Horror Movie Mood Board

#1 Frightened - Actors will have to show a lot of fear, this would help put the audience in the same shoes, or same place as the actor being scared, message would be easier to get across, and quality of film would be better. Serious horror films require just as much preparation for a role as other genres. It's imperative that the audience believes in the world of the film. The believability of the character is an integral portion of that believable world.

#2 Make-up blood - This will be key to show cuts and injuries on people, audience could think that it actually happened and draw them into the film, with this, we could dramatise the situations and make the audience feel sympathy for the actors. Any horror film we are acting in is a world that needs to come across as believable. True, it's not every day that we might get stabbed in the heart or have our friend's head fall in our lap, but it is our job as actors to make these moments as real as possible.

#3 POV shots - Point of view shots, would be ideal to be seen, as its found footage based, and a trailer, I would like to make some of the shots look blatant that we(actors) took them.

#4 Masked antagonists - Potentially saving us getting an extra actor, this would scare most audience as being seen with a mask thats covering the face, covers the identity, most people would link this to crime, and that they are about to do something bad, easy way to outline the bad guys.

#5 Facial Make up - Including cuts, wounds, scars, scratches, if all good, it would increase the quality of the film, just running around looking fine won't look realistic, but using makeup to fake injuries and accidents would surely make it more realistic.

#6 Group of survivors - Instead of using one person, use a group of friends or just survivors who got together to stay alive, this would be more effective as the audience can pick out their 'favourite' ones, and create a social interaction with each other, talking about it at school, work etc and making the film more popular.

#7 Hideouts - Using creepy abandoned places, to set a scary setting, of course editing and changing the colours would be a priority to make these good. But showing a few quick hideouts and conditions of the place, would bring the

#8 Screaming - Acting in horror films almost always requires some sort of noise of distress at some point or another...usually it comes in the form of a scream. Screaming shows fear and being frightened, audience will see how scary it really is just by hearing the sound, yet some people may even just get scared by the scream.

#9 Woods - Many people find the unknown scary. The woods are not typically where people live. They may live near a forest, but they seldom live in one. Forests have predators, some of them large enough to kill humans. It's also easy to become lost.

#10 Creepy acting by diseased creatures - This would put the audience in discomfort, making them believe this could be realistic and make them scared.

#11 Knifes - Fake of course, using props like this would again, make it look more realistic as its something everyone thinks about when scared.

#12 Chainsaws - How scared would you be if someone was running after you with a chainsaw? Very! I am not sure how or where we could get one, or even a fake one, just to take a shot of one of the diseased creatures running after one of the survivals with one. But I think its a good idea to work around.

#13 Survival - Similar to hideout, show the horrendous conditions the survivals will be going through, stand out how difficult and disgusting some things are, for more drama and sympathy and fear.

#14 Blood trails - Anyone seeing this would freak out, this would mean someone has been seriously hurt or even killed, with blood being on walls, ceilings etc and still dripping, would look fresh and that in only just happened, so the audience may be engaged in the sense of being with the survivals. 

Codes and Conventions of a Horror Genre

Codes and Conventions of a Horror genre:

·         Split into sub genres, often hybridised

·         Primary target audience – male, 16-24, Mainstreamers

·         15 or 18 Certification (promises of pleasure) – debates on passive consumption

·         Uses and Gratifications (active audiences) theory can apply

·         Extensive use of Narrative enigmas

·         Exploration of Narrative Themes

·         Slow pace of Editing, builds tension. Long takes

·         Three act narrative structure

·         Predictable narrative content (follows format)

·         Clear binary oppositions e.g. good v evil

·         Use of low key lighting

·         Use of CGI, FX

·         High production values but many low budget horror films

·         Dominant, hegemonic representation of gender: The Female Victim

·         Extensive use of close up

·         Incidental non-diegetic sound

·         Distorted diegetic sound

·         Extensive use of narrative off-screen space

·         Young/teenage characters

·         Use of hand-held camera: audience identification/realism

·         Point of view shots

·         Low angle shots

 

The Cliches:

The Protagonist:

·        Teenagers - mainly girls.

·        Daredevils/ rebels.

·        stupid.

·        College dropouts.

·        Even more stupid boyfriends.

·        Blonde.

·        Screams.

The Antagonist:

·        Ghosts

·        Zombies

·        Creepy children

The Story:

·        Unresponsive bodies.

·        Haunted houses.

·        Haunted graveyards.

·        Haunted towns.

·        Haunted hotels with equally creepy workers.

·        Shower murders

·        Creaky doors.

·        Creaky stairs.

·        Creaky rocking chairs

·        Dolls.

·        Pictures with blurry faces.

·        People coming out of pictures or TV's.

·        Creepy, suspenseful music.

·        Chainsaws

·        Knives

The Unborn Trailer Analysis - Horror Movie Research

This trailer, called The Unborn, straight away, creates a scary, thrilling atmosphere and has an impact on the audience through the uses of sound, editing, camera angles and shots.

The diegetic sound of the whispering through the baby monitor, creates suspense but also wants the audience to raise questions about who it is speaking through the baby monitor, wanting them to find out more, and attracting the audience to watch the film. There are moments of high-pitched non-diegetic sounds and this starts to create an eerie atmosphere, which makes the audience feel uncomfortable. To add to the audience feeling uncomfortable, there is silence in parts of the trailer, which increases nervousness and also builds intensity, and this starts to create a sinister atmosphere. Some of the voices of the characters are not very clear and hard to understand, this increases a fear factor but also makes the feeling of the unknown within the audiences mind.

