Target Audience: Mood Board

The target demographic for the genre of horror is the 15-25 male audience, who are drawn in by the suspenseful sound effects and creepy atmospheres and props. Masks are generally a hit with this genre due to the idea of no identity, along with a sinister feel.  

Above we have compiled a mood board of relevant images in order to help influence our creative vision for our opening two minutes.

Certification of a 15 Horror

Horror tends to apply to the 15 or 18 age restriction certificate, depending on the intensity of violence and gore. However most focus on being 15, to attract a greater audience.

Features of a 15 Film:

- Strong Violence
- Sexual scenes or references
- Inappropriate Language
- Involvement or use of drugs

In a 15, sexual content can be shown, but not to the great amount of detail an 18 would portray. Nudity can be shown to an extent. Violence can also be shown, however strong sadistic violence is highly unlikely for this age. All features of a 15 must be shown carefully, due to the impact and encouragement it can cause on young influential teens, such as misuse of drugs, and sexual harassment.

How would YOU rate a Horror Film?

It's hard to judge whether a Horror is in fact scary or not, everyone has a different level of fear.
To determine the rating of a Horror, you would usually base it on the amount of gore and detail shown. An overall rating is typically decided on behalf of the viewers, these reviews are submitted to worldwide film websites such as Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB.

There are several perspectives of "Scary" in Horror, whether disturbing, gruesome, or suspenseful. The Horror genre is proven to be quite popular with young teens and adults, between 15 and 25. This particular audience tend to be interested in the thrill, and feeling different emotions. Horror films are a great way to spend a Saturday night with your friends or partner. Males seem to be more into Horror due to a stereotypical portrayal of men loving gore and violence.

What Makes a Successful Horror Movie?

In approach to making a two minute opening to a Horror, I have done research relating to this specific genre:

This YouTube Video, uploaded by "TheMingThing" shares the knowledge of how to make a Horror Movie in a humorous manner. Beginning with Colour Grading, we are introduced to the concept of "taking the happy out of it" by doing so we decrease the saturation and give a blue/green tint, expressing a darker eerie feel. 

A successful Horror consists of the usual conventions or cliche's, from the location, to the situation. For example, this video shows three teens going back into a school at night, where one is portrayed as the "let's get the hell out of here" wimp, one being the scared of absolutely nothing non believer, and the other just being the reason they're there in the first place. In many cases, we are also introduced to a character who is there as a sign of warning, but no one ever listens to them....

 A build up of Music and sound effects are vital to accomplishing the element of fear in Horror. Unsuspected jumps and loud sounds build up the viewers fear, this creates suspense which leads the audience to be on the edge of their seat. If your horror film focuses on either the undead or spirit kind, it is good to show the use of moving objects and creaking doors. This then leads to the obvious move of disappearing friends and voices sneaking in the bachground. In an attempt to find your friends, you happen to feel followed, this is done by shots that show figures walking past, and a middle shot of the character shocked and looking at their surroundings. This is followed by the confrontation of the ghost, leading to other events along with suspenseful music and sound effects, most likely resulting into a death or escape route. 

HORROR

The Horror Genre focuses on evoking a negative or emotional reaction on the audience by portraying events or situations that put the viewer on the edge of their seat.
Horrors tend to reveal nightmares, fears, and monsters from beyond the dead.

From  The classics of "Frankenstein" "Dracula" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" to the modern interpretations of horrors like "Paranormal Activity" and "The Gallows", horror typically consists of dark eerie atmospheres involving jump scares, and the undead. Ghosts and spirits beyond the grave are usually popular in this genre, as there are several true stories behind the supernatural. The atmospheric portrayal and darkness of ghosts intrigues viewers to watch more of this content, as jump scares are profoundly used, resulting in engaging and gripping films.

The Rules of Continuity in editing

- Shot Reverse Shot - 

This is a film technique which is applied during scenes where there are several characters, this is usually where dialogue is shown between two characters. This links to the 180 degree rule, as this characters looking back and forth at each other.

- Match-on-Action - 

This refers to when one shot cuts to another that depicts the result, or continuation of an action that was shown in the previous shot. This "matches" the action. Match on action creates a continuous feel of time to the shots, as the shot cuts do not tend to be noticeable.

- The 180°Rule -

This is considered an essential to filmmaking and continuity editing. When done wrong, it will affect the overall outlook on the scene, but in some cases, may be an effect the director intended. The purpose of this rule is that the camera should stay on the same side throughout every shot of the scene. When the camera moves across the other side, it is identified as "crossing the line"....

Classic (Yet frustrating as hell) Horror Cliche's

These are few of many cliche's expressed in the HORROR Genre:

1. "The Trip Up"

Now excuse me if i say this, but it's just ironic that the victim who's being chased happens to incidentally trip or fall over a twig or pebble, i guess this is supposed to build up the tension, but in other words, it makes the audience want to throw a rock at the screen, 

2. "Clueless Parents"

Its typical that in a teen slasher or even any type of horror, we are introduced to the parents who show no sign of understanding or belief to the circumstances, "oh, you have hand marks and bruises on your back, silly you..."

3. I call this the "i'm willing to be killed" moment

In about 99% of horror's we will almost definitely witness the stupid act of a character openly asking "is anyone there?" literally asking to be killed, however in a realistic scenario, the person would probably hide in a closet, jump out the window, or most likely "tweet" for help.

4. "I've lost my friend so lets shout even louder to draw the killer's attention"

This is probably one of the most frustrating cliche's out there, you'd be a fool to draw even more attention to yourself whilst you are on your last lifeline. The first thing that should come to your thoughts is to use this chance to get the hell outta there!

