History of Horror

I did some research into how horror has changed over time and compared out films, to how new films are these days.

Horror films in the silent era



From this video clip, you can see how much horror films have changed since the late 1800's. Horror films then, were not really as scary as these days as you can see from this video. Horror movies in the silent era were, in my opinion, not scary at all as there is no noises to freak you out or make you on edge. This video just shows how important sound is in horror movies as it takes the whole element of horror out of it.



Horror films in the 1920s

From this picture you can see that since the 1800s, the horror films started to change a lot, as instead of having unrealistic characters that make it not scary at all, they started to use scarier costumes that actually add a sense of horror to the films.










When horror films started to get scary





 

In the late 1920s horror films started to get creepier and scare people more, from this clip of dracula, you can see how much films had changed from the 1800s. The films still werent as scary as films these days but they were starting to work up to that.

The late 1900s



This trailer of 'Dead Alive' shows how much the idea of horror changed, horrors these days are much much more scarier than what they used to be, they are a lot more gorey and scary for people that watch them. From this research I have learnt how important sound is in horror films and that it takes a lot more gore to make a horror film seem more scary. This has helped me in my main task because now I know what to inlcude to make our opening titles are scary as possible.  

Talking about Horror

Here is a short video that basically talks about the horror genre and how horror movies are edited and tweeked to make 10x more scary. It talks about the types of camera angles that are mostly used in horror movies to make it creepier. I watched this and got inspiration for my horror film opening to see how I could use these camera angles in my opening titles to make it as scary as I can.

Analysis of Props

We analysed what props we could use in our horror film opening, and how we could make them look even more scary than usual. I analysed some of the props from the movie Scream and tried to see how they was made to look scarier than they would normally look. 



The knife the girl picks up in the beginning of the movie
 comes across scarier than usual because the light is
 being shined onto it to emphasise how dangerous and
 sharp it is.



They have made the knife seem alot more scarier than
usual by putting fake blood all over it to make it obvious that
scream has killed someone before that and is going to kill
the people in the scene.



When the phone rings the take out all of the background
 noise so you can just hear the phone ringing and it seems
 more intense when she picks up the phone as you don't
know who it could be.



Font Analysis of a Title Sequence

 

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/evil-dead/

I enjoyed watching the titles to evil dead as I thought they were very clever. I thought the title scene was very clever with the tree like shadows taking over the title scene. The opening titles include alot of blood this make you know straight away that that it is going to be a horror film. Towards the end of the opening titles pictures keep filckering really quickly, I think this is a really good effect to use as it makes you on edge as you think somethings going to pop up.They use red font in the title sequence, the colour red is usually associated with blood and danger and the font is quite bold so it stands out against the black bits of the background.

Font Analysis

I analysed different types of fonts I thought would be suitable to use in a horror film, and from this research I have started to produce a film title for our opening scene that I thought would suit the the plot of the film. I like these fonts cause they look really creepy and a bit distorted and that's what we were looking for for our opening titles. But in my opinion these fonts don't really suit the plot of our film as we wanted something that would fit in with our idea of having a clown as the killer. The font I like the most is the Tricky Treat Family font as it looks like a child has written it, and clowns are usually associated with children. We could have added sound affects to the font to make it sound like a child was writing 'dead funny' on a chalkboard. We could wouldve chosen the chalkboard sound as its a sound that makes people cringe and sends a shiver down thier spine, and thats what we want to achieve out of our film as people would be more drawn to watch it. In the end we didnt choose to use any of these fonts as we found a font what suited our movie a lot better. You will see our chosen fonts in one of my next blogs.

Tricky Treat Family



Uncle Typewriter Family



Poltergeist Family



Tapeworm Family



Costume Analysis

The costume that Pennywise the clown is wearing in the film IT is an example we wish to follow in our horror film. The costume that Pennywise wears comes across more scarier than we would think because they have chosen a basic clown outfit, that we would consider nice, innocent clowns to wear. Pennywise has red hair, this makes him seem scarier as red is usually associated with danger and blood, his hair is also not covering all of his head as most of the top of his head is bald. Research has shown that women consider bald men to be stronger that men who aren't bald, this makes Pennywise seem a lot more dangerous as he may come across to people as someone who they don't want to meet. The colours on his costume are very bright and in your face, bright colours are usually associated with happiness and joy, but thats the complete different thing Pennywise brings to people as he just brings fear and sadness. Clowns are mostly associated with children, this makes Pennywise seem more dangerous as when he is near children he ends up murdering them, which is not what you would think a clown would do around children. Pennywise's eyes are very dark, which makes him look even more evil and scary than usual.

