Semantics and syntactics
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This document discusses semantic and syntactic conventions of the horror genre. Semantically, it identifies common costume elements like dark or plain clothing, as well as typical props including weapons, candles, and religious items. It also mentions common colors and character archetypes. Syntactically, it provides examples of common narrative structures, such as a woman becoming possessed or a group of teenagers being killed one by one in the woods. Overall, the document examines the visual cues and storytelling patterns that audiences expect from the horror genre.
Semantics and syntactics
- 1. Genre Research: Horror Semantic and Syntactic
- 2. Semantic The conventions of the genre that communicate with the audience. • Costume - Dark/ washed- out, worn out, plain. • Props: Weapons – knives, chainsaws, baseball bats, guns. Candles, religious items. • Colours – Blacks, whites, pale/washed- out, reds. • Characters – Antagonist, Protagonist. • Sounds – High pitched
- 3. Syntactic The relations between the elements and the structure of narratives in genres. A woman goes from being to perfectly well to feeling slightly ill. She then gets worse over a rapid period of time and starts to act differently until others around her realise she is possessed. A group of teenagers go on a camping trip in the woods and then a murderer comes for them one by one.
- 4. When an audience watches a trailer they expect to see something scary and be able to understand the narrative. When they go to see the film they expect it to be scary and be more than the trailer, but understand the entire narrative. Each genre has a repertoire. These are aspects of a genre that everyone expects to see in the movie. All trailers aim to create an Enigma, which is a sense of mystery, so the trailer needs to give enough information to entice an audience, without revealing the twists in the plot.