Homework

Week 2 Homework

The Woman in Black 

Films of the horror genre usually tend to be set in isolated areas which is the case with this film where the main character, Arthur Kipps is instructed to visit a small village to collect some documents from a house where the owner has deceased. The theme of isolation further continues when he is not welcomed by the residents of the village and in fact they hurry for him to get out of the area.
This film further follows the conventions of horror as the lighting tends to be very dark as well as dull. The weather is also volatile which only adds to the general eerie atmosphere of this village.
Throughout the movie fact paced editing is present which is a convention in order to build up suspense and portray tension through this technique.
An important convention of horror is the absence of sound or in other words silence which happens several times in this case. It is also mixed in with jump scares with this film being the sudden appearance of the woman in black in reflections and areas around the house.

The final thing that is very conventional of this film in terms of horror is the fact that there is no happy ending. The film tricks the audience into thinking that the small boy, Arthur's son will be saved, however in the scenes following the woman in black makes her appearance again as they are standing at the train station. Arthur is having a conversation and doesn't pay much attention to his son which ends up on the train tracks and as Arthur spots the woman in black he realises the fact that his son is in danger with an oncoming train in sight. The last few scenes show him jumping in front of the train to save the child thus confirming this as a bad ending.

Week 3 Homework

The conventions of all films can be sorted into a few categories:

• Character
• Music/Sound Effects
• Props
• Themes
• Lighting
• Narrative or Settings

Genre conventions act as a framework for films, however those conventions are not used in the same way every time and can also develop through time.

The Dark Knight (2008)

This is a superhero/action film featuring the DC Comics character, Batman. This film is the second one in the Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy starring a cast including Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and more. 

The film is sating in Gotham City where a gang of criminals rob a bank as well as murder each other until there is only one person left, that being The Joker who runs away with the money.

This film is very conventional to its genre first of all because of the main protagonist, the superhero Batman. There then is the main antagonist portrayed by The Joker. Batman has a clear mission that is waiting to be completed which is one of the conventions of action/superhero films.

The film further follows the conventions that of an action film with up beat, nerve racking music as well as music that is usually played by an orchestra and has a build up to it. 

This is evident through the soundtrack above as it show a gradual but intense build up of the sound.

The lighting also follow the conventions of an action movie as it tends to be relatively exaggerated in terms of being too dark. The atmosphere of the whole film is generally very dark and sinister. This is only added onto with things such as explosions and crashes that lead to massive destruction. 

Ponyo (2008)

Ponyo also known as Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is a 2008 Japanese animated fantasy film produced by Studio Ghibli. The plot of this film centres around a goldfish named Ponyo who befriends a 5 year old human boy by the name of Sosuke and wants to become a human girl.

This animated film is quite unique in terms of there not being a typical hero and villain like in the majority of animated films. Instead the hardship in this film comes with the fact that Ponyo transformed into a human and that has caused a dangerous imbalance in the world. In order to prevent this her father tries to send ocean's mighty waves to find her. Although her father could be portrayed as a villain due to trying to prevent her dream of being a human girl it is not the conventional 'baddie'.

Throughout the animated film the lighting and the the way in which the animation is done is very light and almost pastel which is very conventional of Studio Ghibli films. 

The music within the animated film is relatively upbeat and 'happy' conventional to this genre especially since it is more aimed at younger audiences. 

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

This is a Tim Burton musical romantic horror film released in 2007. It is an adaptation of the 1979 musical with the same name and re-tells the Victorian tale of Sweeney Todd who was supposedly an English barber as well as serial killer that murdered his customers with a straight razor and with the help of his accomplice Mrs Lovett, processed their corpses into meat pies.

The film is already unique in its genre as it is a hybrid therefore the conventions are much harder to identify.

If looking at the horror side of this film then it closely follows the conventions in terms of lighting that is very dull and dark, even during the day it being very gloomy and dark. It also followed the horror genre conventions specific to that of serial killer movies where the serial killer will show no remorse to his victims. In this case however, there is also the aspect of Sweeney Todd realising that he murdered his wife at the end of the movie where we see a crock of his emotions, this sticking closer to the romantic side of this movie and following the conventions of the genre.