Studying the features of a highly successful horror film

Paranormal activity

For part of my research, in class we watched the opening of paranormal activity.

The learning objectives were, to recognise the key features f successful horror films, looking particularly at sound and to study the successful promotion of horror films.

Questions given to answer from watching the film:

How have the characters been established?

Consider how the setting has been established?

How has the narrative been established?

How is the sound used effectively?

Characters

The characters have been established mainly through the dialogue. The camera is a hand-held camera, is used as a family camera as they go about their everyday life. This is a great way to film a horror in the point of view of the characters, this way to audience feel part of te film. The third character that comes into the house allows us to establish the characters, as he begins to ask questions which realistically the audience want to know.

Setting

The setting is a simple modern house which contradicts the horror conventions, normal horror film stereotypically have old haunted houses etc. The house is an excellent setting for this film as the audience can relate to the situations which occur in the movie.

Sound

All the sound is diagetic such as the talking, alarm etc. Normal household sounds which the audiences can associate with. There is a continuous dialogue throughout which acts as the narrative for the film, we as the audience are being explained step-by-step what is happening through the hand-held camera. Wooden floors accentuate and enhance the sound, such as the banging of foot steps and so on, the wooden floor work effectively in contrast to something a material like carpet.

Analysis of Storyline

Analysis of Storyline

As part of my research, my partner and I asked several people their options on the storyline for our trailer. These are quotes from what people had to comment about the trailer. We received mixed feedback for our Storyline:

Title: The Innocent

“I like how the title contradicts itself. It’s a horror but the title makes you ask questions.”

“It’s Good, you get the feeling that it’s not going to be innocent.”

“I like the title, it makes it sound creepy!”

“It’s a blunt title, but gets you thinking!”

The Character:  Pale young girl with long dark hair, dressed in a simple white dress.

“Stereotypical horror film character”

“The character portrays the title.”

It fits the title, the white dress shows innocence and the pale face shows ghost-like characteristics”

“The idea of her being young shows innocence and makes the film creepier”

Sounds effects: We haven’t included a lot of dialogue in out trailer, it mostly heavy breathing and screaming along with a background sound of a girl singing.

“I like how there is no dialogue, its creepier as we aren’t told what is going on. It makes me want to go and watch the film because I want to see what happens.”

“I think that the heavy breathing and screaming makes it’s more scary and makes me ask questions.”

“That would be really creepy. It sets you but because you want to know what happens next.”

“The child singing is a great idea, its portrays innocence.”

The storyline: The trailer is set in the Park: a ghostly young girl has haunted the forest for many years. This innocent girl kills any one who crosses her path.

“Its sounds believable as a horror.”

“The setting and the storyline both fit the category of a horror/ thriller genre film. I like how the storyline line in very vague makes me what to watch it to find out what happens.”

“ The setting is good as the park seems like an isolated with lots of trees, its a great place to film a horror.”

It makes me think why is she there? And why does she want to kill?”

Today me and my partner looked at nursery rhymes which our actress will sing in our trailer. The rhymes which we have considered to be included in our trailer, as the girl singing it:
Mary, Mary quite contrary
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Ring around the rosies
Georgie Porgie
Rock-a-by-baby

Ideas for horror trailer

IDEAS

Our Ideas have been inspired by the video for the rollercoaster Th13teen, the television advert.

·        SETTING- Forrest autumn time, mist

·        CHARACTER- Girl in white gown, Pale, bare footed, Long scraggy hair. Two teenage boys

·        PROPS- Girl holding teddy bear (signifier) and torches

·        MUSIC-  eerie music something like the girl singing a nursery rhyme

Analysis of trailer

I have decided to analyse I trailer as part of my research, to look into the conventions used in a horror trailer. I have analyses the key conventions used in the trailer for th13teen rollercoaster, this is not a trailer for a movie but I felt it associated more with my storyline compared to the other horror trailers I looked at.

These are a few examples of the camera angles and shot sizes used in this trailer, these shots consist of extreme close-ups, establishing shots, medium shots.

