Top 10 Horror Films

I used to hate Horror films. I always thought that they were nothing but stupid films with bad acting, stupid lines and mountains of blood and gore instead of being scary. This was until this A2 media course helped to expand my views on horror films and help me to see some of the best and most innovative horror films ever made. Thanks to this course I have now fallen in love with horror films and it has become my fifth favourite film genre so it’s seems that now’s the time to show my gratitude to horror films by counting down what I believe to be the ten greatest Horror films that I’ve ever seen.

Please note that these are films that I HAVE SEEN and I haven’t seen every horror film in existence so films like ‘a nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘the exorcist’ and ‘Texas chainsaw massacre’ won’t be on this list since I haven’t seen them all the way through, but aside from that enjoy. 

Number 10: Friday the 13^th (2009)

Remakes are something that has become increasingly popular in the world of cinema and most of the time remakes aren’t nearly as good as the original film, and horror films are prime examples of these since nearly ever horror film has been remade at least once and most of them just plain suck (the remake of ‘Halloween’ was just meh, and don’t get me started on the ‘Psycho’ remake). But in some cases remakes (while not as good as the original) can be good in their own right, for instance: the remake of ‘the fly’ was pretty good and the 2002 version of ‘Carrie’ was alright but I think one of the better remakes has to be Friday the 13^th.

Now Friday the 13^th is a rather mediocre series since it relies of blood, gore and many horror clichés rather than focusing on tension and atmosphere, but the remake (while still being more focused on gore and clichés) has a much strong emphasis on atmosphere and it combines the story lines of the first 4 Friday the 13^th movies into one and in this case it works since it tells a much more coherent story and the film flows much better because of it. Jason Voorhees is as great as ever as the hockey mask killer we all love and the kills are still awesome, plus there are quiet a few interesting characters in the film besides Jason which help to get you more involved in the story. While not that great of a horror film I think it deserves a place on this list since it one of the better remakes and is both scary and a lot of fun to watch… though the ending is terrible!

Number 9: Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960)

I bet it’s a shock to see this film so low on this list. And yes while I find Psycho to be a VERY overrated film since the second half of the film is nowhere near as good as the first and aside from Marion Crane and Norman bates, the other characters are boring and forgettable, I can’t help but acknowledge how much of an impact this film made on the horror genre and films in general. What I mean is that this film gave us the first human killer instead of a monster which gave the film a much more realistic value to it, which made it all the more scarier, the film doesn’t rely on blood but goes for tension and atmosphere and do I have to mention the shower scene? It practically speaks for itself. So while Psycho made be the most overrated film ever there’s no denying that it is a milestone in both the horror genre and films in genre.  

Number 8: John Carpenters ‘The Thing’ (1982)

Going back to the idea of remakes John carpenters version of the 1951 sci-fi classic is one of the best remakes ever and is a very different take on the story. For one thing ‘the thing’ is more than one person in this movie, it follows the book more closely since it takes place in the Antarctic rather than the original film taking place the Arctic, and while the first film had more focus on tension and suspense this one goes straight for the gore but not only is this film gory, it’s a disgusting, putrid, cringe worthy, vile, repulsive, revolting, sickening, gross gore-fest of a movie… and I love it. The thing is a great horror movie and Sci-fi movie, the sense of isolation in a frozen research lab is done wonderfully and the alien effects when the thing takes shape are some the best special effects ever made, the animatronics and stop-motion effects are some the best I’ve ever seen and it really helps to complement the goriness of this film, Kurt Russell is great as always and overall it’s a great flick but be warned if you don’t like gore, don’t watch this film!  

Number 7: Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Now many people may question why I put this film on the list since you can see it as ether a horror film or a musical. Personally I see this film as a horror film and a great one at that. Sweeney Todd is filled with blood and violence but it’s the main character Sweeney Todd who is the scariest thing about this film. Johnny Depp does a great job portraying this character as this ticking time bomb in the sense that he can flip out at any moment and when he goes it’s truly scary. The musical side of the film is truly remarkable since the songs are very powerful, but also help too tell the story and show the characters feelings and emotions. The film as a whole is just great, all the actors do a great job in there roles and I like how the majority of the film is through song which really gives the film it’s own unique style to it and the design of the world looks great, it’s very dark, moody and rather abstract, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from the great man himself Tim Burton. 

Number 6: Scream (1996)   

DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES? I certainly do, and Scream is one the best slasher flicks ever made. What’s interesting about Scream is that it’s more of a parody of many famous slasher films (like ‘Halloween’ and ‘Texas chainsaw massacre) and there conventions since the characters will often highlight these conventions and how stupid they are and then do the exact same thing two minutes later. You would think that by doing this Scream would be more of a comedy rather than a horror film but in fact the film is really scary and Wes Craven does a great job of building suspense and the plot twist and the end is just great. Scream has been credited as the movie that green lighted the modern slasher flick (films like 'I know what you did last summer') but I see it as a tribute to all things horror in terms of scares and entertainment (the opening scene is the best example of this since it’s one the greatest scene ever put into a horror film). This is one horror film that you have to see even if you’re not into horror films I guarantee that you’ll have blast with this film.  

Number 5: The Woman in black (2012)

12A! This film only had a 12A rating! This shows that in order to make a good horror film you don’t blood, swearing, gore and sex, all you need is tension, atmosphere, a chilling story and being genuinely scary. However the woman in black isn’t good… it’s great, I mean this is one the greatest horror films of the last 10 years. Everything about this film is just great, the setting is great, the acting is great, the atmosphere and tension is great, the villain is great, the characters are great it’s just a great film. It’s also a very interesting type of horror film since a lot of the film is silent and has a very high emphasis on diegetic sound which makes the noises you hear seem all the more real. Being produced by the studio behind the 1960’s Dracula, Frankenstein, and the mummy there are various moments where elements of these films are present like how the woman in black moves in a fashion similar to Dracula, how the towns people are terrified of the house in the marshes similar to being scared Frankenstein, and the boy rising from the bog similar to the mummy rising from the ground etc. In the end the Woman in black is just a great, suspenseful and scary horror film and this film goes to show that you don’t need blood to make a horror film. 

Number 4: Carrie (1976)

Stephen King is one the most famous horror authors in existence and his first novel was called Carrie. The story about a young girl with telekinetic powers who is abused by both her vindictive peers and religiously obsessed mother was a huge success, and the 1976 Brain de Palme version is even better. The film does a great job at taking the best bits from the book and taking away the bad bits in order to create a more unique and interesting story. I consider this film to be both a Drama and a Horror film since the majority of the film is a drama that focuses on Carrie’s struggles to fit in with her piers as well as rebelling against her mother who has been controlling her all her life, until the end when Carrie is elected Prom queen only to be Drenched in pigs blood and this emotional trauma causes her to go on a murderous rampage and this is where it becomes and horror film.

The film does a wonderful job of pulling us into Carrie White’s shoes so that we can understand and connect with her more through out the film which helps the audience to become both uplifted and scared by what Carrie does or goes through. Carrie white is one the greatest female characters ever and Sissy Spacek does a fantastic job portraying her since she is both sympathetic and sweet but also scary and maniacal and other characters like Carrie’s mother and Tommy Ross are great too. The Prom scene is one of the best Horror scenes ever, the film makes great use of the famous Psycho strings, Carrie’s main theme is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard and the ending is much scarier and more powerful than the ending in the book. In the end Carrie is one of the greatest horror films and film adaptations ever made, and I absolutely love this film to bits.        

Number 3: Jaws (1975)

Horror films often have a tendency to make people scared of something that stands out about the film (for instance: ‘Scream’ made people scared of answering the phone late at night and ‘Texas chainsaw massacre’ made people scared to wander off into unknown territory) and Jaws made everyone scared to go into the Ocean. What makes Jaws so scary is that it’s arguably the most realistic Horror films ever made since the setting is in the ocean which is covers 71% of the earth’s surface and the location is completely closed off and isolated, the killer is a giant great white Shark which is real animal and would act the exact same way Jaws does in the film etc. There are some many other things about this film that are great since the character are interesting and fun to watch, and the film is great at building tension and keeping the audience in suspense since you rarely see the shark (yet you know it’s there) until the end of the film and there are even moments where the Shark appears out of nowhere and it really throws the audience and gives them an unexpected scare. Jaws has been credited as being one the greatest if not the greatest film of all time and I can certainly see why since everything about this film is outstanding and the opening scene where Jaws attacks the woman swimming is the perfect definition of horror and then finally there’s the music by John Williams… and all I can say is just WOW!!! 

Number 2: Halloween (1978)

This is film is the ultimate definition of a Horror film. John Carpenters Halloween not only helped to introduced slasher films to mainstream audiences but it also helped to revolutionise horror films and make them into what they are to day. Halloween has everything you’d want in a Horror film, its got tension, atmosphere, realism, isolation, darkness, a psychopathic killer, the blank face mask and so much more. Halloween is one of the those films that no matter how many times you watch it or even if the lights are one and there are people with you, it will scare the crap out of you. Two things in particular stand out about this film, first is the music which is such a great soundtrack since it’s a very high pitch and creepy score that gradually gets louder and deeper in tone which makes it feel like the killer is closing in. Second is the killer himself and he is one of the greatest Horror villains ever, everything about Michael Myers is terrifying, his appearance and bland expression, the fact that he is human and doesn’t speak expect for incredibly deep, the way he blends into the shadow and move around like a ninja and so on. At the end of the day Halloween is the perfect horror film because it does some many things right on so many levels and it has one of the greatest cliff-hangers even seen in a movie.

Number 1: Alien (1979)

Honestly the title alone is enough reason for putting this at the top of this list. Alien is both a Sci-fi and horror masterpiece and both elements of these genres help to compliment each other beautifully in various ways. The feeling of being alone in space is done perfectly in this film and there is a real sense of desperation and paranoia in every scene as the audience awaits the alien’s next attack. The alien itself is both beautiful to look at but is also terrifying to see as it devours people one by one. The film as a whole it just a wonderful piece of cinema since there is so much to love about the film whether it being the alien, the face hugger, the characters, the location of the film and so on, Alien is just one of the timeless classic that never gets old. This is easily director Ridley Scott’s best film and actress Sigourney weaver delivers one of her best performances ever, the special effects are just outstanding and the alien design by H.R. Giger is something to marvel. The spaceship the film is set in is one the greatest sets in a movie history and the scene where the baby alien burst out of the guys chest is one the most iconic scene in cinema history. The film also loves to play with audiences expectations since the film will often build up to the alien about to attack someone but then it turns out to be a false alarm only to have the alien appear at random moments in the film which audience haven’t prepared for and it really gives the audience something to be scared about. I also think the idea behind alien is what complements both the horror and science fiction genre since we all want to know about aliens existence and travelling in space but we don’t know what these alien could be like and the films gives us the worst case scenario for what could be mankind’s greatest discovery because in space… NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM!!!!!     

A2 media evaluation

This my evaluation of the A2 Media Course: Project Horror film trailer

A2 Media Evaluation Version 2.0 on Prezi

'Damnation' film trailer

This is the horror trailer that y group and I have created called 'Damnation'. Enjoy!

