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Genre Codes and Conventions

This document discusses genre codes and conventions in horror films. It explains that codes use symbols and camera work to convey meaning, while conventions are common tropes audiences expect within a genre. For horror, conventions include dark colors, isolated settings, scary characters, and eerie music and sounds. The document also discusses "slasher" films as a horror subgenre, noting their masked killers who stalk and kill victims in sequels. To make their student horror film realistic, the writers will incorporate codes like the killer's secret past and conventions like the killer's masked identity and use of a dangerous weapon.

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Priyash Ariyaratnam
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788 views

Genre Codes and Conventions

This document discusses genre codes and conventions in horror films. It explains that codes use symbols and camera work to convey meaning, while conventions are common tropes audiences expect within a genre. For horror, conventions include dark colors, isolated settings, scary characters, and eerie music and sounds. The document also discusses "slasher" films as a horror subgenre, noting their masked killers who stalk and kill victims in sequels. To make their student horror film realistic, the writers will incorporate codes like the killer's secret past and conventions like the killer's masked identity and use of a dangerous weapon.

Uploaded by

Priyash Ariyaratnam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Genre codes and conventions

The genre that we have chosen for our production is horror. Codes and
convention in a film is what the audience is expecting to see in a film to see what
genre it is based on. Codes and conventions are used together to create the way
that the genre is represented such as the camera work from the technical code
and the lighting used in scenes. It is used as a typical convention of the horror
genre when the lighting is dark as this is to create a sense of mystery and to
build up suspense.
Codes: This is a system whereby symbols and signs create a meaning for
something. The 2 categories that come under codes are technical and symbolic.
Technical codes include the way in which the equipment is used in a production
to explain the story to the audience, this comes under the camera footage in a
film. Symbolic codes are the meaning behind certain actions such as when a
characters action reflects on how they are feeling and are presented to the
audience. Codes are important because they make the production of a film more
realistic and easier to understand for the audience. This is important because as
a film director you dont want to confuse the audience with the genre and
storyline, therefore using typical codes and conventions of a certain genre can
help represent the ideology to the audience better.
Conventions: This is when individuals typically accept certain ways of doing
something. There are common conventions that are used in any context, but in
the media text, conventions are genre specific. For example when there is a
horror film that has been released it is expected that the film contains typical
horror conventions as this is what the audience are used to seeing. As a result of
this a production company has to take into consideration that they must meet
certain expectations of a film. If the production company were filming a horror
movie they would need to include horror conventions and some of these are as
follows:

Dark colours black, grey, red.


Characters psychopath, damsel in distress, hero.
Locations abandoned houses, forests, castles.
Weapons/props knives, blood, chainsaws, baseball bat.
Lighting low key, shadows, dark.
Music dramatic, suspenseful, eerie, tension building.
Costumes/make up scary mask, ripped clothes, bloody clothes.
Danger, death, powers.

Many horror films use non-diegetic music to build up tension and suspense and
this creates an enigma for the audience and also scares them. The most common
use of sound that many horror films use is high stringed and orchestral music as
it creates an eerie atmosphere, which makes the audience feel uncomfortable
and worried. General clothing worn by characters within a horror film are often
dark coloured clothing such as black and red. This also refers to the settings in
many horror films as they tend to be dark and scary, mostly abandoned buildings
with creepy objects within it.
Codes and conventions of horror also include continuity editing, fast paced
editing, rapid shots and montage editing, which creates a sense of suspense and
tension; the shots that are used can also have meaning behind them such as the
use of extreme close ups can be used by the means to emphasise something and
an example can be a characters emotions. Another shot is a tracking shot of a
character and in this case it could mean that the character is being followed or
chased, as the character may be running or walking.
We have also picked the sub-genre for our film to be slasher, which also has its
own codes and conventions. The main codes and convention of a slasher film
tend to have a psychotic masked killer that stalks and kills his un expecting
victims, the killer tends to come back in several sequel films and appears to have
no way of dying and finally there is always a victim who appears to have a battle
with the psychopath and eventually ends up defeating them.
As in our production we have a killer we have chosen to use some common
codes and conventions of a slasher to make the production as realistic as
possible. In order to achieve this we have used a killer who has a secret past
where he has suffered some kind of trauma, which has led to him seeking pain
upon others and this is not revealed in our production, as this would create a
sense of enigma, which we tend on using in our final production. The killer is
masked as it consoles the killers identity and also makes him look much more
terrifying. His identity is kept hidden the whole time to create large a large
amount of suspense.
The killer wields a dangerous weapon, which is a metallic spear/hammer, which
he chooses to inflict pain upon his victims with, as it is very strong and painful
when in contact. The settings that are usually associated with a slasher film are a
college, creepy house and somewhere in the woods and this is to make the idea
of a slasher lurking around somewhere that is large and derelict very scary.
These were some of the common codes and convention we would use in our
production as it helps the audience identify what the genre of the film is and to
also scare them.

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