...“Sounds vs. Visuals: Dawn of the Technological Advancement in Horror Films” Thesis Statement: According to students, thrill factor of a horror film relies on the technology used in filmmaking, with the quality of the sound effects being the aspect that matters the most. Furthermore, advancement in technology will sometimes guarantee an improvement on both the sound and visual effects and the overall quality of a horror film as well. I. Technology and horror film’s history A. Brief background about horror films 1. First years of horror 2. Horror’s increasing popularity B. Introduction to the technologies used in making a film in general 1. Differences between CGI and practical effects & the use of 3D 2. Sound effects as a plot device 3. Introduction to study II. Students’ opinions regarding the technological aspects of a horror film. A. Opinions of students to the visual effects present in a horror film 1 How visuals improved the “horror factor” of a horror film according to the students 2. Comparison between male and female student’s responses 3. Researcher’s analysis and interpretation B. Opinions of students to the sound effects utilized in horror film 1. How sounds improved the “horror factor” of a horror film according to the students 2. Comparison between male and female student’s responses 3. Researcher’s analysis and interpretation ...
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...Nineties impact on today’s American culture Nineties and eighties incidents, people and ideas made a great influence on modern American culture like family life and gender roles, music, fashion, film and television. This transactions started in Nineties with President Ronald Reagan and his economic policy called reaganoimcs. Which include more military spending to fight back communism, it helped to stabilize economy after the eighties’ stock market crash and more. At the same time, changes in music and other trends began to influence on nineties people, especially teenagers. Music and music artists had a great influence on nineties fashion, as well as modern fashion. And also, movies like horror genre became more successful. Both movie and television reflected more of reality than written scripts. Family life and gender roles started changing in nineties. Women were secure in their working roles and were not afraid to show their femaleness. This leaded to increase in gender equity. Most of them were two income families, which raised the chances for divorce. Husband and wife shared their household and child care responsibility equally. Nineties women became less dependent on men. Women are allowed to do anything that a male can do. Nineties people put more importance to their carrier than family and became selfish with no humanity. For example, in the movie American psycho, Patrick spend most of his time with his friends and discuss about who had the better suit, business...
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...Indeed, a person can perform gender, yet performance doesn't clarify why certain behaviors and ways for being, comes naturally than others. It doesn't catch the genuine physical and enthusiastic changes that a person encounter, performance doesn't start to address the way that, amid someone's move, the way a transitioning person may act the same, wear the same clothes that they generally had. When we discuss gender as if it were a performance, we let the group of observers,with every one of their desires, preferences, and assumptions, totally free as a bird. Gender is not just a performance, gender is confusing and a complicated mess that no one can really figure out. In “Dismantling Gender Polarization and Compulsory Heterosexuality: Should We Turn the Volume Down or Up?” Sandra Lipsitz Bem. In this article Bem...
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...The Descent The Descent (2005) is a horror film upon first appearances directed by Neil Marshall, who had previously had little work with the genre besides the 2002 film, Dog Soldiers. It falls under several categories in terms of subgenre; drama, action-adventure, horror, slasher and most importantly Urbanioa. It was built upon a relatively small budget of £3,500,000, but succeeded spectacularly with the box office and critics, grossing £34,400,00+ worldwide. The plot of the film is generally simple and generic of the Urbanioa genre, and can be summed up clearly. The main character, Sarah, suffers a tragic loss of her family in the introduction of the film that clearly impairs her mentally. One year later, her friends Beth, Rebecca, Sam and Holly, lead by Juno, to try and repair and return the group to its previous state by first aiding Sarah. They do this buy returning to what they love: sporting, and on this expedition, caving. When they reach a mark of about 3 kilometers underground, however, a rock collapses and blocks the access tunnel, trapping the group inside the cave. With limited supplies, they try to find a way out, but sooner they face an unknown and savage breed of predators. The Urbanioa genre is a recent phenomenon that deals with the conflict of clashing themes; the past and present/nature and the man-made society. Generically it follows a group or family of modern middle class white characters, each of which fulfilling a trope of sorts. They are usually...
