Evaluating Use of Genre Codes and Conventions

Title

• We used red text to symbolise blood and danger, very common themes in our genre.
• The way that the title appears on the letter gives it a very ghostly and creepy feel.
• Suits the strange nature of our genre.

Title

Credits 

• Our credits are very plain and do not obstruct the vision of the viewer as they are usually at the edge of the frames. This is a common feature in our genre of film
• The fade in fade out animation gives it a rather ghostly feel which adds to the creepy feel of the whole sequence.
• We used the same font for all titles and credits and also played them over some sort of action.

Discreet credit

Credit does not disrupt action

Characters

• The mother is a very mysterious character, as from looks she doesn’t look like an evil character but from the way that she acts it does give off that impression. Mystery is a key part of our genre.
• Very ordinary characters were used so that the audience can connect with them, which is a very common feature in our genre of film.
• Young teenage girls are used as our victims. This is very common in our genre as they seem a lot more vulnerable than people of older age.
• A family is often used in our genre of film as most of the time they are together and in an enclosed location like a house. This is a very common feature of our genre.
• A female villain is not very common in thriller films, this slightly breaks the conventions.

Mysterious mother figure

Vulnerable young females

Mise-en-scene

• We used a large house for our film as this is a very common feature of psychological thrillers as people generally find it more shocking to interrupt the lives of a wealthy family as opposed to a lower class family.
• We used flowers as they are very strong symbols of two different things. One of them is the idea of love and giving someone flowers as a gift and the other is commemorating the dead. When used in a mysterious way it can create a very strange atmosphere.
• We used a graveyard as one of our locations, which in itself has a reputation of being a rather creepy and scary place. This is also very common in our genre as graveyards are directly linked to death, and death plays a massive role in psychological thrillers.
• We used a slightly red coloured soup in our film to represent violence and danger and to create the impression that the mother might not be as kind as she seems - what is in her 'special' soup?
• Our opening sequence takes place in the day time. This is because usually the first two minutes is the time for the audience to get an idea of the story and also to prepare for the events of the night.

Ordinary middle class location

Flowers can connote death, mysterious when roses which connote love

Close up of soup gives it a sinister quality

Camera Work

• We used a POV shot of the girl searching through her sisters drawers. This is to allow the audience to see the rebellious side to her and also to see exactly what she is looking for.
• We used a tracking shot from behind the mum when she is walking along the graveyard path. This is a very common technique for our genre of film as it makes it seem like someone is following them.
• We used fade in fade out transitions to make the sequence run smoother and also to shot when a scene had ended.

POV shot

Tracking shot

Close up

 

Editing

• We used shot reverse shot in our conversation scene between the two sisters. This allows us to see both the reactions of the girls as the other one talks. This is a very common feature in many forms of media when they want to make a conversation seem real (transparent editing) - common in opening sequences
• We used cross cutting between the mum at the graveyard and the girls in the house. This was to show the audience what is happening with both sets of characters. This is common in many forms of media as it is a great way of portraying the story.
• We used fade in fade out transitions to make the sequence run smoother and also to shot when a scene had ended.

Shot

Reverse shot

Sound

• We used a prolonged low hum over some significant scenes of our sequence, for example when the mother is walking through the graveyard and when we first see the title of the film - classic horror sound.
• We also used a heartbeat when the title emerges to give it a very scary feel to it.
• Dialogue is used to give key information - we find out the sisters are worried about the mother's reactions if she finds them in her 'special' room and that they don't know what happened to their father. This creates key enigmas for the plot - what's in the room? Is the father dead? Dialogue is often used this way in opening sequences and especially in our genre.

Screen shots to show sound editing