Changes

Over the course of carrying out the blog, I made a few changes to the blogs for multiple reasons. This post outlines some of the changes and why I made them.

I planned to base my theme around a murder taken place in the woods of Hockley. Situations changed however and my friend was unable to participate in my opening which meant I had to think of someone else to be in my media film. Another problem I encountered was the story itself. One of the props I planned to use was a wheelbarrow. After planning my story, I realised that getting the wheelbarrow to my location wasn't going to be a possibility due to the fact the wheelbarrow was far to big to fit in the car. This meant I had to re-draft my story as my desired story line wasn't going to be an option.

Original Location

Later on I found it would be better to use a different woods as it was closer to the road so I could get there quicker. There was also less tree cover so there was more lit than Hockely woods. This meant I would be able to film there at a later time than I could of in Hockley woods.

New Location

After visiting both the locations, I found that Grove woods had a lot less roots and leaves on the floor, this was good as it meant it would be safer to run, which I mentioned in my risk assessment.




As you can see in the new location, it has better access to the road and an open sky which made it easier to get enough light to be able to film. This meant I had the opportunity to bring props which I would have previously not been able to use. This opened more filming ideas that I could think about.

Due to being busy a few days during my holiday, I had to delay some filming days which meant I had to also set editing back a few days. Thankfully this didn't cause an issue for me.

These were the only changes I made during the filming process as everything else went to plan.

Marking Previous Work

Influences

Influences

My film is very strongly influenced by The Blair Witch Project. When I was planning my film, I wanted to have a hand held film to create verisimilitude. I took the idea of having a message about when the film was found and what it is about. However I adapted that idea by starting near the end of the film as oppose to the start of the film. This is because I feel if it was going to be made into a full film, it would be more interesting as people will want to watch on to find out the story behind what happened in the woods. Some people believed the Blair Witch was real due to the 'footage found' message and also the missing poster. This for me is very interesting as this made the fil a lot scarier as it felt realistic which allows the characters to emphasise with the main character. This as a result led me to creating a handheld film in the style of Blair Witch. I personally prefer horror films that rely on the storyline to make the scary as appose to jump scares, this again also influenced my decision to make a handheld horror as Blair Witch was similar to the style of horror films I prefer.

Health and Safety/Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

There was only one scene that could have caused danger. In my opening, there is a scene at the end where I am running through the woods to escape the' Grove Devil'. To prevent any injuries, I planned the route I was going to run to ensure I wasn't going to trip over any tree trunks or roots. This is especially since it was very dark outside and visibility was limited. It was important that I planned out where I was going to run as if I tripped over I could have really hurt myself. I also had to stage me falling over. I did previously plan how I was going to fall over as there were sharp stones around and I didn't want to cause any injury to myself.

Just for added security, I had others around me and a phone in case I had any injuries. If an injury occurred, I was easily be able to get help and wouldn't be in any immediate danger.

BBFC

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are an independent non-governmental body that give films age ratings.

The BBFC have split the age ratings six different sections. They are: U, PG, 12A, 12, 15 and 18.

BBFC

The BBFC are a not-for profit organisation that that classifies cinema films, DVD's and videos.  The films are normally reviewed by at least two examiners following their published guidelines. It is very important that the examiners stick to the guidelines because they have to assess certain factors such as: Violence, language, Sex, sexual violence and drugs. Depending on how they are shown and for how long can determine their age rating. However local authorities can overrule the BBFC's decisions but the BBFC is widely accepted as the BBFC being overruled is very uncommon.


My horror film

My questionnaire results showed that a 15 rated film would be best for a horror film. This is also the same rating as The Blair Witch Project which is where I got my inspiration from. 15+films are able to have strong language and also violence which could be present in a horror film. After watching back over my horror opening, I believe my film is still a 15+ horror film as there is strong signs of threat. If I was going to continue the film, this film would probably include some strong language and scenes of a threatening nature. What makes this different from an 18+ film is that there will be no focus on pain and injury and no sadistic imagery. *See guidelines for more information*

Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that I gave out to people

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/C2XYSLL

This questionnaire contained 9 questions about the horror genre. I did this questionnaire so I can fin out peoples opinions about horror films and to find out why horror films are scary.

I will break each questions responses down to see what the majority went with.

1) what age rating do you expect a horror film to be?

12
12A
15
18

100% of the respondents all went with the 15 category. This is as there isn't as much violence in 12 rated films but a 15 can however. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) sais that 15 films can include: threat, violence and sex. 12 films however only have small amounts of violence and no emphasis on injuries or blood. This research is useful to question 2 as question 2 asks about their favourite horror sub-genre.

2) What of these genres do you prefer most in horror films?

Blood and gore
Psychological
Thriller
Monster based

The answers were very mixed. 40% of the respondents answered blood and gore. 20% of people went for each other category. This shows that there is not one traditional horror genre. In fact, people like a mix of different sub-genres. Blood and gore got the majority and blood and gore is featured in a 15 film which shows a clear match between the two. So far, the assumption I can make is that a good horror film has violence.

3) Do you think jump scares are essential to horror films?

80% of the respondents said that jump scares are essential to horror films. I personally don't believe that jump scares are essential because a good atmosphere can make the film scary, however most horror films now have jump scares as they are used to make the atmosphere tense and to scare the audience suddenly. Some argue however that they are cliché as jump scares tend to be very predictable as the music tends to cut, followed by silence, then a big music sting that frightens the audience. From my responses, I can make the assumption people enjoy jump scares and they have a positive impact on the film. The other 20% said that they are only essential if they assist the storyline, not just to scare the audience. This also shows that some people don't like jump scares to make the audience jump as they are a 'cheap' way of making the audience feel scared.

4) What do you dislike most about horror films?

For this question it was spilt equally among 5 different choices: Jump scares, no storyline to them, repeated storylines, predictable and clichés. This shows that horror films typically follow a certain structure as if they don't like conventions of horror films, they must happen a lot.

5) In your opinion, what makes horror films scary?

Despite jump scares being the most disliked convention of horror films, they are the most scary convention of horror films according to my questionnaire. This shows that jump scares are seen as a 'cheap' scare and that verisimilitude and a good storyline is the best way to scare people. From this, I can make the assumption that jump scares are both the most effective but also the most disliked convention.

6) Are horror films more scary if the villain wears some kind of mask?

60% agreed that masks somewhat make the film more scary. This is because not establishing a face to the villain is scary as you re uncertain as to who is the villain. This also makes the characters somewhat more iconic as for example Saw has the jigsaw mask which is iconic to the saw franchise. This means that having a mask will somewhat make the film more scary.

7) What would you expect in an opening to a horror film?

There were a few different answers for what is expected. They were as follows:
A image of the main character, story background, some sort of killing and jump into the action with a false set of security. Due to there being lots of different responses, it shows that not all horror films would start the same and that it is down to the directors choice of how he wants to do the opening to a horror film. Introducing the main character however was the most popular answer which tells you that being introduced to the characters is one of the most important conventions of an opening.

8) What is your favourite horror film?

All the films were different. They are as follows: Saw 3, Scary movie, Insidious. The Others and Shawn of the Dead. I cant make any assumptions based on this as al the films are different and some are of different horror sub genres.

9) What makes the chosen film your favourite?

Again since all the films were different, all the answers were different. The answers were as follows: Lots of blood and realistic, has a comedy element, good storyline, ghost film with a twist and scary but didn't give me nightmares. From these results all that I can tell is that people enjoy horror films for different reasons. Which doesn't draw me to any valid conclusion.

Year 13 Talk

A screenshot from a Shenfield blog

Although at our Sixth form we don't have any year 13 students. I have looked at blog examples from year 13 Students from Shenfield. I have looked at Shenfield blogs for inspiration on my blogs. I have also looked at them to see what could have been improved on their work. I have looked for improvements that I feel were perhaps too little detailed and could be elaborated upon.

 

If I was to hold a talk with year 13 students, I would start by asking them to each explain their strongest and weakest areas of their blogs. I would then collate all this information and see what the common weaknesses are. I would also ask them to pick a year 12 student and get the year 12 pupil to assess to ask questions relating to what the blogging process was like and what advice they would give to you. I feel that having a discussion with a year 13 student would strongly benefit year 12 students and year 13 students have had first hand experience and their advice would be really relevant.

I personally would have four separate discussions on each of the flour areas:

1. Planning
2. Observation
3. Discussion
4. Reflection

This would be beneficial as this structure will give the year 12's the best advice which will help them with their blogs.

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis

This link will take you to a Prezi presentation of a textual analysis on the film: The Blair Witch project. I chose this film to analyse because it has a lot of typical horror conventions but also some uncommon conventions so it is a good example to use this film as it shows a variety of conventions.

Link

http://prezi.com/-v132excw6qk/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
:
The different areas I have analysed are shown below:

Music
Text/font
Main characters
Technical codes
Mise en scene
Impact on audience
Conventions included

Title Sequece

Title sequences are used to highlight the key people in the film such as: Stars/produces and directors as well credit them as they are essential to the film as it would not of been made if it weren't for the stars, producers and directors. The title sequence also indicates the genre of the film and sets the tone by using the genre conventions. Such as any of the following: Symbolic codes, colour scheme, technical codes, font styles, editing effects and soundtrack. These conventions help the audience distinguish the genre. Depending on the style of the film, some films will rather tell the story from present tense and some will start with the past leading up to the future to set the scene.   

