This document analyzes how the opening sequence of a student film project uses and develops conventions of the horror genre. It discusses various visual, audio, and narrative elements that conform to audience expectations, such as the use of iconography like a rocking horse and pentagram, low key lighting, diegetic sound effects, a "haunted house" location, and a young female ghost character. However, it also notes some ways the sequence challenges conventions, like presenting the ghost character as trying to help rather than being the antagonist. The document considers how the sequence represents social groups through its exclusively young, white cast of two male protagonists and a female ghost.

2. • When doing an opening analysis of The Conjuring
(Wan, 2013) I learnt that visual signifiers played an
important role in presenting the sub-genre of a film
• This is largely because it conforms with audience
expectations of typical conventions
• I think we have successfully replicated this within
our opening through the mise-en-scene, for
example, we had the rocking horse prop and the
pentangle which both hold connotations of horror
and the paranormal sub-genre in particular, this
shows our use of iconography.
The Rocking Horse – Mid shot
The Pentangle – Birds eye view shot
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

3. • The costumes used also helped to create
an enigma. The two male protagonists
were dressed in black would their hoods
up and since the audience don’t yet
receive information on their backgrounds,
they do not know if they’re antagonists or
what it is exactly they are doing.
• This is the same for the spirit as she is a
young girl dressed in all white, this causes
her to appear as an antagonist to the
audience but if the film were to continue
they would learn that this is not actually
the case. This is similar to the film House
at the End of the Street (Tonderai, 2012).
Costumes - male protagonists
Costumes - young girlCostumes - House at
the End of the Street

4. • The lighting played a key role, the room followed a similar idea to The Woman
in Black (Watkins, 2012), since this was set during the day time also, however,
in our production the lighting became darker when the presence could be
sensed to increase the suspense.
Brighter Lighting - contrasts Low Key Lighting – Close up Darker Scenes - with ghost
• We also used low key lighting from the candle light in the pentangle, this is
something which is typically done in horror films, as learnt when we carried
out our earlier research.

5. • We also tried to increase the suspense when the girl started appearing by trimming clips and
increasing tempo making the cutting rate increase causing her to appear quickly in different places.
• Many of the scenes we had to edit the brightness and contrast of in order to make them darker. This
was because we had to film when there was daylight due to no electricity in the house. This ended up
being very effective and it allowed us to create a contrast between the earlier scenes and the scenes
where the audience had an awareness of the ghost.
• We also tried to use the idea of colour to conform to the generic conventions of the sub-genre. Since
much of the sequence is dark we also included blood as the red colour connotes fear, danger, death
and pain.
• This conforms to the horror genre as it is a way that is typically used to create tension as learned from
the technical analysis task, such as The Possession (Bornedal, 2012).

6. • There are many close ups of the two male characters during the chanting scenes to construct
character exposition. These also showed the use of non-verbal language as the audience we able to see
fear within the facial expressions but it also showed that they remained mainly calm as they are
relatively unfased by their surroundings
Ghost appearance – Character
Blocking
• They also have the most screen time, however, due to the motivated cuts to the young girl she is given
the prevalence in the scene.
• Since the attention is at first given to the two males since the girl doesn’t start appearing until later in
the sequence, this also creates more of a jump scare when you first see her since it is unexpected. This
is conforming to the supernatural genre as jump scares are typical in films such as The Conjuring or
Insidious (Wan, 2010). The character blocking when the girl appears was also very important as
showing her behind the boy meant he wasn’t aware she was there, creating a dramatic irony for the
audience.

7. • Something we also learnt from our analyses of opening sequences was low angles can be very
effective for creating a sense of oppression within the audience.
Long Shot
• We tried to include a range of distances so that more of the
room could be seen and also so we had a better variety of
shots so as to construct continuity editing.
• One of the most effective was the long shot and the end with
the young girl in the centre of the pentangle as this allows the
audience to see everything that is happening clearly and the
lighting from the window places her in spotlight also.

8. • Our use of diegetic sound also conforms the conventions of the supernatural sub-genre. We have used
many sound effects such as creaking doors and children’s laughter which both connote horror.
• We also have a soundtrack featuring a piano, which plays in the background of the shots outside the
house to build suspense.
• Once inside the house the tension is built on further by a drone soundtrack layer which plays
throughout the sequence.
• There is minimal dialogue within the clip to help further build an enigma and draw focus to visuals
and development of plot
• When the door swings shut the volume of the bang is amplified as it is all that can be heard at that
point, emphasised by the sound bridge we edited. This increases the idea that the presence is nearby
which is something also done in The Conjuring.
• The use of sound bridges also helped the continuity editing throughout which masks cuts in visuals.
• There is also the scream at the end of the sequence which is a common audial signifier used in horror,
conforming to the audiences expectations creating a visceral experience.

