Planning: Target Audience Feedback

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BR5LF3Q

My group made a survey about our film openings and what people would think of it. Our survey also included about peoples fears, what conventions they think are most important and if they like horror films overall. This will give us an idea of what people will like our film and if they would go and see it or not.

I have also analysed the results i got from asking some people and i will be using the results to see if we can make some slight changes that may make the film better.

This is the first question and out of the 6 people i asked, all of them were between 16-21 and our film is aimed at that age range as well so most of them may seem interested when answering.

The second question was the gender and all of the people i asked were male, this is a mistake by me because i think i should've asked a few females as well because they may have different views.

This is the third question which was asking people what opening they preferred and majority of the people preferred the first one and people have gave their reasons for choosing the specific opening in the next question.

This was the fourth question which is carried on from the third question which is their reason for selecting that opening. There were different types of feedback but majority of the people said that the first one looked better than the second one or they said the first one seems like a good idea and very interesting.





This was the fifth question and this was about how important the conventions given and the other image is what people answered what and most people think that a secluded location is very important, this may be because there is nobody around to help them if they get in trouble. But most people think strange are not important, this may be because strange noises are very predictable because when there is a strange noise something can happen. I myself think it is important.

This is the sixth question asking people what their fears are and there were some weird fears that people have, an example would be someone is scared of octopuses but some are quite expected for example a crazy killer and ghosts.





This question was about how many times people go to the cinema per month and everybody put 1-2, this may be because they want to go more but may not be able to afford it or there are no films out that may appeal to them.







A lot of people liked horror films because they liked some of the conventions that were involved that may possibly make the film even more exciting for the audience, one person put no because they may not like all the blood and gore that gets used and other conventions.

This was the final question and it was to see what are peoples favorite horror movies, i asked this because then i will get a good idea of what i can use I,e the conjuring and the woman in black have a lot of jumps in and some people said that, so by asking this question, it can help us when creating so we know what to go for and try and make it enjoyable but scary for the audience if they were to see it.

Planning: Who Are The Target Audience?

Our film opening is targeted at people within the age range of 15-21. This meant to be aimed at people who like films that are unexpected with jumps because a lot of people like getting the feeling of being jumped because some people find it a lot more exciting than a lot of other films.

For example a person like Kiain would like this because Kiain enjoys horror movies and likes the uncertainty of what may happen such as jumps. Kiain also has a job so he can afford to go to the cinema to watch these types of films. He is also 16 so he would have no worries into getting in the film which has a certificate rating of 15.

Planning: Potential Openings

Our task was to discuss 2 different film openings. The picture shows the ideas.

Opening 1

The first film opening was an establishing shot of the dense forest which shows the location and it is set in the past. Its is about a young vulnerable character who decides to go into the forest and then they start to get chased by an unknown killer and the character gets caught after trying to escape the killer.  We have chosen to do this because it is meant to make the audience a bit frightened because the audience are meant to feel that more people are going to die in this film. We are going to use diegetic and non-diegetic sound throughout the opening because it will give it a better effect.

Opening 2

The second film opening we came up with was that a group of friends are watching TV and the TV starts to flicker black and white with some white noise we are going to use to make seem more uncomfortable for the audience and to make it even more uncomfortable, a silhouette walks past and the audience sees it but the characters don't. This is in one of the characters house before they go camping and this is meant to represent the dangers of each character as they go out into a dangerous place.

Planning: 60 Second Pitch

We were asked to pitch our film idea which was called "The Watcher". In this pitch we mentioned what the film was about, who it was aimed at and why people should go and watch it. We also used our planning ideas in the pitch.

Planning: Initial Ideas

The task we were given was to brain storm our ideas for a Teen horror movie. We wrote down ideas that relate to horror movies such as the different conventions and codes we were going to include in our film. We had the idea of a mysterious figure in the woods where a group of friends are camping and the characters are at threat but they don't know about it. We wrote down several ideas such as a lot of locations, a lot of genres, a type of killer and we narrowed down the ideas that we had. I think this is a pretty good first idea.

