Thursday 20 December 2012
Our Stereotypical Horror fan
Our stereotypical horror fan, mainly like action horror, but
doesn’t mind elements of gore and psychological horror in the films that he
watches. Wears casual clothing like jeans and a t-shirt. Generally goes to the
cinema with a few friends. His appearance doesn’t bring across that he is a
huge horror fan. Probably plays video games in his free time
He generally fits into the C2 and D1 demographics, but can also
be above or below that. Mainly mainstream, he doesn’t have all the characteristics
of a mainstream psychographic, because he also adapts to what society is like
at the moment (clothing etc.). Usually around 18-35 years old. They see
themselves as a mainstreamer. They like whatever is popular at the time,
however also show signs of reformer. They see things in the world aren’t
perfect and they want to change it. They
enjoy horror movies as they twist stereotypes and like the forward thinking.
They like the fact there are black and women hero, it shows how the world is
changing and that just because you are a certain sex or race doesn’t mean you
can’t do things.
Their favourite horror movies would be:
·
The Hills
Have Eyes (2006)
·
Dawn of the
Dead (2004)
·
The Crazies
(2010)
·
The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Audience Research: Initial Class Poster
-Horror
Trailer-
Plot details of your idea
Lenny grew up on a farm with his
mum and dad. His parents died when he was seven and he took it upon himself to
look after the farm. A pack of crows ravaged him one day, disfiguring Lenny. He
vowed to protect the farm so any trespassers he sees he kills, dressed as a
scarecrow. A group of drunken teens wander onto the farm for a party, and this
doesn’t bode well for their survival.
Positive responses from class
members
Class members said that we had a
good narrative and history for Lenny. The bad guy is iconic and memorable. And
also there is an element of realism to the villain, making it that bit scarier,
the suggestion of child abuse linking to a horrible real life event.
Negative responses from class
members
However some people said that some
features where a bit too crazy, especially the ending where we wanted Lenny to
be eaten by crows. However after looking back on this idea it would be very
hard to film. So we change the ending to having the scarecrow alone in the
field and then a crow lands of his shoulder, and then he starts to move. We
felt this change was needed so the realism was maintained.
How many voted to say that they
watched the film, where did it come out of all the groups?
We got 19/19 in votes from the
class, meaning we finished as the top idea for the whole group. This shows why
we decided to take it on for our trailer. The idea was clearly very popular
with the class and they are our target audience, so picking the film was the
right choice.
Are you happy with the score? Do
you think the idea is worth making?
We are extremely happy with the
score as it is top marks. It shows that this idea is exactly what the audience
are drawn to. We feel that this is worth making as we could do it. We feel we
could make a really good trailer from this idea which we get us a high grade.
Mood Board
Mood Board Planning: Why we chose the images
The image with Freddy standing in the hallway was chosen
because the way the lighting is makes him appear as a silhouette. This
consequently makes him seem creepy, because we fear the unknown, which in this
case is the figure at the end of the hallway. The lighting also creates a tense
atmosphere due to the mist, making us feel empathetic towards the final girl.
In the other Nightmare On Elm Street pictures they both carry on with the silhouette theme, and
also have Freddy wearing the hat, which relates to our scarecrow, who also
wears a hat.
Scarecrow’s face from Batman Begins was chosen because it is
a very simple mask, but very effective because you can still see the person’s
eyes, which is quite disturbing. It was also chosen because the idea of The
Scarecrow from Batman spreading fear was one we wanted to somehow use in our
trailer.
The barn in the mood board is very similar to that of the
one from Ed Gein, in which he hangs up a woman and cuts her open. We hope to
have a decent level of gore in our trailer. This follows on to the crow image
which we chose because we would like a crow to be with the scarecrow, and for
it to eat people. The crow can connote evil, but it will be twisted around in
our trailer because the crow is actually a friend to the scarecrow.
