Nine frames:
1. The first shot shows the production company logo. The production company logo is shown at the very beginning and these are typically used in order to brand or give the audience an idea of the type of movies the production company produces. Due to my chosen sub genre (psychological horror), I have tried to design my production logo in a way that it mirrors my sub genre and my audience can get an idea of what type of film I have produced. The production company logo that I have produced is very simple, yet effective. I have chosen to use mist and part of the moon in order to convey my sub genre through a night time theme. The darkness of my production company logo allows the audience to understand that it is related to something dark and mysterious, i.e. the horror genre.
2. The second shot is a long shot and is used to establish the location of my film opening. As you can see, the location that I have chosen is the woods as this is a conventional location that is used throughout many horror films, one of many being 'Silence of the Lambs' in the very opening. I have used this location as I believe it allowed me highlight the isolation in order to convey an eerie feel for the audience. I have chosen to use a still and focused shot for this particular shot as I thought it was important for the title which reads 'An Agne Ivanauskaite Film' to be effectively noticed as the director's name is always one of the first titles to appear and is conventional in all films. The title was added in post-production, as well as the sound. Through the branches we then see the protagonist walking, however the only sound that can be heard is the non-diegetic sound which fades out from the the production logo shot. The sound fading out creates an almost eerie feel and this may cause the audience to question what is happening and perhaps make them think that something bad is about to happen. Silence throughout scenes is very commonly used throughout horror films as this builds tension and typically something bad does eventually happen. The audience can instantly identify the young female as the protagonist due to her very casual and easy going clothing, however the audience too may question why she is walking through the woods in the first place. The font that I have used for the titles are also very similar to that of the production company logo as I thought this text was quite simplistic yet still had a very horror like touch to it, and psychological horror films tend to typically use very simplistic fonts.
3. The third shot is a medium close up of the antagonist walking which is used to establish part of his costume. This is the very first time the antagonist appears and the audience get only hints of what he looks like. The antagonist is filmed in a way in which he walks past the camera so it can only seem he is walking towards the protagonist. The antagonist's name also appears at the very bottom in the corner. The antagonist wears very dark clothing, however quite casual. The dark clothing is used in order to express his dark characteristics and the use of dark clothing on the antagonist is typically very popularly used in horror films as it allows the audience to instantly identify the person as the antagonist. The casual side of his clothing shows the audience that he is not an expert in kidnapping/killing and shows that this is perhaps his first time in performing such activity. The use of casual clothing is very commonly used in psychological horror films as it is a way of hiding one's identity and making the audience believe that they are not the antagonist. At this point, there is only the diegetic sound of the antagonist walking which creates a sense of mystery as it is the only sound that can be heard. The fact that his identity is hidden as this point and the antagonist is not revealed much adds to the mystery of things and the audience are made to question who the antagonist is. I believe that by introducing the antagonist at the very beginning of my film opening, I have used conventions of real media products as we would typically see the antagonist being introduced at the beginning of a horror film. I have developed the typical forms and conventions by using a variety of ways to build tension when introducing the antagonist, especially through the use of sound and costume.
The font of the title that I have used for this shot is also continually used throughout the rest of the titles and this text is similarly seen in 'The Conjuring' opening which I have analysed as part of my nine frame analysis in a previous post. I liked the use of this very simplistic font as I thought the minimalism of the font fits the psychological horror sub-genre very well and it is still effective without appearing too simple. Like in 'The Conjuring' I also used the colour white for the titles as I thought this was the only colour that appeared to stand out the most and keep to the simplistic side of things. Additionally, I have used a misty black background behind the titles to add to the dark theme of my film opening.
4. The fourth shot is a close up and shows the protagonist reaching down to get her earphones. This prop is used in order to show the audience that she is indeed the protagonist as she appears to be not carrying anything dangerous, yet instead she has earphones which illustrates her youth and that she is only a teenager. The previous shot before this shows the antagonist further back behind her and when she drops her earphones by accident and goes down to get them the audience are unable to tell what will happen to her as the antagonist is out of the shot due to the close up. The technique of the protagonist dropping something or falling is very commonly used throughout horror movies as this instantly slows the protagonist down and disables them from getting way. The use of non-diegetic high pitch creepy music in the background adds tension as the audience are made to feel like something is about to happen. The technique of the antagonist further behind the protagonist in the background is commonly used in horror films in order to make the audience feel intense and frightened as we are instantly made to feel like something bad is about to happen to the protagonist. The antagonist is only yet again revealed after this shot when the camera tilts upwards and we see the antagonist walking towards the protagonist.
