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Katherine Wong
Professor McClure
Writing 39B
21 November 2016
RIP Final Reflection Essay
For my groups RIP project, we decided to create a short horror film. The purpose of our
film is to elicit a reaction from our audience, which includes college students that range from
eighteen to twenty-five years of age and the scholarly audience in general. Knowing this, we
have to take into consideration that they are already educated on the expectations of a text in the
horror genre. We used information acquired from credible sources like Nol Carroll and
incorporated the characteristics of texts in the horror genre that are listed in his article, The
Nature of Horror. Though there are numerous mediums to choose from in the horror genre, we
decided to make a film. We believe it has the power to evoke the strongest reaction from an
audience.
We created a plot using all of this information that revolves around a college student, the
protagonist, who is afflicted with Schizophrenia, but has not yet learned to tell the difference
between what is real and what is not. Throughout the plot, the college student deals with an
inner struggle that no one understands because it is all his imagination. When brainstorming
what message we wanted to communicate to our audience, we took into consideration scenarios
that college students face in the modern world today. In the article Intro to Dark Nights
Dreaming, Magistrale explains that the horror monster sometimes embodies the worst aspects
of these social and personal contexts (as does
the creature in Stephen Kings It), and always

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represents something threatening (Magistrale 4). As rhetors, our purpose for communication in
this context is to communicate a message across media that we as society should not isolate
people with mental illnesses, nor should we allow them to detach themselves from the rest of
society. Instead, we should pay attention to them and help them receive the assistance that they
need. The cultural context behind our film is set in college, where students struggle with the
stress of schoolwork and the expectations of society they feel the need to live up to, and the
historical context is set in our modern world. The issues and situations used in our film reflect
what college students experience today. Our main goal in creating this film is to bring awareness
to our audience that mental illnesses are serious, and people who live with these illnesses should
be cared for.
One of the most important scenes in our film is the opening scene. The information given
to the audience in this scene creates a basis for what the rest of the film focuses on. As rhetors,
the appeal to our audience is one of the most important elements. In The Anteaters Guide to
Writing and Rhetoric, rhetoric is described as a comprehensive art, or set of techniques, for
effective communication (Eason 2). In this case, our specific audience is a group of UC Irvine
college students. College students can relate to the scenarios in the film because they can relate
to the situations the main character finds himself in. The setting of the film is set in a UC Irvine
dorm, therefore our audience has an even stronger sense of familiarity with the storyline.
Because the audience is more acquainted with the environment, they become so attached to the
character that they could even see themselves or one of their friends in the same situation. We
emphasized tone in our film because scholars are also a part of our audience. In this case, we had
to create an eerie tone. We created this tone by adding background music that match the

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emotions of the character. For example, in the opening scene the protagonist is very upset and
lonely, therefore I picked a song that was very dark and depressing. When the scholarly audience
hears the music, they begin to imitate the emotion portrayed on the screen.
Tropes are also an effective way to emotionally influence the audience. One trope we
used in the film was hallucinations. In order to make sure that we were representing this trope
accurately in our film, we referred to TVtropes. Here we found many examples of tropes related
to hallucinations. One of the most important notes we took was the statement: If you cant
believe the thing youre looking at, ask your friend if he can see it too (TVtropes). Doing this
verifies to the audience that the protagonist was indeed seeing a hallucination. Without this trope,
the audience would be confused because they would be unsure if the protagonist was imagining
the whole thing or if it was actually real. Another major trope was a typical college student who
is stressed, anxious, and often lonely. It is important for the audience to understand that the
protagonist is in a state of solitude with no one to talk to. Without this particular piece of
information, we as rhetors would not be able to effectively communicate our message that we
should not ignore people with mental illnesses in todays society.
My personal contribution to the creation of the RIP text was through the filming and
editing process. It was my job to make the creative decisions behind the camera when filming
each scene. One important aspect is the angle of the camera when filming. When the camera is
facing the actors straight on during the entire scene, it becomes very monotone. Therefore I
constantly changed the angle throughout the scene in order to grab the audiences attention. For
example, in the first scene of the film, it is forty seconds of the protagonist by himself. In order
to keep the audience engaged for the entire scene, I switched the angle of the camera multiple

