The document provides an analysis of the conventions used in the genres of sci-fi and thriller films and how those conventions were applied and interpreted in the opening sequence for the creative work "Visitor". It discusses how conventions like aliens, low lighting, and manipulated sounds were used. It also analyzes how the sequence represents the social roles of the characters, particularly the girl as the damsel in distress. Inspirations from films like Signs, The Thing, and Insidious are also summarized. Overall, the summary analyzes how the sequence challenges and uses genre conventions to represent characters and tell its story.

1. Week 1
Bea Holder
Visitor
Critical Creative Review 1
How does your products use or challenge
conventions and how does it represents social groups
or issues ?

2. Conventions of Visitor
Sci- Fi Conventions:
● Extraterrestrial life/ Aliens
● Low key lit
● Dark colour palette
● Artificial Intelligence
● Suspension
● Stories involving distress and disaster
● Main Attacker and multiple victims
● Attack on the human race
Thriller conventions:
● Tense atmosphere
● Tense music
● Low key lighting
● Manipulation of diegetic sound
● Protagonist is in mercy of the Antagonist
● Manipulation of lighting to intensify the
atmosphere
● The use of ‘enigma codes’ - the ‘killer’ is
not shown towards the end of the film
● Damsel in distress

3. How we interpreted these conventions into our sequence
1. Damsel in distress
2. Low key lighting
3. Dark colour palette
4. Manipulated camera shots
5. Eery music
6. Jump scares
7. The manipulation of music to jumpscare an audience
8. Aliens and extraterrestrial life

4. How is genre theory applied to our opening sequence
Thriller
Due to my research on the specific genre stereotypes
that are often involved in the two genres that our
sequence falls into, which is Sci-Fi and Thrillers.
In our sequence the genres are applied throughout by a
few different techniques that we have used. The first way
we have enhanced the thriller aspect is the manipulation
of silence, to enhance the audience's senses making them
more scared and tense. With the added subtle tense,
eerie background music that is being played during then
when there is a sudden cut in the music it make the
audience more alert that something scary will happen.
Thriller movies tend to do this
Sci - Fi
The second genre that our sequence falls into is
Sci- Fi, our sequence has applied Sci - Fi factors
throughout by the narrative of it

5. Sci-Fi Movies
These Sci- Fi movies all fall into the
conventions of the genre
● Alien- 1979
● The Thing - 1982
● Predator - 1988
● Imposter - 2001

6. Thriller Movies
● Woman In Black - 2011
● The Nun - 2018
● Split - 2016
● Insidious - 2010

7. Genre Theories
Steve Neale
Neales theory is his belief that films from any genre are
enjoyed by audiences because of the repetition of conventions
familiar to the genre that we expect OR because the director
makes changes or differences to the conventions and it seems
unusual.
Neale believes that films of a type of genre (Thriller or Sci Fi)
should include features that are similar so the audiences know
it is a Thriller or a Sci Fi, but also include features that are
different, to keep an audience interested. This is his theory of
repetition and difference.
In his words “Genres are instances of repetition and
difference”
Robert Stam
A theory that challenges Neales theory is Stam’s
theory on his belief that film genres are only
concepts, and they don‘t really exist. He thinks
that trying to classify the films into genres is
impossible to get right.
In reality he believes that every film has elements
of hundreds of different genres, sub genres and
hybrid genres making them impossible to ‘pigeon
holes’ he states.

8. Films we were inspired by for our sequence
1 Signs
We took a chunk of inspiration
from M. Night Shyamalan's movie -
'Signs'. The movie brought themes
that we had in mind for our
sequence, for example, the
midnight color gradient, the dark
figure of the alien and the farm
house. How we want our alien
character to be displayed however,
is closer to the figure in Lights out.
2 The Thing
John Carpenter's 1982 ‘The Thing’
was a inspiration for us because of the
stereotypical conventions of a Sci- Fi/
thriller. How its narrative follows the
genres typical plots and character
narratives alongside. How its a group
of scientists in a remote area and a
unidentified object (a spaceship)
crashlands exactly where they are and
the mystery killer is going round killing
all of the scientists.
3 Insidious
The main concept of this film that
inspired us for our opening
sequence was one particular scene
that inspired our main jumpscare
of our sequence was heavily
inspired by a similar shot (as seen
in the GIF above). We decided that
this is the way we wanted to
introduce our Alien antagonist as it
is an uneasy, unsettling, disturbing
way of introducing the alien.