9. • The location used was perfect for
the plot and sub-genre. The
‘haunted house’ location is very
common within the supernatural
sub-genre as it’s isolated. We looked
at Insidious and The Conjuring
which both used this as a stock
location too
Insidious and The Conjuring - LocationsLocation – House – Long shot

10. • We also used the woods for our establishing shots which is a stock
location in the horror genre because they’re dark and can cause a
person to feel isolated.
Location - Woods Establishing Shot – Tilt down Location - Woods

11. • The titles also appeared during the establishing shots as this made them clear to read. We
took inspiration from our research and decided to keep them white as this is a clear colour
and easy to read. We also took the positioning into account as we placed the somewhere
where they could be noticed and also showed up.
• The final title also has a flicker animation which connotes candle
light, the inspiration for this was taken from Insidious. Since this
was the main title the typography is different. We used a font which
we felt matched both our location and time period due to the serif
style. The black and white colours of this shot also connote horror,
fear and mystery. The title has been positioned in the centre of the
shot rather than on the third like the credits; this is to give the title
emphasis which is done successfully in Insidious (Wan, 2010)

12. • The sequence contains 3 characters. If the film were to continue, one of the male
characters would go on to be the protagonist throughout and the other (the sceptical
friend) would be killed off quite early on. This is a typical convention to the
supernatural sub-genre.
• However, it could be seen to challenge all the ideas of the genre as usually the
audience is positioned with a group of teenagers which continue to get killed off one
by one, for example the film Ouija (White, 2014), whereas in our opening there is
only 2 boys.
• The young girl as a ghost is an archetypal character, however she looks more
innocent than many young girls in horror films, for example, The Ring (Verbinski,
2002), this is largely due to her blonde hair as it means she never looks very dark so
doesn’t connote hell as much. However, this is contrasted by her makeup since we
darkened under her eyes in order to connote death.

13. • This is because the character is used to create an enigma, if the film
were to continue the audience would lean that this ghost isn’t actually
the antagonist but is trying to help which challenges this particular
convention of the genre.
• The plot does follow a stock situation as the audience are positioned
with the male characters but have a constant awareness of the young
girls presence due to the rocking horse moving alone and the sound
effects which can be heard throughout the chanting scenes.

14. • The characters present in the sequence are the 2 protagonists, young,
white males, and the ghost, young, white girl. No other people are scene
in the clip to help emphasise the isolation of the house.
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL
GROUPS?
• The 2 males are aged about 16-17 which means that they would be in
education, their social class does not become known for certain.
• There is no indication of disability or class being an ideology that is
present in the sequence though gender could be looked at.

15. • The only female character within the opening is a young, innocent girl who appears
as a ghost after she has been kidnapped and killed. Since there are 2 male
characters trying to solve what happened to her and become the ‘hero’ character,
this could be seen as slightly patriarchal; which is the idea of society favouring men.
• This would, therefore, be quite a regressive/ residual ideology following the myth
that men are the more dominant sex.
• This wasn’t an intended ideological construction, since this is just an opening not all
the characters the audience would see throughout the entire film are going to be
present so there is no implication that there will not be more female characters as
the plot continues, nor is it suggested that it is too dangerous a place for females to
go. The reason for the two male characters was because they were meant to be good
friends.

16. • Something that could be questioned is that all of the characters are
both young and white. Some people may perceive this a negative
absence due to the lack of various races and age groups, however, it
may also just go unnoticed since this is only an opening and as
previously stated it will not include all of the films characters.
• Also the concept of the ‘final girl’ is not included within the film,
which could indicate an emergent ideology since the female is not seen
as a victim who would need rescuing but there is actually a male
‘skeptic’ who would be killed off fairly early making the victim male
not female challenging the dominant ideology.

17. • I would not say that the mise-en-scene seen by the 2 male characters costumes is
ideologically loaded. They aren’t branded and are mainly simplistic but aren’t tatty
to any description which doesn’t give the best suggestion of social class, though they
do not have an appearance which implies that they are of a low class so it can be
assumed that they are of a middle class.
They are dressed in black clothing which
holds connotations of mystery so the audience
do not fully know their backgrounds yet.

18. • Having the two male characters
dressed in black also helps
create a binary opposition
between them and the young
girl who is dressed in completely
white.
• The costume of the young girl is more ideologically loaded
as it connotes innocence and youth which is expected by
the audience. However, they are led to believe she is an
antagonist when really she isn’t which is helped by the
costume and blonde hair. This is similar to House at the
End of the Street (Tonderai, 2012).