Creating our Horror magazine

Not only did we have to create a movie poster as a means of advertisement but we also has to create a magazine front cover to go along with it. All of us had previous experience on creating a magazine from the previous year so we all ready new what we were getting ourselves into only this time the magazine was based around movies rather than music. As I mentioned in my research on magazine front covers I would have like the magazine to be genre specific since I thought they the most effective at grabbing the audience's attention through imagery associated with that particular magazine (e.g. sci-fi now used science fiction type imagery like lights, lasers, robots etc). However as my other group member's pointed out to me using a general film magazine would be better since they are the most popular types of film magazines and they are much more simplistic in design which would make it easier for us base our design on. So in the end we decided to jump on the band wagon and make a magazine based around 'Total Film'. 

The first stage in creating our magazine was to choose an image that we be used for the front cover. We took several photo's of our main actress behind our film 'Damnation' and went through them all to decide which one was the best, eventually we all agreed that the shoulder/close up shot was the best since that type of shot is often used in magazine and we felt it was the best looking shot we took. So like with the poster we used Photoshop to create the magazine and the first thing we did was to paste our image of our main actress onto the canvas and the remove the background from the image of our actress since it was an odd greyish-white colour which didn't look to great. Once we removed the background we filled the space around our actress with a black background.... which only made it look worse since it really didn't go well with the lighting on our actress' face and hair and even when we tried adjusting the lighting it still looked bad.   

Eventually we decided to make both image of our actress and our background black and white, and it really look good after we applied these settings since it had a nice grainy feel to it and we figured that it would help to make the text stand out more. So once we had the image sorted the next step was to add all the text and extra images onto the magazine. For the title of the magazine we simply cropped out the logo used in a total film magazine from the internet (the largest and highest quality one so that the quality would still be good once we pasted the image) and added it to our magazine in the exact same spot used in every total magazine cover for consistencies sake.  next we wrote out all the sub-headings for our magazine which were mainly features that correspond with the theme of the magazine, which in this case was horror (we had headlines about the 50 greatest horror films ever, the release of John Carpenters 'Halloween' in 3D).  


Once all the text was in place we then changed the colouring of the text to differentiate each type of text from each and to help it stand out from the background and keep with the theme of our film (the major colours used in our film being red, white and black) since the main title and sub-headings are in white and red, and the description text was in black. 

Next we added the image of the cross used in our poster into the magazine and then decreased the opacity to make it rather faint so that it looked like part of the background since we wanted to have an image that we could related to our film but we wanted the focus of  the magazine to be on our main actress. Next we added the bar code to our magazine so that it looked like a legitimate magazine and we also added small dots at the top and bottom of the page between each of the films name mention in the magazine to separate them from each other and avoid confusion. Next we decided to add a button onto our magazine since it was something that was commonly used in magazine and it helped to give the magazine a more professional look. Once we finished we printed out the magazine and took a look at it, and we weren't completely satisfied since although the imagery and layout were great some of the wording in the magazine looked rather dull and it really didn't jump out and the reader plus some of the text was rather difficult to read (particularly the white text) and the read text seem to be on a completely new layer rather blending with.

So after observing what was wrong with the magazine we went back into Photoshop and made our changes. Firstly we added drop shadows to the text so that it stood out more from the background and also helped to make the red text blend in more (as well as making the tone of red used slightly darker), plus we added drop shadows to the logo and button. Next we changed some of the text so that it look more powerful and interesting for example we changed "world exclusive" to "exclusive in interview with the star of". The final change we made was to the title of the film since we copied it from the poster but it looked far to bright and didn't mesh at all, so we decreased the lighting of the text and it blended well. However because of this we then hand to change the lighting on both the poster and in the film trailer, luckily this change was a good thing since it looked really good. 

Finally once the poster was finished we printed it off and look and it once more and the changes we made really helped post the presentation of the magazine since it look like a real 'Total Film' magazine. I'm very happy with how the poster turned out and I think the decision for a 'Total Film' magazine rather a genre specific magazine was for the best.       

Creating Our Horror Poster

Along with film trailers, posters are needed to help sell the film to a wide audience and get people to see it. So when it came to making our horror movie trailer it was only natural that we had to create a poster to go along with it. The poster it's self had to relate to the trailer/film in some way (e.g. text, image or colour) and had to follow the conventions of the posters we have researched in order to make the poster look as good as possible. 

The first thing my group and I decided on is that the poster was going to be a 'single image black background poster' since based on the research we conducted, the overall feedback was that these types of posters were the most favourable (especially in my case) since the bold colouring of the image against the dark background, mixed with the simplicity of the image helps to catch the audiences’ eye and also it doesn’t give away anything major about the film which avoids the possibility of spoilers. The main inspiration for the poster was the poster for 'John Carpenters Halloween' since that poster is one of the best film posters ever made (at least I think it is) and a lot of the conventions used in our poster came from 'Halloween'. 

The first stage in making our poster was to make the size of the poster A4 and decide on a single image to be used in the poster that relates to our film (just a side note here is that we used Photoshop to create our poster since it was a program that my group and I were familiar using  so everyone could work on the poster in there own time and the program itself was ideal for creating a film poster since we could manipulate images and text in various ways like colour orientation, size, effects etc). We eventually decided on using a cross turned upside down since it is the symbol of the devil and the trailer we made is about devil possession. Once we had imported it into Photoshop we changed it's size so that it took up a large chunk of the poster and then alerted the hue/saturation to give the cross and dark red look to it since it was originally gold and the colour red symbolises fear, angry, blood, death etc. 

Afterwards we added a glow effect onto the cross to give it even more power and helped it to stand out greatly from the black background (plus it looked cool). So now that the image was finished we moved on to the extra details need for the poster since the image alone isn't enough, in this case the next thing we did was to add the production credits from the end of our trailer onto the poster since it's a convention used by every film poster (or at least 97% of them) and it shows who was behind the making of the film. To do this we simply copied the image from the trailer video and then resized it so that it fit into the space provided at the bottom. The reason we did this instead of typing out the text one by one is that the text was already aligned and didn't need much changing after we imported it and that this technique was used by various other media groups (including the year before us) so we didn't feel like we were being lazy or anything.  

Next we had to add the title of our film to the poster and for constancies sake we took the title text used in the trailer and put it into the poster... however the text really didn't go with the poster and because of that we than realised that we had to find a brand new text font that could be used in both the poster and the trailer. Naturally we looked on various font websites like 'dafont.com' but even though we did find some fonts that worked in one of the media products the same font didn't work in the other. At first we thought that we were screwed since we couldn't find any fonts that worked on both products but then we decided to take a simpler approach and look through the default fonts available in Photoshop and Microsoft word. Finally we fond a font that worked in both the trailer and the poster and it was from Microsoft word of all places, the font was called ' Basic Sans Heavy SF' (don't know what SF means) and it was a very bold font that wasn't too sharp or too rounded. The font looked a lot like 'Halloween's' text font and after importing the font into Photoshop we added an inner and outer glow to the text to give a nice white outline which made it stand out  more from the background and it gave it a more three dimensional effect. 

Our final step was to add the extra text and certificate rating. The extra text was just the tagline for the film since Horror movies LOVE taglines (ours being "from her past, comes a new evil") and the pull quote from a critic, since its something that modern posters love to do because it makes the film look better which means that more people which watch it. For the certificate rating we chose to used the 18 rating since most horror films are rated 18 and it shows that we are attracting teenagers and young adults which is what are target audience is meant to be. In order to get the image into Photoshop we imported it from the internet and then we had to highlight the white box area of the image using the magic wand tool and remove it so that all that was left was the 18 certificate.

So that's how we made our poster and I’m very happy with how it turned out since it follows the conventions of the typical movie poster but follows the style of single image black background posters (which are arguably the best type of film poster) and because of this the poster look very bold in terms of colour and imagery and the simplistic design of the poster gives the audience the general idea of the film but it doesn’t give away anything major, which is just what a film poster should do.  

How does 'SCREAM' mock both Horror conventions and theories?

Due to large amounts of film being based on a certain genre, there are many types of clichés and conventions that apply to films of these genre (e.g. romance films often have slow running towards each other or kissing, action films tend to have get away vehicles conveniently appearing when necessary etc). Often Parodies of these films are made and make fun off these convention since they are commonly seen and everyone knows them (e.g. Austin power parodies spy films like 'James Bond', 'Galaxy Quest' and 'Space Balls' parody sci-fi films like 'Star wars' and 'Star Trek' etc). When it comes to horror films one of the most famous parodies is Wes Cravens 'Scream' in which a murder is going around killing people due to his knowledge horror films and how to get away with the murders. The film itself has many moments where it out-right take the piss out of many horror conventions but there are times when then films takes and more subtle approach and this is mainly towards horror theories rather than conventions but what exactly is 'Scream' mocking? 

The first thing that is made aware in the being of the film is that 'Scream' is specifically mocking 'Slasher’ films' like 'Friday the 13th' and 'Halloween' in which the killer goes around killing people one by one rather than say a monster like the old 'Frankenstein' and 'Wolf man' films, or films that have a bigger emphasis or drama rather than horror like 'Psycho' or 'Carrie'. This is made aware in the opening scene where a girl gets a mysterious call from someone who is spying on her and eventually ends up killing her by stabbing her to death and then gutting her... nasty. The main parody point of the ‘Slasher’ genre is when one of the characters in Scream highlight that there are specific rules to surviving a horror film like not saying 'I’ll be right back' or not having sex since these conventions appear in almost every ‘Slasher’ film and the audience knows exactly what ‘Scream’ is saying since every time one of the above rules is disobeyed in a horror film that character(s) dies shortly afterwards. This also happens during the film since whenever a character goes somewhere by themselves or has sex or even drinks a lot they die, which further emphasises the rules that 'Scream' mentions.   

Another thing that makes Scream a parody is that it is self aware that is a horror film. What I mean by this is that there are various times in the films where characters will talk about horror films and their conventions often mocking them, for instance the main character 'Sidney Prescott' gets the same call as the girl in the begin from 'Ghost face' (the killer) and he asks her "Do you like scary movies?" she replies "no, I think it's stupid when a big breasted blonde girl who can't act is running upstairs to get away from the killer when she should be running out the front door" and then 2 minutes later she is attacked by 'Ghost face' and she then runs upstairs to get away from him instead of running out the front door. It’s moments like these where you can tell that Scream is self aware since anyone else wouldn’t be so stupid as to run upstairs or even bother talking to 'Ghost face' over the phone, what this does however is that it further mocks the conventions of horror films since the audience are made aware of these conventions and they are then played out in front of them to further emphasises how stupid they are. This is made more prominent towards the end of the films since when the killer explains his plan he references nearly every horror film and how he used their conventions and techniques to get away with the murders (e.g. he talks about using the ingredients that made the blood in 'Carrie' to fake his own death and even quotes Psycho saying "we all go a little crazy sometimes') and the character who explain the rules to survive a horror film acknowledges these since he is one of the few who obeys them (e.g. he states that "I'm so happy to be a virgin right now" due to the nature of non-virgins being killed in horror films).  

