BriefFor the project we will be capturing the opening credits of a horror/thriller film. In the credits we will use many different filming and editing techniques to try and capture the type of film we want. We will also be capturing a large number of different camera angles and shots. The video must be a maximum length of 2 minutes. Our target audience is males aged 15 – 35, as we feel that they are the people who would enjoy this movie the most. We know this from asking various people whether they like the genre and the most people who said yes were males aged between 15 and 35. The character is a male, Caucasian. He is clearly very mysterious as the audience does not get to see him speak during the opening credits. A murder has just taken place and the main character is walking at a brisk pace trying to get as far away from the scene as possible. There is a helicopter in the opening credits, the man looks up and seems to be slightly worried. He then climbs a fence and walks off into the distance which adds to the sense of mystery about the man. The audience will want to carry on watching the film as it ends with an extreme long shot of the character walking to towards a house across an open field.
Some of the credits will be on a black screen; others will appear over the top of some of the footage.
What are we trying to achieve?In the video we are trying to capture the audience with a thrilling and mysterious opening sequence of a film. We purposely edited the film in black and white. We did this because we wanted to portray the sense of mystery about the main character. It also symbolises evil and darkness. The film is also very fast paced which means we are trying to get the audience slightly frightened of what is about to happen next. There is a flashback in the film where the main character is seen with a girl walking along. This new introduction of a character will make the audience curious about what happened between the two of them. It also shows that the flashback has something to do with why he is running away. The main target is to thrill the audience and make them want to carry on watching the film as the opening credits only gives them a clue as to what is happening in the story of the film.
About the genreA horror genre is a film that aims to capture fear and terror from the viewer, enabling them to explore their vivid imaginations, to see ghosts in shadowy shapes and to fear things that are uncertain. Watching a horror film gives an opening into that scary world. People get a thrill and excitement from watching a horror film as it keeps your heart racing throughout.
Horror films generally have a better affect on the audience when special effects are not used and the horror scenes are not blatant. The best horror films only imply or suggest the horror in subtle ways, rather than obviously displaying it, such as Val Lewton's horror films.
The earliest horror films were Gothic style - they were usually set in spooky old mansions, castles, or foggy, dark and shadowy areas. Their main characters have included "unknown," human, supernatural or grotesque creatures, including vampires, demented madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts, monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, Satanic villains, the "possessed," werewolves and freaks.
Horror films developed out of a number of sources: folktales with devil characters, witchcraft, fables, myths, ghost stories and Gothic or Victorian novels. In many ways, the expressionistic German silent cinema led the world in films of horror and the supernatural, and established its cinematic vocabulary and style.
A thriller genre is a fast paced, frequent action film. Devices such as suspense and cliffhangers are used. In recent years, when thrillers have been increasingly influenced by horror or psychological-horror exposure in pop culture, a dangerous or monstrous element has become common to heighten tension. The monster could be anything, such as aliens or in the case of our film, a serial killer.
Horror thriller: In which conflict between the main characters are mental, emotional, and physical. Two recent examples of this include the ‘Saw’ series of films and the Danny Boyle's ‘28 Days Later’. What sets the horror thriller apart is the main element of fear throughout the story. Other well-known examples are Alfred Hitchcock's ‘Psycho’ and Thomas Harris's ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.
During the German Expressionism which began in roughly 1905 and Drama was part of the movement in Germany with playwrights like Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller coming under the influence of Frank Wedekind in expanding the range of what could be depicted on stage. A certain type of film called “Film Noir” became popular in Germany. Film Noir is French for “Black Film”. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. One of our inspirations called Metropolis comes under the category of Film Noir. The main character does not talk in the opening of the film which makes him all the more mysterious. The audience will want to carry on watching the film so that they can explore the mind of the character. Metropolis also has no dialogue so we thought the mystery of the film was magnified by using this technique.
InspirationsWe had many inspirations, which helped us to see what it takes to thrill an audience with a suspense thriller/horror.
The Shining:
The film tells the story of a writer, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), who accepts the job of the winter caretaker at a hotel which always gets snowed in during the winter. While his family looks around the hotel during closing day, the psychic hotel chef discovers the psychic abilities of Jack's son Danny, and Danny's ability to detect ghostly presences in the hotel. In the chef's family, this ability is called "shining". When the hotel becomes snowbound, Jack Torrance is driven mad by the ghosts in the hotel, and he tries to murder his wife and son. Initial response to the film was mixed, and it performed moderately at the box office. Subsequent critical assessment of the film has been more favorable, and it is now viewed as a classic of the horror genre.
The Ring:The Ring was probably the most inspirational film for us and we liked the black and white tape scenes which we thought added to the tension.
The film focuses on a mysterious cursed videotape which contains a seemingly random series of disturbing, grainy, black and white images. After watching the tape, the viewer receives a phone call in which a voice condemns the viewer to death in exactly seven days.
As the film opens, two teenage girls Katie Embry (Amber Tamblyn) and Rebecca 'Becca' Kotler (Rachael Bella) discuss the supposedly cursed tape. Katie reveals that, seven days before, she went to a cabin at Shelter Mountain Inn with friends, where she viewed the video tape. After a series of strange occurrences, involving a television in the house turning itself on, Katie is mysteriously killed while Becca watches, causing her to be institutionalized in a mental hospital.
Seven:Seven (also marketed as Se7en) is a 1995 American crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The story follows a retiring detective (Morgan Freeman) and his replacement (Brad Pitt), jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.
The opening credits of seven are incredibly well edited as they really grab the audience’s attention and create the perfect atmosphere for the rest of the film. And we tried to use some of the same, scary techniques used in that film, such as the TV effect crackly screen.
Metropolis:Metropolis is a 1927 silent science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Thea von Harbou. Lang and von Harbou, who were married, wrote the screenplay in 1924, and the story was novelized by von Harbou in 1926. It is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and examines a common science fiction theme of the day: the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The film stars Alfred Abel as the leader of the city, Gustav Frohlich as his son, who tries to mediate between the elite caste and the workers, Brigitte Helm as both the pure-at-heart worker Maria and the debased robot version of her, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge as the mad scientist who created the robot.
How does our film relate to our inspirations?
In all of these films certain editing techniques and camera angles are used, as well as specific sound effects. At the beginning of our opening credits there is very scratchy, disturbing sound which really catches the audience’s attention and prepares them for what is going to be a scary piece of film. The same sound is repeated at the end. During the part of the film where it is re winded there is also some very spooky sounds; this climaxes the film. Our editing techniques also reflected our inspirations. We felt that the films that inspired us the most had very fast paced action and the music was also fast paced. We tried to incorporate this into our own film. We varied the loudness and pace of our music throughout the credits so that more tension was produced. The mise en scene in our inspirations usually had the same pattern. The bad character always wears something dark and usually covers most of his/her body. The main character in our film wears a dark coat and dark trousers which make him appear more mysterious and dark.
We were also inspired by a number of directors and their work in the horror film industry. Here are just a few that inspired us to do the work that we did:
Stanley Kubrick
Highlights - The Shining,
A Clockwork Orange,
2001 A Space Odyssey
Sam Raimi
Highlights - The Evil Dead,
Evil Dead 2,
Army Of Darkness
Wes Craven
Highlights - Last House On The Left,
The Hills Have Eyes,
Scream
Tobe Hooper
Highlights - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Poltergeist.
