The Horror Cycle

Recently in Media Studies we have been talking about the horror genre and how it seems to have a cycle, as by looking at the horror genre through the years, since the 1930's. As you can see by the picture of my notes, the things in horror films that are made to scare the audiences change as time goes on. During the 1930's it was monsters that were the main attraction, such as Frankenstein, who is a man who has returned from the dead, werewolves, animal monsters etc. When these monsters were first introduced the audiences loved them, and they were entertained by this. But the problem with this was that it all became predictable; people could see what's coming with these types of horror films. Therefore the genre needed to evolve as the audience has become desentitised.

In the 1960's,  Alfred Hitchcock's revolutionary thriller/horror film 'Psycho' was introduced. This is an iconic film and is considered essential cinema. This is due to the fact that the film makes the audiences at the time ask themselves, 'Where are you safe?'. The main character in the film is murdered in her shower. Audiences were shocked to the bone with this, to think even in the comfort of your own bathroom you're not really safe; this was what Hitchcock intended for and what made Psycho so impactful. The shower scene nowadays is iconic for true horror, and a very famous scene in a film. In addition, the reason why this film was such a hit was because Hitchcock went against the audiences expectations. Audiences at the time expected the main character to be in the film at all times, throughout the film. It was only when Hitchcock killed off his main character quite early on in the film this changed the audiences mind, and the fact that the danger and horror of the film came to someones house, their bathroom, this terrified the audiences and even made them scared to have a shower, which seems irrational but at the time this was true.

The 1970's thrived on 'slasher' films. People wanted some more fun, gruesome horror films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  This grossed the audience out with all the blood in the films, but ultimately the audiences enjoyed these films.

Another iconic film came out in the 1980's 'A nightmare on Elm street'. This film was about people, in their dreams, getting violently hurt and murdered by a man with razor sharp claws for hands named Freddie Kruger. The tag line for the film was' If Sally doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all.' This made people terrified, and therefore sleeping became very uncomfortable for them, with the likes of the film in their mind. This then turned into a well known franchise across the world.

In the 1990's and onwards, horror was dominated by teen horrors. Films such as Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Friday the 13th etc were very popular. This had a targeted audience of young teenagers, to try and get them to spend their money and see these films, which succeeded. These films were very popular and are still popular nowadays, they are enjoyable as well as entertaining and bloody.

Narrative

In films and TV, the way in which the story is told and how the events are put together and presented to the audience is called the 'narrative'. This is different from the story line, which is just what exactly happens in the film. This means that when analysing a narrative, you analyse the construction of the story, and how it has been put together, rather than the actual story itself. Also the story should be taken into account in basic terms, such as the theme of the story such as love, war, fate etc.

When it comes to analysing a narrative, certain things need to be taken into account. Firstly technical codes. This involves all the aspects of the narrative construction that use technical decision making, such as camera angles and movement, lighting, editing, sounds shot framing and so on. These features can help give meaning such as shooting from a low angle shot to make it look like the subject is more powerful. Another thing is verbal codes. This involves the use of language- written and spoken- and signs contained in graphics for example. The best considered narratives show rather than tell, leaving the audience to draw their own interpretations and conclusion is better for them. Symbolic codes come under the same feature, such as a person in a film wearing an expensive suit and tie, can suggest they are a rich character who has importance.

A Russian theorist called Tzvetan Tdorov suggested that all narratives follow a three part structure. They start with an equilibrium, where the film so far is all balanced, everything is at peace. Followed by something to disrupt this balance, the dis-equilibrium, and then finally it will reach a resolution to become the new equilibrium. This simple idea can be applied to all narratives. Such as in an action film, everything is balanced until the villain(s) come along and ruin the balance, then its up to the protagonist to resolve the issue and make everything okay again. Such as Spider man films with the green goblin.

