Distributers of the horror genre.

I have done a lot of research into film distributors and especially the distributers of the horror genre. I haven chosen some examples to explore in more depth:

Lionsgate: Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a a Canadian-American entertainment company it was formed in Vancouver, British Columbaria on the 3rd July 1997 and has headquarters in Santa Monica, California, It has distributed a number of horror films, some of these include The Last Exorcism, The Cabin in the Woods and Acts of Death.

20^th Century Fox is one of the biggest film institutions in America, found in 1904. Although most of their success comes from comedy and family films. Fox have experienced success in the horror genre with films such as The Omen, Hell and The Haunting of Molly Hartley.

Hammer Films is a UK based production founded in 1934. They have major experience in marketing in the horror genre to a wide range of target audiences’. Some of their biggest successes have come from horror films such as Fear The Night, Dracula and The Mummy.

Character profile

Character

We have chosen to use a girl who is quite normal looking who doesn’t look suspicious in any way as our main character in the opening sequence of our horror film, she will play the final girl who is the victim and has to face the paranormal activity in the basement of her house.This relates to the conventions of the horror genre as the final girl is always portrayed as innocent and unexpectant of the events that occur.

Character profile
Name: Sally Wilson
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Appearance: Medium length brown hair, around 5”8, quite fair skin

Back ground: She is quite a normal girl who is very outgoing and likes to have a laugh with her friends but she doesn’t like to be the centre of attention. She likes to grasp a sense of mystery when finding out new things. Not so long ago her family moved house and she didn’t have any choice but to go with them; they were moving into an old house in the middle of no where.

Costume:In order to achieve the desired look we have decided on 'normal' looking clothes with jeans and a top in order to fit the personality we have set. Innocence and purity will be displayed through her appearance of minimal make-up and plain, simple clothing.


Makeup:
Her make up will be minimalistic with pale skin to suggest innocence and purity. Cheeks will be a subtle pink colour to show youth and therefore emphasise this idea of innocence. She will wear a small amount of eye shadow and to finish it off she will wear a coat of mascara. Her lips will be a light pink colour to further imply an in-corrupt, moral character

Preliminary task

Creativity in convention

I will show the main creativity in convention through the use of camera shots, movement and editing as well as the setting and narrative. Immediatly an establishing shot of the setting will be used to convey the immediate sense of mystery. The diegetic sound of wind and leaves rolling over will show that the house is secluded and that there will be no escape from the events to unfold. The diegetic sounds of the natural environment will make it link in to the themes of physiological horrors as they are set in realistic locations this will also create intrigue immediately, the should will show what is happening in that place at that time, However the sounds will change completely when the setting changes to inside the house, all of the natural outdoor noises will no longer be heard, instead there will be an eery silence to suggest that this silence will soon be disturbed in some way.A key convention of the horror genre is lighting and I will continue to use this to my avantage throughout the whole opening scene. However, a problem with this convention is the filming could look unprofessional and of a bad quality so I will have to make sure that the lighting achieves the desired effect. Furthermore, I think camera movement will be essential to the creation of the opening scene as without this the narrative will not be clear to the audience.

Location

The Stairs

A Bedroom

We decided that a good location for our opening scene of a horror film would be a house and consequently the title of our filming will be 'Our House'. Also after much analysis and research into existing horror films some of the key concepts of horror films include haunted and paranormal activity in an abandoned or old setting such as warehouses,buildings and houses. In addition to this I think that as the house is surrounded by trees, a road and is a typical brick house with a wooden door and four stories it will fit well with the sense of mystery and unexpected horror that we are trying to create. The house will be the only setting we are using but within the setting there will be a variety of different settings from within the main house setting. Some of these will include the stairs to show match-on-action wheter the main character is investing the mysterious sound coming from another setting in the house. Then a key setting that will play a significant role in the narrative of the filming is the basement as here is where the key horror-filled events will unfold. I think the basement will be the perfect setting for the events as it is dark, mysterious and sucluded from the rest of the house, in many horror films the victim is always far from any other people and therefore cannnot be heard when they are under threat.

The Front Door of the main setting will play a rold in the narrative as after the establishing shot of the house the camera will begin to zoom in through the letter box to show the silence and sinister atmosphere inside the house.

This setting is the basement and will be used as a main place of horror. The key character will hear the mysterious noise coming from here and when they enter the setting to investigate they will be met with paranormal activity. I think this setting is a key convention of the horror genre because the lighting is dark and it is enevitable that there will be something lurking in the darkness.

