Conventions of a horror film and how I have challenged them in my

film opening.

Researching conventions of a Horror film

Before making my film opening I did a lot of research on what makes a horror film, by looking at different horror films that suited my type of film opening. I took note of sound, mise en scene, camera movement, editing, themes and titles.

Most slasher horror films tend to evolve around teenagers in high school, the first scene and to be a female teenager alone or with a friend alone in a house, showing the isolation of adults and not having any help. (Scream, scary movie and The grudge) I got most of my research from the film ‘Scream’ as the movie is similar to my film opening plot as well as theme, it is very easy to compare the two film openings together.

SettingScream Pieces

Openings of horror films tend to be set in a dark and isolated place. I used this in my film to make the main character look isolated as well as the sense of being watched.

Some Horror films like ‘Scream’ also tend to be set in a house as it is a place that the character thinks is safe even though the audience knows that it is not true.

We used these two settings in our movie as we wanted the characters to look isolated and innocent ad well as not being aware that they are being watched.

Costume In an opening of a film you do not know a lot about the character and that is why style and colour is important to represent the character.

Blondes tend to die first as they are stereotyped to be dumb and an easy target, whilst brunettes tend to be seen as a strong protagonist in horror films.

We copied the colours of scream, white jumper –white scarf and top indicates innocents as well as jeans shows that she is in a comfy environment. Red t-shirt foreshadows blood lose and danger.

The villain in both ‘Scream’ and my film ‘Pieces’ both are wearing black as camouflage to the night and a mask to hide their faces. This creates more suspense as you don’t know who it is.

Props ScreamPieces

Props tend to foreshadow what is going to happen. In scream a girl gets a phone call from someone she doesn’t know, this creates tension, she ends up being watched. We made the phone call to someone that she know however we kept cutting to outside shots to keep the tension.

A knife is a traditional one as it signifies danger and protection, seeing a held knife normally foreshows someone is going to get stabbed. We added a tomato to our scene as when the knife cuts it, it looks and symbolises blood.

Titles

Both titles are of a simple text, red writing on a black back ground. We thought the simpler the text the more effective it would be. The red writing symbolises blood and danger, this also shows that this is a horror film as it is bold and stands out.

‘Scream’ has a sound of a phone ringing as it connects with the next scene, we used the sound of smashing as it connects with the scene before and after, as well as the title of the film ‘Pieces’.