5. The fifth shot shows a medium shot of the protagonist on the floor all tied up in an abandoned building. The medium shot is used to establish the new location that the victim has been taken to and looking at the abandoned location, the audience instantly know that the victim has been kidnapped and held hostage by the antagonist. The antagonist is also tied up with rope and tape, these are typical props used in horror films when someone has been kidnapped as this stops the victim from getting away. I thought it was important to show the victim tied up as it builds even more tension as it makes the audience question what will happen next, whether she will escape or whether she will be killed. At this point there is purposely no sound as the scene is supposed to create a sense of mystery but also build tension at the same time.
3. The third shot is a medium close up of the antagonist walking which is used to establish part of his costume. This is the very first time the antagonist appears and the audience get only hints of what he looks like. The antagonist is filmed in a way in which he walks past the camera so it can only seem he is walking towards the protagonist. The antagonist's name also appears at the very bottom in the corner. The antagonist wears very dark clothing, however quite casual. The dark clothing is used in order to express his dark characteristics and the use of dark clothing on the antagonist is typically very popularly used in horror films as it allows the audience to instantly identify the person as the antagonist. The casual side of his clothing shows the audience that he is not an expert in kidnapping/killing and shows that this is perhaps his first time in performing such activity. The use of casual clothing is very commonly used in psychological horror films as it is a way of hiding one's identity and making the audience believe that they are not the antagonist. At this point, there is only the diegetic sound of the antagonist walking which creates a sense of mystery as it is the only sound that can be heard. The fact that his identity is hidden as this point and the antagonist is not revealed much adds to the mystery of things and the audience are made to question who the antagonist is. I believe that by introducing the antagonist at the very beginning of my film opening, I have used conventions of real media products as we would typically see the antagonist being introduced at the beginning of a horror film. I have developed the typical forms and conventions by using a variety of ways to build tension when introducing the antagonist, especially through the use of sound and costume.
The font of the title that I have used for this shot is also continually used throughout the rest of the titles and this text is similarly seen in 'The Conjuring' opening which I have analysed as part of my nine frame analysis in a previous post. I liked the use of this very simplistic font as I thought the minimalism of the font fits the psychological horror sub-genre very well and it is still effective without appearing too simple. Like in 'The Conjuring' I also used the colour white for the titles as I thought this was the only colour that appeared to stand out the most and keep to the simplistic side of things. Additionally, I have used a misty black background behind the titles to add to the dark theme of my film opening.
4. The fourth shot is a close up and shows the protagonist reaching down to get her earphones. This prop is used in order to show the audience that she is indeed the protagonist as she appears to be not carrying anything dangerous, yet instead she has earphones which illustrates her youth and that she is only a teenager. The previous shot before this shows the antagonist further back behind her and when she drops her earphones by accident and goes down to get them the audience are unable to tell what will happen to her as the antagonist is out of the shot due to the close up. The technique of the protagonist dropping something or falling is very commonly used throughout horror movies as this instantly slows the protagonist down and disables them from getting way. The use of non-diegetic high pitch creepy music in the background adds tension as the audience are made to feel like something is about to happen. The technique of the antagonist further behind the protagonist in the background is commonly used in horror films in order to make the audience feel intense and frightened as we are instantly made to feel like something bad is about to happen to the protagonist. The antagonist is only yet again revealed after this shot when the camera tilts upwards and we see the antagonist walking towards the protagonist.
