We showed the students a clip from Saw IV which features a popular trap that occurs throughout the whole series.
For the focus group we asked three students to kindly cooperate as we asked them simple questions about the clip they had just watched. The group and i got detailed questions from each individual person, and we made sure each spoke equally.
Abdulla got an image off the internet and asked what each student thought about it. One of them (Ellie) really liked the picture and thought it looked really interesting, Another thought he could pull it off better than the actual person in the image, and the last one (Alex) turned away saying it was horrifying, which was surprising since it was coming from a boys point of view.
The focus group gave us similar answers to the questionnaire we sent around the college, but a few of them were a lot more detailed. An example of one detailed answer was about the music and how they never even noticed the music in the background which gave us the image that it didn't really do anything to them during the film but for our opening we will make sure it is heard so that it actually gives them scary vibes throughout. Another example was the special affects and how they said the blood and everything else gave them the same affect as the music stating that it did not affect them. Our special effects will not be over exaggerated so that we wont make the viewer become bored of it.
Gender is usually seen as being stereotypically presented which can mean that women are being presented through media as "objects" mainly sexually and emotionally orientated. Throughout, they are presented to be beautiful and much more emotional compared to men who are stereotypically seen as being more tough and less emotional. They can be represented as part of a group such as a group of friends or a family, tending to work and think part of a team, taking the role of a helper and that they are generally never a leader.
Men are usually the heroes in typical media forms, they incline to taking on the active roles whereas women manage to take on the passive roles. This is telling us that there is a definite lack of female role models compared to the amount of male role models. We occasionally know what types of relationships men have with the characters, as their roles are made out to be a lot more active, allowing us to focus on their actions even more.
Visibility has always been an issue when it comes to thinking about gender representations. About 20 years ago the visibility of men to women in media was 2:1. This proving that males are much more dominant within. Women on the other hand can be seen as sexual objects as mentioned before. Often, we are presented with women either nude or wearing revealing clothes whereas men are never seen nude. This showing the difference specific male and female reps.
Referring to the paragraph above, the presentation of female visibility in horror films is different compared to other media forms. The main female protagonists can turn into the final girl and are therefore present throughout, until the end of the film. The visibility of women in horrors remain quite low as more often than not. Where they are alone and not working as groups which they often do.
Lastly age can affect the presentation of women. We always see all variety of males: age, class and race, whereas we only usually see young females of white race, who are considered to be young, pretty and sexy, in other words dumb blondes.
Throughout the scene, the use of editing and camera shots show the tension and frustration allowing them to build up quickly. Many shots are used throughout the scene, with some being quick and short, showing how there is something intense happening up until the girl kills her attacker and al the blood is all over her. That is when the shots become more longer and a lot slower. This emphasises the scare that the character is experiencing.
This image shows a quick close up during the time of the girl being attacked and how the attacker has just missed her head. It emphasises her emotions telling us that she is scared as she had a jump scare partially due to the killer jumping out from behind her.
The killer is shown dragging the girl from a low angle shot; This is used to depict the lack of power available at the hands of the audience. However, as the girl is taken from a high point and dragged to a lower point it is clear that Mia (the girl) is swiftly decreased of power.
Here the use of eye level shots that lies on the ground with the character illustrating the former stated point that the audience have lost the power that they had during thee start of the movie. The quick cuts associated with the low key lighting generates the cynical and pessimistic atmosphere that the genre of the movie has promised to offer.
One way of structuring a films narrative is by using the Todorovs equilibrium theory. By using this method, a film is split up into four sections:
Beginning/Expostion - This gives us the introduction to the story and the situation that is present.
In this case, the characters is haunted by demons
Complication - The situation from the beginning of the movie is disrupted
The protagonists find out about the demons, and attempt to solve the problem
Climax- The turning point in the film
In the case of The Conjuring, the family and the priest perform an exorcism and thus removing the demons and evil spirits from ones body and house.
As said before, demons are ridden from the body of the character. Therefor resolving the problems that occurred throughout the film. There are three stages of possession- Infestation, Oppression, and Possession.
The opening of conjuring is in black and white like most horror films are because it gives this old, dull look which also creates this scary atmosphere. Also, it gives the audience an impression of mysterious things happening. The black represents darkness and death however the white can represent pure innocence in which this makes the audience unsure on what to expect.
A newspaper effect is used frequently in the sequence which highlights realism. This is because when people read the newspaper, they tend to read it to find out what is happening and believe what is said. This can represent realism in the film to real life scenarios making the atmosphere a lot more intense.
In the movie title there is a long shot with a house in it, trees, and a rope in the top left hand corner. This is made to make viewers think that it instantly has something to do with a death due to the rope and the way it is positioned, usually this would be associated with suicide and refer to someone who is depressed and unhappy. This sing piece of rope could also link to the one house that is isolated in the background in which this could highlight loneliness which the audience could also believe to link to the main.
Furthermore, the people who are seen in the title sequence are mostly dressed in an old fashioned styled clothing line and the gender and age range is mixed (as shown below). The way they look suggests that the town/area has stayed the same for a long time, and what has been happening has been going on for a while.
The viewer gets this idea from the way things are positioned throughout the sequence. It can give off a sense of secretiveness and make the audience feel tired about whats happening around them. The background music in the sequence is typically a deep tone which includes wind chimes, birds and trees rustling. These usually represent the night time as the sounds are what you would expect to hear when its dark out and extremely windy, also making it more realistic for the audience to feel the intensity.
Referring to mise en scene, it is usually set in abandoned areas where no help is available for the characters and also there is no chance of running away. There is thunder and rain used to increase the idea of downgraded cliche isolation. Props are typical weapons and antiques. Portraits are big props mostly used to invent a sinister mood.
Colours used are usually red and/or black. Red mostly represents blood, and black represents darkness or danger. Lighting is regularly used in horror films to give the effect that something terrifying is going to happen, for example, when the lights starts flickering and you see shadows all over the place, this causes the audience to feel nervous. Lighting can also be used to create a personality of a character by casting shadows across their faces to make them look sinister minded or to get a different personality from that same character.
In horror movies, costumes can vary because they have stereo typical characters which are differently dressed, for example, if it was a blonde girl they would be wearing revealing clothes and as for jocks, they would wear their baseball jackets plus matching trousers with their school logo on it showing that they are part of the team.
Audio is the most important part of a horror movie, or any movie in general especially when editing. Using exaggerated sound allows tension to be created and build up suspense in the film. When the audio is fast and loud thats when you know something is coming closer to you or in other words towards the screen, this sound can help make the audience feel scared and jump out of their place (not literally).
As shown from the clip above, when there is music input the scene becomes more traumatising to the viewer than it would have been in vice versa. This therefore allows the audience to feel the horror taking place in the scene. When there is a high-pitch sound in a horror movie, thats when you know that they use such audio to irritate the ears and make the audience feel uncomfortable about whats happening. This therefore keeps the tension ongoing throughout every scene.
Horror films usually insist of stereotypes which include, the jock, the attention seeker, the scholar, the good girl and the dumb guy. These characters usually play a huge impact on their film roles, this is because they develop a storyline throughout. The jock who is known as the 'bad boy' is normally an over confident character who believes he would be able to take out the monster/killer within the movie. He is usually killed because he decides to go after the killer while 'releasing body fluids'. Then we have the blonde, usually a character who isn't the brightest spark in the box and typically dies wandering off to investigate alone. Finally we have the 'good girl' who tends to be against things such as alcohol and sex, and is always the one who ends up staying alive.
