Script



As well as creating a story board so that we can understand how the characters are going to move and act, and what we are going to do with the camera, we also had to plan out any dialogue. From the beginning, we weren't planning on putting too much dialogue or diegetic sound in because it was the opening of a film, and we felt that tension building music might be the best choice for the introduction in case it gave away too much information about what happens in the film.

Filming

Houses in Horror Films

One of my first ideas was to film part of our film in a house. A lot of films take place in houses because thats a place where people feel most safe, and it is scary to think about something coming into our comfort zone.

The films 'When a stranger calls' and 'The strangers' both take place in houses and centre around the subject of an unknown person trying to enter the house while the unknowing victim goes about their business, and this was going to be the basis of part of our opening scene.

Although the house in When a Stranger Calls seems a lot more isolated, the house we were thinking of using for our horror film is detached, so there aren't any neighbours around which will give the audience a sense of insecurity.

Masks in Horror Films

In our research, we noticed that a lot of horror films seem to use masks in their films, such as:

• Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Saw
• Nightmare on Elm Street
• Hannibal Lecter films
• The Strangers
• Scream

All these films have masked character, but its not just the facial expression on the masks that scare us, but the fact that the face of the character is hidden - like the girl from the Grudge. We are frightened by masks because they hide the true identity of the character and their emotions. The unknown strikes fear in many because people want to know what they are acing so they have a way to deal with it.

Masks make people devoid of emotion and this makes them powerful. Masks make it so that the audience can't sympathise with the person wearing it, so it singles them out as the bad character. Since masks hide identities, it leavesthe film open for many plot twists because it could be a character thats already known and has a strong relationship with the victim.

Own Title Sequence

There are many things we have t think about when it comes to our title sequence:

What will it look like?
How many second for each image?
Fades/dissolves between images?
Font style, colour, size?
What text?
Actors/actresses?
Film title - font?
Images - link to your film.

Psycho Shower Scene

In lesson, we looked at the film 'Psycho' and its infamous shower scene. The scene took a whole week to shoot, and in the end was about 45 seconds in the film. They used many different cameras to create the effect they wanted, which made it look quite realistic as you can see the scene from many different angles.

Two interesting facts about the scene is that the blood that swirls down the drain at the end is in fact chocolate sauce, and the famous noise of the stabbing which is used for spoofs etc these days was created by 'violating a Turkish melon'. Its clever because they used such simple techniques to create a realistic looking scene, far ahead of its time. The realism of the film is probably what scared the audience of that time so much.

Se7en Title Sequence

The film Se7en's title sequence is an extremely good example for a horror film title sequence. There is a lot going on, so I'm going to go through it and list the different changes of scene each time.

1 sec - Old, crumpled book - pages being turned.
6 sec - 'New line cinema presents' - writing doubles and flickers.
7 sec - Distorted writing, doubles up. Black backgroun with white lettering and it twitches, like a bug. Mirrored text switches back to normal.
9 sec - Sketchy distorted hands surrounded by dark shadows.
11 sec - 'A film by' is in block letters, but names are in a font which looks like handwriting.

12 sec - Lots of cuts of a gun being loaded.

15 sec - Very quick cut of random numbers, like a subliminal message.
16 sec - More hands - dirt and darkness.
20 sec - Lots of cuts - photos and equipment like an ortopsy or crime case.
24 sec - 'Se7en' flashed and duplicates behind. The two flicker in the top right hand corner, flashes larger in the centre of the screen and then returns to the corner.

27 sec - Scene comes into the background of a hand picking up a book while 'Se7en' stays in the corner.
30 sec - Name in wonky writing on shadowed part of the screen. More paper and flashes of red.
32 sec - Handwriting while bottom of the screen is in shadow. Shot is duplicated over one another to look distorted. The shots then blend back into one.
38 sec - Everything goes red - photos being developed. No natural light is used so far, only low key lighting and unnatural flourescent lighting.
40 sec - Cutting negatives in darkness. Everything is shadowed.

There are many elements that make this recognised as a good title sequence. The non diegetic sound of the song 'Closer to God' by Nine Inch Nails furthers the feeling of horror.

Horror films