AH Evaluation: 1) Forms & Conventions

When we first chose to create a horror opening, our group decided to use some typical conventions of horror openings.
This was because:

• We wanted to keep our opening as close to the horror genre as possible and so we wanted to use props, locations and other iconography with which the audience would associate with the horror genre.
  

I researched some films of the horror genre to find what the conventional techniques are used in horror openings. The films I looked at were:

1. "28 Days Later" (Boyle, 2002)



2. "Halloween" (Carpenter, 1978)



3. "Cloverfield" (Reeves, 2008)



4. "Dawn of the Dead" (Snyder, 2004)

In addition, I was able to see that horror openings were typically used to set the mood for the rest of the film by starting in a high tempo way with a significant amount of iconography to create fear and horror from the out-set of the film.

This was a typical convention we were inspired by as our opening begins with a quick pace and a sense of fear and suspense.

Looking back now at our initial research, it is clear to see where we took our inspiration from for our opening in terms of the conventions we used.

• In our opening we eventually decided to make it part continuity and part montage edited with titles shown as part of the montage.



• We found that montages were often used for horror openings and when comparing real film openings, it is clear to see the inspiration we took form films such a "Se7en" and "Dawn of the Dead".



• Our opening is also similar to real openings in terms of sound.



• We used a very suspenseful track which continually builds up to add suspense which is a typical convention used in real openings since sound is vital for films, particularly horror.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Mise-en-scene consists of a few typical conventions which we also used during our opening.

• Firstly, as our location we used woods and a dark hut for the whole opening. This would typically be associated with horror films, in particular the woods.



• Following on from this, lighting was another convention we stuck to.



• The majority of horror films attempt to use common fears to make the film more horrific for the audience and darkness is a particular convention used to do so.



• We used a significant amount of darkness for our opening and set it at night to give it the typical horror atmosphere.
  
  
  
  
  
  

As for challenging the typical conventions of the horror genre:

• We did not use a stock character which would be associated with horror.



• Through research of films such as "Halloween", it became clear that the main stock character for horror films were usually female, probably to make the character seem vulnerable.



• Whereas in our film we used a male character which shows we did challenge some conventions of horror films.



• Furthermore, we also challenged the conventions of horror by having a mixture of continuity editing and montage editing.



• Typically, either one or the other is used in horror and character exposition is also used occasionally.



• Instead, we broke with the conventions and went for a mixture so that we could reveal part of the storyline, but also keep the sense of the unknown and keeping the audience guessing at what exactly is happening.
  
  
  
  
  
  

On the whole, during our opening we mainly stuck with the typical horror conventions and we only challenged a couple such as the editing and stock character. This was because we wanted to create a typical suspenseful and exciting horror opening which would not have been possible if we had challenged the majority of the typical conventions found in horror films.