The Children, 2008.
Some of the images that I particularly liked are shown below, and we could use them as inspiration for our own film opening
One of the repeated images is toys, and I think this adds to the horror, as children are seen as innocent, and particularly the defaced doll shock the audience as it is the opposite to what they expect of a childrens toy.
The third picture is also effective as it uses a blue filter, as this makes the boy look pale and deathly, making the audience uneasy and adding to the tension.
We wanted to create a horror where a child was the main evil and scares the
audience by playing on the idea of innocence in children. Children are not usually
considered harmful of scary so we wanted to play on this and challenge that
idea.
There are many examples of other films that have used theme of children too:
Orphan (2009) - A
husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is
not nearly as innocent as she claims to be. Director: Jaume
Collet-Serra
Here are some pictures that i recently took for my art project and i think that they link into what we are looking at for our coursework. The traits i think that these represent are:
The young girl
innocence
alone
afraid
the dark make up
the victorian type clothing
reflection
The innocence of this photo and her eyes are showing emotion. I like the way her hair is styled with the ribbon and the costume she is wearing. I think that this outfit looks victorian like and i think that the make-up looks scary and makes the audience want to know whats happened to her.
This is just a shot which shows the outfit off and how it resembles an outfit they would wear in the victorian times. I like the detail of the dress and the ribbon tied around the middle.
I like the way that she is holding the teddy in both these photos and shows her innocence. Instead of using a teddy we could use a old doll that looks a bit distressed to add the olden time feel to the video.
This photo is using reflection which i think we should include in our coursework.
SmilingThey see the woman in black in the corner and she takes over their minds and makes them possessed.
They stand up crushing everything they have been playing with
e.g dolls and china teacups
They all work at exactly the same time up to the window and then jump out.
The only words you hear are a piercing scream and then “my babies’
They then do a close up of the scary doll face and then an establishing shot panning out until you see the back of the woman in black standing in the corner.
Inspiration
This
has key themes in it that we would like to incorporate into our movie opening.
Things such as:
Victorian Dresses
Dolls
China
Erie room
Scary music
Young girls
This
has really helped us with different aspects of our opening because of the type
of dresses the girls are wearing and the dolls they are playing with. I think
the use of no words until the end is really effective and allows for dramatic
effect.
Music is really important in creating a scary horror film as
it adds to the suspense. What builds the suspense is the build-up of music accompanied
with acting until you reach the climax of the action (scary part is finished). This
is done by beginning the scene in often a simple melody and as the second the
story gets more horrific, more instruments are added and the dynamics (volume)
become more intense, and this uneasy mood is created by increasing sharp, quick
and sudden bits of the music until finally it really loud and the murder for
example takes place. The sharp, quick and sudden bits of the music scare you because
they are unexpected, alarming and irregular.
There is often a jarring motif that is a tiny little musical
thought that repeats itself through the movie. Like when Jaws had that
repetitive motif when the shark's fin was exposed.
What you need to make a scary horror movie sound track:
We love the idea of making a black and white film as part of our opening. This is because its helps show the early time period (Victorian) which is what we want the child's spirit to be trapped in. It also gives a dream like feel that will help with creating the horror because it will make the audience uneasy as to weather it real or not and therefore whether it could happen to them. Black and white can open up more opportunity for mood with your film that colour cannot achieve as well for the simple reason that colour can tend to overwhelm the viewer. It therefore makes our piece simplistic but still terrifying. Also with black and white you can really extenuate an important colour by letting it be shown for example only showing the colour red can indicate gore and horror.
Here i am experimenting with different fonts that we could use in our opening titles. I think that the use of blood trickling down from the letters is really effective and i think that this would look good in the titles.
We chose quickly that we wanted to have a sub-genre as Gothic, we were inspired by films like Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Lemony Snicket and also by the director Tim Burton. The make up and costume used in the gothic theme is something we can experiment with a lot.
We interpret the Gothic film genre as dark, gloomy and mysterious with subtle horror and focuses more on terror than blood and gore (which would be slasher).
We discussed basing parts of our opening in victorian times, to give a gothic feel, as we were inspired by films such as Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper.
