Textual Analysis - The Smiling Man

 The Smiling Man (2015) is a 7 minute production done in the USA by Writor and Director A.J. Briones. It's about a little girl who's home alone and finds herself face-to-face with pure evil, the budget for this production is Unknown as the company Defiant Images has not revealed that information.

This is the film productions name and effectively their ident. The ident itself doesn't have any music or sound effects to it but just a fade in and fade out transition, sometimes special effects aren't needed as a simple ident can add a sinister vibe to the production before it even starts, just like how Defiant Images did with their white text on the black background, sometimes having too much involved in an ident and take the effect away from the beginning mood of a production but also if it's too long the audience will get bored before it's even begun.

Usually an establishing shot would be used to show the location however, in this short film a medium shot of the house is used to show it which works just as well, the audience can also see some of the sky in the right side of the frame connoting that it's late in the evening as it's slightly dark and the house front lights are on, this time of day is typical for a film in the horror genre, a lot of films use this time of day to set the environment and tone for their film. Another thing is, the house itself seems modern and well locked after which is unusual for a locaiton in a horror film as usually they take place in urban environments or abandoned locations.

The previous shots fades to black and then the camera slowly pans to the left, as though it is through someone else's eyes as they peer around the corner, revealing the small child innocently watching TV which is the main sort of flick as it flickers on and off. Children are often used in horror films to show the innocence but can also be used to make the audience uncomfortable. You can hear the faint noise of the TV but no soundtrack. The child's costume is almost a stereotypical cute, child outfit; with the pig tails, the dungarees, yet again emphasising the innocence and normality of this child.

In this shot the little girl in in the middle of the frame but out of focus and everything else in front of her is in focus, this connotes to the audience what they should be focusing on. The lighting from the TV at the beginning flickered however, now it doesn't making the lightening in the room completely still and smooth which emphasis the shadow even more (in the red circles in the screenshot) it makes the movement of the shadow even more dramatic and sharp. As the shadow moves you hear a faint 'whoosh' sound that stops as the shadow disappears, this adds to the tension already created an it confirms that someone or something is there but this also goes with the typical horror convention of something lurking in the dark or the shadows.





The red balloon against the beige/white corridor makes it stand out and making it the main focal point for the audience. Not only that, it makes the balloon seem out of place as though without the audience having to be told they know the balloon shouldn't be there adding tension within the audience. A balloon itself usually represents fun and celebration and for it to be put in a suspenseful scene it makes the audience uncomfortable. During this shot, as the child gets closer to the balloon a series of violins begins to play getting slowly louder; this is symphonic sound, sound performed by an Orchestra where as we get further into the scene more string instruments join in.

The couple of violins from the previous few shots instantly picked up to a higher, faster pitch which is a convention within horror films, to have an extreme but intentional change in the pitch to shock the audience which goes well with this shot especially as a dismantled barbie isn't the usual weight for a balloon. The shot also has a depth of field meaning the background is out of focus and the barbie doll is the main focus showing it's importance to the audience but also so that the audience can't look at anything else.

No matter what's happening in the horror film there's always a self closing door or creaking floor board. Here we have a POV shot of the little girl looking up at a door slowly closing, having a POV shot can make the film feel more personal to the audience and make them feel apart of it. All the violins have gone quite and all you can hear is the door; this creates a calming aura around the shot calming the audience down. With the door being in the back of the shot the audience would have to focus on it harder which then leads them up to the next shot which has a shock.

Because the audience would be more relaxed and focusing hard on the previous shot having this shot following would make the audience jump even more. Yet again they use the extreme change in pitch but also a sudden burst of violins and cellos to shock the audience out of their calm and relaxed mood. Also, the placing of the door from the previous shot and the hand in the next one are in the same column (using the rule of thirds) and is where the audience would be most focused on, meaning they can't miss it. With using the young child to begin with would make the audience uncomfortable as no one wants to see a child get injured or be in danger but for the audience to now be aware that there is something or someone in the house with her will add to the tension and suspense, especially with have the hand with long finger nails and dirty hands almost like a stereotypically witches hand, who are also known to be evil.

