1. HOW DOESYOUR PRODUCT USE
OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS
AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT
SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES
By Ryan Liming Dai
2. GENRE CONVENTIONS
Our film opening sequences is a HORROR and its sub genre SCI-FI film. In my experience in watching
movie, certain elements and always appear in these genres, including mise-en-scene,
camera shots, sounds, editing etc.
We watches some films within horror and sci-fi genre, including Eden Lake, Cabin in the
Woods, JurassicWorld, Hunger Games, also, someTV sequences use the same methods,
such as American Horror Story and Supernatural.
3. Sets:
Many horror movies happens in the cabin or forest, for its fearful
atmosphere. For example, Eden Lake, The Cabin In the Woods all
have settings in the forest. Besides that, a haunted house, is also
a good choice, such as IT.
Props:
Many horror movie has blood, knife, chain and other harmful weapons or objects represents death and
harm. For example, Eden Lake used all of these props.
IT (2017)
EDEN LAKE
4. Costume, Make up, Hair, Facial expression:
In a lot horror movies, the evil character may always be
wearing white or black, wearing masks, crowns, . Also,
the make up and hairstyle always goes with the
costume. For example, a clown always wears heavy
white make up, crazy hair, always do crazy small, and a
female ghosts always wears white dress, has long black
hair and do grim facial expression. AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASON 4
IT(2017)THE RINGGRUDGE
5. Lighting:
Lighting is really important in a horror film, for the
specific angles of light can easily manage to create a
scary, intense atmosphere.
In these shots in Eden Lake, it uses dim yellow and red
light to build a creepy atmosphere. In this shot, the car light shines on her
face to show her miserable situation.
In this shot, shadow is applied to the
girl in order to show her weakness.EDEN LAKE
6. Sound is significantly important in a horror movie. Almost all the tension is
built by or with non- diegetic music which is creepy and scary. However, in
Timeless, we decided not to use any of the non-diegetic sound because
we want the opening sequence to be rather silent and build tension by the
story itself rather than extra sounds. It is one of the anti-conventional part
in our sequence. Secondly, Timeless is a horror movie about monsters, and
although we are not able to see the monster, we can hear its sound, which
will clearly let audiences know what the story is about.
This scene will be much
more scary with sounds
Timing is also crucial in the editing of horror films, in order to build
suspense. In Timeless, we added a lot titles with scenes in the woods and
we had a long shot of the girl sleeping. This is our way in using timing to
build tension.
7. The storyline of a horror film is normally within a certain range,
such as revenge, evil spirits, adventure, end of the world, alien,
monsters, etc. Timeless is an example of a mixture of adventure
and monsters.The loud sound in the end indicates this theme.
EDEN LAKEIT (2017)AMERICAN HORROR STORY
SEASON 4
8. Sets:
Sci-fi films always take place in a background of futuristic world, outer space or Utopia.Therefore, the sets
are sometimes really advanced due to the high technology. However, sometimes due to contrast, some
places in a Utopia-like film will appear to be really primitive an remote, such asThe Hunger Games andThe
Maze Runner.
Costume:
Same as the sets and location, costume is largely
depending on the time period of the film. If it is a outer
space movie, the costume would need to be suitable
for them to work on space. If it is a film about
teenagers, such as Hunger Game, the costume would
be more like normal teen people’s clothes including
jeans, sports shirts, etc. The only difference would be
that the costume are not always colorful, in order to
reflect their bad situation. THE MAZE RUNNER
9. MORE EXAMPLES FOR SCI-FI FILM COSTUMES:
THE HUNGER GAMES:
It includes both modern fancy
dresses and normal clothes, in
order to reflect social states.
Costumes with a
purpose, usually
war and fighting.
TIMELESS
10. MORE EXAMPLES FOR SCI-FI FILM SETS:
To use setting difference to represent the different social statues, the
contrast between rich and poor, advanced and primitive.
11. The costume is conventional in Timeless. We used
waterproof coat which is suitable for running. We picked
black because in many sci-fi, action film, black gives the
audience a sense of heaviness and it tells that characters
are in a bad situation and they have to fight.
The location of our story is in a remoted forest, just
like in The Hunger Games, District 12, which is poor
and undeveloped, is where Katniss from. It is a
convention for a sci-fi film to start the movie from a
uncultured place.
12. Regarding make up, Timeless is being
conventional. In a horror film, especially for
one that happened in a forest, and
character were escaping from something,
their faces are always dirty, covered with
mud or blood.
EDEN LAKE
13. The anti-conventions in Timeless is mainly
presented by props and make-up. In this shot,
we can see that the girl in wearing ear rings
and nail polish, which represents a normal
teenage girl rather than a fugitive, but the
meaning behind the shot is that she was too
busy running and had no time to remove ear
rings. The nail polish indicates that she had a
normal life, but now she is forced to escape.
Also, we want to use her clean face to represent a stereotype of
teenage girl, which is always keep herself clean no matter what is
going on.
