notes on narrative essay.

Iconography.
Village- small, isolated, follows conventions of a horror film, ominous, the swing significant, as a swing is associated with children, and as it eerily swings back and forth signifies the emptiness of the surroundings.
Knife/scalpel- dangerous, knife is a symbol of power and threat, normally used as a weapon in horror films therefore following conventions. Scalpel is scary as it is easily obtained, clinical, professional, and so therefore the fact someone is using it as a dangerous weapon signifies you cant trust anyone, and the idea of trust and not knowing who people really are is a key theme in our trailer. it contrasts with the idea that it is usually used to help people.
Blood- conventionally associated with horror, death and pain within the horror genre. It is also used to cause panic and can be used to create suspense or the bulid up to the break in the equilibrium.
Match/fire- again, is associated with danger, the fire and the match can easily cause panic and disruption.

Style.
The way the match is dropped in slow motion holds the suspense of the audience and creates a eerie atmosphere as you know the outcome is going to be bad. Typical edit used in any film genre to keep the audience in suspense and the build-up to the equilibrium breaking, as we see it breaking when people flee the building with a close up on people’s feet/legs, again asking the question who is who.
Shot reverse shot- typical camera edit, and we have used this in our trailer when the character mark is talking to himself, breaking the equilibrium as there is a sense something is wrong.
Sepia- we use this effect up until shot 13 to signify that up until this point, everything shown was in the past.
Point of view shot- we have used a point of view shot when the escaped patients are looking at the swing, which again signifies someone is watching but we don’t know who or how many people are watching, again holding the audience in suspense. They are also used to create a connection with the character as well as displaying the isolation and bareness of the village in the scene where they enter for the first time.
For our trailer we are going to use a gothic style when filming, with an emphasis on shadows, things lurking in the background to create a sense of unease and pending doom.

The beginning of the trailer has as ominous shot reverse shot of the corridor, where one miniute thecorridors are empty, and the next lily appears. This is used the mirror different time slots in the past, which builds up to the break in equilibrium and signifies her escape. However the long shot doesn’t reveal the actually character, so therefore it is still anonymous.
Montage of shots- towards the end of the trailer, which is a number of action shots which is parallel to the quick cuts creates panic and portrays the break in equilibrium as it is easily regoniseable due to the different types of shots.


Setting.
Village, hospital, corridors, asylum, corn field, the bedroom, basement.
Village-  used for its rural look but with the sense of a safe community, however the break in thios idea comes when the patients take over the village, and use it as their own place to “play” it is used as a game for them, due to their psychosis, where they can manipulate their surroundings and use the villager’s to hide their true identities, and so by finding this small village they were able to conquer this easily. It is also effective in portraying isolation and creates a sense of unease, due to this.
Hospital- We have used the inside of a hospital to signify a mental asylum. The sanitary bareness of the corridors is effective in portraying this. Refer back to style.
Bedroom- used to create a familiar and safe environment, but is manipulated by the contrast in which we use the bedroom in the trailer. The action in the scene  isn’t conventional of a typical bedroom scene, aswell as the fact that a female character is the one attacking the man which breaks the stereotype of a weak woman.
Cornfield- acts as a maze in which the characters get both physically and mentally lost in,for example marks character breaks down in the cornfield, and charlotte gets physically dragged into the cornfield.
Basement- used to emphasis the break in marks personality, as this is where he first begins to talk to a physical copy of himself that he has imagined.