The shot before this one you see the same hand that touched the girl hair but it scrapped against the kitchen counter and then dissapeared around the corner. Here we see a reaction shot without having to actually see the girls face, she stops walking towards the kitchen and the music picks up, a mixture of strings and windpipe instruments. By doing this is connotes something is going to happen and then as the girl starts to walk towards the kitchen again the instruments get slightly faster creating suspense and tension, having the audience on the edge of their seats but also creating one of those typical horror film scenes where the audience shout at the screen "don't go in there" it draws the audience in to what's happening and they continue watching to see what happens next.

This shot is a birdseye view of the little girl walking into the kitchen towards whatever or whoever is behind the counter who is slightly in the frame, by having them only slighlty in the frame it lets the audience know they're present without having to give their identity away which is actually a popular thing to do in horror films. By having the shot birdseye view it makes the audience feel almost superior to both the child and the thing behind the counter as they can see where both are and how close they are to each other whereas, within the scene the characters don't know this, this can also highten the audiences mood from before of the "don't go in there" cliche. Another thing is the balloons ther girl is holding, red and blue are typical, popular colours for balloon however, black is not and seeming as it was the last balloon it could connote how the scene gets darker in a sense of what's going to happen as she gets closer and closer to the kitchen. Also, as it cuts to this shot all harmonies from the soundtrack stopped and it was just a continuious low pitched windpipe instrument accompanied by the shuffling created by whatever is behind the counter, adding to the already large amount of tension and suspense.

In the first shot the camera pans to the left revealing what is known as The Smiling Man. The man is looking directly into the camera which is usually avoided at all costs as it can be seen as breaking the fourth however, when done correctly it is an audience pleasure; it's safe to say that in this short film it was done correctly as it doesn't take away anything from the scene but instead it adds to it, by having the man look directly into the camera it will give the effect that he is looking right at the audience making them feel uncomrtable and in the hot spot. The position of the man, his body language and his apprence connotes that he's not exactly your average person. Having the black around his eye highlights his eyes and makes them stand out even more then they usually would but also he has his head titlted down and he is looking up into the camera making him seem mad and ultimatly very creepy. The next shot counteracts the first one, the first impression the audience will get of this man is that he's creepy and possibly evil but then he starts performing some kind of magic trick where he makes a red ball appear. Balloon and magicians are usually things you'd find at a young childs birthday party so this connotes that he's trying to make the child like him or something like that, this could cause the audience to second guess their impression about him and think maybe he's a good guy, weird but good, he almost seems child like himself. Also, just like the red balloon; the red ball stands out again him making it a main focus point in the shot. Another thing to add about the man's apperence is his teeth, they're sharpen at the ends to make then look like shark teeth which is a animal high at the foodchain and sterotypically known to be vicious, deadly and a predator so therefore, this man could be assoicated with those things connoting he is the antagonist of this production which is the first impression the audience would of got from him.

Ths shot above was followed by the little girl smiling and then by this one where he rolls the ball over to her, I have seen this shot used in a few films and TV series before such as Amerian Horror Story: Murder House which was used in a similar context. By the man doing this is connotes that he could be scared or hesistate to go close to the little girl as though he's scared of her and is trying to gain her friendship or impress her through this magic trick but also,  with having the shot of little girl smiling shows that she's not scared of him which is the complete opposite of what you'd expect from something like this, this would cause mixed emotions within the audience as they second guess themself on the situation but it also makes them draw in closer to the film as they want to know who this person really is.

In the scene leading up to this shot the man puts up his hand as though he's going to do another magic trick and then you see him wipe what looks like bloody on his forehead. the previous shots lead the audience into a false sense of security as the production had them second guessing themselves. The soundtrack leading up to this shot get's higher with each loop until he actually wipes the blood on himself where more instruments joined in, this added tension and mystry to the scene as it connoting to the audience that something was going to happen and would have them on the edge of their seats, also adding to the mystry side of things is where did the blood come from, who's is it? The shot itself created a 'gasp' moment for the audience as they learnt that they were right to begin with but then it also confirms that this child is possibly and most likely in danger, making them hate this character for even the possibilitg that they would hurt or firghten this child. Yet again this shot is breaking the fourth wall by looking directly at the camera, giving the effect that he is looking directly at the audience almost taunting them as he wipes the blood on his face which does at tension to the shot but also makes the audience uncomfortable and possibly annoyed, maybe even frightened themselves.