5."The arise of the Killer"

This is when the hero finally kills the killer, and then waits around in relief like what's done is done, but to their astonishment, the killer miraculously arises to conclude with a fight, defeat, or chase scene.

Poltergeist (2015) - Opening Scene Analysis

- Analysis -

The opening scene starts off with dramatic movements of pixels, along with the sound of monster like noises, and uneasiness, this is then followed with a gradual development of the non-diegetic sound of intensifying thriller like sounds. This then sets the genre of the movie.

As this increases, we immediately associate this with a horror genre. But this then transitions into the fading out of the music and we are shown what the pixels actually were; a graphic zombie, in which was a character on a game we see the young boy playing.
The non-diegetic sounds of the zombies and dark music cut off as the boys headphones are pulled off of him. This could be interpreted as this is all just in his head. This transistions into the introduction of the introduction to the family of characters. This changes the audiences assumption as we associate families with laugh-out-loud's or kid classics. As the young boy begins to fight with his mum, we pick up the attitude of the rest of the family, such as maturity of the youngest who claims that her brothers puke from last time was "smelly", this is when we are shown the eldest, who is shown to be the rebellious teen who hates spending time with her family, this is inferred through her close up
facial expression, and mis-en-scene. We also see this through the fact she calls her brother "dumbass" and rolls her eyes. We are introduced to the dialogue of this scene that shows us that they are new to the neighborhood and are moving into a new house, this is a horror cliche as we think of new house, old ghosts, when it comes to this. The kids are shown to wear normal casual, this suggests that they are a regular suburban family, who are going to regret the decision of ever moving from their ghost deprived old house.
The last shot shown is a mid shot of the family in their car as they have missed their destination on the GPS, their facial expressions drop from utter confusion but this then follows to smiles as the youngest raises her arms and shouts "wee" as they make a sudden turning, we hear in the background an gradual eerie non-diegetic sound of bells and string instruments, these set of sounds infer the tension and thriller to this film.

The Messenger (2015) / Robert Sheehan - Opening Scene Analysis

- Analysis -

The opening sequence to "The Messenger" begins with a long shot of the main character out of focus, with a gradual effect of him sharpening as he comes closer to the foreground. this is introduced by the diegetic sound of aeroplanes in the background, which is accompanied by an increasing non-diegetic sound of a piano piece, which is in the minor key, suggesting that this movie will be a drama or horror/thriller. As the character walks closer, we see him giving the audience eye contact, inferring the intimacy and connection we will have to the character.
This then cuts to a low angle shot showing the main character perched up against a wall, looking around as if he were anxious at that current time, in the background of the shot we can hear the diegetic sound of a train, this implies the location of his whereabouts, which would be at or close to a railway track. This shortly cuts to a walking pace mid shot of the character, as we are shown his arm movements and facial expressions. The character appears to be wearing scruffy, dirty clothes, followed with a muddy face and greasy hair - this suggests that the character is in a bad state.
He continues to look around every now and then, as if he were being followed. This transitions into a long establishing shot of the character walking past a church, whilst the diegetic sound of birds chirping and church bells ringing echoes throughout the shot. The non-diegetic sound of the piano slightly builds up emphasis to the dramatization, along with a slight eerie atmosphere towards the movie. The camera proceeds to follow the character on his commute home or wherever he is headed, this suggests a stalker feel to these shots, as if someone were following him.
As the music gets slightly faster, we see the character build up his pace, as he looks fairly anxious, and paranoid, his footsteps become heavier, and his posture slouches down, creating an uneasy tension. He proceeds to walk this way, with the occasional fast head turn, to see if someone were behind him. The head turn shot cuts to another angle as he does this, building up tension, and curiosity. The pace of the non-diegetic is only slightly sped up, and the characters foot movement is increased. The character is shown to have his hands in his jacket pocket, inferring that he is an isolated and restricted person, he keeps to himself, he is alone. There is a really clever still establishing long shot of the character walking, in which emphasizes the whole uneasy outlook on the movie. In the background we hear dogs barking, showing that he may be in a rough area. We are then introduced to a sliding shot of the character as he looks up, we see his facial expression become confused and shocked, as there is a man standing on the top of a building, on the vurge of jumping. This is when we are introduced to the characters everyday life...

Introduction to opening scene:

I have been focusing on the horror genre to capture my opening scene. I will be looking towards portraying an eerie atmosphere and progressing to show snippets of cliche horror attributes...

G321 Preliminary Task

Evaluation and Analysis:

Our Preliminary task doesn't exactly follow a plot, however, is more of an experimentation of different camera angles and shots, in approach to our opening two minutes of a short horror. Throughout this task, we explored shot/reverse shot and match cut in particular, this shots create the effect of suspense, along with the chosen no-copyright music. despite the decent editing skills, the shots show lack of skill through the shakiness and quick cuts. We used several different techniques for composition and camera angles, some good, others not so much.  The use of panning, upgraded the decency of the task, as it looked more sophisticated, however was fairly shaky. The use of a black screen indicated the passing of time, however this wasn't too clear to the viewer, but the way the lights were off in the next scene, shows hints to the different time of the day. The low angle shots are very effective, but weren't displayed the best way that they could have. The use of the medium shot of Aishah walking, filmed behind her, creates a mysterious tone to the atmosphere, and develops the tension. A fair amount of the shots create a monotone and glum feel, which adds to the genre of this short clip, whilst emphasising the mood of this. It was a good idea to use this chance to experiment angles, this was done by  using a distorted angle when Aishah walks past to meet me. This is rather engaging to the audience.