Alterations made along the way

Our idea has always stayed the same, but it has made a few changes along the way but very minor.

1) The music idea changed as Conor found a very good piece for the starting piece, this was all agreed on that it fitted very well and added more of a effect to the opening sequence.

2) We added in the screaming, shouting in the first part very late into the editing as we realised that it was very dull and didn't have the story we had in mind. By adding in the sound effects this has changed the opening sequence into a better knowledge.

3) We never done the TV news report on the man jumping off the bridge and not finding the body as this was a lot of hard work, and needed a lot more looking into then we thought. So we used the newspaper idea instead.

4) We added in the shot of looking at her feet when she walks past the bed, as this created more tension and made the short sequence look even better than it was!

Little Mood Board of Horror

This mood board focuses on masked killers and the sadistic nature of horror villains.

Our synopsis for the film (Opening sequence)

Our film synopsis- Animus

(Our open sequence only)

Our film is about a man (Mark) who lost his wife (Sarah) and child (Emily) in a house fire, which if his neighbours helped they would have been able to get out alive. After the fire and he found out his family were burnt to death he went missing. He has been missing for roughly 10 years and it is coming up to the death anniversary of his family but to this day he still blames them for the death of his family. (This is not shown in the opening sequence)
You see a Mark walking down the riverside looking very depressed, upset, angry all at the same time and you get from his facial expressions something is going to happen as you see him look up at a bridge, then it snaps to him about to jump off the bridge. This suggests that he may have just committed suicide.
After seeing part 1, it shows us a young business lady which we haven't found the name out for, but her name is Kate. Kate is coming home after a day at work, we see her taking her coat of and then placing a newspaper onto the sofa with a quote of ‘I saw him jump' and underneath in normal font for the paper a write about the body not being found but Kate knows nothing about this as she didn't even glance at the paper. Kate looks in the mirror to see if she should wear her glasses or not but as she bends down you can see a face of a male, she does not see this and goes to close curtains and stills have no idea. Kate going upstairs to make the beds and clean up before her husband and children come home, but as she walks to leave the bedroom a disaster happens.
 Kate is tripped over by someone under the bed and attacked with a crow bar. At this point we see blood on Kate's leg and we see her crawling and struggling to get into another room. The male is shown walking after her very slowly, as Kate grabs the phone to phone for help it is kicked out of her hand, Kate decides to climb on/over her bed but she has been smacked by the crow bar to the back of her neck which then paralyses her and the male chucks her to the ground and starts punching her to the face. We then see the male pick up the pole and walks out of the room.
There is no movement from Kate so this shows she has been killed, but we don't know who done and it why.


Initial planning ideas

Brainstorm.

Conventions of Horror

Setting

A variety of locations can be used for a horror film, however the most stereotypical settings used are:

• Woods
• Abandoned Houses
• Old, grand houses (usually with a dark history)

These places are most often used for their sense of isolation and the consequential difficulty to get help.

Camera Work

The hand held shot has become increasingly popular in contemporary horror movies with the accessibility of cameras in today's society. For example, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield are shot almost if not entirely by seemingly amateur characters. This is meant to add to the viewer experience as the audience are put in the same unknowing place as the characters and must unravel the events as they happen.

Abstract angles are also frequently used. This is often done to disorientate the viewer in a particularly climactic part of the movie. It can also partially obscure certain elements of mise-en-scene, for example the antagonist may be seen for a fraction of a second before clearly appearing to build up the tension.

Editing

The pace of editing varies to increase or decrease tension in the film. The pace may slow in a horror, but only to deceive the viewer by lulling them into a false sense of security. When suddenly juxtaposed with a fast paced scene, the sense of fear and terror are intensified.

Sound

Music is a key element in horror movies. A notable example is the shower scene in the 1968 movie Psycho. Loud, sharp, high pitched music is played in time with the stabbing, emulating the knife's movement in sound. It is also highly intrusive, a sound that cannot be escaped when it is being played and is difficult to forget. This heightens the fear in the audience.

