The Horror Genre
I have chosen the horror Genre as part of my essay on a favourite genre.
The horror genre goes back a long way, all the way back to 1896 when George Melies made a three minute short named 'Le manior du diable' which translates to 'The Devil's Castle'.
Into the 1900's more horror films were made and the genre was developed, simple things such as bats being the sign of a vampire etc became the basis of a very popular genre now.
In 1910 Thomas edison (creator of lightbulb) produced a 16 minute adaption of 'Frankenstein'. All of the first horror films were adapted from literary novels. In the past 100 years, the horror genre has come a long way now with many many different sub genres. A lot of horror films become so popular that they develop to become a franchise eg : Final Destination, Paranormal Activity, Nightmare on elm street...
Thanks to technoligy we can now enjoy the scariest horror films in 3D making the experience just that scarier. People like the horror genre for many different reasons, the main reason being that a lot of people like being scared. Out of all of the genres this is the one that requires the most active spectatorship. As the storylines rely on the audiences emotions (fear)
They use music scores and sound effects to build up tension.Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that the audience is made up of individuals who all read and interpret films differently from each other. What makes us individuals are a range of things and these could be considered our frameworks of interpretation. Factors such as age, class, ethnicity, education and even past experiences will all have some bearing on the way people read and interpret a film. Though the film may have a preferred reading, there may be some differences in the way people interpret it due to their differing frameworks of interpretation.
Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that audiences do not all just watch whatever they are told to watch and instead different individuals consume different films for different reasons and pleasures. The Uses and Gratifications theory suggested by Blulmer and Katz indicates that there are four main pleasures that audiences gain from films; diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. According to Wikipedia 'Fandom (consisting of fan [fanatic] plus the suffix -dom, as in kingdom) is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices (a fandom); this is what differentiates "fannish" (fandom-affiliated) fans from those with only a casual interest.' The horror fandom obsess over the newest horror release and the horror franchises such as Nightmare on elm street. They love these films enough to spend their time creating costumes/blogs/models etc based on their favourite horror films.
Most horror films are released around the time of halloween, this is to create more interest with the film as halloween is based around horror.
This links to the social networking related to horror films, for the latest films there is facebook pages, twitter pages, youtube channels etc to advertise the films and the biggest fandoms will follow these and even replecate their own to show respect to the films they love.
I did some research on horror fandom and found a few blogs that are based on the horror fandom.
http://awwyeahhorrormovies.tumblr.com/
http://ahs-fandom.tumblr.com/
http://halloweenlove.com/fantasm-a-convention-documentary-is-a-love-letter-to-horror-fandom-watch-now/
Pre viewing experience in the modern day cinema are very advertised, they make sure you know they have a facebook/twitter/etc. You see a lot of the film through advertisement before you have even seen it.
I have chosen the horror Genre as part of my essay on a favourite genre.
The horror genre goes back a long way, all the way back to 1896 when George Melies made a three minute short named 'Le manior du diable' which translates to 'The Devil's Castle'.
Into the 1900's more horror films were made and the genre was developed, simple things such as bats being the sign of a vampire etc became the basis of a very popular genre now.
In 1910 Thomas edison (creator of lightbulb) produced a 16 minute adaption of 'Frankenstein'. All of the first horror films were adapted from literary novels. In the past 100 years, the horror genre has come a long way now with many many different sub genres. A lot of horror films become so popular that they develop to become a franchise eg : Final Destination, Paranormal Activity, Nightmare on elm street...
Thanks to technoligy we can now enjoy the scariest horror films in 3D making the experience just that scarier. People like the horror genre for many different reasons, the main reason being that a lot of people like being scared. Out of all of the genres this is the one that requires the most active spectatorship. As the storylines rely on the audiences emotions (fear)
They use music scores and sound effects to build up tension.Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that the audience is made up of individuals who all read and interpret films differently from each other. What makes us individuals are a range of things and these could be considered our frameworks of interpretation. Factors such as age, class, ethnicity, education and even past experiences will all have some bearing on the way people read and interpret a film. Though the film may have a preferred reading, there may be some differences in the way people interpret it due to their differing frameworks of interpretation.
Part of the theory of active spectatorship is that audiences do not all just watch whatever they are told to watch and instead different individuals consume different films for different reasons and pleasures. The Uses and Gratifications theory suggested by Blulmer and Katz indicates that there are four main pleasures that audiences gain from films; diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. According to Wikipedia 'Fandom (consisting of fan [fanatic] plus the suffix -dom, as in kingdom) is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the object(s) of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices (a fandom); this is what differentiates "fannish" (fandom-affiliated) fans from those with only a casual interest.' The horror fandom obsess over the newest horror release and the horror franchises such as Nightmare on elm street. They love these films enough to spend their time creating costumes/blogs/models etc based on their favourite horror films.
Most horror films are released around the time of halloween, this is to create more interest with the film as halloween is based around horror.
This links to the social networking related to horror films, for the latest films there is facebook pages, twitter pages, youtube channels etc to advertise the films and the biggest fandoms will follow these and even replecate their own to show respect to the films they love.
I did some research on horror fandom and found a few blogs that are based on the horror fandom.
http://awwyeahhorrormovies.tumblr.com/
http://ahs-fandom.tumblr.com/
http://halloweenlove.com/fantasm-a-convention-documentary-is-a-love-letter-to-horror-fandom-watch-now/
Pre viewing experience in the modern day cinema are very advertised, they make sure you know they have a facebook/twitter/etc. You see a lot of the film through advertisement before you have even seen it.