The working title for the film would be "The Watcher"

Research: The importance of sound in films

We looked at how important sound and music can be in films and we looked at Foley artists, Diegetic, Non-Diegetic sound and how it can change a persons mood very quickly in terms of the type of sound that they hear.

We first  listened to a a radio clip of Mitchell and Webb with Arthur Smith and we listened to this because it can shows us how music and sound can affect a persons mood. An example would be that a deep sound can make a person feel scared because it can make a person feel uncomfortable and make them a bit nervous because of the deep tune.

Foley Artists is what we looked at next. This is where a person watches the clip and then makes that sound that an actor/actress would've done in a film but the foley artist gives it the full effect. An example would be something simple such as taking out the keys out of a pocket and the foley artist would make that sound, possibly with a different object and then they would watch the footage and copy exactly what the actor/actress does to give it the full effect. We also watched a clip from the TV programme QI and this was about foley artists and then theca cast were asked to close their eyes and listen to the clip and then they had to identify what the objects were and what the sound was actually creating. An example would be that a guillotine noise was actually made from a cabbage being cut, so using different objects can create a much different effect that a lot of people don't realise.

We looked at a scene from the film Pulp Fiction and this is where Vincent goes to Mia's house to pick her up. As Vincent gets out of the car, the sound of cicadas can be heard which indicates that it is night time. Also the director of the film (Quentin Tarantino) played with the audience because he tricked the audience into thinking that the song was not actually in the scene (Non-Diegetic) but really at the end of the scene the needle is taken off the record player and people actually realised that the song didn't get included in post production but in the real scene it self.

One of the best sounds in horror movies can be silence. This is because the silence builds up the tension of something that is going to happen. Then normally a sound is after the silence to make the scene even more scary for the audience. This is because the whole cinema is quiet and nothing can be heard, then a loud sound can make the audience jump when it is unexpected, making it more frightening for the audience to watch.

We also looked at the famous Psycho shower scene and the music that there is and we looked at the composer of it as well which was Bernard Herman.  There were 2 different clips, one was with sound and the other one was the same clip but with the sound taken out. This is because it would give the audience a different feeling in terms of their reaction and how that when there is sound it makes it more intimidating and more disturbing. But without the sound, it doesnt make it as scary. The screeching sound was the violins and that created a better effect because a lot of people hate the screeching sound so it is to make them feel uncomfortable. The video below shows 2 variations of it, one with sound and one without and how different the music can make to one particular scene. The sound can make more scary for the audience because the music is intimidating and can make the audience feel the sense of danger. Also the one without sound makes the scene more gruesome because you can hear the slashes but the effect isn't the same as the one version with sound.

Research: The importance of Titles in Films

Titles are important in films because just by the titles, the audience are able to tell what type of film it is going to be just by looking at the titles, an example of really good opening titles are the titles in Se7en.  which was directed by David Fincher who did a really good job when it came to the titles. This is because the writing is very scratchy and the titles are in black and white as well. The font changes as well to try and create confusion amongst the audience. The image on the right is an example. As you can see, 2 of the words are normal whereas the other 2 are in a different font and this can be used to try and create confusion for the audience and make them feel a bit scared.
Also there is another example and this can be seen within the flashes and this looks quite random and the audience may not be able to understand what it means.

The image to the right looks really confusing and unusual as well because the audience may only understand the 7 dashes but the rest of the image looks very confusing and people will be wondering what the words and symbols are about. Also the writing is very sketchy as well.








But Se7en was one of the first films to start using these titles but time has gone on,  a lot of films are starting to use the techniques that were used in Se7en meaning that the effect on the audience can no longer be there because it is getting over used now so the audience are not intimidated by the titles anymore. Also since the improvement of technology, the titles are much easier to replicate meaning that the hard work the producers of Se7en did doesn't really mean a lot now because titles are much easier now.

The good thing about the titles is that there were no computer effects being used which made the titles even better. The titles were made by the production designer John Sable and filled in dozens of notebooks and pages with a lot of writing and images to make the titles been more intimidating.