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...Japanese film Ring can be compared to a big tsunami wave that not only became highest grossing horror film in the country, but also shuddered Taiwanese, Korean, Hong Kong film markets. Following years many publications included it to the numerous symbolic "top 10 most scary films" lists. And when Steven Spielberg bought the rights to make the Hollywood remake it was seen as official evidence that Japanese horror cinema became new trendsetter in this genre and gained cult status in the West. Nowadays with numerous follow-ups within the Ring franchise and triggered a trend of Western remakes "Ring" is viewed as exemplary illustrative Asian horror movie. I will argue that the wide success of the movie is caused not by its deep cultural ties with Japanese cinema and Japanese horror movies in particular, but because on the contrary "Ring" has little to do with its traditional background. Hideo Nakata deliberately cut off all the cultural traces in order to make cinematic language of the movie universal and cosmopolitan thus giving a way for its intercultural translation and to be easily replicated. In order to do it first I will analyze different Japanese merchandizing strategies and study the film as a media product. Second, I will briefly overlook history and main stylistic traits of Japanese horror movie genre. In my general overlook on Japanese horror cinema, I will focus on two main horror film sub-genres kaidan and ero guro and will give few examples of classical horror films...
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...Do the monsters and the victims in horror films have any connection to contemporary social issues? Answer with reference to one or two horror films of your choice. Name: Leopold Riess Course: IR 140 Global Communications, Citizens and Cultural Politics Word Length: 1902 Story telling is an art that has been part of the human civilizations since time immemorial. In the different parts of the world, be it in Africa, the Caribbean or the European nations, the early human societies would use narrations for a variety of purposes such as entertainment, passing time or more importantly to communicate the values, traditions and principles that governed the specific society (Tudor, 1997). With the emergence of different religious schools of thought, narrations and later film work developed an inclination towards the depiction of evil versus good. The descriptions of the horrific nature of hell and the terrible demons there in was meant to scare shaky religious affiliates from deserting their faith. Since then the development of the horror film genre has advanced. According to Hogan (n.d) the first ever horror film to be produced in America was Frankenstein by Thomas Edison. In the contemporary day, the production of horror movies has been exaggerated with hard headed teenagers being the most preferred characters. As a matter of fact, some horror movies such as Friday the 13th and Freddy Vs Jackson were so popular that they made 234.6 and 224.8 million US dollars respectively...
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...The trailer for the Silence of the Lambs sets the genre of the film as a thriller using various codes and conventions throughout the trailer and the quick establishment of the main character Starling who is a police officer. The use of a voice over allows the audience to know what is occurring and what the protagonist will have to face. The voice over explains severely murder have been occurring, the introduction of Starling allows he audience to have hope that she will be able to solve the murders. Starling is presented as being brave, telling the audience she “does not scare easily”. “At first the trailer begins with a non diegetic sound of a low tone soundtrack that eventually turns into a metal music with screams, this indicates to the audience that the rest of the trailer will be a dark heavy tale. The...
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...Trend of Horror Movie in Malaysia. Abstract This research is about the trend of horror movie in Malaysian cinema industry. This study will show why movie that were produced in Malaysia diverting to horror comedy genre. This study also will show that why demand of horror comedy genre increased. The objective to know whether this movie genre are giving impact on Malaysian social economy and to know to what extent of the trend of horror film. The research will be done by using survey techniques and will be given to 100 participants among the student population in UiTM Shah Alam. This study will show that horror comedy genre demand are more than horror genre. 1.Introduction In my opinion, horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience. These films are often unsettling and rely on scaring the audience through a portrayal of their worst fears and nightmares. Horror films usually center on the arrival of an evil force, person, or event. Horror film may become as an adventures to some people. This is because the film may play with the viewer emotions. According to Danielle Braff on his article about Movies may cause special effects on the body, he stated that the people who are fascinated by horror movies tend to be the same people who love to sky-dive, go rock climbing and try extreme skiing adventures. The horror genre allows them the opportunity to experience events and people who...
