Analyse the codes and conventions of horror films as shown in the openings of 'Dead Wood', 'Dead Mary' and 'Wrong Turn'.

• key:camera shots angle and movements ,sound ,editing,mise-en-scene ,codes and conventions

  Wrong turn

  In the remote forest of West Virginia, Halley Smith (Yvonne Gaudry) and Rich Stoker (Joel Harris) are rock climbing on a cliff. As Rich prepares to help Halley, she witnesses his sudden murder. Someone begins to pull Halley up the cliff so she cuts the rope and falls to the ground. Halley then attempts to escape to her car but trips over a piece of barbed wire before being pulled back into the woods, screaming, by one of the three cannibalistic mutant mountain men.
  The use of camera shots and angles consist crane shot movement to an establishing shot and then moves to a high angle on the girl to show she is below power to the male. The male’s point of view shot once reaches to the top is a long shot showing they are in total isolation then there is an extreme close up to show an intensity of danger.
  Editing of the opening consists of the times of climbing shows the great distance and how isolated they are. There was lots of cuts within a struggle of danger
  The use of sound the diegetic sounds were the sound of the leaves changing direction to the wind and birds singing to create a great presence of danger. The non-diegetic sounds were the sounds of violins creating a dramatic atmosphere and the sound on the cable snapping loudly.
  Mise-en-scene in the opening was how the girl was dressed as a teenager so the audience can relate too. There was fake blood on the dead body to shock the audience with the goriness of death. The car symbolises safety however it was too far away which happens a lot in horror movies..
  Conventions of the film are how typical the location was an isolated environment and there was a small number of people there which was also predictable for a horror movie. When the girl started running to safety she tripped. Running through trees also happens generally in horror films. Also that the friend dies during the first five minutes of the movie.
  
  

  Dead Mary

  A young woman and a group of her school friends embark on a holiday weekend at a lakeside cabin to reminisce about their college days, only to run afoul of an evil spirit.
  Camera angles and shots firstly consist of a low angle and an extreme close up of an old damaged sign. Then changes to a establishing shot of a sign that shows they are in an isolated location as the next gas station is far away. Then it changes to a low angle on the side of the car which shows possible danger lurking towards the car.
  The editing is smoothly done there is the pace between each shot it is quite slow however later on when there is a possible threat the pace becomes faster to create a fight or flight response to the audience to make the build-up more intense.
  The use of sound the diegetic at the start was a metallic creaking noise moving side to side this created a dark, cold cricked effect to the audience and the sound of the birds singing gives a sense that of nature is nearby. The sound of the radio having no signal creates an effect of loneliness and vulnerability as they are in the middle of nowhere and there is nowhere to run to for safety. The non-diegetic sound was a static noise when a figure was getting closer to the car and the noise then would get louder as he got closer building up an intense atmosphere for the audience.
  Mise-en-scene the girls clothes were showing a lot of skin which teenagers can relate to. The map and flare gun symbolises that they are alone in the middle of nowhere. The car shows that there is an escape vehicle in case anything goes wrong. The fact the male is having to get petrol for the car shows it ran out and broke down which is common in horror movies.

  
  Dead wood

  Four friends escape the grime of the city and head out into the woods for a peaceful, relaxing weekend. Events take a sinister turn when a mysterious girl appears in their camo looking for her boyfriend. Soon the nightmare begins as they find themselves lost in an endless wilderness stalked by a deadly force. As those left fight for survival they will discover the true nature of fear.
  Camera angles and shots firstly consist of a long shot establishing shot of the woods then changes to a tracking in shot of the character running from danger and then to a close up to see the fear expression on the characters face. Then it carried on with mid shot of him running from the danger and a point of view shot of him battling through the leaves.
  Editing involved included lots of have cuts between shot while the character is trying to run away from the unidentified danger. There are lots of changes from mid shots to close ups so the audience can see the facial expression the character is making to show the emotions of the character.
  Use of sound the diegetic sounds were the birds singing and the non-diegetic sound was the fast pace music creating a sense of someone is following the characters footsteps. When he got to the cliff edge the music became more intense creating an effect of the danger is getting closer and closer creating a vulnerable effect to the audience.
  Mise-en-scene of dead wood was the fake blood the male character to create a gory effect. Both character were teenagers. The male was wearing ripped clothes which the audience can relate to when running through the woods. They had a tent which is quite typical for a horror movie.
  Conventions were how it was set in an isolated location such as a forest. Running away from the danger and how the character all ways stops and waits for the danger is common in horror films.
  
  
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What are codes?

Codes are basically a chain of meanings creating an atmosphere. Codes are split into two parts – technical and symbolic.

Technical codes is how the equipment is used to help create effects to enhance the story in the style of media text. An example of this would be how the camera works in a film by adding effects to the film. The editing or the use of sound will be well put together on premier pro consisting (diegetic and non-diegetic) sounds

Symbolic codes highlights implicit meanings. Symbolic codes are seen from pieces of miss-en-scene. An for example the  way character's actions explicitly shows you how the character is expressing there feelings like the character's costume can be a peace of character we insinuate to help us understand what type of person the character is. Props have suggestions and connotations which can be put together by an audience.

codes fit both categories – non-diegetic like music and is both technical and symbolic.

