Preliminary Filming

Today we began filming our preliminary task, me and my partner Tim ask Matt to help feature in our preliminary task. We went and got our camera from the LRC, we prepared our equipment which meant charging up the camera. We then found a different location that we thought would benifet our preliminary tasks effect better and decided to scrap the previous location for this one, we then captured all the footage requiered taking into account angles etc and then had all the media on the SD card ready for it to be edited on Final Cut.

Questionairre

Out of the 30 people who completed me questionairre, 23 are Male and the other 7, Female.

The above is the age groups of everyone who has taken my horror questionairre, the majority of the people fall into the 16-17 age group so I must consider this when looking over the other answers.

On a scale of 1-5 of what scares most, 5 being the scariest, these are the results.

The 30 people where given options of what there favourite type of horror was, the favourite amongst the four with 11 is Action Horror




I also found out that 17 of the 30 people when asked 'What is the scariest thing in the world?' said, Spiders. Other results were ghosts and the undead, heights and darkness. I can include some of which in my main horror introduction to help add effect.


Other results showed the mystery of a horror was what the majority of the 30 thought was most effective when asked what makes a good horror film.


When asked what makes a horror film poor, an answer I received alot of was 'No major plot'.

Designing A Questionairre

In todays lesson we were told that we had to conduct our first questionairre in order to get a better idea of what people look for in a horror and what makes a horror film more effective. Me and Tim have spent an entire media lesson conducting and brainstorming ideas for questions to ask people within the questionairre. Mr Henton has also taught me how to set up my very own Survey Monkey account. Survey Monkey is an online questionairre service that provides easy and effect date collection methods. I will use this to my advantage and send the link of my questionairre to friends on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. I will also aim to get atleast 7 people from each age catergory in order to get an idea of what is effective across the age groups

Click here to take survey

Conventions of A Horror Film - Monday, 3 October 2011

In horror films their are various different main conventions that are commonly used throughout most horror films. A convention is an accept way of doing something, conventions can be general such as interviewee quotes in a print article. However they can also be genre specific, below I will talk about different conventions you may expect to see in horror films.One main convention is one that has been used in such films as The Hills Have Eyes or even on a more childish note, in Scooby Doo, this convention is called Secluded Location. It is when a person or group of people are out in the middle of no where, with no help for miles and you just know something is destined to go wrong.

A second convention is when the character forgets about threat, in any good horror film there is always a danager, maybe in the form of death, curse or even worse, and usually the character knows about this danager, but they somehow manage to put it out of their mind and forget about it.
The third convention is one that at times is very over-used, it is the Power Cut method, during the scariest and least convinient point of any film, the power will cut and they victim will be left, scared, in danger and without sight. This convention probably originated from before there was electricity and a gust of wind would blow out all the candles.
A fourth convention, Phone Lines Are Cut. It’s been used in such films as When A Stranger Calls. The murderer, the one person you dont want to be near you, will remove all phones so that the victim is unable to attract attention of any authorities of anyone in general. Usually, whenever there is a phone within view, it will be cut by the killers or bad guy. More modern conventions and takes on this original convention are the in mobile phones, batteries may be taken out or even run out, or they may be out of service and unable to contact anyone.

Another convention is the famous, or rather, infamous Someone Investigates A Strange Noise. It is an extremely overused, yet so farfetched convention that it’s a shock we are even scared by it anymore. For example, you have witnessed all of your friends corpses, you’ve heard screams from the dark woods, yet the character for some reason beknown to the audience still ventures into the dark woods where the killer lurks.
Some Runs Upstairs Instead of Outside, this convention is used in many famous horror films. It is the most frustrating and bizzare to watch, the victim will run straight past a number of exits and potential get aways as they make their way up stairs to the ‘safety’ of there bedroom. Where they are now trapped by the killer, with only a thin sheet of wood between them.
Leading on from the convention above, is Victim Cowers In Front Of A Window Or Door, once they have ran into their ‘safe’ room they will then tremble with fear up against the door, where the killers hand will inevitabley come flying through the door, or better still an axe or some form of weapon . Or another way this convention is used, the victim will look out the window see nothing, turn back to grab their belonings, turn back to go out the window where they will be greated with the face of the killers. This convention has all the right ingredients to make a great scare, but usually, never does.
Another Convention is The Fake Scare, its an ancient convention that has been used in horror films for close to a year. They usually vary the size and form of the scare put usually they are put in their to make the viewer jump, tension will arise, the potential victim will be walking through the woods, scared for there life, music will takeover, a creepy melody, and suddenly someone jumps out and comes running towards them, the victim will shreek with fear, only to then notice is was their friend trying to scare them, a good twist of this is for the friend who is pulling the prank to then be explicitilly shot or brutally killed, drop to the floor, leaving the killer stood tall over there dead body, infront of the original potential victim. This convention is very easy to pull of and if pull off correctly can be very effective, if not it can make the director look very ameuter and the movie look very poorly made.
We’ve all done it, done something simply because we’ve been told not ‘WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT PRESS THIS RED BUTTON’ yet they always seem to press it through temptation and curiousity. And its the same in horror films, a young girl will be told never to go into The Haunted Mansion alone but somehow, she will always find herself make her way into the mansion.

The next convention has been used in many famous films including the likes of Jaws, Halloween and Scream. It is most commonly used in most ‘Slasher’ films, it is a convention where someone within the film is killed within the first 5 minutes. It helps unnerve the audience and set the correct base for a good horror film if pulled off correctly.
X Years before/later, this convention is when there will be a subtitle or over writing text or even anologue within the movie saying ’15 Years Later’. It will then cut to scenes of 15 years prior and show how scenes and happenings from them are linked with happenings of the present. It has been used in films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Halloween.
Another convention is The Short Cut, the potential victim will refuse to take the well lit, heavily occupied and public streets and lets face it, safer root home, but go for the quicker, pitch black, secluded back root home where they may have been advised to go by the creepy old man, we all know what happens next.
A few other conventions are, The Victim Inexplicably Falls Over when they can least afford too, There Vechile Will Fail To Start Up, and The Stormy Night scene which targets potential child hood fears of thunder, lighting and maybe even rain.

Codes and Conventions - Monday, 3 October 2011

In our last lesson we taught about different codes and conventions used in media. We were told the codes in films give meaning. For example, something could look like one thing but can hold a completely different, metaphorical meaning. These codes can be separated into 2 parts, technical and symbolic codes.

Starting with Symbolic codes, a symbolic codes and conventions are ones that have inner meaning, meaning that's you have to search and look further into the film to understand, for example a characters feelings, belonging etc could have more than one meaning. A good example within films that is used well is a black crow at a funeral, this shows horror and darkness upon ones death. It's small effects such as a crow at a funeral that adds more meaning and entices the viewer more.

Technical is the second type of code and convention, a technical code/convention is as the title says more techincal, these effects are used through particular and sometimes peculiar use of equipment such as cameras and camera angles to set a scene. An example of this is in a horror film, when danger is chasing the victim camera shots may speed up and be more frequent in order to show drama, danger and panic. Editing is another aspect that plays a big role in technical codes and conventions, adding of extra noise to set the scene can be very effective. These types of additions and angles can add extra meaning and make the media seem that bit more professional and give greater intended effect.

The Evil Dead - 1981

As further research into Horror Films Mr Henton earlier in the course asked us to conduct some research and produce a powerpoint slideshow on a certain film, my film was The Evil Dead -1981 version. Below is what I found.

The evil dead 1981

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History of Horror Films

Now we've complete our Preliminary Task we are going to be moving onto Horror Films, as some industry research I have complied a slideshow of the History of Horror Films.

History of horror films

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