Conventions of Horror

Why is the media so powerful? Why do we study it?

Why is the media so powerful? Why do we study it?

We study the media to help us understand how it contributes to society and effects us. It provides us with information from all over the world and helps us learn about different cultures, whether that be musical taste or political views. It has the power to influence everything about us from opinions and views of the world to how we dress. By studying it in detail, you can learn how music or a certain camera angle can influence the way an audience or reader may interpret a scene from a movie or TV show, how certain colours can symbolise different things and evoke different emotions, or how and why certain programs or advertisements can appeal to different age ranges. The media is a record of how times have changed. By looking at newspaper articles from 50 years ago, or by watching one of the earliest "talkies"  we can see how people, and the media along with it, has developed. 
 I think the media is powerful because it is something that can take numerous shapes or forms and it influences our everyday lives in a way that we do not even sometimes notice. I think that the media has the power to influence what we want to do with our lives. We are exposed to the media at a very young age and so it can inspire us to want to be just like the people we perhaps see on television or read about in books. By reading a childhood book that you can relate to immensely may make you aspire to be a children's writer to inspire other children. Our view of the world can be sculpted by how things are presented by media platforms such as the internet or advertising. I think the media presents people with so many amazing opportunities to experience things that we might not have been able to without it. We are aware of all these amazing places outside of our own countries .

Before starting this Media project, I was not a horror movie fan and had not seen many of them. I had not seen many horror films and so I decided to try to have a look at different horror movies to get an idea of what they were like. I thought that looking at some of the best horror films would help me do this so that I could get an idea of how to create my own. To do this I looked at The Guardian's list of 25  best horror films of all time. 

1. Psycho
2. Rosemary's Baby
3. Don't Look Now
4. The Wicker Man
5. The Shining
6. The Exorcist
7. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
8. Let the Right One In
9. Vampyr
10. Peeping Tom
11. The Innocents
12. Ring
13. The Haunting
14. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
15. Dead of Night
16. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
17. Halloween
18. Bride of Frankenstein
19. Les Diaboliques
20. Dracula
21. Audition
22. The Blair Witch Project
23. The Evil Dead/Evil Dead II
24. Carrie
25. Les Vampires

Out of the above list, I have highlighted the movies that I had already seen before starting the project or seeing the list.Other horror movies that I have seen are;


1.The Orphanage. 

A Spanish horror movie based around a woman called Laura, who grew up in an orphanage and returns to this orphanage with the intention of turning the now derelict home into a home for disabled children. Problems with the house begin when her son Simon gains an 'imaginary' friend with whom Simon later goes missing.

2.Paranormal activity.
Katie and Micah believe they are being haunted and set up video cameras around their house in order to capture what is haunting them. The film is presented as if the footage has been found and a commercial production.

3. Shutter Island

Marshall Teddy Daniels is investigating the escape of a patient from a psychiatric facility on an isolated island.

4. Black sheep

5. Sleepy Hollow

6. Sinister

Although I have not seen many horror movies, I have found that my personal favourite type of horror movies are psychological,  supernatural or 'ghost' movies. 

Three shot types

Camera shots

Suspense

sus·pense/səˈspens/

Noun:

A state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. A quality in a work of fiction that arouses excited expectation or uncertainty about what may happen.

Suspense is when the reader/audience is left hanging. Thriller and horror movies use this as a key element technique to engage the audience, keep them interested and want to know the ending. Suspense is that "on-edge" feeling when watching a movie or reading a book that makes you think that something is going to happen. It can help emphasize and make important or final moments more memorable.Suspense is not only created in simpler moments such as the victim being stalked but is generally conflict,about the obstacles between the hero and his goal.

Movie Genre Presentation

Movie Genres Presentation from KelseyDuffy