Reflective Analysis - Short Horror Film

Our objective is to produce a piece of horror/thriller film around a minute long. We were going to include conventions of both such as: hand-held shots, extreme close-ups/ close-ups and mid shots. We will film these: canted angles, low angles with some panning and tiling. All of the shots that we will film will be used in the hope that the audience will be shocked, nervous or on-edge. We will film this in black and white and we will use a simple setting so that the audience can relate to it and experience a similar feeling just like the characters felt in the piece of film.

After filming the 14 shots that we filmed we managed to include the horror conventions as listed above as that was our aim to try and make the audience feel uneasy. We also included shots where the characters walk away from the camera and shots where the camera pans and the character comes into view. This also adds to the effect on making the audience feel worried and slightly claustrophobic as the first few shots were filmed in a small room. This is a good convention as normally horror/thriller films are filmed in small spaces; it gives the sense that the character who is trying to run away will get trapped and caught. This makes the audience even more scared as they empathise that they can't get away as they are confined, which could leave them wanting more as they will be curious to know if the main character escapes or they get captured.

I think that teenagers and adults will benefit more from this film compared to younger children and it might scare them. As a result of this I think that the rating of this film should be a 12/12A rating. As a character dies it makes it a violent production which some viewers may not want to see. This is also a convention that you would find in a horror film as it links with death and normally someone dies in a horror/thriller feature. Another convention that we used was to film it in black and white which makes it darker and more mysterious. As most horror films will include low key lit places I thought this would be a good idea to include because it takes away at least some light causing the image to seem darker. This is also a good idea because light can be associated with hope or faith so taking this away can also take away the hope of the character who is being chased. Someone being followed or stalked is another common convention in thrillers as it is a very real thing but at the same time irregular. Irregular behaviour much as stalking another is well used in the genre of film and as we were able to include all of these conventions, I believe that this is a good piece of film which can be described as a horror/thriller film.

Textual Analysis

Kill Bill Vol. 2

This whole scene is in black and white and that gives me the sense that this is ether a dream or a flashback. However, the first shot is a medium close up and the camera is tracking backwards to we can she her face. As she is walking therefore the camera is tracking backwards at a walking pace. She soon turns and as she does this the audience can see that she is happy. Also as she continues to walk more of the background is revealed and it shows that she’s walking out of a church.

The next shot is a doorway, as the outside is brighter than inside the church, it gives us a sense of she’s passed away and this is her last memory as the doorway could signify ‘going into the light’. This shot is a ‘Point of View’ shot (POV), and as she looks at the doorway she can hear music.

The third shot is a reaction shot as her facial expression changes from happiness to concern. This shows that whoever is playing the music causes her to be irritated. To shows her uneasiness she turns to look over her right shoulder. Then she looks back at the doorway as she wants to see whoever it is. The camera shot uses a static camera but as she breathes more and more heavily, the camera slightly zooms in to show the audience that it gives the character something to be concerned about.

After a couple of shots go by there is a low-angle shot and there’s lots of distance between the two characters. Her back is to him which shows she doesn’t want to look at him and something has happened in their past for her too unfriendly to him. This shot also obeys the rule of thirds as when the camera is on her, she is on the far left leaving a lot of negative space, this could represent the past they have had together, but when the camera is on him he is on the far right. This gives them distance and makes the audience feel more immersed as the space would be filled by the viewer. Therefore, giving whoever is watching a sense of that they’re there.

After this the next shot is a close up as she turns to face him. The director would’ve used a close up for this shot as you can see her facial expressions and how she reacts to his presence. This shot is also a low angle shot as it seems to be taken from where he is sitting. This also shows dominance.

When he speaks the camera is shot from her point of view and therefore is shot at a higher angle as she is standing and he is sitting… these shots are repeated as he is playing and she is looking at him over her shoulder, but the screen time of each shot is shortened to give tension. More tension is added by non-diegetic music in the background and gets louder until he stands up. By him doing so, he knocks out her dominance as they’re now at the same level. These shots remind me of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ which is a film featuring Clint Eastwood, this reminds me of that as switches back and forth between a few shots with non-diegetic music, which builds tension and the shots are close ups on the eyes to see each other looking at on another.

There is a shot that goes from a close up to a mid-shot, by him standing up the camera: tilts, pans and zooms out in order so that the audience can see what he is wearing and so you can see his body language and how he holds himself. In the next few shots of the male character, you can see that he is quite relaxed as he leans against a post that holds up the shelter. While he does this the female character leans with her hands on another post, this could show they have something in common as they are standing in the same way.  

As he leans on the pole this shot ends up obeying the rule of thirds as well as it splits up the screen perfectly into thirds as the pole is meant to represent one third and the other third is shown as a background pylon. However, this shot is filmed for a very long time compared to ones just before it. this is because the characters begin to talk but still the camera shows him to be on the far left side of the image and when it cuts to her she is placed on the far right. Which shows they have distance. This makes me feel concerned as I want to know what happened to them, they’re acting as though they were close at some point but as something bad happened, they could’ve fallen out?