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...The Girl walks Home Alone at Night is a horror, romantic, and thriller movie directed by Ana Lily Amirpour. It’s about a lonely vampire that stalks the townspeople. The film is set in an Iranian ghost-town where it looks dead is a lonely town. It’s an Iranian vampire Western film about an untold love story of two tortured souls. One of who is stalking the town’s most depraved citizens. The vampire lady only stalks the male species who have done something wrong. Ana Lily Amirpour main point in creating such a film of this originality was to challenge the gender norms and make sure that people can see that women can and will be just as powerful as men in both the Western and Middle Eastern society. She did this in the film by making the vampire...
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... but is now regarded as a landmark film. Please discuss some of Romero’s aesthetic choices (lighting, camera work, casting) and the ways in which they reflect the reallife horrors of the time. Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George A. Romero was heavily criticized at the time of release for its uncensored content, but it revolutionized the horror film genre while influencing many horror directors. When this transitional film first premiered in 1968, renowned film critic, Roger Ebert found it as “an expression of acute nausea”. Ebert was disgusted and wondered how someone could make such as horrifying movie (Hoberman and Rosenbaum, 1991, p. 123). In 1960’s, the scary monsters or evil villains such as the Frankenstein were typical in the horror films but this Romero cut has been associated with the term of “splatter film” used to describe horror genres that depict graphic violence and gore for many years (Williams, 2003, p.21). After the end of Civil War, 1968 was the most violent year in American history (Hoberman and Rosenbaum, p.125). It was in a time of very high tensions in both international Cold War politics and social turmoil; domestic racism, gender stereotypes and patriarchal nuclear family. Also the civil rights movement was beginning to blossom along with the protestation of the Vietnam War, which many believed was unnecessary and entirely avoidable. Romero has successfully delivered a “message” in this political film, highlighting the frustration, anger...
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...values they both have in common, whether they are contain similarities or differences. Such texts which can be compared is Blade Runner is a film created by Wrigley Scott which was released in 1982, more than a century after the world renowned novel of Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley in 1818. With such concerning issues as technology advances and their impacts on the environment, class structures and the language styles and techniques used to convey these messages. Developing and reshaping a clearer and more concise understanding enhances the ideas and meanings within each text. As the creature from within the novel, Frankenstein, is created from the, what was seen as, advanced technology in a new way of writing and thinking was created for the audience of the 19th century. The ability to create life in a way which was deemed impossible, unrealistic and yet completely compelling to those which were exposed to this style of gothic horror fiction. This reflects on the time period of Mary Shelley although was not a typical way writers were expected to write and to appease their particular audiences. This developed my understanding of the technology and writing styles which became of further importance to the society making this book so widely popular with not only the audience of that century but of many centuries to come. With gothic horror a genre of fiction that was not commonly used in the 1800’s this widened my understanding of the story itself and the importance of the information...
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...Adorno (Audience Theory) Passive Consumption, Hypodermic Model (Frankfurt School): "A strong argument suggests that audiences may be passively affected by the sexist, violent representations in GTAV as it is a more realist text than other shoot em' up action adventure games. Young audiences ultimately may begin to view women differently and think that the aspirational violence is acceptable as a means to an end". Andy Medhurst (Representation Theory) Stereotyping is Shorthand for Identification: "One way that texts like Waterloo Road and Skins for example allow for audience identification is through stereotyping and giving characters an extreme representation". Angela McRobbie (Gender Theory) Post Feminist Icon Theory: "Lara Croft, Lady Gaga and Madonna for example could be identified as post feminist icons as they exhibit the stereotypical characteristics of both the male and female strength, courage, control and logic but also are willing to be sexualized for the male gaze. This control element of their own representation is crucial in understanding the theory". Baudrillard Hyper Reality: "Some texts are difficult to distinguish in terms of the representation of reality from a simulation of reality e.g. Big Brother. The boundaries are blurred as codes and conventions create a set of signifiers which we understand but in fact the representation is a copy of a copy". Uses and Gratifications Theory: "Different audiences gain different pleasures from a media...
