We were having trouble distinguishing between the genres of thriller and horror, so I made this mind map to consider the similarities and differences of the genres.

By Emili Hone

9 frame analysis - opening of "The Ring"

9 frame analysis - of "The Ring"

The film opens with the Dreamworks title sequence. It, like opening sequences always are, is fitted to the films theme. It hints to the video tape that features during on in the film which the story evolves around.

The frame shifts to the left past the Dreamworks logo. Pathetic fallacy is used within the shot when clouds appear and the mood is set to be dark and gloomy. This shadows the events yet to occur.

The shot then rips, again representing the tape that makes an appearance later on during the film.

The shot then fades to black. This leads to the commonly used establishing shot, building the picture from the opening title sequence and giving the audience an idea of where the film is set.

The weather is once gain gloomy and dark to establish the mood and general aura of the film.

The shot then cuts to two girls, who appear to be in their teens, relaxing in a room. The room is dark and lit up by only the t.v out of shot and the small lamp behind them. The girls are wearing school uniform; this makes the girls seem innocent, weak and vulnerable. We immediately expect something to happen to happen to either of the girls. They are shown as potential victims.

The black haired girl begins to tell the other about a tape that when watched kills the watcher in a week of them watching it. The unsettled behaviour of the other girl begins to filter tension into the scene. The state of equilibrium then begins to unwind as the inevitable aspect of death, danger, and horror begins to confirm the film as an unmistakable film of the horror genre.

The second girl then explains that she had watched a tape that did the same as the one described by her friend. The fear of the girl becomes increasingly apparent. The unsettled girl begins to shift into the shape of a potential victim for whatever lies ahead and beyond in the film.

In the last frame the girl mentions she watched the film a week ago and the girl who initially was telling the horror story becomes unsettled as well. The second girl then pretends to suffocate an die. This tempts the fate of what is to come and sets the film for what is fast on arriving.

By Harry Crotty 

The top ten scariest films

By Harry Crotty

Iconic Sounds of Psychological Thriller Films

Films, connected with the genre of psychological thriller, tend to use the same techniques when it comes to sound and music. When watching a thriller movie, music and sounds are an important aspect of the movie in order to feel scared or uneasy. 

Music is generally used in thriller movies to build tension to make the audience jump when a sudden event occurs, or in some cases, when the music builds tension for nothing to then happen. This keeps the audience feeling uneasy.

The Exorcist theme song is a prime example of how music can be used in a horror film. This music has a gothic style to it, it has an organ come into it which backs up its apparent gothic origins. Its slow pace creates uncertainty and anxiety - confirming its horror genre.

The piece composed by Michael Myers for the horror film Halloween uses the same concepts. Its gothic sound keeps the listener on their toes. The piece uses high pitched piano accompanied along side a deeper bass produced its frightening product which becomes and iconic feature of its film.

(Although this is not a horror film the principle still applies when using contrapuntal music/sound)

This is a famous scene from reservoir dogs. Mr Blonde turns on the radio in-front of his hostage and plays a cheerful, fun song. This then contrasts the extreme violence that revolves around the hostage; for after Mr Blonde dances a bit his actions after dramatically juxtapose this, he cuts off the policeman's ear.

by Harry Crotty

Propp’s Narrative Functions

Vladimir Propp’s character roles:

∙The hero (seeks something)

∙The villain (opposes the hero)

∙The donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object)

∙The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)

∙The false hero (falsely assuming the role of the hero)

∙The helper (gives support to the hero)

∙The princess (the reward for the hero, but also needs to be protected from the villain)

∙Her father

Propp’s narrative functions:

Preparation

∙A member of a family leaves home

∙A prohibition or rule is imposed on the hero

∙This prohibition or rule is broken

∙The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance

∙The villain learns something about his victim

∙The villain tries to deceive the victim to get possessions of him or his belongings

∙The victim unknowingly helps the villain by being deceived or influenced by the villain

Complication

∙The villain harms a member of the family

∙A member of the family lacks or desires something

∙This lack or misfortune is made known; the hero is given a request or command, and he goes or is sent on a mission or a quest

∙The seeker (often the hero) plans action against the villain

Transference

∙The hero leaves home

∙The hero is tested, attacked, interrogated, and, as a result, receives either a magical agent or a helper

∙The hero reacts to the actions of the future donor

∙The hero uses the magical agent

∙The hero is transferred to the general location of the object of his mission or quest

Struggle

∙The hero and villain join in direct combat

∙The hero is branded

∙The villain is defeated

∙The initial misfortune of lack is set right

Return

∙The hero returns

∙The hero is pursued

∙The hero is rescued from pursuit

∙The hero arrives home or elsewhere and is not recognised

∙A false hero makes false claims

∙A difficult task is set for the hero

∙The task is accomplished

Recognition

∙The hero is recognised

∙The false hero/villain is exposed

∙The villain is punished

∙The hero is married and crowned

By Melissa Owen

Evaluation of film openings

By Melissa Owen

Psychological Horror Interviews

Psychological Horror Interviews 

These interviews proved useful to us as they helped us make important decisions about our film opening. We found specific things were important towards creating a good horror opening, for instance location and casting. 

Questions By Melissa Owen and Harry Crotty

Editing By Alexandra Gibson

Camera Work By Emili Hone

Models of narrative

By Melissa Owen

Typical Camera Work in Horror

In horror films, the camerawork is not necessarily used with a naturalistic aim, but with the aim of making the audience feel as though they are involved in the horror, thus causing the audience to feel fear. Examples of the shots used to do this are:

Low angle (Frame from Scream 4)

A low angle shot is often used when displaying the ‘villain’ in the film, so that the audience feels as though they are underneath them and therefore inferior to their power, thus provoking fear.