BBFC Ratings

U- Universal

• Suitable for all ages.
• Audience- usually 4 and over.
• Set within a positive moral framework.
• If something bad/scary happens, it is immediately counterbalanced with something good/happy.
• Horror scenes should be very mild and quick- shouldn't be able to cause anxiety with young children (should be reassuring).

 PG- Parental Guidance

• General viewing- some scenes may be unsuitable.
• Audience- 8 and over.
• Parents should be able to decide whether its suitable or not.
• Horror scenes shouldn't be too long or intense.
• Language should be mild.

12/12A

• Suitable for 12 years and over, but if a child under 12 wants to watch then an adult must be with them.
• Can have racist/ sexist characters in but the film must not say them being racist or sexist is right.
• Drugs misuse- inefficient and should not be glamorised.
• Language can be mild, but must not be frequent.
• Moderate violence but must not be detailed.

15

• Suitable for 15 years and over.
• No one younger than 15 can watch a 15 film in a cinema or buy a 15 rated video work.
• Strong threat and menace are permitted.
• A 15 rated film may include; strong violence, frequent strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references to sex, sexual nudity, brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence, discriminatory language or behaviour and drug taking.
• There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language.

18 

• Suitable for only adults.
• No one younger than 18 may watch an 18 film in a cinema or purchase an 18 film.
• 18 films include the following; very strong violence, frequent strong language and/or very strong language, strong portrayals of sexual activity, scenes of sexual violence, strong horror, strong blood and gore, real sex, discriminatory language and behaviour.

Our Prezi for our Pitch

Our Prezi
This is the Prezi we used for our pitch.




Our Pitch
This is our pitch that we recorded for our opening scenes of our horror film.

Analysis of the opening title scene of the Shaun of the Dead (Embedded Video)

 

How does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?

The title sequence shows that the film might have a sense of comedy too it by the music they have chosen to use as it sounds happy and seems like the kind of music that would be used in a comedy film. Its gives you an idea at the beginning that zombies may be involved in the film as at the end of the title sequence, the man that walks in looks and sounds like how a zombie would, before his face is shown. By the title sequence you can't really tell that the film is going to be a comedy horror, you would just think that it is a horror.

How does the title sequence attract an audience's interest?

From the title sequence the film seems like its going to be a fun film to watch and its seems like it would be a funny film, this may make the audience want to watch the film as it looks good by the title sequence. Also by the end of the title sequence it gives away that the film may be about zombies so people who like films like this may want to watch it.

What do you consider to be the target audience of the film and why?

I think the target audience of the film would be people who are 15 and above, as there is some violence involved in the film so it may not be suitable for people under the age of 15. The film would be aimed at people that enjoy watching comedy horrors, as that is what the film is. It would be aimed more at the groups C2, D and E as they would be the type of people to watch a film like this.

Who had produced the film and how is that evident in the title sequence?

Shaun of the Dead was produced by Nira Park, but the title sequence doesn't include this information so you wouldn't know.

Analysis of the opening scenes of Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

Analysis of a horror films opening titles

The Conjuring

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-conjuring/

Whilst watching the opening titles of the conjuring I felt very on edge as the music that was used to go over top of the opening titles we're very creepy and it felt like something scary was going to pop up at any time. In the opening titles, they used black and white images, this made it all a bit more creepier as the images looked more old and haunted.

They use a projecter to place all the pictures and writing on, this gives a more creepy atmosphere and gives you an idea that it is set in the older days because noone really uses projecters these days. It looks more scary on some of the pictures because the writing is covering their faces so it looks like it is targeting the people who the pictures are of.

You can't really analyse the makeup of the characters in the opening scene because you can't see anyones face, this gives a more creepy sense because you don't know who is turning the pages, so it could be the bad guy in the film.

Location Analysis

What factors do you need to consider when selecting a location?

• Weather 
• Time of location
• Safety
• Permission

What could this location be used for?

• A wedding- Comedy/Romance/Drama.
• A funeral- Drama/Horror.
• A christening- Romance/Comedy.

How could this location be used to emphasise a genre/mood?

It could:

• Make you happy.
• Make you laugh.
• Make you scared.
• Be mysterious, dark and gloomy.
• Be happy, funny, jolly.

Compare two genres and explain how this location could be adapted for both

• Romance- high key lighting, happy atmosphere, a wedding, happy music.
• Horror- low key lighting, dark, scary, creepy music.

Mise En Scene Analysis- Mean Girls

The mean girls screenshot we got to analyse showed a lot and gave away clues about the characters and where the movie was set. I analysed the picture of the people outside of the school, about to do P.E . You can tell they're all about to do P.E because the way they are dressed, as they are all wearing shorts and a gym top.

