Production Company Name & Logo

Research Rationale

In order to progress the process is of creating my horror trailer, promotional poster and a magazine front cover, I need to conduct some research and therefore for my research rationale. I will collect information from my target audience as well as the market of the horror film genre.

Through my market research such as Wells' results, I have discovered that during young adulthood people want to experience and explore some including with emotions and feelings. This thrill that they want can be given through horror movies which is why the horror genre is more likely to excite younger audiences easier than older ones since they are less susceptible to being put off the violence or graphic content that has become more extreme over the decades and older audiences often may see these changes negatively.

The target age group I have the most access to are 16-18 year olds in my sixth form. With the most common ages for somebody watching a horror movie is ranged between 15 and 25, my target group is perfect to obtain the correct information that will help me create a concept that my target audience will find interesting; this also means my research will be aimed at movies with a BBFC 15 rating to appropriately have a limit on the extremes of the trailer's content for the audience I am focusing on.

For my audience research I would like to focus on mainly qualitative research forms since this will give me answers that have more depth and personal meaning as well as give me precision for my research. I will form a focus group, asking them particular questions that will give me different points of view of older teenagers on the horror genre, from what they like/dislike about the genre to what they find scary and so on.

GROUP PRELIM TASK: Directors' Commentary

In the video below my partner & I walk you through our main ideas and decisions that we made for our remake of the scene from Hush, from props to sound editing as well as problems we faced such as adjusting to Facebook Messenger rather than iMessenger. We then concluded with something we could improve on which is lighting as the timing of our scene was in the night; we learnt that if were to use the nighttime in our horror movie trailer we will need to be cautious of characters and/or props blending too much into the darkness, which cause make it harder for the viewer to see significant elements of the trailer.

GROUP PRELIM TASK: Final Scene Remake

Here is my group's official remake of the first encounter between protagonist Maddie and the masked killer from Hush.

I had a lot of fun making this short extract as well learning more about camerawork such as how the camera follows the characters. I was also able to direct my partner throughout the entire scene which was a first for me; it challenged me as not only did I have to explain what to do but I would go into detail on how to, as well as how fast and remind my partner of what her character is feeling at different parts of the scene so she can express that through her acting (e.g. calm and relaxed at the beginning contrasting the panicked ending). I also got to edit the scene, focusing a lot on the duration of shots and the impact of their lengths to increase tension with the longer takes as well as show the frightened side of emotions through the quick-cut running scene. Overall, I have learnt many qualities that will aid me in the production of my future horror movie trailer.

GROUP PRELIM TASK: Construction + Editing (Video)

GROUP PRELIM TASK: Storyboard and Shooting Schedule (Voiceover)

GROUP PRELIM TASK: Scene analysis of HUSH (2016)

The movie we chose to focus on for our preliminary project is the 2016 horror Hush which throws the viewer into a story about the home invasion of Maddie Young, a young deaf woman who lives in an isolated environment as she strives to stay alive and defeat a masked killer who is armed with a crossbow. The specific scene we chose to remake is the first interaction between the two characters as she comes to the realization that she has been targeted.

(Scene begins at 17:20 and ends at 19:54 in the clip above)



 SCREENCAP ANALYSIS

Mise-en-scene aids the viewer to understand Maddie's life. Her tied-back hair and clothing of a simple tank, jeans and trainers indicates her character as a very ordinary person, one that the audience could automatically relate to. As Maddie walks towards her home's door, slides it open and patiently waits for her cat to respond to her call for it, we can see her body language is very natural and slow-paced which proves that she feels comfortable in the environment of her isolated home in the woods; however the viewer may see this much differently as we are more aware of her surroundings since we are the ones who can hear of her whereabouts with the help of the diegetic sounds of her atmosphere: trees rustlings, wind whistling and crickets chirping, leaving them feeling anxious at the uncomfortable silence filling the atmosphere. The long shot of Maddie standing by the open door also forces the audience to stare at her in possible danger, this causes us to feel uneasy as if we are waiting for something to suddenly jump out before we see her slowly walk away from the door; the further she gets from the door the lower our panic is.

After Maddie gives up the search for her cat and sits to work on her laptop, the notification from 'Maddie's iPhone' creates the emotion of confusion in the viewer, relating them with Maddie's feelings. As she opens the message to reveal a photo of her previously in the night working, we are left with the question of who has taken this photo and why; the fear of the unknown and uncertainty is built up through the use of shot-reverse-shot between the photo messages and Maddie's reactions getting more and more intense and unsettling through her facial expression, breathing and fidgeting, almost showing the viewer how they should be reacting also.