In Se7en, the first title to appear is New line cinema present. Unlike other titles, this is located in the corner. But after that there is another title that says "an Arnold Kopelson Production".  Then the director comes third in the titles and says "A film by David Fincher"



There is now just one title on the screen and it is  "Brad Pitt", this is because he can be seen as the most famous actor throughout the film. This is the same with Morgan Freeman as well. Many films just start off with the title whereas Se7ens title appears much later on and it is in the corner of the screen. But later on in the titles, the not so popular actors are further down and normally there are 3 different actors on the same screen. Also later on down the line, Arnold Kopelson and David Fincher get another mention.

Research: Examples of 60 pitches

Research: Essay: Codes and Conventions in WT, DW,DM

Most people do not realise that they are witnessing a huge range of conventions and codes that are related to teen horror films. Most people do not even notice the codes and conventions that get used in horror movies but they have been viewing them all this time.

There are two types of codes that get used in film, these are:

Technical
Technical codes are how the camera has been used such as the angles, the shots and the movement to try and create the effect of making the audience scared. Other things included can be how the lighting has been used to try and make the audience scared because the victim has no idea where the killer could be. The editing and titles come under this as well because the title can be edited to look scary such as having the title in different fonts and different colour schemes so when people first view it they will be able to tell it is a horror.the editing can also be used to increase the pace of the film when danger could be building up. Also diegetic and non diegetic sound which is sound on the set and sound that has been put over the actual scene to possibly make it more scary. Technical codes are very important.

Symbolic
Symbolic codes would be what the audience actually sees in the film. An example of a symbolic code would be mise-en-scene which is french for "put in the scene". Mise-en-scene includes a range of things such as the costumes used, the make up, the setting and the props used. An example would be a man is in the woods wearing a big coat and he is bleeding. The coat would be costume and the blood would be make up and he is in the woods which is the setting and he has an axe as a weapon which would be the prop. also the facial expressions of the man would show the audience how he feels.

Conventions are very important in teen horror films as well because conventions are what attracts the audience to see the horror film.

Conventions
Conventions are things that audiences expect to see. An example of a convention would be that the phone doesnt work or it has no signal and this occurs in most horror movies because the audience are supposed to think that there is no way of the victims getting help because they have no one that they could possibly call to help them and get them out of danger.

The 3 films i analyzed were:
Wrong turn
Dead Wood
Dead Mary

Wrong Turn
The opening of Wrong turn had good editing in terms of setting the pace of the scene. An example of this would be when the man is talking to the woman, the cuts are quite slow and steady. But as soon as the man gets his body thrown off the edge, the cuts become quicker and it makes it more intense. The shots show the woman struggling as she is trying to grab the rope so she can try and escape. But the camera focuses on the woman trying to reach out for the rope and there is a close up of her face and the audience will be able to tell that the woman is intimidated and frightened.

The opening of Wrong turn starts off with a crane shot of the location which is in a forest. This is because it is a secluded location and it is to make the audience think that there is no help available because the camera shows just how big the forest is. The camera is then a birds eye view showing the 2 characters rock climbing and it shows just how high the wall is so if they are at danger then they may struggle to get down quite quickly or get up as well if they are in a rush to hurry from the danger.

Wrong turn uses many conventions in the opening. One of these conventions would be where the victim is close to safety,as the woman finds out that the man is dead, she tries to escape by cutting the rope off so she can get to safety but she trips over some barbed wire and then is taken away by the unknown killer and it cuts to the final shot of the car just so the audience can see how close she was to escaping from the treacherous place. Another convention used in Wrong turn would be that their is a death within the first 5 minutes. The death in the first 5 minutes was the man and this convention gets used so many times in horror movies because the audience are meant to feel that it is a horror just by the first 5 minutes and sense that there is more deaths to come in the film. One more convention would be that the woman is struggling and has little power, unlike the man which has a lot of power because he can climb the wall with no difficulty unlike the woman who is struggling very much and needs help from the man. One final convention i am going to talk about is that it is a secluded location, the camera shows how secluded the location is by showing the area which it is set and that there is no help around. Instead it is just a huge dangerous wooded area and the woman is shouting for help and the male says "who are you shouting for, we are 50 miles from anybody" so this shows how secluded the location is.

