The document summarizes Freya Childs' film "Possessed" and discusses horror film conventions. It describes the genre as a supernatural thriller about a witch. It provides examples of key iconography and compares the film to others like "Come Play" and "Slumber." Character archetypes, tone, camera techniques, and title design conventions are examined. Social groups presented include the power dynamic between witches and villagers. The film represents binaries like living/dead and good/evil. Theories of Mulvey and Straus are referenced in relation to the film's representations. Stereotypes around gender are generally adhered to.

1. CCR Task 1:
‘How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social
groups or issues’
By: Freya Childs

2. What is the genre of film and examples of key
iconography
• The genre of the opening title sequence that my group made was a
Super Natural thriller about a witch. This film is similar to other horror
movies as its dark, scary and violent.
Examples of key iconography:
Kayako Saeki = Monstor introduced
This genre of horror
film has different
colours than normal
horror films. This is
because they are
greens, blues and greys.
This is because it’s a
ghost like atmosphere.

3. Other films to compare
possessed to
1) Come play
Director:Jacob Chase
Year: 28th October 2020
2) Slumber
Director: Jonathan Hopkins
Year: 15th December 2017
3) Thelma
Director: Joachlm Trier
Year: 2017

4. Characters
In Horror movies the most common characters that the audience would expect to
see are Monsters, Murderers, Victims, someone trying to counter the suspect like
police or inspectors.
The costume of a character can help represent what kind of person they are. A
monster will have a scary face, bold makeup and worn-down clothing, a victim will
look innocent and vulnerable and the inspector will look perfectional in a suit or
uniform.

5. Pictures to represent characters (scream)
• Victim unexpectedly being killed
• Knife that the villain uses to kill
• Killer is unknown hidden behind a mask
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beToTslH
17s

6. Characters from Possessed (my Film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMPSQpNJ5p8

7. Narrative (Scenes/storyline)
In horror films the story line usually consists of someone being killed by the main
murder and could even go on to kill even more people. In My horror film the witch
is being tortured and burnt at the stake and she possesses a young girl.
• Creating tension for the audience and curiosity of what will happen next
• The location might be set in a house, the woods, bridge or dark alley way and
this creates a gloomy atpmoshere so the audience may feel more scared due to
the time and place

8. Tone/ Atmosphere/ intended audience response
• Scary
• Suspense (could also be done through the music)
• In possessed the most amount of tension is when the villagers were walking
towards the witch with fire and she was tied up un-able to escape
• The lighting is normally dark or at night, bad weather and a scary atmosphere
• The sound could be of screams, footsteps, cracking of branches, gun shots

9. Camera: movement/ angles
Point of view:
• This is commonly used in horror films to make the audience feel as if they can
identify with the victim as if they were in the same situation
• It also is a way of limiting the information to the audience about what is going to
happen which is intended to put them on edge and in the same shoes as the
victim and makes appear more scary

10. Suspense clip from possessed

11. Font, colour and animation/ how it connects to
themes
• Super-natural horror films use colours like blue, green and grey to introduce a
ghostly atmosphere
• The font may be slowly transitioning to add to the spooky feel although in
possessed we did not do this so if we were to do the titles again this is
something to think of

12. Other films gohst like title transition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6nTJMdrGVU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNkrHiqxJR8

13. Orders of titles follows institutional
conventions of the form
• Titles are often placed into order to show the importance of the title
• The titles are also placed into contracts so are suspected to be placed
in order

14. Have you challenged any conventions
• Possessed is quite similar to other super natural horror films due to the types of
editing, characters, location, lighting
• I think the reason why we have not challenged many conventions is because we
know by sticking to the expected genre the audicne will understand and like as
they will be wanting to be scared or feel on edge
• Although, I do feel like this film has its own original aspect due to the story line
of the film with the witch being tortured and then possessing a young girl and
the different locations were cleaver too with the church and burning at the stake

15. How Host challenged
the convention
• Host is a different type of horror film that was
the first ever horror movie to be shot over
zoom
• This created a massive buzz and allowed the
audience to get exciting and to stay interested
as its something new and not expected
allowing it to stand out from other horror films

16. Steve Neal genre theory
• Steve says that films of a certain genre should be similar to other film in that
genre due to the audience expecting to see certain aspects in the film. This is a
tried and tested formula and can create a safty net for the company as they
know it’s successful
• Although, Steve also believes that the films should have a sense of individuality
so that their film can be differentiated from others so that their audience don’t
become bored and disintereseted

17. Social
groups/
issues being
presented
• Social groups and issues can be presented
through the conflict between the two binary
oppositions
1) Witch and the villager’s – The witch has no
power when the villagers are walking towards
her with flames as she's under threat and tied
up unable to escape where-as the villagers
have power and control
2) Choir girls at church and the evil spirit – the
Choir girls are innocent and holy where-as the
spirit is violent and invasive
3) The witch and the torture – The witch is
struggling and terrified where as the torture is
powerful and un-sympathetic

18. Look how you have represented
these through
• Camera – the camera focuses on the cros which represents the
critianity and wne it tilts down to the choir girls to show they are
holy and religious
• Sound – sound can show how the witch was very terrified as you
can hear her pertrafying screams. When the witch possesses the
girl throughout you can hear evil whispering
• Editing – the fast editing in the torture scene shows how the
witch was being thrown around and had no way of excaping
• Mise-en-sense – the Cast that we chose fitted to the role like the
choir girls they looked innocent and young as they did not hae
heavy makeup or piercing

19. Chior girls

20. Theories
Mulvey –
Possessed was not shown through a male perspective and instead shown
through a female perspective. Mulvey said that he felt women were
viewed as passive objects for male desire. This could be shown as the
witch had little control when she was being tourcjered by a male.
Straus –
There is binary opposition through the contrast of the living and the dead
and the juxtaposition of evil and good

21. Adhered or Subverted stereotypes
• Possessed follows the stereotypes of girls being innocent
and good to the play role and to have a boy or a naughty girl
in the role would not fit what we were looking for which
follow stereotypes and this is due to the time that we shot
this in
• Traditional values of the choir leader which is very old
fashioned