Narrative

Linear narrative is when there is a clear beginning, middle and end. This is the structure of most horror films.
Non-linear narrative is when the film does not start at the beginning but in fact starts with a flashback. There is no clear structure as the film manipulates chronology.

Key terms:
 

• Generic convention:  They are the features shown by texts that allow them to be put into a specific genre.
• Audience expectations: These are the advance ideas an audience may have about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don't forget that producers often play with or deliberately shatter audience expectations.
• Repertoire of elements: These include characters, audience, setting, theme, narrative, iconography and style.

Because of the repertoire of elements, my audience has formed an expectation from the horror genre and so I must include the generic conventions. Our main brief contains a clear linear narrative due to the research I studied above.

Genre

Genre

A genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature. Horror is the genre we have chosen for our opening required to complete AS media studies.

A sub-genre is a subdivision of a genre of literature, music, film, etc. A sub-genre of horror could be; comedy, it will combine horrific events with comedic for example Shaun of the Dead (2004).

 A hybrid genre blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. In horror there are 2 main types of hybrid films; the first is Dead lands which is a cross between western and horror and the second is Alien which is a cross between sci-fi and horror.




This research has allowed me to have a greater understanding of what genre is and the different types of genre. This then allowed me to include the horror conventions needed, to make the genre clear within the main brief.

Textual analysis- Identification of genre in the film Scream (1996)

Scream (1996)

Over the last media lesson I had, I studied the first five minutes of the film scream from 1996. After analysis the opening of the film i discovered many aspects that indicated the genre of horror. These factors are all categorised into different elements which include Sound, Camera Angles/Movements, Editing and Mise en Scene.

Sound
As soon as the opening begins and a title of scream appears, there is an instant screaming noise that indicates to the audience not only the name of the film, but also the identification of the film obviously being a horror. After the scream there is also a heartbeat sound that has connotations of someone being in danger due to there heart beat increasing in time. This heartbeat is then followed by the sound of a knife slicing which is key iconography of a horror film. Also, the fact that there is a heartbeat sound followed by a knife sound effect may foreshadowing what later commences in the film, that being numerous murders. When the antagonist first starts to ring the girl there is subtle non-diegetic music playing in the background. As the character becomes more worried and tension begins to rise so does the music. The none diegetic music begins to get louder and louder until the climax when the antagonist says "can you see me?", the music then stops. This allows the audience to begin to feel frightened as it portrays a sense of surprise, the lack of non diegetic sound allows the audience to feel as if something is going to happen. When the person on the phone says :because i want to know who  I'm looking at", the audience then hear a diegetic sound of a dog barking. This illustrates to the audience that there is someone outside because dogs only bark when they're distressed and disrupted by someone or something.

Camera Angles/Movements
Firstly, at the start of the opening the first sign the phone the audience see is a close up as it rings for the first time. When the phone is viewed by the audience the came angle is slightly on a slant. This subtly hints to the audience that something isn't quite right within the situation, it shows that the young girl is in danger. Secondly, when the girl is seen in a medium shot talking about her favourite scary film she is seen holding the taking hold of a knife, the noise the knife makes as she slightly places it out of the knife folder is adapted and edited to make it sound louder to address the audience to the knife. This is done to foreshadow to the audience what is going to happen. Also just before that happens, the camera shows the young girl preparing the popcorn, while the tracking shot shows the girl doing this, the knifes are never out of sight. This depicts to the reader that the girl isn't going to be able to escape the fait of her death. Later on in the extract, there is an editing cut to an external shot. This is then followed by a slow pan shot down a tree, this creates an enigma as the audience can hear a sound, however they don't no what sound it is until the came shows the swing slowly swinging at the end of the pan. Also this slow pan creates an increase in tension as the audience have no idea what is going to happen. The slowly moving swing illustrates to the audience that there is definitely someone there watching the young girl. After this when the character realises there is someone outside, there is a from tracking shot of her running through the house locking all the doors. This creates suspense for the audience and adds that essential sense of fear because she is leading the way, therefore the audience are unable to see the antagonist, it is almost as if they're looking into the fear of the unknown.