Blair Witch for example starts by introducing the main characters and them getting ready for their journey. However not all films start by introducing the characters. Depending on the style of film will depend on what the director will do in the opening.

Se7en for example doesn't start by introducing the characters. Se7en starts by introducing the villain which isn't common in most films. The opening features. The opening shows the villain writing in journals and examining x-rays which leads us to believe that he has been conducting experiments. The cutting off the skin on his fingers with a razor alongside the fast flashes of random images is a clear indication of his mental instability.

Fincher for example uses action in openings to grab the viewers attention whereas Saul Bass uses "typography, colour and imagery" in openings. Film openings are described to be the same as "opening the curtain in the theatre" they start the film off and introduce us to the characters and story, however the style in which the opening is presented in depends on the director an what message he is trying to portray.

Mood boards

Saw

The darkness adds tension to the shot as the darkness conveys loneliness and isolation which creates a sense of mystery as to where he could be. A tricycle is a kids toy yet it is being ridden by a puppet. This creates fear as it is unexpected as we would not typically expect to see a puppet ride a tricycle. Black can represent mystery and fear whereas green represents safeness and harmony. These two colours clash and since there is more black than there is green, it is used to show how the fear and isolation is empowering the safeness which creates a sense of danger


This character is wearing a mask which is common in horror films as it covers the identity of the villain which creates the sense of mystery as you don't actually know who is behind the mask. The mask is used a lot in Saw as this is the identify of the bad character. Studies show that masks are scary because of the Psychology of fear. People fear others if they cannot create a scene of identity. When you can see someones identity, you can normally pick up characteristics which can help you make judgements of a person. Without seeing their identity, you are unable to know who the other person is. This power of uncertainty is used by directors as it installs fear as well as making the audience want to carry on watching so they can find out who is the person behind the mask.

This mask as a result has become iconic to the film as the mask is similar to a clown and clowns are considered scary by many people which makes this mask effective for creating fear for the audience

Friday The 13th

Again, this film uses a mask in order to hide the identity of the character. This is to make the audience more scared as they do not know what the person looks like therefore can't pick up on their characteristics. This is also to make the audience watch the other films to find out who the masked villain is. The building looks extremely run down which is typical of a horror film as it is unsettling and makes the place look abandoned. The colour scheme again contradicts the villains as the background colour is beige which typically represents calmness however this is far from the truth. This helps to add to the 'unsettling vibe' especially since he is holding an axe.

The axe is symbolic to Friday the 13th, in every film the axe is featured as the axe is associated with the character. The blood stains show that the axe has been used before which shows Jason (The Killer) as a murderer.
The axe is featured in Friday the 13th, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and the remake and is the second most used weapon used.










I have also created a collage of multiple different horror films that I feel are the most iconic to the Horror genre

http://www.gomoodboard.com/boards/oIBjiiG0/share

Genre

Genre

Horror

Horror as a genre is a genre that is meant to make you scared, anxious, fearful- Just to name a few. Horror in film has been around since the late 1890’s in Georges Méliès short film: Le Manoir du Diable which translates to ‘The devil’s mansion’.

The main convention of Horror films is jump scares. Jump scares are described as "the most basic building blocks of horror” and wasn’t really introduced till the late 1970’s. Jump scares is a technique where an abrupt change in sound and image catches the audience by surprise and scares the audience. Typically, the soundtrack starts of iet and then the backing soundtrack stops to create silence. This is used to build tension as more suspense is growing. Then a music sting will happen abruptly followed by a change in image. This sudden change is used to scare the audience.

Narrative structure

Narrative structure is essential to horror films as they are the building blocks that make the film. The narrative structure is what makes films recognisable. Todorov’s theory is the general sequence we commonly expect to happen in horror films. If the narrative structure does not follow the linear narrative of horror films, it may run the risk of being confusing resulting in people not having an interest in the film.

I should first start by explaining what the Todorov theory is. Todorov came up with a theory that suggested that films follow a traditional structure. The structure is: Equilibrium, Disruption, recognition of disruption, attempted fix of disruption and return to equilibrium. However, the horror genre doesn’t always follow this structure. The Saw franchise directed by James Wan and Se7en directed by David Fincher both have different narrative structures. Both endings do not return to ‘equilibrium’. Se7en for example ends with sadness as the ‘disruption of equilibrium’ is never resolved.

These two films are an example of non-linear films as they do not conform to the traditional film narratives. This manipulation in structure means that the films are less predictable as it makes the audience unsure as to what is going to happen.