Updated Script

From our feedback, we were told that the conversation between the doctor and dad at the beginning reveals too much of the narrative. To fix this, we would need to change the conversation to being simply between Violet and Dale. This would allow the audience to be introduced to characters and narrative without revealing important information.

*As the distribution credits are shown, a conversation between two people can be heard. No background music just their voices. This conversation is between Violet and Dale.*

Violet: Dad where are you it's getting late.

Dad: I got a later shift at work so I'll be home early in the morning, don't wait up.

Violet: Ughhhhhhh you always do this!

Dad: I promise you I'll make up for it, Violet, but I really have to go now I'll see you in the morning.

Violet: Dad pleas- *phone hangs up*

*Opening starts with a girl waking up from her bed, panting heavily. Her bedroom wall is covered in distressing drawings of creatures of sorts. There are 3 knocks on the door causing her to jerk her head. As she looks towards the alarm clock she sees that it is very late, 2am. Warily she gets up and peeks through the window to see the driveway and no one is there. As she is up, she decides to go downstairs and get a glass of water. Whilst doing this, she hears the 3 knocks again. They're louder this time. In fright, she grabs a knife from the kitchen and prepares herself to peer through the peep hole. The 3 knocks sound again, louder and more violent. Just a split second after the 3rd knock, she looks through expecting something/someone terrifying to be there but is greeted by an empty driveway and a seemingly calm night. Feeling more frightened than ever, she runs upstairs and hides in her closet from where she phones her dad. He picks up after a few rings.*

Dad: (voice through the phone) Violet do you know wha ti-
Girl: (breathing heavily and speaking in a rushed manner but in a whisper) Dad, I need you to come home right now. I think someone's trying to get in. I don't know. Please just come, I-

*Suddenly her head turns towards the closet door and she hears faint scratching. Her dad can be heard yelling through the phone, asking her questions. Then faintly but clearly the 3 knocks sound on the closet door. The title "hurting" appears.*

Hurting Presentation Slideshow

This was our film pitch that went with our handouts to the class and our teachers. Here we explained why we chose to do a horror film and how we plan to go about it. It also includes examples of other films we used as inspirations.

Hurting from latymermedia

Handout

One of our tasks was to create a handout to give to our class and teachers to explain our film in more depth and how we came to make certain decisions about the film. This is accompanied by a presentation that will go into the summarised points on the sheet in depth. This is the first side of the handout.

This is the second side of the handout:

Sound

SOUND

We want the music in our opening to be eerie and to leave people "on the edge of their seats". These are some of the films that used music excellently to create a scary atmosphere.

Psycho- high pitched string instruments like in the shower scene. Maybe not exactly as intense as the violin is at the beginning but we could possibly go for the lower pitch type of violin sound that is at the end of the clip.

Friday the 13th- a killer after an innocent victim. Whenever the killer approaches very unnerving music is playing. Click here to hear a sample. This could be used as the other wordly creature/ghost/killer gets into the house or when the protagonist is running. 

Halloween- Also has the plot of a mad killer. However in this the music when he approaches is an unsettling 3 note piano melody plays in the background (composed by Alan Howarth). Click here to listen to it. We could maintain an eerie melody/lullaby like music piece through out some of the opening scene.

We're also planning to make a lot of use of simply silence. The lack of sound will make the audience really zone into each specific detail on screen furthermore it will be a lot creepier and leave them tense. The beginning of this track named "An Eerie Silence" would work well with our clip as it gives this build up of expectation. Click here to listen to it.

Here is a list of other types of sound/music that would fit in well with our opening:

Mysterious Slowness - click here to listen to it. We can use this for when the conversation between the dad and the doctor is happening at the beginning.


We can use the sound at 00:08 to 00:14 for when Violet looks into the peep-hole to discover nothing on the other side.

As our clip is based around the 'knock' sound to create the illusion of an entity trying to get the girl without showing the entity itself, our clip must focus on that sound without losing it with using many non-diegetic sounds. For this reason, we will try and use very small amounts of non-diegetic sounds as possible.

The sound at 00:25 can be used when the title is shown at the end.

We had to ensure the music was royalty free music, so there was no copyright on the music. That way there would be no piracy involved. The links to music clips we have provided are all from copyright free sites such as Jamendo. Some YouTubers also uploaded their own sounds are made it clear in their video that they do not mind other people using their sounds.

Location

My (Alex E's) house is fairly big and has all the rooms necessary for the shoot of the opening.

The plain wall behind the bed has enough room for many for Violet's drawings to cover it.

The window can make the room look moon-lit, and even if we use artificial lighting we can pretend it's moon-lit, since this window will be in-shot.

The corridor from the bedroom to the staircase is thin and can create a sense of claustrophobia.

The staircase can be presented as very long and scary, especially if it's a night-time setting.

The small window near the end of the stairs is an opportunity for voyeuristic shots. 

The kitchen is very close to the staircase.

The front door looks very heavy and has a peep-hole.

The kitchen is big enough for us to shoot comfortably.

The kitchen also has a fairly narrow window.

We can use the narrow window to portray more voyeuristic shots.

Supporting Characters

Dale

Dale is Violet's dad - He keeps her going and gives her moral support but ultimately has no control over the situation. Later in the narrative, the possessed Violet tries to kill Dale but she manages to regain control of herself before it's too late. This shows that, like our protagonist, he is very vulnerable and it is mainly down to Violet to rid herself of the possession.

The character Christopher in Silent Hill (2006) is an inspiration for Dale. In the film, when Rose goes to Silent Hill to search for her daughter, Christopher also scours the town for clues. Throughout the film he is disconnected with Rose, even at the end when she finally comes home but they cannot see each other. Likewise there is a mental barrier between Dale and Violet which prevents them from fighting the demon together.












Aidan in The Ring (2002) is another supporting character who can be compared to Dale, as he is the son of the protagonist Rachel, so both characters are connected to the protagonist as family. Aidan is precious to her and vice versa which creates some more suspense as we don't want to see either of them die. He gives Rachel advice and follows her around, however she must also protect him. Aidan is limited in the ways that he can help her and she must be the one to resolve the dilemma.






In Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, Sharon and Christopher take the identities of Heather and Harry Mason. Harry is a supporting character in this film and there is no longer a physical barrier between him and his daughter. Rather than having his own sub-plot and searching for clues, we see more of his involvement in the main plot. For example, Heather calls and asks him to pick her up when she suspects that she is being followed by Vincent, another student that she meets at school. He then gets abducted and we get the sense that both of their lives are in danger.

Vincent is another supporting character in the film, however at first he is introduced as an evil character who follows Heather - there is a lot of enigma surrounding him at the start. Later it is revealed that he is a cult leader's son and has been sent to bring her to back to the cult, which makes the audience even more suspicious of him, but he lets Heather escape at the cost of being captured himself. Heather helps Vincent later in the film by freeing him, which shows that he also has his flaws.

As Dale is her father, he should be quite close to Violet like Harry/Christopher. At the start he could be a distant character who motivates Violet to keep going, like Christopher, but he tries to save her and fails. When he is almost killed by the demon, this can show his weakness like Vincent when he is captured. Overall he supports Violet and is important to the plot, because without him she would have nobody to guide her.

Casting

We want to keep the casting inside our group to make sure our actors will be reliable.

Violet: Raagavi

Dad: Alex E

Doctor: Alex S

This will allow us to record the voices that aren't part of the shots outside the shoots, in lesson time without worrying about availability of the actor, since we will all be there.

Prompt Questions

We used these questions to explore our opening sequence choices in detail.

1) The action: identify the event your idea is based around; what actually happens?

• A girl, who is defined as mentally disturbed, wakes up in the middle of the night to some knocking. She looks  through the window to see that no one is there. As she is awake, she decides to go to get a glass of water. As she does the knocking sounds again so she panics, grabs a weapon and looks through the peep hole to see nothing. Then she runs to her room and hides in her closet. She phones her dad for help but half way through the call she stops to hear scratching on the closet door which proceeds to three faint knocks on the closet door.

2) The theme(s): what should it make the audience think about or feel? What 'issues' will it raise?

• One of the issues being raised is mental illness/psychotic behaviour. It should make the audience feel uneasy through out the clip. 
• The fact that the audience can see, through certain iconography that the girl is mentally disturbed, should make them question what's real and what isn't. Is a 'monster' actually there trying to get her?

3) The narrative and structure: what happens? Will there be dialogue? What about diegetic/non-diegetic sound?