Editing
Many editing techniques added to the identification of the genre horror in the film Scream. Throughout the whole extract of the opening, there were frequent cut shots going back to the phone ringing then the girl. Every time it showed the slight zoomed cut shot of the phone, then the medium shot of the girl, the girls facial expressions indicated the rise in fear that she had. As the cut shots became more frequent they also became more zoomed which adds anticipation to the scene. This is because, as the girl and the phone become more zoomed the more tense it becomes because the audience then know something is going to happen, however thy just don't know when. The fact that the girl is cooking popcorn acts as a visual imagery of narrative. This is because as tension rises within the scene, the popcorn gradually becomes more and more heated with more popcorn popping louder and more frequently. The filming of the popcorn consists of fast cut shots on a slant, showing the audience that something isn't right. Also, just because the climax of the opening the popcorn is seen in a cut shot at its longest point with the popcorn burning and being out of control. This illustrates to the audience that the popcorn symbolises the girl and her life. The fact that the popcorn is now burnt, there is know going back to the popcorns first state. This symbolises the girls life and how she cannot escape the danger.

Mise en Scene
The title that is shown at the start of the film is in the colour white. White normally has connotations of purity. This could symbolise to the audience the purity of the young girl in the opening. This is then disrupted quickly to flashes of red behind the writing. Red has connotations of blood and danger, therefore it may indicate to the audience that the young and pure girl is in danger. This is then reinforced when the white writing then turns red after a scream sound effect. This highlights to the audience that in fact the young girl is in absolute danger and connotes to her death. The actress is, Drew Barrymore, a very successful and famous actress. The fact that Scream used her as a character within the film shows the development of horror films as there is an obvious increase in popularity with horror films if successful actresses are willing to be filmed in them. Drew Barrymore as the character has blonde hair. This stereotypically labels the character as stupid and in denial, which makes a brilliant target for a murderer. Also the fact that she is a female strengthens the vulnerability of the young girl making her more suitable to be targeted rather than a strong male actor. Also when the actress screams "He's big and he plays football and he'll kick the shit out of you ", while describing her boyfriend adds to the stereotypical teenage American. This is because the young and pretty American girl is usually portrayed to be with the popular football hooligan of the school.

Textual analysis- Identification of Genre in the opening of Blade

Blade (1998)

Blade is a 1998 American superhero film starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Snipes plays Blade, a human-vampire hybrid who protects humans from vampires. The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer. In the opening of the film, there are many aspects that allows the film to be identified as a horror.

Sound
When the female vampire leads the blonde delusional male into the, what it seems like a vampire blood party, diegetic music begins. This music is fast pace, dance music that illustrates to the audience that theyre at some kind of rave. Just before the blood showers are turnt on in the film, the music decreases in volume and becomes very quiet. This causing a tense atmosphere to commence, because the audience are led to believe that something is going to happen. This is in fact true, because after this suspense, blood begins to spray from the showers on the ceiling which then leads to the diegetic dance to begin again very loudly. This shows that the climax of this particular scene has become. However, when the protagonist Blade enters, all music quickly decreases and we hear diegic whispers of "its him." Also, non-diegetic music begins that sounds very tense and mysterious. This depicts to the audience that Blade is the protagonist because all bad actions stop instantly and he has the authority to cause absolute silence in the scene.

Mise en Scene
The costume of the female character in the opening suggests a strong female with her black short dress and mysterious black raincoat, with her black high heels. Also, her hair is a hot red colour which could indicate the sense of blood and danger from what later happens in the scene. On the other hand, the male character has blonde hair which is stereotypically labels him as a stupid, delusional young man. This allows the audience to understand that the male character is in denial of what is going to happen. This is reinforced when the young man becomes easily distracted when the female vampire kisses him, stopping any curiosity he had about the situation he was in. Furthermore, there are many connotations of danger throughout the opening of Blade. The opening credits of the film depicts to the audience a sense of danger. This is because the writing consists on a bright red colour and the words are all in capitals. This highlights the rebellion that is revealed in the film.

