Emily's A2 Media blog

What I have learned from my AS media coursework is that I love to experiment and play around with colour. For both my short film and the ancillary tasks of my A2 Media coursework, I have considered stirring in a psychedelic effect, perhaps taking influence from A Field In England. Here are some psychedelic and retro horror film posters that have intrigued me: I really like the face distortions in this poster - I feel like this technique could work quite well in my movie poster as the whole concept of my short film is Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple personalities). The contast between black and yellow is eye-catching, and suggests a disturbing sense of danger. Max Luscher, the colour psychologist, says this combination makes yellow the compensation for whatever the black is denying or negating. Pefect for a sacrifice, maybe?   I really like the cartoon effect applied to this poster of the Japanese horror 'Crazy Lips.' The illuminating yellow o...

Costumes are extremely important in films, especially in horror, as they add to the mise-en-scene and help create a verisimilitude affect (the appearance of being true and real.) In my opinion, I think that having verisimilitude present in a psychological horror is highly significant as this type of horror relies on realism and the human psyche to frighten and unsettle its audience. Furthermore, if a film is placed in an urban setting, like my film was, the use of modern costuming may allow viewers to identify with the characters, and consequently scare them even more as they can relate to the people that they are seeing on screen. Stereotypically, costumes in horror films are usually dark or covered in blood. However, as my film is of the psychological horror genre, it does not focus on gore and graphic violence, but instead focuses on atmosphere to exploit the viewer's fear. Along with the rest of my group, we decided that each character in our film should wear the same...

MacGuffin This is a plot device which takes the form of a goal, a desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The MacGuffin's importance to the plot is not the object itself, but the effect it has on the characters and their motivations. Alfred Hitchcock was a common user of the MacGuffin, and he coined the term back in the days of his film The 39 Steps. He explained his meaning of the term at Columbia University in 1939: "It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men on a train. One man says, 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh, that's a MacGuffin'. The first one asks, 'What's a MacGuffin?' 'Well,' the other man says, 'it's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers, ...

Camerawork, Mise en Scene, Plotline and Genre Ensure that your story is an easy plot to follow with a twist at the end - this fits in with a classic trope of horror films. As my film is of the psychological genre, a plot twist would be useful in making the short much more conventional according to its genre. Camerawork involves movements such as hand-held to give a jerky feel to the film, and tracking to give viewers the impression that the film is somewhat professional. Low angles, canted angles, and close ups would also be useful for the psychological genre as they all emphasise how characters are feeling. In particular, I am really keen in using canted angles to cause a sense of unease and disorientation for the viewer. Furthermore, I would also like to feature a continuous shot, like the one in The Shining, so that the audience and myself can reminisce a genesis of psychological horror. To make sure the mise en scene looks effective, I'll be prepared an...