 As Maddie continues to recieve the sender's photos, we can spot the time differences between each photo as we have been lead through the series of events the photos show (Maddie working, searching for her cat and then sitting down looking at the photos of herself) through Maddie's jacket. In the first photo, she is shown without the green jacket she had just put on which is why the jacket is significant, as it shows the difference and progression of time and tells the audience of the lengthy time span that this stalker has been spying Maddie for.

Silhouettes of the home's blinds and window frames in the pictures show that they have bee taken from different spots around her house as if the stalker can see her no matter where she is, leaving her feeling vulnerable, surrounded and as if she has nowhere to run and hide from this anonymous watcher.

Once again the viewer is forced to watch Maddie in the petrified expression above for an uncomfortably long period of time as she realizes she is being watched, building panic and tension in the viewer as they wonder who the anonymous person is; the reminder that Maddie is deaf & mute emphasises the worry the viewer feels about her safety as if she is in danger, she is left helpless with the killer to have a huge advantage.

 As the shot-reverse-shots continue ever so slowly to brace the viewer for the shock of the invader's appearance, we see the two finally meet with the door wide open in between them. The camera's use of the Rule of Thirds, with Maddie on the left and the invader on the right, show a clear opposition of good & evil between the two characters to let us know that they are against each other. With the anxiety and fear already built up in the viewer, the invader lifts his hand to show Maddie's phone in his possession as the final straw of panic; Maddie is left even more vulnerable and powerless without a device where she would call for help in this situation, we know she has come to this realisation through her hard breathing and unsteadiness just before the running scene.

The Rule of Thirds continues throughout the quick shots of the short running scene including in the screencap above, however the situation between the two characters is now much more extreme. With them right in front of each other yet separated by the locked door the stare the two share is haunting, deadly and marks such a significant moment even with it being no longer than a few seconds. Even with the emotionless mask on, the viewer can tell the invader is full of rage. As the invader has grown anger because he was not able to get to the door fast enough, Maddie and the audience are left terrified with what he plans to do next to get to Maddie, and what he would do when he finally captures her.

Conventions In Horror

Horror Villain Deconstruction

Norman Bates - Psycho (1960)

Norman Bates is a character created by writer Robert Bloch and is the antagonist played by Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in 1960. His character is shy, quiet and timid but is contrasted by his pleasure to greet others and help them as proven by his occupation at the Bates' Motel and the comfort Marion is shown to feel when she arrives. The Bates' Motel is an environment that smartly matches Norman as it is shown empty and still, indicating his own loneliness and simplicity as a person.

However this nice side of Norman is tested as him and Marion get to know more about each other. The slight admiration for birds is introduced in Room 1 with framed pictures but is then continued with the many stuffed birds in intimidating poses as the two sit and talk. Norman's disturbing interest in taxidermy is a key sign of his twisted character along with dialogue such as "we all go a little mad sometimes". Norman's body language indicates his dominance over Marion, for example during the scene where him and Marion sit and talk, he begins to stroke one of his stuffed birds; with Marion's last name being Crane (a type of bird)
this could foreshadow his plans to capture Marion and his want for power.

We then find out Norman Bates suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID) and believed that he was his controlling mother. He uses his taxidermy skills as a coping mechanism to get over his mother that he himself killed. 

Psycho is a prime example of horror film trends with slasher elements as well as psychological ones since the audience are forced to do a lot more thinking rather than being fed the plot. Moving on from the supernatural themes, Psycho uses everyday situations (seeing your partner, errand for work, staying at a motel) to disturb the viewer since it is much more likely to happen than a poltergeist appearing and haunting you. Gothic ideas included violence and female threat and Norman's irregular wrath matches this ideology as he kills women with knives, including his own mother, seeing them as a danger.

The History of the Horror Genre

Timeline creator

Horror Movie Poster Deconstruction

I created the presentation below to clearly analyse two different yet classic movie posters and deconstruct their features, questioning them and judging their effectiveness as a poster.

Horror Movie Poster Deconstruction from Ali Teri

Although almost twenty years apart in release, the two movie posters show clear similarities such as use of dark colours as well as the playfulness with negative black space to present a moral fear of the unknown. Additionally both use text of short phrasing to haunt the audience and attract them into watching the movie.