The Wrong Turn uses a lot of codes. One of these codes would be that the sound that gets used. When the Male is on the ground after getting thrown off and when the female falls down, there is a cut of the males face and the use of music gets the audience to jump because there is a dead body covered in blood and to make it even more scary, sound gets used. Another way sound gets used is when the camera is looking down on the female, there seems to be a grunt from the male and the audience could feel that the male has been attacked and this is another good way of sound being used. Mise-En-Scene has been used well because the female how the female has been dressed would seem quite inappropriate because she is showing a lot of flesh and is wearing a vest and high shorts. This is not very good for the female because she is rock climbing and she is not protected very well and if she fell, she couldve easily cut her self because her clothing choice is not the greatest. This could mean that she is in danger because she hasnt thought about the risk of climbing without protective clothing.

Dead Wood

In the opening of Dead Wood, there is a slow crane shot of the location and this shows the audience that this place is very secluded and big so there is a difficulty of escaping. A way of the editing being used is that the male victim is trying to get away from an unknown figure but before that the use of sound is slow and steady but then as the man is trying to escape, the music starts to get quicker because the audience knows that something is chasing him and he is in danger. Also the editing has been used very well because the cuts gradually get quicker because it shows that danger is building up.

Dead Wood uses a range of different conventions. Some of these are the same as Wrong Turn. One of these conventions would be that the location is very secluded. it is in a huge forest where there is no sign of anybody being around so the audience is already feeling that the characters are going to be in danger because of how secluded the location is. So the people in danger would find it really difficult to get away. Another convention would be that there is a death in the first 5 minutes. This is when the male is trying to escape from the unknown killer and he has a jump to make which seems quite a difficult one to make. But he doesnt make the jump and blood pours out of his mouth where he is presumably killed. This convention is used so many times in horror films because it is meant to get the audience scared and frightened of whats going to be on in the next few scenes. One other convention would be that the woman is in danger and that she is victim because when the male dies, she is on her own and she has no power because she doesnt have the male to rely on meaning she is a very vulnerable character in a very vulnerable situation and the audience are meant to feel scared because they will be wondering what is going to happen to that woman. One final convention would be that there is a false jump. This is where the camera is lowering down to ground level and there is a splash and this is where the man is escaping and the audience are meant to feel that more jumps are going to be expected in the movie. But in Wrong Turn the jump has been used by non-diegetic sound whereas Dead Wood uses Diegetic sound.  One more convention would be that the person is running through the trees where the person is very vulnerable because a branch could hit them, they could trip up or they could get lost quite easily and running through the trees is not a very safe way.

The opening of Dead Wood has a lot of codes. One code would be the use of Mise-En-Scene. This is what has been put in the scene. The male has a Hawaiian T-Shirt on. This shows that he hasnt experienced camping before because of his dress sense. Most campers wear thick clothing and coats but he is wearing a shirt which doesnt suit the camping environment. Also the female has been dressed in an inappropriate way because she is wearing knee high shorts and showing a lot of flesh just like Wrong Turn and the dress sense of both people show that they havent experienced camping. One other code used is the use of sound. This shows how secluded the location is by having birds tweet to tell the audience that the only noise would be the birds and nobody else and that it is a woodland. Also the music has been used by making it deep and mysterious then gets louder as the chase is going on so it is building up the tension. The camera is down low and tilted upwards to show how far and high the jump is so it is difficult to make but if he fell it would be very difficult to get back up without death.

Dead Mary

In the opening of Dead Mary there is a lot of tension because it is to get the audience ready as something is going to happen but there isn't. This is done by the use of music and the different camera angles so the audience are meant to feel that  the person is getting watched and is meant to make the audience scared that something may happen. But the opening of Dead Mary has been done well because even though there is no action it is still very intriguing to watch. Also the use of editing has been used to put the audience in the characters shoes. As the pace of the cuts gets quicker you know that something is going to happen and you are scared of the location.

