Initial Ideas

Creating the Poster

Poster Inspiration

Conventions of Horror: Horror vs. Ultimate Horror

The first few lesson we discussed the conventions of horror and thriller and then went on to question the difference between the two.

The concept of horror- There are two types of horror, horror and ultimate horror. Ultimate horror is more psychological and therefore is more disturbing as it is unimanigable and it is the unimaginable that scares us the most. Horror on the other hand is more graphic and gory, it has more to do with what the audience sees. It often overlaps with thriller as it is constantly building suspense to gain a big reaction from the audience.

The concept of thriller- The key ingredient for a thriller is suspense which is effectively built up through the use of sound and editing. Its aim is to keep the audience on the edge of their seat leading them to know that something bad is going to happen.

Time Table

Research- Trailers

We looked at a lot of horror movie trailers to help us think about what works well and what needs to be included in our own trailer.

We looked at specific trailers which were relevant to our movie. This gave us ideas on what shots are most effective and how much of the story should be included in the trailer. Of course we must take into consideration that these are full trailers as opposed to a teaser trailer so we didn't want to give away as much of the story as they were.

'What Lies Beneath', a film made in 2000, is a good example as it uses our idea of involving water ie. a pond or lake which helped us think of different ways in which we could use the ponds on Hampstead Heath. The film is about a dead woman haunting a married couple which is similar to our idea of having a dead girl coming back to haunt someone. Although this trailer does give away too much of the story but it did help stimulate ideas of how we could show the girl in a frightening and threatening way.

 This shot is similar to something we would be able to achieve at the Hampstead Heath ponds as they have a small pier leading out to the pond. Certain shots in this film will be really helpful in showing us ways in which we can use our own environment to achieve the same sort of atmosphere this managed to create.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PRlEqRa8NjQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

'The Lovely Bones', a film made in 2009, about a young girl who was murdered when she was 14 watching over her family as they destroy themselves over her untimely death. This is similar to our idea and in the trailer shows her father and sister attempting to find her murderer. It using fast paced editing in some points of the trailer showing her sister rummaging threw old newspaper clippings as she tries to piece together clues. As the main character in our film was a newspaper reporter we wanted to incorporate this idea of showing old newspaper clippings in our trailer to gives the audience subtle clues as to what it may be about. We wanted the girl in our film to be frightening yet still have a kindness to her as she has only come back to get justice, this trailer helped with this at it shows the young girl as a kind spirit yet the thought of the dead coming back is still scary and therefore there was still a slight eeriness about her.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6_nmKasnyAs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Ring, made in 2002, uses prime examples of the kind of shots we want in our trailer.  This image below from the film inspired us when deciding what we wanted the ghost of the young girl in our trailer to look like. The reason being is that we think it is very effective yet still achievable with the resources we have. Nina volunteered to do the acting which meant that we already had her long hair to work with. For the costume we got a long white t shirt and white socks and when editing the shots we get we would be able to add even more of a scary effect by tweaking the colour and lighting.

Research- Film Analysis

Film Analysis

To give us an understanding of what the elements of a horror film are and of a thriller we watched a number of different films which gave us plenty of examples to work from. We analysed; Nosfertau, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, Dirty Pretty Things, The Shining and Gothika. Out of the films we watched the following are the ones I chose to analyse as I found them the most relevant to our trailer.

Dirty Pretty Things

When filming my trailer I will take into consideration the way in which Dirty Pretty Things made parts of London, that could be seen as interesting and colourful, look sinister and unsafe. The lighting, fast editing and long shots of busy streets created suspense effectively, the key ingredient for a thriller. They managed to make glamorous places look dingy and dirty through the narrative and effective use of the micro-elements. The hotel for example seems expensive and high class but once you discover the things that have taken place in that hotel the image of it quickly changes to something rather disturbing and unappealing. This film is a good way in showing us how we can make everyday places seem more frightening and dangerous. We don't have high tech equipment nor do we have access to much make up, props, costumes etc therefore this film in helpful in giving us ideas on how to create suspense through the use of lighting, cinematography, sound and editing. This was key in helping us change a place like Hampstead Heath into somewhere that looks isolated and far from inviting.

Psycho

Being filmed in black and white creates a chilling atomosphere through shadows and makes the setting look uninviting. The use of mise-en-scene and cinematography makes the location look deserted, empty and somewhat suspicious.

An example of the black and white giving the location a haunted look and the area around it looking empty

 

We want to use the idea of filming in black and white for our trailer as it will make our location look less appealing and inviting. It will take away the everyday feeling that Hampstead Heath has and turn it into something much more mysterious. We will also take into account the use of cinematography to emphasis the emptiness of the Heath in the winter.

Zodiac

Zodiac is a film I watched out of the classroom which is about a San Francisco cartoonist who becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac killer. Whilst trying to piece together the initial ideas we had for our story I thought of this film as it enabled us to give the character of the dead girl a motive. I thought the idea of a cartoonist (in our case a reporter) try to piece together clues in finding out a mystery gave the young girl a motive to come back and pass on her knowledge of what really happened to her. 

It also boosted the idea of inlcuding newspaper clippings as clues as there are many scenes in this film which show the characters rumaging through old papers etc for clues

The Shining

I think the overall story of The Shining is more of a thriller than a horror in the sense that it played more upon psychological fear and fear of what will happen as Jack descends into madness. However there are still some parts of the film which employ the concept of horror for example when blood pours from the lift doors, floods the corridor and fills up the camera screen it creates a horrible and graphic image which is very much associated with horror. I find psychological fear a lot more frightenting than seeing something grusome so obviously infront of you. This inspired us to think about making our trailer less grusome and try to frighten the audience in a more subtle way, focussing on ingredients of thriller and ultimate horror.

Example of the graphic horror from the film

Example of Jack using words and actions to frighten his wife psychologically