This is the main setting. The old,victorian style with red brick will immediatly connote the idea of the paranormal as it could bve home to spirits and the unnatural. An establishging shot of the house will be shown immediatly so the title of the film 'Our House' is clearly understood and the audience can begin to work out what the narrative of the film is.

Sub-genres of horror

Our opening sequence of a film is going to incorporate many features of the psychological horror genre such as elements of the supernatural. However there are many other subgenres of the main horror genre, Here are some we could have chosen from:

Action Horror- combines evil and the supernatural with gun fights and fast-paced chases. Themes that come up are zombies, gore and vampires.The Purge 2 is a good example of this subgenre as there are lots of fast-paces car chases as you can see in this clip there are chases on moterbikes and in cars combined with the horror element of figures in mysterious masks.

Body Horror- The horror is formed by the destruction of the human body as well as unnatural movement and dysfunction to create fear.

-Comedy Horror- elements of horror and comedy. 'Shaun Of The Dead' is a good example of the comedy horror subgenre as there is lots of humour and jokes between the two main characters even though there is a prominant theme of horror through the graphic violence and zombies.

Gothic Horror- include elements of gothic and horror and typically include dungeons, large landscapes and magic

Psychological Horror-Relies on characters fear and belief as well as elements of the supernatural to build the plot and tension

Slasher Horror- violence and psycho killers that kill a mass amount of people.

Target Audience and an Audience Profile for the pre-lim

Target audience

The age of our target audience is 15-20years old as our BBFC rating is 15 and these age group are the most likely to watch horror films this is because they want to try new things and experiment with different emotions and feelings without guidence. Horror films can excite and thrill the younger audience much more easily than the older audience and are less likely to be put off by unnatural or violent scenes in the film. The target genre is males and females however horror films are typically more targeted at males as they thrill seek and enjoy the viloence and shock of some horror films. Our horror opening scene is targeted towards the working class as the thrill and excitement is achieved at a cheap price.


Audience profile

Name – Jen Longshack

Age - 16

Gender – Female

Nationality – British

Place of education / work: North trafford collage  

Religion – No religion

Psychographics – She enjoys going to the gym and playing a lot of sport her favoourite is netball, as well as a very active lifestyle she enjoys relaxing activities such as going to the cinema and watching films with her friends. Her favourite genre of film is horro because she enjoys the tension and thrill of the storyline and wants to know what is going to happen next. She also loves reality tv shows such as 'The only way is essex'.

Likes: shopping, going out with friends, reality TV, watching films, college, family days out

Dislikes: rom-com films or comedy films, lazy people

Preliminary task editing analysis and reflection

Editing our video

After we had completed the filming of our preliminary task we had to add together all of the clips to achieve all of the objectives (the shot reverse shot, match on action and 180 degree rule).We began by importing all of the media from the IPad’s on to the mac book pro even though we had some issues we finally got the video clips into the libraries of the mac and we could then import them into a new project on final cut pro. Once the media is in the new event it can be dragged to the timeline where the clips can be edited and cut. We put the clips in the correct order on the timeline and then got to work on the editing.

The editing process was essential as we could see what parts of the filming didn’t flow correctly and these could be cropped out or changed to make the media as a whole a lot more professional. As I have used final cut pro before as part of my GCSE media studies course I knew how to blade and crop the clips to the exact length we needed them.  Some of our filming couldn’t be used as we had people in the background of one of our clips and some others didn’t look professional therefore we cut these out and continued with the clips we had, luckily we had filmed more than we needed to make sure we had met the guidelines of the preliminary task therefore removing these clips didn’t hinder the quality of our clip. After watching it through and agreeing that the clips flowed and matched up we then had to decide what effects and transitions we were going to add the clips. We decided that a black and white filter would be effective to our clip as we our researching and completing our final opening film sequence on the horror genre so it will give us some ideas of how it will set the scene and connote horror. After adding the filters we had to add music to achieve the desired dramatic effect. We looked at the sound that was available on final cut pro however none of them were what we really wanted to we researched what sound was available online. A website called soundbible is where we got our sound from as it had many soundtracks that relate to our chosen genre horror: with high pitch and low pitch progressive sound. We added a faded effect to the sound so it linked to the clips on screen. For example we made the volume of the background sound lower so the viewers can focus on the dialogue.

Reflection

Here is an example of where we used match-on-action in our pre-liminary task.It was useful to understand how to do this professionally as it will be useful in our opening scene production. Match-on-action cuts are parts of the filming that are not useful or effective and just shows the action occuring in the scene. This was useful to understand and learn as we can apply it to our opening scene especially when the main character is moving around the setting of the house.