Camera Shots used

·         There are several establishing shots used, this sets the scene of the trailer, it portrays the genre straight away through the atmosphere shown. The establish shot mirrors a stereotypical setting for a horror, eerie forest, foggy, dark.

Editing

·         Short cuts to each scene, the short cuts are sharp which conventionally add a dramatic effect

·         Credits at the bottom appear giving the audience specific information for the rollercoaster itself, ‘High restriction’ and ends with signifier of the Alton towers logo.

Sound

·         No sound track used for the trailer; however the only music used would be the significant sound for Alton towers, which helps the audience, know which theme park the ride is at.

·         Diagetic sound of the dialogue of the girl saying, ‘If you go to the woods today, you better not go alone.’

·         Enhance sound effects of the person breathing

Analysis of Audience Feedback

I ask 10 people for my Audience Feedback. As you can see for my Age graph, the people I asked were all over the age of 15. I generally know I wanted to produce a horror because horror is my favourite genre of film. So everyone I asked was above the age of 15 which is an appropiate age to watch a horror, with legal requirements.

For the gender, I tried to ask a variation of male and female to get a mixed response. The graph shows that I asked 6 females and 4 males. 

I asked the question Do you watch short films? because I am still unsure if i want to produce a short film or a trailer, my partner and I thought that if we got audience feedback for which they preferred, then we woulsd be able to easily make a choice on which on to do. From this graph, most people I asked said that they didn't really watch short films, which shows the popularity of short films.

The next question is about trailers, from the graph you can see that everyone I asked, they all watched trailers. So many people tend to watch trailer, as they are advertised on television and the internet. From this question I think that it shows which we should produce, a trailer, because that is what our target audience want.

This question is similar to the other two questions previously. I think that this question is almost like an overall conclusion, because it is like an 'either or' question. As you can see on the graph, the preferred was a trailer. Only one person preferred short films.

At this stage of research and planning, I already know that I would like to produce a horror but, to make sure my partner and I were making the right decision, I asked people about their favourite genre. Fortunately, the most popular was horror, the it was comedy and Rom-com, I have come to the conclusion that Rom-com was the second most popular because of the amount of females I asked in comparion to males.

 This was an interesting question to ask, seeing as my partner and I knew we wanted to do a horror, I wanted to see what my target audience wanted to see in a horror. I gave my target audience the chance to tick more than one for this one, therefore there would be more variety for my results. Surprisingly people preferred mysterious happenings and now when creating a storyline and storyboard we will have to take into consideration that our audience prefer mysterious happenings. The second and third favourites were Ghosts and the unexpected. I would also like to take into consideration the ghosts and the unexpected because I believe that all three will work together really well.

As my target audience are all above the age of 15 I thought that it wouldn't be necessary to include the certificates PG and U because I was more interested in the the bigger certificate as most horrors are mainly 15 and 18. As you can see the graph most of the people watch 18s which is mostly likely what horrors are. When we produce our trailer, it will mostly be an 18.

I asked this question because before creating this questionnaire I was interested in the th13teen trailer which is an advertisement for a rollercoaster in Alton Towers. I was glad that from my questionnaire people preferred an innocent character. When asking giving the questionnaires to people, people said that an innocent person gives off more tension and its more realistic.

Sound is an important part of a trailer. For this question, I allowed the people to tick more than one box. As you can see by the results, surprisingly people preferred heavy breathing. I actually thought that people would prefer Eerie music. I will take these results into consideration when doing the music. I think that a combination of eerie music screams and heavy breathing would be conventional.

Trailer/Short Film Questionnaire

This is our questionnaire which we have producted as primary research. We will hand out 20 questionnaires to people of all ages and then analyse them to see what our target audience want in a short film/ trailer. This will help us decide what our end product will be, such as whether it will be a sjhort film or trailer, and key conventions such as character type and sound effects.
 
