Tutorial
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Medium = film
Genre = horror – prototypical genre
Sub-genres and hybrids = teen slasher; thriller; torture-porn
Conventions (common features) = female victims, final girl,
monstrous villian, isolated settings, religious iconography,
subjective camera, phallic weapons
• Developments = audience expectations, representations of
women, technology such as cgi, graphic nature of violence and
sex
• Implications = effects on audience or society, effects on
censorship, imagery related to war or social unrest, the future of
this genre – where to from here?
• Gothic literature (Dracula and Frankenstein) – representing man’s
deepest fears and fear of what humanity can create; monstrous
killers
• Film developments and early horror films of the 1920’s (The Cabinet
of Dr Caligari, Nosferatu, Dracula, Frankenstein); black and white
and silent films which presented universal fears and/ or desires.
• Influence of WW2 and Vietnam and the imagery of violence and
death on television / cinema screens
• Influence of audience expectations, changing censorship standards,
development of societies values, morals, attitudes.
• Influence of civil rights, feminism, back-lash to feminism, recessions
and periods of economic boom.
Remember that Thomas Schatz suggested in his 1981 book Hollywood
Genres that genres have a life course, evolving through four distinct
stages:
• Experimental stage – during which conventions are isolated and
established
• Classic stage – where the conventions reach their ‘equilibrium’ and
are mutually understood by the artist and audience
• Age of refinement – during which certain stylistic or formal details
embellish the form
• Baroque (or mannerist, or self-reflexive) stage when the form and its
establishments are accented to the point where they themselves
become the ‘substance’ or ‘content’ of the work.
An examiner will be impressed if you mention Schatz’s ideas and are
able to analyse how relevant they are to your genre.
Choose ONE media genre that you have studied.
Use information about this genre to write about ONE of the following
options.
EITHER - Discuss the significance of ONE development in your chosen
media genre.
OR - Discuss the significance of unique conventions in your chosen
media
genre.
OR - Discuss the significance of audience expectations in your chosen
media genre
Your discussion must include:
Supporting evidence from at least TWO media texts and /or other
source(s)
Possible implication(s) and /or effect(s) for the genre.
• Identify ONE important development in the horror genre.
- Production quality – technology such as cameras and editing
equipment – digital technology / CGI – computer generated images
- Role / Representation of women in horror films – females in modern
horror are tougher, they fight back (smart and strong, more
independent), more promiscuous (Tatum and Tina- even Sidney in
Scream sleeps with Billy), Marion is weak in Psycho –she cowers in the
shower and feebly defends herself. She is also easily tempted by the
$40,000 dollars which she steals –showing a moral weakness.
Write about TWO conventions used in MOST horror films you
have studied.
• State the convention clearly.
• Explain the significance of that convention.
• How was it used? Give examples from TWO films.
• Why was it used? Give examples from TWO films.
• What is the effect / implication / consequence of it being used?
• Identify TWO audience expectations in horror films.
- Violence / gore / graphic scenes and sex
- To be shocked and frightened
- Write about violence and graphic scenes in one paragraph.
HOW and WHY are these audience expectations met by the directors of THREE
films you have studied? What are the implications / effects /consequences of
these audience expectations?
- Write about the expectation of being frightened and shocked in another
paragraph.
HOW and WHY are these audience expectations met by the directors of THREE
films you have studied? What are the implications / effects /consequences of
these audience expectations?
Conclusion = Write about the implications / consequences / effects of these
audience expectations.