Film opening conventions include:
- Cast and production company details
- Film title
- Release date
- Short in length
- Sounds appropriate to the genre portrayed
- Slow pace amounting to a fast paced montage
Music:
This is one of the most important aspects of a Horror film as it is helping the film try to create a specific mood to the scene. The effective use of music will help promote even more emotions to the audience. The most common convention of a horror film opening is to have isolated instruments just before a key event occurs which helps link the idea of vulnerability to the audience. Long suspenseful notes often help contrast with short sharp notes to help shock the audience. We followed this as we thought it worked effectively in the films we researched and so felt that it would enhance our overall opening sequence.
When we watched the opening to 'Insidious', we thought the music would go very well with our product so we downloaded the track and imported it to our opening. What we liked about 'Insidious' was that the whole of the opening was in one shot but we had decided not to do that as we wanted to apply our editing skills by cropping out parts of shots we didn't need and it also wouldn't go as our opening was filmed in two different locations. At the end of the 'Insidious' opening, the title appeared on the screen alongside a strong sound effect of violins and we decided to use that sound in our opening for when the black figure was walking as it had a scary, daunting feel to it. In the first couple of scenes which are at the train station, we have not used any music as we thought that it would divert the attention from the dialogue. However, we have used sound effects in the first few scenes, the sound effect we have used was a train sound effect. Another reason as to why we have not used music straightaway is because after analysing other horror films we recognized that the background music is built up slowly. The music starts when we introduce the park scenes, the music starts off at a constant sound and you can hear violins in the background. Whenever we have a shot that pops up, we have a bang sound to add tension and heighten the audiences mood, sense and emotion towards the opening. This also makes the scene more scary and tense as you don't know what's going to happen. We have faded the music in at the beginning and at the scene when the man is walking towards the girls. We have edited the music using the fade in and fade out transition so it sounds more professional. We have also fitted in another 'bang' sound for when the title pops up.
Setting
We decided to use two different locations for our film opening as we thought it would make the film opening seem more mysterious and interesting. The two locations that we decided to chose for our scenes were a train station and a park. We felt this would create a good plot twist as they are stereotypical settings involved in the horror genre. We chose external locations as we wanted a obscure atmosphere and we decided to shoot it outdoors because the weather could help enhance the atmosphere. We were fortunate with the time of year because it was winter.
Location 1: Train station
Location 2: Park
Font Types
We used a thin off - white outline colour with the man in
black in the background. We used an off white colour because it stand out as
well over the black background so it is easy to see. The colour white connotes cleanliness
and innocence which is the opposite of our film opening genre which is horror.
The main colours of the title, which are black and white create a dark and
eerie atmosphere for the audience. Most horror films would use black or red
title to represent horror, however we chose white so it was challenging the
normal horror convention. It is clearer to see and it does not give too much
away. We also chose this because it was smart and professional looking but also
had a creepy and horror feel to it. After researching fonts and typefaces we
recognised that many horror fonts used serifs. We decided to use this
convention because it was simple but effective and created the proficient look
we wanted.
Camera
We decided to use quite a few close up shots as horror films mainly use close up shots to heighten emotions, show possible importance of objects or people and it creates an atmosphere. It also increases the audiences fear as it shows the facial expression's of the characters.
Some of the camera shots and angles we used in our opening scene were; pan, tracking, point of view and tilt. This is a typical convention of horror films as it allows the audience to feel like a part of the film and feel the fear of the victims. In our opening we used a range of shots like, over the shoulder shot when the man in black stood near the tree. We used this shot because it showed the audience that the girls were the victims and this shot builds tension. It is also used in horrors to add suspense. We also used zoom alongside the over the shoulder shot because this added a dramatic effect and creates a element of suspense and fear as you don't know what you are going to see next. We mainly used close ups and mid close ups because you would be able to see the facial expressions of the victims and they create more emphasis.
We also used a low angle shot to show the face of the man in black because we thought it was effective because it shows the audience how the man in black dominates over the girls and he has the most power. The low angle shot is also very powerful in the way it emphasises how scary and intimidating the black figure is. We used quite a few long shots, such as a establishing shot at the start of the girls sat on the bench. We did this because it helped the audience recognize the whereabouts of the characters in the scene. The scenes are set in harmless locations which creates a twist because the audience will not expect anything to happen. We also used tracking shots to connote the movement, we thought it was very effective as it showed that the girls were being followed and watched, it also helped to represent the girls' fear. Another reason as to why we used a tracking shot was so could establish park scene to create suspense as it was the last shot so the audience could think about what is going to happen to the girls next. The tracking shot also helped build up suspense as you don't know what could be shown next. this creates tension and mystery for the audience.
Tracking shot
Mise en scene
Editing and colour
We looked at the different editing skills used in the other real life media products that we analysed. We noticed that most horror films use a dark tones. We liked the idea of using dark tones as it created an intense atmosphere. However, instead of just using dark tones we decided to use both dark and bright tones to represent good vs. evil theme. We did this, because we wanted the dark tones to represent the black figure and the light tones to represent the girls. Moreover, a convention that was present in all three of the openings I analysed was the use of dark colours. The fact that this is used in all three of the film openings suggested that it is effective and creates a convincing atmosphere. Initially our footage was quite light and bright, this contradicted the atmosphere we were trying to portray. A convention that was present in all three of the openings I analysed was the use of dark colours. This meant during our editing process we tried out different methods of making the footage darker. We did this because we wanted our opening to be effective and portray a convincing atmosphere to the audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment