Question 2

I looked into some clips from films in our sub genre to assess how they use representation of social groups, to further their plot. This was to see how they could influence my own choices when devising my own clip. I focussed on films that used females, noting that female characters in horror movies are often stereotyped as weak and vulnerable

[The Shining]

In this clip of "The Shining", the female character is recognised as the victim. fitting the common conventions of horrors in general. The female character is portrayed as helpless and weak. This representation is shown through the character facial expression (mise en scene), and frequently through the characters petrified screams. The female character is also portrayed as potential unstable (mentally), her facial expression, particularly her eyes, evidencing this representation.

The male character on the other hand, is represented as aggressive and violent, a trait and stereotype that is commonly accepted as "masculine". The male character is given a lot of screen time showing him being aggressive and sadistic, encouraging the audience to focus on this aspect of the character, as opposed to the female character who has a split second of assertiveness.

This clip focusses more on following stereotypes of gender, and uses these stereotypes to develop both the characters and the story. Sadly, because they follow the stereotypes of gender, it makes the film as a whole someone predictable at times

[The Ring]

In this sequence, the only character that is present is the female victim. Initially, the most effective technical aspects that set the female as the victim, are the uses of sound (or lack thereof) and camerawork. CS are the common shots we see used to focus on the agitation and anxiety of the character, but the combined use of silence and LS isolates the character, and sets them in a hopeless state and helpless position.

This shot uses a high angle shot, to set the character in a vulnerable position. It is a very conventional technique to use, but is still very much effective.

The sequence of "The Ring" follows the stereotypes of gender, by having the female character portrayed as helpless and weak. The character is portrayed as innocent in some respect, again supporting the ideology of how women 'should' behave, demonstrated by the belittling camera angles.

We chose a female character to be our victim, in order to fit the general conventions of our sub-genre. Bedclothes were selected for her costume to highlight the characters vulnerability. The comfort of bedclothes juxtaposes the anxious atmosphere we intend to develop in our piece. The storyline sets the character in isolation, further emphasising the characters vulnerability. The basic jist of what we were aiming to achieve in terms of social group representation, is the show the female character as vulnerable, not necessarily weak, but hopeless. The choice of actor was solely based on this. We realised that psychological horrors tend to involve a female protagonist, and have a tendency to open with a female character as a victim, primarily because society would view them as the weaker and more vulnerable of the two genders. The female character is more suitable particularly for our piece because we are limited in time to develop the character, so using a female character allow the assumptions of female characters to immediately take precedence in our own character.

According to Wikipedia (believe it or not, it comes in handy sometimes), Psychological horrors rely on the fears and emotional instability of the main character to further the plot and essentially, develop the story. Our storyline reflects this, as we focus on the fears and anxiety of the female protagonist. However, whilst doing this, we focus on manipulating the audience’s expectations to further the plot. We have been led to understand that vulnerability and defenselessness. Because of this, we decided that the victim in our opening scene would be female. This choice was also influenced by watching the opening sequence of “The Ring”. I understand I have mentioned this clip various times already, but that is simply to emphasize the influence it had while we were constructing our piece. We understood that we were working within a pretty tight time limit, so in order to create the atmosphere and effect we were aiming for we would have to rely on the audience’s ability to stereotype characters and develop expectations of them. It is also notable, that a lot of times when horror movies are viewed, the audience will attempt to anticipate the following occurrences, making assumptions that are usually based on stereotypes. It is these stereotypes and expectations of the ‘weak and defenseless female’ that will create an anxious atmosphere, upon which we will develop our story