Dissertation Learning Journal (Thoughts)

I found the dissertation to be enjoyable and relaxing to talk about. Due to my love for film making, horror films take that love as well as that fascination of the thrill of being scared and explore deeper into more of an explanation and explore my own interests with the hopes of a newer outlook once the dissertation was finished. When I look at horror films, due to my interests leading me to do Animation at university I’m more than familiar with the film making process and how while I do enjoy myself when I watch a film due to my familiarity I do get taken out of fully letting the film suck me into the worlds they’re building, instead I focus on the camera angles and how the shot looks as well as being impressed with designs of monsters or wondering how the animators/ special effects departments managed to pull of the more action pact scenes. This just means that it takes a special type of movie to really get me lose my guard, which is both a blessing and a curse. Since if any writer has the same mindset as I have it would be important to remember how to create fear, if you are not scared then how can you be sure your audience will be scared. Sometimes it is a leap of faith that your vision of what your fears will be seen by others as scary, since not everyone fears the same things. During my research I was surprised to see just how different a horror film can be, with what I had grown up with knowing as a kid, that horror films were nothing but blood and guts, deaths round every corner and monsters straight from your nightmares. As much as a lot of these are somewhat true, there was far more subtext and nuance to the story’s being told that I had not properly understood till now. Looking further into these types of tropes horror is so well known for doing was fun and really got me to branch off from what horror normally was to me. not to mention just how many complex choices a horror film must choose before the final product. From learning more about the fear of the unknown and the knowledge of the familiar and just how vast and complex these fears are, it is not just a one answer question, there are sub answers and more questions that come from those. The complex answers that can be given to both the familiar and the unknown when it comes to horror was a fun topic to try and dissect and I am happy with my final thoughts on both being an important part to the horror film, but there must be a common balance to both for the Film to properly function. What this has done for me has really got me interested in focusing my attentions onto watching more horror content, through books, comics, manga, tv shows. To experience new horror creators as well as dip my foot into reviewing more films, take more of a critique view of the content I am watching. I love what I have done with my dissertation and I am hoping to be able to continue this love of filmmaking further not only into my professional career but also into my casual life.