qUESTION 1: In what ways does your media project use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In order to best answer this question, I decided to break my response down into this interactive little element on SpicyNodes as it both makes the discover of this thought process far more engaging and because it allows me to sequentially address the different points without going off on one of my trademarked tangents.
If for any reason this doesn't load, I've also attached the link to the above button and included the information as standard text below.
How did I conform?
Slasher
It is no secret that – although SYNTH sports many genre titles – it is first and foremost a slasher film complete with the hyper lethal killer that quite literally smashes his way through the OTS and by extensions, his unsuspecting victims. The first kill of a horror movie is a trope at this point so let it be known that I’m doing nothing original in this aspect; Friday the 13th, Halloween and You’re Next to name a few all begin with victims being done away with for little correlation to the main plot so I feel safe in saying that this is conforming to an established idea and even reveling in its satisfying catharsis whilst also setting up thematic elements for the rest of the film.
Teenage Victims
Ever since Michael Myers slashed up his sister at the beginning of the original Halloween movie, teenagers have stood as the fodder for the majority of all following films, sure you get the odd police officer or hiking good doer, but for the most part the violence is saved for the group of teenagers usually consisting of the courtesan, the athlete, the scholar, the fool and the innocence (as paraphrased from Cabin In The Woods) and SYNTH is no exception. In our opening slaughter we see the 5 distinct character types in Alex and her friends even if they have been modified slightly for the sake of development.
Mise en Scene
Mise En Scene is of course the design and consistency of the set and actor, it is the cinematic story telling element, the artistic use of the camera and the sense of cohesion that reconciles our suspension of disbelief with the dream logic of film structure. Although it has it’s grounding is ancient theatre, film has relished in this composition ever since the first days of the silver screen with SYNTH continuing this timely tradition with its set and designs. Much like A Nightmare On Elm Street, we can see in the house the OTS is set in how this environment tells the narrative of these characters, the warm lighting suggesting security whilst mess and alcohol inform us of their student living is no more different to any other run of the mill university member. We also see in their clothing how they portray those stereotypes with Callum wearing a letterman jacket and Ben in the typical nerd glasses.
How did I develop?
Fonts and Titles
Recent new wave media has found an increasing fashion in minimalism, no longer are the films adorning garish titles in ridiculous typefaces, and when they are, it is usually in a campy or ironic way. The horror films of the 80’s were some of the last great titles to make use of their format for some creative styles with that scratchy blood red font aesthetic now synonymous with the genre. SYNTH takes this concept and develops it one step further, merging the contemporary (primarily white lettering) with the rustic by having it’s scratch up title and a single red letter within it. We also have a focus blur around the edges instead of a flat matte pallet typical to older slashers mainly to be in keeping with the heavy depth of field effects that SYNTH uses, pushing the medium forward from rough scrawls and gothic text.
Victims and their personalities
As mentioned in the conforming section, although each of my victims fits specifically into a horror archetype, I wanted to use a slight twist on each of their characters in order to hint to the audience that this was going to be a more challenging horror movie than your average gore fest. Setting that tone early on is crucial to the success of the film and as such, even these expendables were modified to fit this purpose, for example, our stoner character is instead a drunkard with a knack for gluttony or our jock figure is sensitive and small framed. By taking these caricatures and fleshing them out with unique traits, you not only engender a greater element of sympathy from the audience for when they die but you all, again, twist an existing format to a point that it is noticeable from a critical standpoint.
Killers Perspective
Many films favor that killer perspective shot; the cameras looking down at the girl as she scrambled backwards across the floor, the lens leers at its prey from a bramble thoroughfare, the audience’s eyes swim up towards the swimmers legs, it’s a very overplayed cinematic cue. However, SYNTH takes this concept one step further by actually showing the world of the killer in its entirety, a third person perspective that extenuates the rush of his kill whereas helpless victims scream and kick out in your standard saturated movie cam. The lights swirl around him as he slams the door to, turns on his heels and dramatically batters his prey to the floor which takes this concept of the killer as a psychedelic entity and transposes it onto the aesthetics in a way the audience can translate.
How did I challenge?
Electronic Music
I’ve mentioned countless times how electronic music is a bit of a figure head for 80’s cinema, especially horror, and many films have been quick to use its pacey and heart pumping melodies to break up a traditionally tense violin score. However, SYNTH is all about the accentuation of violence for media and as such the music is a loud and omnipresent element that literally fuels the rapid pace our killer’s rampage. Horror is complacent with its violin strings, ghostly chants and children’s songs so to really bring the slasher into the 21st century, I took a staple of its past and challenged the standard, the aggressive and seething growl of the music scoring and making a point of how sensually indulgent flicks of this type are.