The film, Sweeney Todd directed by Tim Burton is set in the Victorian period and is a horror film with the sub-genre of Gothic. As it includes these aspects that we are keen to use in our own opening it makes for a brilliant film to watch, inspire, research, analyse and contribute to our planning and ideas.
The Trailer
This picture conveys to the audience that he is a dark character in the sense that he is dressed in all black and his make up makes him look pale and more menacing. This costume and make up are simplistic but give the gothic impression.
This makes a horrifying image to the audience as the mirror is shattered and reflects him. It impacts the audience by implying he's mind is shattered and unhinged, therefore making the film scare and intimidate its audience.
The women shows compassion and care for the boy. Her costume includes lace, flowers and the colour black which is gothic. The characters red hair also conveys the gothic theme and adds to the audience impact.
The costume and make up within this image shows a gothic aspect, they are both wearing dark colours in there costume and there make up is pale on there face but dark around there eyes, outlining there eyes and creating a sense of horror within the characters.
This image shows he contrasts all the other men in this particular victorian period. They are all wearing coats and hats and are very plain and neat. His outfit is more bold, dark and gothic as well as his hair which shows the audience that he is not like the rest of the men and shows as a warning.
This shot shows a difference in characters the man on the right is eccentric, brightly coloured and very flamboyant by the use of his costume which includes ruffles, bright colours and gold. However the other character is dark, reversed and gothic and this is shown by this plain costume and the dark make up around his eyes that show the intimidating glare that he is giving off.
This image contradicst the others because it is brighter lighting, set and location. The costume is also brighter this gives a sense of change however the make up and hair are still set in the gothic theme showing that the darkness is within them.
The lighting in this picture is brighter than in others as to highlight certain features, for example his pale complexion but darkened eyes to make his eyes stand out strong but also his big black hair and smile highlight the menacing aspects of the character.
Tim Burton is famously known for intertwining the theme of gothic in to his films. Burton takes famous stories, legends and myths and intertwines the Gothic theme in to it. For example Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by the use of make up, costume, sound and editing, he illustrates the stories with gothic aspects.
Gothic Imagery/Element’s is something we really want to involve in our film
opening. There are a lot of amazing films already out there which have inspired
us. Some of which are:
We didn't just want to look at one type of media so we also looked at what authors and novels are popular in horror and why as this could help us with our story.
The music in this is intense and
has a fast rock vibe to it. You can tell by the music that the genre is thriller/
drama.
Titles
The titles are white which contrast with the darkness of the background.
Images
The images are in the colours, grey,
silver and black that are keeping with the dark look of the opening titles. The
images are quite sexual but have a sense of pain and restriction in them as
well.
Saturday Night Fever
Sound
The sounds that you are able to
hear are the trains, cars beeping, and swearing. The music is non-diegetic
which means that the actors cannot hear what the audience hears. You can tell by the music that the movie
is going to be quite comical and funny.
Titles
The titles are red and bold. They they are the main focus with the image moving behind it. The font is quite big and bubbly.
Images
The opening shot of the movie is of
Brooklyn Bridge in an aerial shot. Other shots that are used are low angle
shots showing his shiny shoes and him walking down the street. He wishes that
he was rich and likes to think that everyone knows who he is. He has dreams of
success.
This is a timeline to explain what happens in the opening titles of Apocalypse Now. Most of the shots are close ups or establishing shots. Also the use of fade ins and outs are used when blending the face and the scenery which could be him imagining it because of the alcohol. Also the beginning could be foreshadowing of the film and what happens later on.
Click play below to watch the opening titles in full:
This is a timeline for the opening of the movie Halloween. Its shows key parts in the opening and what you are drawn to and pick up on. We think this analysis will help us when when we storyboard and plan our opening.
This is our preliminary exercise, including a match on action, and a shot reverse shot
As well as helping us understand how to create different shots, we also learnt a lot about continuity, so we have decided to film a lot more shots than needed in our actual project, so we don't have to re-film any, as this makes bad continuity
Harriett Sydall, Katie Southworth, Georgie Manser and Beth Harwood.
We are using the medium of video and our task is:
To create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.
On this blog we will record all of our research and eventually our evaluation.