So it's pretty obvious the 'Scream' mock horror conventions but in my opinion it also mocks horror theories, in particular the 'final girl theory' and the 'male gaze' since they are the most prominent theories in both horror films and 'Slasher' films. First of all the 'final girl theory' is used in almost every ‘Slasher’ film since it explains that the main girl is often the outcast out of her friends since she isn't loud, sexually active or confident, yet at the end of the film when she has to confront the killer she is the only one who is able to stop/kill him/her or it. Good examples of the finally girl theory are 'Halloween', 'Alien', 'A nightmare on elm street' and 'Texas chainsaw massacre' (all ‘Slasher’ films, expect 'Alien') since the main characters in those films are all quiet women at first who aren't that attractive compared to the other girls and seem rather weak, yet at the end they end up surviving the killer (e.g. Ellen Ripley is the only one smart enough to outsmart the alien and kill it). This Theory is mock in Scream in a very interesting a clever manor since the main character 'Sidney Prescott' is not as attractive as her friend or loud mouthed and confident, yet she is good looking and she has a reason for noting being sexually active since her mother died and ever since she has been unsure about sex, also from the get go she is a strong character rather than being weak like most final girls since she survives Ghost face’s first attack and even punches a news reporter in the face. What 'Scream' mocks about the final theory is that while Sidney is a virgin throughout the majority of the film, towards the end she decides to forget the torment of her dead mother and actually has sex with her boyfriend which is completely against what most final girls do and even the rules to surviving a horror film yet she is the one who beats the killer in the end (way to break the mould 'Scream').

The male gaze is another theory that Scream really takes the piss out of since out of all the different film genres, in my opinion horror films are the most likely ones where you're going to see people topless or fucking each other (Friday the 13th is guilty of this since in every film and I mean every film you see at least one couple having sex). Often this is used as a marketing gimmick since it is often rare to see naked people in films and horror films uses this as a way to get more male audiences interested in the film since even if the film does suck there is still nudity which is what most males want to see alongside the violence and gore. Scream mocks this in terms of build up and expectations since there are many times in Scream where you expect the characters to have sex or at least take their top off, but right before this happens the film will ether cut away or just stop the sexual interaction. For example in the beginning of the film Sidney's boyfriend tries to get in to her pants (literally) with a close up of his hand going up her leg and reaching for her... you know what, but she doesn't let him due to her being unsure about it, she then says "would you rather settle for PG-13?" And then she flasher her breast at him yet the camera is placed over her shoulder so we only see her boyfriends reaction. Another example is towards the end of the film where just as Sidney and her boyfriend start to have sex and she proceeds to take off her bra and just before she lifts it up the camera pans to behind her boyfriends back blocking the audiences view, but before the pan can finished it cuts away to the group of friends watching 'Halloween' and even then it shows the clip of when one of Laurie's friends is about to show her breast, but right before she does it cuts to the groups reaction seeing this. What 'Scream does it that it teases the audiences expectations since they expect to see nudity yet they don't get it but what this does is that it makes the audience keep watching (I'm guilty of this) since they expect to see something eventually due to the amount of post-nudity shots in the film, and it feels like the film is building up to something though in the end it doesn’t amount to anything.  

So that's my take on how 'Scream' mocks the conventions and theories of Horror movies. Now to general movie goers they may not understand what 'Scream' is mocking due to them not being aware of all the different conventions of horror films, but that begs the question.... 
"DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES?"    

Using special effects in after effects!

Sometimes it is not enough to have a single shot or image on screen since it could be lacking in terms of depth or power which why special effects are often used to add a little more substance to the shots/images. In my group and I's case our production title was lacking in terms of both effectiveness and quality which made the introduction to our horror trailer look very shabby. We had to find a way to make the production title look more powerful without going with the easy option which is to simply change the font. So we decided to add some sort of special effects to production title... however adobe première pro was exactly our best friend at the time since although it did have some special effects that could be used, they just didn't really add anything to the production title and some of the looked just plain bad. Luckily there was another Adobe program that help us solve this problem. 


Adobe after effects was a software program that was design specifically for creating special effects for videos. The effects we decided to use was a glass shattering effects since it was a nice way to introduced the trailer and it relates to horror since often the killer in a horror film will break through a glass door or window in order to reach the victim (e.g. Ghost face in 'Scream' and Michael Myers in 'Halloween'). I was in charge of creating this effects my other group members were busy edit the trailer and since no of us had ever used this program I took it upon myself to understand it and be able use it effectively. At first the program itself was very user friendly and I was able to get the effect featured on screen and then mess around with the control options so that I could make the glass do all kinds of things (e.g. increase the rotation speed of the glass and it shatters, enable the glass to randomly disperse in any direction on every repeat etc). 

Once I finished messing around with the control settings I had to apply this effect onto the production title and export it as a 'Microsoft AVI' file. This is where it got frustrating since all of sudden the program made applying effects to imported media very difficult and even exporting the file was a pain in the ass. Luckily I was able to look up solutions to these problems on YouTube and soon enough I had the effect exported as a 'Microsoft AVI' file (turns out the clip had to be pre-render and tested as a RAM preview before being able to export properly) and was able to include it into the horror for the introduction and it made the production title look much better.  

Sound editing: voice clips and sound effects

When ever my group and I went out for filming often we would capture are actors in dialogue sequence's, however due to background noise being present their voice were ether difficult to hear or have background interference. We already knew that the solution to this was to use a radio microphone that clip onto the actors clothing so that it capture their voice more clearly which did work but there were occasions where their was some sort of background interference (e.g. strong winds or traffic), this also applied to sound effects since because we were using the radio mic so much often backgrounds noises came out very quiet or sounded odd. So to redeem this we record the actors voices and sound effects with the radio mic in a sound studio so that there wasn't any background noises.


Once all the recording was finished I had to convert all the audio clips (or least all the ones we wanted) into a audio file. In order to do this I had to import all the recordings into Adobe Premiere and arrange them into a single timeline so that they all play one after another. Original I intended for our clips to be in a single sound file but because we had to record all our actors voices and sound effects using the video camera the default setting was as a video file and when ever we brought up an audio clip in the timeline the video was always present. I had to somehow get rid of the video and just leave the audio, eventually I learnt that you could do this using to methods in Adobe Premiere.


