Unit 10 Film Production 1

The Shining Horror films have plenty of things that are typical of the genre. A typical convention of the horror genre is a supernatural element. Paranormal activity is a film with lots of supernatural elements to it. The Shining is a horror film that fits into many conventions of the horror genre. For example, the location. The film takes place in a remote location - an empty hotel. Fear and suspense are created through the use of a hotel, as the large winding corridors leave the audience unaware of what’s around the next corner. The hotel is atop an icy mountain adding to the sense of loneliness and fear that the film instills in its audience. This suggests that the characters are cut off from society, further enforcing the sense of fear. One thing to note about horror movies, particularly the ‘slasher’ sub-genre, is how they utilise the idea of relatability to present fear to their audience. Through The Shining’s use of commonplace costume, props and casting, the film suggests that any member of the audience could potentially be in the same situation as the protagonists. In regard to the costumes and characters, all characters in the film dress in unassuming, casual clothing, and are average looking people. The lead antagonist Jack Nicholson is a average middle aged man. linking back to the aforementioned sense of relatability. The props are similar in this regard. Horror movies tend to make use of props like axes, knives and baseball bats as weapons due to their sense of normality. The fact that they’re easily accessible leaves the audience with the fear that anybody could potentially use it as the antagonist in this movie does.

Camera techniques are a huge part in the shining and how it tells its story. Kubrick uses the camera and close ups to assist his narrative. When Jack is locked in the pantry, there is a shot of the bottom of him facing upward, disorientating the audience and showing how Jack is losing his mind. Another example of Kubrick’s camera technique is the Steadicam shot. This shot following Danny as he goes down the hotel halls in his tricycle to finally face the twins helps the audience understand the hotel is like a winding maze. The Shining also subverts expectations. In the film Danny uses his Psychic power ‘Shining’ to call for help. The audience expects at this point that this character to enter the hotel and assist the Protagonists. Instead the character is immediately killed as soon as he enters the hotel. The audience doesn’t expect this of the film and subverting it creates tension within the film, as they have no help anymore, they are on their own. In terms of sound, most of the film is diegetic, meaning that the characters are able to hear what the audience hears, a common element of the horror genre. Most of the non diegetic sounds comes from the score, which is underlying and sharp with a extremely slow tempo. This leaves lots of room in the film for silence, allowing the tension to develop. When there is music in the film it consists mostly of string instruments and piano, common choices within the horror genre. There are certain conventions that the audience expects from a horror movie like this, for example jump scares. Jump scares are a usual trope in horror films, but in the shining they aren’t used at all. The director Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a film that scared the audience on more than a base level. He wanted to scare them on a psychological level. The film falls guilty to some horror film stereotypes, for example, killings. The film has multiple killings in it, these are conventional to the horror genre. Another is the supernatural elements, the film contains multiple supernatural elements, like ghosts. These are stereotypes of the horror genre the the audience expect to see in it. For example in the film “The Bye bye man” the film also uses a lot of supernatural elements and contains multiple killings.

The film is edited linearly, the only time the story isn’t linear is with brief flashforwards with plenty of jump cuts, the purpose of this is to create fear and tension in the audience. The camera is also used to convey the horror genre. In the shining there are lots of close ups, extreme close ups and mid shots. These are typical of the horror genre because the main focus of horror movies are the characters. The shining has a lot of wide shots in it which is not conventional of the horror genre. The narrative follows a family looking after a hotel for the winter while it is closed, while isolated, the father goes insane and tries to kill the mother and son. The son has supernatural powers that allow him to see the future, which is used to add tension in the film. The supernatural element is fairly typical in the horror genre as audience members fear what they don't understand. The narrative of the film is quite linear, it follows a todorovian narrative and a typical three act structure, ending with a new equilibrium.