The screenshot we got is the first scene a that the 'popular' girls (named the plastics) are introduced. By the clothes Karen is wearing you can tell that she if very confident within herself, knowing she has a good body and no one would judge her because of it because she is one if the plastics. Regina is getting carried in by a group of boys, this suggests she is the leader of the group of girls as the two other girls, Gretchen and Karen, didn't get carried in.

The picture is a long shot, to show the popular girls compared to everyone else, and how they're completely different to the other people in the school. The scene has high key lighting, this might be to show that this scene is early on in the day and that they're at school. The light is mostly focused on the popular girls as they want to show off what they are all like early on in the film. 

Sound Analysis- Shaun of the Dead

We watched the part of the film where they was all fighting in the pub. In this scene they use music to build up tension, when all the zombies are outside, trying to get into the pub. In one part of the scene when they are trying to get the zombies away, a song starts playing from the jukebox, this adds humour to the scene and is also contrapuntal sound because it doesn't really connect with what is happening in the scene.

When the song by queen is being played, it is diegetic sound because the people who are in the scene can hear it. When the song stops it then goes into non-diegetic sound, because the actors cant hear what is being played.In the bit of the scene where the woman pulls her sleeve, they use sound effects to make everything seem more scary and dramatic. Throughout the scene the music builds up and then suddenly stops, this adds more effect to the scene


The scene what I analysed- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB98-NOO9Ug

Sound Terminology

In this lesson we talked about how sound can create a meaning in a film/ tv show. Some of the things that was said were:

• It creates emotion and can also create tension within the audience.
• It can sometimes help you understand the film/ tv show more.
• Sets the time period.
• It can make the film more interesting to watch.
• It can show the emotions of the characters.
• Parallels the action (e.g. fast music in action scenes and slow music in romantic scenes).
• It can help with the character representation/ identification.

We also learnt about the meaning of key words to do with sound terminology.

Soundtrack- this is the recorded sound element of a theme.
Theme music/tune- A recurrent melody.
Sound effects- Sounds other than dialogue or music added artificially.
Ambient sound- buzz and/or surrounding sounds.
Dialogue- speech.
Voice over- narration in a film not accompanied by a synchronised image of the speaker forming the words.
Direct Sound- when characters speak directly to the camera i.e. the audience.
Diegetic Sound- any sound that has an on screen source and belongs to the world of the film.
Non Diegetic Sound- any sound that does not have an on screen and characters on screen do not hear it (voice overs, music)
Sound Bridges- sound/s that continue from one shot to another. They help create a smooth transition from one shot to another. In this way the sound is said to be enhancing the continuity of the film.
Parallel sound- sound that complements the the image track. Sound and image seem to reflect each other.
Contrapunctual Sound- sound that does not fit with the image track (e.g. insidious and tiptoe through the tulips)

Representation

Representation is the way that media re-presents a person/ event. The media can make someone look either really good or really bad. There is three types of representation these are, stereotypes, archetypes and counertypes.

Media uses stereotypes so the audience will instantly understand them. Stereotypes is often reffered to 'visual shortcuts'. People repeat stereotypes so ofen so that we think the stereotype is normal or true.


Archetypes are the ultimate stereotype. For example, people from Essex are usually seen as 'dumb' and 'fake', but in real life they could be completely different.


Countertypes are a representation that challenges tradition stereotypical assosiations of groups, people or places.

Mise En Scene

Mise En Scene
- To do with the visuals within a scene (what you can see).
- A French term meaning what is put into a scene/ frame. 
- Visual information in front of the camera.
- Made up of key elements.

Key Elements of Mise En Scene
- Setting and Props.
- Costumes, hair and make up.
- Facial expressions and body language.
- Lighting.
- Colour.
- Positioning of characters and objects within a frame. 

The Golden Rules

Rule One

If you are using Prezi or Microsoft powerpoint to present your lessons/ what you have learnt, try not to over use it as there are many other ways to presenting your work.

Rule Two
Be as creative as you can with your blog, play around with different fonts, add videos, etc.

Rule Three
Try and use a variety of technology in your blog.

Rule Four
Use as many different media forms as you can.

Rule Five
Don't copy other peoples blogs, use your own work and don't just copy it off other people or the internet.

Rule Six
Make sure your evaluations are well thought out.

Rule Seven
Try and present what you have learnt in every lesson, to show people that you are understanding what you're learning about.

Rule Eight
Make sure your blog is easy to navigate through and it is easy to find every thing you have written about.  

Camera Angles

In this lesson we took pictures and videos on our phones of the different camera angles, these are the camera angles that I pictured/videoed. 

Tracking Shot

Close Up

Extreme Close Up

High Angle

Birds Eye View

Tilt

Medium Shot

Long Shot

Low Angle

Extreme Long Shot

Zoom