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times, as well as, zoomed in and out. By doing so, I am keeping the audiences eyes active and
they are engaged the entire time. Another important aspect of filming is the distance between the
camera and the actors. It is more effective when the camera is up close to the character when you
are trying to elicit a terrified reaction from the audience, . The audience becomes more engaged
with what is actually happening on the screen. They start to believe that they are with the actors
in the scene, experiencing everything that they are. The further the camera is from the characters,
the more detached the audience feels from what they are experiencing. In the final scene, the
protagonist is alone in his room until the antagonist comes up from behind him in a threatening
manner. At first, the camera is very up close to the protagonist because I want the audience to
feel emotionally attached to him. As the antagonist enters the screen I move the camera further
away. By doing this, the audience realizes that this character is someone they do not want to feel
close to nor do they want to feel emotionally attached to him.
My second creative contribution to this project is editing the film, which I did using
iMovie. I believe that this is one of the most important roles in creating this short horror film
because this is where all of the special effects are added to truly put this film in the horror genre.
One of the effects that I had to decide on was the music that plays throughout the film. There has
to be an eeriness behind the music in order to create suspense. The suspenseful music is
foreshadowing the fact that something bad or scary is about to happen in this scene. In the
second scene, the antagonist shows up on the screen out of nowhere. At this point in the film, I
used a sharp music cue to draw a reaction out of the audience. The antagonist appearing without
any sound is not as effective or horrifying as him appearing with a loud bang. The sound alerts
the audience, and surprises them. It acts as a guide to how the audience should feel. The

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audiences reception of the scene is dependent on the choice of music that is used in that scene.
Another important effect that I have to decide on is the filter of the footage. In other words, there
are video filters that you can use in iMovie to create a warmer or cooler setting. In this case, I
used a filter on a couple of scenes called Day to Night. This filter makes the colors in the scene
darker, which creates a more eerie atmosphere for the audience. Without these video effects and
musical supplements, the film would not have had the same horrific effect on the audience.
The process for creating this film was very successful, but there were times when my
group had to overcome obstacles. When it came to our group interaction, we rarely faced
problems. Fortunately, as a group, we communicated very effectively and managed to find times
that we could all meet to work on the assignment. Even though we all live in different locations
on campus and have different majors that require extensive hours of work and rehearsals, each
group member made a significant effort to make time out of their day to contribute to the
workload. Once we started working on our layout for the film, we were able to schedule a
meeting at least once a week to discuss our ideas. Something very positive that came out of these
group meetings was that everyone made equal contributions, and we were able to take all of
these creative thoughts and combine them into one cohesive concept. We did not finish the
project without experiencing any challenges, though. Our biggest challenge was that our first
idea for the plot and filming of the story did not turn out how we thought it would. We realized
after having recorded the entire film that it did not meet the expectations of a horror story. One
of the biggest errors in the film was the script because it contained too much dialogue. In order to
keep the audience at the edge of their seats, we needed to create suspense. A film that consists of
more dialogue than silence does not create that kind of experience for the audience. Because the

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first set of filming was not successful, we had to reschedule another time for all of us to meet and
re-film. This was another obstacle because we all had very busy schedules and it was near
Thanksgiving break, therefore we had limited time to film it again. The biggest change we made
in our project the second time was our script. We used much less dialogue, and let the actions
speak louder than words. Once this change was made, the filming and editing of the project
became much easier. Our purpose and message to the audience was portrayed in a much clearer
and concise manner. It also became more evident to a scholarly audience that this was a horror
film based on better use of expectations in the horror genre. Overall, the RIP project was a great
experience because I learned how to collaborate with others, as well as take what I learned all
quarter in this course and use it to create my own horror text.

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Works Cited
Carroll, Nol. The Nature of Horror. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 1987.
Magistrale, Tony and Michael A Morrison. A Dark Nights Dreaming. University of South
Carolina Press, 1996.
"Hallucinations - TV Tropes." TV Tropes. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.