Treatment of our movie opening

Scary Movie Two Analysis

One of our ideas apart from pure horror, is also comedy horror; such as the Scary Movie franchises. Here we have analysed the types of techniques used by the producers of this movie in order to fit the horror-comedy genre the movie has.

Scary movie 2 from jovinie_carter

Response to Nightmare on Elm Street and Shutter Island openings

Although these two films are very different being from different decades and have are different types of horror they also resort to similar techniques which is used constantly in the horror films today which our group can use in our film opening. They both use non-diegetic sound to set the tone and amplify the feeling on tension. They also both use different editing techniques to portray the tension whether it is sudden cuts in the different footage or a fade in, fade out to provide the viewers with a psychological/supernatural feel to the movie. They both use the credit timeline to their advantage both using red fonts to signify blood/ anger/ murder. This can all be used in our film opening and will no doubt amplify the impact our film opening into becoming a notable horror opening.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Opening Analysis

The opening scene begins with a fade in shot of a legs walking past a pillar, the figure stops briefly before picking up the iconic villain mask. The non-diegetic sound can be heard of a faint high pitch sound echoing along with the scene, this immediately defines the type of movie which the creators where seeking: a horror thriller filled with suspense and the unknown. The scene cuts to a direct bird’s eye shot of various tools of sharp objects and the audience can see hands moving over these instruments as if to compile them together which occur in the next few shots. In these different shots of the villain creating his tools the audience is given brief sequential shots of Freddie Kruger sharpening his claws and knives. Up till this point the credits displayed have been in a large white font which fades into view and disappears shortly after its appearance. This could be argued that the animation of the font will hint the killer’s behaviour: a sudden appearance in which the killer will strike and abruptly disappear in an abnormal manner. This is to amplify the tension which is slowly building up the display of the title of the film which is illustrated in bold red font against a black background. The non diegetic sound becomes nearly unbearable now as it becomes increasingly louder to facilitate what is to come next. This signifies the foreshadowing of death, murder and turmoil which will occur in the film. The next scene shows claws tearing through a hanging sheet and a ghastly snarl presumably from the unidentified figure screened previously. This also promotes the suspense of the movie as the viewer does not get to view the villain and this signifies that any character which will be shown in the movie could iconographic killer. The scene cuts into view of a woman, her facial code implies she is not familiar with where she is and she is scared of the sudden turn of events. The scene suddenly cuts into an extreme close up shot of the female and we can see her facial expression is one of anxiety and desperation. This convention signifies that she may be the primary victim of the unidentified violent person screen in the previous scenes. The next scene shows an extreme long shot of the female character running down a dark shadowy hallway containing water and very little light. This influences the tone of the movie making it seem as dark and providing it with an ominous feel to this horror film. As the female character stumbles closer to the camera we can see the camera beginning to focus on the female and the rule of thirds is employed here. This suggests that the character will be important in the film or will play a significant part in the film. Although it is a dark hallway, low key lighting is used to create creepy ominous feel for the audience while at the same time allowing the audience to read the character action code which is, out of breath and afraid. This is cleverly done to continually provide the audience with pieces of information and still providing the horror experience. The character turns around to look behind her and the camera still in the same shot pans inwards slowly towards her. This action with the camera signifies an individual creeping up behind the female, this increases the audience engagement as it gives off the impression that the audience is creeping up on this female character once again this increases the tension and in the opening scene of the film. At this point all diegetic sounds have be silenced in order to maximize the horror convention used here. Suddenly a sound heard off screen like an object being knocked over is heard, the female character whirls around to face the person who caused the disturbance in the silence and lets a surprised gasp. The camera cuts to show a sheep bleating, sounds like a creepy laugh from the sheep which continues to move along in the corridor. It cuts back to the female who promptly runs off screen in a desperate attempt to escape the nightmare.

Shutter Island Opening Analysis

Mood Board

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Our mood board was made to correctly represent the ideas of which our group has come up with for our final film opening product. Although we have decided to abandon the supernatural thriller idea we still want to incorporate a few conventions used in supernatural films into our final product and this is why we have used images from films that are classified as supernatural in our mood board. We have decided to use props such as a knife and possibly a mask to our idea as it will be deal in a stalker/serial killer movie.

Camera Angles / Shot Types

Overall, there are eleven main camera angles/shot types. In this post I will present the shot types and explain their impact and importance.

Production Meeting Notes

Here, my group met up to discuss characters, location, props, equipment etc to finalise our ideas for our movie opening.

Analysis of Existing Products

Horror Film Conventions

Conventions used in horror films from Tenkin

As our findings of conventions have signaled we have agreed that it is important to use our research and apply it to our final product of our opening. We have listed a few areas in which we may want our own film to take place such as deserted roads, parks, dark houses and alleyways. Our narrative is still undecided however we have agreed that our film will involve an protagonist and antagonist. We have also decided that our character types will most possibly involve a feminine character as they’re most commonly used to portray victims in horror films. We have all come to a conclusion that our horror film must have some elements of iconography present in our final product, one idea was to use POV shots to help emulate the fear and panic the victim feeling or the rush and pleasure the killer is feeling. This will be done to help provide the users with a more of an immersive experience rather than it being all third perspective camera shots.

Market Research

Market research from kierajaffas

Our market research was to give a basic knowledge of successful blockbuster horror films which generated a fairly high amount. This included the directors who oversaw the movie and the date to which it came out. It was also done to provide us with an accurate idea of the various types of horror films done in the recent years which we will consider whether to conform to or subvert at the next meeting.

Typical Audience Profile

As our audience were categorised in the ‘explorers’ and ‘social climbers’ area we decided that in order for our horror film opening to facilitate their need unique perspectives must be shown to provide and immersive experience. This might be done through the use of camera shots or lack of non-diegetic sounds/ music at certain moments, as this idea has not been fully discussed it is relative new area.

Survey Results

Taking the advice of our audience research findings, we all agreed that we should produce a Thriller/ Horror film opening as it seemed to be favourable with our target audience. After some lengthy discussion we decided to scrap the insanity idea which we initially believed to be our goal for this horror opening. This was because although many people from our survey had watched Insidious, we were concerned as we did not wish to rehash that sort of film as it has been recycled constantly recently during the past decade.

Target Audience Research Questionnaire

Media survey from jovinie_carter

Research : Response to Brief

We have been given the task of creating a two minute opening of a movie. The genre of the movie and the storyline is entirely up to us. We have decided to create a horror film opening because we feel it is an exciting genre that would appeal to our target audience.

Preliminary Task

This is the preliminary for our media coursework. We were given a script and had to create a storyline for it. Our storyline was: Jovinie was pressuring and bullying me into stealing the test results for an exam we both had. It was more original than our original ideas such as: drugs in school or beating somebody up etc. It was the most original storyline we could think of with us restricted to our school.