• There will be dialogue in the beginning when two voices are discussing the main character's mental health. You only here the voices whilst the screen is black. Our opening is very sound based so there will be a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. We will use non-diegetic sound to set the mood of the opening and create certain levels of tension. Sudden uneasy sounds will create a sense of fear etc. The 'entity' that is intruding the house will be shown through the sound of knocking. 

4) The character(s): who are they, identify their roles, what are their characteristics, including gender, appearance etc?

• There is only one character shown in the opening which is the girl who is the main character throughout the film. She is the protagonist, who was initially a victim. She is an older teen with an asian heritage. She draws disturbing images that she places around her room.

5) The setting and choice of location: where is it set?

• It is set in the main character's house and that is where all the action takes place.

6) The mise-en-scene: identify colours, lighting, dress codes, the overall visual look.

• The grading of our film is going to involve many blues, blacks and whites. This is to give an eerie feel to the movie. The lighting is going to be quite low key. 
• The protagonist will be wearing very plain clothes, with dark colours to not distract the viewer from her expressions.

7) The camera work: the style you are aiming for.

• We hope to create a sense of uneasiness and tension with many close-ups and similar shots to create a sense of claustrophobia. This will be helped by the fact that some shots are shot inside a closet.
• There will be some voyeuristic shots to portray that she isn't alone, and make her look like a victim. 

8) The editing: How will you tell the story? Will it be constructed in real-time, as one continuous sequence? What kind of visual style are you planning? How will the graphics/credits fit into the sequence, and what will they look like?

• A lot of the credits will appear at the beginning when the drawings are being shown.

9) What are the influences behind your area?

• Films that have influenced our idea is: The Woman In Black, The Others, 28 Weeks Later, Scream.
• Characters that have influenced our protagonist: Sydney (Scream), Wendy (The Shining)

10) Has your idea been 'tested' against the 8 questions on page that outlines The Brief?

• Is it practical? - Yes, one location, one actor, simple narrative.
• Is it an idea that works to the strengths of the group? - Yes, familiar with horror genre.
• Will it show off the skills you have learnt so far on the course? - Yes, closed location allows for many set-ups to be used. Continuity can be seen as everything is real-time..
• Is it something you can reasonably shoot and edit in the time available? - Yes
• Can you get access/ permission to shoot in the chosen location at the chosen times? - Yes, inside a home that we can access whenever we need, even outside chosen times.
• Can you organize lighting to use in that location? - Yes, inside a home allows for easy movement and placement of lighting equipment without worry.
• Have you included dialogue? - Yes, effective use that will introduce the audience to the narrative and protagonist, and also at the end create tension and fear.
• Do you have guaranteed reliable actors? Yes - all actors needed are inside our group.

Naming the film

The name of a film is vital as it needs to capture the essence of the film without revealing anything. It also needs to intrigue the audience.

Horror film names tend to be:

• Very literal: 'Haunting In Connecticut' 'One Missed Call' 'Evil Dead'
• Focused on an object/person: 'The Ring' 'The Uninvited' 'The Others' 
• One word: 'Sinister' 'Psycho' 'Priest' 

Ideas for our film name:

• After Dark - Initially, our film was going to be called this, as the 'monster' chasing the main character around the house was real, so it would make sense that as if our film evolved into something like that, where the monster attacks people at night, and the girl was just another victim, that it would be called that. Later though, our film turned into a film about the girl, that tries to fight away the 'monster' who isn't physically real, but in her mind it is.
• Sad Eyes - Creates upsetting emotions and can also be identified with the drawings around the girl's room and on the title pages, but doesn't seem like it would be a horror film just from the name. This could be good as it could potentially attract a bigger audience, but might also keep people at bay from watching it, as it may not fit the horror genre wholy and could be confusing.
• Hurting - We liked this as it connotes both a mental and physical pain, where it can be seen in our opening sequence. It also sums up the notion of the main character being mentally disturbed without being too literal and ruining any chance of enigma being presented. It also creates strong emotions and can help the audience understand and relate with the character.
• The Disturbed - This fits the horror convention perfectly. It describes the girl with as few words as possible and also appeals to our target and secondary audiences and fits audience expectations. On the other hand, horror titles like this, focus on the 'evil' of the film', not the victim/protagonist. She by doing this, we may confuse the audience into thinking the girl in the opening sequence is the monster of the film. This could confuse them even more since she portrays the victim in the opening.

In the end, we decided Hurting would be the best option for our film, as it portrays the emotions of not only the girl, but the film as a whole, and also in a way tells the audience how to feel about what they are watching. 

