Coffer - Genre Analysis
Short Film - 'Coffer' by David Sandberg and Lotta Losten
'Coffer' s another short film created and directed by David Sandberg and Lotta Losten, a coffer is a strongbox or small chest for holding valuables, which is the center object for this short film. In most horror films it's become a common convention to use an item such as a chest or doll to be possessed o a gateway, for example in the prequel to the 'Conjuring', 'Annabel' the subject of the film was a doll that was inhabited/possessed, these household object help store fear to the audience as these normally harmless objects become the stuff of nightmares, successful films make the audience members actual fear these objects in real life as a result of this.
Again like the previous short film the directors have chosen to use text that appears as hand written chalk, this could suggest that this director is an auteurs as they have chosen to use the same style again. Looking at the semiotics, first the synatic is the chalk writing of 'Coffer', but it represents the title of the short film, and is symbolic of horror films as I explained in the previous analysis.
The firsts scene is a woman sitting down reading book setting the scene for the rest of the short film, here it seems calm and relaxed this engages the audience making them have their guard down for the horror film as the rest of the short film contrasts this tone.
The camera then transitions over to the coffer as it's making contrapuntal sound, as if something was trying to climb out, this makes the main character aware and confused as she begins to approach the coffer, this also allows the audience to make their own theory as to what is in the coffer, there is only one lamp in in this short keeping the set lit, this causes a shadow to be cast over the coffer, this shadow adds another layer of depth to the scene as the dark makes it appear more mysterious, as the dark is a prime example of horror film conventions.
The next shot is a close up of the actresses face displaying her confusion as she slowly makes her way to the coffer, she appears jittery, this causes the audience to be engaged in the film feeling the same emotions as the character.
This is similar to the previous short film that I has analysed using the same narrative and story telling both short films use the same actress that is interrupted by an unusual/supernatural event, in this case the sounds coming out of the coffer, and it 'Lights Out' it's the woman in the shadows, both short horror films then have the woman attempt to hide from the creature before a jump scare occurs, this is a plot line that both short films have followed but have different events, locations and scares, a lot of directors do this using similar plot lines but change various things in the film, to the causal audience member they won't notice this therefore appealing to a mass audience however horror fanatics pay attention to these details a criticise films for using the same formula over and over again.
The next short is of the coffer again however this time it's slightly open with a close up shot on it, to represent the woman getting closer to the coffer this again engages the audience as they feel they are in the scene, almost making it a P.O.V. camera shot.
The woman can now be seen in a wide shot sitting on the coffer in an attempt to keep it shut before running away from it allowing it to open up and continue the plot of the story, tension builds as the audience expects something to jump out however it has not.
The next shot gives the audience a direct view of whats inside the coffer as it appears to have a very deep hole going through the floor with a pitch black bottom this helps to create tension as the audience can't see the bottom or what is in the coffer, this additional element of mystery was used in other horror films such as 'The Hole' which did a similar effect. The director used a crab shot from within the coffer to show the expressions on the characters face as she peered over the edge of the coffer to look inside. The next shot is off the side of her face displaying her emotions to the audience as she looks into the coffer before a contrapuntal sound accompanied by a hand grabbing her face, this jump scare is really effective as the director has had a plethora of opportunities to scare the audience but hasn't. The various anticlimax's causes the audiences guard to drop as they aren't anticipating a jump scare.
A black hand reaches out grabbing the woman's face pulling her into the coffer never to be seen again.
The camera then transition to inside the coffer where a dark figure can be seen emerging from the coffer before it cuts to the credits, leaving the short film on a cliff hanger.
Lights Out - Genre Analysis
'Lights Out' is a short horror film produced and directed by David Sandberg and Lotta Losten as an entry to the 'Who's There?' Short horror film challenge and has a total of 30 sponsors that contributed to the creation of the short film. It's narrative is simple, a woman is home alone going to bed when a chain of unusual events occur raising the tension of the short film, she eventually too scared to turn out the lights as something is hiding in the shadows. This follows many conventions of the horror genre, using the absence of light to play with the audiences mind as they are unknown of what lurks in the shadows, allowing for a low budgeted short to create tension and build a climax as the audiences imagination runs wild as to what the creature could be. The director is essentially using the audiences own mind to scare the audience, this is a cleaver trick that was used by Steven Spielberg when creating 'Jaws' now claimed as one of the films ever created. Spielberg originally used mechanically sharks during production but due to failures the sharks where sinking, this occurred twice which had taken a large chunk out of the films budget. Spielberg look to one of the worlds greatest directors, Alfred Hitchcock, a thought what would he do, as he didn't have the technology we have now.
Institutions is the first to be presented at the start of the film. The short film started with the logo's of various institutions that have sponsored the creation of the short film to be entered in 'Who's There?' a horror short film challenge, although the producer and directors of the short film haven't created their own opening credits suggesting that this film wasn't made by an institution.
The first camera shot was a establishing shot of the house that is the setting for he short film, the shot is dark and gloomy with a few lights on in the house visible through the widow the title of the short film appearing at the left of the screen, the title has a type of font to make it appear as if it was hand written out of chalk. It's a conversation of horror films to have various symbols for rituals and markings, these are normally draw with white chalk as it was used centuries ago before we could uses pens to write, thus has made the use of chalk a common convention in the genre of horror.
The scene starts with a woman preparing to go to sleep, she's about to turn the light off when she sees something in the shadows, this is a convention of horror films as many of them use the dark to help convey a scary creature as we can't fully see it. We are naturally hardwired to fear what we don't know, so this short film taps into that. The representation of woman are also used a lot in horror film, in media men and women are represented differently depending on their stereotypes, women are seen as more delicate, and men are there to protect them. Closes up are used to show the audience the characters face and emotion, this shows the audience how scared the woman is.
Most good horror films use jump scares, to engage their audience, over the years it's become predictable for the audience to know when a jump scare is going to occur, most directors add sound effects to further engage the audience, this is an example of the predictability as we can see the creature in the hall so most horror audiences know that they are going to use a jump scare as she flicks the light on and off. This attempting to appeal to a mass audience that like horrors by conforming to the convention set out by horror films, this makes the film easily recognizable as a horror film. This is what makes horror films hard to be successful as their is a large number of people dedicated to watching them.
The camera cuts to the woman sleeping in her bed the audience can see she's scared, as the lamp flickers on and off showing she scared to be in the dark, this contributes to the tension being created leading up to the final jump scare.
Production Log 1 - 20/6/16
We decide to stick with Horror as our genre and began discussing possible ideas such as the location begin an abandoned house, woods or even cemetery.
Camera Angles
Aerial shot (or crane): a view from directly overhead to afford a clear view – sometimes used to emphasize the spectacle. A crane shot is usually necessary to achieve this (sometimes called a bird’s eye shot)
Deep Focus: a camera technique that allows objects both near and far from the camera to be in focus at the same time.
Shallow Focus – Describes a shot where an object near the front is in focus, and everything else behind is out of focus (blurry). Often used to make one thing seem more important.
Tight Frame: Describes a shot that is composed with the person or object given very little space around them. Often used to make them seem important, or trapped.
Tilt: a camera movement that involves moving the camera vertically up and down from a fixed position.
Tracking Shot: a camera shot in which the camera moves along rails to follow the subject. When the rails are replaced by a moving platform on wheels, the shot is called a dolly shot. As you wont know how this shot was filmed you can call it either a Tracking OR a Dolly shot.
Whip Pan: a very fast pan between two or more characters all points of interest. He gives the impression camera has been ‘surprised’ by activity and is used in the place of a more conventional cu or shot/reverse shot.
Wide shot: this can be used as an establishing shot of a set or location or to show a large crowd of people. They can also emphasize the isolation of a single figure.
Zoom/Reverse Zoom: the adjustment of the camera lens to allow the operator progressively to move in close off or to pull away from the subject.
180 degree Rule – Where, during a scene featuring two people or more, we can imaging an imaginary line joining those two people together. Adhering to the 180 degree rule would mean you would always ensure your camera was on one side of that line and the camera would never be crossed to the other side. Sticking to the 180 degree rule allows the viewer to feel comfortable, helps us understand the positioning of the characters and makes it feel like real life.