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...gendered media norms from the perspective of the 1960s and 2000s Analysis of 1960s gendered media norms from the perspective of the 1960s and 2000s Univers Communications 30 Gendered film norms from the 1960s and 2000s: An Introduction From its most primitive years, popular films have discussed the part of gendered norms both on screen and as viewers. Actually, emphasizing its significance to different account and standard patterns, violence against women has been conceptualized as immanent in typical Hollywood and all over more recent popular cinema. Various feminist film theorists have judged conventional filmmaking as comprised of creation and display practices imbricate in a certain set of social and political power relationships. In the procedure, these writers have proposed complicated expression of the relationships between filmic representations and cinema's place in society. The mainstream feminist film theory that grew in the 1970s depended on the idea of cinematic equipment by the help of which film technologies interrelated with the ideological determinants of the cinematic associations. In her work, most remarkably the essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," (1975) Laura Mulvey stressed the problem of the female aspects in classical Hollywood and, particularly, in films of Josef von Sternberg and Alfred Hitchcock. Female spectators are presented with a choice to make out with either a male character or secondary female characters that, in Freudian terms...
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...Genesis A. Jimenez Professor Abigail Manzella English 2830 18 November 2014 Beyond Objectification: Ann Darrow’s real role in King Kong One of the most intriguing aspects of King Kong is the power of her visual effects. The multiple exposures, processed "shots" and a variety of angles of camera aim to provide viewers of 1930’s an escape from the severe economic depression before World War II. However, in King Kong the representation of the female role as an object of pleasure is somewhat disappointing for our society nowadays. In the entire film, we are not provided by strong traits of Ann Darrow’s personality other than her helplessness and common gender stereotypes. It seemed that Ann Darrow didn’t have anything else to offer other than being the endangered beauty of the film. King Kong objectifies and enhance one aspect of Ann Darrow in the entire movie: her physical beauty, apparently her only role is to be the object of desire or wealth for Kong of the principal male roles in the film. My goal in this paper is to show that situation and her complexity, how that portrayal of Ann Darrow’s character determines the continuity of the movie and her genre. Clearly Merian C. Cooper y Ernest B. Schoedsackare portray Ann’s character in order to don’t deviate and enhance the overall concept of an adventure film and produces greater meaning to the final quote: "The beauty killed the beast" and the evidence brought in this paper helps to support my belief. In the scene when Carl Denham...
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...Film Noir and Romance: It’s No Fairy Tale Baby Film Noir may not seem like a very romantic subject considering how many of the couples in the films are eventually lead into their death or a prison term. There are some romantic aspects to these type of cinema. Even if a couple does have a tragic end, there is always some sort of romance in the middle. It could be lust or love, but it is usually there. While all Film Noir never ends as fairy tale, an audience can look at most of the films and see how love, or lust, can drive people to do despicable acts of crime. Before describing how romance and the many varying types of love appear in Film Noir, it is important to understand the different gender roles each character plays. The male protagonist paired with a femme fatale is the usual leading roles in a Film Noir, but that isn’t a hard set rule. Men can play the male victim, damaged men, a private eye, a psychopath, or a homme fatal, (Spicer 85). Women can also play a variety of roles such as the nurturer, the good-bad girl, the female victim, or a femme fatale, (Spicer 90). Male victims can be a protagonist who just gets trapped in the web of lies weaved by a beautiful woman, a femme fatale. The damaged man is usually a veteran who has a hard time adjusting to society after war or a police officer who loses control. After seeing so much violence it is hard for some men to see the world as a happy place. These men are usually paired with a nurturing female character. A private...
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