Research • Initial Ideas

What is a Horror and how is it defined?

"Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears. Horror films often feature scenes that startle the viewer; the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Thus they may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural, and thriller genres.

Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden fears, revulsion's and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, aliens,vampires, werewolves, demons, vicious animals, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers. Conversely, movies about the supernatural are not necessarily always horrific." - Wikipedia

"Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience. These films are often unsettling and rely on scaring the audience through a portrayal of their worst fears and nightmares. Horror films usually center on the arrival of an evil force, person, or event. Many Horror films include mythical creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Traditionally, Horror films incorporate a large amount of violence and gore into the plot. Though it has its own style, Horror film often overlaps into Fantasy, Thriller, and Science-Fiction genres." 

- theScriptLab.com

Both definitions are rather similar, I believe this is the most accurate way to describe what makes a horror film fall under the genre.

History of Horror Films:
Horror has over the years changed and adapted to suit the audiences change in what is deemed 'scary' or can shock them. With new inventions in cinema such as 3D and digital systems a the found footage sub-genre and references to technology or considered scary to a more modern audience, as they can relate the film to their own personal devices which can cause a sense of fear. The modern horror genre is a blend of sub genres that have changed through the decades, copying previous films and emphasizing the same things. It has altered the stereotypes of women and teenagers with how the directors cast and depict the actors.
Many film sites have analysed the development in the history of horror films such as popular film publication and online site for 'Empire' which features such as http://www.empireonline.com/features/horror-through-the-decades/.
Using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#History I have created a basic timeline of key events that have shaped the horror genre.

The History of Horror Films from AshleeRose21196

Sub Genre: What are the conventions?

A sub genre is a 'kind of' derived/formulated from the original genre, acting a sub-category within it. I have chosen a spiritual/supernatural sub genre for my horror film which although can be used for younger audiences (particularly children) known as supernatural comedy where ghosts and creatures can be twisted to be humorous, often used for family entertainment such as Ghost Busters and Casper, I have chosen the more 'typical' of the horror sub genre with a super natural horror thriller.

Events that are common within the super natural sub genre are ones that happen out of human control. Typical tension builders such as creaky doors or floorboards or moving objects like curtains blowing through open windows create the impression of the unknown entering where the characters are. Although these commonly take place during the first half of the film I have created a prezi that explores the codes and conventions of common symbols used to create a super natural film.

Characters: Who? How many? Gender? Age? Who would you get to act in your production?
This was a flow diagram I sketched onto some plain A4 paper and took a picture of using my iPhone, I then used the app to upload the image onto my blog.

Locations: Internal? External?

What is my Synopsis? 

A girl is stuck in the in-between and relives her life through flash backs and doesn't realise she's dead. She can hear a voice that talks to her but doesn't know who it is, she later finds out that it's her twin that died at birth, when she comes to terms with her death and the sibling she never met they can both leave the in-between.

What films can I use as inspiration?

Using en.wikipedia.org I have found the film synopsis' and used the key sections in the film which I think are relevant to mine. I have then compared how they are similar to my idea.

1. The Lovely Bones

I have included this interview clip to help demonstrate how I will present the trailer.

I have included a full synopsis here from the internet because I really want to focus on recreating this story with my idea:"The Lovely Bones is a 2009 American supernatural drama film directed by Peter Jackson. It is a film adaptation of the award-winning and best-selling 2002 novel of the same name by Alice Sebold. - In 1973, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), a 14-year-old girl living in Pennsylvania with her parents, sister, and brother, dreams about becoming a photographer some day. One day, Ray Singh (Reece Ritchie), a boy Susie has a crush on, approaches her at her locker and slips a note into her textbook. He asks her out for the following Saturday. As Susie walks home through a cornfield, she runs into her neighbour, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), who coaxes her into his underground den. Inside, Susie becomes uncomfortable in Harvey's presence and attempts to leave; when he grabs her, the scene fades until she is seen rushing past classmate Ruth Connors (Carolyn Dando).

Meanwhile, the Salmon family becomes worried when Susie fails to return. Her father, Jack (Mark Wahlberg), leaves to search for her, while her mother, Abigail (Rachel Weisz), waits for the police. Susie then runs home to find Harvey soaking in a bathtub. After seeing her charm bracelet hanging on the sink faucet near a bloody shaving razor, Susie realizes that she never escaped the den and was actually murdered by Harvey. Screaming, she is pulled into the "In-Between", that is neither Heaven nor Earth. From there, Susie watches over her loved ones, unable to let go despite her new afterlife friend, Holly (Nikki SooHoo), urging her to move on.

Investigating Susie's disappearance with Detective Len Fenerman (Michael Imperioli), Jack thinks Susie was murdered by someone she knew. He begins obsessively researching neighbors, including Harvey, who actually murdered Susie; Jack also comes to think that Harvey is the killer. But after interviewing Harvey, Fenerman is unable to find any evidence that would pinpoint him as a suspect, as he cleaned up all evidence of his killing her before they arrived. 

