Author: Isabella Garcia

The opening scene sets off the bases of the film as the family is exiled from their Puritan community. Thomasin seems affected by the situation whereas the family follows the father who gladly left the lot. This is shown through mise-en-scène, cinematography, and sound. Mise-en-scène is portrayed through costuming, setting, decor, makeup, and hairstyle. The setting is set in the 1600s located in a puritan community and every individual is dressed in formal attire of wide brimmed hats, aprons, long loose dresses, coats, and shoes. Every female in the community has their hair neatly tucked into their  bonnets and males had long hair and some had rugged beards along with makeup being all natural. The decor is placed in a court room where it holds masses of people with a family standing on trial. Cinematography shows close up shots, group shots, over-the-shoulder shot, medium shot, point of view shot, and a long shot. The close up shots show the worried look Thomasin has along with her brother and the confused children hugging their mother’s leg. The group shots show the puritan community looking down upon the family standing on trial and how serious they are about it. The over-the-shoulder shots look over the father and his dealing with the council of the court and a medium shot that shows the serious expressions the three councilmen have for the family they are bestowing upon which indicates a bad outcome. A point of view shot is shown through Thomasin’s view as she takes one last look of her home as she says goodbye, frightened of what is gonna happen next. Then a long shot is taken of the family slowly trailing away from the life they once had. Sound is portrayed by the use of dialogue between the father and the head of the councilmen going back and forth over they’re exile and how religion plays a big part in this community. The lighting is very low key with minimal lighting illuminating against their porcelain skin.

The opening scene shows the abduction of a fellow man minding his own business which creates the mood of suspense and curiosity as to what makes this scene important and where would this lead the movie into. This is portrayed through the use of mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. Mise-en-scène is shown through costuming, makeup, hairstyle, props, and setting. The setting is located is a suburban area where it is night time and empty. The costuming showed the man dressed in a brown coat, blue shirt, and overall a casual attire with a bearded face and neat hair whereas the kidnapper is dressed in all black and a mask covering his face. The props include a phone to which the man tries to look casual and calm along with a gun to which the kidnapper uses to threaten the man with and then choke holds him. Cinematography includes over-the-shoulder shot, long shot, dolly in/out, and a close up shot. The over-the-shoulder shot shows a car heading towards the mans way and then another shot where the man looks at the car stopping next to him. The long shot shows the struggle between the kidnapper and the victim, but the victims looses to a power grip. Then it shows the kidnapper dumping the body into the truck where it is very dark at night and no one is outside. There was a dolly in following the kidnapper to where he is about to dump the body into a truck and a dolly out where the man is walking forward and the camera moves back. Then there was a brief close up shot where it shows the man looking at his surroundings in the midst of the night. The editing shows log duration shots of the man walking and stopping, observing his whereabouts and sound is portrayed by the use of dialogue and silence. The man mumbles to himself about trying not to get abducted and how he tries to be calm about the situation and also the struggle sounds appear evident.

The film opens up to a female sprinting out of her house as if someone is chasing her, but the camera frame stays centered and focus on her and not showing what she is looking at. The mood of the opening is a feeling of curiosity and suspenseful through the use of mise-en-scène, editing, cinematography, and sound. Mise-en-scène is shown by costuming, props/decor, makeup, hairstyle, and setting because the female in the scene was wearing an all white pajama set with red high heels with simplistic hair and makeup.  The props are the car which she drove to get away from someone or something, a phone where she calls her dad telling him how much she loves him indicates something is gonna happen to her. Then in the end there was blood dripping from her fractured legs. The setting is located in a suburban area which then cuts to the beach where she is killed brutally. In the suburban area, her local neighbors asked if she was okay which means they do not see what she sees and that leads to more curiosity and suspense. Cinematography is shown through establishing shot, pan shot, tracking shots, dolly in, over-the-shoulder shot, long shot, and close up shot. The establishing shot and pan shot shows the suburban area the woman is located in and the change of setting to where she rests at a beach. The tracking shots follow the female wherever she runs keeping a closed frame and not showing what she is looking at. The dolly in shot shows suspense as if the camera is the supernatural being chasing after her. The over-the-shoulder shot is seen when the woman is speeding off on the highway and keeps looking over her shoulder trying to see if anything is chasing her which creates paranoia. The long shot shows the overview of the setting change and the fear the woman is feeling. The woman is huddle together, calling her father that indicates the set of anxiety to what is about to happen and then cuts to a long shot of her car and the woods area and the way she reacted is as if the supernatural being found her. The editing is portrayed through the use of cuts and long takes of the female driving off then abruptly cuts to a beach. Sound is shown through the use of dialogue as she calls her father telling him how much she loves him and that indicates her final moment talking to her loved ones. The lighting is dimmed then turns to low-key as the day transitions to night and the only light is the car beams and cloudy sky that resembles a bad omen and has a blue color scheme. This all contributes to the unsettling feeling the scene is portraying and sets the basis of the film due to an unknown figure going after the female character and she tries to escape, but meets death in an unfortunate way.

