Horror Genre Research Questionnaire

Horror Genre Research Questionnaire

The questionnaire created can be accessed through the link embedded above:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_EditorFull.aspx?sm=LDNbGcIYfG_2Bxd_2F7CIS432seeUWCVt1c8ouN6glHwT6c_3D

I then went on to create a slideshow on Kizoa showing the results we have gained from the survey. This is embedded below:

horror - slideshow

The results show that the dominant gender that we will be appealing to is males , who are in the age bracket of 16 to 17 year olds. The preferred type of horror sub-genre was Psychological and Paranormal horror films. They wanted to be introduced to the victim first and found sudden movement without a source was one of the scariest aspects within horror films. Additionally the cliche they hated most within horror movies was having a typical damsel in distress and wanted to see quick, fast paced cuts which create tension.

Conducting research into the horror genre

As horror is our chosen genre we have conducted research into this genre. We intend to find out the conventions of horror and want to mimic these in our opening sequence.

Horror History:

History of the horror genre on Dipity.

Above i have created a time line on the history of the horror genre. Horror orginates around around the 1830's starting from a novel called the Notre-dame de paris. This time line leads up to currents day horror and portrays how this genre has evolved over the years.

Secondly a team member Georgia Pearce created a presentation on Empresser on the conventions of horror films. This includes narrative theories from Todrovo and Claude Levi-Strauss . This is embedded below:

My team member Kala Hill gathered the research for the Iconography of Horror movies . She presented this research as images in a collage, including the typical aspects of horrors.
Below is the collage made on Photovisi (All images are from google and youtube)

This collage contains the stereotypical things that people expect to see in horrors such as blood, knives and weapons. The villains in horrors always have either a mask on or media make up, this is to try and create the scary vibe by disguising there identity. I have also included common horror film scenes for example the big haunted house and being in the shower. All of these images are dark and eery. This represents the basic expectations of a horror film.

Lastly Kala researched into the certificate rating on horror movies and the reasons behind the ratings. All movies have certificate ratings on and when you look at horror movies they 
normally range between 15 and 18, this will be because of the contents of the movie have bad language, violent scenes, sex scenes and horror scenes these things are what cause the films to fall under the category of 18 certificate ratings.
Horror films were very hard to pass as an 18 certificate rating in the past because violence was a problematic situation and caused a lot of moral panic, in order for the film to get the rating certificate and be able to be shown in cinema's they would have to remove the scenes that are inappropriate although these scenes will be shown in uncut video versions. Now days a lot more is accepted in movies, for example until recently actual sex acts were not allowed in any 18 certificate rating movies.
An example could be Cannibal Holocaust this movie had to be cut by 5.44 minutes because of sexual violent scenes and animal cruelty.

Movies such as the saw series are all 18 ratings, this will because of all the blood, gore and violence. Movies like this need to have the ratings because the contents is not suitable for anyone under that age, since saw contains bad language and is filled with loads of different violent ways of killing people. You can also see from movies like this that entertainment has changed so much over the years because the content of saw would not have been accepted even as a 18 certificate rating movie where as over the years they have had to be more lenient and accept more into 18 rating movies because it is what the audience now want to see and they want.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary task screenplay

The aim of the preliminary task was to portray the skills that we have aquired . This includes using the 180 degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match on action. This short sequence has to include two characters talking about a topic of our choice. Below is our planning for our preliminary task.

Script:

Doctor is sitting at a desk typing

Doctor: (shouts) Next please!

Patient enters the room

Doctor: Take a seat please

Patient sits down

Doctor: So what seems to be the problem?

Patient: I’ve recently had red, itchy eyes, a blocked nose and have been frequently sneezing

Doctor: It sounds as if you are having symptoms of hay fever

Patient: Ok what can you prescribe to help?

