Horror - Genre

Here is a presentation I made using Windows Movie maker showing typical horror movie conventions that I found during researching the genre.

Below is a prezzi that I made regarding the 'Final Girl' theory (click below link):

http://prezi.com/754hglo3el1g/the-final-girl-theoryy/#

Class presentation

In order to gather my ideas regarding my Horror Movie product, I constructed a presentation including my brief, plot, intended feel of the film, my inspirational texts, intended target audience, flat plans and which institution I would like to produce my product. I included minimal text on the powerpoint and presented the majority of my ideas vocally.

http://www.slideshare.net/Chloetaylor11/media-a2-26376809

Following my presentation, my class members gave me written constructive feedback regarding my ideas:



Inspirational texts - progress from summer work

Aside from my inspirations for my project in terms of the website homepage and poster, I progressed to looking at trailers from the horror movies that have inspired me the most.

Insidious

In my opinion the trailer to 'Insidious' is done in a way that creates a very freaky, tense and on edge feeling for viewers. I think this is down to the variation of camera angels and eerie music, the audience understands the feel the film has just by viewing its trailer and this is exactly what I want my trailer to convey about my film. One of my favorite elements of the trailer is the effect that the majority of the trailer has, a washed out bluey tinge, it helps contribute to the freaky uneasiness of the trailer.

Trailer deconstruction #1

Here is the Insidious trailer:

I have included some screen grabs of clips from the trailer that I have taken inspiration from:

 A selective focus is used in this clip. I found this effect to be impacting as it focuses the audiences eyes onto the subject subconsciously consuming them more into the trailer. It helps the audience understand whats important in the scene and perhaps recognise the in focus item as an item of importance helping them to understand the plot more. I will use this effect in my trailer when incorperating items/characters of importance.

 I love the way in this clip a high angle shot is used to make the subject look weak and vulnerable, giving the ghost controlling the phone complete power adding to the desired fear of it, and the film. I will use high angle shots in my trailer to show vulnerability and weakness of my characters as they face challenges against ghosts within the duration of the trailer and to emphasize the power the ghosts have allowing them to appear more feared and dominant.

These two clips show the character looking at the baby monitor, one from the view of the baby monitor, the other from the view of her, however both shots are still filmed behind the subjects allowing it to remain from an audience perspective. I found that showing these clips after eachother helped build tension in the trailer preparing the audience for a climax or a point of importance. I will definitely use this is my trailer to build tension and create and uneasy on edge atmosphere.

Trailer deconstruction #2

The Orphan

Another prime inspiration for my product, the film, Orphan, below is the trailer:

I have included some screen grabs of clips from the trailer that I have taken inspiration from:

Sound as a convention, is a huge part of horror movie trailers, it is what can determine how successful the trailer will be in conveying the desired effect, knowing the importance of sound, I know that making the right choices in this area are vital. The diegetic sound in this clip is Ester (main character) screaming, it overrides the non diegetic music for a few seconds allowing audience members to be completely consumed by the scream, striking terror in viewers. I found this to be very effective and would love to use this convention in my trailer. 

Another thing I learned from watching horror trailers is that mise en scene is very important to contributing to the desired effect of the film. A few shots of empty swings swinging (pictured above) and included in the trailer, connitates being alone and on edge, building suspense for the viewers. I will definitely use the principle of including a shot with either swings or just an object slightly moving to contrast with the action on going in the trailer, helping to add a slightly more cold and freaky dynamic to my trailer.

The Hole

Another inspirational text I came across was a film called The Hole, in terms of plot. A group of friends go away to an alien place and end up getting trapped, this shapes the basic idea for my horror film as I think young people can identify with the characters and feel genuine fear to the situation arising.

