Evaluation of our use of genre conventions

Credits 1 & 2

 

• Enter in without an effect, lasts roughly 5 seconds overall and leaves with a horizontal blur effect. We did this because it was often seen in horror movies and it also helps with the creation of the atmosphere. We designed it to enter from the two bottom corners of the screen so it doesn’t affect with what’s happening on screen. It also makes it seem more eerie as it just creeps up at the corner of the screens. The horizontal blur effect was added at the end because it adds to the atmosphere we were creating.
• It will be presented in red and the text will be a normal font. The size will be fairly big so it doesn’t go unnoticed by the viewers. However it won’t cover any of the action. It appears with the story so it doesn’t take too much time.
• Neutral credits that help with the atmosphere but don't slow the story are the convention in zombie films.

Characters 3, 4 and 5

 

• In horror films there, most of the time, are the innocent characters that seem feeble which is why they die early. In our case we used little children to play this role.This is a common feature of zombie films e.g. the early deaths in Zombieland.
• There are specific character and roles in a typical zombie horror film. We have given each character one of these roles. David as the aggressive leader, Rafael symbol of intelligence, Conor Fay is the sacrificial character who dies early so the zombie story gets introduced, Conor CF is the short-tempered and unlikeable character and Michael is the zombie killer who helps the group survive.
• David stands in the middle of the three shot to show his power and he is also shown with a fierce expression, highlighting his character to the audience. In order to make him more noticeable to the audience (or for any of the characters) we dressed him up in a way it seems acceptable to the audience, we used stereotypes. This is why we gave him a ‘jock’ look covering him head to toe with a sportsman look.
• The common zombie people think of is the slow, grunting and deteriorating kind, so that is why we did this for our piece. It compares with the representations of zombies in other classic films such as "Dawn of the Dead"

Mise-en-scene 6 and 7

 

• Horror scenes tend to be set in the suburbs rather than a place that is crowded with a mass amount of people. This is so when something bad happens in the story like a character dies then the position of being isolated in the woods adds to the fear factor which is what we seek. This is why we filmed in an area with a forest in it, but we know we have broken conventions by not beginning in an urban setting where the fear of quick contamination is greater.
• Some actors fit the characters well, like Conor Fay  fits the description of a weakling due to this body structure and hair length. The same with David’s character. David naturally has a deep and loud voice so it fits with his demanding character.
• A habit of horror movies is that they tend to film the killing and most exciting scenes with very low lighting like at night time. This can be seen in Friday the 13^th. But we didn’t do this because the equipment we used was not suited to film with low lighting.
• We did film a scene where low lighting was evident and that was in the shed scene where David goes to get a football.
• We used props such as a gun to create the zombie apocalypse atmosphere, to make it seem more real.

Camera Work 8

 

• We used a lot of group shots and three shots to show the audience that the characters are all friends and their close friendship, we also used close ups to establish them and help the audience to identify them better. This is a convention in the zombie genre e.g. The Walking Dead as the group dynamixs are an important part of the story.
• Because of the clear roles there are in a zombie films we tried to capture these with close ups of the characters in place too.
• We used a long shot to establish the location of where the characters are playing.

Editing 9, 10 and 11

 

• We wanted to use ellipsis in order to get the storyline moving and get as much information as we could in the two minutes that was given to us. But although we did use it, we only added in a simple fade in effect. We did this to convey the idea of time passing.
• When we needed to change scenes, we added in effects like cross dissolve and fade in and fade out on Final Cut express to make the scenes move from one another easier.
• In order to establish the characters more, we gave some of them more screen time than the others because some are more important than the other and we want the audience to get familiar with them first.
• In picture 12 we added a re-voicing of Conor CF mentioning my name as before it was not present in our extract.
• We also edited in a blood spatter on Conor’s back as Michael fires a gunshot at him. This is done to create verisimilitude as zombie films traditionally are quite gory.

Sounds 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16

 

• In any genre, non-diegetic music plays a very important role. It can be used to create an atmosphere which is what we used it for. At the beginning we added in dark and sinister music. We place in the background as the story progress on with the kids playing in the woods. This type of music fits our genre too.
• We made the dialogue special for each character as all have their specified roles. For example, for David’s character is more aggressive as he is the leader, so we gave him more commanding dialogue fitting for his character.
• Non-diegetic music was added during the scene where we found Conor Fay in the woods; this was needed to build up the tension so it could help with what was happening in the movie.
• We included grunting noises on Conor when he tries to attack us in the woods. We did this because we want to make it seem that he is an actual zombie trying to eat us, which will hopefully make them more scared.
• The little boy running away screaming was used because it was foreshadowing that danger is going to happen soon.
• Sound effect added in of gunshot to enhance sound.