Planning: Initial ideas To A Sixty Second Pitch

We were asked to come up with an entire plot for a whole horror film instead of only devising the opening 2 minutes which would have no real plot to work with. We did this by creating a mind map, on which we brain stormed all of our initial ideas for the plot of our film. This mind map was split into six different sub-genres that you would most likely find in a horror movie. For example, we thought of different ideas that we could use to create a plot for a movie based off true stories and urban legends by researching old news articles and old-wives tales. After brainstorming our ideas, we decided that every horror film should be based around some form of villain or threat/danger, whether it be a psychotic killer, possessive demon or a bloodsucking vampire. As a result of this, we decided to narrow down our ideas and began to think of something more specific. We wanted to create something different; something that other groups were less likely to have thought of. 



  

Once we had came up with the complete idea for out film, we then began to think about what our production company name and a working film title was going to be. We came up with the idea of 'Ragged Crimson Productions' as our production company name by thinking of adjectives/words that you would usually associate with horror. The fact that the main events in our film take place on the 29th February, we thought that 'Leap Year' would be an appropriate working title for our film. 
Our final 60 second pitch can be found on the embedded video bellow:

            

Research: The Importance Of Sound In Horror Films

Music has the ability to set the tone for how a scene will play out. Horror films generally rely on music to set the mood of a scene; if the desired feeling is tension then low drum sounds would be used at a slow tempo that gradually speeds up to the desired point when the suspense is over.

Different sounds and music, which creates certain atmosphere, allowing us to experience movie more deeply and emotionally. In horror movies, music is very important to create that certain atmosphere of tension and suspense. The first 'talkie' horror movie was also only the second sound film made by Warner Bros – The Terror (1928), which used a Vitaphone sound disc, filled with effects such as creaky doors. So the importance of sound in establishing mood was never in doubt within the film industry, and it continues to work in such well-crafted films as The Babadook (2014). 

       

            

Lots of voices in horror films have been chosen to reflect fear and panic. An example of this is Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy's voice is deep and scratchy, which doesn't sound natural.

            

Sound is very important in all types of films, if you can't hear what's supposed to be happening in the film, then all you're watching is a series of clips put together. If you only hear the sound, then you can only picture what may be happening. But with the both of them together, it creates the emotions that the director and composer wants you to feel. The steady increase of the strings in this clip of 'The Dark Knight' highlights the tension and unease that the scene is supposed to create.

            

Scientists have found that many of the emotionally-evocative moments in some of the most popular films are enhanced with a sound score that exploits the human brain's natural aversion to the "non-linear" sounds widely used in the animal kingdom to express fear and distress.
Sounds are classed as non-linear when they become too loud for the normal musical range of an instrument or an animal's vocal cords. Alternatively, they can be produced by the sudden frequency changes of acoustic instruments.
The film Psycho uses these techniques to create petrifying scenes.

                            

Alfred Hitchcock used sharp, high-pitch, non-linear sounds in order to replicate distress calls of wild animal. This triggers a distinctive fear within the human brain.
Fear is also activated through the means of:
Isolated Instruments - which are often used before a key event and links the idea of vulnerability to the audience.
Long, suspenseful notes - This increases the audiences anxiety levels as the tension gradually increases (this also increases adrenaline), when long notes are contrasted with short, sharp notes, it shocks the audience.
Pitch tone changes - For instance, low, sustained strings which suddenly change to sharp, high-pitched notes - this makes the audience feel immediately tense.
Rapid sound sequence - This conveys the feeling of stress and panic. It also results in the audience being anxious.
By using a combination of these techniques, producers are able to create musical scores, which the audience then associates with fear, such as Jaws and The Exorcist.
When the non-diagetic sound is removed, the tension and fear is also lost. This highlights the significance of sound within horror films because it determines how scary the film actually is.

Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles

My Notes:


TITLES THAT APPEAR


Time                 Title
00:04                 NEW LINE CINEMA PRESENTS
00:06                 AN Arnold Kopelson PRODUCTION
00:10                 A FILM BY David Fincher
00:14                 Brad Pitt
00:18                 Morgan Freeman
00:24                 SE7EN
00:30                 Gweyneth Paltrow
00:33                 Richard Roundtree
00:39                 R. Lee Ermey
00:42                 John C. McGinley
00:46                 Julie Armstrong     Mark Boone Junior
00:54                 John Cassini    Reginald C. Cathey    Peter Crombie
00:57                 Hawthorne James    Michael Massee   Leland Orser
01:04                 Richard Portnow      Richard Schiff      Parnala Tyson
01:11                 CASTING BY  Billy Hopkins    Susanne Smith    Kerry Borden
01:16                 MUSIC BY    Howard Shore
01:22                 COSTUMES DESIGNED BY    Michael Kaplan
01:25                 EDITED BY     Richard Francis-Bruce
01:27                 PRODUCTION DESIGNED BY     Arthur Max
01:35                 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY    Darius Khondji
01:40                 CO-PRODUCERS      Stephan Brown      Nana Greenwald     Stanford Panitch
01:43                 CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS   Lynn Harris   Richard Saperstein
01:54                 EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS   Gianni Nunari  Dan Kolsrud   Anne Kopelson
01:59                 WRITTEN BY    Andrew Kevin Walker
02:04                 DIRECTED BY     David Fincher


TYPEOGRAPHY


The writing looks handwritten or childlike, it looks creepy and it is also bold for roles of the people such as the director or producer. The writing is either in the corners of the screen or off centre. The text also flashes and jolts around the screen, and the colour of the writing is white.


VISUAL ELEMENTS


At the start of the opening titles, there is an old book which is shot from the side to show how thick the book is, and pages turn.
You can also interpret that the person whose face you do not see, is the villain in the film Se7en because the person is shown to go through books blanking out words and cutting things out of the book with a razor. This person is also quite creepy to add to this element.
The lighting is dark to add mystery to the person, and it also adds an element of danger.
He has dirty fingernails which makes you feel disgusted.
It also makes you think that the person has an obsession with medical testing/experiments or just torture in general.


ELEMENTS OF SOUND


The techno sounds mixed with drum sounds makes you feel tension and adds an element of suspense, you can also feel the sound on your chest.
There is also a point where it sounds like a woman is singing choir, which adds to the suspense and tension in the opening titles.
The sounds are non-diagetic.


Explanation of My Notes:


TITLES THAT APPEAR


I have made a note of what titles appear in the opening, which is a total of twenty-six. It is also a prime example of roles that are in films and that they are important enough to make the opening.


TYPOGRAPHY


I have made notes on the style of writing and where it appears on screen, the colour and


VISUAL ELEMENTS


I described what I saw in the opening titles and how it may look to the audience.


ELEMENTS OF SOUND


I only listened to the sound and did not watch the clip and I made a note of how the sound made me feel and what type of sound it is.

Research Essay: Codes And Conventions In Existing Horror Films Aimed At A Teenage Audience

Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic. Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film. Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see, this is usually used through Mise-En-Scene which in means ‘Put in Scene’ in French, these are used through costume, make-up, props and set. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling. Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and symbolic. 

Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific, such as, in the first five minutes of a horror film, someone dies or in a horror film, it is usually set in an isolated area.

Dead Wood's Conventions Are:

-          *Somebody dies within the first five minutes.

-          * A character falls over during a tense part.

-          * A secluded location, no help within miles.

-          * The male becomes extremely close to safety but doesn’t reach it, as he dies.

-          * A chase scene, with the killer right behind him.

-          * Separation between the characters.

-          * The woman is wearing clothing that shows a lot of skin.

-          * The audience is unable to see the killer but they know it is there.

Dead Mary’s Conventions Are:

-          * The location is secluded, no help within miles.

-          * There is no signal which is shown by the use of the radio and her phone.

-          * The car won't start.

-          * The audience is unable to see the killer but they know it is there.

-          * The characters separate and the female is left by herself while the male has gone to get more petrol.

-          * The woman is wearing clothing that shows a lot of skin.

Wrong Turn’s Conventions Are:

-          * Secluded location, no help within miles.

