2. Our movie opening both conformed to and subverted
the various conventions associated with movie
openings. We have previously looked at movie
openings for movies of various genres’, mainly horror,
and discovered some of the different conventions
which we then conformed to and subverted. The
conventions involve things like opening credits at the
beginning of the movie, colours used and the title
appearing.

3. The title sequence is meant to introduce the movie,
establish tone and genre as well as create expectations
within the audience. Film makers can use different
techniques and have done in the different openings
that we looked at.
The opening credits in the romantic comedy Legally
Blonde are written in a pink font which is very girly and
feminine while the opening credits in the horror movie
The Cabin in the Woods are written in a very dark red
font which simulates blood and death. Film makers can
do this with other codes and conventions of movie
openings as well to create their desired effect, the
codes and conventions being different for different
genres.

4. Because my movie opening is in the horror genre it is similar to
the second movie opening previously mentioned, The Cabin in the
Woods. In terms of the credits we used they conformed to the
stereotypical credits used in horror movies. Like most movie
credits we ordered the names in the order of importance, the
director being first in the credits followed by the two actors and
then by the title of the movie. The credits were written in red, as
in horror films red is the colour associated with blood and danger
which are two things that are present in our opening. We also
featured the title of the movie itself after something dramatic had
taken place, in this case the victim being killed, to introduce the
story to the audience.
This is the difference between our old
title and our new one
We changed it because we felt that it
Looked more dramatic when it appeared at the
end after the victim was killed and a lot of horror
movies seem to show the title after something
exciting happens

5. Here are some pictures of other horror movie
locations that conform to these conventions
The location we used also conforms to other locations that we have seen in horror
movie openings. In Scream 4 the opening takes place in a normal suburban house
and although we see it as a safe location at first it then becomes very dark and
isolated from the rest of society when Ghostface phones the victims. Isolation is a
key factor in horror films and many of the most used locations, haunted house
etc…, are isolated and separated from the rest of the society to symbolize how
alone and helpless the characters in the movie are and plays on our basic fears.
Movies like Friday the 13th and The Shining involve their characters being isolated
from society the same way that our opening does. The location in our movie is a
forest which seems quite safe and normal at first, especially with the brightness
effect on it, but soon becomes a place of danger when the killer appears. A bright
location does not conform to the expectation and Mise-en-scene of traditional
horror movies. We decided to use the bright location despite this to show that the
killer could strike at any time instead of being limited to appearing at night.

6. Despite conforming to some of the stereotypes of movie openings we actually
subverted a lot of them in our movie opening, specifically ones associated with the
horror genre. The main one that we subverted is that the first victim killed in the
movie is a boy instead of a girl.
Girls are usually killed first in the movie and usually the girl is shown to be very
pretty and, stereotypically, quite weak and helpless. Our main character had quite
a bulky physique and appeared to be quite strong because of that yet when he is
attacked by the killer he does not fight back and instead runs, subverting the
stereotype of boys and men being very tough and “macho” in horror movies and
movies in general.
The killer’s physique is also something that subverts stereotypes as the killer is
usually quite muscly and strong yet the one in our movie opening is very skinny.
We based our killer on Ghostface, who is never really shown to be very muscly but
because of his long black cloak you never really get a good look at his physique
until the killer is revealed towards the end of the movie. We thought it would be a
good idea to show the killers physique as it makes him look quite creepy and
makes him very mysterious.

7. Masks are a common prop used in horror movies and many other
well-known horror movie characters wear masks (Ghostface in
Scream, Jason in Friday the 13th). Masks are scary for the audience
as it means they cannot identify the killer because they cannot see
his face meaning the killer could be anyone and that the killer
could be anywhere and the audience would not know it.
Characters like Ghostface wear masks which are visually quite
scary to look at and have features that make them seem inhuman
such as the large black eyes and white skin. For our masked killer
some of the facial features were easy to see through the mask but
the green “skin” looks very different from the usual masks worn
in horror movies and looks very “Alien”.

8. We did not use a wide variety of camera shots or angles in our movie opening. It is
much harder to identify camera shots and angles in terms of the codes and
conventions of horror movies. One convention that is present in some horror
movies involves camera angles being used in order to show the balance of power.
This would mean that the killer, the more powerful person, would be shot with a
low angle to make them look very large and strong while the victim would be shot
with a high angle to make them look very weak and vulnerable. We did not really
use camera angles very much in our movie opening but there is one point in it
where the victim is shown running through the forest from a high angle to make
him look very weak compared to the killer and compared to the forest itself. The
editing we used cut very quickly between shots when the action got very intense
and exciting, another convention of horror movies. We also used a fade to black
when the killer reaches towards the victim to simulate the victim closing his eyes
in the embrace of death and make the audience feel as if they were looking
through the eyes of the victim. This is something that is not a common convention
of horror movies but is still used sometimes.

9. Overall we subverted more stereotypes than we
conformed to in our movie opening, subverting quite a
few of the usual stereotypes that are associated with
movies of the horror genre which I feel helped make
our movie opening unique from other horror movie
openings.