Response to Brief

The first scene from a horror movie I remember seeing was The Classroom Trap from Saw III (2006).

        

 I was age 6, which is insane to think about since the Saw movies are some of the most grotesque and twisted films in more modern horror. I remember I was at a sports leisure centre going to my daily karate and trampolining clubs when I ran over to my stepdad who was watching the movie on his laptop. Although I didn't understand the plot and what Troy had to do to escape, I was aware of the torture device and didn't really get freaked out too much; if anything I thought it was very different and interesting! 

And that is how my love for gore began. My parents didn't allow me to watch horror movies at such a young age, but as I got older I started to watch films that weren't extreme such as the Paranormal Activity (2007-2015) movies where the base of the film was a very basic idea e.g. the Paranormal Activity movies (are all recorded on handheld camera and through security cameras in the houses the films are set in) show normal people living everyday lives until a couple of jumpscares occur and things get more insane to the end.

Watching the Classroom Trap (Troy's death) scene again more than a decade after I first saw it, it did make me wince more, but gore is my favourite sub-genre in horror movies and the cringe I feel from positioning myself in the characters' shoes when they die or are put in insane contraptions such as in the Saw movies is disturbingly thrilling.

One of my favorite parts of a horror movie are unique deaths and as a person whose favourite genre of film is horror its very hard to find death ideas that haven't already been shown, which is why I love the Saw movies since they always think of new bizarrely creative torture devices as well as making you really wonder if they will survive, and if it involves more than one person, who will survive. 

One of the smartest horror movies that I've seen recently has to be Unfriended (2014); the fact that the movie is shot from the perspective of one of the characters as well as a laptop screen (since the film uses social media as the way to tell the story) really immerses you and the deaths very incredibly intriguing to me. DISCLAIMER: some of the death scenes below are extremely grotesque and not for the faint-hearted.

As more characters died, I realized that their deaths were foreshadowed earlier in the movie: Ken Smith, the character who dies by the blender (02:20 in the clip) raised it up and was talking about it in the skype call earlier:

Ken: "Now to try some of my famous brew of salsa!"

[brandishes mixed up blender of food and drink to group]

Blaire: "Ken that is so disgusting!"

[laughing] 

Jess Felton, a character who was seen to either be playing with her hair or nails throughout the movie dies by being internally burnt by the same hair straighteners she is seen using at the beginning of the movie (04:30 in the clip) when all of the friends begin their group call:

Jess: "[sarcastically whilst straightening her hair] Blaire you're a dirty girl,..."

Though I like extreme gore it does freak me out as it would anybody else, I had to look away at Jess's death scene because I had never seen it before, and most of the deaths in the Saw films still make me flinch and quiver.

Another horror movie that I'll never forget is Hush (2016) which has an incredible twist unlike any other horror film: the protagonist is deaf. Madison Young, the protagonist, is left alone in her isolated home in the woods as a masked killer teases and attempts to kill her. Because Madison is deaf, it opened doors to some incredible concepts in the film such as the viewer knowing more than Madison because we can hear the sounds around her and how close the killer is to her at times where she has no idea; the death of her friend and neighbor Sarah shows this.

Another scene in Hush that was so emotional to me was the scene where Madison is left feeling helpless after trying to fight off the masked murderer and accepts her fate of death as she types a description of the killer on her laptop to leave behind for the police when they find her; the shot where we can see both Madison typing and the killer breaking the glass on the door is so effective since we can see how close she is to death (01:08:10 in clip below).

I think that Hush will really inspire my final of a horror trailer and poster because of the psychological aspect to it; as a lover of gore and physical danger I find the idea of exposure to danger on a mental level very fascinating, I think it leaves a huge impact on the viewer since it plays with their mind also (unlike with physical danger since the viewer cannot get hurt). I would also like my movie's plot to be modern because it would be a lot more relatable since it will be set in the same time period as us. Movies such as Unfriended that has a focus on social media and everyday technology and It Follows (2014) which is about gaining a supernatural entity after having a sexual encounter can really scare people since they are very realistic settings in the sense that people use technology and have sexual encounters usually.

I am very excited to explore the film side to the project. As an aspiring film director this will be my first time producing a project that focuses entirely on movies. I can't wait to learn more about the use of shots, editing, sound, etc as it will show me a clearer understanding of the industry I will work in in the future.