Ashlea Hickin
Media Studies
GENRE CONVENTIONS SUMMARY
After completing my analysis of film openings, I summarised the main conventions below so that as a group, we could clearly see the sorts of things that appeal to our target audience the most:
Costume:
The conventional costumes for our genre consist of casual, everyday item of clothing such as jeans, hoodies, and t-shirts. This makes the characters more relatable to the audience and emphasises that fact that they are regular people. In some cases, the costume tells you more about the character, for example in 28 Days Later when the scientist is wearing a stereotypical white lab coat. The costumes of zombies also consist of casual items of clothing but are usually blood splattered and ripped to distinguish between them and regular people.
Lighting:
A mixture of both high key and low key lighting were used in the openings so that it better suited the setting. It also depended on whether the film wanted to make it appear night time or daytime. Although there are no clear conventions within lighting, the lack of colour also makes it seem darker and more mysterious. Based on our ideas, we will be using low key lighting to make it look more eerie and creepy.
Props:
The props featured in the opening tend to be items that you would associate with danger and violence such as guns but also everyday items such as mobile phones and coffee cups. These props could make the audience feel threatened because of the danger they pose or safe because they are recognisable objects. For our opening, we will focus on including everyday items as props to contrast between normality and the zombies.
Colour:
The colours tend to be dark colours such as blacks and greys, making the film more eerie and creepy. The colour red also featured in many of the openings, suggesting danger and also making you think of blood. In some cases, the costumes of the characters consisted of pink which suggests innocence and youthfulness, making the audience feel concerned about them.
Setting:
The settings are usually realistic places that would be familiar to many people, such as a supermarket, a stereotypical street or the woods. However sometimes they can be twisted in order to make them less familiar such as the addition of fog in The Silence of The Lambs. Unfamiliar settings such as the science lab in 28 Days Later didn't tend to appear as often because they may make the audience feel extremely unsafe because of not knowing where they are. For this reason, we will use a realistic setting in our opening.
Camerawork:
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POV shots were used in quite a few openings because they let the audience experience what the characters are experiencing. This is particularly effective for the horror genre because it makes the audience feel more at risk.
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Panning was also used regularly to show the audience the surroundings and expose them to the danger. This is highly effective especially when the pan is slow as it makes the audiences' hearts race.
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Many long shots were used to show the audience the action from a distance. This allows them to feel safer and also see more of what is going on. This is particularly effective for the horror genre because it means that they don't feel constantly at risk for the whole film.
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When planning the camerawork for our opening, we will include a variety of shots to ensure that the audience see different perspectives of the action and also get the chance to get to know the characters.
Long shot from Deep Impact
Editing:
The editing varied greatly between openings with some keeping it to a minimum and others using it as much as possible. The Silence of The Lambs kept the editing very minimal which was extremely effective as it created suspense and made the audience feel uncomfortable because they had to focus on the action for so long. Whereas the opening of World War Z is a montage so uses lots of different editing techniques. The use of quick cuts, slow cuts and the layering of sounds disorientate the audience which is extremely gripping for them. Personally, I found the World War Z opening more entertaining so we will keep this in mind when we are editing our opening. We plan to use a variety of editing techniques in order to make it more entertaining for our audience. We also plan to include a montage which will allow us to experiment more with different editing techniques.
Example of an editing technique used in World War Z
Credits:
Majority of the film openings used a sans serif font in block capitals for its credits. This suggests its importance and draws more attention to it. The positioning of the credits varied between different openings however they were always positioned so that they did not block the main focus of the shot. This allows the audience to still be engrossed in the film. The colour tended to be black or white to contrast between the good and the evil. Each credit tended to last for an average of three seconds, therefore allowing just enough time for the audience to acknowledge it. In some openings, the film name was displayed for slightly longer because it is the most important credit. The transitions between the credits also greatly varied. In more serious films such as World War Z, there are no soft transitions between credits and it just appears in each shot, whereas films such as Warm Bodies and The Cabin in the Woods used transitions with the effect of the credits turning into blood on the screen. This is effective as it keeps it interesting for the audience. The only exception to these conventions was Halloween as it used the complete opposite to any other film's credits. It was a serif font and was orange, therefore linking to the pumpkin on the screen but not following the conventions. The credits were also displayed for much longer which I found to be quite boring and repetitive. They were also not embedded into the actual film and instead featured before it on a black background, making it more boring and uninteresting. However, the reason for this could be because it is an older film so the relevant technology may not have been available to do this.
We will use a sans serif, block capitals font for our credits because we discovered this to be the most effective and also conventional for our genre. Each credit will be shown for no more than three seconds so that our audience doesn't get bored.
POV shot from Zombieland