Media Theories

Convention & Uses

I have my heart set on a truly terrifying story that led to a girl being stabbed in real life so I decided to chose certain conventions that would fit well into that story.

-The problem is caused or exacerbated by being isolated, unprepared, or naive
-The narrative is built to cause tension, anxiety, and fear in the audience
-Story plays on standard human fears: strangers, isolation, death, violence, insanity

-Graveyard or Cemetery
-Isolated communities or remote locations (cabin, dark woods)

-Hero -Victims -Villain

-Dark colored clothes, costumes, settings
-Weapons (knives)
-Blood. Lots of blood.
-Monsters (possessed people, mass murderer)

-Unnatural camera angles
-Extreme Close-Ups on victim’s face to show fear
-Long take with a sudden jump cut to frighten viewer
-Handheld camera adds terror
-Shallow depth of field

-Ambient Diegetic sounds
-Silence used to build tension

Trailer Deconstruction

The task given was to deconstruct a horror trailer from the past three years; the trailer I chose to look at was for the movie flat liners. Right off the bat several trailer tropes crop up; the editing is fast most of the time and the music lines up perfectly with the cuts, as is with trailers in general. However in horror trailers they tend to follow a pattern: fast then slow then fast again, almost showing the rollercoaster of the story, and the music and sound would follow suit. The editing and music is similar to that of Pscyco and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  As with most trailers, it reveals the major part of the plot thus ruining the movie slightly. When the camera zooms out from the protagonists body it's framed so that it seems as if her spirit is rising, and while we're on that train of thought it briefly cuts to a church window confirming that camera movement.

Movie Poster Deconstruction

Surrounded by darkness and black this poster indicates isolation and gives away some of plot or the theme of the plot which is kidnapping indicated by the hand pulling on the child.The tagline reads "Your fears are unleashed" suggesting that fear is an animal, that it has some form of life or consciousness, and has been released which would put the mind on alert to watch out. Speaking of things to watch out for this poster contains an icon to look for in the movie; the red balloon, at first glance it appears as though the cild is holding the balloon howver upon closer inspcetion the string does in fact go behingd tyhe childs arm indicating that the antagonist in this film hold the balloon and when you see you know not to hold your breath.

I couldn't watch this movie because I was terrified by the trailer, the poster captures and emits that fear perfectly. The use of the title in the tagline is a bit of a cop-out (an instance of avoiding a commitment or responsibility) but I also see how much of an effect it has. The tagline reads "What was once in the deep is now in the shallows" when reading that line then seeing the poster under the ocean the mind suddenly rushes to think what deep sea creature could it be, because there are tons of sea dwellers that could easily kill humans. The tagline creates a sense of mystery and suspense. The poster portrays a surfer from under the waves but nothing else emitting a feeling of isolation a loneliness which reveals a part of the movies plot to some extent.

As this poster is promoting a sequel it hardly requires hiding the antagonist as is made clear by the shadow looming over the child, however there is a sense of mystery to lure in a new, or even bigger, audience. This poster uses the taglines 'She never forgives...forgets...left'. The last lines cements the fact that this is a sequel, as it's in the past tense, and the same antagonist appears in this movie. However, the other two lines are in the present tense indicating that this character has been doing this for a long time. As with most horror poster the color scheme is mostly grays and is rather dull but the most interesting part is the shadow as, although most people wouldn't spot it immediately, there's a hint of a face on it. Though the detail might seem insignificant to a new viewer, to a fan or someone whom liked the original book would either light up with joy to find out who the woman actually is, or might scour in disgust and argue that the woman should be kept a secret. Either way it's a sneaky way of gaining publicity or controversy.

Monster Makeup (deconstructing a monster)

The monster I chose to look at was the clown from IT released in 2017. Although clowns are typically meant to be elements of joy many people have developed a phobia of them and rightly so because in 2016, the year prior to the release of IT, there was a series of stalkings and killings done by people dressed as clowns. The IT clowns most certainly subverts the previously rooted notion that monsters are no longer scary. Because the fear of clowns is a well known phobia, having a clown as the main antagonist would strike fear into the audience' hearts planting them at the edge of their seats.

The plot of this movie revolves around a clown who comes out to kill every twenty seven years and the original movie came out in 1990 (precisely 27 years earlier to 2017). Slightly earlier than 1990 there was a series of killings by a man named John Wayne Gacy whom worked as a clown and is responsible for 33 deaths of young boys. He was found guilty in 1980 and ten years later the it story was drummed up and turned into a miniseries by Stephen King.

I believe using a monster in horror film is a bit of a cheat because you know what you're meant to fear, are always looking out for it and can never actually focus on the story or have any proper character development. However if there were such a beast that would have both logic and common sense work against you then I would gladly use that kind of monster, or a monster hidden in plain sight.

Context Blog Task

The task is to take a movie from the last five years and describe how it is indicative of that time. However, the movie I chose to dissect was Inside Out.According to its IMDB page this movie won an Oscar, along with several other awards, and is rated 9.5 on metacritic. The plot revolves around a young girl, Riley, who suddenly has to move house and so the facets of her mind try to keep her from going into a deep depression.The movie came out in 2015 and, like most Pixar movies when you read too deep into it, can hide a very dark and deep meaning. According to the world health organisation over 800.000 people commit suicide each year and most of them are between 15 and 29. In 2015 suicide was the 17th leading cause of death making up 1.4% of all deaths.Most suicides happened in low to middle income countries, including San Francisco; the city where our main character in Inside Out has to move to. San Francisco is even known for several reports of people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.The parents can't be over 30 in the movie and Riley is thought to be 11 years old when she moves, although the ages don't quite line up with the statistics given it's never explained as to what happened after the credits we can safely assume that she lives on. Though it's rather fun to think of how it would have played out have Joy and Sadness never found their way back.Sources: 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/ 

http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/ 

The History of Horrors

Time.Graphics - free timeline online maker

Sources:
https://www.slideshare.net/GiacFraterrigo/history-of-horror-movies

Response to Brief

The brief given was to create a promotional package for a horror film.We were thus given several questions regarding the horror genre.