Representation and Stereotyping in our Film

What is a Horror?

The horror genre has the intentions to frighten, scar or to haunt the audience by including some graphic or possibly unrealistic scenes which are shown in a believable way. Horror films often have fast-paced movement to build up tension and again, to scare the audience. There are many stereotypes and representations you would expect in a Horror which are shown below.

Clothing (mis-en-scene)

When thinking about representation and stereotypes, the costume was the main thing to consider as your appearance has a large impact on the way your character is perceived throughout the film. For Robyn (the young girl), we wanted her to have that look of innocence. For this reason, we chose to dress her in an old fashioned dress/nightie, which could represent childhood and a time-worn theme. And again the colour could symbolize innocence, purity and goodness. Although she is not initially shown as that kind of character, we want the audience to believe that and think positively; meaning that later on in the film, it will come as more of a shock and possibly scare them which realistically is the aim in a horror film.

However, the representation of our second character is different as we want the audience to believe that he is the villain. For this reason, the clothing we decided on was tracksuit bottoms with a work-style jacket and top, along with the hat. The hat, in fact, was used to make the character more discreet as we did not want to reveal his identity. Stereotypically, you would assume that the character is off the lower/working class.

Editing

In horror films you would expect to see alot of jump cuts to show uncertainty and to partially scare the audience by cutting quickly from one place to another; jump cuts can often be done at different angles to show a specific feature or area. This often makes the audience more engaged as they are awaiting a climax point to be revealed, where they can see something clearly rather than seconds of it. Jump cuts can have a negative representation on a character as for example, they could be shown at different angles and the fast-paced camera movement could signify many things such as urgency and panic which could suggest that something bad has been done.Another editing technique that you may see in a horror film would be cross-cutting, where the camera cuts between two situations that are happening simultaneously. This builds up tension as you would, again, stereotypically expect a tipping point where something bad happens. This is significant as it engages the audience and makes them want to watch on.

Conventions

- Fast-paced camera movement

- Jump Cuts

- Villain 

- Deaths

- Blood (gore)

- Eerie music/sound track

- Dramatic endings

Sound

Sound is significant in horror films as you would often expect non-diegetic sound as it builds up tension and makes it more scary for the audience. Although you would often expect to hear the eerie diegetic sounds, for example of a door creaking or someone screaming and these kind of sounds are important as they make the situation more realistic.

Location

Stereotypically, you would expect the location to be derelict, possibly in dark streets and narrow alleyways. These kind of areas have the representation of danger and characters often go there at their own risk. In many horror films you would see the typical abandoned house location or alternatively they would be in a completely isolated area where nobody knew about.

Title font research

Questionnaire results 2

Our fifth question is represented using a bar chart as it would be more difficult to read otherwise because it is not something we can show clearly through percentages. This question was based around our location and partially the timing we would do it at. The usual expectations of a horror tends to be in an abandoned house which does trigger a fright however again we thought we would choose something different and work on making it thrilling for the audience. We ended up deciding filming in an abandoned/derelict area which meant we had to consider many things  such as the weather (as it was outside) and the public.

Our sixth question was quite important as the blood was a significant focus throughout. Rather than using the normal 'fake blood', we made our own using different ingredients which meant we were able to easily change the texture and color of it ourselves. This question had four options which we thought were most likely to be the case. The highest percentages were for the blood looking realistic and seeing close ups of the wounds a fatalities. We took this into consideration and used both in our film; because of the realistic blood, we were able to do close ups of the wounds as the audience would most likely think it was real which is what we want them to do as the whole genre of horror is meant to scare the audience and haunt them.

This was our seventh question, which again we decided on, in relation to our final idea. We thought that to make it more realistic and not so highly age rated, we wanted to include a few conventions of another genre. The chart above shows how action would combine best with the horror genre. In our opening scene,we have used one convention of action which was the car and was somewhat a hit and run. To add to this, we ensured that the horror convention was to a higher level and that it would immediately scare the audience and have them on the edge of there seats; we used the idea of coming back to life which although inst very realistic, it is something which would scare the audience and make them believe otherwise.

