We were asked to come up with an entire plot for a whole horror film, aimed at a teenage audience, as a posed to purely planning the opening 2 minutes. We did this by creating a mind map, on which we brain stormed all of our initial ideas. Our mind map was sectioned into 6 different sub-genres that you would typically find in a horror movie. For example, we thought of different ideas that we could use to create a plot for a movie based off true stories and urban legends by researching old news articles and old-wives tales. Then we spent time thinking about supernatural based films, featuring classic monsters/creatures such as vampires, werewolves and zombies. We also considered potential story lines we could go for, depending on weather we went for a gory slasher film that disgusts the audience due to the horrifying imagery, or more a physiological one that plays with the audiences mind. After brainstorming our ideas, we concluded that every horror film should be based around some form of villain or threat/danger, weather it be a psychotic killer, poltergeist, possessive demon or a flesh eating zombie. As a result of this conclusion, we decided to narrow down our ideas and began to think of something more specific. We wanted to create something different; something that other groups were less likely to have thought of. During this thought process, we decided to avoid the supernatural plot lines and stick with the idea of serial killers as we thought that it would be more interesting, due to the fact that the majority of recent horror movies are liked to ghosts and evil spirits.
Once we had came up with the complete idea for out film, we began to think about a production company name and a working film title. We came up with the idea of 'Ragged Crimson Production' as our production company name by thinking of adjectives/words that you would usually associate with horror or repugnance. Because the main events in our film take place on the 29th February, we thought that 'Leap Year' would be an appropriate working title. Our final 60 second pitch can be found on the embedded video bellow:
The use of both non-diegetic and diegetic sounds, specifically in horror movies, play a significant part in creating tension; causing the viewer to feel a sense of uneasiness and fear.
Biologist, Joe Hanson states that “Since nonlinear sounds are found so often in animal alarm calls (namely the marmot, which has been researched a lot) as well as in human distress calls (like crying babies) … some of the response would be cross-cultural, ingrained in our brain in some way". By including these sounds in horror movies, the audience automatically associates them with danger, creating a feeling of fear, which therefore in turn, makes the film scary.
Sound In Certain Movies
Suitable use of non-diegetic sound to suit the genre of the film can make a huge difference as to how the audience feels about and interprets the scene. For example, if you were to play comical/cheerful music in the background of a horror clip (or even watch the clip without any sound at all) a sequence of chilling imagery, could appear to be less horrifying. Bellow, I have embedded video clips from The Woman In Black as it is known for being 'jumpy'. I believe that music and the scream in the opening scene of the film intensifies the feeling of discomfort as you watch it. This use of sound continues throughout the entire film, which is what helps to create an unsettling atmosphere.
The following YouTube clip shows a range of sounds that are typically used within horror films to build suspense.
At the start of the lesson, we were shown three examples of opening titles from different horror movies, which was followed by a class discussion on the types of things that we saw appear on the screen, during the opening titles. We were then given the name of a website called 'Art Of The Title', which has hundreds of clips of opening scenes from a range of movie/television show genres. It became apparent that there is a huge contrast in the style and appearance of the opening credits, depending on the genre.
For example:
After watching a few examples, we were set a task to look at the opening titles from 'SE7EN' and then make notes on what we saw. After this we made notes on the typography and what kind of titles appear, the visual elements (by watching without sound) and the use of sound (by listening to the clip an not watching it).
SE7EN
Time Title
0.04 - NEW LINE CINEMA PRESENTS
0.06 - AN Arnold Kopelson PRODUCTION
0.10 - A FILM BY David Fincher
0.13 - Brad Pitt
0.18 - Morgan Freeman
0.24 - SE7EN
0.30 - Gwyneth Paltrow
0.33 - Richard Roundtree
0.39 - R.Lee Ermey
0.42 - John C.McGinley
0.46 - Julie Araskog Mark Boone Junior
0.54 - John Cassini Reginald E.Cathey Peter Crombie
0.57 - Hawthorn James Michael Massee Leland Orser
1.04 - Richard Partnow Richard Schiff Parnala Tyson
1.11 - CASTING BY Billy Hopkins Suzanne Smith Kerry Borden
1.17 - MUSIC BY Howard Shore
1.22 - COSTUMES DESIGNED BY Michael Kaplan
1.24 - EDITED BY Richard Francis-Bruce
1.26 - PRODUCTION DESIGNED BY Arthur Max
1.35 - DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Darius Khondji
1.40 - CO-PRODUCERS Stephen Brown Nana Greenwald Sanford Panitch
1.44 - CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Lynn Harris Richard Saperstein
1.50 - EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Gianni Nunnari Dan Kolsurd Anne Kopelson
1.53 - WRITTEN BY Andrew Kevin Walker
1.59 - PRODUCED BY Arnold Kopelson Phyllis Carlyle
2.04 - DIRECTED BY David Fincher
It's noticeable in the opening of SE7EN that only the actors who play the main characters appear on screen (e.g. Brad Pitt) whilst the remaining cast isn't shown until the ending credits of the movie.
TYPOGRAPHY
The style of the font that has been used is quite rough/ messy and looks as though it has been scratched on.
The names of the people/production companies involved in the film begin with capital letters and end in lowercase.
Key roles such as producers, editors, directors and writers all appear in block capitals.
The writing is small, however role titles are slightly bigger/bolder than the actual names.
The text is white and is usually on a black background or the darkest part of the screen, which makes it stand out.
Titles show up slightly off centre or near the corners of the screen.
VISUAL ELEMENTS
The imagery that appears during the opening titles is as follows:
Pages turning of an old book
Drawing/study of deformed hands collaged into a book
razor blades
The turning of cogs/other mechanical devices
Writing into an old scrapbook
Red photo
Cutting up of camera film
arranging photographs
Crossing out text
Scribbling over photograph
Close up of dirty finger nails
threading a needle
threading pages of a book
Cutting out words from an article
A lot of the images are repeated more than once throughout the opening sequence.
All of the imagery that has been used are extreme close ups of different creepy objects that are in some way being attached to an old scrapbook/diary from the point of view of a serial killer.
Everything that appears on the screen flickers, sometimes overlaps and is in a low/dim lights, which creates an eerie atmosphere.
ELEMENTS OF SOUND
The background music for the titles is a combination of a range of non-diegetic. The sounds of motor-powered, electrical and metal objects are used to overlap the sound of drums, which creates a techno/electronic style of music. This contributes to the feeling of apprehension, felt by the viewers as they hear it. There is also something that seems to be the noise of a CD or disk being scratched, which creates a high pitched sound that could be interpreted as a scream, emphasising the feelings of fear and dread. Some sounds also sound like thunder, which is a noise usually considered to be startling and unnerving, and therefore adds to the creepy atmosphere.
Technical codes are the different ways the equipment is used to tell the story. Sound is used to create tension within a scene and the camera angles shows a different perspective of characters, scenery and objects. For example, a high angle shot, looking down on a character may suggest that they are in a position of vulnerability.
- Symbolic Codes.
Symbolic codes, on the other hand, are the less obvious things that gives the audience extra information. An example of this would be the features of mise-en-scene, which include all props, costumes and make-up as well as the setting. For example, the clothing that a character wears can tell the audience a lot about the character’s personality. Also, the actions of the characters show what the character is feeling during important scenes
Conventions
Conventions are the things in which you, as the audience, would expect to witness whilst engaged in watching the action in a horror movie.
For example, a secluded location is a common convention. Characters are usually located in an area of seclusion, where no help is available if in danger.