The camera has been used really well in Dead Mary because at the beginning there is a sign that isn't up properly and it is squeaking. The use of the camera on the sign and the road behind it shows that it is secluded and nobody is around to help them. Also the camera is out of focus as it shows the girls POV because she is looking in the mirror and the camera has been done to show the audience what the character sees and shows how deserted the road is. Also the use of the camera looking through the trees is meant to feel that the character is being watched and keeps cutting through the trees. Also the camera has been used the same way as the POV because the road is out of focus again and there is a person which is out of focus as well so it could look like any random person and it looks a bit scary for the audience because it could be anyone.

There are not a lot of conventions used in  Dead Mary but uses some. One of the conventions used is that the phone lines do not work/ the phone is out of battery. This is used when the female is trying to get hold off her presumably her boyfriend but she makes the audience think that the phone doesn't work by holding it up to the sky to try and get a signal and she also makes the audience that the phone doesn't work by throwing it in anger. Another convention would be that it is set in a secluded location and many horror movies are set in locations like these because it is to make the character feel that there is no escape from the killer. In Dead Mary you can tell that this is a secluded location because their car is the only one there and it is a wooded area which can mean that the location is secluded and if they are in danger, then nobody can help them. One more convention would be that there is a sense of threat. Both characters are in danger because the female is on her own and she is very vulnerable, the man is in danger as well because he is going out on his own to find gas and he could easily get jumped by some people. One more convention would be that there is a sense of threat. This is done by thinking that the character is being watched by looking through the trees which can make the audience and the character feel uncomfortable.

There are a lot of codes that are used in Dead Mary. One of these would be the diegetic sound that is used. These sounds were the birds tweeting which can indicate that it is set in a wooded area and that there is nobody else around. Another sound that was diegetic was the sign creaking. This can show that the location is very secluded as well because there is nobody around to possibly fix the sign and it is one of those noises that uneases the audience. The Mise-En-Scene used is that the woman's outfit is inappropriate as she is showing a lot of flesh and she is very vulnerable and not ready. However the man is fully clothed and looks like he is ready if any danger was to strike. A prop that the audience sees is a gun and this could represent foreshadowing because more danger could occur and the gun may have a use. Also the gun is in the glovebox which can mean that either one of them have used that gun and they are trying to hide it.

Conclusion
Overall i think Wrong Turn uses the most and better codes and conventions. In the Wrong Turn the use of different sound has been used very effectively because the sound that has been used would really make the audience feel uncomfortable and very uneasy. Also the way the camera flies over the wooded area and you would expect them to be around a camp or something else but they are half way up of climbing up a wall which was pretty unexpected. Also Wrong Turn is the best in making sure that the female is really vulnerable and an easy target by using a range of conventions and codes to make the audience feel that the woman is in a lot of danger. Also the use of costumes,props etc are all used very well and that there is an actual point to these being used. Also the different conventions and codes used in Wrong Turn is meant to make the audience feel that they are in for more.

Research Essay : Codes and Conventions in Existing Teen Horror Film Openings

Please find below the title of the essay you need to complete by 3pm on XXX. This essay will be valuable for your planning and evaluation.

• This essay should be done as a post to your blog. You can, if you wish, punctuate your essay with screen shots from the openings.
• The word count should be targeted at 750 words
• You should select appropriate examples from the openings to illustrate the points that you make. You do not have to write about everything that you see and hear

These are my Notes for the film opening of Dead Wood

Notes for Wrong Turn

Notes for Dead Mary

Research : Codes and Conventions of Existing Teen Horror Film Openings (Dead Wood)

This is one of the film openings we looked at which was Dead Wood

Research : Codes and Conventions of Existing Teen Horror Film Openings (Dead Mary)

This is the opening for Dead Mary

Research : Codes and Conventions of Existing Teen Horror Film Openings (Wrong Turn)

This is the opening for Wrong Turn

Research: Conventions Commonly Found In Horror Films

Shortcut
One convention that are common in horror films are the shortcuts, this is where somebody is walking home at night and they choose to take the alley way that is barely lit instead of taking the safer option. this image is an example you cannot really see a lot beyond the lights making it look dangerous.

