Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Adrienne Chavez
Professor McClure
Writing 39B
5/17/2017
For this rhetorical analysis assignment, I worked with my group to make a film that
reflected the fears of our intended audience. Our film was made to be shown to my
instructor and peers in the writing 39B English class and so as a group we agreed that we
wanted to create something that would appeal and relate to the majority of our audience.
According to the article Horror Films by Tim Dirks, Senior Editor and Film Reviewer for
AMC Networks, Horror Films are unsettling films designed to frighten and to invoke our
hidden worst fears while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic
experience. At this school, midterms are constant and nonstop and so we made the main
issue for out protagonist stress, because she has to balance doing well in school with a
social life. The cultural context of this film is about UCI students in a modern college setting
so that the film could be relatable to the audience. The text that we wrote for this film
focused slightly on dialogue and mostly on setting and actions thats would take place to
make this film fulfill the horror genre characteristics. Most of the dialogue takes place at
the beginning of the film and so words play a small role in the film. The genre of the film is
horror and so we focused our film in less on words and more on action to bring the desired
effect. The setting in out horror film is a trope that can be recognized in a lot of horror
situations according to the website TV Tropes. Our film is an embodiment of anxieties that
modern
college
students
face
when
choosing
to
pursue
higher
education.
We
wanted
our
Chavez
2
film to fulfill the qualities of horror presented in Nol Carrolls article, The Nature of Horror
understanding of the horror genre by fulfilling the typical qualities expected of the horror
genre. In order to do this, my group and I used cultural context to parallel the actual fears
and stress that our audience faces. The cultural context of our film is about a modern
college student at UCI. We focused on the culture that surrounds our audience and
ourselves. Midterms are always constant and so this leaves a lot of us with stress over
studying enough and doing well in class to receive good grades. According to Nol Carroll
in The Nature of Horror, the current ascendancy of the genre of horror may be the mass
popular expression of the same anxiety concerning criteria that preoccupies the more
esoteric forms of postmodernism. This means that the art of horror often focuses on a
popular anxiety among the audience that it is intended for. Many college students face
stress because of the pressure that is placed by them and often times also parents. Many
people feel the need to do the same and fear that there is never enough time to study
enough our do everything as well as they would like. Tim Dirks states [h]orror film can
be extremely potent film forms, tapping into our dream states and the horror of the
irrational and unknown, and the horror within man himself. We accomplished this by
creating a protagonist that is under pressure from her mother to balance everything and do
well in all of her classes. The monster in this film terrorizes the protagonist and other
characters much like stress is constant and is always affecting someone. For out film we
made the monster a metaphor for the stress that terrorizes many college students. The
monster
in
this
film
only
goes
after
students
that
are
stressed
about
school.
This
Chavez
3
demonstrates the cyclic patterns of stress among college students and how it will continue
Another way that we added horror qualities to our film is through the tropes that
we chose to use. One of the main tropes that we used is that the protagonist enters an
increases the surprise when it turns out that the place isn't really abandoned. This is the
perfect setup to give the character vulnerability and give the monster unmatched strength.
In our film project, the protagonist enters a bathroom alone and is reluctant to leave once
she notices that things are strange despite there being signs that she should leave. The
abandonment helps to build suspense and once it is revealed that the protagonist is not
alone the film is able to invoke fear in the audience. She is alone to witness the monster and
so this creates an uneven struggle between her and this interstitial being. Even when the
protagonist in the film tries to escape, the door does not open and there is no one else
around besides the monster to hear her cries for help or to do anything to stop her from
being attacked. The monster in our film appears to be human girl with some unsettling
attributes that make her a typical horror trope. Her face is never revealed which adds a
sense of mystery and fear that the monster cannot be identified like in slasher films where
the murderer is rarely reveled. Her arms and legs are also covered in blood, which
demonstrate that some damage has been done. Limbs should not be covered in blood
normally and so this demonstrates that the monster has either gone through damage and
perhaps is willing to do the same to its victims. The bloody eye is also a very important
trope that we used in the film to cause a bit of discomfort and fear in the audience.
our body or our eyes, so too do they get absolutely sickened by the thought of something
horriblehappening to our faces. The bloody eyes show something abnormal and the fact
that they are in our protagonist and monster demonstrates that the two might be similar
and connected. An audience is inclined to support the protagonist and so by making the
For this assignment, I helped to contribute to making the horror film by being an
actress and an editor. I was girl 2 and my role was very small and brief. My character is a
representation of what everyone else tends to see, which is normalcy. The role of my
character says few lines but she is only able to see the surface and is unable to see that
anything terrorizing will happen. My character is not able to understand that stress that
terrorizes those around her because she does not care to look for it. As an actress, I helped
to write the lines for my character in this final scene in order to make everything seem
natural and as natural as possible. I also helped to give input on the scenes I was in. I
adjusted my lines and also suggested where the scenes begin so that the entrance would be
Another role I had in this film is as the editor. I was responsible for putting the
whole film together. Since there were many takes and many shots of the same scene taken
from different angles taken it was difficult to make everything work as seamless as possible
and sometimes it was difficult to make scenes work together. In order to make the editing
work well, I was also there during the entire filming process. Although I was not a major
actor or had a major role in the whole filming experience, I had to be present in order to
observe how everything was being filmed and take note of the best scenes and how the
takes
should
be
placed
in
order.
I
worked
a
lot
with
Diana,
who
was
in
charge
of
filming,
to
Chavez
5
make sure that the shots were made from the same angles so that transitions between
takes could fit well together. We wanted the scenes to be clear and portray the desired
effect. One of they trickier scenes to film was the one with the girl with the bloody legs. It
was a very brief scene but it was difficult not to get shots that were too high and showed
Sharon or Nellys pants because they are supposed to be in the bathroom. It would be
difficult to know how to make everything work without being there in order to understand
the experience. Since the filming did not take place in order, I had to rearrange and choose
the best scenes so that they would work well together. I also added sound effects and music
to the film. The sound is more important than I had realized because it can help to alter the
audience reaction to the film and so getting the music to work well with the scenes was
more challenging than I anticipated. A lot of times the music did not work well with the
pace at which the characters were moving in the film and so a lot of time I was dedicated to
making it work well with the film itself. I put the film together as we filmed so that we
This project has taught me about my ability to work well with others as well as how to
understand and compromise. The more people that are in a group in a group, the more
group because everyone can take a role within the film and different ideas and criticisms
are present. One example of this is when we wrote the first draft of the script. A member of
the group was confused by the purpose of the knocking sounds the protagonist heard. After
explanation, the group member was still confused and so this allowed us to know that we
should
not
have
to
explain
so
much
what
we
are
trying
to
show
so
this
pat
of
our
film
is
Chavez
6
weak. We added more and changed a bit of the script so that it could be clear that the
knocking was a sign of an ominous presence. This worked out well because the confusion
ideas well together and finding a time for everyone to meet together because everyone has
such different schedules. I think we focused on Dianas ideas because she had the best ones
and so we wrote the script around that. I also feel that some people did more work than
other because it is difficult to distribute the work evenly when there are five people
working on one assignment. I do not think that anyone tried to slack off, it just happened to
be that some people contributed more to the project than others. I think that overall the
group worked well together to get the script and filming done and was very respectful of
each other.
Chavez
7
Work Cited
Carroll, Noel. "The Nature of Horror." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 46.1 (1987).
Dirks, Tim. "Horror Films." Film Site. American Movie Classics Company, n.d. Web. 17 Mar.
2017.