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