very genre has its cliches and conventions which make it distinctly the genre which it aims to be. In this post I shall be assessing some of the cliches associated with the horror genre:
The Protagonist
- Teenagers - mainly girls.
- Daredevils/ rebels.
- Miraculously stupid.
- College drop-outs.
- Even more stupid boyfriends.
- Blonde.
-Talented screamers
- Druggies
- Alcoholics
- Had sex many times with many people.
- Party animals.
- Clumsy.
- Goes somewhere they were told not to, to prove how rebellious they are.
The Antagonist
- Ghosts
- Zombies
- Werewolves
- Creepy children
- Demonic possession
- Vampires (although they are now sneaking into the romance genre for some unfathomable reason)
- Lunatic with a chainsaw.
- Scientist with a crazy scheme
- Want vengeance.
- Have some sort of routine for their appearance
- Hold some sort of power over technology that disrupts phones and CCTV.
The Story
- Unresponsive bodies.
- Haunted houses.
- Haunted woods.
- Haunted graveyards.
- Haunted islands.
- Haunted lighthouses.
- Haunted towns.
- Haunted hotels with equally creepy workers.
- Shower murders
- Mysterious noises that must always be investigated.
- A window jump scene.
- A mirror jump scene (usually occurring after the protagonist has washed their face)
- Nightmares.
- Creaky doors.
- Creaky floorboards.
- Creaky stairs.
- Creaky rocking chairs
- Clowns.
- Dolls.
- Pictures with blurry faces.
- People coming out of pictures or TV's.
- Creepy, suspenseful music.
- Intense build-ups that lead to nothing...and then the jump comes.
- Gore.
- Splitting up or separating to investigate the danger.
- The old man who seems to know everything.
- The killer who walks in slow strides whilst the protagonist tries desperately to find a way out.
- The killer never fully dies.
- Minorities die first.
- Linen closet killing.
- Upping the stakes by a child being in danger.
- Old folk tales that are actually true.
- Thunderclap!
- Pathetic fallacy.
- Newspaper clippings of shocking events associated with the killers motives.
- Shadows.
- Chainsaws.
- Knives
- Unbelieving boyfriends, who believe only too late.
- Children communicating with the undead.
- Objects moving without visible force.
- Doors slamming - occasionally not opening again.
- Puddles of water that somehow link to the death.
- Crows cawing.
- Wolves howling.
- Dogs barking.
- Animals run away when they sense the danger.
- Lanterns.
- Candles blowing out.
- Chill wind preceding antagonist.
- The Psycho soundtrack.
- Nursery rhymes.
- Moving pictures.
- 'You are mine'
Friday, 17 April 2015
Top 5 Zombies Films
With the release of Resident Evil and the new series of the walking dead zombies are once again the biggest trend in popular horror. Check out our Top 5.
5. Dawn of the Dead (Remake)
This thrilling, action-packed and truly scary zombie film catapulted George A. Romero’s film into a modern day scream-fest. The famous scenes that took place in a deserted shopping mall are given a new twist, which to this day remains unique to this film – a pregnant zombie (well, we can’t think of any others, can you?). If the original never scared you, we strongly recommend that you watch the Dawn of the Dead remake.
4. Zombieland
Zombieland is one film you can’t afford to miss. A nerdy college boy sets off onto the road to Ohio in search for his family with Twinkie obsessed and gun mad Woody Harrelson. Their adventure takes them to Bill Murray’s house and eventually, to the playground of zombies that is the theme park. Although this scene is late on into the film, it’s most certainly worth the wait.
3. 28 Days Later
When 28 Days Later arrived to our screens, it set a new standard for up and coming zombie films. This post-apocalyptic film ensured that the undead will always remain at the top of the most terrifying monster list, and with its modern twist – making the flesh eaters fast, everyone remained at the edge of their seats.
2. Dead Alive/Braindead
Before the days of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson liked to dabble in horror films, and his Dead Alive or Braindead has become a popular cult classic. One of the goriest zombie films ever made, Dead Alive has been banned in several countries for its graphic scenes. However, many would say that because the gore is so over the top it is more of a comedy than a horror. Nevertheless, there is a reason why this film is number two on our list.
1. Night of the Living Dead
Romero’s debut into the realm of zombies, Night of the Living Dead is a classic that can never be taken off any top zombie film list. Barbara and Johnny visit a small Pennsylvania town, but their adventure turns into the deadliest trip they have ever taken as Johnny is killed by a flesh eating zombie.
Although Dead Snow and Planet Terror didn’t quite make our top five, we also recommend that you have these films on your Halloween list.
After researching the top 5 zombie films, it has enabled us to create several ideas on what we want to include in our film trailer, after watching the trailers i can see a link with them all, showing more than one zombie, we are only having one, this could either be a good thing as its different or bad as the audience are not used to seeing this as it is not a generic convention to horror films. It has also given us ideas on the poster and the magazine, and what fonts and colours and images to use.