Secluded location and stormy night

This next convention is of a secluded location. this is where people are normally trapped and vulnerable because they cannot get any help and they have no one or nothing to turn to. this can also link in with the convention of the stormy nights. the sound effect of the storm can also lead to a false jump another convention as well.  

Phone calls

Another convention would be when phone lines are not working or the person on the phone is making the victim uncomfortable and they cannot make that all important call which is possibly going to save them. as you can see by her facial expression that she doesn't look happy, instead she is vulnerable and scared and she can't put the phone down because she has been threatened.

Jump scare/fake jump  and victim in front of window/door

One more convention would be when a character is standing in front of a window of door where he killer can easily just take a hit at them. This also links in with a jump because in the film she turns around at the window and the killer is there as you can see and then in the film he breaks the glass and attacks her. There are normally fake jumps in horror movies such as something is moving behind a door for example but turns out to be a cat or something but then these often lead to proper jumps.

Characters forget about threat and warnings go unheeded

Another convention is when the characters forget about any threat that may be occurring. an example would be when a character forgets about death and danger such as when people are camping in a forest where a lot of people have been killed and they don't care and still explore it anyway.

Power cuts
The killer in horror films always cut the power so there is no help for the victim and this makes the victims more scared because in a house it is pitch black and they are very vulnerable therefore they cannot do anything because they cant call anyone because power has been cut and since there are no light on in the house people may think that they have gone bed or in a secluded location then it will just look like an abandoned house.

Victims fall over inexplicably and go to the wrong places
Another thing in horror films is that the victims always fall over at stupid times and instead of getting back up they instead just crawl away meaning the killer can easily kill them. But victims do more stupid decisions such as they always run upstairs and hide instead of just running outside to try and escape the killer.

Cant find keys for vehicle/wont start
Another thing that happens quite a lot is that the victim cant find their car keys or the car doesn't start, this happens a lot in horror films or doesn't even happen in cars other things like bikes vans etc. even when they find their keys the vehicle doesn't start or normally it is too late for them.

First 5 minutes
Within the first 5 minutes of a horror film, there is somebody that always dies and the audience knows that this that it is a horror just by the first 5 minutes and an example of of one of these films would be scream and this makes the film worth watching just by the first 5 minutes.

X years before or after
Another convention would be X years before or after. This is where something may have happened to a house in the past such as people got killed and in the future people move in and find out it is haunted by the people that got killed in there such as the spirits of them are haunting the people that have moved in.

Strange noises
No matter how scared the character is, they still investigate the strange noises that can possibly hurt them even more. Instead of staying in the place to find the weird noise, you would rather escape. By investigating the noise, this makes them even more vulnerable because the noise could be bait and then get them killed.

Research: Thinking About Fear

3 of us were asked to write 3 things. these 3 things were titled what are you scared of, why are you scared of that fear and how has that fear affected you. Ryan wrote in orange, I wrote in green and Lewis wrote in purple.

Ryan was scared of ghosts and he was scared of them because he said they are not normal and freaky meaning there could be one around him and he wouldn't know about it therefore feeling wrong. This fear has affected him because he saw ghosts when he was a child.

I put that I was scared of jumps, this is because they are just very unexpected because you could just be studying with your earphones in and someone could tap you on the shoulder and you would freak out, also when playing scary games there are many jumps in them. Jumps have affected me because when playing games there have been jumps in there which have got to me.

Lewis said he was scared of hospitals, he was scared of hospitals because hospitals link to pain and that something is wrong with you or others. This has affected Lewis because when he goes into a hospital or when anyone else goes in hospitals it shows that there is something wrong with him or other people.

We did this because we had to find out what fears other people have and for our main task we are asked to create an opening 2 minute scene to a horror movie and using some of these techniques could really help us when it comes to it.

