Partner's blog - more analyses

For more analyses of horror film openings visit my partner's blog at  http://asfoundationportoliomaxwilliams.blogspot.com/ 

Analysis of the first two minutes

This film opens on a credit sequence which reveals to the viewer that the events shown in the film were all real events. This will instantly affect the way that the viewers see the film. It will make them more scared because they will think of the film as less of an entertainment purpose and more of a reminder that they people in the film could have been them and the events shown in the film could have happened to them in real life. My group are considering using this credit technique to create an added 'scary' effect on the audience to a try to make them more engaged with the film.

After the credit sequence there is a black screen with the synchronous sounds of digging and bones hitting together. This encourages the audience to use their imaginations more to imagine what could be happening. Occasionally as this is happening there are quick bright flashes of dead people’s body parts. The use of quick image flashes like this makes the image stay in the viewer’s mind, making them more effective in scaring the audience. 

Analysis of opening 2 minutes of the film.

The film starts with a clip of an establishing shot of the landscape accompanied by non-diegetic music (sounds like organs) and synchronous sounds of eagles screeching. The camera then pans down to a long shot of a woman climbing a rope up a hill. The sound of her breathing has also been made synchronous to emphasise to the viewer that she is out of breath.

During the time that all of this is happening we have film credits overlaying the clip which tell us who stars in the film and who directed, edited etc. The long shot then becomes a tracking mid shot which follows the woman running through the forest. It turns to a midshot from a longshot to show her emotion.

This is all that happens in the opening 2 minutes of the film, we are introduced to 1 character and we can assume that we are not watching a chased scene because we can see that the woman is not panicking from the use of the mid shot. If it was a chase scene she would be shown to be in distress. 

This is a film opening of a 2006 Horror film. There are qualities which my group look to use for ourselves such as the fast paced editing and the use of sudden sound emphasis to draw attention to different aspects of the clip.

We do not however like the credit sequence, we believe that it is too long and boring, it needs something to grab the viewer's attention. The credit sequence is 2:30 long so it would be longer than our clip is allowed to be. We will look to include credits but not as long or as detailed as the ones used in this clip.

Target audience blog

My group and i plan on making our film opening a horror/thriller filmed from a handheld camera that is held by one of the actors, similarly to the Blair Witch Project. We have planned for it to be filmed in a forest to give the setting an eerie effect and will taking camping/hiking equipment with us to create realism. To suggest the presence of an antagonist we will cut away to a point of view shot, looking through bushes and trees to show the campers. This will create a stalker/voyeuristic affect that the viewers can relate to what they will assume is the antagonist.

Ideas, resources and techniques for making the film

Ideas presentation for blog

View more presentations from jake_stocks.

Film genres and conventions of those genres

Action: A protagonist (maincharacter.)
             An antagonist.
             Fight scenes.
             Explosions and stunts.
             'The girl' (the girl that the protagonist is in love with. usually ends up with the protagonist by the end of the film.
             Happy ending.
            

Rom-com: A good looking male actor and a good looking female actor.
                  They meet under unlikely circumstances.
                  Friends and family are introduced to the film. (one or more of these is usually represented as being clumsy or a joker to bring the comical aspect to the film.)
                  The boy and girl split up.
                  Long winded and needlessly over the top sequence of events lead to an apology.
                  Boy and girl get together again.
                  Happy ending.

To create the opening 2 minutes of a fictional film

In groups we have to create a 2 minute clip of the start of a fictional film for AS media coursework. The final showing of the finished pieces is April 20th.