1. 1. Click to watch!
2. 2. However, we feel as though we developed the trope of some unknowing teen dying at the beginning of a horror film, as it is Sebastian- a boy, who dies instead of conventionally a girl screaming and being killed after wondering through some woods or being attacked by a killer. This subversion of gender stereotyping of a girl dying at the beginning of film makes our media product different from convention, whilst still partially adhering to the convention. Despite this, the use of titles at the beginning of the film is very conventional to many horror films, showing the idents and having diegetic sound be heard off screen under titles. We did this to create the feeling of a horror opening.
3. 3. In the first shot, we see the bold text over the sound of feet walking. We chose this to be our opening as it adds tensions to the film, as we do not see whos footsteps they are, are they a threat? A friend? This is used often in many horror openings to credit the production company whilst also adding suspense. This was also used in the beginning of Saw, which I learned from my horror step outline. This is conventional of horror film openings, adding tension and mystery to the beginning of the film in order to get the audience more involved. This also occurs at the beginning of Halloween, a horror film with the same target audience as Exposure.
4. 4. The first shot we see of Sebastian is from ground level, of his feet. We did this as it places the audience in the shoes of the protagonist, watching him walk away and forces the audience to physically follow his journey, making them more inclined to follow his journey in terms of narrative. We introduced Sebastian and Daisy in the opening scene as it is conventional for horror films to introduce their main characters in their opening sequences. This is conventional to horror films, with Funny Games (2007) using a similar technique in the opening scene by having the camera follow the car and introduce the character in the car in the opening as we follow their journey whilst getting the feeling they are being watched. We chose to do this as it is conventional of the genre. Funny Games
5. 5. However, we subverted from convention of horror films by revealing the identity of the antagonist right at the beginning of the horror film in the opening. We did this because the zombie is not the central antagonist and there would be a variety of different zombies throughout the film who would be a threat to the protagonists so felt as though revealing the threat right at the beginning of the film would throw the audience into the dangerous world the protagonists live in, without the need for a secret identity for the antagonist as there would be no one major antagonist like there is in the beginning of A Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream where Wes Craven in both films keeps the identity of the killer hidden. Scream A Nightmare on Elm Street
6. 6. The final scene of our protagonist shows us that Daisy will be the Final Girl as she is the one that survives the beginning of the film, the ending of it on a cliffhanger connotes that she will survive until the end of the film as she survived the beginning. The trope of the final girl is conventional to the horror genre and so we incorporated this into our film. Scream is a good example of the use of a final girl through the use of Sidney Prescott, however she is not present in the opening scene and is introduced later in the film, different from our film.