Camera Shots/Angles/Movements

Analysis of The Thing (1982) Opening

How does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?

In this title sequence, background music only starts after around half a minute. The music is very deep and has a foreign/alien feeling. This would lead the audience to believe that the movie is either sci-fi or supernatural horror. The narrative is only developed by a alien looking spaceship entering the Earth's atmosphere, this suggests that the movie is about an alien that has landed on Earth. Character is not established.


How does the title sequence attract an audience’s interest?

The title sequence does not give away the plot, resulting in the audience wanting to watch more so that they can understand the movie more. This method works in a similar way as a cliff hanger, where the audience want to see more.


What do you consider to be the target audience of the film and why?

The film has a mass audience but is more specifically aimed at Group C2 audience as they can relate more to the characters in the film. The characters are pilots, engineers and similar professions, these relate mostly to group C2 audiences, who are skilled tradesmen.
From the opening I am unable to determine the age rating, but having seen scenes of the movie I would determine the movie to be an 18+ movie. This is because there are many graphic scenes which are unsuitable for young audiences. The film also contains mild language which is inappropriate for children below twelve. The movie is actually rated 16  as although violence is bad, language and other aspects are very moderate. The movie is also not scary or jumpy enough to be an 18.


Who has produced the film and how is that evident in the title sequence?


The film was produced by David Foster and Lawrence Turman. This is stated at around 1 minute into the title sequence.

Analysis of Pscho (1998) Opening

How does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?

In this opening, the fast music establishes the horror genre, while the character and narrative is not established. Green is used to represent greed and jealousy. Green can also be associated with aliens and hence supernatural occurrences. Black refers to death and evil. So, there is a connection of death, evil, greed and jealousy. Possibly the film is about these elements. 

How does the title sequence attract an audience’s interest?

The fast music along with the animation is addictive, making the audience want to see more. The fact that nothing is given away by the opening makes the audience want to view more so that they know what the plot of the movie is.


What do you consider to be the target audience of the film and why?

From the opening itself, it s impossible to state what the target audience is. The movie itself is directed at a mass audience as its language and violence allow the movie to be suitable for a large market. The movie is more specifically aimed at groups B and C1, this is  the characters  themselves are from the same group. This leads to groups B and C1 audiences having greater sympathy with the characters.
From viewing scenes of the film I would state that the film is a 12 for current audiences, as there are only a few violent scenes, where actual wounds are not shown, making it unsuitable for younger audiences and little language makes it unnecessary to be a 15. The movie was actually rated as a 15 due to nudity scenes.

Who has produced the film and how is that evident in the title sequence?

At the end of the opening, it is stated that the film was produced by Gus Van Sant and Brian Grazer.

Analysis of Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski is a Polish film director born in Paris, 1933. His first film was Knife in the Water (1962) and his first english film was Repulsion (1965). He was nominated in the Oscars six times and has directed many psychological horrors, which is the genre for my Main Task. Psychological horror films that he has directed include; The Tenant (1976), Rosemary's Baby (1968) and China Town (1974). He has also directed films of other genres such as The pianist (2002), Oliver Twist (2005) and Carnage (2011).

The following are Roman Polanski quotes:

"My films are the expression of momentary desires. I follow my instincts, but in a disciplined way."

"You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity."

"The best films are because of nobody but the director."

From these quotes I have decided not to include any action in my horror opening as I would be unable to film it properly without stuntmen. This has led me to decide to do a psychological horror opening. Also, even though acting is key, it is most important that my actors fully understand what they need to do when filming and that I plan well enough so that I have thought and covered every possible aspect of Mis-en-Scene and so that I can create the best possible horror factor. 

A horror opening is somewhat similar to the prequel of a series, you have to captivate the audience without giving them too much information. Arguably, the most important part of a prequel is to end on a cliff hanger or to leave questions unanswered, which is what I will attempt to do in my Main Task.

Mise-en-Scene Analysis of Se7en opening - 24/10/2014

Resulting Action: I will link my points together to explain how a theme is established and will be more explanatory in my paragraphs by explaining my points and linking them to the effect created on the audience.

Analsis of The Conjuring Opening

How does the title sequence establish genre, character and narrative?

Newspaper articles show that the story is about a haunted house, showing that the film is a horror, more specifically, supernatural horror. Black and white images along with music instills a horror feeling within the audience. Black and white indicate a reference to the past, again showing that the events have already occurred.