Opening Sequence Title Count

I have looked at 2 horror films from different time periods, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012) and Psycho (1960) to see what lines we can include in our own title sequence:

Film Treatment

 1. Who is your chosen target audience (both core and secondary markets)?

Target Audience: 16-24 M/F
Secondary Audience: Supernatural Horror fans            --->   The fact that we chose a supernatural/
                                   Suspense fans                                       psychological theme rather than gore
                                   Horror fans in general                          horror attracts many female/teen 
                                                                                                audiences that would otherwise be turned
                                                                                                off by gore elements.

2. Who is the media institution responsible for the distribution of your production?

Lionsgate - Distributes many horror films successfully (Texas Chainsaw, Saw films, Silent Hill etc)
                - Familiar with audience expectations for horror genre. 
                - Able to distribute globally. 

3. Describe your chosen genre and film idea.

• Genre: Horror
• Sub-genre: Supernatural/ Psychological

• Log line: After losing her sense of reality, a mentally disturbed British girl is forced to deal with her fears, which in turn become more real and more frightening than she could ever imagine.

4. How do you plan to represent social groups in your sequence (eg gender, ethnicity, ability, class and status etc)? You may want to focus on one or two of these as your key representations.

• We're planning to tackle gender stereotypes, mainly on the female gender. Already by portraying the main character as psychologically disturbed we are showing that she isn't the typical "innocent" victim. Although she's seen as vulnerable in our sequence, as to keep to some conventions so the audience can instantly familiarize with the character and genre, in terms of mise-en-scene, making her room reflect her personality with disturbing pictures would help make the audience think what we want them to think.
• Also we are challenging stereotypes by using an actress who is from a different ethnic background to what is usually portrayed in horror movies. The audience don't usually see an Asian main female protagonist so it will be something fresh and new for them.

5. Explain the intended style and form of your opening sequence, including the conventions you intend to use, develop or challenge. This could include genre conventions, as well as the typical features expected in a film opening sequence.

• Young girl is initially a victim (uses horror convention of a powerless girl being a victim) but then evolves into trying to fight mentally what it is that is trying to get her. This challenges the convention and develops the initial idea of a female victim into something new and interesting for an audience that has become accustomed to the convention. This way, we are also not changing it so much that it will become confusing and unappealing.
• We want to keep the atmosphere of the opening quite tense and enigmatic as many horror openings do to grab a hold of the audience's attention as soon as it begins. This is something successful openings should do.
• Using a house as a location is very conventional in horrors that are associated with hauntings. This will also assist us in being able to create an eerie and voyeuristic atmosphere as there will be a variety of places to film e.g from outside of the house looking inside. The grading of our opening is going to involve lots of dark blues and whites. 

6.  How will your film opening sequence attract/address your target audience?

• Our opening sequence is going to shock the audience and create suspense. There will be a sense of danger as the girl is home alone and strange things are happening in her house. To build on this effect we will make use of conventional horror sounds and a shaky, chaotic filming style. Our main character/victim will appeal to our target audience a lot, because she is quite vulnerable but brave. In order to attract our secondary audience of horror fans, we will incorporate a lot of genre conventions and use elements of other horror films such as The Others and Paranormal Activity which they can relate to. 

7. What kinds of film making techniques and technologies do you wish to use in the construction of your opening sequence?

• We will try and have continuity throughout the clip. For example when the girl is walking or running the shots of her should fit together smoothly and in time. 
• We're going to use a fish eye lens effect in one of our shots to make it seem realistic when the girl looks through the spy hole on the door.
• Our filming style is going to be voyeuristic to build suspense and suggest that some                                                                        one or something is in the house with her. 

8. How do your plans draw on work completed last term - both theory and practice.

• First of all we are going to try to apply the principles of continuity editing which is a new concept that we discovered and studied last term. In order to achieve a continuous sequence we will create a story board and script, then group shots that are in the same location, which will also save some time and make our shooting more efficient. 
• Last term we did a lot of work on genre conventions. We want the opening to have many conventions of the horror genre, as well as building on them and creating something new which will still be familiar to the audience.
• In the Post-Production stage we will be using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the sequence since we already have some experience with it. This will also help us with grading to achieve the low-key horror look.
• Our knowledge of institutions was also important when deciding on our target audience and distributor. As we have learnt we targeted a primary audience (Males/Females aged 16-24) and a secondary (Horror fans).

