Marketing 2018

For marketing I wanted the opening to have the theme of horror. I wanted the music video to be immediately identifiable as a horror film, so the audience will be able to identify the genre just from the opening. The thumbnail for my horror opening is a close up of the killer with his hood up looking down at the camera. Looking down at the camera with a black hooded coat on displays an element of horror as the facial expressions give of fear as looking down directly at the camera shows that I am looking down at the camera making the audience feel smaller than me which looks intimidating.

To make sure that the opening was easily identifiable as a horror film, I played a small snippet of the backing music and sound effects to a small focus group and asked them what genre this this music fit. All members of the focus group agreed that the music sounded that of a horror opening. This gave me an indication that the music I was using was the correct music for the horror opening as everyone identified the music that it was music suited to a horror opening.

I used IMovie on the iMac to edit all of my opening which allowed me to listen and implement a large group of sound effects which I used to make my horror film tenser. Before finalising my opening, the focus group all agreed that all of the sound clips I have included were suitable for a horror film opening so I knew that they were acceptable for my opening.

Influences- Texas Chainsaw 2018

There wasn’t a heavy influence of Texas Chainsaw in my opening however I did take elements from the film to adapt my opening to make it scarier. Texas Chainsaw is known for being a scary horror film, so I watched clips of the movie to take inspiration from to use as inspiration for my own opening. In Texas Chainsaw, there are a few chase scenes which are prominent in the movie which makes the horror film opening scary. I watched some of the chase scenes and I found out that they made the horror film scary and also, he wore a mask which made him easily identifiable as the main villain.

In my opening, I decided to feature chase scenes as I feel chase scenes make the horror films feel tenser and build suspense as the audience are left speculating on what will happen next. Rather than use a mask, I used a black coat with my hood up as I felt this kept the majority of my face covered which made me more of a stalker as revealing little about the stalker which makes the film feel more mysterious. This inspiration was very useful in my planning process as it helped me to analyse what makes horror films scary and focus on the effect that they will have. Therefore I used Texas chainsaw as a basis for my chase scenes as I found myself from watching clips of the film that the chase scenes added tension to the film.

Audience feedback 2018

I started by getting my main actor to watch my video and give me feedback on the opening. I asked him a bunch of questions about the opening and about if any changes needed to be made to my opening. After watching the opening, he said that he wanted to re record some of the chase scenes as he said that they were very false looking as he kept turning around and looking at the camera during the planning process. From this feedback, we went back to the woods to re record some of the shots to make them more suitable for a horror film.

There was also smiling in some of the shots which contradicted the genre of my opening and therefore had to be rerecorded. Once all the changes had been made, I sent the opening to my friends who were a similar age and all liked horror films and asked them their opinion on the opening. From the feedback I received on my opening I was very happy with the feedback. My friends found my jump scare I included was very effective as some of my friends found the jump scare scary. I was very happy with this as it made my horror opening more realistic because it showed that my jump scare had the desired effect. They also felt that the synching between my video and the sound was very well edited as it was fully synched which made the video looking more realistic as the sound didn’t sound like it was just added on but made the feeling look smoother.

After I had re-filmed the rest of the shots, I didn’t receive any critical feedback after I had made the changes, so I decided I was happy with the video and decided to publish the video after the feedback. If I didn’t receive the feedback on my opening, I wouldn’t have made changes to the re-filming of some of the shots which would make my opening less professional. Seeking opinions of others helped me to evaluate my own judgement so I can make changes accordingly.

Influences- Friday 13th- 2018

Friday 13^th was a film that I took inspiration from in the planning of my horror opening. I wanted to have elements of stalking in my horror film to build and add tension in my opening. I decided to take inspiration from Friday 13^th in that the film is set in the woods. The camera appears to be in the bushes looking at the main character. The camera is from the perspective of the killer looking at the main character. I decided to take inspiration from this by adding shots of the killer amongst the trees following the main character. This was done because when I watched Friday 13^th, I felt it added tension to the scene as it gives an element of stalking which makes the main character look weaker and vulnerable as he doesn’t know that he is being watched/followed.

Therefore, I decided to take influence an implement this style of filming into my horror film as this gave my horror film a tenser atmosphere as the audience is aware that there is imminent danger however they can’t tell when the killer is going to make their move. This suspense led to a jump scare which is a convention of horror films as horror films feature jump scares which are when the music goes quiet before a loud music sting followed by dramatic music and high action. Without watching this film, I wouldn’t have had the inspiration to include stalking and jump scares in my video which would take away the element of shock and a tense environment which would have made my horror a lot less scary.

Film Opening 2018