Representation

In our film opening Cat and I have tried to represent the teacher and psycho characters because these will be the main characters in the rest of the film. The teacher is represented in a stereotypical way with the glasses, smart attire, neat hair and make up. We have used this representation to make it easy for our audience to recognise who the character is straight away. The setting of our film opening also helped to represent the teacher because it was in a school and the surrounding props (pens pencils, books, laptop etc) also helped display this. We used the school setting because we believed it is a good place to set a horror/thriller. This is because of the long dark corridors it has and the large variety of shots you can include, which are vital for an effective horror. We also used mise en scene to represent the psycho in this film by dressing her in a white lab coat and messing her hair up. This use of mise en scene also made her stand out in the chosen setting making her seem unusual and create a feeling of uneasiness in the audience. We have strayed away from using background and surrounding characters so the attention is not taken away from the two main characters. We believe if we were to use background characters the tension would be lost because the teacher would not seem as vulnerable and alone and the psycho would not seem as intimidating and scary, so the representation of genre would be lost slightly.

By using the setting and characters that we did we believe we have constructed a good form of realism in our film opening. Nothing drastic happens (e.g a murder) so the audience have more to wait for in the rest of the film. The mise en scene is simple (the white coat for the psycho and formal attire for the teacher) so that the audience understands the storyline and the parts that the characters play in the story. The editing is also simple (fade to black) so that continuity is achieved and the element of verisimilitude is reached.

Using Technology
The use of digital technology in our film opening has enabled us to complete an effective horror. This is mainly because of the camera we used because we found it very easy to use and use to our advantage. The fact the camera is handheld made it easy for us to make the audience feel a part of what was happening because we we able to include point of view shots. But then with the use of tripods we could also make some shots steady so that the film seemed professional, the still shots may also make the audience feel uneasy which is a good feeling to create in a horror. The software, Ulead, that we used to edit our film opening was confusing to use at first but we found it easy to pick up and learn how to use. The practise we got when completing our preliminary tasks also helped us to perfect our skills for our final task. The wide variety of transitions they give you help you to test our different effects but because we wanted our editing to be simple, they did not end up being as helpful as they could have been if we were doing a different genre.


By Abbie Hawkins