Example Creative Project Analysis as Film Studies Essay

In my storyboard I started with normal diegetic sound to create the normal, realistic atmosphere of sounds such as gates creaking and the wind blowing. This is so the audience is aware of the surroundings, considering no establishing shot was used prior to this to show the setting also generates a dark and mysterious atmosphere to begin with, leaving it to the audience’s imagination to guess what is going to happen as no hints to the genre have even been made yet. Then we have non-diegetic sound as music influenced by the beat from Jaws starts to play. This makes the audience feel uneasy and unusual as they realise something bad may happen because of the sinister music. I was conscious of the significant use of music to create atmosphere within the horror genre and therefore wanted the soundtrack to emphasise the tension on screen. The music gets louder and louder as the attacker gets closer to the victim to emphasise the fact that there is danger ahead and something bad is clearly about to happen. The music stops just before the murder as the girl screams as it is inevitable now that the girl is going to die, it builds up tension more and pulls you into a false sense of security. At the end the only sound we hear is the diegetic sound of the attacker laughing, this is so all the focus is on her and shows she has no guilt over what she has done, leaving the audience wondering about the character so it keeps it interesting and intriguing for them to watch. Costume is used in this storyboard to show normalcy. The attacker is dressed like a normal teenage girl so the audience can somehow relate to her as well as the other character and to suggest she is just another typical modern girl, which is why it is a shock to the audience when she kills the other girl and impacts so greatly. The killer in this film is also a female because they are usually seen to be damsels in distress that need saving so you’d never expect her to kill someone, which is another way I have attempted to make the film be original and shock the audience. Women serial killers may not be as strong as a male would be but they have a bigger impact on the victims and on the audience watching, the influence for this idea comes from films such as Friday The 13th, Audition and Phenomena. The props in this storyboard are also significant, especially the use of the knife in the picture when the attacker is at the door. The use of the knife is taken from the 1996 slasher/horror film scream which greatly influenced the film and how the killing took place, this is to help when marketing to a specific target audience and so the audience can have something to compare the film too without it being too over-predictable. In picture 10, the girl is being killed and has a teddy bear in her hand; this is to imply she is young, innocent and vulnerable and also shows that she is just a normal child in the comfort of her own home and was not expecting anything like that to happen, which is an effective contrast to when she is being stabbed. The lighting used was very dim and minimal throughout as it was shot at night so the killer could hide in the shadows effectively to make her seem mysterious at first and to make the audience wonder about her. This is to play on the audience’s natural fear of the dark and shadows, which is a usual characteristic of the genre and is seen in many other horror films. The main camera shots used where over the shoulder shots and point of view shots from the killer itself, this is so the audience can actually identify with the killer and the audience will drive pleasure from the actions of the killer because if the audience is there to see a horror film they expect there to be deaths and blood as it is typical of the genre itself to play on natural human fears. During the attack there is rapid use of camera movement such as a zoom used to intensify the stabbing action and to put it in clear perspective for the audience. The extreme close up at the end is also used to emphasise on the psychotic glare of the killer as she laughs and is meant to unnerve the audience. In my creative sequence I wanted to use micro features in keeping with the horror genre in order to create audience response. My choice of sound, mise en scene and cinematography was done so to maximise the effect of my chosen scene and to effectively make a different type of horror film with an addition of originality and an addition of normal generic conventions, overall I think it was successful.