The realm in Susie's afterlife begins expanding into a larger heaven, and she is greeted by Harvey's other victims. She resists Holly's urging to enter Heaven along with the others, claiming she has one final thing to do. Susie returns to Earth and enters Ruth's body, causing Ruth to faint. Ray rushes to Ruth's aid only to realize she has become Susie. They share a kiss, completing Susie's last wish, and she returns to Heaven, as Harvey drives away. Meanwhile, the safe is seen tumbling down the sinkhole before disappearing into the muddy water.

Time passes, and Susie sees that her family is healing, which Susie refers to as "the lovely bones" that grew around her absence. As the film concludes, Susie finally enters Heaven, telling the audience: "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. I was here for a moment and then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life.

" I believe this has similarities to my synopsis from the use of the in between, centre character having been murdered and trying to contact her family. I think I can adapt this story and add a slightly more sinister tone as this film isn't scary as such. I like that it isn't too horror based as I think this will guide me into to developing the sub genre style. 

2. The Sixth Sense -

"The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the cinema public to his traits, most notably his affinity for surprise endings. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture." I believe this film has a lot of elements like mine from it's use of merging human life with the dead. I will use this to show a relationship between my center character and her family. I'm hoping this will help create an empathy towards her. I want to recreate the feeling of shock that happens from the audience at the end of this film with my own version. I don't want to focus too much on this storyline because I feel it won't have the same impact in my trailer and drifts slightly from the point I am trying to make.

3. The Skeleton Key - 

Sadly I was unable to find an interview that explained the film.

"The Skeleton Key is a 2005 American supernatural horror film starring Kate Hudson. -  The film centers on a young hospice nurse who acquires a job at a Terrebonne Parish plantation home, and becomes entangled in a supernatural mystery involving the house, its former inhabitants, and the hoodoo rituals and spells that took place there. It was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2005, and in the U.S. on August 12, 2005." This film has a slightly different approach to the sub genre, as appose to the first two where I am developing my own adaptation of their synopsis' I will be taking on elements of the dark visual style and mixing it with a look that isn't too scary. I think this will really help push forward which sub genre I have chosen. I have included this in my research and planning to show the contrast in takes on the supernatural sub genre.

4. Hide and Seek -

I've included the full synopsis because I think it's an interesting take on the child like element used in horrors. The repetition of a child and psychologist is played out very differently.

"Widowed psychologist David Callaway (Robert De Niro) and his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning), with whom he shares a troubled relationship, move after Emily's mother, Allison (Amy Irving), apparently commits suicide. David meets local woman Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue) and her niece, Amy, who is roughly the same age as Emily. Hoping to cultivate a new friendship for Emily, David sets up a play-date for her. The play-date is spoiled however when Emily cuts up the face of Amy's doll. Despite the unsuccessful play-date, David and Elizabeth hit it off, though Emily acts in a hostile manner towards her as well.

A family friend, Katherine (Famke Janssen) - herself a fellow psychologist, visits David and Emily to try to help David and talks to Emily about her obsession with Charlie, her only new (and imaginary) friend. Later, Elizabeth visits again, hoping to make peace with Emily. When Emily says she is playing hide-and-seek with Charlie, Elizabeth indulges her by pretending to look for him. However, someone pushes Elizabeth out the window to her death. When David asks Emily who did it, once more she blames Charlie, admitting Charlie "made her help him". A distraught David, armed with a knife, goes outside, where he meets his neighbour. He assumes his neighbour is Charlie and cuts him with the knife, after which the suspicious neighbor calls the police.

Back in the house, David finds that, although he had seemingly been in his study many times, the boxes were actually never unpacked. David realizes that he has a split personality and that Charlie is not imaginary at all: Charlie in reality is David. Whenever it appeared David was in his study, Charlie was actually in control. David also realizes that under his Charlie personality, he murdered his wife and made it appear to be a suicide. He also fully recalls the events of the party the night before his wife's murder, where he had caught his wife cheating on him, which triggered David's identity disorder.

As Charlie, David goes on a murder spree. He viciously bludgeons the local sheriff with a shovel and drags his body to the cellar. Emily calls Katherine for help who arrives and is herself attacked by Charlie and thrown in the cellar with the sheriff. A terrified Emily manages to escape the house and knife-wielding Charlie seeking her out, and runs into the cave. Katherine takes the gun from the mortally wounded sheriff and follows Charlie to the cave. Charlie pretends to be David, admits he, not Emily, is sick, then proceeds to viciously attack Katherine. As Charlie threatens Emily, Katherine just manages to kill him.

Sometime later, Emily is preparing for school in her new life with Katherine. However, Emily's drawing of herself with Katherine has two heads, suggesting that she now also suffers from a split personality." I like how the film is shot and I think there's a lot of interesting things that can be done with the ideas used in this film that may be good in my own trailer.