Here is the trailer to The Hole:

   

Rationalle

The colour scheme I have chosen to abide to will be a very simplistic one consisting of mostly black. I aim to include black, grey and a piercing light blue colour. I may chose to add other colours in a very minimalistic way to add points of focus or highlight things that I want the audience to pick up on. This will help add to the freaky feel of the poster. It goes without saying that black is a colour that is stereotypically linked to horror movies due to its sinister, secretive and un-nerving connotations. I have chosen blue as a colour to incorporate in the colour scheme as blue is a colour with cold connotations and I plan to use this colour in the protagonists eyes to give them a piercing and scary look, as if to be almost possessed, capturing audience members' eyes vividly.

I aim to have the photograph of the setting dimly lit in very bleak and washed out colours enabling the text and photo of the protagonist to stand out. I aim to have the film name logo in a very impacting and unique font as I plan to contrast this with the rest of the text on the page to be very simplistic and easy to read and digest.

Looking into this, I looked at a few fonts that I found appropriate to my specific trailer, these three were my favorite:

The most appropriate font, I feel, is the middle one as I think it manages to capture the eery terrifying feel while looking professional and remaining easy to read. I absolutely love the third font as it connitates ghostly experiences and uncertianty yet I feel that it would not be particularly effective to use on my product as it can't be read as easy as the others and will not stand out.

 Predominantly in the website home page, I want simplicity to be key in order to maintain a professional look and feel to the promotion of my film. I believe that with horror movies, less is more as the lack of detail aids the freaky feel, vital to a horror movie. Speaking from personal experience, when viewing the Insidious movie website I really felt the discomfort and unease from the lack of content to the website homepage, which indeed drew me to the film; this is the effect that I would like my horror movie and its promotion to have on its viewers. Teenagers, generally speaking are active thinkers with the thirst to put their own conclusions and ideas into things. I think the simplicity of my product will fit in perfectly with the target audience as it will give the chance for teenagers to interperate what they like from the promotion adding their own perspectives and conclusions into the film. This will help a more personal attachment to be made between the audience members and the film helping them become more drawn it and effectively more attracted to going to view the film. The protagonist being a teenager and placed on the front of the poster will also help draw teenagers in as they will feel like they can identify with the character and extract elements of them that they can relate and see in them selves, again helping them to feel a personal connection to the film.

I aim to include quotes from reviews in both the film promotion poster and the website home page as I feel they are effective as they are a genuine response directly from those who have viewed the film. Along with the other elements, I believe the quotes will add an extra dimension to the promotion of the film, adding credibility. Adding links to the website home page will again help to expand the amount of viewers as they can discuss or view elements of the film through many social networking sites, raising awareness of the film.

Summer work - Inspirational texts for my website homepage and and poster

‘Insidious’ was a release that particularly intrigued me and contributed to the inspiration of my product plan. Viewing Insidious’ home page, I was able to take a lot from this in terms of the impact it had on me as a target audience member. The page has a very minimalistic colour scheme and the key to the effective layout is simplicity. I find it really helps to communicate the genre and attract audience members.

Looking at a few more inspirations of horror movies for website home pages, I came across these as my favourite:

 

These magazine home pages all had very different elements and inspired me in difference ways, I like the idea of the trailer being based in the centre as it will straight away inform the audience of what to expect from the movie. I also like the idea of a quote in a large font on the home page as it adds a personal dimension to the film and its reviews.

The ‘Insidious’ movie poster was one of the prime reasons I chose to do a horror as my product genre. I love the edgy feel of the poster and the elements of the poster that are unrealistic and almost cartoon like. I think it’s an excellent poster and very impacting from an audience perspective. I especially like the eyes. I will definitely be incorporating some of the elements of this poster in my horror movie magazine poster.

 

Flat plans

 

I have decided the genre my product will be will be a horror. I came to this conclusion

as, although I’m not a frequent watcher of horror movies, looking into a few recent 

releases I felt a lot can be done in terms of promotion of horror movies, which is the 

main element of this assignment.

Brief:

• A promotion package for a new film to 

include a teaser trailer, together with two 

of the following three options, I have chosen to do:

• A website homepage for the film

• A poster for the film