3. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
In order to convince our audience that we have created a real psychological horror
film, we made sure that we stuck to the conventions, however we also wanted to play
with a few to make our film more original and stand out from others. Lack of weapons
was one thing that we made sure we had because after looking at previous
psychological horror films, antagonists often use their abrupt, physical strength on
their victims. We liked this idea because it is more realistic and it’s different to other
subgenres as usually you’ll find that the antagonist has some sort of weapon. But also,
a lack of weapons gives our audience emotional pleasure because there isn’t much of
an element of anything visceral because you never see the characters’ deaths. Again,
providing the audience with intellectual pleasure as they don’t know how the
characters have died, but there is some indication that weapons weren’t involved as
there is no iconography of weapons being used such as blood and gore.
4. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
Mental disorders are common in psychological horrors because they can be really interesting to watch in films, the
audience never truly know what is going on inside someone’s head, therefore anything could happen. It can all be
quite unexpected. We wanted to meet and challenge this convention as we feel like it could be very pleasing for
the audience at the end of this film but also we want to lead the audience on and make them think that they know
exactly what is happening when they don’t, this is the dominant reading and provides them with intellectual
pleasure. We included a conventional shot of the protagonist waking up from a “nightmare”, which implies that
she could’ve just been dreaming of her friends’ deaths. However, as the plot continues, she becomes more
distressed and actually comes to see her friends in person. We made it clear that her friends had died at the start
of the sequence, but also if you look at the close ups of the character’s faces, the audience can tell they haven’t
got a normal appearance. This could imply that perhaps she is just hallucinating (Apparition= hallucination), or she
is mentally ill and her mind is messing with her. This also leads the audience to think that she’s ill after seeing her
friends, however in the drowning scene, there is a figure standing behind them. It is noticeable, but not that
obvious if you don’t concentrate, indicating that there is someone else in the picture who may have something to
do with the deaths. From research we found that recurring and relatable issues in society is what draws people’s
attention and what audiences find interesting and this is what we wanted to reflect in our film of the protagonist’s
mental state. We were very set on the mental illness idea that I think it may have interfered with the enigma of the
genre. I think this is because we were very much set at the start of planning on mental illnesses so that we didn’t
put into as much thought about the opportunity for an external threat.
5. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
As for the wooded area, we kept this quite conventional as its where most of our shots were
filmed. The woods has many connotations of being a very lonely and isolated place, however we
challenged that convention as she may seem like the protagonist is alone to people passing by,
however, in her mind, she has plenty of company. We filmed in broad daylight as the setting took
place at a school so its realistic for her to be there during the day, but also we wanted to play
around with the lighting to make it more low-key whilst still ambient. Ambient light creates a
sense of realism as its not conventional for a horror so it may make the audience more confused
as to why everything is happening in broad day light. However for one scene, the bedroom, we
used low key-lighting as it connotes fear and danger that the character is facing. However we
slightly challenged this convention as darkness stereotypically connotes danger although with the
setting being in a bedroom/house, you’d typically link this to being the safest place for any
individual. Again, we wanted to create a high level of verisimilitude by using a realistic and
identifiable setting of a teenager’s room. This is the binary opposition of safety vs. danger and
good vs. bad. As our audience is aged between 15-25, this would give them personal identity and
social interaction, because for all they know, this same situation could happen to them, it is quite
unlikely, but as It gives them emotional pleasure of feeling scared this would automatically make
them think that this could be real.
6. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
We wanted to meet the convention of an orchestral score and not a lot of dialogue as
it creates an eerie atmosphere but also connotes tension. The score we chose is good
for our sequence as its parallel to the plot. As the pace of the protagonists thoughts
and emotions builds up, so does the score. We wanted quite a few of the shots to be
sharp so nothing extra was happening and we managed to get them in time with the
score, for example, the last couple close ups of the character’s faces all appear in time.
And the same thing happens at the end when the title comes up as individual letters.
We wanted to meet the convention of realistic appearances as this would heighten our
verisimilitude but also allow the audience to gain personal identity. As the protagonist
and some extras are in school uniform, but more specifically the main character is in a
suit, this would imply that she is at a private school, this would appeal to our secondary
audience of B-C1 as they are more upper class and would stereotypically pay for their
children to got to a private school.
7. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
We wanted to challenge the stereotypical representation of the hysterical female
and make it postmodern. To do this we made it look like the female protagonist
was loosing her mind and couldn’t cope with what was happening to her, when in
actual fact, there was something plaguing her thoughts and mind. You never find
out whether this “thing” is human or unnatural. This links with our binary
opposition of natural vs. unnatural.
9. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
For the credits order, we found that it was conventional for a psychological horror film
to have them in this order; Production Company, Distributor, Actor’s names, Casting
Director, Writer, Producer and Director. We wanted to stick to this order as it is
conventional and we feel its unnecessary to change it. There are usually a lot more
people and titles mentioned, but as there weren’t that many people involved with the
production, we decided to keep it as true as possible.
We included both the production company and distributor logo.
We decided against an establishing shot in the end because it didn’t fit with how we
wanted our production to look.
If we were to improve we should’ve included some hints as to what happens at the end
of the film. For example, if the female protagonist were to kill herself, we should’ve
given some sort of hint to instigate this idea.
