KNOCK (2011) – SHORT HORROR FILM

The opening of the sequence is very dull in terms of effect and colour as the background is presented as an opaque of black also the Title of the short film being ‘ Knock’ is shown in to be very simplistic as it is in an ‘Arial’ style font in the colour white. The problem with the title and opening sequence being presented in this plain manner is that it does not fit to the criteria of the expectances from a short horror film also you would generally here a more dramatic non-diegetic music with the opening sequence which builds tension and draws attention from the audience as they become attentive ready to watch the film ; however we are presented with a non-diegetic sound which would more so represent fear which we would expect more so during the film rather than at the start of this film in particular as after the logo and the title we are presented with a calm setting background and therefore these two aspects of fear and calmness do not correlate .

Camera Editing

• At the start of the film the camera moves horizontal axis into the first setting of the film which is also known as panning.

• Lights in the hall way are turned to create the effect of being fearful of the dark and what lurks within.

• The camera begins to track as the protagonist walking out of the kitchen still searching for the person with the mysterious knock.

Mise en Scene

• Main Protagonist (She is wearing casual wear a yellow vest top and high wasted shorts.

• Her blonde hair may give her a stereotype / label as being naïve and quite vulnerable as vulnerability is prone within most horror films being the victim.

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Camera Shots and Angles

• We presented at the start of the movie after the panning a P.O.V over the shoulder shot/ angle in which we are able to see who the main protagonist is talking too on a video call it almost allows us to be drawn into her character as if we are the

victim/main protagonist of the event s which may occur after this video call.

• Medium Shots of victims head and shoulders to show her facial as well as body expression/language.

• Extreme P.O.V angles shown when looking through the front door this engages the audience as they may cover their face as they are expecting something frightful to spear however this is not always the case although within a horror movie it is very common within human nature to react this way when we are presented with a extreme P.O.V.

Semantics - (conventions of the film which communicate to the audience such as characters, music, props and locations).

• Home Setting

• Victim – casual clothing & casual setting – therefore she will expect the unexpected as she is presented as enduring a casual lounging day.

• Diegetic sound (Laughing) – a natural sound made by the protagonist to show happiness gives us an insight as the viewers what her personality is like as we watch this evolve throughout the movie.

• Diegetic sound of knocking which used throughout the film as the knock is the mysterious encounter.

• Locations – go from light and happy characters to dark and frightened characters.

• Squeak of the bathroom tap and the water running.

• The ringing and tone of the telephone as part of diegetic music.

• Baseball bat (protection), Toothbrush, Telephone, Laptop, Alarm Clock,Photograph.

• Sound of Crickets croaking unsure as

to whether the crickets were diegetic or non – diegetic as this film is set in America .

Syntactic-

(These concerns the relations between the semantics and the structure of the narrative within the genre).

Within a horror we are always presented with more than one character is this case the main protagonist is shown to be talking to her friend/boyfriend at the start of the film however quite commonly when there are only two characters present one character is always more threatened or more vulnerable than the other.

Overall Rating out of 10 &Aspects I may use and aspects which do not appear realistic.

Rating : 5/10

I have rated this movie 5/10 purely because it does not have the wow factor when it comes to editing as a lot of editing is needed to make a ridiculously good horror movie regardless of the genre in this case supernatural.A weakness I believe was the wasted 2 minutes at the start of the film with the conversation between the two characters having long un relative conversations which link with genre allows the audience to lose interest in the film.

Despite these criticisms within my film I will definitely use a lot of non-diegetic music in order to build that tension to keep my audience attentive and interested.