CCR - conventions, social groups and issues
How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
„Demure” is a film opening that combines several genres, creating a hybrid between horror, surreal and psychological thriller. There are many conventions related to all these genres, our film opening both challenges some of them and respects others.
To begin with, some aspects of „Demure” use expectations of audiences about horror movies to make sure that the story isn’t too strange and hard to grasp. It shows a small glimpse of the struggles of a young man, but in a symbolic and abstract manner that is specific to thrillers. Through this, our film opening also addresses several social issues, related to the representation of youth in media and to general attitudes towards them in society.
Conventions such as the overall darkened light, the cold hue and the old, abandoned location are used to create the appropriate mise-en-scene for the film opening. Included in this are the props that we used. All the objects, the bed, the shelves, the couch and the table were all old and ragged, creating the opposite feelings that a home should convey. For example, the bed he sleeps in should be a place of comfort, the denotative meaning of a bed is that of relaxation and peace, but in our film opening, the connotative meanings of all the props that make up his home oppose the expected, conventional ones, his bed is a thing to be feared, it is the home of all his nightmares and terrifying visions.
Also, the music we used plays an important part in creating the generic feeling of a horror movie because it is dark and unsettling and suggests mystery. Furthermore, different editing styles and shots work as conventions of horror genres and subgenres. For example, we used jump cuts for several segments to give the sense of uncertainty and chaos that the character experiences. Many of the shots are handheld, also adding to the personal struggles of the boy.
One aspect of our film opening that can be seen both as using and as breaking conventions is the plot. Even if only two minutes of the it are presented, the story somewhat unfolds as a complex series of visions and dreams. These types of dream scenes are often used in mysteries or horror films to create a personal connection with the character and share a general feeling of distress. However, because such a short part of the plot is shown, the audience might find it difficult to follow and understand the correlation between what they see and what they hear from the character. This is why the strange and unsettling behavior of the character can be considered as being against the conventions of storytelling and movies in general.
„Demure” breaks several other conventions both artistically and technically. For instance, all the names of the opening credits are written with small letters, this is meant to bring as little attention to the names and keep the audience focused on following and understanding the behavior of the character. Using small letters for the names also fits the story in a subtle way because the character is shy and insecure, he too feels small.
When it comes to sound, several conventions are broken. The greatest challenge to conventions is breaking the fourth wall at the very beginning of the film. The character directly addresses the audiences, looking into the camera and speaking about his struggles and questions concerning his life. At the very end of his short monologue, the character stops moving his lips but his voice can still be heard. The infidelity of the sound is meant to suggest that the words he spoke might have been only inside his mind, adding to the surrealism of the film. This is another aspect that breaks the conventions of storytelling, the audience knows right from the beginning that the story they are about to see and hear is not a usual one. The narrator is the character himself, and yet he is not omniscient, he doesn’t know what’s going on, what’s happening to him. So because the character doesn’t know the story he is telling the general feeling of uncertainty extends to the audience. The music we chose for the soundtrack is slightly conventional to horror movies, yet the sounds that mark key moments in the cuts are more unexpected for the audience. We wanted to catch their attention by using strange, inexplicable noises, which are also highly helpful for the surreal theme.
Moreover, the character’s accent is not American or British, he has a strange, east European accent. Firstly, this gives a more realistic feeling to the film, the character addresses the audiences the only way he can, he is genuine and desperate. Very similar to this is the way that a lot of young people try to get help or express their opinions and get their issues out through vlogging. This is a highly popular practice among today’s youth. They directly address the audience by looking into the camera, even though they don’t truly know or see who they are, hoping that someone will listen and maybe understand. Secondly, we did not wish to change his accent because we wanted to suggest that the action doesn’t take place in a Western society. He does speak English so that the movie can be more accessible to audiences around the world, so that more people might understand him, but the location isn’t made completely clear because what we wanted to present can happen in any country. This also makes the social issues and groups represented in our film opening more relatable to the audiences, because no restrictions are put on what, who, when and where it takes place. It refers to youth in general and how they are mostly marginalized and rarely helped appropriately when going through the most complex and confusing period of their lives. This again is what vloggers mostly talk about, they raise different personal and social issues about the young people of today’s society and the struggles they go through, most often alone and unaided. More specifically, it is suggested that the main character may have some mental disturbances or psychological problems which have clearly not been treated or even acknowledged by him or others around him. We can see that he might have come from a decent background, as his clothes are not in the worst state, but somehow he has come to live alone in an abandoned, derelict place, still clearly quite young and without any help or support. This can address both the misconduct of parents and families in general, and the failure of agencies that are supposed to look after, help, or even treat youth that might have difficulties adapting and living in today’s rapidly changing society.