Humanity of the Killer
The faceless killer, the undead fiend, the hunter in the hills and the silent monster, all labels you’ll agree common to the typical movie killer. Check out the Prowler from the film of the same name, a trained and efficient life ender with nothing to say and as the black abyss like holes he has instead of eyes suggest, no humanity either. SYNTH takes this in a slightly different route, the OTS especially starting out by showing you the fragility and weakness of our slasher who turns out to actually be a P.T.S.D sufferer undergoing medical help and being brainwashed into committing atrocities by the people he trusted to cure him. This completely flies in the face of almost all horror movie killers whose wrath is either left unjustified or is given a barebones resemblance to character at the end; his humanity extends further than just his paralinguistic and lexical features however, his outfit is light weight and common, a hoodie and track suit pants that anyone could own whilst a basic claw hammer available at any good local tool store is his weapon of choice. All of these elements feed back into his fragility, hopefully to make the audience consider him to be the instrument of death and not the cause itself, the mysterious voice of Kingston acting as the only indicator as to a greater power. Arguably, this usurps the identifiable evil style of most horror films, challenging that to in favor of a more existential horror that speaks to an omnipotent feature who can literally puppeteer his subjects into committing unspeakable deeds.
Commentary
Finally, you’ve got that treasured deeper meaning and commentary I love to bang on about. Note that although this is challenging to the majority of horror conventions, the genre is a great place to explore very human and relevant issues as seen in classics like Alien, however, 9/10 movies in this vein fall into the trap of being vapid spectacle and nothing more whereas the truly soul crushing fear this types strives for comes from a much more haunting revelation about the world, society and the self. SYNTH challenges the notion that violent media is some mind altering indoctrination scheme whilst also taking the time to deconstruct the genre into its base elements as to better reinforce that point. In recent years, there’s been a real tendency to condemn how films use over the top violence and unrepresentative visuals as some sort of perverted scheme harmful to the very nature of our being whereas the things these ideas are used as scape goats for do far more damage. The contrast of the killers view and the victims view is a deliberate juxtaposition between cinematic violence and that of the real world, pointing out how we enjoy the meaningless voyeurism of bloodshed and not the real life equivalent.
Slasher
It is no secret that – although SYNTH sports many genre titles – it is first and foremost a slasher film complete with the hyper lethal killer that quite literally smashes his way through the OTS and by extensions, his unsuspecting victims. The first kill of a horror movie is a trope at this point so let it be known that I’m doing nothing original in this aspect; Friday the 13th, Halloween and You’re Next to name a few all begin with victims being done away with for little correlation to the main plot so I feel safe in saying that this is conforming to an established idea and even reveling in its satisfying catharsis whilst also setting up thematic elements for the rest of the film.
Teenage Victims
Ever since Michael Myers slashed up his sister at the beginning of the original Halloween movie, teenagers have stood as the fodder for the majority of all following films, sure you get the odd police officer or hiking good doer, but for the most part the violence is saved for the group of teenagers usually consisting of the courtesan, the athlete, the scholar, the fool and the innocence (as paraphrased from Cabin In The Woods) and SYNTH is no exception. In our opening slaughter we see the 5 distinct character types in Alex and her friends even if they have been modified slightly for the sake of development.
Mise en Scene
Mise En Scene is of course the design and consistency of the set and actor, it is the cinematic story telling element, the artistic use of the camera and the sense of cohesion that reconciles our suspension of disbelief with the dream logic of film structure. Although it has it’s grounding is ancient theatre, film has relished in this composition ever since the first days of the silver screen with SYNTH continuing this timely tradition with its set and designs. Much like A Nightmare On Elm Street, we can see in the house the OTS is set in how this environment tells the narrative of these characters, the warm lighting suggesting security whilst mess and alcohol inform us of their student living is no more different to any other run of the mill university member. We also see in their clothing how they portray those stereotypes with Callum wearing a letterman jacket and Ben in the typical nerd glasses.
How did I develop?