Soon after and as the conversation continues, the director starts to use some shoulder shots to fill up the entirety of the screen and to give us a look at what it’s like for us to be standing with them, helping us feel more immersed. Another idea the director did this is because he can give a look at what it’ like to be seeing it from their perspective.

They start to take one step at a time closer to each other as they talk, they take one step each, and to show this the director chooses to use low angle shots of their feet and these shots also obey the rule of thirds as the porch which they are standing on creates a line and the road that the church is in front of creates the other line. They continue to take a step closer to each other until they’re very close. This shows that as time goes on in their past they got more friendly and closer together. And as they’re talking, there is an eye-level shot which last for the next couple of minutes.

Once again it switches back and forth to shoulder shots which fill the screen. Overall this scene makes me feel curious as I want to know what has happened in the past and what is going to happen next.

As Film Studies Induction Task
Insidious Horror Film Essay by Max Everett
One of my favourite films that I love to watch is called Insidious! In this film it has a few well known faces such as Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye and Barbra Hershey.
This is the start of a film series but only the first two out of the four are about this family. In the film, it is about a family who moved house, soon after, one of their sons called Dalton falls into what they think is a coma. After looking in to more detail into the paranormal they realise that Dalton is actually called something, a traveller! The family is told that in his sleep can move around and although he thinks it is a dream it is actually a different world half between the real one and the world where all of the dead live. The trouble with this is that as Dalton is away from his body, the dead get a chance to find his body and get inside. This could mean that the dead can live again through him as he will be stuck and cannot get back. But it could also mean that they can possess him and as they live through him it will cause a lot of trouble with his family. The father of the family who is played by Patrick Wilson (and seen below) struggles with news and as his wife (who is played by Rose Byrne) feels as though she is being haunted around the house and is very, very scared of the house and the news of her on. The father struggles so much that he pretends to work late so he wouldn’t have to deal with the matter when he got back.

In this film i love all of the editing, even though the rest of the film, as in the way they did it, wasn’t too good I think the editing was a key part of the movie. Another good thing that they do in this film is the lighting, and a third is the sound. These three key parts of a horror film are excellently used though-out. An example of the lighting is represented in the image above. (the same image to show the father of the family who stars in the film). In this part of the film, he is trying to find his son in ‘the further’ as that is the name of the void to where Dalton is. It is all low-key lighting all except for this lantern that he is holding. This is the only item that he can use in order to save his sons life when he knows that he is all alone, the dead are watching and he doesn’t have very long to do this terrifying task. Overall this creates a sense of ‘what’s going to happen next, and it could make the audience feel uneasy as they don’t know who’s watching him.

In the scene, there is a fight between good and evil. It is a stereotypical gun fight, where the characters fit in with the conventions of the genre. The villain (Nicholas Cage); slightly psychotic, powerful, and well-dressed. The hero (John Travolta); fighting against the villain, caring about other people and is skilled at fighting. The fight leads to just the main hero and main villain, where the villain runs out of ammo, asks to be shot, has a knife and then gets trapped in a wind tunnel and is knocked out from his back hitting a metal cage.

During the build-up to intense moments in the clip, non-diegetic sounds is quiet, but gets slightly louder when action is taking place. Sound then becomes diegetic during the fights, as it is the conventional gun shots, explosions and shouting. These sounds are loud so my attention is drawn towards them and their source; and it keeps audience on edge as they want to know what will happen next. 

The scene begins with a long shot of a wind tunnel. The camera then pans from right to left to focus on Cage's eyes in an extreme close up. There is non-diegetic dissonant sound that makes a crescendo when Cage is in the shot. This shot makes makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and intimidated as they would not usually get that close to someone. Low key lighting is used to suggest mystery and danger. The next shot is a high angle establishing shot which shows the warehouse where the majority of the scene will take place. It is noticeable that the tunnel where the fight ends is much more well lit than the rest of the warehouse and illuminates much of the room. The third shot in the scene is a high angle shot of John Travolta's character who is holding his gun out at arm's length. This shot introduces the FBI agent and makes him look vulnerable and nervous as he will soon be engaged in a deadly battle with the dangerous criminal.

The next shot is a close up of the criminal's face looking downwards. In this shot he looks menacing and excited that he is about to shoot people. this paints the impression that he is insane and scary. In the fifth shot, we are then shown what he is looking down at- his gun which he is loading. This is followed by diegetic sound from his gun being loaded. The sound is clearly diegetic as in the following shot, the agent hears the noise and reacts to it by sharply turning. The next shot is another close up of Cage's gun, which is gold, being loaded. This shot implies the death that the criminal is about to cause. It is a convention of the action genre for guns to have their own shots, to signify their importance.  The scene then switches to a mid shot of an armed man in a suit turning on the spot to face the camera. We are shown this this from the point of view of the villain as this man is then shot. He is clearly an ally of Travolta's character as the hero attempts to save him by shouting 'Down!'. We are then shown a medium close up of Cage's character with his gun pointed towards the camera as he shoots. The next shot pans quickly around Travolta and the dying man who he is holding. This is followed by an extreme close up shot of lots of blurred sparks that cover up and illuminate the shot. The contrast of low key and high key lighting makes the explosion stand out. The blurry light objects could symbolise the light of heaven in this scene as if the sparks landed on someone, they could kill them. The next shot is a medium close up of the villain shooting. As he is in the centre of the frame and takes up much of the picture, he looks powerful and important. This is an example of the use of rule of thirds as Cage is in the middle third of the screen.