Throughout the trailer, there are many fades, as the trailer progresses, it encourages the same continuous feel of being uncomfortable. As the trailer progresses, the pace starts to increase and this is done through the use of jump cuts. This builds up the intensity and fear, meaning that the audience would now start to feel a bit more on edge.

Various camera angles are used throughout this trailer and some are canted angles, this creates an alarming atmosphere within the audience. There are also some variations of the shot types; the first shot is an establishing shot, this shows the audience the isolated setting in the trailer. There are also some of the over-the-shoulder shots, where the audience is then positions alongside the protagonist of the movie. Extreme close-ups are also used, one being a shot of the protagonists eye, which is a symbolic piece to the plot of the film and trailer. Various point of view shots, make the audience feel like they are the ones experiencing their fear and places them in the protagonists position, making them emphasize with the protagonist.

Saw 1 Trailer Analysis - Horror Movie Research

In this trailer, there is a slight link with Todorov’s theory of narrative, but overall it isn’t very clear. There is no period of equilibrium or a moment of disequilibrium in this trailer; it goes straight into the disequilibrium. However, with this disequilibrium, it adds more of a fear factor to the trailer and having a more intense and fearful feeling in the audience. In the trailer, we are shown some newspaper articles that are going at a fast pace, to increase the intensity, but this indicates the equilibrium in the trailer, also tells the narrative at the same time. Just the same as other trailers, this trailer has no new equilibrium, and the audience does not know what happens at the end, leaving them on a cliff hanger, making them want to go and see the film. This trailer also complies with Barthes Enigma Code by allowing the trailer to exit as a mystery, increasing the target audience and raising questions, making them want to know more and find out how it ends.

Also shown in this trailer is Props character theory, this is portrayed through the innocent victims being helpless and scared, which has an effect on the audience as we start to feel nervous as we are waiting to see what happens to the victims. The protagonist in the trailer is the police officer which linking to the character theory, he is the helper, as he tries to help and solve the mystery of what is happening to the victims. The masked puppet, named Jigsaw, is the antagonist, and linked to the character theory, he is the villain. Due to being behind a puppet, it keeps the true identity of the antagonist a mystery and draws the audience into watching more of the films, as Saw is a sequel.

Throughout the trailer, there are various different shots, editing techniques, camera angles and different ranges of non-diegetic and diegetic sounds that create a scary atmosphere in the audience.

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sounds have been used in a variety of ways in the trailer. The high pitched rumbling noise of the non-diegetic sound is used to help build tension in the audience and also to build up the fear factor as well. The sound of chains in the trailer is the diegetic sound, also other sounds such as screams of innocent victims and clocks ticking adds the scare factor to the audience and giving it an eerie atmosphere. The unrecognisable voices in the trailer, which are not clear and understandable creates a fear of the unknown, making the audience want to watch the film, finding out more about the voices.

There are various different jump cuts in the trailer, these are used to create the suspension in the film and this makes the audience feel disorientated. Throughout the trailer, there is a lot of black screens which are on for a long time. This would make the audience feel uneasy as they have no clue what is happening and this create tension and suspension. It would also make the audience feel vulnerable and involved in the trailer.

Also, in the trailer, there are a lot of canted angles. These types of shots help create an alarming, uneasy atmosphere amongst the audience. As well as these shots, there are also a lot of close up shots which show the emotions and instability of the characters in the trailer, giving the scare factor to the audience, making them want to learn more and empathize with the characters.

Film Certificate

The certificate of my film I decided will be a 15 certificate. The reasons for me deciding to choose this certificate are because of the audience of my type of film and other films similar to genre. I found that with films similar to mine that I've studied (the Ring etc.) to have a reasonably high audience of teenagers and in particular people aged 15+ in these sorts of films, so it would therefore make it suitable and appropriate to make my film a 15. In terms of appropriateness, I feel that my film would fit in with the 15 certificate because it would contain violence/language of a reasonable level but not too extreme of what would expected of an 18, this is why my film would be a 15 certificate.

Horror Film Title Ideas

Here are our initial ideas for our trailer:

·        Nocturnal Eyes
·        The Last Ride
·        Black Trip
·        Sharing The wilderness
·        Against Expectations
·        Lie in wait
·        Desperate
·        One Way
·        Hell
·        Pray for rescue
·        1 week
·        They Watched or Watched

I like the last two names the most, '1 week' and 'They Watched'. Both are quite vague and dont give a lot away, would have the best effect on the viewers making them want to watch it.

CHANGE IN GENRE!!!!!! - Action/Comedy to Horror

After speaking to our course teacher (Mr Thornton), Dan and I have decided to change our genre idea from an Action/Comedy trailer, to a horror movie trailer. Reasons of changing the film genre was due to the difficulty of the action/comedy, trying to make the audience laugh, that if it was unsuccessful with the jokes we used, then the trailer would be a flop. Another reason for our change in genre was due to the other participants of our media cause doing Action Thriller, made us think of a change, so we decided between the both of us, while watching different various film trailers, we came across the horror movie trailers and how effective they are and we then decided to change our genre to being a Horror.