Creepy drawings/sketches in horror films.

In our film opening, for the mise-en-scene of the girl's bedroom, we want to include iconography such as drawings on her bedroom wall to suggest that she is mentally disturbed. To develop this synergistically with the title pages and create a theme, we also want to include some of the drawings floating or static around the titles themselves in the title pages.

Examples:

Insidious



 

All these drawings are child-like, which in a sense reflects this whole theme as most movies where these drawings are prominent, include children that draw them.

The Ring

As our film is dealing with a teenager, the drawings need to seem more mature, which in turn could make tg and realistic.

We want to keep the drawings:

• Black and white (fit in with the black and white title pages.
• Simple but effective in the style they're drawn, for example angrily scratched onto the paper rather than smoothly.

Early ideas

As we don't want to reveal the monster that is haunting her (mentally/physically), I had to draw other things that are equally disturbing without revealing too much. I thought I would try and draw her emotions as best as I could while still creating that disturbed atmosphere. 



Conventions of Horror Films

For our audience to be able to instantly connect with our horror film, we looked at different conventions of horror films that have been successful in the past.

Our opening scene is going to be set in a house. This is very common for many horror films as using a setting that the audience are familiar to will make them feel very uneasy. Films such as Paranormal Activity (2007), The Others (2001) and The Woman in Black (2012) all use a house as their main location. When a film is set in a house, one of the first impulses is for the audience to expect some form of exploration or hiding within the house.

(Paranormal Activity)

In a part of our opening sequence the girl is going to run up the stairs to escape the entity that she believes is in the house. This is often done in horror films and is effective as the stairs act as obstacle making the character's escape a lot more difficult. 

The film The Woman in Black (2012) has many conventions and signifiers that we are drawing inspiration from. It is focal on a presence that is haunting the house. One of the key symbols in the film is the sound of the rocking chair, hitting the ground repeatedly and creaking- it shows that the entity is present. But at first you don't see a visual of the chair. We have used this technique as in our opening scene, the knocking is symbolic. Again, the audience hear the audio of the knocks but they are unable to see who is responsible for it which make it a lot more enigmatic. Furthermore (as demonstrated by the clip below) the sound of the rocking chair starts off as faint then becomes louder and louder increasing the tension and fright in the audience. We're going to make the 3 knocks on the door get louder each time to have the similar build up of tension.

Style & Technology

Style

Horror films rely on many camera and editing techniques to build suspense in the audience. For example, extreme camera movement can be used to create a sense of chaos. In the following clip from The Exorcism of Emily Rose, a shaky camera effect is used together with fast and sudden tilts and pans. The clip is edited with mainly fast cuts and there is juxtaposition between high and low angle shots. This shows that during climactic points in horror films, camera movement can be used to make the scene more effective and shock the audience. In our film opening we could use similar camera effects and a voyeuristic style to make it seem like the girl is being watched when in fact she is home alone.

Lighting is also an important aspect in the style of horror films. In the clip, low key lighting is used to create a dark atmosphere. The lightning outside creates some fast flashes of light however it is dark for most of the clip. This helps to build up mystery and enigma as we fear the unknown, and the audience’s imagination can fill in the blanks of what they can’t see which creates part of the horror experience. The contrast between light and dark especially with the frequent flashes of lightning creates a lot of suspense. We could incorporate the same style in our sequence but maybe using the light from her phone or a flickering broken light bulb instead and make full use of what resources we have.

Technology & Film Making Techniques

It would be a good idea to use low key lighting in our clip as it is quite conventional in horror films. To achieve the darkness that we need, we could film at night and use lights to create shadows. For the typical horror style we will need to use harsh lighting. As the clip is going to mainly focus on sound we will need some non-diegetic sound effects such as a screech or scream which we can get online or record with a mic. Finally, when we edit the clip we will use Adobe Premiere Pro. Due to our low budget, we won’t be needing much other technology.

An important shot we need to consider is when the girl looks out of the spy hole on the front door to see who’s there. We can use a ‘fish eye lens’ effect like in the image below to create the intended look. 

Script

This is our original script for our opening which may or may not be changed.

*As the distribution credits are shown, a conversation between two people can be heard. No background music just their voices. One is a man sounding worried and upset and the other is a doctor trying to assure him.*

Man/Dad: Doctor...I need to know what's wrong with her.