Plot: What will I show in 1 minute to 1:30 minutes teaser trailer?

• Not a lot of shots of action or cast, more locations and iconography and conventions
• Titles appear and questions to make the audience start thinking - enigma codes
• A lot of black with smokey writing that acts like a mist, blurs out (Come Dine With Me style)
• Voiceover
• Soundtrack emphasis
• Release Date (Vague to be intriging)
• How she dies at the end

Shot List:

• Establishing Shot of location
• Tracking Shot following her moving (maybe show her feet)
• Close up of her eye blinking
• Close up of her hand holding up to the air

Editing/Styling:

• Blurring and Warped Vision
• Heartbeart
• Sound Effects
• Shot Reverse shots of what she sees as the real world and her alone in the same space.
• Maybe a clock ticking

Title - Ideas List.

• It's a Twin Thing
• The Welcoming 
• The Book of Bones*
• Final Hour*
• Midnight*

*not related to my synopsis but where ideas that helped me with the conventions of the horror genre.

Research • The Influence of the Horror Genre on Today

 

Media Transition Task

A Level Media Transitions Evaluation

1. How did you choose which film to swede?

Post modernism is about taking something iconic that has a large audience following or is well established and reworking it. As a large fan of the film I wanted to recreate 'Mean Girls' because I felt that it would demonstrate my understanding of the task well, taking something that had a lot of iconic quotes and camera shots to make a teaser trailer that an audience would recognize easily. I thought it would be fun doing something of this nature and making it our own. 

2. How did you identify which parts of the film to recreate?

Mean Girls has a lot of 'famous' parts which an audience would be pick out so I found the official script and highlighted what I thought were the most well known lines and phrases from the film, then created a chronological order of their appearance of the film. Because the trailer was only a teaser, I felt that it was best to use two or three and add the soundtrack to the film over the scenes.

3. Describe the filming process - What was straight forward? What was a challenge?
Knowing what I wanted to film and being able to use the camera was what made filming straight forward, however everything else was a challenge. The whole process was a challenge as initially I was the only person willing to do it and as a group task this is already tricky, however the two people that signed up with me to do both dropped out after one lesson having not done anything to contribute (one of their names is left on the trailer for courtesy purposes). So I had a day by myself of research and planning. Then I was joined by another member who helped along, however when we went out to film there were no people around to do the scenes that we wanted to do, so with an empty college we had to improvise what we could create in such a short amount of time. With only one lesson to complete this, we used my iPhone and emailed the videos and images we had used to create some form of footage. I had the idea to extend the running time of using the introduction of the studio title at the beginning and adding clips that we could print off the internet and film for extra seconds. My boyfriend ended getting involved so he could help with setting up the tripod etc, as we acted. Sadly actors we had asked and had been confirmed to do it where unavailable and dropped out on the day we needed them. The whole period of filming was a nightmare and had to be made up of shots that we could do ourselves. I came up with which scenes we should make and came to the final decisions.

4. Describe the editing process - what was straight forward? What was a challenge?
Using new software is always a bit difficult but having edited videos before made the process a lot more straight forward, yet the challenge to overcome difficulty with the software crashing and the videos not connecting to the Mac was hard to overcome at first as it was out of our control. We managed to get the clips in order nicely but a challenge was the issues with sound. Some clips would play louder than others and some wouldn't overlap or change when instructed. This took a lot of effort to single-handedly go through the clips, second by second trying to alter the components that made the sound project. Once this was fixed we wanted to change some of the orders and songs which meant repeating the long and difficult process again.

5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your finished swede?
Strengths - 

• It uses key songs that are recognized to being attached to the film Mean Girls.
• It has a cringey feel to it associated with sweded films
• It looks homemade
• The clips aren't too long to bore audiences
• It has key parts from the film throughout

Weaknesses -

• It isn't very interesting to watch
• Key characters aren't shown because of actors not showing up
• The cinematography could be improved
• The acting and accents used
• The credits

6.  How successful do you feel your swede is?
I don't feel our swede is very successful because of how little time and people we had involved, a lot of the work seen in the film had to be improvised as no one was around or available to work with us. I just don't think it reflects the effort put into the film through poor quality which could be misconstrued as laziness.

7. What would you improve?
I would have used more clips from the internet and not had credits at the end. Looking back it isn't necessary to use them. I feel that it needs more energy put into it.

8. Compare you swede to an existing example - how does yours compare?

I did find a really good example of how I would have liked to have staged it, however it seems to have been removed. This is another example of a Mean Girls sweded film that takes a different approach:

Although this is a lot different from my example (see above) it does follow the idea of sweding something by creating a 'home grown version' and creating scenes. I like the more comical approach with using a male to play a female and comdey wigs. I think this would have been an easier version to do considering how little people and time we had than trying to make a lot of key scenes into a trailer. Ours feels a lot longer than this video, despite the above example having a face to camera talk. This one embraces the internet culture that sweding tends to use which I believe is far more effective.