Evaluation of Use/Manipulation of Genre Conventions w/ Contact Sheet

Contact Sheet

1. Title and Ident

• The ident uses blue flares and rays as it symbolises the production group, SubZero and the icy blue is associated with cold temperatures
• The title used has been designed to make the audience feel that the film will have frightening content.

2. Credits

• At first, we intended to use plain white credits. However, we decided to change the colour to red as it symbolises blood and violence which is obviously important for horror.
• The credits begin during the first scene introducing the two young boys and don't have exaggerated effects.
• As a group, we decided to use simple credits as we didn’t want anything too comical or animated appearing on the screen as we want the audience to focus on the action.

3+4. Characters

 

• In Zombie/Horror films, there is a group of people (survivors) that have to endure zombie attacks and try to save as much humanity as possible without being infected or killed.
• The typical characters you see within a zombie film are normally include hero, loveinterest, coward etc and we have covered these roles through the introduction of our characters.
• We use two young boys as main characters as they represent the innocent and vulnerable type alongside Conor. Young victims is another convention of the horro genre to up the scare factor.
• Our hero is Michael, a professional zombie hunter. It is a convention to have an 'expert' amongst the characters.
• Conor Fay represents the useless character who is the vulnerable one who is most likely to be killed first. This is proved by how he dies first and becomes a zombie.It is common in zombie films to have a character turned into a zombie early on to make the threat seem real.
• David is a character who is aggressive and demanding. David is the sort of person who always acts very solemnly towards others and he wants things to be done his way.
• Rafael is the mature and knowledgeable character within the group - this character convebtionally is created to give the group balance and make sure not all the focus is on action.
• This is typical in the zombie/horror genre as the story needs a hero and group of survivors to fight the infectious disease.

5+6. Mise-en-scéne

• Normally the setting for zombie/horror films is night or misty (early morning).
• Conventionally includes 3 or 4 different main locations for example shopping centre, train station, home or an abandoned warehouse. However, for ours we used Michael's home, garden and an open space of trees behind them - more rural locations than we aer used to in a zombie film.
• For the costume, the characters varied in appearance. For Rafael, he was dressed smartly reflecting on his maturity, Conor Fay, Conor CF and David we all dressed casual and Michael was dressed formal (suit) showing his professionalism.
• The props used in zombie/horror films are usually weapons e.g. guns, baseball bats, shovels etc. However guns are also seen in most zombie films and seem to have a clichéd large amount of ammo. However, the only props used were Rafael’s glasses. Glasses are stereotypically used to connote intelligence. Michael’s gun (11), two footballs and an item unidentified for purpose carried by David, a vimto bottle. (8)
• The lighting in zombie/horror films is usually dim most of the time to create a spooky atmosphere with occasional moments of almost pitch black and darkness to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Sometimes perfectly normal lighting is used, with everything lit as it would be, to create a higher level of verisimilitude and make the horror moments more jumpy.
• In out film, the lighting was bright in some areas such as the boys playing football. It was also dark with specs of light; this is when David goes to retrieve another football. (6)
• The weather didn’t really have an effect on the mood, so this wasn’t one of the factors that made the film feel scary. 

7,8+9. Camera Work

 

• In our two minute film, we use many close ups. This was to identify the main characters for the audience which is a convention of opening sequences. (2, 6)
• In zombie/horror films, close ups are used to highlight about who is going to be affected during the story.
• The use of close ups can show awareness towards the audience of who is vulnerable and who is going to be responsible for making sure everyone is rescued.
• We used two shots’ too to establish the two young boys. Cameron and Niall (The ‘Princesses’) take on the stereotypical female showing that later on in the film, they are the ones in need of rescue. Audiences need someone to feel sorry for in zombie films. (7)
• POV shots were used throughout our film showing the persons perceptive (6,8,11).
• Fake blood was editing in the film, to show when Conor was being shot. (11)
• These are all common genre conventions.

10+11. Editing and Sound

• We used various transitions such as ‘fade’ and ‘slow motion’ in the editing process for our two minute film. This gave the audience a sense of movement, showing that the story was moving on, moving from one scene to the other. Opening sequences need to establish a sense of pace and action in the horror genre to make sure audiences know it will be a thrilling film.
• Cross-cutting between the football and the woods.
• Diegetic and non-diegetic sound was used throughout our film. Dialogue was enhanced alongside sound effects being imported. An example of this, is David’s voiceover of when he is tell Conor to go and fetch the ball. (5) The gun bullet sound effect was used at (11) so that it would sound more realistic rather than just a peck noise - the jump factor is important in horror.
• Also, voiceovers of zombie grunts were used to establish Conor of a zombie rather than a human.