In our film opening we used the genre of horror and the sub genre of slasher. Within this genre following conventions is important, I feel we followed conventions quite closer, for example, the narrative theory. However we also drifted from the conventions also, for example, we used a woman as the protagonist. We also chose the genre of horror for our film opening as the conventions deemed easier to follow as opposed to other genres, e.g. comedy.
Concerning the genre of our film, as I have already listed, we followed the convention of using the narrative theory of Todorov. By using this theory it entitled us in creating an equilibrium, a disruption to the equilibrium, a recognition of the disruption, a disequilibrium and a new equilibrium. Due to our opening being short, to display that we were using this theory we used a flash forward a minute or so into the opening. Doing this allowed us to show the audience that there was an equilibrium and a disequilibrium as in the flash forward we showed the main character, Riley, to be alone and afraid, we also showed the doll who seemed creepy and could be connoted to be evil.
We also followed conventions of horror to express our genre by the use of mise-en-scene. We ensured to film our flash forward when the scary part of the opening was happening in the dark. With the camera this came out in a night vision mode which emphasised it was night. Also at the beginning of our opening it was raining which acts as a pathetic fallacy of sadness, which can relate to fear, this also quickly fore shadows the tears then seen on Riley's face when she is fearing for her life when the flash forward is taking place. Lastly in the terms of mise-en-scene we used the setting of a park which was isolated as behind the park all that can be seen is a forest, this connotes to the idea of isolation which can be related to the idea of no escape. The ouse of the forest also creates more of an eerie, creepy feel to the opening.
In the genre of horror, conventionally, men are usually the protagonist and the survivor, this is due to the dominant ideology that they are masculine, strong and tough. However in our film opening we decided to use the woman as the protagonist, however giving her partial traits to a man. To emphasise this we even went as far as researching meanings of names for our characters, thus giving us the name Riley, meaning courageous. This is enforced when she is seen alone in the park, being connoted to be the last one standing. Although this did not follow conventions, Stephen Neal notes "Difference is absolutely essential in the economy of genre". The reason we did this was because we liked the idea of a female protagonist, however if I was to do this task again, just to follow the conventions of horror closer, I would make the protagonist a man.
Lastly, to get the biggest audience available for our genre, we researched the figures for which age is the biggest group of movie goers for horror. In our research we found that our biggest audience was among 15-20+, this then became our target audience. To enforce our film upon our target audience we made the classification of our film a 15, this making it view able for the younger end of our target audience. Also to engage and attract the target audience of out genre we used characters which were within the age range of our target audience (16-17), we did this because it made the characters seem more relatable therefore may appeal to the audience more so. We expressed their age through action, for example, making them get drunk in park, this shows their youth as it can be connoted as they are not old enough to go out and drink legally. We also created characters with individual personalities as this therefore meant that within our list of characters there would be at least one person the audience could relate to, which again engages them in the film.
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