In the next shot, back lighting from an explosion is used to illuminate the dark room and make everything including the running hero look dark and unseeable. The next shot is a tracking shot that follows the agent as he runs to dodge explosions. The shot keeps the action fast-paced and shows  the viewer that the hero has survived the explosion. The next shot is a mid 2 shot of the hero running towards another agent who has his gun pointed. This then cuts to a medium close up of the two agents' faces. Travolta's character is shouting 'Down!' and looks worried. In a high angle long shot the criminal can be seen dropping a used up black gun. A close up of the villain grabbing his gun is then shown- informing the viewer that he is going to shoot yet again. 

During these fight scenes, some key moments are in slow motion to mark their importance and slow the pace down slightly. It also draws attention to that moment, as your brain can register the action better. 

AS Film Study Enrolment Task

By Max Everett 

Task 1 – Deadpool 

Deadpool may have become a box office success as the film has never been shot before; unlike characters such as Spider-man or Batman, Deadpool has never been shot so, more viewers would be interested in how the film comes out and who would be a part of the making of it. The character of Wade is played by Ryan Reynolds, and as lots of people like him, the fans of the antihero would be eager to see what happens during the film. 

Another reason could be that its partly a comedy the public would be more inclined to go to the cinema to see comedies as it combines the humour and violence of every super hero movie. Even though the film has lots of curse words this may be appealing to the lots of viewers as swearing is now accepted in films and in the publics eyes, it’s not taken as seriously as it was maybe 5-10 years ago. Also to some people, swearing in films can also make things seem more funny with the insults that can be made up with a combination of swear words. 

A films success is measured on how much money it makes after its released and shown in the cinema or at the pictures. Then it is measured on the rates it gets from reviews in newspapers and on articles all over the internet across the globe; and then finally its measured on how much money it makes after a DVD is released and how many people buy it. 

This film may have also achieved success as the plot of the film was well thought out and the origin of Deadpool would have been planned in great detail. The directors and producers must have thought very carefully on what the dialog would be. For this they went for the funny side of things as Ryan Reynolds character teases the doctors with small talk and quick punchy one-liners. Something else they would’ve considered would be all of the different shots and all the different camera angles they would have thought about using and all the shots that they actually used and how they decided to use those particular ones. As well as this all he CGI that the used during the film would’ve created more of an excited audience when the trailer was released. Seeing all the big explosions and acrobatics that Deadpool uses would’ve been well thought out and when they use shots as slow motion it creates a sense of suspense and this effect really shoes off all the detail in the shots that they would’ve used during the film. Another idea that they also decided to do was break the forth wall. This is where character look to the camera and speak breaking that barrier between them in the film and us in the real world.

My favourite film of this year was ‘Jack Reacher’. Jack is played by Tom Cruise in this fantastic adventure film. 

It follows Toms’ character solving a crime as a ‘friend’ of his gets in trouble and gets framed by a professional assassin. Through-out the film there’s multiple fights, car chases, explosions and action shots (in a typical Tom Cruise fashion). The plot is thickened by the fact that Jack is actually a ghost! Rather than him being dead, this term actually means that there’s no records of anything he does. This implies he’s on the run from someone or something and therefore has to keep his head down. 

As the continues it shows Jack getting into more and more trouble which appeals to the audience as it makes them feel on edge and therefore creates a sense intrigue. One of the best parts in the film comes from around the middle of the movie. The scene starts by Jack arriving at the scene of a crime and as he’s not ‘friends’ with the police force, as they happen to be there too as they are investigating the crime, they end up chasing Jack and causing an epic car chase around the dark streets of Pittsburgh.

This scene ends with jack tricking the police that he’s still in the car which he used in the chase, but it turns out that he jumps out and lets the car roll away. This makes the police continue to follow the car and there just so happens to be a bus stop where Jack jumps out from. He walks over to the crowd of people waiting for the bus but they seem to be so nice and help him hide as they stand around him and even one of them gives him their hat to help hide his identity. This scene was well thought out with all the different camera shots and the quick paced camera angles to help give it an edgy sense and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they watch it. As I just mentioned about the ending of the scene, the way the director wanted that to end is a great way and slightly comical way of finishing a good section. This is because in typical Tom Cruise fashion everything is ‘up in the air’ and to help end it the scene whether he gets away or gets captured, as a way of losing the police it is very inventive yet simple as not many people would’ve thought of that in order to keep the story going and for the good guy to get away.