APARTMENT 41

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The opening sequence portrays some common conventions of a horror genre. The first being that the scene has very low key lighting to represent a dark mood, highlighting the fact there is darkness and something sinister to come, which instantly entices an audience who enjoys horror. Furthermore, the establishing shot shows an apartment building, which is a common setting for horror films, as well as hotels, houses etc, which once again suggests to the audience that there is horror to come.

There was intense music to accompany the title coming onto the screen, which is something commonly associated with the horror genre. This will make the audience recognise the genre easily to interest them in the short film, so they continue watching. This title is in red aswell, a colour which connotes the idea of blood and gore, which is a common convention of the horror genre, which once again entices an audience who enjoys horror - most likely teenagers/young adults.

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For the first few minutes, the camera follows the girl entirely, without any cuts in the shots. This demonstrates how she is the main character and how the story is focused primarily on her, something which is common for the horror genre (having a main character who experiences the fear). Furthermore, these shots are able to show her actions and what she is doing (laundry which is a normal thing to do in everyday life), so an equilibrium is shown, which follows Todorov's Narrative Theory.

The camera continues to follow her actions up until this point, which is accompanied by very intense and rising dramatic music which signals the idea of fear in the characters personality, and also signals to the audiences that horror is about to come. The intense music gives a sense of suspense, which the target audience of horror will enjoy due to their thrill seeking nature, allowing them to be enticed.

All of a sudden, the intense music drops and the camera shows what the woman can see through the hole. The intense drop represents a theme of sudden fear and panic, which the target audience will love seeing. Also, the girl shown is symbolised as a ghost girl, due to her long hair, ragged white clothes, and basic standing stance. All those conventions are what an audience would expect to see from a ghost girl, so this idea once again signals the horror portrayed by Apartment 41, which will intrigue the audience more. Furthermore, this demonstrates the disequilibrium of the short film, which once again follows Todorov's Narrative Theory. This is joined by the fact she realises the problem, as the next scene shows her gasping as if she is shocked and scared - an emotion which will reflect on the audience. This stage is the third stage or Todorov's Theory and shows a realisation.This camera shot signals horror and fear in many

ways. The first is the intense stare demonstrated by the ghost girl, which has a direct impact on the audience, which will scare them even more. Also, the cupboards behind the girl flew open without the girl touching them, which represents the idea of a supernatural presence. The lights in the scene also went out without anyone turning them off, and this form of low key lighting will give further fear for the target audience. All of this features combined will inject a level of anxiety in the audience, which a thrill seeking person will be enticed by greatly.

This next shot is very common of a horror film. It shows the girl being dragged away on the floor by the ghost, which is an action used in many horror films globally. It is recognised as being supernatural, indicating how there is a ghost or demon present, which will scare the audience - something they should enjoy. Once again, the lighting is very moody, which further demonstrates the darkness which is being represented by the short film. It includes a few pieces of lighting, however, just to highlight the woman and what is happening to her.

This medium shot shows the girl crying due to the presence of the supernatural. This emotion will reflect on the audience, which will also give them a sense of fear, which will get their heart pumping - something the target audience will enjoy. This shot is also accompanied by dramatic music which rises, by getting faster and faster indicating a level of suspense, which will signify the theme of fear once again.

This shot shows the ghost girl talking to the woman, but the voice used is changed in editing to be dark and gloomy, with a tone which will give fear to the audience. Also, very low key lighting is

identified here, which corresponds with the rest of the scenes. Overall, this signifies a possibility of the supernatural which will panic the audience, something the target audience will want to see, causing further interest. This shot is known as a two shot, which is a camera technique used to

show two characters in one scene. This can demonstrate a variety of things, but in this example, it is used to show how the paranormal being is promoting fear in the girl shown on the right.

THE COP CAM

This is the first shot of the short film and instantly gives us an idea about a lot of the things. Firstly, the lighting is low key around the area indicating how this film will be scary straight away. This is something the audience will love to see and therefore encouraging the audience to watch on. Also, the police colours around the edges of the scene indicates there is a crime gone down, which in some ways could scare the audience as it indicates there is a killer or a mysterious crime of some sorts. Also, the audience can hear muffled police sounds which adds to the effect of mystery because we can hear what is going on.

This next shot gives us more of and idea about what is going on because it shows an abandoned area with the door mysteriously opened. It still has the low key lighting which indicates the fear which the shot still tries to portray to the audience. The light is shining on the area that they want to audience to see aswell which highlights the abandoned house, signifying how this will be the source of the horror.

Here, a point of view shot is used which almost puts the audience in the characters shoes. This almost makes the audience as scared as the character would be in the film because the audience will feel like they are the ones experiencing the fearful moment of entering the house. Furthermore, we can still see the colour of the police sirens, which almost reminds the audience that something dangerous has happened, or will happen here. This whole shot is accompanied by tense music and background sound of birds, indicating how it is in the middle of nowhere. The tense music also injects a level of fear into the audience.

As the man moves around the house we see more of the location, which in turn will continue to scare the audience. On the left we can see wires coming out of the wall, signalling its abandoned nature. The idea of an abandoned house is commonly associated with horror anyway, and therefore this will cause the audience to want to continue to watch the film. We also begin to hear a girl crying, which once again will interest the audience who will want to know who is crying and why they are crying. The man holding the gun proceeds to say 'This is the police! Come out with yours hands up' - something which will once again intrigue the audience who will want to know who is being arrested.

As he turns the corner, we see more of this abandoned place, such as with the rubbish scattered among the floor and no furniture there whatsoever. We can also see a white sheet with some blood on top of it - two things which commonly connote the idea of fear, which the target audience will love. The visual aspect of blood is the biggest indication of fear and has the potential to give the audience goosebumps, causing interest. The lighting remains low key, which when associated with these fearful aspects, will create a feeling for the target audience which will scare them a lot.