Initial Ideas
Blood and Chips - Analysis
This is a hugely racist short film that portrays the stereotypical view of white Londoners in Britain, in the media white British people are often portrayed as racist as it's there media representation.The short film is described as "A heat wave is bringing racial tensions to boiling point in a London chip shop." it's aim to make the audience disgusted and angry at the narrator and his racist views causing the audience to Judge the character as he judges others, it raises tension with in the audience as the topic represented is a highly sensitive as it's still an ongoing issue to this date.
The short film starts with the opening sequence introducing the audience to the creative minds and institutions behind the short film.
It's followed by a low angled establishing shot, revealing two key important prop items, the sign letting the audience know it's a fish and chips shop as well as the Zebra crossing which indicates that it is set in London. There are ambient sounds as you hear cars go by covered by cheerful music.
The next shot is a medium shot that shows many characters, you can see two mixed race children looking up at a sweating black man who quickly leaves, the white man bumbs him to him aggressively looking back with a spiteful, he's rude and blunt towards the Chinese behind the counter as his body language suggests, dropping the coins on the counter. He assumes that the children are the black mans by the way he interacts with them. The Chinese man behind the counter breaks the representations created by the media as they are stereotyped to work in Chinese shops as Fish and Chips is seen as a British creation. He looks angry at the arguing children as the man sitting down tells them to shut u he looks pleased and compliments him showing further hate against over nationalities, this gives the impression that he's a spiteful man making the audience not like him, and hate his whole attitude feeling resent towards the character.
He sits down next to the man as he smiles revealing bright yellow teeth he says "This neighborhood is going to the dogs" implying blacks he misinterpreted the man with newspaper description of the children by calling them animals, he meant that because they are children not because of there skin colour as he's also mixed race, something that the white man does not consider.He gets out an empty pack of fags, showing the audience at eye level, making the audience feel as if they were on the table with him, this aggravates the audience further as they listen to his opinion on black people.It makes the audience want to stop as they feel like they are there but are unable to causing there hatred for the character to rise, he comments on the other characters yet the audience see how he conforms to British stereotypes with his unattractive yellow teeth, smoking habits, and racist views.
Genre
Rick Altman's Genre Theory
Applying Rick Altman to the Horror Genre
Semantic: Abandoned house, intense music, blood, dirty area, demons, ghosts, fear, insane asylums, graveyard, dark, shaking camera, low key lighting, scary masks, props such as chainsaws and axes.
Syntactic: Main protagonist (victim/hero), the villain (monster, mutated freak etc.), stupid immoral teenagers getting killed, creepy children etc, religion as a story, Todorov's Narrative Theory, main setting presented as the first thing in the film.
Todorov's Narrative Theory
1) Equilibrium: The state of normality in the story.
2) Disequilibrium: The event that disrupts the state of normality such as a possession in the house in a horror film.
3) Realisation: Characters realisation that something has disrupted the equilibrium such as the realisation of possession of the child.
4) Repair: Characters attempting to fix the situation such as bringing in a exorcist to get rid of the possession.
5) New Equilibrium: The new state of normality.
Horror
The very first horror film was created in 1896, by a french film maker known as Georges Melies, the film was titled 'Le Manoir Du Diable' this translated to the 'The Devil's Castle/The Haunted Castle'. The film was only a two minutes long but contain various elements that would later become connections of horror films, the use of bats, castle, cauldron and devil like figure all contributed to the eerie atmosphere.
The horror genre aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm and dread for the audience, doing this by scaring the audience with the portrayal of their worst fears and even nightmares. Horror films usual focus on an evil presence, looking to ancient mythologies as the primary source of influence for their plot, looking at evil figure such as the devil, ghosts and demons, Horror films traditionally used a large amount of violence and gore to drive it's plot, however in recent years this has changed and developed as the ability to scare someone hugely relies on being unexpected and surprise, during the early days of film, blood and gore was never heard of on the big screen, however these days it's become a cliche and fails to entertain the modern audience in the same way.