Characters

• Main Protagonist
• Villain/Protagonist Element
• Victims

Style

Since films like Scream, horror films have become self-reflexive - they reference or ironically mock the genre. While this adds a form of social commentary it also allows the film to be more innovative as it, quite subtly, does not take itself seriously. An example of this is exaggerated gore  where a minor injury can seriously or fatally wound a character. Combined with an increased fragility in the human body, violently bloody images have become a staple in today's horror movies.

Audience expectations for horror genre

Horror Audience

Horror is more aimed at people who want an adrenaline rush from being fearful of something/someone. The target audience age from around 16/18- to 30 year old, it is more likely for males are to watch horror films. Teenagers are usually aimed at as well due to them be curious and daring to watch it, this is because most horror films involve unknowing, naive teenagers as the main protagonists, which are the target of serial killers or psychopaths!

The audience do expect to be scared or even horrified, they will sit down knowing something will happen on there screens to scare them. The audience know as well that there may be blood, screaming, tension building music. So they do expect the horror to scare them.

The aim is quite hard sometimes due to there being age restrictions on films. They have to be either 15, 18 or even older, so this can be quite restricting. Horror films can involve different types of subjects, such as one could be more bloody, one could be very discreet with the blood, injuries etc.

Iconic Horror Directors

Wes Craven

Notable Work: Scream 1-4 ( 1996-2011)
                        New Nightmare (1994)
                        A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
                       The Last House on the Left (1972)

A well-known horror director, Craven became famous for his innovative approach to the genre. The films A Nightmare on Elm Street & the Scream series focused on youth-horror, an incredibly popular sub-genre, and the use of ironic dark and hyperbolic humour. This involved using the young cast to refer to other horror movies, while being antagonised by their own terror which , in turn, would subtly comment on other horror villains. Craven is often credited with making the sub-genre the profitable and easily re-workable machine it is today.

George A. Romero

Notable Work: Dead pentalogy (1968-2009)

Romero started a small movie company in 1967 with a few university friends, each with a share of $10,000. They began work on their first project, Night of the Living Dead, a zombie horror film with a twist: its comparatively tiny budget of around $100,000. Filmed in black and white, blood was made from chocolate sauce to keep down costs and a solid script ensured it's huge success at the box office. It grossed over $30,000,000 and set a standard for an explosion of cheap, yet popular and often critically acclaimed horror movies.

A common factor between these two directors is the fact that they sparked hugely successful franchises, both at the box-office and with critics. This is no mean feat in the world of horror movies where bland, recycled scripts with an excessive amount of blood and gore are chewed-up and spat out by the mainstream market while being panned by reviewers. 

9 frame analysis

The screen shots used in this were taken from the film Drag me to Hell. It displays usual conventions of the horror genre. It shows it characters background and information though simple techniques. The top left screenshot shows a poor man helping a woman off a truck. It suggests that they are poor and have travelled a long way for help. Another character is shown as a spiritual woman with supernatural powers. The supernatural factor is used a lot in this opening scene, for example the male character in the shot in the middle gets hit and flung by an invisible force. The child is also dragged down by a hand coming from a fiery place which is presumed to be hell. This appears to be due to a necklace shown in the bottom left shot which possess super natural forces. They use editing, lighting and cinematography to create fear and tension. They use a shot panning up of the shadow of the boy being dragged down. This creates a feeling of fear for the audience. This is similar to our film as we are using the idea of fire and death as well. We are not using the supernatural convention as much and are using the violence more. This is were these films differ however, the film techniques, character status and others are similar as we have followed these conventions of a horror.

Iconography of Horror/Thriller genre

 Horror/Thriller film genres follow specific conventions. Firstly, the genre of film has a certain type of enemy. For example, this photo shows a hidden, unknown character which often has violence linked with it. Characters generally have a defining feature for example in this photo it's the mask and the machete that makes the character memorable.

The genre of film often has weird, unusual, twisted aspects about it. One example of this is the film, Cabin in the woods which has supernatural aspects about it to add a fear factor with the mystery. Horror/Thriller films use ideas similar to human behavior, but skew them slightly so the audience understands, but is worried about it.