5. The fifth shot shows a medium shot of the protagonist on the floor all tied up in an abandoned building. The medium shot is used to establish the new location that the victim has been taken to and looking at the abandoned location, the audience instantly know that the victim has been kidnapped and held hostage by the antagonist. The antagonist is also tied up with rope and tape, these are typical props used in horror films when someone has been kidnapped as this stops the victim from getting away. I thought it was important to show the victim tied up as it builds even more tension as it makes the audience question what will happen next, whether she will escape or whether she will be killed. At this point there is purposely no sound as the scene is supposed to create a sense of mystery but also build tension at the same time.
6. The sixth shot is a high angle medium shot which establishes the first ever contact between the antagonist and the victim. Yet again, we do not see the antagonist, however looking at his build and costume the audience know that he is the antagonist. He also says the words "Just shut up, or i'll kill you" which further adds to the fact that he is the antagonist and from his voice we can identify him as being male. This shot is also used to purposely highlight the roles of the characters and how these roles are typically used in horror films. For example, the use of the high angle shot is used to highlight the antagonist's dominance and the victim looking up at the antagonist shows the audience that she is weak and vulnerable. She appears very small in the shot showing the audience the little power she has over the situation as well as the antagonist and the antagonist is seen as being superior. She slightly jumps when she is told to shut up which shows the audience that she is scared and a female being frightened of a male is also typically conveyed throughout horror films. In general, we would most commonly see the male as being the antagonist in a horror film and the female being the victim. The only sound used is the diegetic sound of the antagonist speaking, I thought I would only include diegetic sound in order to build the tension, as typically the sound would lead the audience to what is to come, however with no non-diegetic music, the audience are unable to know what is to happen.
7. The seventh shot is a long shot of the victim running away from the antagonist. This shot shows the antagonist coming from inside of the building and chasing after the protagonist. The surroundings of the location show the audience that this is taking place in an abandoned building which is preferably in the middle of nowhere due to the field that we can see where the victim is running towards to. We can see that the antagonist is carrying some form of weapon which is a bright red colour. The bright red colour of the weapon is conventional in horror films and the focus is instantly drawn to the weapon, making it stand out much more next to the antagonist's clothing. With the introduction of the weapon, this scene is made to be the climax of it all, with the victim running away and the antagonist having a weapon in his hand, the audience cannot guess what is going to happen. The fast paced non-diegetic music continues to create suspense and a sense of thrill as the antagonist is chasing the victim, this is also typically used in horror films.
8. The eighth shot is a long shot and shows the antagonist capturing the victim and stabbing her. The long shot establishes the location, showing the audience that victim and antagonist are in the middle of nowhere and there was no escape for the victim in the first place. The killing is emphasised through the continual stabbing from the antagonist and the loud scream that is heard from the victim. I did not want to show the actual process of the stabbing and blood as I thought this would go against the conventions of a psychological horror film, due to my film not being a slasher film, I thought it was important to keep my film opening with as little violence and blood as possible. The non-diegetic suspenseful music continues and towards the end the non-diegetic music ends with the victim's scream and a gate closing to symbolise the ending of the film opening. The immediate killing in my film opening is generally very commonly used in film opening, as we would usually see death at the beginning of the film, this alerts the audience and makes them want to continue watching. An example would be where the character in 'Scream' is killed very suddenly at the beginning of the film.
9. The ninth shot shows the title of the film, which appears immediately after the victim is killed. I decided to call my film opening 'Psychasthenia' as I thought this was relevant to the chosen sub-genre of psychological horror and the meaning behind the word 'Psychasthenia' is very relevant to the plot of my film opening. Psychasthenia is an obsessive-compulsive disorder and I thought this linked in well to the antagonist of my film opening, as he stalks the young female and then holds her captive and then eventually kills her. I have used the same shades of black and white for the title of my film as I wanted it to link back to the production logo in order to convey a continual pattern of the dark theme.
Having the main title at the end of the my film opening is also commonly used in most films as it indicates that the opening is over and the rest of the film will continue. Like in 'Scream', the unimportant characters are usually killed in the beginning and more killing happens throughout the film. The beginning preps the audience for what is soon to come.
Overall, my media product does use and develop some forms and conventions of real media product.I believe that sticking to some of the forms and conventions of real media products is important as I have stuck to my sub-genre effectively, but have also developed it using my own ideas.
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