Real media artifact analysis - Virus

I have analysed a short horror film entitled virus to improve my understand of the genre and how to make an effective short film. The link to this short film is listed below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItnNFEKiMt4

It is clear at the begining of the first scene what genre this short film is. This is because The first shot that is used is an establisher and begins at night outside. This is typically represnted in horror films as only bad thing happen at night due to the darkness and feeling of the unknown. Low level lighting has also been used inside the office to further convince the audience that something bad is going to happen as typically lower level lighting can be depressing and represent evil. in this particular short film the lighting creates an eerie vibe that instantly tells the audience they should be scared.

The first few shots are establishers. I beleive that this is key in a short film as there is not a lot of time and so a lot of information has to be told to the audience whilst also being relativley simplistic. Establishing shot allow this as they show the audience exactley where the film is set and will then have a better understandig of what is going on. I think that the director would want the audience to have the best understanding of the film as possible as this allows the audience to relate to what is happening and so makes the film scarier.

The CCTV shots used in this film give the effect that the characters are being watched. This is something that is typically used in horror films as before something bad is going to happen the victims are usually watched and so it creates a good build up before the action starts.

Toderovs narrative theory is represented well in this film. This is shown well in this particular short film. This is shown as at the begining although an eerie vibe has been created due to the lighting and lack of sound there is nothing bad happening in the scene showing an equilibrium. The film then moves into disequilibrium as the main character is attatcked and so the audience should be disturbed. The short film then moves back into a slight equilibrium whereby nothing bad is going to happen however it is an alternate equilibrium as the main character is dead and the audience are told this is going to happen again.

The director has used little or no dialogue in this short film. i think that this has been used very effectivley in this horror as it creates a good build up of tension and so makes the film much scarier. The diagetic background sound creates a unique vibe that enhances how eerie the scene is portrayed. this means that seemingly normal sounds such as a hoover or door closing become scary and set up the perfect scene for evil.