This document analyzes the opening frames of a student psychological horror film. It discusses how each frame uses conventions of the horror genre, such as mysterious and eerie openings, isolating long shots of the protagonist, increasing close-ups to build tension, dim lighting and jump scares using editing. It also explains how the frames depict the protagonist's growing sense of unease and lack of control through the use of POV shots and blood imagery. The analysis shows how the opening scene sets up themes of mystery, isolation and an unknown threat to effectively engage the audience in the horror genre.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?

2. Frame One

3. Frame One Analysis
• At the start of our film we really wanted to
depict an eerie and mysterious opening, as
conventionally we felt this was best to tie in
with a psychological horror production. From
this frame we really wanted to give the
audience a grasp of the surroundings, and we
have done this through the panning of a
handheld camera shot.

4. Frame Two

5. Frame Two Analysis
• In order to capture the serenity of the setting for our
opening scene we captured the protagonist
approaching the house with a long shot, as we feel that
this gave us the effect of making the protagonist look
small in comparison to his surroundings. We felt this
really conveyed the point that in most psychological
horrors the protagonist can become very isolated and
we have tried to show that from the offset. Also, it
makes the looming impendency of the antagonist seem
greater and it’s as if it is watching him walking towards
the house, creating the sense that the antagonist is
almost tracking its prey, waiting to pounce.

6. Frame Three

7. Frame Three Analysis
• The first time the protagonist is featured in a
close up shot is when he enters the house. This
depicts that the events that are going to take
place are becoming ever closer as the camera is
moving closer to the protagonist. This is because
the close up shot can really reveal and show the
protagonist’s emotions and this becomes more
evident as the scene moves onto its latter stages.
As you can see from the first close up however is
that it doesn’t give much of the protagonist’s
emotions away, adding to the feel of mystery and
unknown within the opening scene.

8. Frame Four

9. Frame Four Analysis
• For the lighting in our opening scene we wanted to
convey most of the inside of the building as dimly lit, as
we wanted to continue with our main theme of
mystery throughout the opening scene. In this shot you
can see that the bottom of the stairs, where the
protagonist is, is dimly lit as to show the insignificance
of the downstairs area of the house. From the top of
the stairs there is light coming down as to show the
significance of the upstairs area of the house. We tried
to tie in the significance of something with the usage of
lighting as to create a signal of when an act of
importance was about to happen.

10. Frame Five

11. Frame Five Analysis
• We have the real first clear shot of the
protagonist’s face in the bathroom through a
close up. You can also gather his surroundings as
well through the analysis of the background. This
is the first sign of any related emotion from the
protagonist as he is shaving unaware of what is
about to happen. This is your classic horror scene
in that sense, as the people who are taken out by
the antagonist never see it coming and act as
normal in the events leading up to the physical or
mental attack, in this case mental.

12. Frame Six

13. Frame Six Analysis
• This frame shows the blood on the hands of
the protagonist as he goes to wash his hands.
We have used blood as it is your most
commonly associated feature with horror
movies and matches with the semantic field of
the genre. You can almost feel the dismay of
the protagonist as he is looking down at his
hands and this is because this is also a POV
shot and we have used this as it really capture
the dramatic essence of the moment.

14. Frame Seven

15. Frame Seven

16. Frame Seven Analysis
• These two overlapping frames show our use of
editing and special effects as it cuts from an
empty mirror reflection and then to the
antagonist’s face simultaneously. We have done
this to show the fast pace of this moment in the
scene and just the lack of control that the
audience now has watching the film. We had
gained this inspiration from the famous knife-
stabbing incident in ‘Psycho’ where there is a
horrific use of non-diegetic sound and how it
almost conducts the scene.

17. Frame Eight

18. Frame Eight Analysis
• This final frame enables us to depict the
lifelessness of the protagonist’s body, with the
inclusion of blood on his shirt to symbolise his
death. The close up of the protagonist’s face
connotes the gloominess of the overall
opening scene and really again reiterates the
theme of mystery, as you can no longer see
the protagonist’s face as it is covered and you
don’t know exactly what the antagonist has
done to the protagonist.

19. Frame Nine

20. Frame Nine Analysis
• The next important frame was of course the name of
the film. We decided to place it after our protagonist
had been followed into the house by something, as this
would add more to the effect of the unknown and this
also announces our antagonist to the production. The
title of our production (The Rising) enabled us to
connote the ideological themes of a horror because of
the effective imagery that it gives to our audience. We
kept the title of the film quite basic, as we felt that this
would add to the sinister element of the film and again
communicate the feeling of the unknown. The ellipses
at the end of the title further add to the mystery of
what is going to happen next.