14. In Timeless, the use of lighting also challenges the convention.
Normally, in a horror film, the time would be during night, for the
darkness can easily build a mysterious atmosphere. However, we
chose the day time for our story, because we want to tell audiences
that even it seems peaceful and comfortable, there may be danger
behind it.
SUPERNATURAL
EDEN LAKE
15. SHOTS COMPARISON
In the beginning of our film, we used a fade in
to introduce the scene, which is used quite
often in horror films, along with a fade in in
background music.
A fade in is used in the opening sequence of
IT (2017). We also adopted the font of the
credit inTimeless.
Our title is also similar to the font of
credits in Crimson Peak, which is a
horror film.
16. The left side shots are from Eden Lake.
Peaceful landscape shots creates a
pacific circumstance, which is
conventional in horror films to build
tension for the coming danger. That’s
why we used something similar for the
background for titles.
EDEN LAKE
17. The title scene of Timeless is actually quite anti-conventional.
Movies such as Eden Lake and IT all used dark scene and red font
for the title. Timeless is a sci-fi film rather than pure horror, so
we decide to use this scene which is being futuristic for our title.
EDEN LAKE
IT (2017)
18. Similar shots betweenTimeless, Hunger Games and Eden Lake.The use of mid-close up to show a
person waking up. With a bright lighting in the Hunger Games, audiences can realize that she will be
safe, while in a dim light like Eden Lake, people are expected to have something scary to come.
THE HUNGER GAMES EDEN LAKE
19. The eye-line matching and shot/reverse shot are often used to show
conversations or someone looking at another one. Close up is used to
present facial expressions.
EDEN LAKE
20. This is a convention of
horror film. A sudden
appearance can always
scare audiences.
The use of some mid-close up and shots is to build tension for the next scary shots.This is used
in Supernatural and Eden lake.
21. This shot in Timeless looks alike these shots in
Supernatural. This sudden waking up or reaction is a
quite common action in a horror film to indicate that
danger is coming.
SUPERNATURAL
22. These shots are quite similar. With a scene like this ,audiences will know that danger is coming
to them. Some background sound, which we did, can help to make these like of film more
realistic.
SUPERNATURAL
TIMELESS
23. This final scene is really conventional in a horror or thriller
movie. Characters may find themselves facing a great
danger and have to run. The Hunger Games, Eden lake,
American Horror Story all have some similar shots.
AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASON 4
EDEN LAKE
24. EDEN LAKE
In Eden Lake, there is also an use of a little bit high angle
to show the weakness of the woman. In Timeless, we
want the girl to be a representation of strong woman
and therefore we didn’t use the high angle. Instead, in
the next shot, when we filmed her watching her
boyfriend, we used a little low angle for the same
purpose.
REPRESENTATIONS
25. This is a counter typical shot. Since they are in a
dangerous place, many people would think that a
man should wake up before a girl. However, we
decided to let the girl wake up first in order to
show her strong characteristic. Also, the gesture of
the boy sleeping shows that he is lack of safety,
which is a counter typical for male character. The
same idea is use in Hunger Games as well.
26. Make up, one of the mise-en-scene is important in these
shots. The boy from Timeless has a dirty face just like the
woman from Eden Lake. This shows that they are in a
bad situation and has to run away from something.
However, the girl from Timeless has a quite clean face.
This is a stereotype of female character of always being
clean and staying inside, while let the boy does all the
hard work. On the contrast, the woman in Eden Lake is a
counter typical character, for she is willing to let herself
covered with filth and blood, but this reflects her
toughness as well.
Eden Lake
27. This boy is the leader of this team, which is a
gender stereotype for a male to be a leader.
However, he is also a representation of a minor
ideology, for the majority of audiences would
think that a leader should be a tall, stronger man
rather than a boy. Cato in the Hunger Games is
considered to be a stereotypical male leader
figure.
28. This shot is being quite stereotype, because the boy stands in the foreground and the girl appears
on the background to indicate that she is weak and needs protection from the boy. A rule of third is
also applied here to make the shot more dynamic.
29. Eden Lake
Director: James Watkins
Producer: Christian Colson
Main Casts: Kelly Reilly,
Michael Fassbender
American Horror Story Season 4:
Director: Ryan Murphy
Producer: Ryan Murphy
Main casts: Sarah Paulson
Evan Peters
IT (2017):
Director: Andy Muschietti
Producer: Roy Lee
Main casts: Jaeden Lieberher
Bill Skarsgard
The Hunger Games
Director: Gary Ross
Producer: Nina Jacobson
Main casts: Jennifer Lawrence,
Josh Hutcherson
Supernatural:
Created by: Eric Kripke
Producer: Eric Kripke
Main casts: Jared Padalecki
Jensen Ackles
The Maze Runner:
Director:Wes Ball
Producer: Ellen Goldsmith-Vain
Main casts: Dylan O’brien
Kaya Scodelario
MANYTHANKSTO