Media- Trailer/Short Film Questionnaire

1.      What is your age?

Under 15          16- 23            24- 31           32 and over

2.      What is your gender?

Male          Female

3.      Do you watch short films?

Yes             No                If No, state your reason why…

If Yes, can you state which short films you have watched…

4.      Do you watch trailers?

Yes             No                If No, state your reason why…

5.      Which would you prefer to watch, short films or trailers?

Trailer             Short Film

6.      Which genre of film do you prefer to watch?

Horror/ Thriller           Rom-Com                    Action              Sci-fi

Documentary              Comedy                       Drama             Musical           Other...           

7.      What film certificate do you usually go to watch?

12                    15                    18

8.      How do you find out about new film releases?

Trailer             Poster              Internet          

9.      What is your favourite horror/ thriller film?

Please state below.....

10.  What is it that you like about horror films?

Please state below…

11.  What sort of things do you expect to see when you watch a horror trailers?

You can tick more than one.

Ghosts             Zombies                      Mysterious happenings          

The unexpected          Blood and gore           insane people

12.  What scares you the most in horror thrillers?

Eerie atmosphere                   Sound effects              Unexpected jumps

Other...

13.  What are your preferred sounds in a horror? You can tick than one

Screams                      Eerie music                 Footsteps                     Heavy breathing

Whispering                  other...

14.   How would you imagine a woman to be shown in a horror?

Innocent                      Evil

15.  If you have anymore comments please leave below…

Proposal for my short film/ trailer

In class I wrote my thoughts down for my short film/ trailer. I created a spider diagram of all my ideas to do with titles, characters, storyline, props, music/ sound, sfx and so on.

I have written my ideas down but however, I still don’t know if I should create a short film or trailer because I still haven’t decided I will be doing further investigation into short films and trailers

My ideas for my synopsis are:

Title

·         Never look back

·         Do not enter

Genre

·         Horror/ thriller

Characters

·         17 year old girl, with long hair and pale. The girl will be costumed to wear a plain robe.

·         Two teenage boys

Scene/ Setting

·         Dark night

·         In a forest like place

·         A mill/ abandoned place

Storyline

·         Two boys were playing at an abandoned mill/ house, they think it would be a good idea to go inside and spook each other out. They begin to hear noises and strange things are occurring. They then come across a girl who looks processed by the devil, they run out screaming a she follows and kills them.

OR

·         Two boys and a girl go out to this abandoned place, messing around and spooking each other in the dark, the girl goes missing and they boys go to look for her and she turns on them as she is processed by the devil and they run out screaming , she kills them both

OR

·         The boys are camping in a forest and strange things are happening and they can hear voices and sounds. They go to investigate and the girl kills them both.

Props

·         Torches

·         White gown

·         Candles

·         Tent?

Music/ Sound

·         Eery music

·         Voice over of the narrator

Reseach into current Horror movies

For my research, I wanted to look into a movie in the genre which I am going to do. I looked in the movie, 'the last exorcism' which is new release into the cinema. I looked into the facts and advertisements of the movie. This has helped to for when i have to advertise my film especially but also to look at the different shorts of a horror. It has adapted my ideas for my horror film.



Preparing for film making

Preparing for film making
During the last lesson I looked at the important conventions of film making. I researched into the conventions of narrative.
A simple storyline can be broke down into five different steps, as follows:

1.      Exposition – opening premise setting the scene

2.      Development- built on the situation and moves forward

3.      Complication- an event changes the situation

4.      Climax- comes to a head, a point where everything comes together

5.      Resolution- the ending

I found out from the research I had done that continuity editing is a vital part of editing. It is important when changing angle and cutting to another angle, the positioning of the actor has to be the same and the clothing, props and so on.
For the rules of the genre I have chose, horror, when making a film I need to think about the lighting because low-key, high contrast lighting is a feature of the genre. So are canted camera angles, extreme close-ups and jump cuts.

I looked at the terms of narrative development the old structuralist theories of narrative as formulated by Propp, Barthes,Levi-Straus and Todorov. For example, in a short film you will only have time to follow one or two people in a real depth.