 The cinematography in this genre are odd and unusual camera shots and framing. They use close up camera shots to show detail and so you can learn more about the characters. The editing is also sharp and fast paced to create tension and fear.

 This is an example of how the genre uses lighting, cinematography and mystery to create fear. They use shadows and low lighting in order to create tension with approaching enemies and unusual situations.



 Horror/Thriller films use violence, blood etc in order to create fear and tension. There have been many different weapons used and each weapon shows a different type of person. This idea is used well to imply what kind of people are in the movie. I can suggest madness though knives, nooses etc.

Iconic sounds connected with the genre.

Horror has many different type of iconic sounds to use when once the film is produced. Horror has different ways of sound coming across, by having an empathetic sound to match the sound with the characters mood. For example in horror if a character is scared you may hear a sound effect or song to match with the characters emotion which was scared.

Non- diegetic sound is used alot in horror films, this is too build tension and to show that something may happen. But to also over exaggerate the sounds for example, a drip from the tap may be louder than usual. This is to create more tension as the genre is 'horror'.

In the start of the opening sequence we use screaming/shouting in the background of the scenes, this is to add tension to the start and to make people aware of the fact he has stuff going through his mind. This is known as non-diagetic sounding. We also added in a song to build the tension.

In our opening sequence we are using a piece of piano music on top of the murdering scene, this is to show we can use terminology correct and also show different ways of sound. This is known as non-diegetic sound which means the character cant hear this, but the audience can. This will be very effective as you will still see the characters reaction and see her facial expression that she's screaming.

Font of title analysis

We have picked horror as our genre, this means the font needs to fit in with movie. I have researched into two different horror movies and there title fonts, styles and how it also fits in with the movie.

Halloween

Halloween is a horror based film which there title fits in with the film. They have made the font bold and has a twist by the letters being arrowed or straightened. The opening title is very stereotypical as they have involved a 'jack 'o' latern' placed on a black background. This makes the Halloween title and John Carpenter's also stand out as its orange which makes the title very bold.


                        The Last House on the Left.



This title is very different, but yet another stereotypical title. They've used a white font on top of blood splattered onto the picture. Which suggests that the film is bloody and gory, this also suggests that something is going to happen by there being a picture of a girl's mouth being covered up! But also they've kept the very simple idea of showing a house in the picture. The font size is different this is to make the words 'House' and 'Left' stand out this is to make the audience aware that its not any house but its on the left.

For our opening sequence we made the 'Animus' font very edgy, so it looked out of place and this is to clarify that there is something wrong, suggesting its a horror movie. This would hopefully stick out to our audience and they would recognise that we tried to make it seem odd with the title 'Animus' the audience members would already be confused as not many would understand what it means.

History of Horror

The horror genre in movies began with a more traditional, Gothic tone. This focused on vampires, ghosts and other unexplainable supernatural elements, most notably in Nosferatu, considered as the first vampire movie. The Gothic continued into the 1940's with many adaptations of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Hunchback of Notre-Dame being consistantly popular with audiences.
However, as cinema technology advanced and the Cold War incited fears of world destruction, more contemporary issues were tackled by the genre, like armageddon and horror-of-demonic (often used as propaganda by US and Soviet filmmakers). Zombies also made notable appearances during the 60's and other nuclear-mutated beings like Godzilla became big hits, even with small budgets. Roman Polanski and several other directors broke onto the horror scene with gore, demons (Rosemary's Baby - Polanski) and so-called 'splatter' horrors. This involved dismebered body parts, blood and orrgans being used to incite fear in the audience.
The theme of possession, especially in children, was a popular one and spawned the likes of The Omen & The Exorcist. These films often had Catholic undertones running through them which is a featture of the more traditional Gothic horrors.
In the late 70's and early 80's, horror combined with science-fiction and created the Alien franchise, a slasher-science hybrid that echoed fears at the time of hostile contact from outer space.
After a quiet period in the early 90's, the filmmakers of the horrors had to reach out to a new audience.To do this the films parodied themselves, becoming overly gruesome and blatantly ironic in the stereotypical characters and foreshadowing of their deaths.
More recently, a mixture of horrors have been released to an increasingly unshockable teen audience.