Camera Shots in Horror Films

As we are now starting to film our opening sequence, research on different camera shots would enable us to get the biggest effect to affect the audience.  Below are a list of camera shots that are commonly found in horror movies:



Extreme Close Up:
A shot taken very close to the subject often used to show emotion.

(Picture from The Ring)









Close Up:
A shot taken of the subject (further away from an extreme close-up) to show reactions and emotion.

(Picture from Paranormal Activity)

POV Shot (Point of View):
A shot that is taken from the subjects point of view (looking at something).

(Picture from Nightmare on Elm Street)






Medium Shot:
A shot from a medium distance to show the subject and sometimes another object/subject involved.

(Picture from The Shining)







Long Shot:
A shot taken to show the whole of the subject and potentially the situation they are in.

(Picture from The Cabin in the Woods)







Low Angle Shot:
A shot taken from a lower angle (normally lower than the eyeline) from where the subject is to create effect.

(Picture from Nosferatu)





Panning Shot:
A shot where the camera moves slowly across the set from one side to the other from a fixed angle.

Research into Slasher and Psychological Films

In one of my first posts, I researched into sub-genres of horror films, this included slasher and Psychological horror films. As we intend to create an opening based on these sub-genres, I researched in more depth on these two sub-genres. I have researched what's included in these types of films and what they are.

Slasher

A slasher film is a sub-genre of horror film, and at times thriller, typically involving a mysterious psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims usually in a graphically violent manner, often with a  knife or axe. In a slasher film there is normally nine characteristics that are involved in the film.

1) The Hero - The hero is the protagonist. The hero is usually aware of the killer, while the friends are too busy having fun.

2) The Killer - The killer in the slasher film is usually male. His identity is often, but not always, unknown and/or concealed either by a mask or by creative lighting and camera work. He is often mute and seemingly unstoppable, able to withstand stabbings, falls and shootings by his victims. He is usually very strong and sometimes very big, making it almost impossible to kill him.

3) The Victims - The victims tend to be young, attractive, high school or college-aged adolescents. Much has been made about the choice of victims. 

4) The First Victim - Often a minority. In later films, the minority victim is actually turned into a Sisyphean figure who is aware of his tragic fate, expecting to die early in the movie.

5) The Location - Many slasher films are set in isolated locations such as on islands, deep in forests, small towns, abandoned buildings and farms. This can allow the killer to freely kill his victims without the need to worry about interference from the outside world.

6) Final Girl - Slasher films frequently have only a single survivor. She is frequently a female peer of the victims but is cinematically developed in comparison to his or her cohorts. 

7) The Adults - Many slasher films have adults that are unaware that the youths are being attacked by a killer. Usually after the final girl calls the police or parents, either the phone is dead or they never make it in time. In some slasher films, the adults are sometimes attacked/killed by the killer themselves and the group of friends have no help at all. 

8) The Violence - Slashers generally de-emphasize plot and character development in favour of violence and terror. Plots are constructed around giving the audience the experience of watching the killer murders. The deaths are often violent and graphic, with originality being valued in the later films to hold audience interest.

9) The Police - They are either extremely slow witted, and get killed after laughing off a threat, or are extremely competent and either get killed, or turn up at the end of the movie when most characters are dead to arrest the perpetrator.

Psychological

Psychological horror is a sub-genre of horror that relies on characters' fears and emotional instability to build tension. The elements of psychological horror focuses on the inside of the character's mind. This includes emotions, personality, mental attitude of individuals, where characters are in a perversive situation that includes high-level immorality, inhumane acts, and conspiracies.

• Psychological horror aims to create discomfort by exposing common or universal psychological and emotional vulnerabilities and fears, such as the shadowy parts of the human psyche which most people repress or deny, whereas splatter fiction focuses on bizarre, alien evil to which the average viewer cannot easily relate.

Music In Horror Films

Characteristic of music in horror:

Music is used in horror films for many different reasons...

1. Create susppense
2. To indicate that something about to happen
3. Drastic change in scene/event
4. Show/accompany emotion
5. Create moods
6. Scare the veiwer

How they achieve this..

• suspense music containing a lot of dischord
• syncopation is used to throw you off
• steady build ups in volume and pase
• unexpected changes in tone
• unxepected change in volume
• orchestral instruments like violins or flutes
• uneasy/unatural sounds

An example of effective music withing horror

Costumes within Horror

Horror Film Costume

Typically within horror films all characters costumes are bland and of a plain design with little detail  as they do not want the clothing to be a main focus and distract you from other features of the film. The costumes can help the viewer understand the rolls and identity's of the characters within the film.

The Victim...

• Victims within horror films are always presented with light/weak coloured clothing, often soft pastel colours that don't stand out and can contrast with the darkness around them.
• They wear very simple clothing  giving them a plain ordinary look about them showing innocence and vulnerability.

The Villain/Killers...

• The killer will always be presented in dark colours. The Black allows them to blend in with the background adding as sense of evil and mystery. It also allows them to contrast against the victims light coloured clothing
• Often red will appear withing their clothing to show danger/evil
• They never appear in just a t-shirt or shorts unlike victims withing the horror film. In most cases they are always fully dressed and covered up
• Often they will wear long flowing clothing or long coats/cloaks (hiding something) or unnatural clothing making sure they do not fit in with everyone else shown.
• Black and white appears allot allowing contrast within the character themselves so they can stand out
• Mask are often used, this allows the character to have no human identity, it can allow them to be emotionless and unnatural with no human form, creating a much scarier image

British Board of Film Classification

The BBFC...