Due to this the horror genre has to continuously change and evolve to stay fresh, creating new ways to mess with audience. This created sub genres within the horror genre, these include:
- Comedy Horror
- Teen Horror
- Monster Horror
- Slasher
- Supernatural Horror
- Zombie Horror
- Psychological Horror
Comedy
The earliest known publication of a comedy film is 'L'Arroseur arrosé', an 1895 French short black-and-white silent comedy film directed and produced by Louis Lumière. It was first screened on June 10, 1895. The entire film lasts only 45 seconds, but this simple bit of slapstick may be the forerunner of all subsequent film comedy.
Much like the horror genre comedy has also taken a hit with higher expectations, as the audience gets use to the jokes and gags being used in various films, their ability to generate laughter becomes less successful so directors and actors have to envision new ways to make people laugh that is original, for this reason the surplus of comedy films being generated have meant that not many of them become successful.
The Comedy genre, uses humor as it's driving force, it's intended to generate laughter from the audience through the use of it's narrative or characters. Although comedy has taken on serious material as it's source of inspiration, such as movie spoofs. They tend to generally have a happy ending. Comedies are more likely than other films to fall back on the success and popularity of an individual star. Comedy is a incredibly diverse genre forming many other sub genres due to it's ease of being incorporated into other genres, hence Rom-com, being a romantic comedy. The following are sub-genres of comedy:
- Anarchic Comedy
- Action-Comedy
- Black-Comedy
- Horror-Comedy
- Dramedy
- Parody/Spoof
- Romantic-Comedy
- Slapstick
Crime film is a genre that revolves around the action of a criminal mastermind. A Crime film will often revolve around the criminal himself, chronicling his rise and fall. Some Crime films will have a story line that follows the criminal's victim, yet others follow the person in pursuit of the criminal. This genre tends to be fast paced with an air of mystery – this mystery can come from the plot or from the characters themselves.
Crime uses many conventions created by both thriller and horror as it leaves he audience on the edge of the seats trying to pule out what happened alongside the protagonist.
The following are sub-genres of crime:
- Mob/Gangster
- Film-Noir
- Neo-Noir
- Crime-Thriller
Lovefield - Analysis
This immersive short film, is intended to take the unsuspecting audience and engage them in an emotional roller coaster ride, shifting their perspective of the short film and allowing for their bias view to mislead them in their prediction of the films outcome. The suspense and drama created by the director allows the audience to falsely interpret the piece as a horror extract, the general conventions of the horror genre set the audience up to be at the height of their audio and visual awareness anticipating a jump scare.
Ratthe's intentions do this allows him to take advantage of the audiences emotional attachment to the short film and makes an antic-climatic plot twist that astonishes the audience whilst breaking their perception of reality, this method distances the audience for the film, making them objective spectators as they are now mentally engaged with the film, forcing them to re-evaluate their opinion on the characters. This method of entertainment was first used in theater by director, actor and play writer, Bertolt Brecht. He named it the Verfremdungseffekt, as it alienates the audience.
The short film was hugely successful in captivating the audience in the drama displayed and forced the audience to jump to conclusions by the use of camera shorts, mise-en-scene, sound effects and editing to create the illusion of horror, which in turn was demolished by the sudden realisation of the plot twist.
The opening sequence starts with the opening credits displaying Ratthe's insitution (Matt Ratt Production), followed by the three piano keys accompanied by a blackout, the asynchronous sound of the instrument's slow pace engages the audience as the blackout leaves the audience in a sense of suspense as they await for the film to start.
The black screen fades out to an areal shot with text of the title of the film 'Lovefield' fading in and out as the camera begins to lower to the floor and ambient sounds begin to increase in volume, the various sounds of wind rustling throw the crops, followed by a contrapuntal sound, that fueled suspense, these sounds are communally associated with films based upon horror, being the first misleading factor in creating the haunting atmosphere in which the audience begin to interpret the film as horror. This is successful as the film was intention-ed to shift the reality of the audience, perspective is key when portraying a story in film, the use of sounds leaves the audience in suspence limbo, as they are unable to make any visual interpretation due to the lack of mise-en-scene, making them more anxious and frustrated as they progress through the short film.