The first method was to drag the clips into the time line then unlink the video footage from the audio and remove the video footage. This method was longer than the other but it gave me the idea that this could be used for the trailer if we want have with no voice or background noise sine we can remove the audio from the footage.

The other method was to change the previewed version of the clip to display only audio levels and drag it into the time line. This method was much quick than other plus you could view the loudness of the audio just in case the volume was to little or too much which was a nice touch.

Once all the audio clips were in the timeline and arranged in the correct order I thenconverted the file into a Microsoft AVI file so that it could be used in Premiere as a single video clip (which was blank since there was no video footage and we could place it underneath the footage used in our trailer so it only appears as audio) and we could then isolate each recording needed and remove it as separate clip rather than having to shorten the entire clip and re-pasted it every time we wanted to extract and new piece of audio. 

Using Audio in our trailer plus copyright issues

In order to get the audio that would be need for our horror trailer, my group and I had to download music and sound effects off the internet. However it was made well aware to us that we shouldn't use copyrighted material since the audio could easily be taken down or muted by the rightful owners. So instead we went to a website called 'Royalty free music' which allows people to download music for free and use it how they please since it was copyright free. For a while I was finding it hard to determine what to download and use since a lot of the music was not right for what we wanted to do and because of that we felt that the soundtrack would be rather limited in the end, eventually we found some pretty good pieces of music but we felt we needed more. 

  












Link to Royality free music: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=horror

So now we had no chose but to find audio and effects on YouTube so we could have more variety to use in the trailer. We are fully aware of the risk on using copyrighted materials and hope that this doesn’t interfere with the production of this trailer.

Link to one of the audio clips we will use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBfsAUFifOo 

Magazine front covers presentation

Magazine front covers presentation

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Above is a power point presentation about my research into magazine front covers and how their conventions will be used to help my group and I to construct the front cover of our film magazine. 

Film poster study and analysis power point

Film poster study and analysis

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This is a power point presentation showing the research I have done on film posters and my own personal opinions on them including: my favourite type of film poster and which type of poster would be best suited for out group to create. 


(Please note that I originally had animations put into the presentation so that certain things would appears in a specific order but it didn't transition onto slide share)

Shooting Schedule

Below is our groups shooting schedule for this week. The schedule basically outlines what we will be doing on certain days in terms of filming and what teams members as well as actors will be needed on that day. The schedule only covers this week since we have to narrow down what we are going on each day, and please excuse the fact that the shooting schedule box exceeds the size of the blog post area but I had to make it that size so that it was easy for people to see the text in each box . 

Storyboard presentation

This is our groups power point presentation which shows the storyboards we created and how they will be used as a basis for each shot in our Horror trailer. The power point will show the progression of how the trailer will play out as well as descriptions of the shot and the camera movement/editing, and sound/dialogue/music that will be featured in the clip.

Horror movie trailer Storyboards

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Using Religious connotations and themes effectively

Our horror trailer 'Damnation' is influence heavily by religious connotation and theme that construct the basic narrative of the film in which a girl gets possessed by some sort of entity (presumably the devil) who then goes on a killing spree and passing the possession onto others. Now my group and I were well aware that using religious connotations in films can be very risky since portraying them in a certain way can cause a lot of upset from people of that religion and because of this the film could be easily slated or even unable to view. Naturally we weren't going to do anything extreme religion wise but we couldn't take that risk, so I took it upon myself to watch and analyse a film (in this case a horror film since it further relates to what we're doing) that uses religious connotation and themes, but not to the point in which it's considered offensive or unjust. The film in question is CARRIE (1976).

After watch the film (which by the way is a great film) I came to a slightly odd conclusion, but it's what my theory behind the religious connotations used in this movie is. My theory is that religious themes are used to establish the ground work for the film and its themes, but it's not the basis for the narrative and the main reasoning for the events in the film to play out, but rather as something that can be questioned as the cause of the events based on people’s preferences. The reason for this is that in the first act of the film the use of religious connotation is very strong and helps to establish the themes portrayed in the film since we can see that Carrie's mother is a very strict Christian and that she blames everything bad that happens to Carrie based on the fact that she has sinned (e.g. the scene where Carrie confronts her mother about getting her first period and not telling her about this sort of thing shows her mother merely thinking that if she didn't sin it wouldn't have happened).

So yeah the first act is strong on religion, but in the second act the religious themes and connotations take a back seat in favour of Carrie dealing with teenage issues and starting to become more and more accepted by her piers (e.g. spending more time with Tommy Ross and even being asked out to the prom) and the scenes with her mother become incredibly downplayed since the scenes are much shorter and Carrie no longer become the victim to her mother’s views. It's at this point that the religious connotation seem to be something of an afterthought since the film focuses more on Carrie and her struggles (both good and bad) but it's towards the end of the prom scene that the religious come back into play. It starts with both Tommy and Carrie making a joke saying "to the devil with false modesty" which suddenly sparks off some very deep and dark music. After that Carrie gets elected prom queen only to have pigs blood be poured all over her (pigs blood representing un-holiness since the pig is considered an animal unfit to eat according to Judaism). Carrie (believing that everyone is laughing at her) then uses her powers to kill everyone in the room and the image of her covered in blood and surrounded by fire shows some sort of devil-ish embodiment.

Once she returns home the room is surrounded by candles (which shows the light of god) and after taking a bath and washing the blood off her mother confesses that her sins were the reasons for Carrie's birth (she agreed not to have sex but one day gave into temptation) and that "now the devil has come home". Carrie's mother then attempts to kill Carrie by literally stabbing her in the back but then Carrie uses the kitchen knives to crucify her mother (similar to Jesus being crucified upon the cross). Carrie then out of fear and frustration accidentally destroys her house and the last we see of her is that she is slowly dying with her dead mother in her arms and a close up on a figure of a crucified Jesus Christ (R.I.P Carrie... you're flying in heaven, not burning in hell). So you can see that Carrie' use of religion starts strong and ends strong, but the middle portion of the film allows the audience to take a breather and focus on other things rather than the film forcing the religious themes down your throat and because of this the religious themes come off as more of a possibility behind the events that play out in the film rather than the main reason for them (since the blood being poured onto Carrie could be a result of spite rather than sinning).      

