to the car, a strange figure comes up from behind covering her mouth and grabbing her neck pulling her into the darkness. This created a jump scene as before she's grabbed it is calm and quiet making her scream unexpected and jumpy. I also created a jumpy scene where Andrietta goes to look for Yasmine and thinks she has found her so is calling her name and taps her shoulder but the figure then turns around to grab her causing her to scream. The theme of good vs Evil has always been present in the horror genre and I applied this to my short film as the unknown antagonist is evil for attacking innocent. A feature I picked up from the Blair Witch Project is at the start there is short paragraph quickly detailing the story and I chose to use this is mine to make the story line clear and explain that it is a found footage film.
Typically editing follows a strict continuity so that the audience can see a clear storyline making the jumpy seems more effective as the audience are clear on the plot. I used continuity editing through the technique of cross cutting between the two different cars and between the different cameras that the actors were holding in order to understand the story from different aspects. Although I was going from different cameras to different scenes I still feel as if my audience could follow the storyline as well as follow the different characters but I think I've also challenged real media text as usually horror films are filmed from the protagonist and antagonist perspectives however mine was done from several different perspectives. I did feel like this made me challenge the normality of camera work as in most horrors the actors don't hold the cameras and film themselves meaning I didn't use the typical angles and shots that would usually be identified such as over the shoulder shots and high angles. It would be unnatural for my actors to be filming themselves from professional angles as the aik of thr film is to be as natural as possible and would steer away from the style of genre. On the other hand as my characters were filming themselves it meant there were many closeups which is a conventional angle that is used. Found footage horror films as a whole aren't as popular as other subgenres of meaning it was a challenge within itself.
Ancillary Tasks
Poster
As for my ancillary tasks I didn't conform to the usual conventions as much as I did with my film. My poster was done in the style of a missing poster, I was inspired by a poster that was released alongside The Blair Witch Project at a film festival to make the audience believe it was real. The missing poster included single square pictures of the three protagonist which inspired me to get a picture of each of my characters in a black and white filter to portray a dark and mysterious vibe. A typical features of a horror film poster often includes one dark figure which is usually the antagonist, however as in my film we never see the villain I decided to use the victims which continued to conceal the identity of the antagonist. The images on posters are usually close up and have been manipulated to look unnatural and eerie, capturing the audiences attention. Although I used four separate images they are all close up however they have not been manipulated and the girls are looking happy which creates an aspect of sympathy and desperation because they have gone missing. Sometimes there is a use of the location in the poster but I felt that including an image of the wood would detract from the idea of a missing poster. A convention I identified and followed is that there is always a lack of text and on my poster I have simply included a few lines about the film and the credits. In terms of colours I conformed to the typical. Horror film posters tend to use dark and dull colours as they are associated with terror mystery and death. They also tend to use the colour red which is intense and stands out from the dark colours as it has the conotations of blood which can be linked to violence. They also often have unnatural lighting which create dull/dark lighting creating uncertainty and fear making the audience more intrigued to watch the film. On my poster I used the colour black which is dark and dull conforming to the convention creating uncertainty and I also used red for some of the font so it stands out and signals to the audience that the film could potentially involve blood and danger. The darkness that is drawn from the poster instantly signifies to the audience that they will be watching a film that could involve an unhappy ending and my film is a cliffhanger that shows no sign of a happy ending.
Double Page Spread
For my double page spread I wanted to have a flow from the poster that I have created so I aimed to keep it simplistic but intriguing. After searching for many different styles of double page spread's and not finding any I particularly liked, I looked back on my own work from last year and used that for inspiration. As I found that many people liked the style I had gone for I decided to use the same sort of minimalistic approach again. The image on the left was originally shot to be used a for my poster as it has the typical camerawork of being a close up shot and the mise en scene fits the genre as it is located in the woods therefore i conformed to the stereotype. But I felt that it worked better on my double page spread once I had edited it as it fully captures the attention of the audience. I made my actor look into the camera with no expression and half her face as it shows mystery because not all of her has been revealed. I realised that many images of double page spreads of horror films are still shots from the film however I found because my film was shot by the actors themselves it wasn't very clear and it was hard to find shots that could be used for my DPS. Therefore I challenged this convention and used a separate image specifically shto for the purpose of the poster or DPS. I also realised that many double page spread's include more than one image but I personally didn't like the look of this as I found it overcrowding and I experimented with using more than one image but found it overwhelmed the page so stuck with one. I used the same colours that I used on my poster to maintain a house style and theme. I used black as the background colour because it again creates a dark, dangerous and mysterious vibe and my film is shot in the dark so it only made sense to reflect this in my DPS. A typical convention of any film review DPS is that there are reviews included, I decided to include a quote as I saw that many other DPS's included this. I did mine in a red font to continue the colour scheme over the image to make it look more professional. I did the rest of the font in white on the rest of the rest of the DPS as I wanted it to stand out and i wanted to maintain a style and brand.
Overall, I think I conformed to many forms and conventions of the psychological found footage genre which I think was inevitable to happen as there are not many films of the gente out there so i would more or less stick to what I had researched. I used the a feature of real media products with mise en scene by filming in darkness and the location of the woods. I challenged the typical aspects of the horror genre as a whole, for example by not adding sound or using the stereotypical camera shots and angles. I also challenged the male gaze theory as I felt no need to sexualise the female body in order to heighten the fear in my film or improve my storyline. In terms of my ancillary tasks, I think I slightly branched out of the usual poster by creating a missing poster as my poster to advertise. For my double page spread I didn't use images from my film which I found proved to be a popular concept so I perhaps challenged the genre again. However, i stayed true to the typical colour scheme that is found of posters such a red and black due to the fact they have popular connotations of darkness, danger and mystery.
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