Friday 18 October 2013

‘The Conjuring’ - case study


‘The Conjuring’ is an American supernatural horror film that is directed by James Wan. The film is set in 1971 and shows the life of a family who have moved into a farm house. Soon strange things start to occur and this escalates into a nightmarish terror which lead to the family having no choice but to contact the paranormal investigators.  The film was released in the UK on the second of August 2013. The estimated budget was $20,000,000 and the box office was around $306,000,000.

Genre

There are many stereotypical codes and conventions in this film which prove to the audience and make the genre of horror in terms of mise-en-scene, narrative, sound and editing. The storyline is based on demonic possession towards a family who have just moved into a new house. Possession is a key factor to show that the genre is horror.
Lighting

The film has a dark, de-saturated colour palette which follows horror conventions.  The dark lighting was added to match the mood of the genre. A few scenes which are recorded in the basement have a dark background in which the light is only placed over the main character on the scene in order to build the tension to the audience and to create fear as they would not know what else is around.

Location

Filming took place at ‘Screen Gems Studios’ as well as other locations in North California. There are many different locations in the actual scenes of the films which are stereotypical to the genre of horror. For example a lot of the filming takes place in the basement where it is dark and gloomy. The house which links in to the actual story is very old which relates to typical genre conventions of horror.

Camera Shots and Angles

There are many different camera shots and angles used in 'The Conjuring'. Wide shots/ Extreme wide shots could be used to introduce the setting or sometimes they are often used in order to show the whole scene on the screen and this could be used to hide the full identity of the protagonist but still let the audience know that it is present. In horror films a lot of close-up/extreme close-up is used in order to emphasize with the character and show their reaction and emotions. It also creates suspense as the camera is based only on the characters emotions and the surroundings are hidden so this should make the viewer more anxious. High/Low angles are also used in order to show which character has more power over others and in the case of the genre being horror, it is used in scenes where the protagonist is trapped.

Sound
In horror films, loud music and sounds often create most of the fear for the audience throughout most of the scenes. Whispers and footsteps can also create a lot of tension however the silence creates most of the suspense following up with a loud noise. This is very stereotypical of horror films as most of them do this and one reason for them being successful and likeable could be because of the effects from the sound.

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1 comment:

  1. Hello Fatimah, can you amend the colour of the text so we can read it.

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