Screenplay Draft 2

Screenplay Draft 1

Ideology

An ideology is a set of ideas that constitute ones goals, actions, and expectations. There is no set dominant ideology for short films; however there are dominant ideologies that are withheld for feature films that follow the horror genre. When creating our film we will be attempting to appeal to our audience’s dominant ideology of horror films whilst also attempting to create our own ideology for short films, this will allow us to easily establish that our film is categorized as a horror as it will follow the general consensus of feature horror films.

As our target audience is primarily teens and young adults, the film we are creating will need to fit the expectations that our focus group want, one of the features that our focus group mentioned that they liked about horror films was being able to relate to the characters of the film, we feel we will be able to fit this ideology by using actors that are around the same age group as our focus group, helping to fulfil this expectation for our focus group.

Short Horror Films Codes and Conventions

Here is a Prezi which sums up all of our codes and conventions for short films from Blackboxtv each section in the Prezi has an example of how it can be used in an existing short film and how we could potentially learn from this and use it in our production.

The Strangers Poster Codes and Conventions

Here is some codes and conventions research into the Strangers film poster. I have discussed why the codes and conventions have been used and to what effect they give the viewer and to how they relay to the theme and tone of the actual film. From this poster I believe we would be able to take certain things from this existing poster, in the sense that I think the minimalistic style will help to convey the tone and atmosphere of our own film, as well as this the use of one image I find that it helps to add mystic around the film as well as keeping the poster looking professional and effective in it’s use.

Audience and Representation Theory

This post was a joint effort between myself and also another group member, it summarises Audience and representation theory and says how we can apply this theory.

Short Film Research - Virus

 

Whilst watching 'Virus' the expanse of space surrounding the protagonist made his vulnerability and isolation apparent. It seems that this is a common convention of short horror films, using a big expanse of space to dwarf a victim not only makes an eerie tension in the film but also creates an atomosphere with the viewer. I also noticed a lack of dialogue throughout the film which helped with building a tension, this is because the audience cannot make a connection with the protagonist due to there being no speach or call for help. However, as the audience we know that something will happen due to the focus being directly on one person and the knowledge that we're watching a horror film. The concept of lonliness and silence is further emphasized by the phone line being disconnected which completely isolates him from the outside world or any means of help. This is a common code of short films which increases the tension and atmosphere throughout the clip.