Doctor: Ma'am I'm really sorry but we have no idea-

Man/Dad: (sounding more frantic) I want to help her! I need to help her! She needs help! She's...she's. Her drawings. She has these drawings. Her-

Doctor: (trying to comfort the man) Don't worry about it sir, just rest.

*Opening starts with a girl waking up from her bed, panting heavily. Her bedroom wall is covered in distressing drawings of creatures of sorts. There are 3 knocks on the door causing her to jerk her head. As she looks towards the alarm clock she sees that it is very late, 2am. Warily she gets up and peeks through the window to see the driveway and no one is there. As she is up, she decides to go downstairs and get a glass of water. Whilst doing this, she hears the 3 knocks again. They're louder this time. In fright, she grabs a knife from the kitchen and prepares herself to peer through the peep hole. The 3 knocks sound again, louder and more violent. Just a split second after the 3rd knock, she looks through expecting something/someone terrifying to be there but is greeted by an empty driveway and a seemingly calm night. Feeling more frightened than ever, she runs upstairs and hides in her closet from where she phones her dad. He picks up after a few rings.*

Dad: (voice through the phone) What's the matter? Why are you calling at this ti-

Girl: (breathing heavily and speaking in a rushed manner but in a whisper) Dad, I need you to come home right now. I think someone's trying to get in. I don't know. Please just come, I-

*Suddenly her head turns towards the closet door and she hears faint scratching. Her dad can be heard yelling through the phone, asking her questions. Then faintly but clearly the 3 knocks sound on the closet door. The title "After Dark" appears.*

28 Weeks Later opening sequence Analysis

The first thing seen is institutional information. We will also need to show our institutional information first thing in our opening sequence, but to overcome problems with needing to fit enough narrative, we are thinking of having a conversation take place over the phone while this is shown to establish some characters,themes and narrative plots before the actual clip begins.






Mise-en-scene

• Inside a homely, comfortable house, which may reflect the characters as caring.
• Well furnished with family pictures which further portrays that caring and human factor to the characters.
• Low-key lighting from candles placed around the location, creates fear and sense of something going wrong.
• Barricaded windows/doors for protection (narrative enigma - from who?)
• Monochrome, dark clothing connoting sadness/gloom - reflecting narrative and emotions.
• Candles also represent loss of electricity and lack of technology. 

Camera

• Even mix between LS, MS and CU, with the addition of MCUs  and MLSs for smooth transitioning between long and close up shots.
• Establishing shot (as shown in the above picture) of the main area where main narrative (conversation and action) take place. 
• Voyeuristic long shot showing that they are being watched/not alone. Hence a threat is nearby to cause disruption. This shot is also taken from behind bars, which further helps portray that sense of entrapment. (shown below)
• The camera tends to shake a lot throughout the scene, although it mainly consists of script, connoting tension/anger and maybe even danger.
• When the man and woman are talking in the kitchen, it shows them conversing in a group shot, connoting that they are a couple, whereas when others talk they are either the only ones in the frame, or physically very distant and far away from the others.
• Most of the shots, unless establishing are MSs, MCUs or CUs, which create a sense of claustrophobia and could potentially create uneasiness in the viewer, which as a horror film is what wants to ideally be achieved. This also makes the viewer feel involved in the action and part of the story.

Editing

• All the shots cut from one to another, stopping the viewer from getting distracted from the editing and allowing them to immerse themselves into the story. 
• All the shots are fairly long in comparison with each other, and even reaction shots are exaggerated in length, which juxtapose the anxiety and nervousness of what is being said by the characters by being calmer and more slow-paced.

Sound

• The initial Scottish accents establish an overall location to the narrative.
• Different characters have different accents, which tells the viewer that this isn't a family, but a gathering of different people. Accents have been used effectively to both set location and character relations.
• There is very little non-diegetic music, but where there is, it's very quiet and mysterious.

The Others Opening Scene Analysis

I decided to look into the opening of "The Others" as our group drew a lot of inspiration from it.