Baby Driver Baby driver is a film directed by Edgar Wright and fits into many conventions of the action genre, for example, location. The film takes place in the city of Atlanta, this is conventional of the action genre because it allows for the film to have large action sequences. Action sequences taking place in a city with lots of people and lots of potential for damage causes a lot of tension in the audience. The costumes are conventional to the genre as well, they are casual, helping the audience connect with the characters. But they also have costumes so the audience can easily recognise them. Large action sequences is a action film convention that the audience comes to expect when watching the genre. The props in baby driver are conventional to the action genre and are what audiences would expect to see when they go to see a action film, this consists of guns, cars, music players and sunglasses to name a few. Casting also plays to the conventions of the action genre, the casting is a typical everyday average male hero, with a female damsel in distress. This is typical of the action genre and is what audiences have come to expect from it. Unlike other genres, action films consist of lots of both diegetic and non diegetic sounds. Baby driver also integrates and blends lots of the music from non diegetic to diegetic sound through the protagonist listening to music. This is unconventional of the action genre as usually the music is non diegetic. Some examples of diegetic sounds are car engines, gunshots and the aforementioned music played though the MP3. Many of the diegetic noises in this film are also synched up with action beats, linking the action and music further. This again is unlike the action genre as usually the action and the music are separated. The non diegetic sounds are mostly made up of the music, there aren’t any significant non diegetic sounds in this film. This film follows Todorov's narrative with the three act structure, with him finding the girl being the inciting incident and him finally being released from prison being the new equilibrium.

Baby driver’s editing is there to keep up the tension and to keep up with the action, this means it is built up of lots of quick cuts to make sure the audience is always on the edge of their seat and never get bored. This is normal of the action genre, the upbeat and tense action needs to be matched by the editing. The special effects is the same, they take a backseat compared to other genres like Sci-fi. In this film the only special effects in the film are things like muzzle flashes and cgi explosions, this is normal in action films because the director might not have the time, the budget or the safety to do it on set. The film follows a man with hearing issues who is forced to be getaway driver for a group of criminals, it follows him and his moral struggle of trying to get out and be on the right side of the law. Having the protagonists be on the wrong side of the law allows there to be many moments of tension and also makes the audience question if they want the protagonists to win. Some stereotypes that the film follows are the typical conventional love story. There isn’t any big layer of depth in the love story of this film. Another stereotype this film follows is the action beats, most of the action beats in are convensional and are what the audience comes to expect. This is similar to a action film like “The fast and the furious” another action film that is based around cars, they also have typical action beats like gun fights, car chases and hand to hand combat the film doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. But Baby Driver does change up how these action beats play out, with them following the music and making the action around the music instead of the music around the action.

Blade Runner 2049 Blade runner is a film set in the far future dystopian Los Angeles, this is clearly shown thought the multiple establishing shot. The establishing shot is one used constantly in the Sci-Fi genre. Sci-Fi films have a lot of locations that typical viewers don’t know or understand, establishing shots assists them in understanding the location and what type of place it is. Having all the buildings be gray also establishes to the audience that this is a bleak and dreary future. There is a lot of iconography for costumes in the Sci-fi genre. Costumes are a key indicator to audience members that this world that they are viewing is not their own. Blade runner 2049 is no exception to this. The world they live in is filled with extravagant costumes that indicate to the audience that they are in a different world. This is also relevant to props, Blade runner and the sci-fi genre is filmed to the brim with props that create a disconnect between this world and ours, this disconnect lets the viewer get lost in the film. There is no set casting for sci-fi films, there is usually a male hero protagonist, this is apparent in Blade runner. But sci-fi films have a wide variety of casting due to the limitless stories that can be told with the genre. For example the protagonist in Alien is a woman. The Sci-Fi genre is full of lots of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. In Blade Runner 2049 the whole film is followed by a powerful and underlying score. The music is nearly all synth, matching the sci-fi genre. The music also matches the theme of the film, it is at times sombre and long, and at other times, powerful and overwhelming. All of this blending together perfectly makes you almost not notice the score, as it fits so well. The diegetic sounds consist of things as common as a radio playing to as unreal as a laser gun being fired. The audience expects certain stereotypes when they go to see sci-fi films, for example the score consisting of primarily synths. Blade Runner 2049 delivers on this and provides lots of music tracks that are primarily synth based. Blade runner 2049 is different to the original blade runner in a number of ways, the first way it is different is through its pacing. The original blade runner was at the time new and different, making it important for the audience to understand the world and what is happening. Since then the sci-fi genre has been established, with the general audience understanding typical conventions of the sci-fi genre, allowing the film to have a quicker pace than the original. The film follows a typical three act structure, with the protagonist finding a new equalibrum for someone else rather than himself.