So after looking at Carrie I knew that if we were to feature religious connotations, it would have been something that eventually gets underplayed rather than being a primary basis for the entire story. So because of this we decided that the first half of the film should be strong on religion but then underplayed in favour of a more survival horror/zombie infestation type of story. This will allow us to get the audience familiar with the religion theme we're portraying but not keep it dominant throughout the course of the film so that (like Carrie) the religious themes could be considered as possibility for the events that take place throughout the course of the story but not being the exact reasoning as to why they occur.

Test filming take 2

Before shooting our actual film trailer we decided to have another go and shooting shots from our storyboards so that we could get a good understanding of how to use shots effectively and how many are needed for a minute and a half trailer. Now did have one go at filming but i didn't turn out as successful since it was our first time and we weren't familiar with the various error that can easily be encountered when filming such as: misplaced props, bad lighting and reflections etc.

This time around the filming turned out to be much better since not only did we take into consideration the errors that occurred last time but also we had our main actress (who portrays the role of 'Angela') with us which was much better since because of her the shots turned out better in terms of emotion and authenticity plus she got a idea of what the character it like which will be very beneficial through out the film since she already know how to portrayal 'Angela'. We decided to use more important scenes in our storyboards since they would be the harder ones to shot and having that experience now would benefit us when it comes to the actual filming. The shots them selves turned out really well compared to last time since we avoid the errors we made before and shot the same scene several time in order to get the best result for the editing process.  

We plan to film this Friday and this second shooting tryout has really helped us to use camera more effectively and prepare for the actual filming.  


NOTE: When the filming does take place we will be using the inside of a church building for some or our scenes. We did however get permission from the vicar to use these premises. 

Narrative Theories used in our Narrative

In our film/story Damnation it's narrative consists of two main theories. These theories are 'the final girl theory' and the 'monstrous feminine'. 

The monstrous feminine is the more pro-dominant theory used in this narrative since the character Angela starts out as a nice, sweet but rather quiet girl who then after an incident in her church becomes possessed by and ungodly force (most likely the devil) and then turns into this maniacal, vicious and unstoppable monster. Angela's character and her transformation are very similar to 'Carrie' since they both religious girls who have demanding parents, though Angela isn't nearly as shy and doesn't posses any powers from the get-go. The main reason we chose this theory is that if pulled of correctly, this type of theory can be incredibly powerful since it often involves a female character becoming some sort of terrifying creature and usually when the change comes about it's very powerful. The best example of this is 'Carrie' since as the film progresses we connect with Carrie and understand what she's feeling and get to relate to her more as a character, but once she's covered in blood and turns evil the impact is very strong since we care for her seeing the change is very striking. We did something similar with Angela expect that she's not necessarily the evil one, rather that she is being controlled and influenced by and evil spirit, yet the audience already knows what she's like and the change of character due to the result of her actions that aren't actually hers gives off a rather upsetting and rather strong emotion feeling towards her.   

We also used the final girl theory but like most films that use this is occurs during the last act of the film. This is when Mason is dead and both Leyla and Freddie have been 'possessed' and it's just Sammie against Angela, Angela pins Sammie down and tries to posses her but Sammie then stabs her in the heart when her guard's down, which dosen't exactly kill her but rather stops her. This theory does play a rather small role in the narrative and our narrative goes against the common convention associated with the final girl theory. What I mean is that in the final girl theory the 'final girl' is the only one who can fight of the killer and this character just so happens to the only developed character throughout the course of the film where as the side characters are based around stereotypes and are simply used to provided killings for the killer (e.g. in Halloween Laurie is only character that is explored and all her friends get next to no development and are just there for Michael Myers to kill), In our narrative Sammie, Leyla, Mason and Freddie are all developed (some more than others) and there purpose in the film is to be there for Angela at the being and try to confront her and the end rather than just being victims for Angela.   

Influential Horror trailer 2- Grave Encounters

This horror trailer in particular really showed us how to use the shaky camera technique effectively and how when done right it can come off as something very realistic and scary rather than a cheap and sometimes choppy camera movement. It also used text editing very well which is something we plan to do in our trailer since the text helps to explain the back story of the this trailer while the clips portray the current narrative. We plan to use a similar technique but only for a more scary feel since the text will mainly be used for tag lines and so on.

Influential Horror trailer 1-The Woman In Black

This trailer was very influential to use since it showed that trailers don't have to be in a linear fashion (start to finish) in terms of story and also i shows that most trailer use around 60 shots for just a minute and a half of film with each clip lasting roughly 2 seconds. Plus it showed us how to use music effectively in a trailer since the music in this trailer gradually builds and the editing corresponds to the ticking of clock in the background.

Damnation Narrative

This is the narrative for our film/story Damnation. Naturally we couldn't include everything mentioned in the narrative in the trailer so the bits that are high lighted in green our the scenes that should be featured in the trailer. 

Beginning

In South -East London, England, a teenage girl named Angela is mysteriously looking at a church. A flashback of her at a younger age is shown where she is constantly going to church with her mother. Suddenly, her mother disrupts the flashback and we return to the present stage and her mother asks if she is going inside the church. She then states that she will come into the church within a few moments and hence her mum goes in without her. She continues to stare at the church but suddenly sees her friends across the street and a smile is illustrated on her face. They quickly greet and Sammie states that they are going to Freddie’s house to watch a movie; she then states that she is going with them and therefore ditches the idea of going to church. She looks back at the church worryingly but soon forgets about her betrayal to her religion when she converses with her friends.

Once inside Freddie’s house they settle down and begin to watch the film. They then begin to watch a horror film and she is reminded of her betrayal to the church in which this makes her feel uneasy. Then, some religious connotations are portrayed within the film and she begins to panic as she thinks about her own deception. Her friends try to snap her out of her madness and once calm, suggest that she should go home and rest and she follows this advice.

She arrives home only to find her mother extremely angry with her missing out on church. The two argue until the mother hits her and states that she should repent her sins. She runs to her room, cries and then falls asleep. Once awoken from her slumber, she realises the time, 3am however, decides her mother was right and that she should go and repent. She gets her coat and walks silently out the house, trying not to awake her mother. She walks to the church reciting versus’ from the Bible. Once in the church, she kneels by the alter and starts praying. Suddenly, the door opens but she cannot see anyone there, she then decides to hide away in fear thinking that God has arrived in the room. It turns out to be a thief trying to steal ornaments from the alter including a Bible, a cross and some money from the offering. Angela then beings to become more and more scared and then hear voices within her mind telling her to kill. The voices then begin to get louder and before she can control herself she beats him to death with a candle holder. She then stops and realises what she has done and runs to the bathroom to try and wash away the blood. She then looks in the mirror once, thinking that something is behind her. She then looks again in which her eyes go red and the scene fades to black.

A mysterious person who has witnessed the event goes to Angela’s mother and tells her about the event that happened within the church. Thinking that this person is wild, she refuses to believe the story and tells the person to get out of her house. The person tells her to beware of Angela, and then runs out of the house whilst Angela’s mum is left bewildered.

Later her mum is sitting in her chair and waiting for Angela to arrive. The doorbell rings and her mum slowly approach the door, baring in mind what the witness has said about Angela. She slowly opens the door to find Angela with her head held down and her clothes ripped. She then goes to touch Angela’s head but Angela then quickly raises her head and her mother realises that she has glowing red eyes. Her mum runs away in fear but Angela catches up with her. She then stabs Angela in the stomach but Angela laughs and then takes the knife out showing that it has had no effect. The scene then ends with Angela going towards the camera but at an audience’s point of view coming towards the camera. 


Middle
The next morning, Leyla and Sammie arrive to Angela's house to pick her up for school. After ringing the doorbell and waiting for a couple of minutes they soon find that the door is open and decide to go in. They search around the house and fail to find Angela. As soon as they are about to leave, Angela jumps from nowhere and Leyla and Sammie scream. Angela laughs, greets her friends and they all go off to school.
 
After school, Freddie and Angela walk to Freddie's house to do their English project together. Soon after arriving at Freddie's house, Angela gets restless and tries to kiss Freddie. Freddie backs away and states that he does not want to kiss Angela and that she should leave. Angela gets angry and Freddie then states that he'll find another partner for the project. Angela then transforms from normal Angela in to evil Angela and then passes the curse onto Freddie. Angela leaves the house when she hears Freddie's parents arriving back to the house. Freddie's mum asks if he is okay and Freddie does not reply and instead passes the curse onto his parents. The scene ends with the family laughing manically.

Clips of Angela and Freddie killing and cursing people are then shown. Even a clip of Mason is seen with Angela stating that he'll have fun before giving killing him and sending him to hell. The whole of South East London are then told about the violent attacks through different media texts.

Sammie wonders why all of this is happening and decides to do some much needed research. We see clips of her reading books, searching the internet and find out what Angela is and how the curse is spreading. Suddenly, Angela calls Sammie and states that Sammie should stop what she is doing whilst Sammie is confused and then the two argue on the phone. Sammie throws the book and holds her head with her hands.

A couple of weeks later and Leyla and Sammie are sitting in Leyla's front room pondering about all the attacks. There is a new curfew of 5pm for children and 6pm for young adults and 7pm for adults in order to ensure everyone's safety. Sammie then states that no one is safe and the two then share stories about the kind of attacks they've heard. Suddenly they hear glass shattering from the other room and scream only to find out that Leyla's mum had accidentally dropped her glass of water and then begins to cry. The two girls comfort the mother until she is calm again. They smile and then Leyla's mother then goes upstairs to rest. Leyla states that she has become this way because of all the attacks and they return back to the front room. 

Ending

Sammie then gets a strange call from someone calling from unknown. She picks up and the person is frantically telling her to stay away from Angela as she is spreading the curse. The mysterious person is then revealed to be connected to Angela’s past. Sammie listens but then demands for evidence and the mysterious person tells her to look outside her window. Leyla hearing the conversation then looks outside the window to find the "evil Angela" grinning. Sammie drops the phone and the two decide to run upstairs into Leyla's room. Angela breaks down the door and stops Leyla from going up the stairs. Leyla is crying and shouts to Sammie to save herself. Sammie then tries to save Leyla but is flung to the dining room door. Leyla is then taken to the front room where Angela blocks the door. Leyla screams in agony whilst Angela laughs. Sammie screams and runs outside.

After giving Leyla the curse, Angela then tracks down Sammie and finds her at an abandoned house. Sammie screams and short dialogue is spoken between the two. There is then a final standoff between Angela and Sammie. Sammie then tries to run away but Angela drags her by feet to her previous position. Sammie frantically looks around to find something to kill Angela and comes across a knife. As soon as Angela tries to possess her, Sammie stabs Angela in the heart and Angela screams in agony. She says her last words then drops to the floor and returns back to the "normal" Angela. Sammie remembers that Angela had been possessed; this drives her to call an ambulance. Sammie then runs back to Leyla's house to find a "normal" Leyla. The scene is left with the two of them hugging.

The narrative ends with Angela missing and Sammie, Leyla and Freddie laying flowers for Mason.