Camera angles/movements
Throughout the opening of the film there are little signs that are seen in the camera shots which foreshadows what is going to happening in the scene. There is a long shot of dead animal corpses that is seen when the boy and girl are walking to the rave. This builds atmosphere and sets an enigma for the audience. This atmosphere is then increased when there is another long shot of what looks like dead human bodies. This allows the audience to begin to understand the situation that the boy has put himself into. After this, there is a medium which shows the boys facial expressions of him looking confused but excited. However, the females facial expressions indicates that she knows exactly what is going on. There is also a pan shot which slightly shows a meat hook. This builds tension as when seeing a weapon it indicates to the audience that something bad is going to happen. When the boy feels blood dripping on his hand which is key iconography that indicates danger, there is a slight zoom onto the boys face when he realises what is going to happen. While this is happening, there is are vampires putting their hands up in the air which adds to the suspense of what is going to happen. This suspense is then at its full intensity when the camera reveals a ban above the D.J which says 'Blood Bath.' By this point the audience realise what is going to happen. This then follows with a close up of the blood spraying from the showers on the ceiling, which is followed by a dolly shot showing the amount of blood. The screen is then dominated by red which is key iconography when the lady character visualises her fangs for the first time. After the editing cut shots of the different vampires at a fast pace which highlights the male characters scared and worried persona.

Editing
When both characters enter into the dance rave there are many jump cuts within the scene. This highlights to the audience how fast the vampires are compared to the human male who is very confused and frightened at this point in the film. Also there are slow motions shots at some points which could indicate that the vampires are in some kind of inhuman trance which is contrasted when the boy is seen in a normal shot at a normal pace. This highlights the difference between vampire and human. In the shot reverse shot right at the beginning of the scene, the camera is angle so the vampire is almost looking down on him. This shows the authority and power she has over the deluded human.Furthermore, the scene keeps cutting back to one character who is taking back in some promiscuous activities. This portrays to the audience the rebelling in social norms.  

Mini-Brief Filming Day

Filming Update

The filming process overall went rather well however during filming we discovered some problems. The biggest problem was filming with our friends! As an actress in this process, maximum concentration was needed however me and my friends kept laughing and loosing concentration throughout. This caused the filming to take longer than needed which allowed less time for editing. Also, two contributing factors that was hard to manage successfully was sound and lighting. In the first section of the mini-brief, a fan was on therefore you can hear it in the background which cause we only realized when we start editing. However, for the second part, there wasn't a fan on therefore you could hear the dialogue easily. Due to our short film being set very late at night, we struggle to get the concept of night time, because out filming all took place during the day.
Furthermore the idea of props and costume that we originally had wasn't achieved because all of our film was during lesson time. This may have caused people to not understand the storyline until the dialogue between myself and Izzy.

 


This is an image
screenshotted from the footage. This shows the lack of concentration we had at points.








This image indicates the positive shots that we got from the footage. This shows when we was on task and was making the 180 rule successfully.

Me editing my mini-brief footage

When editing the mini-brief, we had to include shot-reverse-shot, match on action, and 180 degree rule. This was the first time ever trying to use these techniques, however the research made before hand that is within another blog post, allowed me to already have an understanding on what to do.

Recce's

My storyboard for my mini-brief and editin techniques used!

Throughout the whole of our mini-brief many editing techniques are going to be used for different effects. We are using the 180 degree rule as a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between the character of Isabelle and the character of Esme within the scene. We are also going to use match-on-action within the scene to allow the acting to flow smoothly and give the audience a chance to feel as if they're involved in the scene as they're following the camera. A camera angle that is also going to be used within our mini-brief is shot-reserve-shot. Shot-reverse-shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. In this certain angry atmosphere that the scene perceives, this shot would be used to illustrate to the audience the characters emotions. These emotions being  Isabelle's shock of seeing her mother, and her mothers anger.

What is the genre of Drama?