Here is an example of shot-reverse shot and 180 degree shot from our preliminary task. It is important to filming so the audience do not get confused of the setting and can see the dialogue from two different points of view. We will use this in our opening scene to show the character's reactions to the events that unfold.

Final Opening Sequence Ideas...

My group and I discussed our final aspects and ideas of our opening sequence to a horror film. My main contribution to the ideas was the title and fonts of the film. I decided that the title 'Our House' would be effective in interesting the audience.As it is a psychological horror quite frequently realistic and life-like settings are used to portray the innocence of the characters and unexpectedness of the horror that occurs. The title reflects the setting and doesn't give away the horror of the film at first glance, similarly to the fact that the characters do not understand the horror that lives in the house when they first move in. I thought a good idea for the font of this title would be a type-writer style as it connotes the old haunted house that the girl is unknowingly living in.The colour will be white or transparent in colour as it will be almost like a fog or a mist representing the paranormal activity, spirits and voices that will add to the horror of the opening sequence.

As a group we decided that the location will be a house, the front door will be used at the start of the clip as an establishing shot and the main horrors will unfold throughout different settings in the house such as the basement, halls and bedrooms. These settings will incorporate the minor horrors of the house such as creaking floorboards, slamming doors and noises. One of the main props will be a mirror which will be looked into by the main character and here she will realised there is more horror to come as she sees a dark figure in the background. Other household items will be used to build the tension and make it more realistic, such as curtains, doors and floorboards.

The Representation of the characters will mainly be focused on the victim of the horror(final girl) who will look like an innocent girl-next-door type of character but will actually be subject to the horror that unfolds in her house. The perpetrator of the events will not be represented as an actual actor or character as it is a psychological horror so it will mainly consist of voices and paranormal activity other than actual actions of a character.

Consent form

Before we filmed our openeing sequence we started by creating a consent form and handing it out to everyone who was going to be taking part in the group.

As a focus group will have to be carried out before we begin the filming of our opening sequence so we can gather some ideas of what our target audience want from a horror film we created a consent for so the participants know understand and agree to being film for educational purposes:

As part of our AS level media course we need to research into the horror genre and its  audience, we will be asking you to show your opinion openly though out this focus group. The information we gather will be used to help plan our opening scene to a horror film and so your ideas are important in helping put together our final piece.

The feedback will be recorded and posted to YouTube as well as being posted to our blogs which can be viewed by the public so we have proof of our research into audience; this is for academic and educational purposes only. There is no right or wrong answer and all answers can be your own ideas and opinions. We would really appreciate your involvement in our focus group.

I am happy to participate in the focus group where my ideas will be recorded and used on blogger and YouTube for educational purposes.

Signed…

Binary Oppositions

Strauss came up with a theory that understood the opposites within film characters. For example understanding of the word 'hero' is determined by our understanding of the word 'villain'. Binary Oppositions are very frequent in horror films as there is a clear contrast between good and bad, supernatural and natural behaviour. it will be essential that a use this work in my opening scene production as it is very relative to my chosen genre of horror.

Certification choice

We have decided to classify our opening scene for a horror film as a 15 rating. This is because most horror films that effectively insight fear in the audience are aimed towards an audience of 15 and above. The rating 15 means we can include strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat. this will be essential to our opening scene as we hope to introduce the horror almost immedietly.This age rating can include any of the following features:

1.   strong violence
2.  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
3.   portrayals of sexual activity
4.   strong verbal references to sex
5.   sexual nudity
6.   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
7.   discriminatory language or behaviour
8.   drug taking

Therefore It is illegal to supply a VHS, DVD, Blue-ray, UMD, video game, or film tickets with a 15 certificate to anyone under hat age.

Preliminary task research and storyboarding

Shot Reverse Shot

• continuity editing shot.
• used in conversation or characters looking at other objects.
• shot shows what the character is looking at(a point of view or over the shoulder shot).
• Then a reverse angle shot.
• Ties in with 180 degree rule.

Match on Action

• one shot cuts to another shot.
• portrays action of the subject from the first shot
• portrays continuity 
• like a visual bridge 

180 Degree Rule

• same left-right relationship
• takes place within the 180 degree angle
• allows audience to have a greater sense of location

Storyboarding
When we came to planning the preliminary task we had to create a detailed plan for how and what we were going to film so we could refer back to it and make sure we had a clear narrative. The story allowed my group and I to expand on our ideas and decide what and when we were going to use each required filming technique. This was a essential planning activity as it added to the organisation and success of our pre-lim task.