Character is established at the very beginning of the opening where the two families, the Perrons and the Warrens, are shown by family photos. In the second frame shown above we can see the Warrens giving a lecture, showing that they are the ghost hunters and that the Perrons own the haunted house. The children of the Perrons are shown many times in the opening but, with different people. A newspaper article also shows that the Warrens got rid of a possessed doll called Annabelle. This links the film to its prequel, Annabelle.

Narrative is established by newspaper articles which, sets the scene to show that ghosts are haunting a house, which is shown by a frame showing the house. The newspaper articles indicate that ghost hunters arrived to tackle the problem. These articles along with pictures are placed in front of the audience by an unknown person, indicating that the events have already happened.

How does the title sequence attract an audience’s interest?

The music itself generates a horror feeling and the newspaper articles begin to set the scene and build up tension, making the audience want to know the entire story. The font used seems to be a commonly used one, possibly, times new roman or verdana. This tricks the audience into letting down their guard as the film actually contains many shocking scenes.

What do you consider to be the target audience of the film and why?
 

The target audience appears from the opening to be for a Group A, B and C1 audience as the opening seems to show an old fashion style of life of the characters, which tends to appeal to the higher class audience more. I would rate the film as a 15, as it contains many shocking scenes which are unsuitable for the younger audience. There are no sexual or violent scenes making it appropriate for under 18s. The actual age rating of the film is 15+.

Who has produced the film and how is that evident in the title sequence?

 

The Conjuring was produced by New Line Cinema, The Safran Company and The Evergreen Media Group. This was evident as it was written in the title sequence following the seventh frame above.

It was individually produced by Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran and Rob Cowan. This was shown in the second frame at the beginning of the post.

Representation feedback - 21/10/2014

Resulting Action: I will use different formats to present data and analyse representations and Mis-en-Scene in more detail. I will also add extra detail to my other posts, use more pictures, videos and Prezi.

Conventions Of Psychological Horror

Conventions Of Psychological Horror

I used Horror on Screen to provide information on different sub genres.

Our sub-genre for our main task is going to be psychological horror, more specifically - madness and paranoia. This sub-genre tends to be closely related to slasher horror, as often the mad antagonist kills many characters. The difference is that in psychological, the film does not focus on the deaths of characters, but rather on the madness of the antagonist. Psychological horrors create unease in the audience by using common psychological and emotional fears to generate the most tension possible. By playing on peoples' fears, people can relate to the movie more, making them more sympathetic. Madness and paranoia genre films tend to contain battles inside people's minds or attempt to link events in the real world to how they are feeling mentally.




The Black Cat 1934 was one of the earliest psychological horrors.



Psychological horror developed from the early version s that it could create a greater effect on the audience. New techniques such as caring parents or previous tragedies increases the audience sympathy of the character. In The Conjuring, there are many scenes showing the parents playing with their children, making it more horrific when something happens to the characters.

Analysis of Fonts

ANALYSIS OF FONTS



A font is a style of writing. Fonts can be italic, bold or underlined. Common fonts that are used everyday include; times new roman, verdana or arial. In this post, I am using the courier font, this is larger than arial and I thought it would be suitable to use a different font for a post on fonts. Different fonts are used for different applications. In the media and more specifically, the filming industry, different fonts are used to create different effects on the audience depending on what type of text is being shown. For a romance or a family film, a flowery and neat font would be used. In a horror, which is what I will be analysing, the font needs to give a scare factor. The type of font almost gives an inside glance at the structure and style of the movie.

This font, known as Poltergeist Regular has cuts in the letters giving a slasher horror feeling. The dots around the letters could be used to indicate blood, making it ideal for a slasher or psychological genre. From my own perspective the style of the letters gives me a feeling of looking at the past or chase scenes. I believe that this makes the font ideal for an action horror. This could also be useful in a psychological horror as the cuts in the letters could connote missing memory, thereby making it useful for a film such as identity or a film were the plot is about someone who has a split personality or is trying to find out the truth regarding an event, he needs to fill in the gaps/cuts.



This font, known as Tricky Treat Regular has patches and holes in letters gives a feeling of emptiness ideal for the supernatural genre. The writing style also looks as if little time has been spent showing that either the antagonist is very gruesome in the way he kills, or that he must catch his victims quickly, making him unprepared and creating room for error. The letters are of different sizes giving an eerie feeling that would be ideal in a supernatural or psychological genre.




This font, known as Gloss Regular has a dripping look as if blood is dripping off the letters making it suitable for action, as blood is often linked with danger, this font thereby involves the audience from the beginning of the film, or psychological genres. The writing is also somewhat neat, giving a feeling that in the film, something has been carefully planned and that someone is very precise and swift in how he acts. This makes the audience feel that the protagonist is trapped and unlikely to escape thereby challenging the audience intellectually to try and figure out methods of escape for the protagonist. The unnatural style of the letters gives a more psychological rather than action horror feeling making it more ideal for a psychological movie.

Horror Audiences Part 2

Horror Audiences - Part 2


Below is the results of a Questionnaire that I handed out. This questionnaire was designed to explain horror audiences.
For my bar charts I used www.onlinecharttool.com


Q1. What Gender are you?
 A1. 30 males and 30 females.

I chose an equal smaple of males and females to make the questionnaire fairer.

Q2. What age group are you in?
A2.  I selected an equal number from each age group.

Q3. Do you enjoy Horror movies?
A3.

I was surprised to find that more females enjoyed horror movies compared to males as my previous research would have indicated otherwise.

Q4. What is your favourite type of Horror?
A4.

From here onwards I have only included data from people who enjoy horror movies. That would be 18 males and 20 females. Many people had more than one favourite genre, these results were included.

Q5. What was your favourite Horror movie?
A5.

Most of the favourite films were spread out evenly, but I was surprised to find that Nightmare on Elm Street was nobody's favourite.

Q6. Who is your favourite Horror villain?
A6.

Results were again scattered and most girls did not have a favourite villain. It was surprising to find that people's favourite characters were not from their favourite film.

Q7. Where do you enjoy watching horror movies? 
A7. 

These results indicate that girls are perhaps more social or that men enjoy a scare more.

Q8. What do you find to be the scariest weapon?
A8.

The knife and axe were generally found to be the more scary weapons. I expected this as people generelly feel scared about cuts and amputations, which can be linked to these instruments.

Q9. What is your favourite location for horror?
A9.

 The favourite location was by far an abandoned building. This indicates that people are scared of confined and lonely areas.

Q10. Why do you watch horror movies?
A10.

Here we can see that most people watch horror movies for a thrill. This could arguably be classified as  'for entertainment', making it the most popular choice by far.

Q11. How often do you watch horror movies?
A11.

From the chart above, it would be fairly reasonable to state that many people do not watch horror movies often, even if they do enjoy watching them.

Q12. Which gender do you prefer for the villain?
A12.

It is evident from this chart that a male villain is most preferable. This could be down to the fact that it is more realistic as males are generically seen as more violent than females.

Q13. Which gender do you prefer for the hero?
A13.

This shows that males are preferred for the hero. This contradicts my previous research, where females were preferred to be the hero. 

Q14. What would you prefer to happen in a horror?
A14.

This shows that the protagonist dying is the most common preference, but apart from this, different genders appreciate different endings. This preference of ending seems to show that the female gender is more sensitive, hence they don't want everyone to die, but prefer for the antagonist to die or become good.

Q15. Do you want the opening to give away the plot?
A15.

This shows that the opening should not give away the plot, as this is the preference regardless of gender.   

History of horror feedback - 13/10/2014

Resulting Action: Will add extra description onto my post to explain how it will affect my horror opening. I will also do a post on horror audiences and will do a separate post on a questionnaire so that I can investigate horror audiences myself.

Horror Audiences Part 1

 Horror Audiences - Part 1

The current audience for horror is 15 to 25 years as the younger audience want to experiment more, making them more excitable and are not put off by gory scenes. Males are also more of a target than females, since they are naturally enjoy violence and thrills more than females. The audiences differ with different sub-genres, for example, in psychological horrors audiences tend to have a higher social status than the audience of slasher horrors. This is due to the purpose of the genres.

Psychological horrors aim to intellectually challenge the audience and as a result, a higher class watches this genre. This is done by creating cliff-hangers or by leaving the audience to work out who a complicated question in the plot of the film, such as who is the killer? Why is he out for revenge? What is his master plan? Is there a way to escape? On example is seen in Identity where the audience must figure out how the group of people are related to Malcolm Rivers and who is killing everyone. This results in psychological horrors having a group B and C1 audience as these are the people who are most likely to want to be intellectually challenged. I have not included Group A as they do not tend to watch or enjoy horrors.

However, with slasher horror, the information is  well displayed and there is no challenge to work out the plot, which tends to be relatively simple, someone is murdering people really violently because he is a lunatic and can this one person or group of people defeat him or escape from him. Zombie horror is even more simple in this sense as the audience is expecting a film, which, entirely revolves around some guys, who are the last humans n the planet, killing lots of zombies or infected people. An additional theme may be seen, such as in 28 days later, when there are family and relationship issues, none of which is complicated to figure out.

Most people tend to watch horror for a thrill or to prove that they have a stronger backbone than their friends.

Questionaire on Horror Movies

AS Media Horror Questionaire (Please answer truthfully)
Circle the appropriate response


Q1. What gender are you? 

Male
Female


Q2. What age group are you in? 

15-20
21-30
30+


Q3. Do you enjoy watching Horror movies? 

Yes
No 


Q4. What is your favourite type of Horror? 

Action
Supernatural
Zombie
Psychological
Comedy
Slasher


Q5. What was your favourite Horror movie (please name)?


Q6. Who is your favourite Horror villain (please name)?


Q7. Where do you enjoy watching Horror movies? 

Cinema
Alone on TV
With friends
Other (please specify)


Q8. What do you find to be the scariest weapon? 

Knife
Axe
Gun
Hammer/Mallet
Other (please specify)


Q9. What is your favourite location for Horror? 

Abandoned building
Desolated field/forest
Other (please specify)


Q10. Why do you watch Horror Movies?

For a thrill
To be scared
Because someone told you to
Other (please specify)


Q11. How often do you watch Horror Movies? 

Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Rarely


Q12. Which gender do you prefer for the villain? 

Male
Female


Q13. Which gender do you prefer for the hero? 

Male
Female


Q14. What would you prefer to happen in a horror? 

Protagonist dies
Antagonist dies
The antagonist becomes good


Q15. Do you want the opening to give away the plot? 

Yes
No

How was Robert Enguland represented in Nightmare on Elm Street?

Robert Enguland played Freddy Krueger, the antagonist who murdered people in their dreams pictured below. Krueger was out for revenge on the people who burnt him alive. He did this by murdering their children.

Krueger has a red and black jumper as well as a black hat, the red represents blood and in turn the fact that he is dangerous. Black is often associated with evil, showing that he is the antagonist. The claws on his left hand gives an indication that he is going to injure or kill someone. His burnt face shows his past and possibly the fact that he is out for revenge. The folded arms could indicate that he has a closed personality and is focused on the job at hand. The facial expression shows a look of disgust, indicating that he does not care what must be done to accomplish his task. His ripped collar and cuffs may show that he is going to kill in horrific and brutal ways. He is shown overall, as a dangerous and evil person, out for revenge and is set on his goal. He is getting revenge on the people who caused his burnt face and is going to get it in a brutal and horrific way.

History of Horror

History of Horror

Before I describe the history of horror it is important to understand what is horror.

"Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears."

definition from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film

The very first British horror film was The haunted castle in 1897 by George Albert Smith. Since that time the horror film industry has developed significantly from the early loud bangs and sudden moments of seeing a monster. Horror is a lot more sophisticated today and uses the methods available to them better, this is due to the audience not finding original horror movies scary as they are used to them. Anticipation, background music, Mise-en-Scene, and acting/directing has all improved drastically.

An image from Le Manoir du Diable, which was released in 1896.



An image from the ring (2002).

We are able to see the difference between the images. 100 years of advanced technology has allowed for better editing and camera shots such as the close up (above), giving us a better visual effect. Notice how the lighting from the ring is so much better than that from Le Manoir, allowing the audience to see clearly what is happening and furthermore, allowing the audience to be more involved in the film. Also the make up on characters have improved significantly to give more of a 'horror' effect as dirt, cuts, bruises and blood can be seen more clearly giving the audience a better understanding of the character and what they have been through. Also, 100 years of development has allowed directors to understand the audiences' psychology when watching horror. This has resulted in horror films now playing on peoples' primal fears, the ring is a good example. Most people care for children and have a soft spot in their hearts for young children especially if they were or are parents. The Ring used this to their advantage by making the antagonist a young girl, therefore playing on the audience as although they are fond of young children, they may want this girl to die. This involves them in the film and as a result they will enjoy the film more as they can feel as if they are part of it. Another development has come from the audiences themselves. A further development of psychology has been the understanding of colours and how people relate and react to them. Red results in the audience thinking of blood and thereby danger, leading them to instinctively and subconsciously expect the character to be in danger. As you may have experienced, a scare or sudden movement is actually more scary if you are expecting it than if you aren't due to the tension building. As a result the use of red has increased the scare factor of films as it has created tension. Other colours used are black, which is linked to the night and darkness, subsequently resulting in the audience linking the object to death and evil. Many other colours are used and not all colours have a single definite meaning as different people can link colours to different objects. A good example is green. People subconsciously link green to money, nature and sci-fi aliens, all of which are green. However there is no specific or majority link with the colour. The production of horror movies since Le Manoir has resulted in the audience expecting more as they got used to the initial horror movies. This led to directors having to discover new techniques to make their films more scary and as a result, better. This has ultimately led to the drastic change which can be seen by the two images from horror films. A final improvement has been improved cameras which has resulted in better focus of characters allowing facial expressions and body languages to become a more effective method of creating a scare factor. Body language such as panting and facial expressions such as scared looks on children are now used to create a vital factor when portraying a character or a scene as it permits the audience to link to the characters and emphasise with them more and become more involved with the film.

A brilliant example of the use of colours can be seen from the famous image of the Exorcist (below).

In this image, a dark figure is seen approaching a house. White mist is seen coming from a window, to be specific, a girl's window. The mis-en-scene used is extraordinary when you delve underneath the first sight of the image. The mist is white, and people link white to purity, angelic and thus it is shown that the girl, who lives in the room of the window is innocence. It shows further that her innocence is perhaps leaving her with the mist and is falling on the figure. This results in the audience subconsciously believing that he is going to take away her innocence. This is further shown by how his dark figure, which the audience can link to darkness and then evil, stands out in the white mist. This shows that his evil is too strong for the girl's innocence and the evil is able to stand out from the innocence. In the film, the character walks towards the house which shows how the evil is slowly taking over the girl's innocence leaving very little remaining. This subconscious effect has a great impact. The advancement of horror over time to result in such a big impact on the audience just by being able to show mist and make a character dark is a remarkable improvement. It also shows how much movies can now play with our minds considering the amount of objects available in a frame to create a certain audience perception.



From the first horror movie, le Manoir du Diable in 1896, there was only one camera shot and no sound. As a result, tension cannot be built using sound and due to the poor camera quality, the audience are unable to view the character's facial expression and observe what the character feels. This limited the ability to create suspense and anticipation as the audience were unable to emphasise with the characters and were not as involved with the film as they are now. Less than 100 years later, sound and different camera shots were used, increasing the scare factor of a scene. In Jaws, colour shots allows for Mise en Scene to be used as well as differing camera angles, improving the quality of the film. This is evident in Jaws by the numerous camera angles and transitions, which build suspense and displays the characters' feelings allowing the audience to emphasise with the characters more. Almost 40 years later, in 2013, we see the movie, Mama. In the scene shown, the horror is more subtle and there is more tension and anticipation. This gives a more dramatic effect on the audience. It is important to remember that as time progresses, horror audiences develop and require new methods to be scared. This is shown by the age rating drop of Jaws from 18 to 12. Arguably the greatest change in horror is the use of mis-en-scene and its increased subtlety.

Jenifer's Body - 7/10/2014

Resulting Action: I need to be able to write the effect on the audience more so that I can push up my research to achieve Level 4 research.

Media blog feedback - 5/10/2014

Resulting Action: Crop my pictures as I have now done. I will also embed a youtube video of my preliminary task.

Mis-en-Scene The Shining - 3/10/2014

Resulting Action: I will write my Mis-en-Scene in a more structured method. I will use P.E.E paragraphs more. To do this I will explain the effect on the audience as well as linking mis-en-scene objects to their connotations and effects.

Mis-en-Scene evaluation of The Shining scene

Here's Johny - scene from the shining