Research: History Of Horror Films In The 1980s

1980s

A lot of good films in the 80s such as

The shining

Evil dead

The thing

Nightmare on elm street

The hitcher

Child's play

Aliens

Horror movies of the 1980s exist at the glorious watershed when special visual effects finally caught up with the gory imaginings of horror fans and movie makers. Technical advances in the field of animatronics, and liquid and foam latex meant that the human frame could be distorted to an entirely new dimension, onscreen, in realistic close up.

Nightmare on elm street

 Wes Craven, the former college professor responsible for two of the darkest and most deranged movies of the 1970s (Last House on The Left and The Hills Have Eyes) unveiled a brash, commercial franchise in 1984: A Nightmare on Elm Street. The monster, a hideously scarred Freddy (named after a kid who bullied Wes Craven at school) Krueger represents a successful blend of humour and horror, a deranged killer who doesn't lurk silently behind a hockey mask but menaces in full view, spitting one-liners as he sharpens his trademark glove. In terms of Jungian archetypes he is the ultimate Shadow Trickster, the shape changer who relishes sick jokes. Freddy was a merchandising dream, an icon for a generation whose distinctive striped jersey, battered hat and scarred visage have sold many a t-shirt, board-game, coffee cup, lunch box and snow globe.

cost 1.8million pounds, made 26 million in a year.

The Shining

Although it's based on Stephen King's 1977 bestseller about a haunted hotel, Stanley Kubrick's movie is substantially different to the book. Rather than being about a family, it's about a location. The Overlook, as imagined by Kubrick, is a series of nightmare-inducing spaces that simultaneously cause claustrophobia and agoraphobia. Kubrick eschews King's supernatural explanation that the hotel is an evil entity which manifests via a spectral corpse in the bathtub or topiary creatures that come to life. Instead he suggests it's an extreme case of sick building syndrome: something rotten in the architecture and the patterns in the carpet burrows into Jack's brain and sends him over the edge.

cost 19 million pounds, made 44 million by December after coming out in may.

The Thing 

Little-seen on its release but now hailed as a classic, John Carpenter's masterpiece is actually a remake. He took the Howard Hawks' 1951 sci-fi thriller (based on a short story by pulp author John W Campbell called Who Goes There?) The Thing From Another World and turned it into a gorefest that has never been equalled. Retrospectively, The Thing has proved itself to be one of the most important horror movies of the 1980s, despite not being a box office success at the time. It is now seen by many as visionary, from a technical (the special effects far outstripped anything previously seen and certain scenes are horrifying to watch even today, nearly three decades on), and from a philosophical perspective. Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers it offers a discourse on what it is that makes us human, by examining what happens when our humanity is engulfed by alien biology

cost 15 million, made 19 million by December.

Aliens

Whereas Alien was a horror film set in space, Aliens is a Vietnam war movie thus transplanted. And, while it lacks the claustrophobic complexities of its predecessors, it's also probably one of the best action films ever made. Cameron, ever conscious of his B-movie Roger Corman roots, cranks up the tension to a near-unbearable level and keeps it there. This movie has everything - a love story, comrades-in-arms a little girl lost, a very haunted house, serious weaponry and MORE aliens.

cost 18.5 million made a huge 85 million

There are many more films and more about them if you click the link it will link you to IMDB. a place where you can view a variety of films program's etc. IMDB


 However films have advanced a lot since the 80s. there are now more special effects to make the movies more scary.

Directors for some of these horror movies

Stanley Kubrick- the shining
Wes craven- nightmare on elm street
john carpenter- the thing
james cameron-aliens

Main Task Set Brief

The titles and opening of a new teen horror film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

The Task

The task me and my group had to do was create a  continuity film and this took place between two characters. We had to title this "The Joke". We had one character who was sitting in a classroom waiting for another person to enter and tell the joke. We used a range of different camera angles and shots. Some of these included continuity editing, shot/reverse shot, the 180 degree rule, match on action.

The terms and their meaning 

Continuity Editing- This is a piece of editing where the scene is continuous and prevent disorientating viewers.