The opening scene for the movie "The Others" starts by naming the production company which is "Dimension Films". The movie studios have produced many other horror films such as "Halloween", "Darkness" and the "Scream" movies. However the font and colour of how the name has been shown has changed over the years. The picture below is how the company was introduced in the movie "Scream 4":

For the first part of the opening it is black with a female voice over, presumably from the main character. This creates an enigmatic feel to the film. We were thinking of doing this but the voices you would hear were possibly a concerned father conferring with someone about how he was worried about his daughter's state of mind. By doing this, it creates suspense but also let's the audience have a feeling of what could happen through out the film. Then an image flickers in, as if it is being lit by candle light, we might like to mirror the flickering effect too. It gives the audience the feel of being in shadows, half knowing and half not knowing. It creates a sense of anticipation.

Before the title of the film is revealed, the main star is given the credit. This is suggestive of the fact that having a well known actress will make more people be inclined to watch it. However we do not have that advantage as we are using unknown actors/actresses in our opening sequence.

Then the title of the film is revealed. The font is quite plain and is white to contrast with the dark brown/black background that it is being shown on. The simplicity of the font is almost mystifying as it does not reveal anything about the movie. It is also pleasant to the eyes and clear to read. Furthermore it gives the audience a chance to focus on the background of where the text has been placed- on a drawing.

Then for the rest of the opening we are shown different drawings as the voice over keeps talking. This draws in the readers' attention to detail. Our idea was for our main character to have many different drawings of possible entities/monsters/etc. and have them showing as the opening credits come up. The camera would pan to the different drawings hung up on the wall, similarly to what is happening in the opening of "The Others". However the drawings would be a lot more sketchy and unnatural, to show her psychologically disturbed state of mind, but possibly of the same sepia tone sort of colour to them. These are the examples of some of the drawings in the opening scene (they could possibly be telling the story through that type of visual aid, leaving the audience hints about what the narration will follow):

This is the full opening scene:

Female Representation in Horror Films

With the representation of social groups, we specifically want to target the representations of females in horror movies as we believe this is key in most horror movies.

Scream Film Series (1996-2011)- There is a female protagonist is being chased/stalked by a masked killer. We want to portray our female protagonist/victim (undecided) in our opening as being quite vulnerable and scared which is conventional for most horror films. But we are breaking the stereotype by casting someone who is not typically seen as the female protagonist/victim. What is common to the audience is a blonde haired, blue eyed girl. We might mix things up by having a female of a different ethnicity.

Kirby is a typical example of a female victim in a horror movie. Not only appearance wise but personality wise. Her character is quite quirky and sassy but interdependent and defenceless. Furthermore she is gullible and naive. We might incorporate some of these traits for our main character so the audience can be easily familiar with them but introduce some new characteristics so it will be something new and fresh.

Sydney is also another representation of a female of the horror genre. However her character is a lot more fierce and a 'won't take no for an answer' sort of woman. After being terrorized, she takes the role of an investigator and tries to find out once and for all who is Ghostface. This is a possible trait we would like to mirror in our character.

The Shining (1980)- In this film, Wendy is what is labelled as "the final girl" who is the last female alive and confronts the killer/spirit etc. The girl in our opening sequence, we intend for her to survive and be "the final girl". There are points when Wendy is shown as strong but her weaknesses are also revealed. This shows that women in horror films can be portrayed differently which is what we want to achieve.

Wendy also does not fit in with the stereotyped view of the female. One of the selling points of women/girls in horror movies is their lustrous appearance. With Wendy, a more realistic and relatable side to females is shown. The main focus is on her actions (protecting herself, over coming the killer...)

However in our clip we want to show that our female character is deeply psychologically disturbed, portraying yet another side to females that may not have been as widely explored. An example of a character we would draw inspiration from is Carrie White from the film "Carrie". She has telekinetic powers which controls her life but in the case of our character, she keeps drawing pictures of a monster/entity that is ruling over her mind.

Horror Film Ideas

Firstly, we thought we would explore other horror films and aspects of the film that worked well and that we would like to somehow incorporate into our film opening.

Paranormal Activity- set in one location, the house, also the idea of a supernatural presence. The lighting is quite dim and dull and not so revealing which is the sort of thing we could be aiming for.

The Others- the clip below is the trailer for the film, it has similar themes to our planned film such as the fact that it is set in the house for the most part and that there is some form of a supernatural being intruding. Also looking at the grading for the film, some of the scenes are quite dark with little lighting.

The Uninvited- one of our possible plot lines is that what is happening to the main character is all actually in her head. The Uninvited has a similar sort of plot in which the main character imagines that her sister is still alive when in fact she died along with her mother. This clip is the trailer.