Fonts and Titles
Recent new wave media has found an increasing fashion in minimalism, no longer are the films adorning garish titles in ridiculous typefaces, and when they are, it is usually in a campy or ironic way. The horror films of the 80’s were some of the last great titles to make use of their format for some creative styles with that scratchy blood red font aesthetic now synonymous with the genre. SYNTH takes this concept and develops it one step further, merging the contemporary (primarily white lettering) with the rustic by having it’s scratch up title and a single red letter within it. We also have a focus blur around the edges instead of a flat matte pallet typical to older slashers mainly to be in keeping with the heavy depth of field effects that SYNTH uses, pushing the medium forward from rough scrawls and gothic text.
Victims and their personalities
As mentioned in the conforming section, although each of my victims fits specifically into a horror archetype, I wanted to use a slight twist on each of their characters in order to hint to the audience that this was going to be a more challenging horror movie than your average gore fest. Setting that tone early on is crucial to the success of the film and as such, even these expendables were modified to fit this purpose, for example, our stoner character is instead a drunkard with a knack for gluttony or our jock figure is sensitive and small framed. By taking these caricatures and fleshing them out with unique traits, you not only engender a greater element of sympathy from the audience for when they die but you all, again, twist an existing format to a point that it is noticeable from a critical standpoint.
Killers Perspective
Many films favor that killer perspective shot; the cameras looking down at the girl as she scrambled backwards across the floor, the lens leers at its prey from a bramble thoroughfare, the audience’s eyes swim up towards the swimmers legs, it’s a very overplayed cinematic cue. However, SYNTH takes this concept one step further by actually showing the world of the killer in its entirety, a third person perspective that extenuates the rush of his kill whereas helpless victims scream and kick out in your standard saturated movie cam. The lights swirl around him as he slams the door to, turns on his heels and dramatically batters his prey to the floor which takes this concept of the killer as a psychedelic entity and transposes it onto the aesthetics in a way the audience can translate.
How did I challenge?
Electronic Music
I’ve mentioned countless times how electronic music is a bit of a figure head for 80’s cinema, especially horror, and many films have been quick to use its pacey and heart pumping melodies to break up a traditionally tense violin score. However, SYNTH is all about the accentuation of violence for media and as such the music is a loud and omnipresent element that literally fuels the rapid pace our killer’s rampage. Horror is complacent with its violin strings, ghostly chants and children’s songs so to really bring the slasher into the 21st century, I took a staple of its past and challenged the standard, the aggressive and seething growl of the music scoring and making a point of how sensually indulgent flicks of this type are.
Humanity of the Killer
The faceless killer, the undead fiend, the hunter in the hills and the silent monster, all labels you’ll agree common to the typical movie killer. Check out the Prowler from the film of the same name, a trained and efficient life ender with nothing to say and as the black abyss like holes he has instead of eyes suggest, no humanity either. SYNTH takes this in a slightly different route, the OTS especially starting out by showing you the fragility and weakness of our slasher who turns out to actually be a P.T.S.D sufferer undergoing medical help and being brainwashed into committing atrocities by the people he trusted to cure him. This completely flies in the face of almost all horror movie killers whose wrath is either left unjustified or is given a barebones resemblance to character at the end; his humanity extends further than just his paralinguistic and lexical features however, his outfit is light weight and common, a hoodie and track suit pants that anyone could own whilst a basic claw hammer available at any good local tool store is his weapon of choice. All of these elements feed back into his fragility, hopefully to make the audience consider him to be the instrument of death and not the cause itself, the mysterious voice of Kingston acting as the only indicator as to a greater power. Arguably, this usurps the identifiable evil style of most horror films, challenging that to in favor of a more existential horror that speaks to an omnipotent feature who can literally puppeteer his subjects into committing unspeakable deeds.
Commentary
Finally, you’ve got that treasured deeper meaning and commentary I love to bang on about. Note that although this is challenging to the majority of horror conventions, the genre is a great place to explore very human and relevant issues as seen in classics like Alien, however, 9/10 movies in this vein fall into the trap of being vapid spectacle and nothing more whereas the truly soul crushing fear this types strives for comes from a much more haunting revelation about the world, society and the self. SYNTH challenges the notion that violent media is some mind altering indoctrination scheme whilst also taking the time to deconstruct the genre into its base elements as to better reinforce that point. In recent years, there’s been a real tendency to condemn how films use over the top violence and unrepresentative visuals as some sort of perverted scheme harmful to the very nature of our being whereas the things these ideas are used as scape goats for do far more damage. The contrast of the killers view and the victims view is a deliberate juxtaposition between cinematic violence and that of the real world, pointing out how we enjoy the meaningless voyeurism of bloodshed and not the real life equivalent.