Hi. My name is Isabella Garcia and the movie I aspire to create is a horror genre film and I want to be able to create it in a way that leaves the audience in a trance to what is happening before their very own eyes. The audience is to figure out the puzzle or include their interpretations of the film.

The basic conventions of my movie will include a theme of paranoia and suspense. To pull this off, I will have a naive girl in the film opening that is the first to die off. She will be dressed in minimal casual clothing because in the horror genre females are always addressed by their sexual appeal and in most cases, an attractive female or couple will be the first to die off by the antagonist in the film opening.  The style of the film will be psychological horror and insanity is the concept because the characters will be crazed by their mind. The

Most horror film openings include one or several deaths by a deluded psycho killer or a supernatural being. The first death is located in an isolated area where nobody else will hear the screams and it has low-key lighting to create a suspenseful mood. In the opening of Friday the 13th, the first deaths were a couple who went out to have intimacy in a shed away from the campfire. The antagonist stalks them until they are vulnerable and strikes head on killing the male then the female as her screams echo onto the next scene. An opening sequence creates the feeling of suspense by not showing the antagonist and having a murder set off the chain reaction.  The film opening can show deaths, the antagonist, and what the movie will consist of. The opening of Scream consists of a naive female who is home alone when she gets a phone call. The female answers the phone and it’s the killer in which she goes head to head with him on a chase which eventually ends in death.

Antagonist is watching the vulnerable couple

The male is killed after he confronts the killer

The female is last to be killed and her screams echo onto the next scene

Friday the 13th (1980) film opening

The female is on the phone with the antagonist, but doesn’t know his intentions just yet

Once the antagonist is saying alerting her fear and sense, she starts to get paranoid and watch her surroundings

The female has had enough psychological torment and wails to the killer to leave her alone

Scream (1996) film opening

The settings in the horror genre includes an isolated area that prevents any sort of rescue from helping the characters. It can be shot at an old house/abandoned buildings, the woods, a camp site, cemeteries, amusement parks, dorms, towns, asylums, hotels/motels, and the list continues.

A cabin in the woods

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

An isolated campsite

Friday the 13th (1980)

zombie infested amusement park

Zombieland (2009)

The intended audience for my film is those who are intrigued by the love of horror and are interested by my film synopsis. Those individuals will be able to boast about my film and be able to critique it drawing in an audience. Their movie going habits who be seeing the film on opening or premier day and who are able to see it whenever they are free while the movie is still in theaters. I will draw in the audience by showing a suspenseful trailer that does not too much or too little, but just enough to create a scare and curiosity. There will be challenges or hashtags that would be showcased to a mass of individuals and have them be intrigued to why it is trending.

The title of films in my genre are showcased in huge and bold lettering. They are coated in the exact color scheme as the film poster and the lettering is in times new roman font, thick outline, and capital not lowercase. The information needed in the titles is the name of the film, an appealing or haunting image and for additional uses a luring quote. The title of the film correlates with the synopsis of the movie and the poster goes hand in hand with it.

Bold and capital letters along with the audience seeing the word Devil being spelled. The image shows two characters with latin spelling surrounding them and the haunting quote, “You haven’t seen true evil”

The appealing image is a couple getting intimate in a tight space.  The color of the title goes with the blue color scheme.

The typical social group represented in the horror genre are the females and males. The females can either be a skeptic or sexualized because in the world of horror the sexualized females are the ones who run off with a male to be intimate and die off whereas the skeptic female is the strong lead and she goes head to head with the killer. The males mostly give off sex appeal with their physique or they can be inputted to offer comedic relief. They handle the heavy lifting duty which is beating up the killer or saving the female in a crisis. The females can be stereotyped by being a dense blonde, the virgin, defenseless victim, the final girl, or the surprise killer. The males can be the jock, a friend or the antagonist.

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

the jock, the book smart, the blonde, the fool, and the virgin