Theoretical Research

Zak Michael

What is genre?

• Genre is the term used for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, based on some style of criteria. Genres are formed by conventions which can change over time as new genres are invented, and old genres, such as Noire; become discontinued. Sometimes, works can fit into multiple genres by the concept of borrowing and recombining these conventions.

What genre theorists can you find?

• Charaudeau and Maingueneau – Their theory states that genre can be determined through four different analytic conceptualizations.

A texts genre may be determined by its: 1) Linguistic function 2) Formal traits 3) Textual organization 4) Relation of communicative situation to formal and organizational traits of the text.

. Jacques Derrida – Derrida articulates that individual texts participate in, rather than belong to certain genres. He does this by demonstrating that the ‘mark of genre’ is not itself a member of a genre or type. Thus, the very characteristic that signifies genre defies classification.

What genre theorists link to the horror genre?

• Stephen Prince- who states that “like other genre movies, any given horror film will convey synchronic association, ideological, and social messages that are a part of a certain period or historical moment. One can analyze horror films in terms of these periods or moments, just like one can do with gangster movies. But unlike those genres, horror also goes deeper, to explore more fundamental questions about the nature of human existence, questions that in some profound ways, go beyond culture and society as these are organized in any given period or form.”

Narrative is a constructive format which as a work of a piece of film, describes a sequence of

fictional, and or non-fictional events. In horror films, the narratives conventionally take dramatic

twists and turns in order to surprise and shock their audience.

What is narrative?

What narrative theorists can you find?

• Victor Shlovsky’s theory of the analysis of the relationship between composition and style.

• Vladimir Propp who analyzed plots used in traditional folk-tale and identified 31 distinct functional components.

What narrative theories link to the horror genre?

• Tzvetan Todorov, a 1960’s Bulgarian structualist constructed a theory of narrative structures of horror. His basic theory included

• Equilibrium- everyone is in equal status• Agent of change- what disrupts everything• Final Resolution• New equilibrium- everything is back to normal

What is representation?• Representation refers to the construction

in any medium of aspects of ‘reality’, such as people, places, events, objects, and even cultural identities. The key markers of representation, or identity are: class, age, gender and ethnicity. Identities are differently marked so that they conform to demographic factors such as : How do men look at images at women, women at men, men at men, women at women?

Representation GraphWhat influence do these have on other interpreters?

What part do these factors play in the text production?

What sort of realities are depicted?

ClassAgeGenderEthnicity

ClassAgeGenderEthnicity

ClassAgeGenderEthnicity

What representation theorists can you find?

• Lester Friedman

• Vito Russo

• Stuart Hall

• Richard Dyer

• Robin Gutch

What representation theorists link to the horror genre?

• Cynthia A. Freeland- Freeland suggests that feminist studies of horror films have focused on psychodynamics whereby the chief interest is on “viewer motives and interests watching horror films”.

What is an audience?

• Audience is the group of people who participate in reading, viewing, listening or playing a type of media text. Audience members participate in different ways by which some media types involve audience participation, whereby others only allow clapping or criticism.

What audience theorists can you find?

• Walter Ong

• Mary Taylor

• Ruth Mitchell

• Ede and Lunsford

What audience theorists link to the horror genre?

• The hypodermic syringe model concept whereby the intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.

• Two Step Flow - The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.

• Uses and Gratifications Theory - People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications.

• Reception theory- The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences.

Scream TrailerCinematography: much of the cinematography applied during this particular trailer is through the use of close up camera shots in order to show the viewer of the trailer the reactions upon the face of the victims in the movie. Editing: slow cuts and then as the music paces up and tension rises, the cuts become much quicker. Sound: Ambient, diegetic, and non diegetic sound are all applied to the trailer in order to create realistic effects as well as build tension for the viewer. Mise en scene: as seen in the top image, the setting of the film is clearly in a conventional suburban house which is slightly isolated, linking to a possible concept which the director of the film is trying to get across.

Halloween Trailer Cinematography : as seen in image 1, the cinematography used within this trailer is of extreme close ups which are used by the director (Rob Zombie) to explore graphic features and reactions upon the face of certain characters. Editing: Reaction shots are used to explore emotion.Sound: non diegetic sound is used in order to create a vast amount of tension for the viewer of the trailer Mise En Scene: as seen in image 2, the concept of the hospital being used is a conventional setting within the horror genre, as it correlates with the concept of desertion.

The Fourth Kind Cinematography: use of close ups have been used as the film has been produced in a documentary style horror, to make some concepts scary for the viewer. Editing: Jump cuts have been used Sound: diegetic sound from screams used for tensity. Mise en scene: the mise en scene of the film is located in Alaska, which correlates with the concept of mystery, desertion, and the unknown, all concepts which are explored within horror films.

What is research and planning?

• Research in terms of films is where producers of films look at existing cases or stories to find inspiration prior to the production of their film. This may be important so that the producer can find out key concepts about the case, and if they choose to adapt a story into a film, they can see if they’ll need permission for certain aspects.

• Planning: when the creative writers set out ideas and concepts which they may have prior to the production of a film. They plan out certain characters and setting ideas also.

Other planning stages needed in a horror film…

• Deciding on the soundtrack for the film is a key aspect for some films. In addition to this, the creative team needs to decide on make-up, masks, sound effects, clothing and relationships between characters within the film.

What are Real Media Texts?

• Real media texts are any sort of media by which we as a viewer chose to view, whether it be a film, television program, documentary or cartoon.

What are the main conventions of a horror trailer?

• The main conventions found within horror film are telephone calls; creating an aspect of mystery, a serial killer or ghost etc (a main antagonist), a protagonist, whom the audience may sympathize with, and in terms of editing, there are generally slow cuts within slow music to start with, then the pace picks up and the cuts speed up.

What theories link to horror trailers?

• The theory which links to horror trailers is: Tzvetan Todorov, a 1960’s Bulgarian structualist constructed a theory of narrative structures of horror. His basic theory included:

• Equilibrium- everyone is in equal status• Agent of change- what disrupts everything• Final Resolution• New equilibrium- everything is back to normal

What is digital technology?

• Digital media is a form of electronic media are stored in digital form. It can also refer to the technical aspect storage and transmission (e.g. hard disk drives or computer networking) of information or to the "end product", such as digital video, augmented reality or digital art.

What digital technology is needed to create a film?

• After a film has been shot, digital technology is used in order to add the supernatural and unrealistic elements into the film. Concepts such as Computer Generated Imagery are applied to the film after filming has been completed.

What is creativity?

• Creativity is defined as the concept to generate or recognize ideas within the planning stages of a film, or other piece of media.

Creative features used in horror…

• In horror film, creative team have the fundamental say in the decisions made in creating costumes, make-up, masks, on set locations etc. These concepts have to be thought of in major detail and therefore, require much planning.