6 shot analysis of a short film in my chosen genre.

This is the first shot I chose to analyse as it happens quite early on in the film, this characters expression immediately leads us to believe he is a villainous person, he looks angry and this running along with his pointing finger makes us believe it is at her. You don’t get this image so much whilst watching the film, but when you are watching it you are lead to believe that there is something wrong with him.

This is the second shot I chose to analyse, I believe this shot is very important as there are many signs to look out for which gives us an impression on the rest of the film, the first is the gothic writing, we, the audience directly refer this to satanic or devilish meaning. The second is the drops of blood, this is a sign on its own, blood could mean pain, death, danger etc. but when these two signs are put together they can mean a completely different thing, I personally immediately thought of the typical conventions you see in horror films of this type, where a character makes a deal with the devil and it is signed in blood.

This is my third shot, this is a very picturesque shot and works well with the viewers imagination, it is a very powerful image and uses the typical horror conventions very well, the shaded outline of a man, with a hat on, a pointed nose and an object behind his back, these signs give the film a very mysterious feel, you can not see the characters face very well, but you can only just make out a smile which makes you think that this is all fun and games for the character. The hat itself complies with the conventions of a horror film; it is similar to ‘Freddy’ from the hugely successful horror ‘Freddy vs. Jason’. This characters hand is the only thing in light in this shot, it triggers some sort of significance, almost as if he is admiring it. We soon find out it does have significance as it is used to kill the other character.

This shot shows the character who was killed in the last shot with his neck sliced open. Blood is a signifier, but in this case the fact there is so much blood signifies something else that it was a very gruesome death. His arm is raised up as if he is pointing which leads the audience to believe he is still alive, but by the look on his face we can see he is most definitely dead. This signifies that he is possessed which complies with the earlier shot of the gothic styled book.

This is a very scary shot, there are many different parts that give us this feeling of fear, the first is the eyes, they are almost completely white what make us think that this character is not human, the skin tone is deadly white which makes you feel that the character is meant to look dead, which is a typical convention in horror films of this type, also the angle of the jaw looks almost dislocated which seems very horrific for the audience. All of this together builds up a strong villainous character.

This is the last shot in the film, leaving a very good cliff hanger. The shot shows a baby with a dark shadow looming over it. The baby represents dependency, how it is useless, which is a typical horror convention that horror films tend to make its audience feel to engage them. The child is completely helpless and this is the main reason babies are used in horror films. The dark shadow which is moving over the baby could represent how the baby is going from the light into the dark, the shadow also signifies mystery as we can not see this character but we still know it is there.