What are conventions?

Conventions are the norm ways of accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.

How codes and conventions apply in media studies

Codes and conventions are used together in all genres of films – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.For example, the technical code of story is used in some way in all film genres. It is a convention of the romantic genre that there is kissing is used to create love and romance – an integral part of any romantic film
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The History Of Horror Films From 1950's

Horror films
keep you as a viewer on edge and horror films encourage emotions such as disgust and fear. They normally show scenes with supernatural activity to jump scare the audience. The first ever horror film production was in the late 1890's the most popular film was Le Manoir du diable (The house of the devil).
1930's to 1940's
At this time American universal pictures made horror films popular. This was films like Dracula and science fiction films were mixed with gothic horror films like the invisible man.
1950's to 1960's
In this times period the technology became more advanced, this ment loads of horror movies changed from gothic to genuine concerns this meant horror films then shifted into two genres such as the Armageddon film and the demonic film.

 1970's to 1980's
At the end of production in 1964 Rosemarys Bay was a success and then influenced the production of  films with occult themes for example the exorcist. The horror films then included gory horrors and with those with more sexual themes which was then classed by 'A-movies'.

1990's 
This genre of films of the 80's carried on until the early 90's. Films such as Halloween and a nightmare on elm street. By the late 90's had very good success.

2000's
By the start of the 00's this period started to settle down the Halloween genre. The second release of the exorcist in September year 2000 was very rewarding even know it was already released for people to watch it at home. Final destination then started the teen based horror and the followed with other sequences. Then films such as the Wrong turn and Cabin Fever helped bring the restricted ratings in theatres.

Introduction To Main Task

Preliminary Task Evaluation

We have created a short film based on a sixth form interview. This was including a characters such as a student and teacher. This film consisted of 12 shots throughout the entire film with the 180 degree rule, match on actions and shot reverse shot.

We did a set brief consisting of how many and the type of shots we would be including in our preliminary task this also included camera angles we would use, this helped us be more organised for recording the raw footage. Then we thought the story would be based on a sixth form interview and we started brainstorming on a A3 piece of paper. This helped us gather all of our ideas. Then we put our ideas on 12 individual shots on 12 A4 bits of paper which would further explain how each shot will be recorded and helped us plan what lines of dialog will be exchanging during each shot. Then we started our location planing which was where the shots would take place this helped us have  verisimilitude. We decided which of us would be starring of the characters of Dwayne and George based on who looks more like a teacher and who looks like a student.


The filming process started with the establishing shot.Then the character Dwayne started walking to and in a room which went very smooth with, however we struggled with the point of view angle  because when Dwayne pulls the chair and turns the door handle as we were using an iPad to record we had some difficulty trying to prevent anything else but the hand showing up in the shot. A big mistake was made when Marvin recorded one shot in portrait and another in landscape which didn't help with trying to keep verisimilitude. The last issue we had whilst recording was when recording the last line of dialogue. I had trouble saying a line that was pretty long and managed to accumulate 12 failed attempts.

I imported my raw footage into premier pro. Then i trimmed the bits of footage i don't need including video and audio. I scaled the footage to frame size. I later on used video grabby to download a song off YouTube into iTunes and imported it to premier pro and added key frames which gradually fades the volume after Dwayne walks through the door. Then rendered the whole work area and exported it then uploaded it onto YouTube and used the embed code and pasted it onto my blog.

I felt that my preliminary video was satisfactory. The strengths of my editing were the introduction as i thought the music went well with the establishing shot and how it faded away as Dwayne walked through the door. I was also pleased with the trimming i made so that the shots run smoothly together including the point of view, shot reverse shot, match on action, over the shoulder and the 190 degree shot. My weaknesses were i accidently deleted one of the point of view shot where Dwayne opens the door before i uploaded it. Another weakness was i forgot to trim my audio and let it run the full length while it was muted in the background which resulted in my video carrying on  after it has finished with no video or audio. Next time when i edit i need to double check my editing before uploading the video to prevent potential errors.

Preliminary Task : Filming Schedule

Date	Cast Involved	Location	Props/ Mise-En Scene	Equipment Needed	Health And Safety Considerations
	Sam Merrison	Outside the school building.	Paper explaining the sixth form requirements.	iPad	None
	Lewis Molloy	Upstairs corridor.	Smart/Casual clothing.
		Classroom.

                                                    

Learning To Edit With Adobe Premiere Pro

In the last two lessons of Media Studies i have learned how the following:

• I have learned how to create a new project on Premier Pro
• I have learned how to import clips and audio in the Premier Pro and not to move the files after adding them to it
• I have learned how to navigate through video by using the left and right keypad and by scrubbing
• I have learned how to move a clip into my timeline, with or without it's audio
• I have learned how to trim with the razor tool for precise cuts between shots
• I have learned how to play the video in full screen to see any errors clearly, or for video viewing purposes
• I have learned how to add video transitions and effects to my project
• I have learned how to decrease the volume (decibels) on a video
• I have learned how render a video so it is ready for exporting
• I have learned how to export my project to my desktop

Here is my test of using Premier Pro by making a short film from clips about a knock knock joke: