AS G321: Further Horror Film Analyses

Below I am going to be analysing other horror genre films and briefly describe some of the key features that are recur within each movie.

The Boy

Overview:

Synopsis: Greta is a young American woman who takes a job as a nanny in a remote English village, only to discover that the family's 8-year-old is a life-sized doll that the parents care for just like a real boy, as a way to cope with the death of their actual son 20 years prior.

In IMDB Retrieved 3rd January

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3882082/plotsummary

Production Company: Lakeshore Entertainment/Vertigo Entertainment

Distributors: STX Entertainment

Budget: $10 million

Music: Bear McCeary 

Further Research into Bear McCeary

Bear McCeary is a degreed graduate of the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music (in 'Composition and Recording Arts'). Bear McCeary was one of a small and select group of proteges of the late, many-honoured film composer Elmer Bernstein. Although he is now firmly in the mainstream of film composition, many of McCreary's earliest soundtrack-music compositions were for independent motion picture productions.

In IMDB Retrieved 3rd January 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0566970/

Brief Analysis:

• Begins with a black screen where the distributors are presented and transition out with a fade. 

   

• Title is shown in a typeface similar to Times New Roman, which could be considered old fashioned and neat.
• A clown doll is shown where the cast credits appear.
• Non- Diegetic sounds - music box, children (creepy) and music gets lower as the title is shown.

               

• Which switches to a long shot of the car going down the road - large trees on either side to emphasise how dangerous the roads can be at night - camera continues to track the car.
• Camera is placed in the side of the road to show the black cab getting closer.

     

• The scene transitions with a slow fade where the audience now see the main character of the movie in the back seat of the taxi where she is asleep, indicating she has been on a long journey. 
• The camera is placed in the drivers POV so that we can see the lady in the overhead mirror.
• A close up of the woman is shown after she adjusts her blouse in suspicion. 
• A low angle shot shown of the car driving, along the road - the camera pans from left to right to show the large trees that block the road from the outside world. 

  

• The scene cuts to more children toys as the credits continue to fade in and out. The toys seem very old fashioned and dated which is similar to the toys used in The Woman in Black that I deconstructed, as the toy are considered frightening and unsettling ( e.g. the clown doll).

                       
                                             

• Upward tilt/ close up of driver opening the gates - this shot is particularly effective due to the metal gates being very large like most mansions tend to have. The writer may have chosen to use a mansion as a setting for the film because empty space can be considered scary, as you never know what hides within it. 
• Camera is placed at a low angle when an establishing shot of the house is shown, to emphasise its size.

 

• Dialogue between characters (Two Shot).
• Camera is placed high above the lady as if the building was looking down on her which is intimidating for the lady. 

                         
                                               

• A shot from the inside of the house, where the only light source is the sunlight coming from outdoors - emphasises how mysterious and 'dark' the house will reveal to be.
• Ambient sounds such as door creaking, her footsteps on the wood create verisimilitude. 
• Close up of the woman taking her shoes off, as the house may appear to look very well kept in the rooms that are most used for example, the entrance.
• Long shot - to show her size compared to the room. 
• The camera tracks her as she walks through the hallway. 

• Last credit is shown which is the director.
• The camera is placed so that we can see her go up the stairs through the eye of the stuffed animal head, which could imply that she is being watched by everything that is not alive. 

It Follows - Independent Horror Film

Overview:

Synopsis: The plot follows a girl pursued by a supernatural entity after a sexual encounter. 

Production Company: Northern Lights Film/ Animal Kingdom & Two Flints.

Distributors: Radius / TWC / Dimension Films 

Music: Disaster Peace

Further Research into Disaster Peace

In 2014, Vreeland produced the soundtrack for David Robert Mitchell's sophomore film It Follows, after being approached by Mitchell, a fan of Vreeland's work on the video game Fez.

In Wikipedia Retrieved 3rd January 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disasterpeace#Soundtracks

Brief Analysis:

 

• First credit begins to show on a black screen where a strong wind sound is played in the background.
• The scene/sound cuts suddenly to show an establishing shot of the neighbourhood - it has a wide road where there are no people around.

 

• Ambient sounds - creates verisimilitude.
• Camera pans from left to right to show a large house. 
• A deep sudden sound is used to stun the audience as a girl runs out of the door screaming. 
• The camera tracks her movement as she runs to stand in the middle of the street.
• Dull colours - light seeping through the trees. The girl continues to walk backwards, a lady and her father as if she is ok (The people around her are also curious about her behaviour as well as the audience, possibly to make the audience feel less worried about not knowing what's happening).

          

• Mysterious, suspenseful soundtrack being played in the background to create an eery atmosphere.
• The girl continues to run as the camera tracks her - left to right (picks up in pace).
• The girl runs back to the house and then gets in her car and begins to drive away. 
• The camera slowly zooms out to show that the car is driving away.

   

• Camera is placed in the backseat to show the girl driving away as if something was following her. 
• The next shot shows the girl sitting by a lake very far away on the phone to her father saying that she loves him - as if she knows she is going to be killed.

  

• The scene then cuts to black and the camera is placed close to her face, there is bloody all over her neck, indicating to the audience that the girl has been killed.
• The camera zooms out to appear a horrifying image of the girls leg snapped explaining, that something is clearly lurking in the darkness.
• The technique of using a light background with a 'dark' image contrasts but is particularly effective and shocking to the audience. This is because in most horror films people get killed at night and the gore is mainly represented within the darkness however, this opening throws the audience in the deep end from the get go which is a great technique the director has used.

What I've Learnt:

From briefly analysing these two horror movie openings, I can gather that both use low-key lighting in order to create a mysterious atmosphere for the audience, which is one of the most common features within a a movie of this genre. I also noticed that 'It Follows' doesn't display the credits within this scene, which could be because they want the audience to focus on what is happening rather than reading who the characters are, this is very effective. 

Lastly, both movies include something that most people were scared of in their past. For example, 'The Boy' is set in a large mansion which is classed as haunted throughout the movie, and this was a fear many young people had due to the large empty spaces and high walls/ceilings. As for 'It Follows', something appears to be following the girl and as the people around her could not see anything, this may imply that it could be a monster or mythical creature. This is made clear when the shot of her lying on the beach with a snapped leg is shown, because a human being couldn't possibly do that much damage. 

Therefore, these fears are incorporated within horror movies, to scare the audience by reminding them of what they thought was terrifying in the past, could still be frightening in the present.

AS G321: Reflection - Preliminary Inception

Reflection on Sophie & I’s Preliminary Inception

PRELIMINARY INCEPTION

Our final edited Preliminary Task

Planning

• Describe the planning process and what this involved:

For the planning of our Preliminary Inception Sophie and I made a film treatment which we posted on our blog in October explaining what the different types of camera shots, angles, characters and scenes. We listed each scene (1-8) and discussed what the characters will be doing and what they’ll be saying, this made it easier for us when filming. 

• How did planning benefit you:

Planning certainly helped when filming as we could quickly run through prop placement, shots and lighting using the storyboard we put together. The storyboard was very detailed therefore, the tripod could quickly be put in place without much hesitation. In regards to the dialogue, Sophie & I produced a script for the characters to read from so they knew what they were discussing and what  actions they should carry out. Both of us found that the long-term planning produced a successful final outcome, and we will be spending good time ensuring our plan for our main task is as detailed and thorough. 

Production

• Describe the production process:

When Sophie & I met with our peers in the common room after school, we started to draw out a rough plan which included how we were going to organise the order of scenes meaning, where the camera will move each take. It took us 20 minutes, before we set up the camera and tested different lenses and focus, we then began to film for our first scene. After a few shoots we agreed on the final take we were going to include in our final piece, so we moved on to the next scene. Each scene took around 15 minutes however, if we decided to re-film a shot if we did not agree on it. Overall, we were happy with our production process as we finished in good time and had enough footage to edit in post-production. 

• Did this all go to plan:

The production process successfully went to plan because we spent 20 minutes before filming to plan and discuss with each other what we expected from the final outcome. Our peers were very on board and clearly understood our instructions which was very helpful. Sophie & I also planned to find a black jacket and hat from the drama studio in the school, to make sure the studio was open after school we asked the head of drama if we could borrow the costume. This worked out well as we managed to get what we intended to. 

Technology/Problem Solving

• What new technologies did you encounter in this process? (e.g. camera use, editing software)

During the preliminary inception we used a Canon 500D (DSLR Camera) for the first time. I had never used a DSLR camera before therefore, I was very new to how the buttons worked. To prepare for this I had made a blog post saying what I had learnt in lesson about some of the cameras features. The Camera features I found most difficult to understand was how the depth of field worked and the different sizes of aperture which is used to experiment with lighting. In post production we used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our footage, at first Sophie & I found it fairly difficult to get used to and understand how the keyboard shortcuts worked. For guidance, we asked our teachers and watched some tutorials where we wrote down a few key notes which will help us further in the post production.

• Reflect on what you’ve learnt throughout this process and what new skills will be beneficial moving forward throughout this course / How did you solve any problems you encountered?

During our post production we came across many difficulties which we had to spend numerous time trying to overcome. Firstly, we encountered a problem with transitions and titles. We attempted to add a title to the first 10 seconds where the actresses were sitting at the round table getting on with work. Each time we tried to drag the title into the timeline it would rebound back into the ‘bin’ where we kept our credits and titles. To overcome this, we went away and watched an Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial on how to embed a title in the edited footage. We took some notes and followed the instructions the tutorial gave us and finally it successfully worked. 

The two shots in which the title appears

Similarly, the credits were not being shown in the timeline which was very frustrating as other footage kept moving when we tried to drag the credits. This was wasted time therefore, we had to get guidance on how to embed it so that we could finally export the footage. Our teacher was very helpful and slowly went through each step carefully to ensure Sophie & I were following along. After the help from our teacher, we attempted to try it ourselves and it luckily worked well; to make the end credits have more of an impact we added the music instrumental from ‘Psycho’ which made the ending a little more creepy. Overall, all the problems we encountered were solved and the final outcome successfully worked. 

Team Work

• How well did you work together as a group?

As it were just Sophie & I working together to produce our Preliminary Inception we found it easier to organise ourselves and converse our ideas. We decided to stay in a pair because we knew it would be a little more difficult in a larger group as each person would need to be working at the same pace before you can move on with the task. When we were both planning we assigned each person to do different roles such as the storyboard, script and treatment. I was assigned for the storyboard and Sophie did the script, which left us both to do the treatment. This was what we used during our filming for guidance: 

The Storyboard I drew for our planning

• Do you feel that you contributed fairly to the overall outcome?

Sophie & I worked hard to ensure we both were putting in as much effort as each other by assigning work to do at home. This was really effective and once we met and gathered all the planning together we felt confident on what we were doing next. We will certainly be taking many aspects of our planning process and incorporating it in our main task such as the team work we put in when filming. To conclude, I am really pleased with the planning & production process we went through to finish the final footage, and I will be including many new skills when beginning our Main Task.