There are tons of special effects in Blade Runner, this is conventional of the Sci-Fi genre, CGI is used heavily in Blade Runner to build atmosphere and create a believable world. CGI in Sci-Fi is used to create the illusion that the world the audience is viewing is real, it allows the filmmakers to create realistic looking places and creatures that they couldn’t without it. This combined with model working can create a realistic looking, immersive world. Models are used very frequently in the Sci-Fi genre, they are cheap and easy to make so are very useful for filmmakers that are trying to create a realistic world. Shot types are very useful and effective in Sci-Fi as they can convey a lot of information to the audience without explicitly telling them, Establishing shots are used very frequently in Blade Runner to establish locations to the audience. Blade Runner 2049 also uses a lot of mid shots, this is to show the character’s surroundings, to build atmosphere and is used as world building. The film follows the protagonist ‘K’ who is a synthetic android made to deactivate other rouge synthetic androids, while also trying to find the child of an android and a human, the film tackles philosophical questions like ‘what does it mean to be human’ and ‘can we trust our memories?’ using the Sci-fi genre as a backdrop to ask them.

Editing/sfx

It is edited with a lot of quick jump cuts to create fear and tension. This is typical of the horror genre

Quick paced cuts to suit the action, there are some special effects like explosions and muzzle flashes.

Use of camera

There are lots of close ups, extreme close ups and mid shots which are typical of horrors, but the shining has a lot of wide shots to create suspense.

The camera is used cleverly in this film. The camera follows the action very much, there are plenty of mid shots and eyeline matches

Narrative

A family is looking after a hotel for the winter, when the father jack slowly becomes insane, trying to kill his son and wife.

The film follows a man with hearing issues who is forced to be getaway driver for a group of criminals, it follows him and his moral struggle of trying to get out and be on the right side of the law.

Stereotype

There is killing in it, there are ghosts. And quite a few stereotypical events that fits the genre. There are families with young kids.

There is a stereotypical love story, there are stereotypical action beats

Generic expectations

Horror - The shining

Action - baby driver

Sci-fi - Blade Runner 2049

Location

The overlook hotel - remote location in the mountains. No way in or out and cut off from society

It takes place over the whole of atlanta, as there are a lot of car chases there isn’t a lot of specific locations.

It takes place in future Los Angeles with lots of tall grey buildings, it is dystopian.

Costume

Casual costumes, relating people as they are a everyday normal family

Casual costumes - They are everyday people to help connect to the audience.

There is lots of different wide costumes. They are all different and fit the conventions of the Sci-fi genre

Props

Weapons like a axe, knife and baseball bat. These are typical with the genre.

Guns, cars, mp3’s and sunglasses. Lots of things that convey to the action genre.

There are a load of props, guns, flying cars, things that aren’t there usually in films that aren’t in the Sci-Fi genre.

Casting

They cast Jack Nicholson who is a average looking man who has a creepy face and smile. A creepy looking person is typical looking genre

A average looking male as the protagonist. There is normally a woman as the damsel in distress.

The casting is wide and vast, there is lots of people cast in a wide variety of roles. The the

Sound

There are mostly diegetic noises and not many non diegetic ones to create tension and fear.

A mix of non diegetic and diegetic sounds, They are used frequently to help move the plot and progress the action.

There are lots of both non diegetic and diegetic sounds, they are used to build an atmosphere and show