Write out a prescription

Doctor: I will prescribe you Cetirizine, which will help with these symptoms

Hands the patient the prescription

Patient: Ok, thank you very much

Patient exits the room

Shot list:

Storyboard

Below is the recording of the sequence:

Below is our evaluation of our preliminary task, which was created on prezi.

Match on action

Match on action

Match on action is were an action that commences in shot A is completed in shot B. Therefore enables a smooth transition from one angle to another. Within this activity we had to show a person going to sit down on a chair then get up and leave. To start off we sketched out the set and planned where the best places would be to place the camera's. We took into the account continuity errors so therefore we decided to use two cameras. Additionally due to having two cameras we had to strategically place the cameras so we wouldn't be able to see them in the shot.

Above is our edited sequence which has been uploaded to you tube. Within this activity I was in charge of camera 2 and helped out with editing.
The simplest part of the activity was the actually filming of the sequence as we used two cameras which made the process quicker. However due to the use of two cameras the hardest part was the actual placement of the cameras to get the best shots and make sure that camera 1 did get camera 2 in the shot . Additionally when editing the sequence we changed the angle when the character was raising her leg to get up . We felt that this wasn't very substantial and therefore decided to repeat the process by changing some aspects. We then went on to change the start angle and when we changed the angle. The second attempt on the video embedded above showed the use of match on action mush more successfully. I've learnt how to discreetly change and angle in a sequence using match on action which will be helpful when creating our music video. To improve this sequence in the future I believe we should have tried out a variety of angles to see which ones flowed better.

180 degree rule script , video and evaluation

180 degree rule

Script

Two characters are engaging in a conversation about a recent homework task
Character 1: [Enters the room]
Character 1: Hi
Character 2: Hi
Character 1:[Questioning] Have you done the homework ?
Character 2: [Shocked] No, what homework?!
Character 1: The media homework that was set last week- we've had eight days to do it!
Character 2: [Confused] Oh.... what was it?
Character 1: That worksheet we started in lesson
Character 2: [Relieved] Oh thats ok , I'll do it this lunch time
Character 1: You better do it!
Character 2: I will!

End.

Video

Evaluation

Within this activity my main roles were creating the script and playing character 1. To make sure this task was to a high standard we made sure our camera was placed on a tripod and placed within the 180 degree rule to prevent any continuity errors. In regards to framing we made sure both characters were well within the frame and character was always placed on the left while character 2 always remained on the right. The video was shot in one continuous take so therefore all aspects within mise-en-scene remained the same throughout. We used the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot efficiently as we remained within the 180 degree perimeter , character 1 was always remained on the left hand side of the screen.When editing we were able to portray to the viewer that both characters are having a conversation though being able to cut from one character to the other. Additionally we used clean cuts for the conversation between the characters to portray the shot reverse shot. Next time we would like to improve the lighting used throughout the sequence. When using shot reverse shot there was a significant difference in lighting between character 1 and character 2.Finally ensure that our next practical activity is a success we intend to use two cameras and want to use better lighting to help with the continuity of the sequence.

180 Degree Rule and Shot-Reverse-Shot

180 degree rule and shot-reverse-shot

For the production of our film sequence we researched into the 180 degree rule and shot-reverse shot. The '180 degree rule' helps maintain continuity throughout the sequence by stating that the camera should always stay on one side of the actors.

I have taken the picture from google images to show that the camera should always stay on one half of the circle. As an example when filming actors having a conversation, The character in blue should always stay on the right side of the frame while the orange character should always remain on the left.When you break this rule it may appear as though the characters are not looking at each other.

Additionally the second Editing technique we looked at was shot-reverse-shot. This starts with a shot of one subject , then straight cuts to the second subject then finally straight cuts back to the first subject. This is typically used when a conversation is happening on screen. This is shown below in an image I found on google.

Introdution

Introduction

My name is Faye Curry , My candidate number is 3047 and I am currently studying media at Swakeleys sixth form. This blog will be following the production of my Foundation portfolio which is to create an opening sequence to a film.