2. General forms and conventions
of short film openings.
• Definition a film opening: The purpose of a
film opening is to catch the audiences
attention, and to include and show the short
films genre and to introduce the protagonist
and Antagonist.
• Definition of a convention: The conventions
are the guidelines in which people use for a
specific genre or media product. They have
to understand and accept the guidelines of
the genre in order to show the right
conventions of the genre. Some Genres
have similar conventions, and some are very
different. You can challenge the conventions
to enhance the product.
• An example of the similar conventions would
be in the romance genre the convention
colour is red and in horror films the
convention colour is red.
3. Conventions
• General conventions: The general conventions of any short film are their to set the audience
up for the film and what is about to happen. The general conventions of any short film create
a relationship between the characters and objects, settings and other characters. The
conventions of a opening normally are split apart from the main part of the film through
animation to then create a clear difference between the opening and actual film.
• A sound track usually signifies the film opening which then ends at the end of the opening of
the film.
• The opening credits: A few of the main characters or director or producer and the director
names will be in the opening credits as it is a typical convention.
• Editing conventions: When editing conventions their is usually a establishing shot at the start
of the short film. They set the conventions through numerous shorts after this which include
closes ups mid shorts long shots etc which help them identify relationships. The non diegetic
sound helps understand the feelings of characters. The titles are normally entered in the film
opening within the second half of 30 seconds. Their will be a clear equilibrium during the
beginning. Openings are usually two minutes to five minutes long for major short films
whereas independent short films are a lot less, normally up to two minutes.
4. Conventions
• Lighting: Within any short film the lighting is used to create any
lighting which will represent the atmosphere, genre or tension.
In the opening of any short film, By using lighting you can
create shadows this can build tension clearly. This can clearly
create such things as a darker presence and the fear of the
unknown. It makes it harder for the audience to understand the
situation.
• In most short films: They do this by creating a lighting rig to
create all sorts of lighting. Which fits any type of film. They use
a few of them in different film openings to create a different
affect on each one.
5. Conventions in Horror and how we
represented them in our film.
• The first horror convention i will be showing
you is the convention of the props. The
conventions of these props are the
following..
• In modern horror films their is usually a
teenager of the modern era which instantly
represent the technology era. Therefore the
phone is used as a prop frequently in most
horror films as seen in the 1996 Scream film.
• Another prop used is the film was a laptop,
also referring to the new modern
technological era. This includes more than
just messaging service.
- Another convention of a horror film is the
characters, this includes the different types of
characters and how they are perceived.
- The different types of Antagonist are usually in
the teenage age gap, they usually tend to be
women as they are seen to be there weaker
person. They always tend to be the most
vulnerable. This theory is called the final girl
theory.The final girl theory is based upon the
Carol J clover as she create this theory of the
final person being alive being the venerable girl.
- Another convention of this is the lighting, Horror lighting is
usually used to darken a situation or put light on one
section to emphasise it. it is used to create shadows and
used scare the audience. the normal convention for horror
is dark lighting throughout, if people cant see anything or
just see a shadow it gives the the fear of the unknown.
this makes it increasingly scary for the audience. This
uses the theorist and makes it easier for them
The other convention of horror is the enemies, the
enemies are the protagonist, The protagonist is the part
of the convention of horror as they are now in horror as
the evil villain or someone that ruins the plan and kills
someone or haunts them. they are the plot twist. In our
short film we did this by making it easier for the audience
and showing them who the antagonist briefly in different
sections to still give the fear of the unknown throughout.
in most horror films the antagonists prevents being seen
till crucial moments.
Another convention of this is the credits, The credits of
any horror film normally start with very little, They
include things such as the directors name and the
characters names at the very start briefly or at the very
end. In our short film we split them so some are at the
start and some are at the end of the film when all the
characters are introduced.
The more the credits the more of a film it is instead of
a short film as the credits, their are hardly any if as
their are hardly any characters in a conventional
manner.
6. • The research i carried out shows the conventional films in the horror genre which
re set in an abandoned or common locations such as a school. The main age for
people in a horror film is within a teenage or young age which are the protagonist
in the film is normally conventional. The sub genre can sometimes be hybrid
meaning two types of horror. For our film we chose to do this and use it as a
paranormal slasher. As seen below i will list how it is this.
• These are the only shots shown of the antagonist, he is not seen and flickers in
and out of being seen showing the paranormal, during the end the girl is stabbed
making it within the slasher genre.
Genre and Sub Genre