The audience responds to different stimuli and attempt to make sense of what they are experiencing, by intentionally restricting the audiences perception, the film is conveying the a dark atmosphere slower than we can mentally process it, this is what causes the sense of suspense and anticipation as the audience are waiting for the film, to reveal the next major plot point, the anticipation and wait makes the audience more visually and audio aware.
The film uses these techniques for the first two minutes of the film, increasing the ambient sounds, and using the camera to make an establishing shot of various locations in the field.
The pace of the film starts to increase as by this point as a tracking shot retreats backwards, the shot again leaves much to imaginations as it passes a phone, purse full of cash, and bloody knickers, followed by a struggling foot. The various ambient sound fades out as woman can be heard crying and screaming. This is clearly intentional by the director and is successful as the audience was lead to believe that this is a horror film, so by seeing this the audience immediately suspect rape with out considering other possibilities, due to their emotional attachment and bias opinion on the film.
The panic sees the farmer character rushing to the car, and attempting the open the boot, the camera is placed in a crab shots as the boot opens, the audience can't see what's in the trunk, creating mystery as the audience guess what's in there, among the consistent sounds of the crow, there's the sound of motel clanging, suggesting that there is an array of tool in the trunk.
Task List 1
1. Write a film analysis for LoveField; focus on the RAILING concepts for the film – be careful not to write this as a chronological description of what happens in the film, what we want to see is where the concepts are identified with examples given from moments in the film to help justify each point.
2. Write a film analysis for Blood and Chips; focus on the RAILING concepts for the film – be careful not to write this as a chronological description of what happens in the film, what we want to see is where the concepts are identified with examples given from moments in the film to help justify each point.
3. Film Research – Genre research; Begin to research a variety (at least 3) Film genres that you are particularly interested in producing for your short films. Look at the following; generic conventions, typical audience, classics, remakes, most successful, vs least successful, SFx (if any), mise-en-scene. Reflect on what you have found and how it is helping you shape your ideas.
4. Initial Ideas – What genre have you decided on? What are your initial thoughts and ideas for a short film? Blog this.
5. Production log: Meeting 1 – You must discuss in your groups what ideas you have got, you must indicate who contributed what in your meeting. This will act as a summary for your tasks and you must indicate what genre you have chosen and why and what you will be doing next to develop idea planning.
6. Film Research - You need to take photos of a doll, toy or friend that can stand on its own from different angles, shots and movement. Upload your photos and videos to your blog with an explanation for each one, what do they show? How can they use a variety of these shots in your short film? Which shots are stereotypical used in your chosen genre?
7. Film Research - Create a montage of what you consider conventions for your chosen genre of film. Explain on your blog why you have picked them. How have they inspired your ideas?
8. Film Research - Research at least 3 different short films in the genre you have agreed as a group that you will produce. (Analyse; mise-en-scene, sound, editing, camera shots/angles, conventions and audience appeal) Remember – be careful not to write this as a chronological description of what happens in the film, what we want to see is where the concepts are identified with examples given from moments in the film to help justify each point.
9. Film Research - Investigate narrative theories (Propp, Todorov, Levi Straus etc.), find an interesting way of presenting them and blog it.
10. Audience research – who is your target audience? (create a questionnaire with questions about their film consumption)
11. Audience research – Analyse and evaluate your questionnaire results.
12. Audience Research – research which short films your audience think are good, what attracts your audience to films and what puts them off? Blog your findings. (Conduct Vox Pops).
13. Audience Research - Go to http://www.uktribes.com and http://www.findyourtribe.co.uk and use them to define your perfect audience member. (Have some fun and find out what tribe you are too). Create a complete picture of your audience member, from clothes to the food they eat, music they listen to, TV shows they watch, magazines they read etc. You can get a friend to dress up in the appropriate costume and take photos.
14. Audience Research - Go to the ‘Pearl and Dean’ website, look at the audience section http://business.pearlanddean.com/audience_profile and investigate how they categorise their audiences. Can you fit your short film to their ideas?
