The genre for our upcoming film will be Horror. We decided to work with this genre to produce our next film primarily because we are well adapted and familiar to the genre. We used horror for our last film as its main genre and have been doing much research on it recently. We are not only familiar with the technical side of it; but we also understand its codes and conventions, and its other qualities.
Codes and Conventions:
- Low-key lighting: Low-key lighting is used in horror films primarily to give the sense of darkness. People usually associate darkness with danger, mystery, and suspense. Having audiences with these mindsets provide for a perfect reason to use low-key lighting.
- Quick Flashing Shots: Quick flashing shots actually are very often used in horror movies for a few reasons. First off, they provide the viewer with only a few seconds of gore and blood, leaving them with only their mind to fill in the rest of what they had seen. By doing so, their minds will usually over-exaggerate the imagery and leave the audience with quite the strong picture. Another effect these shots and cuts have are to quicken the pace of a film and have the viewer feeling on edge at all times.
- Family Houses: Family houses are used a lot for the primary setting in horror movies. The reason for this is that families can make the viewer relate to the movie by showcasing a realistic family and scenario. By having the viewer relate to what they see on screen, it makes the experience and imagery all the more realistic.
Representation: For the representation of horror films, the biggest group stereotyped are age groups.
Age – Age plays a big role in horror films. Specifically younger characters are used in these movie genres. Younger characters are used quite often in films such as insidious mostly because of the fact that they seem vulnerable and weaker. Having established this connection between the onset character and the audience makes the viewer feel empathy towards them.
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