Script for My Evaluation Question 1 - Director's Commentary

Here is the script I've written for my director's commentary, which will answer evaluation question 1.

Q1.

Hi, my name is Joseph Fadlun. Welcome to my director’s commentary for my new slasher movie ‘One by One’. Today I will be talking about how I used conventions of the horror genre in my opening sequence and also about the ways that my opening sequence represents social groups and issues.

I began this project with detailed research into existing opening sequences, to get an idea of the common conventions of these types of scenes and to gain a better understanding of the different purposes of opening scenes. Because this was before I had come up with the idea for my narrative or even what genre I wanted my opening scene to be from, I made sure I looked at opening scenes from a range of different types of genres, because it would help determine if conventions remained similar regardless of the genre of film or if the genre meant that these conventions changed.

I analysed opening scenes for a horror film (‘Scream’), a rom-com (‘The Elephant in the Room’), an epic (‘Gladiator’), an action film (‘Skyfall’) and a science-fiction movie (‘Star Wars’). It was instantly apparent that even though these films belonged to different genres the opening sequences frequently introduced important characters and established their traits, and often focused on introducing the setting where the rest of the film’s action will take place.

In my opening scene for the slasher movie ‘One by One’ I decided to include establishing shots of the school, the setting where almost all of the films action will take place, but I also introduced the five characters (1 teacher and 4 students), highlighting briefly the character traits of each through their actions.

The four students in detention are represented as conventional characters associated with the horror genre: the nerd, the jock, the loner and the stoner – and I show each through the mise-en-scene and their body language as acting stereotypically. The nerd is typing away and wears classes, a prop or aspect of costume which is often shorthand in film for intelligence. The jock wears a varsity jacket and sits rolling his eyes as the teacher talks, with his feet up on the table. The loner also wears glasses and puts his ear pods in, shutting himself off from those around him, whilst the stoner is asleep.

To get a better understanding of my genre, I did lots of research into typical character types, themes and narrative structure of horror films and their opening scenes, and I also I did some research on short horror movies on the YouTube channel  ‘Gilmore Horror’.

During my research into opening scenes from the horror genre I also noticed that a popular convention or purpose was creating sinister and creepy atmosphere to unsettle the audience, to make them feel uncomfortable and to hook them into the narrative. This was particularly effective in the films I looked at such as ‘Scream’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Ma’, where the directors chose to withhold narrative information in order to intrigue the audience.

My film is a horror film in the style of ‘Longlegs’ (in terms of being low-budget), with many of the aspects of slasher movies where young characters are trapped against their will, doomed to die one-by-one, like ‘The Faculty’, ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ and ‘The Evil Dead’, and I felt that creating enigma for my audience would be an effective way to begin my film. 

As they leave detention, the 4 students are shown trying to exit the school, but are unable to do so. There is no explanation for this and when the nerd returns to the classroom to get help, she finds their teacher has been killed, only to find the body has disappeared when the rest of the students join her. As the narrative progresses they are killed one at a time by a mysterious entity or person who will not allow them to leave the school.

The use of the sinister non-diegetic music adds to the sense of unease and suspense and I hoped that by withholding the identity of the killer, and by creating the mystery of the body disappearing, this would encourage the audience to continue watching. Creating this puzzle also encourages active spectatorship, engaging the audience in the narrative as they try to determine the reasons for these strange events. 

The title of the film also creates enigma; though it reveals that they will die, one-by-one, it does not reveal the order, nor which of the characters will be alive at the end to take on the monster.

I also noticed during my research that production company logos appeared at the beginning of opening sequences and that horror films were often made by film companies that specialise in that genre. I also found that titles included the production companies, the names of the actors, the name of the director and other crew members, and the title of the film. I included all of these elements in my opening sequence, to make it feel as authentic as possible. My production companies – Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema and Blumhouse Productions – have all made many horror films, and my director and other crew members have all worked consistently within the genre.

I thought a lot about representation, particularly regarding the individual characters mentioned earlier. These are all typical characters found in within the horror genre, and I presented them stereotypically through costume and their figure behaviour. In terms of representing social groups, I thought most carefully about the representation of age and gender.

Apart from the teacher, all of my characters are young teenagers. Victims in many horror films, especially the slasher sub-genre, are commonly teenagers which makes them appeal to my target audience of 15-24 year olds. The characters’ ages is important in terms of the decisions they make in the film. The jock is arrogant partly because he is immature, and the stoner is irresponsible and makes bad life decisions because he is young. Their character traits are typical of the way young people are often portrayed in films, especially horror films. The other two students, the nerd and the loner, are presented atypically in terms of age. They are much more sensible than the others, more mature and more responsible. It is likely, therefore, that the audience will expect these characters to uncover the mystery and to survive the longest.

The character of the nerd is important in terms of the representation of gender as she is the only female character in the film. I hoped the audience might recognise her as the final girl character type – a strong, brave, intelligent and resourceful female character that has become very common in horror films. If the audience do recognise this, then they will probably expect that it will be her who takes on and defeats the monster by the end of the film.