Genre- Drama

Drama film is a genre that relies on the emotional and relational development of realistic characters. While Drama film relies heavily on this kind of development, dramatic themes play a large role in the plot as well. Often, these dramatic themes are taken from intense, real life issues. Whether heroes or heroines are facing a conflict from the outside or a conflict within themselves, Drama film aims to tell an honest story of human struggles.

 Drama Film Examples:

·         The Shawshank Redemption - A former banker convicted of murdering his wife develops a lifelong friendship with a fellow prisoner, and ultimately tries to defy the odds by keeping hope alive inside prison walls.

·         The Godfather - The aging patriarch of an organized crime circle must secure the future of his family’s empire by leaving it in the hands of his reluctant son.

·         Casablanca - A jaded nightclub owner must choose whether or not to help his ex-lover and her husband flee Nazi-occupied Morocco.


This research helped me in deciding a storyline for my mini-brief, due to the genre being drama. The research of what the drama genre actually is allowed me to have a better understanding about the genre itself and what is needed to be included for it to successfully be labelled as a drama.

Script and character profiles for my mini brief

Media mini brief

Character profiles:

Isabelle Wiltshire

Teenage girl who has recently been throwing her life away partying and getting drunk to become popular to impress her new boyfriend. She used to be a straight A student however is now failing as she feels being dumb like her boyfriend is sexier than being a so called ‘nerd’. She has also been staying out each night, lying to her mum about her whereabouts however she has just been caught.

Esme Roberts (Isabelle’s Mother)

A mum who expects highly of her children, she doesn’t pressurise them too much; she just wants them to succeed and be the best they can be. After recently celebrating Isabelle’s GCSE results she has held back a little bit to let Isabelle celebrate herself. After briefly meeting Isabelle’s new boyfriend on results day (only to discover he didn’t pass any of his exams) she was cautious, as his first impressions have left an imprint on her that she can’t shake off. After recently worrying about Isabelle’s whereabouts one night she decided to track her daughters I phone - something she hasn’t had to do before however discovered her daughter was at a nightclub when she was meant to be working at the local Italian restaurant. Isabelle’s mother waited up for her daughter to have a few words…

Script

(Isabelle stumbles into kitchen with her heels in her hand and leans on work surface for support as she is struggling to stand on her own feet. Here we have a match on action shot to exaggerate Isabelle’s drunken state. She goes to the sink and pours out a glass of water where only then does she look up and see her mum sitting on the dining room chair. We have a shot reverse shot to reveal the reactions between the two.)

Mother: (looks at watch) What time do you call this?

Isabelle: looks in shock (goes to speak) I…

Mother: Save the excuses I know you’ve been out drinking again with your new irresponsible boyfriend. Why do you keep doing this Isabelle? You’ve got your whole life ahead of you and you’re throwing it away for some stupid relationship that isn’t even going to last!

Isabelle: How dare you say we’re not gonna last! I love him - why can’t you accept that?! If you’re not gonna support our relationship then I guess I’ll just go live with him!

Planning

In this picture, I am seen to be drawing the first draft for our story-board. Because I hadn't drawn one before, it took twice to do it properly as I kept missing aspects out.

Mini Brief

Hi bloggers!

Recently in my media lesson we discovered that we will be filming a mini brief to help use prepare for our main brief, which is an introductory of a horror film. For our mini brief we have decided to film a piece about a teenage daughter coming in from a night out early hours in the morning. In the scene, the daughter walks in from her night out and her mother is waiting up for her, not very happy about the situation. We chose this subject because it is a developing problem in this day and age. The problem of underage drinking and partying is something we wanted to project to our audience. 

Look forward to updating you on my progress. 

My blog!

Hello my name is Esme Roberts and welcome to my blog all about media! This blog is going to contain all my AS coursework for  OCR. For my Alevel media I am required to upload all my planing and research for my opening of a horror film. I've chosen to take Alevel media due to my passion and dedication for the subject and I hope other bloggers are going to enjoy my posts and hopefully find inspiration for a media project one day!