• Publishes short but detailed information about all the films and videos we rate
• It gives parents a clear idea of how and why films have been rated
• Wnd what issues the films contain
• Helps  make informed choices about what they watch
• It is displayed under the title and running time for each film

12A + 12

 

• Infrequent Strong language
• Sex may be briefly and discreetly

12A+12 as a horror...

Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as disturbing sequences are not too frequent or sustained.



15

• strong violence
• frequent strong language
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

15 as a horror...
Horror films are often rated 15. Strong gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.




18

 

• very strong violence
• frequent strong language and/or very strong language
• strong portrayals of sexual activity
• scenes of sexual violence
• strong horror
• strong blood and gore
• real sex (in some circumstances)
• discriminatory language and behaviour

18 as a horror film...
The strongest horror works are at 18, they consist of strong horror, gore and violence that breaks the boundaries of horror films at 15

British Board of Film Classification Evaluation

Having Looked at the British Board of Film Classification we can get a better idea on what we can invclude in our opening and which age classificaltion is most suitied to it.

We decided to set our film as a 12A having looked and evaluated our film and the age classification as we feel is best suited to our storyboard.


12A+12 as a horror... what the board says.Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as disturbing sequences are not too frequent or sustained.

First Reviews - THE BAD AND THE UGLY

First Cut

THE BAD AND THE UGLY

- "Darker wash and looked too innocent"
- "Make lighting darker"
We felt that after this whole process, we had made it believable through the lighting and time of day, so we didn't change the piece as such, but on a few cuts of the production we put a very pale dark wash, just so that the piece flowed.

- "Jolty camera"
We managed to edit the slightly jolty camera out, and replace it with a piece of film that wasn't as good, but jolted less which meant that the film looked better from a viewers' perspective.

- "Is it obvious enough that she has been stabbed?"
- "Show the weapon"
We didn't feel the need to change the first of these things, as the blood looks very realistic and like she has been stabbed. However, we did have to refilm the part with the knife so that it stayed on screen for long enough, but without making it look like an unnatural movement for a serial killer. The only other way we could have changed this, is if the actor stared at a reflection of his eyes in the blade of the knife, but we had no knives which weren't chrome, so that wasn't possible.

- "Change the "Presents To You" bit"
All we had to here is change the "presents to you" credit to "presents".

- "Why does he 'straddle' her?"
When filming, there was no way or angle we could film without some of the tussle looking a bit awkward or strange, so we kept the filming that we had, but edited in some more pictures being zoomed in and out of in order to bridge the gap of how the tussle happened. This meant that we didn;t need to show the serial killer killing his victim, but we had to show her screaming and him dragging her into the bushes and running away.




What else did we add?

We added a bit at the end where the serial killer pins a picture of his victim onto a map so that the audience knew he was definitely a serial killer, but without showing deaths and wasting more of the two minutes, which we had utilised most of.

First Reviews - THE GOOD

First cut

After our first cut, these were the reviews that were given:

THE GOOD

- "Like the Sound"
We didn't change the sound, apart from the female actress' scream, it was originally too unnatural.

- "Like the photos - good"
Again, we didn't change anything, although we did add the serial-killer putting up his latest victim's name and hunted date.

- "Good credits and cuts between guy and girl"
We didn't change much, apart from where he "straddles" her.

- "Music and clothing choices were good"
Again, no change.

- "Good camera angles and transitions"
We tried not to change too much as we thought this was a highlight of our production.

- "Blur over Gareth putting hood up"
This is probably my favourite piece in the whole production, not because it is me who is acting and where you see my face, but because it is a really good effect that creates a bit of mystery and the only pace you see the actor's face.

- "Tense sound, footsteps and fake blood were good!"
Again, we didn't change much of these aspects.

Types of Editing

What is editing?

Editing is changing an original scene/piece of footage and is used to create effects.  Editing is associated with mise en scene and cinematography and concerns how much space is organised on screen.  It is also the organisation of time and it is predicted that action trailers have more and sharper cuts than horror trailers.

Below are the different types of editing, and how they can affect a particular film or genre of film.  By researching different types of editing, we thought we could agree what edits to use in our film opening, and which ones would have the biggest effect on our target audience.

Continuity Editing:

The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical construction between shots.

180 Degree Rule:

The 180 degree rule states that two characters (or objects) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.



Match on Action:

Match on action is a cut between two angles on the same action.



Graphic Match:

Graphic match is a cut emphasising something similar in the first or second image (usually a shape) and is also known as an elipsis.



Shot-Reverse Shot:

A shot-reverse shot is used mainly in conversations and the point-of-view alternates between two opposite positions.



Cut In:

A cut in is a close-up of an object/person.  This type of editing is used to draw attention to the significance of the object/person.

Cut Away:



A cut away is a shot of any length showing something that could be in visible range of the previous scene but was not seen.

Cross Cutting: 

Cross cutting cuts repeatedly between two different locations of characters.

Jump Cut:

A jump cut is an elliptical shot which seems to interrupt the continuity of a scene.

Transitions

Cutting: is going from one shot to another.

Fade: is where the image disappears and usually replaced by a black screen.

Dissolve: is the process of one shot fading out and another fading in.

Wipe: happens when a new image is pushed across the screen replacing the previous one.