M1 & D1: Codes and Conventions of Horror/comedy films and how they create meaning ****Explain after rushes how conventions have been met

Before my research into horror/comedy short films, I studied 3 short films: About a Girl, Finley, The Detective. The films are completely different styles but are of the same genre to help influence my own short film. I decided to make my short film based on my knowledge of horror and comedy and learned what shot types and angles i could use as a convention of my short film.

We used our spare rooms in college such as the lecture theatre and used different corridors as our short film was based around some friends creating a Halloween costume.

In cinematography of a horror there are close-ups, which can be used to capture emotions. As well as this, long shots to capture details of sets and temporal space. 

Also, i have researched the 180 degree rule, which is a convention of horror films in conversation scenes. The 180 degree rules states that the line of action is through the center of the action and the camera should not cross the line as it may cause confusion and disorientation for the spectator.

Here is a demonstration of how the 180 degree rule works. This convention can be seen in my short film when Alice asks Noah if he's alright after the hallucination scene. I had 2 cameras that I was able to use to follow the codes and conventions and keep the cameras behind the 180 degree line so that the spectators don't become confused or disorientated. 

Here are my rushes:

Throughout the production process I wanted to include many aspects of mise-en-scene and cinematography. I did this so that I could denote and connote different meanings to create my preferred meaning. Using school props such as pens, paper and also location like a classroom are really helpful in character development as it connotes young characters in the school even if the actors are older than school age. I also used costumes that are simple and modern that students would wear to further connote the school setting. 

The close up of Alice on the Lecture Theatre seats denotes Alice as being more powerful in the situation as well as using her body language, although we later find out Alice is taken out by the masked killer first. We intentionally positioned Alice to look away from the killer to indicate that she doesnt have any suspicions. 

I followed the Todorov's narrative theory however my film follows the typically structure of a horror short film from disappearances, murders, unnatural characters and special effects. The main character is meant to be unknown and create fear and ensures the audience is following along and trying to solve the story themselves, before the killer identifies himself in Isaacs body after various hints amongst the film.

Firstly, the film opens with an action scene of a young girl running away from a dangerous killer in some woods. After the killer catches his target, the scene cuts to the future where there are some friends sat in a lecture hall talking about their Halloween plans. There are a few references to the 'mid-autumn murders' however the link to thew story is through mask designing as one of the students 'unintentionally' created the same design mask. We used mask designing as the link to Halloween as it signifies that the event is coming up and it also links to the autumn theme. I used mise-en-scene to recreate a lecture hall setting using lighting, props, costume etc. We also used school technologies like laptops and tablets to connote being in a lesson or students studying together. Wed did this because it is effective in establishing young characters because a school is associated with children.  I used a fisheye lens to connote fear and weakness when Noah begins hallucinating seeing people walking in the hallway with the killers mask on. We used this lens because it is effective at showing a large amount of the frame and getting very close to the characters to really capture their fear shown.

By following Todorov's narrative theory my film follows 5 steps which are:

- Equilibrium - (the college friends are introduced to the audience)

- Disequilibrium - (the characters discuss the mis-autumn murders and Isaac has designed the same mask as the murderer)

- Recognition - (Alice and Noah say it's strange and are creeped out by the experience and Alice goes to the printer) 

- Action - (Noah begins hallucinating and sees a teacher in the same mask as the murderer) 

- Restoration of new equilibrium - (Noah is killed and the murderer is revealed as Isaac.)

It could be argued that my film goes against Todorov's narrative structure because my film doesn't have a definite ending as it leaves the audience with questions with what happened to Noah and Alice or what the reasons are for the actions by Isaac. 

The purpose of my film was to entertain the audience and create a funny and scary horror/comedy. My film is fit for an audience of 12A as there are no uses of language and no graphic scenes such as aggression and blood.      

Other theories can be applied to my short film such as Rick Altman's generic pleasures theory from 1999 or Steve Neale's repetition and difference theory from 1980. Alman's theory states that the genre of a media product will have different pleasures to entertain the audience through familiarity of how they respond to them. As my short film is a horror comedy, my film can be argued that it creates intellectual pleasures and visceral pleasures when revealing Isaac as both a past and present murderer to the audiences. Neale's repetition and difference theory states that genres contain instances of repetition and difference. Therefore, the difference is vital to genres. My film is a horror comedy that was inspired by similar horror comedy films such as chucky.