15. Institution research - Research the companies that might produce and distribute your short film. Justify your reasons on your blog.
16. Summarise your research - Define the key conventions you must include in your film opening sequence to conform to the expectations of the genre you have chosen, the audience you have chosen and what is expected of a film opening sequence. Make a check list.
17. Create a story arc for the whole of your film; write a brief synopsis. Remember most films have 5 ‘acts’, and most conform to normal narrative theories.
18. Summarise your final short film idea
19. Write your script for your short film sequence using Celtx. Get your peers to read through it, post it on social media and get some feedback. Blog!
20. Create a shot list.
21. Design a storyboard.
22. Plan the sound of your short film– are you having a soundtrack, or just Foley sounds? Blog where you’ve found your sound and why you have chosen what you have.
23. Create a shooting schedule.
24. Plan locations and take location shots. Blog your reasons for choosing these locations. Seek permission to use the locations.
25. Cast your short film and take casting shots. Blog your reasons for casting who you have.
26. Plan and collect all props and costumes. Blog your reasons for choosing the ones you have.
27. Shoot your short film.
28. Make a rough edit and check that you have all the shots you need.
29. Film Research – research film titles used in your chosen genre.
30. Do any re-shoots and pickups needed.
31. Film Research – watch tutorials on film titles (www.videocopiolet.co.uk) print screen the progression of two or three. What tools are used? Blog this evidence.
32. Design a storyboard for your film titles.
33. Create your film titles using After Effects.
34. Complete final edit.
35. Post your finished short film to your blog.
Task List 2
Pick two of the following three options:
· a poster for the film;
· a radio trailer for the film;
· a film magazine review page featuring the film.
(There should be at least one blog post about each stage)
1. Research film posters. Come up with a list of conventions – things you will need to include.
2. Research film magazine review pages featuring films. Come up with a list of conventions – things you will need to include.
3. Create a collage of what you consider conventions for your chosen genre of film poster (same genre for your film). Explain on your blog why you have picked them. How have they inspired your ideas?
4. Create a collage of what you consider conventions for magazine film reviews (same genre for your film). Explain on your blog why you have picked them. How have they inspired your ideas?
5. Research at least 3 different film magazine reviews. (Analyse layout, conventions, audience appeal and images)
6. Research at least 3 different film posters. (Analyse layout, conventions, audience appeal and images)
7. Blog some initial ideas for your own film magazine review.
8. Blog some initial ideas for your own film poster.
9. Pick a film magazine review and film poster that is similar to your idea, annotate the pages explaining why they are appealing and what you can take from them as inspiration.
10. Audience Research – research which film magazine reviews people think are good, what attracts people to them to films and what puts them off? Blog your findings. (Conduct Vox Pops).
11. Audience Research – research which film posters people think are good, what attracts people to them to film poster and what puts them off? Blog your findings. (Conduct Vox Pops).
12. Go to the ‘Empire’ website, look at the audience section http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/uploads/Empire-MediaPack-20111.pdf and investigate how they categorise their audiences. Can you fit your magazine film review to their ideas?
13. Research the magazines that might produce and distribute your film review. Justify your reasons on your blog.
14. Define the key conventions you must include on your magazine film review. In order to conform to the expectations of a magazine film review, the audience you have chosen and what is expected of a magazine film review. Make a check list.
15. Define the key conventions you must include on your film poster. In order to conform to the expectations of a film poster, the audience you have chosen and what is expected of a film poster. Make a check list.
16. Create 3 flat plans for your magazine film review. Annotate.
17. Create 3 flat plans for your film poster. Annotate.
18. Audience research -
19. Summarise your final magazine review idea. Blog it.
20. Summarise your final film poster idea. Blog it.
21. Take photographs for your magazine film review and film poster of a model/s that you can use. At least 5 different images that are excellent quality.
22. Plan and collect all hair, make up and costumes. Blog your reasons for choosing the ones you have.
23. Make a first draft of your magazine film review.
24. Make a first draft of your film poster
25. Do any re-shoots and pickups needed.
26. Complete final drafts.
27. Post your finished magazine film review to your blog.
28. Post your finished film poster to your blog.
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