The man makes out as though he's going to do a third magic trick except this time the audiences mood won't be as relaxed as it was before and they'll expect soemthing bad. In the first shot the man reveals a women that was hidden behind him, from his hand gestures and expression it connotes that he looks impressed with himself and happy to show off this women who we can see from the her pale skin and the bloody stained, plastic sheet that she's wrapped in, she isn't in fit condition. His hand gestures are positioned in a 'ta da' way which is then backed up by the man himself making a very high pitched ta da, this is the only sound you can hear as any non-diegetic has faded off, making the scene nervously quite. As the man moved and turned to reveal the women the camera focus rolled so that the depth of field changed without having to cut away, by doing this it emphasised the women menaing the audience would follow the focus of the camera and instantly see the women providing them with shock and confusion. The second shot shows a close-up of the womens face, just by looking at her the audience will know that this women is either dead or dying as she's not moving, her fake is extremely pale, she had faint but visible black rings around her eyes, her lips are also very pale. In this shot you can slightly hear the very creepy and evil laugh from the man which is layered over lovw pitched windpipe instruments slowly building up, as the instruments build up the women took a slow breath in and then as it dropped lightly she exhaled and then didn't do it again, by having her breathing to match the sountrack can also be an audience pleasure and shots matched with the soundtrack is also found to look better and be more effective but also showing her breathing connotes to the audience that this was her last breath and from the little girls reaction it's revealed to the audience that she knew this person and could suggest that this is her mother yet again making the audience feel uncomfortable that a small child is in this situation.

When the man first put blood on himself I said it could raised the question to the audience of "who's blood is that?" and as if to answer their question there is this scene which at first I didn't notice until I watched it through again which also adds the the effect/message it has. In the puddle of bloody the man is about to wipe his hand through is the reflection of the women connoting that it's her blood, backing up she's dying or dead, he then wipes his hand through it and you can no longer see her reflection which also connotes that he has a message of how easily he can just wipe someones life away, this isn't something the audience would instantly think about but they would be more worried about the little girl and what this man is doing as he is now clearly the antagonist. Also, in the right side of the frame what I think is his knee and leg, you can see a dirt, ragid strings of cloth that's out of focus however you can still see what it is, up til now we're oly seen the top half of the man and now we see that the man is wearing clothing but it's not the traditional clothing of trousers and and t-shirt yet again connoting that he is not an average person at all.

In this shot the man is breaking the fourth wall again with the audience which is a continious thing within this production yet only the man does it. The man has finished wiping the blood on his face and the one one his mouth is edged up in the form of a smile which refers back to the productions name "The Smiling Man." Also, the way he has applied the blood is the same style as a clowns which is an iconic character to be used in horror films as they are a very popular fear but also just like the balloons and the magic tricks; something you'd find at a child's birthday party which connotes a certain theme throughout this production. And unlike before the women was hidden behind the man whereas now she is out of focus but visible in the background.

This shot is similar to one that was done previously however, this time you have the man's hand reached out towards the child in a 'shushed' gesture. As the man reaches out towards the child this would cause the audience to be on the edge of their seats as it connotes that the child is in danger however, when he changes his hand into the shush gesture, even though it's very creepy and scary it connotes that the man isn't going to hurt the child but instead want them to keep quite about what he's showed her as though just like before where it seemed as though he was trying to impress her and gain her friendship is connotes that maybe somehow in his mind he thinks that by showing her all of this they will keep this secret begin them just like friends would which also connotes that this has a psychological theme and sub-genre to it. The next shot is another one that breaks the fourth wall where it's an extreme close-up/POV shot of his eyes with the finger shushing the little girl. You can see that's it's a POV shot as the camera is shakey connoting it wa sa handheld shot but also this would make the audience feel apart of this and conenct with the young girl and put themselves in her shoes. As the shot begins to fade to black the man goes out of focus and the depth of field becomes extremely shallow so that just before the screen cuts to black you can see the finger of the man on the screen also like a shadow, this shifts the audiences focus from the eye of the man to his finger as if to remind them also to keep what they'd seen a secret.