This was our final question, which we also thought was very important as the anamatic is an important part to the build up of our film. We asked the audience to rate specific aspects of the anamatic out of 5; we thought that by doing this, we would be able to build upon our ideas and make them better in the real thing.

Questionnaire results 1

This was our first question which we decided on, as our film is a horror. Although we were already set on the mainstream horror genre idea, we though of finding out other opinions to see if we made the right decision and chose something that the audience would enjoy more. This is important as you can see on the graph, mainstream horror has the highest percentage therefore we would be more likely to attract a larger audience.

This was our second question which,again, we thought was very important as the whole thing is an 'opening' two minutes therefore it is important that we know what to open our scene with; also to ensure that what we choose is most popular, however more unique and isn't something  which you would always expect. Although we want it to be immediately recognized as a horror, we think that we can make it not so obvious but become more evident as you go along. This would show originality and could surprise the audience and change there thoughts and typical expectations.

For our third question, we decided to make it character based. We took four of the main character (types) which we thought were prominent in many horror films. our final idea was 'a young grudge like girl'. Shown in the chart above, our results showed that 'a horror based mythical creature' was more popular. To some extent I would think that a mythical creature would trigger a fright and it is fairly easy for higher level editors to use animations to perfect something like that. However we didn't feel as if it would be something we, personally, could do. We ended up deciding on a young grudge like girl,which we thought was different as you don't usually expect to see someone of a younger age in a horror film; it would usually be teenagers or adults. However,we though that a young girl would have many representations and throughout the scene, we felt like we could change this expectations and make her into something shes not.

Questionnaire

This is our questionnaire which we done to finalise our ideas and come to a conclusion of what we were going to do; we wanted our film to be accepted by the audience and we asked questions which we thought were significant and would impact on how the film planned out.

Day 2- Filming

This was our second day of filming where we had only a few more clips to take. For these shots in particular, we lowered the tripod to ensure we had a clear, stable close up shot. Although we could of used the zoom feature, we thought that is not the concept of a close up and it would be blurry. The close up shots were used in particular, to show Robyn as she awakes. Through these shots, we are able to see a clear image of her cuts and bruises and realistically how you would not expect her to wake up.




Location

Evidently, we have stayed in the same location throughout. We done this because we thought that, because it is only the opening two minutes, you typically wouldn't expect to be shown multiple locations as it could possibly confuse the audience; from moving from one place to another. Our initial idea was in the same place as we incorporated a variety of short clips which, in this case, show panic and urgency. We didn't feel the need to change location as you could realistically give the audience the impression that something else must happen and that the villain has another idea or alternatively somewhere else to go, in future events. In the shot on the bottom right, we didn't use the tripod as our plan was to get an over the shoulder shot of the man in the car, however it would have been difficult to adopt the correct,stable position and also to fit it in the car. As you can partially see, the location here is quite derelict and there aren't a lot of people or majorly busy roads. This kind of location was suitable; in relation to our horror genre it worked well. Although, there were a fair amount of times where we had people walking past and also people getting in our shots, which meant we had to re-film particular clips.

Day 1- Filming

This was our first day filming, where the aim was to get most of it done as it would be difficult to replicate the look and costume of the young girl, most importantly. Before we began, we needed to take into consideration that because of the weather the morning before, the ground was quite wet which effected our filming; in particular for Robyn who had to lie on the floor. However we managed to find an area which was not so damp and we were able to figure out how we can lay her on something without it actually being shown in the shot. We found that having the tripod, which was provided by the school, benefited us as there were many times where we had to alter the height to get the different angles as you can see in the images on here. We made use of all levels, as when Robyn was on the floor we filmed at both low and high angles to show the position of the man and also to get close ups of her face and facial expressions. The whole opening was in the same areas so it was fairly easy for us to move around a lot and capture the shots from all different angles. The images here just show us whilst preparing to film as well as actually filming the real thing.

