Contextual Studies - Critical Review for a TV Show - American Horror Story: Roanoke

"One of television's great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs". - Alfred Hitchcock, National Observer, 15th August 1966

In this Critical review, I will be looking at the latest miniseries installment to the popular TV show American Horror Story. Based loosely on the missing colony of Roanoke Island in 1590, the show creator Ryan Murphy explores his tale of uncovering the mystery through horror and exaggerated themes in unusual ways that keep the show fresh and popular.

The clear genre of the show is Horror as suggested by the title but it's clear by the codes and conventions used throughout the series. The use of violence is used heavily with the use of props including knives, chainsaws and impalement on sharp objects like spikes. Gore is used in many types of horror to implement the realism of the terrifying situation but also to create shock and excitement which Ryan has clearly tried to exceed. The show also contains many monsters and supernatural happenings to the protagonists to create fear and cover the sub-genres of slasher as well as supernatural in Horror. He has done this to appeal to a wider audience playing on at least one fear of a viewer. The location is set in an abandoned house which looks a bit like Norman Bates house. It is a purpose built set for the program in an isolated location. This allows the audience to relate to the fact the characters are on their own with limited help often used in many other horrors like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. We as an audience can tell it's a set due to the hyper-realism that Murphy portrays in a cinematic viewing approach. Everything Murphy does is exaggerated on a grand scale and this is reflected in this series with close relations to The Shining. 

Bates House

Roanoke House

Interestingly half way through on episode 6, the show changes from a telling of a reenactment to a real life, found footage, documentary style horror approach like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. We can tell this by the way the program has adopted documentary conventions and technical changes like the switch to handheld camera’s and camera settings displayed around the border of the screen, occasionally blurred and out of focus shots, talking to the camera, a confession booth, off-centered camera angles and the use of night vision. Being distinctly opposite to what we have seen in previous episodes of beautifully lit scenes and panning shots, we recognize as viewers that things have changed and using the conventions, it's easy to see we are meant to be viewing a documentary. Ryan has done this to create realism to what we were previously watching and to add to the question if what we are watching is real or fake.

The characters costume change throughout the series as it time-hops through different eras. Making it easier to understand we see that when it goes back in time the outfits look like they are from a Georgian period and display wealth rather than modern day clothes and abandonment. They also emulate western and Asian archetypes of Good and Evil. With the innocent wearing white and the evil wearing black for western but also when it's referencing to Asian horror films, with the Asian possessed family, the ghosts wear white to show paranormal and the protagonist at the time wears black to show heroic status. 

There is many uses of sound used both diegetic and non-diegetic. With diegetic, the uses of dialogue are used to tell the narrative and ambient sounds like footsteps, car noises, and birdsong to create realism. With non-diegetic, there is a clear soundtrack to create tension and build up. 

Overall it's clear that the show takes on many challenges emulating classic horror to modern horror. "I think it's only natural to be influenced by filmmakers and things that you gravitate to when your younger" - Ryan Murphy. It is clear the show has been made to satisfy all horror fans and adopt many conventions that different horrors follow. 

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/roanoke-colony-deserted
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0614682/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_qt_sm#quotes
http://wikimapia.org/176431/House-from-movie-Psycho

Storytelling Unit - Critical Evaluation

This unit has taught me a lot about many different aspects of storytelling through the process of workshops, lectures, practical work and independent research. The main outcome by the end of the project was to be able to produce a 10-page screenplay, film the first 2 minutes of the screenplay and have evidence of a continuous blog showing posts throughout the unit of how we got to the completed product.

With the story being about 2 people meeting, I decided to base mine on 2 characters having an affair. After developing my characters further and coming up with a rough storyline I presented a 25-word pitch to the class and explained what I was aiming to do which created intrigue and showed that I had something worth working on. I then attended lectures on how to write a screenplay including what makes one compelling and how they are laid out and formatted. In between these, I was also attending editing workshops to learn about the program Adobe Premiere Pro and how to make a film look professional when editing it together. After going out and filming, redrafting my script to its 3rd state and researching throughout the project, I had a final piece of work to hand in.

The main thing I loved about the project was the editing side of things. I believe after getting to grips with the software and spending time compiling clips together, It was very rewarding when I got to see the final piece of work and what I had achieved. I also loved going out on shoot and filming as it went very smoothly due to my preparation of visiting locations beforehand, creating schedules and compiling a shot list.

With the film, there were a few things that I wish could have gone better. Once I had shot the film and started editing I realized that some of the clips were blurry and out of focus. Although this is usually down to the person on camera I should have checked the footage before moving on. One shot was also speckled where the lens had got dirty so I will make sure on future projects that I wipe the lens clean and to check footage as I go along.


In regards to the script I struggled a few times to come up with idea's and lost where the story was going but when I sat and focused I managed to get a rough first draft done in a few days. Once this was completed I submitted it to Steve and he gave me some constructive notes. The characters didn't work as their personalities changed half way through. This was done on purpose as I was trying to reveal hidden and complex layers but since it was a short story the change was too quick and didn't work so I had to keep the characters the same and more simplistic. After 2 more drafts I believe the characters made more sense and I added more details from Steve's notes. Although I found this to be the least enjoyable about the unit I still tried my best to my ability to create a finalised screenplay.

In regards to research, I believe I did this well in order to make sure I was well prepared to understand the aim of the unit but I would like to have expanded it more and pushed myself into further research if I had more time to do so.

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of this unit and I am happy with the blog and the final pieces of work I have submitted. Most importantly I have learnt a lot and have gained an insight on how to improve for future units and will surely put this into practice.

Storytelling Unit - Final Draft Of Screenplay

After redrafting my screenplay using Steve's feedback and then redrafting for the 3rd time I have finished my screenplay. There was a lot to take into consideration with grammatical errors and evolving the story so it makes more sense.

Although he said he liked the story and it flowed well with good twists, the characters did not work as they were described in one way and then they behaved in another. I took this on board and made sure from the outset that Harriet was a tease and was only having the affair for sex all the way through. I also showed that she progressively got more and more insane as the story went on rather than a sudden switch of being feeble and weak.

Another thing that Steve described was that the sex was very vanilla and didn't work with it being instigated as it needed to be bold for it to tie in with the story line and the characters behaviours. I decided to add the sex scene in and made it cold and rough to align with the characters personalities and to portray the desperation of both their needs. He said I need to be brave and take the story to the next level so writing a sex scene, although difficult, really added to my story.

I finished the screenplay and I am happy with the adaptations I have made to turn the story into something that flows better and makes more sense.