Conventions of horror movies that are shown Within our As Media Studies coursework production

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?

2. Ant is shown here in his costume
chosen for our production. The
vest he is wearing helps show
him as modest and working. He is
dressed down as he is just
gardening. His gloves and wellies,
that we can't see in this shot are
typical gardening clothes and
help contribute to his normal
person persona, until we realise
there is something suspicious
happening when he suspends
noose. They also show him as
more masculine.
We used certain props to help create
different effects throughout our
production. At the beginning we used a
mug and a phone to show him as a
normal person. The noose is a
menacing and a widely used
conventional horror prop, as it is a
barbaric method of killing somebody,
this created visceral pleasure. The axe
is similar to the noose in this regards,
and is a bloody tool. The way he sets it
out before we know he has captors
shows him to pre plan murders like a
sadistic , well organised killer, this is a
convention of a psychological horror,
much like Christian Bale in American
Psycho.
We used an external location for our production. This is
the shed used to hold the antagonists captor. This is a
slightly rundown shed, much as you'd expect to see in a
suburban environment, helping to make the nature of
the film as normal as possible to reflect the main
character as un-normal as possible.
One example of prosthetics we used
was fake blood, simply bought from a
joke shop. This is a usual convention
of a slasher horror. We do not see the
body, but we assume he has killed
someone from the axe and blood. We
have seen the character go from
organising the murder well, digging
the grave for example to doing the
messy work of killing him and getting
blood on himself, showing the
murderer to be sadistic and brutal,
however the small amount of blood
lets us see that he can kill cleanly,
considering has just butchered a man,
allowing us to think he's an expert
Overall the mise en scene we
used utilises the conventions
of a slasher and
psychological horror. This
helps contribute the fear
factor of our film and
actually makes it a
recognisable horror.
Conventions such as
prophetic blood and brutal
weaponry are widely used in
horror films of all genres,
however they are widely
associated with slasher
horrors. The psychological
side of the main character
was created by portraying a
false herring at the beginning
in terms of mise en scene, as
he is drinking his tea he
could be either the
antagonist or protagonist,
however as the plot
develops and we see him
digging a grave and tying a
noose we can see that he is
up to mischief and this helps
build his an antagonist and
shows him to be organised
and a methodical killer. As
we can infer he killed his
captor in the shed, questions
arise as to what the noose is
for.

3. One of the key editing techniques used in our production is intercutting. This builds tensions by showing Ant on the move and the shed which we have been led to believe there is
something cynical happening in there, the time each scene is on screen for getting shorter every time. This is regularly used convention of horror, to build tension usually between the
antagonist and protagonist, often when you have more knowledge than the protagonist to get the ‘Don’t go in there’ reaction from the audience. This was one our most effective
techniques we used in our production and helped make it more recognisably from the horror genre.
Ant is given clear
prevalence through
the opening of the
film. This shows
that he is clearly the
most important
character because
we cant see any
others. It is not a
mainstream horror
convention to give
the antagonist
prevalence,
however it does
happen in certain
horrors an d
thrillers such as
American Psycho .
Ant is shown here in the final shot of the film,
which much like prevalence shows him as
that character that the audience are most
likely to form a connection with. What
characters to show and in which scenes was
very important for our production to achieve
the style that we wanted. Another editing
technique that is very effective in our
production is choosing not the show the
person in the shed, allowing us to arise
suspicion about it and let the audience infer
what is going on. The piece follows the
continuity editing style, meaning it flows
from one scene to the other, rather than a
montage. this is the case with most horrors
as it allows the story to flow from one scene
to the next, so the plot can develop.