Shot/Reverse shot- This is where two characters are speaking to one another and the camera angle keeps on changing between them.

Match on action- This is also know as cutting on action. This is an editing technique for the Continuity editing which one shot cuts to another showing the action of the subject in the first shot.

180 Degree rule- A basic guideline of the on-screen relationship between two characters or objects in the scene. it is also called an imaginary line called the axis which connects the characters by keeping the character on one side so it doesn't look like they are talking to themselves

Pre-Production

We started planning our piece of film by using storyboards. These storyboards included subheadings so we knew what we were going to do such as the shot,the angle, movement and other things so we had a better idea of what we were doing.  i found the storyboards very useful to use because by doing this we didn't waste a lot of time because we had it all planned and we also had time to get different angles and other shots because if we didn't plan we may have struggled and the process would've been much slower and more time consuming, meaning we would've struggled to get different variations.  The images to the right represents how we used the storyboard. as you can see on the storyboard there is an over the shoulder shot and in the actual image it has been copied.

Production

The way we started the film making was when we were allowed to leave the classroom to get all of our clips that we were going to use. We got our shots in order of the location instead of the actual shot number because we found it easier because this meant that we wouldn't be wasting time trying to find a good location to get that certain shot. But when we were filming there was a lot of times we had to do a particular shot again because people were in the way and we did the shot more than once so that we had something worthy of using that didn't have all those errors in.

Post-Production

Before we did the editing, we had to make sure that we chose the right clips that we were going to be using/importing. this image is me doing that, as you can see i clicked on the folder that had the clips in then i highlighted the ones i needed then imported them into imovie.

This picture shows what clips have been imported and the collection of clips at the top are the ones that i imported and then the timeline is where i can drag and drop those clips which is where i can start the editing.











The  image shown is what i included in the making of the film. the purple box at the end is a ending credits screen where i included all 4 of us that were involved with making the film. the green bar at the bottom is the music i chose and i did this because since there would be no dialogue and no noise it would be quite boring just to watch and to make it more entertaining i included the music which the viewers would find better. also in this image you can see how small some of the clips are, this is because i had to trim some of them so the film was continuous and that it flowed fine from clip to clip.I also used a couple of transitions but not too many because it just wouldn't look very good. I also faded out the music because if i didn't the music would stop dead and it wouldn't go very well therefore i faded it so it works better when you are viewing it because instead of it stopping dead it slows down quite nicely and works better.

Evaluation

This is my finished product. i would say we did a good job considering we thought it would be easier because you have to make sure you get the right shots at the right times and make sure there isn't anything that will make the shot a bit dodgy. But we could've improved a lot and in terms of my editing i went a bit wrong and had to try and do something quickly about it and i am happy with my editing but felt like i could've improved a lot.

One improvement that we could've done was the opening scene where you can our shadows at the bottom of the screen and it looks really odd and silly because people watching it will be saying things about the shadows because they are easy to see and it looks very unprofessional. To stop this happening we could move the camera at a different angle or tilt it a bit more so you don't see our shadows.

Another improvement we could've made was as soon as the joke took place the exchange in dialogue was very quick and there should've been a pause in between the lines because the character that was getting told the joke was meant to have no idea and it was really quick so he knew the joke and wasn't meant to so when editing it was very difficult because the clips had to be cropped quite a lot so the joke could actually fit in. next time we will take note and remember to leave a second or two so the character knows what to say instead of him saying it really fast.

I have one improvement regarding my editing. when i first did it i forgot to include the shot reverse shot, so i had one over the shoulder joke of the actual joke taking place so i had to change that. But i had little time to change it so i think i cut the clips a bit too short and when i did that it looked a bit odd. Another thing was that the character getting told the joke was very quiet and i forgot to turn the audio up so he is pretty quiet in in. Finally i found that the credits at the end were pretty fast so it may be quite hard for viewers to see.Next time i think i could do much better editing and i shall take more time with it and keep watching it back.





 

Planning: Story Board Timeline