Twilight Film Conventions

Setting: In the film Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwicke, setting is a very important convention used, because it gives the audience some sort of a mood to make them feel scared and tells us a lot about a character and their personalities. This narrative feature is shown in the scene where the main character Edward Cullen takes Bella to the forest and starts talking to her, and tells her who he really is, it was a very spooky area which also relates to Edward because he’s a vampire and can only go to place where there’s no sun, because the sun will change will make him sparkle and change the colour of his skin. Settings like these are used in vampire and horror films to make the audience feel scared.

Lightning: The use of lightning in this film in the opening sequence is very important, because it give us a lot of details and indicates what the genre of the film is going to be by just looking at the character. An example of this convention is shown when the deer is running in the dark in the forest, which suggests that this is a horror and mythical and it also relates to Edward, because he lives in the forest where there’s not much sunlight, it’s very dark which also fits in very well with the genre. The director used this convention to

try and make the audience focus on two things at once the (forest in the background and the lighting).

Setting: The director Michael Spierig of Daybreakers has used setting in the opening scene of this film very cleverly to try and show us what is about and relate it to the main character.

The convention is shown at the beginning where we see the location that the film is set in, it appears to be small and an isolated area with a few houses, but only one particular house is shown, which suggests that it the house belonging to the young girl who’s a vampire. The houses are also surrounded by mountains and other things, signifying that the young girl is alone. This type of location is most commonly used in horror films and the director has used it to create a creepy mood to the viewers, as they find what the young girl really

is.
Lightning: Lightning in this film in this film has been used in almost every scene in this film by the director, which creates a creepy atmosphere. For example they’ve used a blue colour used in the dark where the young girl was standing which matches the vampire world of darkness and it also suggests that the young girl is a vampire, and it’s also shown when the young girl goes out when the sun is gone which also signifies that vampires are not in the sunlight. The director has used this convention to try and build fear and tension as they are watching.