Within this document, the author discusses how their horror film represents social groups through its characters and story. They aim to avoid stereotypes of teenagers and women that are common in the genre. While their film features a female antagonist, unlike the usual male villain, it still represents women as vulnerable through camera angles. The film also uses settings, props, and lighting/color schemes that conform to horror genre conventions to create tension and unease for the audience. Binary oppositions of safety vs danger and good vs evil further this effect, as do techniques like point-of-view camerawork that pull viewers into the unfolding events.

1. Evaluation
By Ryan Griffiths

2. Horror Genre conventions

3. Link to video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDtKjFz
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4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• Within our film opening we have mainly focused on the representation of young people
and women. Within our film young people are represented as troublesome as from our
synopsis we can determine that these young people are getting involved in things that
they shouldn’t be ( i.e. using tarot cards to summon dark forces.) which would be
portraying them as self destructive This can further be related to Ann Gould’s theory
which states that young people within the media are represented as
• Part of Artificial tribes
• Sexual
• Nihilistic
• Violent
• Self destructive

5. How does our media product represent
particular social groups?
within our video these teenagers are not represented in a sexualized manner however there is
also a balance between the representation of males and females however due to our use of
cinematography we might argue that women are represented as vulnerable through the use of
high angle shots which might represent them as being vulnerable and could possibly be linked
with Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze which is also associated with the representation of
women within the media. However within other films that we have seen in our research we have
observed that in some films such as ‘scary movie’ which is from the comedy-horror we see that
women are frequently sexualized and conform to the conventions of the horror genre in the sense
that they stereotypically fulfill the role of the victim who has or will be killed by a male antagonist.
Within this sub genre we see women represented as stereotypical in relation to the male gaze as
they are represented as vulnerable and unintelligent and needing to travel in groups at all times or
have protection from a male character. In our film we have chosen not to contain this use of
stereotypes as we wanted to have a fair representation of females and decided that we wanted to
focus more on including the conventions of our chosen genre instead of making our characters
conform to stereotypes.

6. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
• Within our media film we have chosen to investigate how women are represented
within the horror genre and applied this to our film by looking at the conventions of the
horror genre. According to the conventions of the horror genre women are likely to take
up the role of the victim who is trying to escape from a male antagonist. However
within our film opening we have chosen to subvert this stereotype and have chosen to
include a female antagonist as a killer within our film which relates to the influences
that we have taken from the films Insidious and The Woman in Black, these are both
horror films that feature a female villain and their victims often include younger people.
This could possibly be related to the male gaze theory as we see in this particular film
opening that females are represented as weak or victims that have become victims
and do not take on heroic roles within this media text.

7. Levi-Strauss binary opposites
Within our film we have used binary opposites in order to make our film
conform to the conventions of the horror genre and we have chosen to express
this through our choice of location. For example we have chosen a house which
uses the theory of opposites as it is usually associated with being a place of
safety, however within our film opening we have made this place seem
threatening and dangerous and isolated from everywhere else, which is one of
the key conventions of the horror genre.

8. Levi-Strauss Binary
opposites
• Finally our film opening could be related to Levi Strauss’ theory of
as we have have included the use of the binary opposites as we
have included the use of the contrast between good and evil and
light and dark and also between the feeling of safety and isolation
which will create a tense atmosphere for the audience who are
watching our film.

9. Barthes enigma codes
Within our film opening we have also used a variety of props that may not be
directly linked to the genre of horror however but due to the audiences own
knowledge of them they may be seen in a horrific context within our film. For
example we used tarot cards which are denoted as regular cards with images
on, however in relation to the semantic code the audience will see them as
ominous due to their links with superstition and fortune telling. Another example
that we could apply the semantic code to our film opening is through the use of
the knife, due to this being a horror film the audiences will associate the knife
with the connotation of it being a murder weapon and from this the audience
will be able to piece the story together and gain some context on our film
opening.

10. Colour and lighting
• Within our film opening we have chosen to take the perspective of a pov
shot throughout and mostly our colour scheme is black red and a night- like
green. We chose this colour scheme as these colours are either mysterious
and spooky and have connotations of death and isolation, which are
conventions of the horror genre. Therefore we decided to use low-key
lighting that comes from candle light as candles and candelabras have
gothic connotations and they do not make the entire scene visible leaving it
quite ambiguous to the audience as to figure out what may happen next
and this will lead them to wanting to know more about our film and will
leave them feeling tense and anxious.

11. Barthes Enigma codes
(cont.)
Within our film opening we have used Barthes enigma code of the action code
in order to build tension throughout our film opening. We have achieved
through using a pov shot throughout our opening and not having a steady
camera so that the viewer feels like they are within the scene and will be feeling
the same things as the camera man. Tension is also built through the use of
cinematography as lots of panning and high angle shots are used to make the
characters look particularly vulnerable as the camera is looking down on them.
Low angle shots are also used to indicate who has power within the narrative
for this film for example a low angle shot is used to show the villain who is
looking out of the window at the camera as if she is admiring the chaos that she
has caused.