Research: Codes And Conventions In Existing Horror Films Aimed At A Teenage Audience

Camera

Sounds

Mise-en-scene

Codes are system of signs, where you put them together to create a meaning and this can be found in teenage horror films. There's three different types of codes:

·         Technical Codes are such as camera techniques, lightning, framing, sound  and depth of field. Both can be diagetic and non-diagetic.

·         Symbolic Code includes mis-en-scene (clothing, make-up, settings) this is used to make the film more realistic and interesting.

·         Verbal codes. this is everything to do with languages either written or spoken.

Conventions is what you expect to see in a horror film. for example in a horror film, you expect to see:

·         someone rips over while running.

·         whenever they get into safety, they normally are caught.

·         there's normally always where there's no way of transport so the victim doesn't run away that easily.

·         no signal.

I am going to analyse three different types of teenage horror films. I am going to analyse them as they all those three films has the use of different types of codes and convections.

Dead Wood

Four friends  head out into the woods for the weekend. An unexpected twist happened when this mysterious girl is looking for her boyfriend. Soon everything started to change,  where they all got lost in the middle of nowhere followed by a deadly creature.

The technical codes that I'm able to hear in the start of 'Dead Wood'  are the bird singing, which already gives away that the scene it is set in the woods. it starts with a slow sinister music which suggests that something horrible it's going to happen. then the music starts to get louder as the teenage boy starts running from someone who is chasing him.

After that I started looking for the symbolic codes in this 5 minute film. where its been used a crane camera movement of the wood and to make it more interesting they used point of view and tracking shots when the man is running from the creature. to show how deep the cliff is, its been used a low angle shot. it foreshadows that the man will fall into the cliff.

The convention of this film are teenage boy and a teenage girl, where the boy runs away from someone, he also trips over while he was running and gets killed, while he was trying to get in safe place (tent).

The mise-en-scene I was able to find was that the teenage boy was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans and the girl was wearing revealing clothes and regular make-up.

Dead Mary

Kim and her boyfriend Matt have just broken up, but they still went to a cottage for the weekend with their friends Eve, Dash and his wife Amber and Baker and his new girlfriend Lily. when they decided to play "Dead Mary" and that's where all the nightmare started.

In the beginning of the film I was able to hear a metallic sound of chains. which makes the viewer curious of where the film it's set. In the middle of the 5 minutes film, there's a teenage girl who starts tapping her fingers on the roof of the car, which suggests that she's waiting for someone and that she's bored.

The camera movement that it's been used at the beginning is the extreme close up of the chain, there's also a close-up of a gas station sign. this suggests that there is a gas station in the place where they are going and that it could be an important place during the film. there's also an extreme close up of a trunk and a point of view of the car. this shows that someone is watching them.

This film its in the middle of nowhere, they are even out of fuel, there's not signal where they are going as she trying to listen to the radio and tried to go on her phone. in this 5 minutes film the only protagonists that you can see it's a teenage boy and a girl round their twenties and for that reason the girl wears more revealing clothes and the way she doesn't have shoes means that she's been waiting for a long time for someone.

Wrong Turn

Six people are stuck in the woods of West Virginia, where they are hunted by "cannibalistic mountain men grossly figured)

At the beginning of this 5 minute film it starts by a low pitch sound, which sounds evil and sinister. which already suggest that something terrible it's going to happen. After the teenage girl says "pull me up" there's a noise of the guy (who she's gone hiking with) falling down the mountain but before that you can hear the that someone punched him and has been beaten  up by someone. The music stars to build up by getting louder when the girl sees the dead body of her friend.

The first shot that I  was able to see at the beginning of the film was a establishing shot of the woods, which shows where the scene its going to be set. In the middle of the scene there's a close up of the girl where she struggles to climb up and there's also a close up of the rope, when she gets pulled up by someone.

In this scene the protagonists are a teenage boy and girl, round their twenties. This is set in woods, where someone gets killed and when the girl tries to run away from the creature she trips over.

The mise-en-scene of this scene is that the teenage girl; wears revealing clothes and daily make-up. they've already got all the climbing equipment which suggests that both of them planned to go hiking together.

In conclusion in all of those 5 minute films, the protagonists are around their 20's and there's normally a teenage boy and a teenage girl. In "Wrong Turn" and "Dead Wood" the teenage boy gets killed by the suspicious creature, which aren't able to see it in any of those three films. Since the girls area teenagers, and because its sunny as well they wear more reviling clothes.

Analysing codes and conventions in existing teen horror films from enilze