As the previous shot fades to black it acts as a transition to the title sequences which flows really well and wouldn't break the focus of the audience, the violins and string instruments from the previous scene also continue onto the title sequences "The Smiling Man." The title sequence is similar to their ident where they have the simple white text on a black background which can also be a good thing as the audience doesn't have too much to look at so they can easily see title. The shots following were the credits with the same white text and a black background but this time in a more coporate, blocky font then the title sequences which had more of a grunge effect, suiting the production.

Idea Development

I came up with some ideas and then did some with development for each, I thought about what I could and couldn't realistically do for each. After much consideration I decided that Idea 3 is the one we want to take further. I chose this idea because realistically it is something I can produce without a large budget and with limited resources, not only that we feel more passionate about this idea whereas, with the others we didn't feel that. The idea itself allows me to explore a different genre and different techniques within camera movement, lighting, editing etc. ultimately widening our range of  knowledge.

Over the course of the past week, I have been looking more in depth into the idea and coming up with alternate plots and horror conventions it could follow. By doing this I now have a rough overview of the plot followed by a few character concepts, certain camera movements that would look good within it (for example: panning), editing techniques, the narrative the plot would follow (for example: flashbacks), some mise-en-scene such as; costume, lighting, make-up and props.


These are the main ideas I have for now (in chronological order):

• A group of 3-5 friends (teenagers) go to a location (abandoned, run down, old, creepy) during the evening/early night around 9pm. 
• There's a shot from within the house (INT) and someone is standing looking out the window where you can see the friends walking up to the house. 
• The friends walk into the old, abandoned house. In horror films teenagers are conventionally known to be stupid and immoral so we were going to have two or one being loud and almost disrespectful, another convention is to have a dumb blond or a hesitant person that doesn't want to do it; we thought we would mix these two conventions together can have one character representing them both. The other characters are yet to be decided but will most likely end up being casual teenagers.
• We would have a shot of the person that was standing in the window now standing next to a door way and the audience can see they're there but the teenagers can't so we'll have one of the teenagers walk through the door having the audience expect them to see the person however, we'd then change the shot to focus on the teenager and the person won't be there, causing some tension and mystery. 
• We'd now focus on the teenagers for a little bit where the one(s) being loud would suggest playing the Ouija Board they'd brought however, the hesitant one wouldn't be so sure and then reveal that the house they're at is actually the death place of their former friend and it's either is or close to the 1-2 year anniversary of their death. 
• The teenagers begin to play the Ouija Board  and the first time they do it and it moves it was really one of the teenagers who moved it which is a typical cliche for a Ouija Board scene however, we were thing of doing that so they we can use a conventional sound effect where there is a dramatic pitch change to shock the audience and then we reveal it wasn't really anything and they calm down to only to be shocked again later.
• The teenagers would then start again, this time it would be for real and we had an idea to put the camera in the middle where the board would be placed and have it spin in a 360 degree circle to not only show all the reactions of the teenagers in one continuous loop but also so that one the first 360 spin there will be no one in the background but on the second one the person from before will emerge from the shadows and we feel have it all one take would be it even more effective and impactful.
• We haven't fully decided yet if we'd cut away from the 360 degree at this point or have the camera stop moving but the person would then reach down brushing very closely past one of the teenagers to put their hand on the Ouija Board and continue to move it, the teenager wouldn't even flinch as they reach down because they can't actually see them.
• There would then be a fast pace sequence made up of the Ouija Board piece moving and reaction shots from the teenagers, some with the person in view and some without. 
• If the one rule everyone knows about a Ouija Board is that you take take your fingers off, so of course we're going to have the hesitant/dumb character take their fingers off the board.
• That character would then stand up refusing to continue, slowly backing away from the board, she then trips and hits her head causing her to be knocked due to this she then enters an 'inbetween/limbo' where she's able to see this unidentified person who will be revealed in that scene by the character that it is actually the friend that died here.
• An idea that we have thought of but not 100% sure will happen is that the dead friend will then crave some kind of symbol into the character's cheek which then appears on the character's face in the real world where her friends begin to panic as a result and with help from their friends the character would wake up and reveal the news to the rest of the teenagers.
• The next chunk is a part that me and Ronan haven't developed as much as the other parts however, the idea we have is for the dead friend to almost attack the teenagers and possibly kill them in ways that relate to ways that they might have been horrible to them or even had a part in killing them, if we were to kill off the characters we decided we would have their deaths relate to something they'd done to the dead friend and to show this to the audience there would be very quick flashback scenes to what they did between it all. 
• We've also decided that we would have it so that the hesitant/dumb character would be left alive, injured but alive and she would leave the house in panic and screaming and the dead friend would be standing in the door way with blood all over their face, with almost a menacing smile on their face.
• Then possibly in a few years time or another year someone would be walking up to that same house, in daylight this time and they would go to place down flowers, next to the already dead ones and as they look up they're met face-to-face with the dead friend they would also show the a scar on the characters cheek letting the audience know it is the one that was left alive, unchanged from when the audience last saw them and the screen would either cut straight to black after that shot or the camera pans round to an over-shoulder shot (should of the hesitant character) revealing more of the dead friend but then also showing the rest of the characters from the previous scenes also in blood standing behind the first one and then it cuts to black.