Our film age certificate

The rating for our film is a 15. The reason for this is that although it doesn't contain a lot of violence, or strong language, the scenes are quite graphic and the story line is based on the young girl coming back to life. To a younger audience, this sort of thing would truthfully scare them, and although that is the main focus in a horror film, it is not age appropriate as the wrong idea could be given; by this I mean that they could believe that this happens in real life when typically it doesn't. Most horrors are rated 15 and fewer are rated 18. We don't feel like our film contains enough conventions that an 18 should and also we didn't plan for this as you would not captivate a larger audience if it was rated 18. For our film to be a 15, we think that we would have a large audience as a lot of people, stereo-typically, would be more interested at a younger age; for example, a teenager.

Makeup (Process of making fake blood)

As Robyn was being hit by car, realistically  you would expect to see blood which is what we done. Rather than getting the normal fake blood that you can buy, we decided to make it with specific ingredients to make it more realistic. To make this, we used red food colouring, obviously to obtain the colour of the blood. We then added deep red cocoa powder along with golden syrup and icing sugar and water to finally create that thickness that you would need. The golden syrup was used to bring it all together as well as ensuring that it was not runny and would stay on the character well enough.
Once this was done, we applied it all in specific areas of the costume. To make it more realistic, we attempted to do in a way that it would actually look and we planned to make it more messy and unplanned. For that we just used a brush to splatter the blood around the dress. To do the cuts and scars on the skin, we spent more time to make them look more realistic and applied a few layers of the blood to make them stand out and to make them more defined.

Character 2 (Costume)

This is our main character, Robyn, who is playing the young girl being hit by a car. The look of the young girl, we thought, should be more realistic. Dressing her in the white dress/nightie shows how she is innocent and the colour again denotes innocence, peace, brightness and realism. However the way it is now ripped and covered in the fake blood shows the complete opposite - once she is hit by the car. We thought that our main character should be young as it creates more of a haunting effect on the audience.
Realistically the girl, you would immediately assume, looks sweet, innocent and kind with her long curly hair however, the image we are creating for the audience is daunting and is something you would not want to see. Although, just from seeing the first half of our opening, the girl doesn't play a huge part as she is first shown lying on the floor after being hit by the car. Further on, she comes back to life to haunt the man which creates the horror which in link is what we plan to do as our genre is horror and typical conventions are for the audience to be scared and on the edge of there seats. The second image on here is the bottom half of the girl which again shows the cuts and scars she got after the car hit her. 

Most importantly, we are able to see the young girls shoes which typically denote a young school girl with the polished black colour. The mis-en-scene of the character is very important as it portrays either a positive or negative image. And there are many parts of the costume which denote different things again putting that positive or negative image into the audiences perspective. The rips on the white dress show torture and as if someone has purposely done that which further more could foreshadow what we would see throughout the whole film. These little things can foreshadow further events or alternatively, give different interpretations to the audience as it would make them think about, 'how she got there?' 'what happened?'.

Character 1 (Costume)

 This is our first character who realistically has a fairly big role. We decided on using a man for our first character as we needed an adult to drive the car and also stereotypically, a man would fit the image of drink driving more likely than anyone else. Firstly, the image of the male character, we were trying to create a careless, basic look and obviously looking quite 'rough'. Typically, someone dressed like this would be stereotyped as lazy, 'chav', careless and most likely associated with bad things, as is further shown throughout the opening when he hits the young girl for drink driving. Most importantly we decided to use a hat to keep the character hidden. Realistically, it was the idea that he was not fully shown and was not flaunted because after hitting the girl, you typically wouldn't expect the character to be shown as it could later on be revealed. The two shots that we took of the character, as you can see, are not extremely revealing as he is looking down and is not revealing his true identity.I think that this is also a common thing that you see in horror film, the antagonists are not shown and are often shown as a shadow until a specific point of the film.

Film prop - Car

This was the main prop in our film. Once we thought of the idea of using a car, primarily we needed to think about who was going to drive it because we would need an adult. The car that we have used, I think, is a good look to have in a horror. This is for the reason that it fits the image of the driver and the character using it. The idea of using a car, we thought, was quite original as although it would be considered dangerous, there was nothing that was putting anyone at risk. Also, along with this prop, we had a lot of further ideas to link it with. The car isn't used a large amount throughout the opening two minutes however, from it just being in many of  the shots and the position it was in, the audience would have a clear idea of what had actually happened.