The Male Gaze- Theory by Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey was a theorist who introduced the theory known to be called 'The Male Gaze'. This is when in films, TV and media in general, audiences are given the view of women characters through the perspective of heterosexual males. Furthermore, the camera will focus on the curves of the female body, and shows how the men react to these events. This feature can be interpreted as relegating women to the status of an object. Viewers that are female have to witness the narrative second hand, through the eyes of a male, this makes people think that this is all sexist towards women. In addition this shows men's dominance over women, and how men are in control. Here are some images from films where this theory is put to use:



Another idea of this theory is all about visual pleasure. Women are focused on in the films to reveal their beauty and features, to satisfy the audience and narrative in a sexual way. The audience see the women as an object and see her sexuality, but the audience like this and expect it. A good example of this is in perfume/aftershave adverts. These types of adverts on TV will always feature a woman provocatively dresses attracted to the man with the perfume, and this is what the viewers experience and believe. The woman's features will be easily seen and will be focused on. This encourages people to buy the products when they see this kind of material. The poster for Dior's j'adore perfume for women is a prime example of this; women want to be like this woman below and so they buy the perfume to satisfy themselves.

'Terror in the night'

Recently in Media Studies, we were assigned to get into groups of 3 or 4 and to produce a 10 shot storyboard titled 'Terror in the night'. The groups were dependent on certain skills we said we would prefer to do such as technical, planning, leadership and so on. Once we had thought of an idea for the short, we had to transfer this idea onto a storyboard with 10 shots. We had to draw the images onto the shots and include additional information, such as the shot type was very important, the duration, the effects/transitions and camera motion and so on.

Once this was done, we were then assigned to further develop the storyboard and then make it into a digital animatic. This was done by taking pictures of the shots and editing them together, using music and sound effects to create a visually represented storyboard with sound. This was a really useful task, as it will help us when it comes to creating the trailer for our short Thriller film we will be developing for coursework. The animatic also helped establish a certain tone we were aiming for which is harder to show on just pieces of paper. The animatic we made is shown below:

We were all happy with the animatic and think it represents our storyboard very well, and achieves a good effect of chilling the audience.

Camera shots in a film extract

Recently in Miss Brown's classes, we have been learning about and understanding camera shots and how they can be effective. Some of the shots we have talked about are Aerial shots, tracking shots, Tilt shots, Pan shots and so on. After we looked at examples of these shots in films such as The Fast and The Furious, Pulp Fiction etc. We talked about why the director chose to use these type of shots, and how it affects the audience whilst they are watching the film. The way the camera shoots the scene is significant; it makes for more meaning. Using the same camera positions and movements for large sections of the film will not be effective, and will make the audience feel un-interested. because it is less engaging for them. For example an 'over the shoulder' tracking shot will make the audience feel like they're with the character in the film, and therefore feel much more engaged with the film.

Using this knowledge we were taught, we had to for homework watch a two minute clip from a film of our choice and pick out all of the key camera angles and methods used. This task helped us to apply our knowledge of camera shots to a real film of our choice. I chose to study 'Shutter Island' and picked out some certain shots from the introduction of the film.

The first shot I talked about was an extreme wide shot, aerial shot of Shutter Island. I talked about how this shot acts as an establishing shot which introduces the location, and how it builds tension for the film because the island looks so isolated and mysterious, and how the island is completely surrounded by the sea. Because of these two aspects of the film the audience can't help but feel drawn in to the film.

The second shot I talked about was a pan shot which pans past a large, old mental asylum on the island. The camera is positioned in the vehicle driving past, so when the camera reveals and pans past the asylum, the scale of the building looks massive and also therefore looks significantly intimidating. Furthermore I talked about how this shot builds up a sense of dread as to the building looking so intimidating and sinister.

The last shot I talked about was another pan shot which pans past some barbed wire on the fence system. Similarly, I talked about how this builds up dread for the audience, knowing that the island is full of insane people, a pan shot showing all the barbed wire makes the audience feel scared of what is to come.

I felt this homework task went well and I understood what I was talking about in terms of camera angles and shot types, and how this affects the film.