The Woman in Black- supernatural being, house location, British but global appeal. This particular clip of the Woman in Black shows the kind of lighting our group would possibly want to use for our opening scene and the suspenseful/frightening atmosphere we intend to create.

Font ideas

Below are a few fonts to consider for use in our opening sequence:

From top to bottom: Nyctophobia, No Fear, Night of The Damned, Kerberos Fang, October Crow, Black Asylum, Damaged Sata, Vtks Scream, Courwette, Razor Keen, Aracnoide.

Many of these are quite conventional horror fonts which we could use for our title or credits. They show the horror theme quite well but are also clear and easy to read.

Vtks Scream seems as if it has been sketched, and could synergise with our concept of sketches and drawings in the protagonist/victim's room and title pages. 

Setting and Lighting ideas

A good inspiration for our setting is the house in Paranormal Activity. It appears to be a typical house at first, but at night things start to go wrong and the producers make it seem ‘creepy’ and ‘haunted’ in several different ways. First of all the use of Low Key Lighting creates a sense of mystery which is the effect we want to create in our clip.

From the audience’s perspective we see doors opening, footprints, and screeching sounds which suggests that there is a supernatural being in the house. Although it is very effective, the effects are not expensive or difficult to create which means it can fit with our low budget.

In Paranormal Activity we see a lot of visual effects which create the haunted feeling, such as the swinging chandelier. As well as using sound in our clip we could incorporate some flickering lights which is quite common in other horror films.

Horror - Institutions/Distributors

Paramount Pictures - Distributed Paranormal Activity successfully.

- Many divisions to productively distribute a film successfully.

Some divisions are:

Advantages: Global reach (distributing around the world).
Viacom's many branches could help boost film's success.
Modern technological advancements in terms of distribution platforms (our target audience
16-24 males and females use technology all the time).
Previous success with Paranormal Activity.

Disadvantages: Not specialized in horror.
Audience expectations for our film could differ from what they are used to.
Viacom's leading brands also have a different audience to the one we are targeting.


Lionsgate - Distributes many horror films successfully (Texas Chainsaw, Saw films, Silent Hill etc)
- Familiar with audience expectations for horror genre.
- Able to distribute globally.

'Lionsgate produces movies that major American studios would not accept because they are too controversial or too disturbing for major studios.'

As our film is intended on not being too disturbing, so it can attract and appeal to a wide and gender-balanced audience, in a real life scenario it could potentially be produced by another distribution company, for example Paramount distributed Paranormal Activity which is closer to sub-genre and theme with our film, hence making it a better choice. But Lionsgate is very familiar with the genre, and knows horror audiences well enough to distribute the film well and keep the audience satisfied.  On the other hand, the fact that Paramount succesfully distributed Paranormal Activity tells us that they are wiling to distribute low budget films with an unknown cast. 
film


Momentum Pictures - Distribute many horror films including The Woman in Black which is similar to our film.
-Familiar with audience expectations for films similar to our own.
-Distribute films of a lower budget to films from Lionsgate and Paramount.

Good for if we only want a UK and Ireland distribution of our film, rather than a global release.



In the end, we have decided to have Lionsgate as our distributor, as they handle many successful horror films and aren't as a big as Paramount which means they are more likely to want to distribute our films as it is a low-budget, UK film.
  

Horror - Audience Expectations

Horror Definition: an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear.

Why do people choose to watch horror films?

Horror films are able to entertain and excite audience on a level other film genres can't. The ''Thrill factor'' makes them appealing to audiences and is what makes them so different and unique to other genres. For example comedy is created to be funny and action which entertains an audience in a much different way.

A wide variety of sub-genres allow for many different audience types to enjoy a different experience of horror. As we are planning on creating a paranormal film, we need to make sure we achieve a good sense of mystery and suspense.

Target Audiences for Horror

Typical horror movie goer: 15-24 male.15-24 males (largest group of cinema group goers) look for thrill and action within a film whereas females typically prefer romance and comedy as they are lighter forms of entertainment.

On the other hand, recent figures from 2007 show that females watching horror has exceeded male viewers for the first time. The UK film council website stated that 'the number of women attending cinema screening of horror films now marginally exceeds male attendance figuires for the first time.

This shows that more and more women are now watching horror, so we as film makers need to appeal to women as much as men. By having a strong female lead that was originally a victim, we incorporate understanding of many women's expectations in films in general.