The point of view shot of the man then pans round to the point where we see a doorway with a person mysteriously strolling past, which will leave the audience with numerous questions such as who the person is and why there are there. Furthermore, the person looks as though they are in overalls, and they also look young. Both of these are common conventions of a typical horror character - a ghost girl. This will instantaneously scare the audience, which will cause further interest, since this is what they will love. 

As he then turns the corner, the lighting becomes even darker, to the point of almost blindness, which once again gives the feeling of darkness and therefore horror. We can just about make up a girl standing there in the distance which will scare the audience due to the mystery of who this person is and why they are not saying anything. The behaviours and appearance of the person gives the idea, however, that they are paranormal rather than human which will be something the audience enjoys seeing as it promotes the idea of fear in the short film.

Next, we see something which will definitely scare the audience, as the girl jumps out at the camera and grabs the man. This is accompanied by a scream of some sort. Both of these factors combined will scare the audience, which is something the target audience will enjoy, therefore encouraging them to continue watching. The lighting remains low key, once again promoting fear, and the use of the POV still makes the audience more scared than if any other shot was used.

This final shot is at a canted angle, which gives a lot of different emotions for the audience. Firstly, it will confuse the audience, by almost making them feel disorientated by what just happen. This will once again scare them because they feel more lost in the scene, which is further accompanied by the fact the ghost girl is still standing there in the background. These factors will scare the audience together. We can also see that the only lighting in the scene is on the area where the girl is, indicating that she is the focus and also that she is powerful, which will scare the character and therefore the audience aswell due to the use of the POV shot. There is more low key lighting on the right, however, which was mentioned before as injecting fear into the audience due to its association with darkness and the unknown which most people are scared of.

ATTIC PANIC

This first shot starts on the left and pans across to give the audience some understanding of the location of this short film. We can see it is some sort of storage place, indicating it is maybe somewhere in a house, which is supported by the title which includes 'attic'. We can see the lighting is low key, something which conforms to typical conventions of horror, and therefore this will indicate to an audience that some sort of fearful event will come - something which will entice the target audience. We also get a slight introduction to the character who we can see in the center of the shot. We can tell she is female, which will encourage the females watching to continue because they can identify with the character.

As this character tries to open the door in front of her, she finds it is locked, indicating how she is almost trapped in here. This in itself is quite a scary thought, and this fear is shown through her facial expression here, which is portrayed in a close up shot. The audience can also hear something being unscrewed in the background, without anyone actually being there. This is what causes the character to turn around, and show her fear. These factors, along with the continuous low key lighting, will inject fear into the audience, as they will feel something horror related is on the way, causing them to continue to watch.

As she turns around, we see this mysterious figure in the background. The figure portrays the conventions of a ghost, such as with the white sheet, and therefore the audience will recognise this and realise horror is on the way causing further interest. It is worth mentioning the lighting around this figure is even more low key, signifying how its presence brings about darkness more than anything else, showing it has a bad nature to it.

In this next medium shot, we can clearly see her fear. The shot reverse shot between the previous shot and this one shows how her fear is a result of this strange figure in the distance. Her fear will be reflected in the audience, as viewers will feel nervous for her, since she is locked in the room with this paranormal being. As she is looking fearful, we can once again hear the screwing noise, without anyone even touching anything, which once again indicates some level of paranormal activity - enticing the audience even more as a result.

The camera then gives a close up shot of the light she is staring at, which is the one making noises, as this gives the audience more of an understanding of her situation. In a way, you could argue this is a point of view shot, because this view is what she would be seeing, and therefore puts the audience in her shoes. As a result, this would scare the audience even more because they would feel like the paranormal activities will have a direct affect on them, rather than the character. This fear will encourage horror fans to continue watching, as the fear is rewarding for them.

Lights begin to flash and break on the floor, as well as the paranormal being walking off into the darkness. From this, a light near the character begins to flash and make screwing noises, which she hears and sees and looks up to, which is shown in this shot here. The high angle represents her weakness in the situation, indicating how the paranormal figure has power over her and as a result will scare her and the audience. 

In this medium shot we can see from the facial expression that she is very scared, something which will be reflected to the viewers. The lighting remains low key and intense dramatic music is introduced. The pace of the non-diagetic music increases as the short film continues indicating how there is a build up of fear in the woman, and therefore the audience as well. It suggests something is coming which will nerve the viewers, causing them to continue watching.

As she scrambles into the cage, she attempts to lock herself in, which is difficult due to her shaking hands. Her hand movements suggests she is scared, which will once again be reflected in the audience, causing them to continue watching. It is worth mentioning that the lighting remains low key and the music remains intense, while still increasing in pace. We can see from the take times as well that she is much inferior to this paranormal being, as most of her time on camera shows her hands or arms rather than her face compared to the mysterious figure, which has longer takes on its whole body.

Once she is locked in the cage, the mysterious figure reaches its hand out suggesting how it is after the woman. This will scare both her and the audience, because once again, a point of view shot is used to show her perspective which will make us feel like we are experiencing the horror. The dramatic music continues to increase in pace, signifying how something is on the way, which will nerve both her and the audience once again.

As she drags the cloth away from the figure, the tense music stops, which actually suggests she will be alright, rather than in danger. This is not what the audience would be expecting, but then as the shot cuts back to her in a close up shot, we can see the figure is now standing behind her once again. The music picks up in intensity once again as this happens, which actually rejects the audiences previous thoughts about her finally being safe. She then turns around, and then all of a sudden the lights cut out and we hear a smashing sound (presumably the lights falling on the floor). Overall, this indicates how she is in danger, but the audience is unaware of what will happen next. This is scary to most people as the unknown is one of peoples biggest fears.