Extreme Close-Up (Frame from The Blair Witch Project)

Extreme close-ups are used to display the intense emotions that the characters are feeling, making the audience completely involved, possibly leading to the same emotions of fear or panic from the audience themselves. It can lead to sympathy to the victim, making the audience evermore fearful of the ‘villain’. They can also be used to show the ‘villain’ to make the audience jump.

 
Point of View (Frame from Saw)            
 
A point of view shot is often used to show the audience what the character is seeing, making the audience feel part of the action and the horror. In this frame, the woman is kneeling over the man and about to stab him, allowing us to see his fear in her eyesight.
    



Canted (Frame from Paranormal Activity)
 This is when the audience is made to feel that the characters are using hand held cameras. This is an extremely effective way to create fear in the horror, as the audience feel as though the events are actually happening and not just part of a film, as the clips appear as more of a video diary.

By Emili Hone

9 Frame Analysis

The opening of Roman Polanski’s ‘Repulsion’

After Analysing openings of current horror films, we decided that it would be helpful to analyse the films that inspired our current horror film culture. Roman Polanski was hugely iconic in the film business, so his first English speaking film, ‘Repulsion’, is a must to analyse.

The whole film follows the story of a Belgian woman, who kills two men due to assault, harassment her own emotional instability. The film contains aspects of slasher, thriller and psychological horror, which are all suggested in our film opening.

The film opens with this certificate, to show that it is not suitable for viewers under the age of 16. This tells the audience that it is for adults, and is therefore very scary.

The production logo then comes onto the screen.

The name of the film swoops across the eye, followed by actors/directors names, and others who are involved in the film. This extreme close-up shot is a focussed beginning to the film, making the audience completely fixated on who this person is and why they are significant.

The camera shot changes to a less extreme close-up. This shows the show reveal of the character, and perhaps suggests that throughout the film the audience will see more and more of this person. This shows the audience straight away who the film will be concentrating on.

The camera begins to slowly zoom out to show the woman’s face. The fact that it zooms instead of cuts proposes that, bearing in mind the plot, this woman is not going to suddenly turn into who she truly is (the killer) but it’s a gradual build-up of events.

The woman’s face becomes exposed, as she looks ‘into space’ with a gormless expression. Now the audience are aware of who they will be following through the film, and are able to build events around her.

Before the audience get bored of only seeing this womans face, the camera switches to a close-up shot of what we assume is the woman’s hand holding another woman’s. The mise-en-scene reminds me of what you might see at a hospital bed, with a loved one holding the dying persons hand. This suggests the theme of death at the beginning of the film, which is also suggested in our opening.

The 9th frame shows a woman lying on her back with a cracked face mask on. At first glance, she appears to be a corpse-like figure. This again introduces the theme of death to the film, although it then becomes clear that this woman is at the beautitions. Showing this corpse-like woman straight after the blonde woman directly links her with death. This creates a state of equilibrium through the setting of the beauty parlor, which the audience expects to be disrupted by the suggestion of death.



An opening can tell you a lot!


By Emili Hone

 

The 180 Degree Rule

 

We used this rule in our preliminary task when the two characters were sitting on the chairs.

we watched videos on YouTube to help us to consolidate our understanding of the 180 rule

such as:

 

We found this very helpful, as an entertaining means to understand how vital the 180 rule is.

We understood that we must keep the camera on a certain line with the characters, and passing this line would create a disorientating shot for the audience.
By Emili Hone

Session 9

Analysis of The Opening Scene

This is to establish the publisher of the film. We may put our logo here. Here there is fuzzing sounds with deep understones, so it seems instantly scary.

This again shows the publisher, where we would put our logo. Here there is a shrieking sound, it emphasises the jumpy nature of the film.

Establishing shot of the abandoned hospital scene. Its upside down, perhaps to reflect the state of the hospital as its abandoned, or the state of the mental patients once in it. it could also be forshadowing the end of the film; it starts upside down and it will end with the characters feeling 'upside down'.

 

The shot begins to spin. This could show that the transition from unusual to normal is smooth, yet unsettling.

 

 

The name of the film becomes apparent before the shot of the hospital is completely the right way up. This suggests that the film is not going to be simple, and things are going to be different.

The opening of the hospital stops and the title fades at the upright image of a chair on the hall. Its scary because the lighting makes you focus on the chair. It creates many questions as to why the chair is there, what the place is, and as its unknown, fear builds.

The scene cuts to a man in his car stuck in traffic, and the camera moves from behind him to in front of him. It makes a direct link between this character and the establishing scene, showing that there will be a link later in the film.

Preliminary Task Setting Photos

We decided to use a simple location to film our preliminary task, as we wanted it to be uncluttered and easy to film in. We chose a hallway at our school (left) and an empty space in a classroom (right). Overall we were happy with our setting.

by Emili Hone 

Prelimiary

PRELIMINARY 

Storyboard

We followed our storyboard step by step. It helped us set up the shots, and try to keep a reasonable continuity in the piece.

 

 

 

 

 

Premilinary: Final Product

 

 

 

We believed our preliminary to be fairly successfull as it shows an account of what we have aquired in Media Studies so far. Our prelimnary shows sufficient editing skills, and our ability with using cameras, as well as a solid understanding of the 180 degree rule. Our shot reverse shot worked well, however we lacked flow in our continuity and various camera shots were far to short, therefore making various cuts seem unnatural to a viewer. Use of props regarding continuity lacked attention to detail, as various placements of props were different in different shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Alexandra Gibson