-          * The audience is unable to see the killer but they know it is there.

-          * The characters separate and the female is left by herself.

-          * A character falls over during a tense part.

-          * Somebody dies within the first five minutes.

-          * A chase scene, with the killer right behind her.

-          * The woman is wearing clothing that shows a lot of skin.

-          * The female becomes extremely close to safety but doesn’t reach it, as she trips and dies.

Dead Wood Synopsis-

Four friends head into the woods for a vacation, but events turn sinister when a girl arrives and a mysterious force starts hunting them.

Dead Mary Synopsis-

A group of young friends, including former lovers Kim and Matt; married couple Dash and Amber; Baker and his girlfriend, Lily; and seventh wheel Eve, gather at a remote cabin in the woods. While playing a seemingly innocent, supernaturally themed game, the friends accidentally awaken an evil spirit, and must then fight off both possession and murder.

Wrong Turn Synopsis-

Friends Jessie and Carly are traveling with pals Scott, Evan and Francine when they have car trouble in West Virginia. Moments later, motorist Chris crashes into their disabled vehicle. Stranded, the friends discover that they're being stalked by a horde of backwoods cannibals. The woodsmen are hungry and fierce, and they'll be eating well unless Jessie and pals can outsmart them.

Analysis

All of these films have things in common, such as; it is set in an isolated area. In Dead Wood, the isolated area is the woods, in Dead Mary, they are on a stretch of road 100 miles from the nearest petrol station and in Wrong Turn it is set 50 miles from the next town. Another similarity between these three openings is the separation of characters. In Dead Wood, a man is running to try and warn a girl of the danger in the woods, but is then killed, in Dead Mary a woman is on her own in the car waiting for someone to return with the petrol to get the car moving and in Wrong Turn, a girls friend makes it to the top of the cliff before her so that leaves her separated from him, this separation is highlighted when he is subsequently killed, leaving her alone. The women in the opening of these films, are shown to be wearing clothing that shows a lot of flesh, highlighting the film industry’s need to show women in an objective way, to show the stereotypical woman that would most likely appeal to the males watching the film.

The use of camera angles and movements in Dead Wood are fast paced, such as the Point-of-View shot, which makes the audience feel tense as it puts them in the man’s shoes and makes them feel as though they are the ones running away from the danger. The high angle shot makes the man seem small and insignificant compared to the danger within the woods. In Dead Mary the use of camera angles and movements are slower compared to Dead Wood, such as the extreme close-ups of the sign swinging which gives the audience some sense of location, but the isolation is shown through the sign as it states that they are 100 miles from the next petrol station. Close ups of items such as the keys, her phone, the radio and the flare gun highlight to the audience that these items may be of significance later in the film and that them being shown early on, makes you forget about them until they are used later in the film. In Wrong turn however, there is a mix of both slow and fast camera angles and movements, such as the establishing shot is moving above the forest very quickly, showing to the audience that something is about to happen very quickly, and an example of where the opening has a slow pace, is where the dialogue takes place between the boy and the girl emphasising that the time they are spending together is about to be cut short.

Codes And Conventions Of Horror Films

Codes

Codes are a system of signs which create meanings. There are two types of codes, Technical and Symbolic. An example of a symbolic code is the colour red as it is usually seen as a colour of danger. An example of a technical code is camera angles, if the camera is looking up at a character, that character usually is in a position of power. 

Symbolic Codes

Symbolic codes are usually shown through Mise-En-Scene, the actions of the characters show what the character is feeling during important scenes. Props are used as symbolic codes, such as when an object is shown early on in the film, it could be used later on as a weapon of some sort which shows it's significance. 

Technical Codes

Technical codes are the different ways the equipment is used to tell the story. Sound is used to create tension within a scene and the camera angles shows a different perspective of characters, scenery and objects. 

Conventions

Conventions are ways of doing something which is accepted by the people either watching or making the film. In horror films there are many widely accepted conventions which are commonly used in the films, such as a death within the first five minuets into the film and an isolated area where there is no possibility of getting help if it is needed.