The scene from Cabin in the Woods was chosen for the level
of gore it involves. The film is practically gore-less until that scene, which
makes it even more unsettling and shocking. The image of the dead woman was
also chosen due to its realistic nature, which makes it seem more disturbing
because it is a real life death.
Chad from Tucker and Dale vs Evil is on the mood board
because we believe him to be a typical male character that is generally not a
very nice person, and also ends up dying in an incredibly brutal way.
The Birds on the climbing frame was chosen mainly due to the
scene from The Birds in general when they are all squawking and flying around
then go completely silent. This is collision cutting, but it is done in such a
way that it just isn’t expected because crows aren’t thought to be violent
animals.
Movie Reviews 1 (Land Of The Dead) 2005
Review of “Land of the
Dead”
Film title: Land of the
dead
Director George Romero
Year of production: 2005
Genre: horror/action
Brief Plot Outline:
The living dead have taken
over the world and humanity survives in a small city and seems to be thriving
and they are generally quite horrible to the zombies and see them as a big joke
and it seem zombie remember who they are and attack the city.
Which to Scene impressed you the most?
1. When the zombie Choco attack his boss in a sort of
revenge way for not giving him an place
in the nice building instead of the slums
2. The beginning when all the zombie wander the streets and
just gives an eerie vibe from the place because they just wander around as
though that what they would do in normal life and they almost seem human and
help introduce the chief zombie which we feel sympathy for.
How has watching the film helped you understand this genre of filmmaking?
This film has help me
understand the horror genre for the body horror and all the characters
conventions and helps you how to make an effective horror with the locations
especially at the beginning
Which features on the
genre checklist did you spot in the film?
Body horror (when the man
get his face pulled off/the foot in the boot with no leg attached)
Slow moving monsters (the
zombies throughout the film however we seem to root for the zombies and not the
people in the city)
Male hero (The Alpha
Zombie “big daddy” for he has many features he’s big, he tough and he doesn’t
die at the end)
Open ended ending (the
majority survive the apocalypse although there is still zombie running around)
Creepy location (The
beginning with the dark town full of zombies with the mist and the zombie in
their work clothes when they died)
What Aspect would you like to
include in your trailer?
The body horror (for the best
impact on the audience and to freak them out)
The monster to be the hero (for
that will surprise the audience and keep this film in their mind)
What thing do you want to avoid in
your trailer?
Too many protagonist (for you
can’t connect with the characters as well because there is too many to care
about)
Two stories from different
characters (because then the audience get confused and try to keep with the
character and remember how is how)
The Body horror was one of the
best parts of the film because the film was realistic (we can try to do this
with other effects)
The characters and their
development was good and you got to know and relate with them (we can do that by properly think about our
characters
Movie Review 2 (Hills Have Eyes) 2004
Film Title
: The
Hills Have Eyes
Year of production : 2006 Director : Alexandre Aja
Genre/Genres: Action
Horror
Brief plot outline:
An American family are on vacation and are heading though the
desert when they are attacked by mutant humans from a nuclear testing area in
the desert. Now the mutants want revenge for the atrocities they’ve suffered
due to “normal” people.
Which two
scenes impressed you the most and why?
The gas station attendant blowing his head off: this was
impressive because the body horror]]] was well done and looked realistic. It
was also unexpected for he seems to be helping the mutants.
Doug putting the spear though the zombies head : not only
this was an impressive scene but also the hint of patriotism hidden in plain
sight with the spear having a American flag upon it showing Alexandre Aja ideas
and a pro-American feel. The film was only released five years after the 2004
terrorist attacks and now America is still at war with the middle east and so
the flag would have a patriotic feel to movie in that scene.
In The Hills Have Eyes there were many generic
features.
There was many cases of body horror in The Hills Have Eyes
although the impact is perhaps greatest in the scenes including one of the
dog’s deaths and the blood effects in the first scene when the scientists are
attacked.
Restricted narration was also used in the scene with the
mutant in the wheelchair is attacked by the dog. This is also used to good
effect and works as well as gore if not better for we only hear the ripping and
a scream. It puts us in an uncomfortable position as we’re forced to imagine
how Big Brain is being killed.
A good use of male hero with Doug being weak at the beginning
to a strong survivor at the end. However the female victim is the not the
blonde woman going against generic expectations of a horror movie which is
makes this film is more interesting.
It also has an open ending for all the mutants are all
supposed to be dead and a majority of the survivors are still alive and the
ending almost geared toward a ‘happy’ ending until the final shot, which shows
they are being watched. It is never revealed if it is a mutant or not although
it seems to be a mutant due to use of dramatic parallel music.
The film links to the historical context too, like many
horror films. This fits into the apocalypse that may have been coming in 2006
due to the conflict with the Middle East and Iraq maybe having weapons of mass
destruction. It shows fears of the nuclear fallout and the end of the world and
it could also fit into the super disease that could cause a deadly pandemic.
This relates into our common fears of the decade and the truth of the fact is
that this could happen in modern time and is not far off what would happen.
What Aspects would you like to
include in your trailer?
The body horror being infrequent to have a greater impact and
maybe using restricted narration instead of gore to shock the audience even
further.
The pacing is good for it gets straight to the point of the
narrative from the beginning, helping by the on-screen text which explain the
area has had nuclear test upon the area although it is denied by the American
government this too fits into the historical context of the debate of nuclear
weapons and should they be used
The characterisation of having a slightly picked on main lead
and would turn him into a good strong character and their development of the
character would make the audience warm to the character.
What aspects do you want to avoid in
your trailer?
Maybe the film is too fast paced for its own good (it was
over before it really begun and there was no character development time for
many characters that died in the middle of the film). Having too many main
characters for character development time is limited and may not even know the
character name or how they fit in the story.
Trailer Review (solo) 3 (Friday the 13th) 2009
Name of the film Friday the 13th
year released (2009)
Genre “slasher” horror
your mark 5/10
What happened in the trailer ?
A woman was explaining
what happen to her son and Jason came out and it seem he is about kill people
What did you like
The atmosphere was good
The music was Creepy
The voice didn’t irritate
instead making it better
The scene was set
What you didn’t like
No gore or blood
No narritve was inplaced
No main character
Didn’t make any kind of
sense
Trailer Review (solo) 2 (Ed Gein)
Name of the film: Ed Gein
year released : 2000
Genre : Psychological/Gore
your mark : 7/10
What happened in the trailer?
The story of Ed Gein is
explained and shown as a person and why he
did what he did
What did you like?
The story was set by the
narrator
He character was well done
They didn’t show a lot but
just enough to keep you interested
The explanation of it
being based on a true story
What you didn’t like
Didn’t explain the mother
being alive and dead at the same time
The voice over was used
and distracting which could have been done with text
It had no real explain on
how the victim where and what they had done
Trailer Review (solo) 1 (Scream)
Name of the film: Scream
Year released 1996
Year released 1996
Genre “slasher”
Your mark 6/10
Your mark 6/10
What happened in the trailer ?
An serial killer is
hunting down and killing people
What did you like?
The story was set
The killer was shown
enough
The voice over tell the
story
The music was exciting
What you didn’t like
Voice over wasn’t very
well done
Didn’t show the character
No motivation of the
killer explained
Not a lot of information
Comic but doesn’t help the
tone of the trailer
DOTD (2004) image analysis 3
This is one of the final shots of the movie with Ana sailing
away with the remaining survivors to safety.
The fact Ana is blonde is very unusual for a horror movie’s
“final girl” for the blonde generally will be the female victim. However in
this film she survives on the boat. One of the reason she is the “final girl”
is she has her hair tied back, instead of hanging down like Monica’s hair
style.
Also in the shot is an American flag which connotes
patriotism and connate to the zeitgeist of 2004 and the importance of being
proud of your country.
This seem to be an open ending with a majority of the
survivor escaping although zombies are still around but they are saved however
this is a red herring as the credit roll the shot show them all
DOTD (2004) image analysis 2
This is from the opening credits of the movie and shows a
mosque and shows Muslims praying in this shot. This was used to show that the
virus came from an Islamic country, however this has been used to capture the
zeitgeist of two of our present-day fears: terrorism (including the Twins
Towers attack) and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and killer viruses, (such
as swine flu and bird flu) and the fact of pandemic.
This scene links into the context of America in 2004, and is
used to show this could happen and link zombies into being terrorists. This
would really make the audience shudder at the time of the film’s release.
DOTD (2004) image analysis 1
This scene shows Andre and Kenneth talking in a bathroom,
and their clothing connotes they are two different characters even though they
are both black. Also there shirt are black and white the black connoting an
outsider/ ’black sheep’ while white connotes innocent and on Kenneth it reflect
his job as a policeman
Kenneth reveals that Andre is a thief and this shows between
them Kenneth has more power over Andre because Kenneth is in the foreground of
the scene. Kenneth’s background as a police officer shows him as a more morally
superior character in the story however in the scene Andre says he trying to
change his life for his girlfriend (Luda) so this shows him as a little bit of
a likeable character. These characters are both shown to be heroes in the
movie, and many horror films have black heroes. Another movie with a black hero
is Resident Evil afterlife with the character of Luther seeming to be dead only
for the end to show him alive and seems such an cool and likeable character.
Wednesday 19 December 2012
Favourite scene from Land Of The Dead
My favourite choice scene from my horror movies is from
“Land Of The Dead” by George Romero (2005).
This scene links to George Romero and the “Auteur theory” in
which because George Romero is anti-racist and the fact he has a black zombie
leading the charge against the humans that mistreat zombies makes us bizarrely
root of the zombies to kill the humans. The black zombie and makes him as made
into a main character to the story, showing how also George Romero likes to
flip character models and have an unexpected hero in this case the black
zombie. Another example of this is in martin were Romero make the vampire
character in such a way that we feel sympathy
Also in this scene is anti-consumerism for the fact the
humans try to hide in the shopping area of the district. This shows that the
people believe the shopping hold an important role in people’s lives and they
will be safe inside although the black zombie breaks down the glass wall with
his phallic power drill breaks down their ideas of consumerism and realise what
is important. Again we can Romero’s auteur influence, because he puts his own
belief into the film.
From this I want to do an action horror but with an emphasis
on body horror and links to hihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atXJB9luikostorical context.
Psycho (1960) image analysis 3
This scene is from the very beginning of “Psycho” in which
the title gets distorted. This is done for the reason that the villain Norman
Bates is schizophrenic between his own persona and “mother” and this image
hints at it if you carefully re-watch the film opening credits. This
schizophrenic personality refers to Ed Gein, who at the time was a killer who
took body parts and dug up corpses and he too was apparently forced to do the
crimes because by the voice of his mother told him so furthermore he liked to
dress up as a woman. This shows that Hitchcock captures the zeitgeist with the
character of Norman Bates referencing Ed Gein in “Psycho.”
Also the fact that the title seems to be slashed at hint
also toward the film that it one of the first films to have a psychopathic
villain and that the weapon he uses will be a knife. The parallel music is similar
to the shower scene in the movie setting a uneasy tone for the rest of the
movie.
Psycho (1960) image analysis 2
This scene is from the very beginning of “Psycho” in which
the title gets distorted. This is done for the reason that the villain Norman
Bates is schizophrenic between his own persona and “mother” and this image
hints at it if you carefully re-watch the film opening credits. This
schizophrenic personality refers to Ed Gein, who at the time was a killer who
took body parts and dug up corpses and he too was apparently forced to do the
crimes because by the voice of his mother told him so furthermore he liked to
dress up as a woman. This shows that Hitchcock captures the zeitgeist with the
character of Norman Bates referencing Ed Gein in “Psycho.”
Also the fact that the title seems to be slashed at hint
also toward the film that it one of the first films to have a psychopathic
villain and that the weapon he uses will be a knife. The parallel music is similar
to the shower scene in the movie setting a uneasy tone for the rest of the
movie.
Psycho (1960) image analysis 1
This scene introduce Norman Bates hobby of Taxidermy which
adds to the Norman’s creepy persona and shows Norman as being isolated and out
of the CDI. The mise en scene also helps warn the audience about Norman for
Marion’s last name is Crane and Norman has a great interest in taxidermy so she
could be in danger. “The psycho killer” is a key aspect of horror films. All
horror films follow a lot of generic conventions and they
can either be slow moving monster/fast moving monster of the early
horror movies but Alfred Hitchcock wanted to shock the audience with the whole
Ed Gein only just passed that help appeal to its target audience. The
importance of generic conventions was written about by Thomas Schatz in his
book “Hollywood Genres.
Also the fact that the birds are in the shot tell us that
Norman is a predator similar to the birds of prey on his wall. The low key
lighting helps give his office a light by his bird in the corner of the room
helps reinforce the idea that he is a predator looking down upon his prey.
The low key angle gives Norman power in the scene for the
audience seems to look up to Norman while shots of Marion are shown on level
with her this helped show us that Norman is in control of the situation.
This scene is the way Hitchcock uses lighting and camera and
mise-en-scene to give an uncomfortable character and situation that make us
feel uncomfortable.
DOTD (1978) Image Analysis 3
This scene is where the zombies are eating the biker this
was shocking in the 1970s and as a result the film was unrated at the time. The
gore effects were done by Tom Savini, who had been in the Vietnam War and had
seen injuries up close and he want to show how horrible injuries
Are and make them as realistic as possible to shock the
audience as much as possible. This was shown because the ‘hays code’ had died
out and was no long censoring movie however this was still shocking for the
time and was cut in the uk and was banned in certain country’s like Norway
until the year 2000
The fact the zombies are mocked by the bikers and they seem
to be enjoying attacking them. so once the zombies attack the bikers we seem to
be rooting for the zombies and hoping they kill the bikers. This is George
Romero’s style of making us feel sympathy for the zombies this is also shown in
“Day of the Dead” and “Land of the Dead.”
In land of the dead for instance the zombies are used for paintball gun
practice and for zombie sports.
DOTD (1978) Image Analysis 2
This shot of the zombies wandering the mall. This seems to
be George Romero pointing out that we are like zombies with his dislike of
consumerism. This is reinforced by Stephen saying this is “Some kind of
instinct. Memory of what they used to do. This also shows George Romero as an
auteur with his anti-consumerism, again proving Andrew Sarris’s theory that
directors can put their own ideologies into their films.
Later in the movie the characters seem to enjoy themselves
until Fran says to herself “What have we done to ourselves?” which is another
reference to George Romero showing consumerism is bad.
He enjoy doing this for he like to get noticed in the future
for these messages and this shown in ‘land of the dead’ where the shopper flee
to the shopping mall for safety which doesn’t help the against the zombie which
I think George Romero use ironically to make you laugh as they bought from the
shop but the shop doesn’t help them
DOTD (1978) Image Analysis 1
This is the end of ‘Dawn
of the Dead’ (1978) where there is a shot of the final survivors of the
movie. They are Fran and Peter which is unusual for a horror movie with the
blonde female being normally the female victim in the standard genre
conventions of horror and a black man which normally would one of the first to
die.
This shot also shows the importance of George Romero as an
“auteur.” This theory that a director can put his own beliefs into a film was
written by Andrew Sarris in his essay “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962.” ‘In
which he said ‘extending the appreciation of personal qualities in the cinema’ Romero
enjoys messing with the convention of genres and mix character types up. Also
he is anti-racist this is shown more in “Night of the Living Dead” (1968)
however this is still here in “Dawn of the Dead.” in night of the living dead
the only survivor is the black hero only being shot by the redneck with the
credit of him being dragged by hooks and burned with the zombies
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