10. Conventions for Institutions
Independently produced
Low budget
No CGI
No A-list actors
Sophisticated narrative
11. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
Our production company was ’Studio Canal’ because they are well known for
producing low budget independent films such as ‘Dead Mans Shoes’.
As we have a low budget to make our film, we didn’t buy any equipment or props
to make the film. Instead we borrowed a lot of equipment from school and also
our teachers. We did all the editing on Final Cut Pro X, which comes at a
reasonable price for editing software and is a very popular choice of software for
those on a low budget.
We didn’t want to include any CGI due to our low budget, also as our film is a sub
genre so we don’t have to spend a lot of money on the production.
13. Where did we meet/ challenge these
conventions?
We decided to stick to the 180 degree rule because although we thought that if we did break the
rule, it would help to disorientate the audience and would give them visceral pleasure of feeling
sick. However, we opted out of doing this because we wanted the whole production to look a bit
smoother without any agitated movement.
As it’s conventional for lots of long and short takes, we wanted to do the same. We only had short
takes when filming the close ups because we wanted to make it clear that the audience knew the
characters were dead, the close ups of actor’s faces standing still connote the lifelessness of the
characters and how innocent they are as they died so young. We wanted the long takes to happen
in the water because we feel this is the part that is quite dramatic, and the length of the shots
heighten the intensity of the narrative.
We included quite a few fades, for example, the scene in the bedroom of the protagonist waking
up, the shot fades to black. All of the text fades in and out as well, we wanted to take the
convention of fading and do that for a number of elements such as the shots and text fading.
14.
15. Repetition and Difference
From prior research, we decided to look at repetition and difference, a term derived
from Steve Neale. He stated that there would be no pleasure without difference. So
taking this into account we wanted to make sure we had a USP (unique selling point).
As it is pretty stereotypical for a horror film, you would usually find out who the killer is
at the end of the film and its usually quite obvious who it is. For us we wanted to
challenge this convention and to not reveal who the killer is. For some this may be
annoying but we want there to be some controversy behind it all and leave the
audience to guess what will happen. With this USP, we would be attracting a wider
audience as those who would’ve seen it would’ve gained social interaction and spoken
with other people. From this interaction we would be gaining more views and more
attention would be put on our production, therefore making up for the low budget
that we originally started with and making more profit.
16.
17. IT FOLLOWS
I’ve decided to compare our production to a similar psychological horror
film called ‘It Follows’. This film was also independently produced by
Animal Kingdom.
For nineteen-year-old Jay, Autumn should be about school, boys and
week-ends out at the lake. But after a seemingly innocent sexual
encounter, she finds herself plagued by strange visions and the
inescapable sense that someone, something, is following her. Faced with
this burden, Jay and her friends must find a way to escape the horrors, that
seem to be only a few steps behind.
- Written by Jose Tamayo
19. With the camera tracking right as the girl runs, you can hear her breath connoted
how terrified she is as she thinks someone is following her. Similarly, the female
protagonist in Apparition is doing the same, although there is no diegetic sound,
her movement signifies that she is scared as she too believes something might be
chasing her.
In the same take in ‘It Follows’, you can hear the non diegetic atonal score pick up
to pace perhaps mirroring her heart beat as she starts to panic even more.
Similarly, in Apparition you cane hear a change in tone and pace within the score
at about the one minute mark, It Follows does the same around 1:33.
21. In both productions you can tell that they are both shot with low-key lighting.
Most likely the lighting would’ve been adjusted in post production to create and
eerie effect just like we did with ours as we found the colours were a bit too
bright. With both productions using low-key lighting, this provides evidence that
they’re in the same genre of film.
22. Differences- long takes and male gaze
The entire opening sequence of It Follows is only 6 shots, and that is for a 3 minute intro, whereas ours is over 20
shots for a 2 minute video. By having extremely long takes, this builds up a lot of tension and connotes that
danger is lurking and will effect the character involved in the shot, as it is clear in this video seeing as there are
only 3 actors however all the focus is on the one girl.
We could’ve made more of our shots longer, especially in the corridor as I think it would’ve made the appearance
of the deceased characters more shocking and surprising. Although I think that by just having 6 shots is a little bit
too extreme for our type of production.
One thing to add is that the girl in It Follows is in the male gaze by what she is wearing (satin pajamas and red
heels), this type of attire would be appealing to men not only because it looks expensive but also because she is
wearing heels which exenterate her legs, making them look longer and more flattering. Also her heels are red, a
symbol not only of blood, but also lust, many people might find the colour red sexy. Furthermore, as you also
associate red with blood, this foreshadows that something bad might happen to the girl in the future. As red is a
symbol of danger, perhaps you could interpret the danger to be following her seeing as she is wearing the shoes
and they don’t leave her feet.
In our production, Apparition, we can see that the female protagonist isn’t in the male gaze, but could be argued
that she is performing masculinity (Butler’s gender performance) as she is wearing a trouser suit, something you’d
stereotypically relate to men’s clothing, only fairly recently has it become more popular for a female to wear the
trend.
23. Differences- Credits and Title
One thing that is interesting about It Follows is that the credits and the title only
appear at the end of the film, maybe this is because there aren’t any well known
actors, or it could be because the opening sequence is an important part of the
film and it needs full attention or else the audience will get confused. This is an
element that makes the film more different from the rest that are similar. We
however, wanted to follow a more traditional approach by putting the credits in
the conventional order and have the title at the end of the opening sequence.