Target Audience

In previous years the target audience for the productions I've done is a lower age however, this year I have made my production a certificate 15 meaning that it's appropiate for people age 15 and above to watch it but anyone below 15 years old isn't adviced. I chose this certifcate because we felt that the idea we have for my production is on a mature level, both graphically and internally. I did consider uping the age however, the next certificate up was 18, meaning only people 18 and above allowed to watch it however, I thought that this was too high, so seeming as our production wouldn't have any crude language in it or any majorly grusome or violent scenes we felt it was appropiate for a certifate 15, by having this certifcate that would mean my main target audience will range from 15 years old to a possible 20 years old as horror films intertest a wide range of age groups.
 



To help me decide which certificate and target audience was best suited to our production I looked at some other horror films such as:

I looked at films I knew had some elements the same as the idea for my production. For example, Ouija has a giant element in common with my idea (explained in inital ideas and idea developments) a Ouija board and paranormal involvement therefore, I thought it would also be a good idea to look that film's target audience and certificate because it gives a clear indication to what mine should be. While searching through IMDB at a range of horror films I noticed that the majority of horror films are either a 15 or 18 with the odd 13 PG/ 12A , all of the 15 and 18 ones are put into the R for restricted catergory. I did look at a certificate 18, Clown and even by looking at the poster you can see it a lot deeper into the horror genre then the others, clowns are already a well known scary horror convention and I felt that my idea didn't go in the same direction as theirs which was the Clown being at a a childs birthday party and ultiminatly ends up killing, even though the inital plot does involve killing it's more to the plot-line of Carrie where it's becuase of revenge and has more of a meaning but it's done in a much less grusome way then in the Clown.  All of these films helped us decide my final conclusion of having my production a certifcate 15 with a target audience ranging from 15 years old to 10 years old, it could possibly reach 20 years old.

Not only has going through these films helped me decide the certificate and target audience for my film but it's also helped me come up with further developments for the initial production idea.

Initial Ideas/Conventions Of Horror

Response To Brief

Straight off the bat I knew I wanted to do moving image, there was no doubt about it, I wanted to do moving image because I felt it's the area I'm strongest in but also more passionate about. So from the 14 brief choices I picked my top 3: Music Video, Film Trailer or Short Film. Some ideas I had for the three briefs was:
Music Video: Most likely a recent pop song that we both enjoyed using lots of things relating what the song it trying to get across, maybe even a story within the music video.
Film Trailer: Would most likely be a trailer to a horror film, involving teenagers.
Short Film: Just like the film trailer, it would most likely be in the horror genre where there would be a paranormal element to it.
After I came up with small ideas for each one, I then decided to pick, drum roll please...

