Reflection 1 – Analysing Short Horror Films

In our first week of classes, our class was put into groups and tasked with finding a short horror film that could be classified as ‘Post-Horror’, before showing it to the class and explaining the characteristics that align it with this genre. The group I was in found a horror short titled ‘In Sound We Live Forever’. The short followed a couple in a remote location who are hunted and eventually killed by a mysterious stranger. The first half of the 10 minute flick is absent of any physical performance, with the audience only hearing the events unfold, and being shown what remains of the killers first attack. Whilst watching the short, I instantly noticed the vibrant, pretty colour scheme, with the slick red car perfectly matching the natural colours of the grass, and blue sky. The story instantly made me think of slasher/crime films such as ‘Zodiac’ and ‘Scream’, although the style in which the film was made appeared almost at times like a ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ or generally more light hearted romance. This led me to discover a key factor in post horror, that although the over arching story may remain the same (e.g. haunted house, ghosts, murderer, cult), it is the experimentation with that genre that makes a film fit into the post-horror category. ‘In Silence We Live Forever’ runs on an idea that has been executed countless times, however, the films unique use of colour, and more evidently sound, essentially re-imagines the whole slasher sub-genre, and as a result captivates audiences and holds their attention, whilst also encouraging deeper thought into the films meaning and plot through the analysis of its unique execution of sound and colour codes. This is certainly something I will take into account when developing my own horror short!

Reflection 2 – Writing a Short Horror Script

In our second week of classes, we where introduced to writer duet, a script writing website that allows you to easily navigate and complete a script. We where then tasked with writing a two to three page horror scene which could then be elected to be filmed in the next weeks class. The scene was encouraged to include some post horror elements, including the implementation of deeper themes. I decided to write my scene about a lazy student whose house essentially starts attacking him through its appliances and rubbish. Even in the short amount of time spent writing this scene in class, I gained a massive amount of knowledge and skill in how to format, and correctly write a script.  Whilst writing, and attempting to include a deeper theme and meaning into the scene, I honestly found myself struggling and as a result, the quality of the writing began to suffer. In order to enhance the quality of my scene, I decided to primarily focus on ensuring the scene itself was entertaining and ‘simple’. By this, I mean making sure I did not include unnecessary dialogue or plot points for the purpose of making the story more complex and thought provoking. I found that when doing this, the dialogue I did include became dramatically more effective and realistic, and when focusing on keeping the story relatively simple and easy to follow, the deeper meaning and themes of the scene became more clear and effective. Additionally, when I was not specifically focusing on ensuring I include a theme or deeper meaning, it naturally occurs in a much more effective manner. My main take away from this exercise was that when writing a script, ensure that the quality of the story itself is at the forefront of your mind, and not, at least at the beginning of the script writing process, the complexity of characters or thematic elements of the film.