1. In what ways does your opening sequence use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real opening
sequences?
Previous to filming for our opening trailer we visited a couple of locations to review the
area. After visiting 2 different sites (the pinecone forest and the lake)we decided the
most effective and suitable location for our filming was the lake. We decided to visit the
area in the afternoonin which is when we noticed that next to the lake was an empty
piece of deserted land. This would be perfect for our filming location as we could
transitionfrom location to anothervery quickly andswiftly. The use of the lake and the
empty landboth created a sense of suspicion due to the mass of trees andthe long
grass.The lake location was
conventionalas it reflected the
horrorgenre; this was throughthe
eerie atmosphere thatthe trees
created because every time the wind
blew it became very enclosed and
you were unable to see outside of
the lake. The area was derelict and
therefore it seemed the perfect
location to base a horroropening
sequence as it made our scene feel
more edgy as it reflected the loneliness and vulnerabilityof female protagonist,Hannah.
Our opening sequence follows horrorgenre conventionsthe settingis usuallyset in a
smallisolated area. Sometimes in horrorfilms the setting is somewhere with a dark past
or a mysterious history. This is why we
decided to shoot ouropening sequence
here as it is based on the death of two
people, Hannah and Aiden, and our
location is where a youngboy drowned
back in 1980’s,so therefore we thought
the lake would be a perfect place to
shoot. We found that whilst filming, the
lightingalso helped to give usa
darker/sinisteratmosphere to a piece.
Low key lighting is commonly used in
horrorfilms to create dark shapes andshadows
In horrorfilms the mise en scene play a very importantrole when trying to get the genre
across in our opening sequence our antagonist,the Clown,played by the actressHannah
Warren wore a clown costume which hadthe coloursred, white and black within them.
2. The Horrorgenre uses darkcolours to give of a more sinister feel. These colourspoint to
those one might associate with danger,blood, evil (red)and death (black).She also wore
a mask which covered her entire head so the audience were unable to tell the genderof
our antagonistasin the majority of horrorfilms the antagonistis normallyplayed by a
male. The use of the mask alsogave the audience a sense of unknown,which is often
associated with horrorfilms andbuild suspense.Therefore, we thoughtthe clown
costume Hannah wore, was perfect as contained horror elements. There is alsoa bit of
white within her costume which gives the idea to the audience that our antagonistwas
once pureand innocent.
In contrastto this the character Jess,also played by Hannah Warren, wore light, pure
colours:a lilac hoodie and blue skinny jeans, in addition to alludingto Jess’ innocence and
purity, Jess’ costume is typical of that of a teenage girl in orderto comply to
representationsof youth in the media.
We had one main propin our opening sequence which was important to the narrative
and helped to portray meaning. This was a red balloon,the balloonlinks in significantly
within ouropening sequence as clowns in horrorfilms are stereotypically known for
holding a red balloon.The balloon appearstwice in our opening sequence, when Mollie
and Sophie are talking the balloonis in the background to show thatthey are the Clown’s
next targets,thusincreasing the audience’s worry of the girls’ safety. The balloonin
shown a second time when Hannah dies, tied to her wrist, which revealsto the audience
thatthe Clownwas he culprit. The balloonhas been placed by antagonist,Jessand is the
main revelationwithin the opening sequence. It builds up greattension in the sequence.
3. The useof the camera
work, sound,and editing of
the piece which we used
mostly conform to the
main conventionsof the
horror genre and
supernatural/slasher
genres. We tried to use
pans andwide establishing
shotsof the remote
location the scene was shotin, this was to try and get ourchosen located across to the
audience so they were able to see where we had chosen to do our filming. We used
different diegetic sounds,such as heavy breathing when our protagonistwas running,
we did this as we thoughtit created suspensefor the audience and give an effect to
make them want to carry on watching, which is somethingthat many horrorfilms do to
keep the audience engaged. We usedextreme close up shots in our opening sequence as
it emphasized the characterspersonalities andincreased the tension in the scene. We
used different close up shotswith in ourfilm on each of the character,for example we
did a close up shot of our protagonistHannahas it emphasized her innocence and
belittled her controlshe has in the situationwhen she was running.
Within ourfilm we used different shots from different angles on boththe protagonists
and the antagonist to show the power the antagonisthasover the 3 girls, we did this by
having the antagonistwatch over the other two young, innocent teenage girls when
they go lookingfor ourprotagonistHannah. We did this by having ourantagonistjess
4. appear unexpectedly in the distance watching behind a tree and be seen as targetingthe
other youngteenagers Fina and Grace.
Our opening sequence used Levi Strauss theory of binary opposites. This was through
the use of good and evil portrayed throughourprotagonistandour antagonistBinary
opposites are frequent in horrorfilms as they usuallycontrastbetween good/bad and
sanity/ insanity. In my sequence Hannah was the sane and good characterwhereas Jess
was the insane and bad character. Innocent vs. Evil, Low shot vs. High shot.