9. Signs
● The main part of this film that we
got heavily inspired by was the
shot/reverse shot long shot of Rev
Graham Hess looking out the
window of his children’s room
when his daughter says “there’s a
monster outside my window”.
● Our take of this shot was when the
alien is revealed but not full still
leaving the audience curious, like
Signs did. This is an example of
Roland Bartes theory of ‘enigma
codes’..
● This scene heavily inspired our
whole sequence as we liked the
idea of the mystery of what this
itching is. And why its there

10. The Thing
● In our opening sequence the
narrative that we have is slightly
inspired by the concept of ‘The
Thing’. By this I mean the
narrative of the characters in
the movie being scientists
researching the cause of
destruction and massacre, which
foreshadows the further events
ence that takes place in the
movie.
● So we therefore took this
inspiration for our sequence by
using the topic of researchers
and took that narrative for the
role of the dad in our sequence

11. Insidious
● Insidious was the last film that we
took heavy inspiration from.
● We didn’t really take much
inspiration from the actual
narrative of the film as it is more a
horror film.
● However when discussing how we
should reveal the alien in our
sequence in way that would
successfully scare the audience in
the way we imagined it to be. We all
thought of this scene in insidious
where you see the silhouette of the
monster in the film which is how it’s
revealed in a really scary manner,
therefore we took inspiration from
this scene for our alien reveal and it

12. Comparisons between sequences
Visitor:
● Using extraterrestrial life as the main
antagonist
● Using enigma codes throughout the
narrative for the mystery antagonist
● Suspenseful music for jumpscare
● Dark colour palette and low key lighting
throughout the account
● Manipulated camera shots for intensity
● Alien attacks damsel
Signs:
● Using intense music to set the intense
atmosphere
● Manipulation of camera shots to also set
the scene
● Alien attacks victims
● Colour theory is used to create an
unsettling atmosphere
● Uses enigma codes for the questioned alien
● Main antagonist is extraterrestrial life

13. Similarities between Signs and Visitor
Sound- visitor
● Diegetic sound - water pouring
● Non -diegetic - ery soundtrack dubbed
over diegetic
● Manipulation of silence and sudden
jumpscare
Sound- Signs
● Same method used for the jumpscare-
silence the sudden jump of music
● Use of both diegetic and non diegtic to
create atmosphere
Editing - visitor
● Slow paced tension - builds up tension and
anticipation for the audience
● Sudden jumpscare shots
● Long takes and shorts takes
Editing - Signs
● Long takes - slow paced tension - to build
up intensity for audience
● Jumpscares manipulated by the editing
shots

14. Similarities between Visitor and Signs and The Thing
Mise- en - scenes - Visitor
● Our set was a key feature in our Mise - en - scene as it
enhanced the desired atmosphere we visioned
● We felt dirty and like we needed a shower when we
were shooting in the environment - the atmosphere we
created in our head was successful portrayed
● Alien board
● Extraterrestrial Life attacking victims
Mise - en - scenes - The Things
● Extraterrestrial life attacking victims
● Set was isolated and desolate - creating the successful
atmosphere making the audience feel vulnerable and
more on edge.
Camera- Visitor
● We included many close up shots - including the close
up of the girl waking up from a strange dream. Setting
the scene straight away making the audience more
engaged.
● We included shots like one smooth panning shot from
the board all the way to the dad sleeping. Making the
quince see the whole set making them feel more
involved in the movie.
Camera- Signs
● In Signs the first scene is the Rev also waking up from a
dream. Setting the scene for me as a audience member
making me feel already on edge.
● My favourite shot of the opening scene is the
establishing shot of the strange signs in the corn field
as it is a example of enigma codes making me feel more

15. Representations Of ‘The Girl’
In our opening sequence we represented ‘The Girl’ as a stereotypical damsel. She
doesn’t have much power as she is the first character to get killed of in the
sequence. A theory that this represents is Laura Mulvey’s Theory about how
women are presented in the media either by being presented as objects or
domestic. ‘The Girl’ is not presented as an object in our sequence however she is
slightly presented as domestic in the sense of looking after the farther and how
she is the reliant one instead of her dad. This challengesCarol Clover’s theory of
‘the final girl’ in a horror/thriller movie as there always tends to be one in films like
this.
Another way we presented the girl
as was innocent we did this via her
costume. The choice of her wearing
checkered pyjama bottoms and a
hoodie presented her youthful age
well. Also stereotypically glasses as
well present this.
An example of another film doing something like
this is ‘Scream’ 1996:

16. Representations Of ‘The Dad’
The dad in our sequence is presented via two ways. One is a stereotypical
drunk father , who can’t take care of the child that he has to look after by
himself but is in a bible of doing so as he is reliant on alcohol. We also added
the concept of the dad being paranoid about aliens and them invading and
coming for him. Another point is referring to age, how an adult male is
incapable of taking care of himself, how his teenage daughter has to take on
the caring and parenting responsibilities inserted of him.
We based the paranoia aspect of
the dads characteristics on ‘The
Thing’. The theme of paranoia is
clouded a lot in the film with the
aspect that ‘the thing’ can imitate
its hosts, which obviously isn’t
anything to do with our sequence
but the idea of paranoia is there.

17. Representations Of ‘The Alien’
We presented our Alien in our sequence with the concept of
Bartes theory of ‘enigma codes’- we didn’t want the alien to be
actually seen so we decided to introduce the alien via how the
movie ‘Insidious’ revealed the monster. The Alien costume was
heavily inspired by a stereotypical alien, a large head and slightly
extended limbs- however its fingers were inspired by ‘Slenderman’
because it added to the uneasy aspect of the Alien. The Alien is an
example to Levi Strauss’s theory of ‘binary opposites’ in film, as the
Alien heavily contrats the girl in the sequence.