I chose the short film because I felt it was the most challenging and with this being A2 I didn't want to play it safe. Plus I thought it would be the most interesting to do as with previous years I have only done an opening to a film, so to be able to develop the story with a full beginning, middle and end but at the same time keep it only 5 minute is something I haven't done before but something I want to try. Following the short film I picked the two ancillary task: A movie poster of the short film and a review page for the short film. I personally have a lot of experience with moving image but not as much with print, so I feel that this is will give me the chance to expand my knowledge and skills.

WELCOME

 

Last year for my AS Media Production I worked with two fellow media student, Ronan Johnson and Honesty Bradshaw. We researched, planned and produced a film opening to an action adventure film, here's the link to my AS Blog : http://maddyflaherty.blogspot.co.uk .

The final product turned out good in terms that's it looked professional because we used format and genre conventions and also considered all aspects of the production (editing, lighting etc.) and a few things that went well within the process of the production, and the production itself was the communication we had as group and we would know what each person was doing and if someone needed to pick up the pace we could easily communicate to make sure that was done and the objective and deadlines were met, this also helped us overcome any obstacles we faced such as the camera dying during film, water issues. Instead of just falling apart we sorted it out and pushed to finish. In previous productions we have stuck to just one location whereas, this time we switched between three locations which impacted the production in the best way possible and also, we limited dialogue as none of us are anywhere close to professional actors and by doing this it didn't make the production corny or slightly cringe worthy due to bad acting, this result is something we've definitely taken into account as we've started our A2 Media Production. Another thing that worked well was the flow within putting work up but also within the blog. I personally always tried to make sure I put at least 2 pieces of work up a week to keep it consistent and so that I didn't fall behind and didn't have enough time to film. In the production the flow of the clips worked well as we knew what shots we needed to get before hand, plus we also had the soundtrack pre-hand to match them to, which I found was more effective.

There's always something that could use improvement and within the process of our AS Production and our final product there were a few things such as, the locations. Even though I did say that something that went well was the switch between the locations, the locations themselves weren't the best because they didn't really follow the conventions of the horror genre but also, they didn't help set the tone for the production whereas, this time we want o work hard in finding a location to make sure we really meet the conventions which we hope would make the end product more powerful. This year we aim to find a location that really captures and adds to our production.
A big thing was the soundtrack, it's an area I'm not particularly strong in however always end up doing, I felt that as a team we should of spent more time researching and finding a good and appropriate soundtrack. Another thing I mentioned that went well was the limitation of dialogue, which I stand by however, it did have it's disadvantages. Sometimes narrative and dialogue can offer a quick back story to help the audience understand events that could take place over years, in minutes. Due to us not really doing any of that I felt that out storyline wasn't the clearest and that's something to keep an eye on in our the A2 production. Moving onto the blog work etc. within the team we did find ourselves on different sections a lot and I personally did like to do things in bulk and I like to go into depth and sometimes this led to other team members just using my posts but not understanding them so this time round me and Ronan have decided to divide work out to help each other with the work load but also, so that we are both on the same page and know what's going on when.

A big goals for my A2 Production is getting the perfect location as it can set the tone for the whole production. Also, doing way more testing with the camera before officially filming, which is something we didn't do last year but I feel could be very helpful.

I put a lot of detail into my AS Media Blog however, I want to put even more into my A2 one especially with there being two secondary tasks, I want to do them all to the best of my ability and to do so I need to make sure i leave enough time for each one and do effective research for each one.

Another goal is to do more research into the soundtrack and sound effects so that I can use them as effectively as possible when editing.

Also, from the ideas we have at the moment it looks like there's a possibility that we will be filming during the evening meaning I want to do some detailed research into filming in dark locations so that the footage can look the best it can.

Lastly, another big goal, is to take the stuff that didn't go well in my AS Production and to be able to put them in a what went in within my A2 Production.