4. Free sound was hugely helpful in creating our sound mix, we used another example of non-diagetic
soundtrack within our production to help build fear. This particular bit of soundtrack is used on the first
track shot towards the shed. This differs greatly from the Johnny Cash track as firstly it is not a published
song, and is just an instrumental, and it builds into a crescendo. This was used in combination with the
Johnny cash song to create a sound bridge to help link the scenes in the intercutting, however we had
to turn Johnny Cash down sufficiently so that the Crescendo is as effective as possible and helps to
contribute fear and tension into the piece as best as possible. The Crescendo lets us know that
something is going to happen in the shed shortly and brings it to our attention, this is a very effective
technique used in horrors throughout pretty much the whole history of the Genre. The Crescendo is
definitely a convention for horrors, especially slashers and Psychological, they can be used for false
herrings or for actual action scenes.
The most obvious piece of sound in our
sound mix is the non-diegetic song by
Johnny Cash, Gods gonna cut you down.
This is a very famous country song about
how God will take revenge on those who
conduct mis deeds. This soundtrack has a
very obvious biblical context, this may
infer that Ant believes he is a godly figure
and what he is doing is for the good, so
contributing questions to be answered
within the first two minutes of the film.
The song has a very strong baseline and
instruments to it, making it seem
menacing and troubling, allowing us to see
that Ants character is up to no good. I
believe that this matches the footage in
our production and can be seen as a
horror convention, as its seen in some
very popular movies such as the use of
‘Tiny Tim's tip toe through the tulips’ in
insidious. As the song is biblical and
sounds old, it makes Ant seem more
ritualistic and old and dated is often a
convention in horrors, for example an old
haunted house. This also creates a sound
bridge which connects the different
scenes.
Free sound was also used to add
extra diagetic sound to our
production, two such examples
are the birds chirping at the
beginning, which help create the
suburban peaceful environment,
which contradicts the true plot.
And more importantly the
muffled screams of the person
being held in the shed. This shows
them to be panicking and trying
to get free, and as we can not
physically see him this is
important for letting us know
there is someone there. Captors
are a well used convention of
horror movies, for example the
Texas Chainsaw massacre, as it
allows us to know that they are in
trouble and it makes us feel
uncomfortable as we know no
matter how much they try, they
cant get free.
We did record some of the sound our self, such as the
banging on the shed, which shows the struggle in the shed
and Ant finishing off his victim, allowing our minds to
wonder about what is going on behind them closed doors,
this again is a convention of a psychological movie as cliff
hangers and letting the audience think about what is
happening is a key part of good horror movies. Another key
feature of sound recorded by ourselves is dialogue, which
there is notably none of in our film, this allows us to see as
well as being a normal person, Ant is also sort of inhumane,
this again is often used in horror movies for the antagonist
to vary them from innocent characters and to build tension

5. This is an example of a high angle shot, it isolates the
antagonist, showing him to be on his own, showing
him to be lonely, helping him seem as disturbed
character, this is a convention of a horror movie, as he
does have some underlying mental health problems,
which might drive him into recluse.
This is a mid close up of the Wellington boot ant
wears throughout the sequence. It shows us in detail
some of the costume he wears which helps to build
his character. This particular close up also shows the
wet conditions, helping to create pathetic fallacy for
the film. This type of shot is a convention as it shows
the vital scenery.
Framing is very important in horror movies, this is an
example of rule of thirds and a mid shot. This shows
the character and some of the background and set.
These are widely used in all movie genres, but in
horror movies they are good as they help the
audience see the relationship between the character
and the set.
We used many pans in our production, in fact there
are very few shots with no camera movement. This is
an example of a tilt, as it goes from the pile of dirt,
with the last few shovels full, up too Ant. This is quite
a popular shot with horrors as it shows something,
then it pans up to show what caused it.
This is a Dutch tilt. This particular angle gives
disorientated feel and adds suspicion to what is going
on in the shed by making it look menacing. The Dutch
tilt is also at a low angle, making it seem big and
important. Both these techniques are conventions of
horror movies, and help create fear around certain
centralised elements
The track and dolly shots were used on multiple
occasions in our film, we start and finish on one.
These look very professional and help us to focus of
an element, in ours it was either Ant or the shed, and
makes us feel as if we are going towards or away from
them, overall tracking their movement.

6. The font used for our title is called .........,
it has a distorted feel to it, which is widely
used in horror films. It has a unregulated
feel to it due to the parts missing and the
flicks of white around certain letters such
as the c, however the letters have a
formal feel due to the Romany style base
to certain letters such as the F. The title is
conventional of a horror as the distorted
feel previously mentioned makes the
audience feel uneasy, and this is a key
technique is slasher and psychological
horrors
We chose to use the title on a fully black
screen with no images on screen at the same
time. This brings the attention solely to the
title, and stops it being drowned out by the
imagery on the screen. Other horrors we
looked at used this technique, such as
Resident Evil, in which I believed worked well.
We started the text further back, and brought
it to the front of the screen, again bringing
the focus to the text, and it needed some
animation otherwise it would be to plain and
boring
We decided to integrate the typography containing the names of our group
within the images as opposed to a black screen like the title. We decided to
do this as the constant black screens only broke up the continuity of our
piece, we placed it in the bottom corner so it did not take too much
attention away from the action on the screen, we kept it all in the same
position on the screen. We used a plain text, times new roman, for this as
it is plain and easy to read, and the text used for the title did not show up
clear enough.