5. Dawn of the Dead (Remake)
This thrilling, action-packed and truly scary zombie film catapulted George A. Romero’s film into a modern day scream-fest. The famous scenes that took place in a deserted shopping mall are given a new twist, which to this day remains unique to this film – a pregnant zombie (well, we can’t think of any others, can you?). If the original never scared you, we strongly recommend that you watch the Dawn of the Dead remake.
4. Zombieland
Zombieland is one film you can’t afford to miss. A nerdy college boy sets off onto the road to Ohio in search for his family with Twinkie obsessed and gun mad Woody Harrelson. Their adventure takes them to Bill Murray’s house and eventually, to the playground of zombies that is the theme park. Although this scene is late on into the film, it’s most certainly worth the wait.
3. 28 Days Later
When 28 Days Later arrived to our screens, it set a new standard for up and coming zombie films. This post-apocalyptic film ensured that the undead will always remain at the top of the most terrifying monster list, and with its modern twist – making the flesh eaters fast, everyone remained at the edge of their seats.
2. Dead Alive/Braindead
Before the days of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson liked to dabble in horror films, and his Dead Alive or Braindead has become a popular cult classic. One of the goriest zombie films ever made, Dead Alive has been banned in several countries for its graphic scenes. However, many would say that because the gore is so over the top it is more of a comedy than a horror. Nevertheless, there is a reason why this film is number two on our list.
1. Night of the Living Dead
Romero’s debut into the realm of zombies, Night of the Living Dead is a classic that can never be taken off any top zombie film list. Barbara and Johnny visit a small Pennsylvania town, but their adventure turns into the deadliest trip they have ever taken as Johnny is killed by a flesh eating zombie.
Although Dead Snow and Planet Terror didn’t quite make our top five, we also recommend that you have these films on your Halloween list.
After researching the top 5 zombie films, it has enabled us to create several ideas on what we want to include in our film trailer, after watching the trailers i can see a link with them all, showing more than one zombie, we are only having one, this could either be a good thing as its different or bad as the audience are not used to seeing this as it is not a generic convention to horror films. It has also given us ideas on the poster and the magazine, and what fonts and colours and images to use.
Own Film Treatment.
The year is 2087. A man is walking down the middle of a road dragging a baseball bat along the floor. As he looks up he sees mysterious figures walking towards him. Out of the mist we see some zombies walking towards him. He raises his baseball bat,preparing himself, meeting their challenge. This is what he has been preparing for. You see a derelict setting, of abandoned cars and houses. The protagonist (man) hides in a cabin. Prepares in the cabin to fight off zombies. zombie and man go face to face. fighting scenes occur. flashbacks before apocalypse happens are shown. understanding of the story line. After massacring all of them he disappears into the mist, his home, where he belongs
We originally had the idea of having more than one zombie, however we realised that this would be pretty hard to do as we are unable to find others to help us. We have chosen to have the one zombie to really apply the focus on the zombie, and to make our film trailer different to other zombie films.
We originally had the idea of having more than one zombie, however we realised that this would be pretty hard to do as we are unable to find others to help us. We have chosen to have the one zombie to really apply the focus on the zombie, and to make our film trailer different to other zombie films.
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Story Board
Shot List
1. Zombie is in dark, rushes forward towards camera when lights are turned on.
2. (Medium-Close) of chains being pulled taught.
3. Close-up of Zombie
4. Scientist enters to the left of the camera. And begins first lines. (Medium- Wide)
Long takes from locked of tripod.
5. Close ups following the scientist pointing at the heart, stomach and lungs and then the brain.
6. Close up of the scientist as he is addressing the camera.
7. Trolley is wheeled into shot from the left.
8. Scientist moves to trolley.
9. Close up of the trolley.
10. Scientist picks up the baseball bat. Wide medium shot. Waving the bat around.
11. Close up of bat held in hand.
12. Puts the bat back onto the trolley.
13. Picks up the knife (close up ) and moves over to the zombie.
14. Close up and medium of the zombie clawing towards him.
15. Close up of the knife strike past the zombie’s eye.
16. He moves back to the centre, near the trolley and puts the knife down.
17. Close up of the Molotov bottle.
18. Medium of scientist talking about the Molotov.
19. The scientist picks up the machine gun off the trolley. Close up.
20. Scientist holds the gun out in front of him.
21. Close ups of zombie.
22. Close up of gun being loaded. And extreme close up of the fire rate being switched to single fire.
23. Over the shoulder shot of scientist aiming at zombie.
24. Close up of him aiming, and shooting the zombie.
25. Zombie dying mid
26. Zombie dying close up.
27. Zombie’s body hits the floor.
28. Scientist end line. Mid
Evaluation Activity 3 - Audience Feedback
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From getting feedback from our audience, we have learned different things about what we did well in our trailer, and what could be improved on.
Firstly, it was mentioned that we adhered to the conventions of a typical zombie film, using the mise en scéne - the abandoned, disused cars to show the post-apocalyptic style, and Avraj's character attacking the "do not cross" line - to effectively portray the zombie style. We chose the location as we thought that the whole place was suitable to use with the abandoned buildings and the forest cover adds to the "scary" surroundings, as we would associate forests with horror films where something bad would happen.
The fast paced, flashbacks at the end were also mentioned as well used, in these shots we aimed to show the audience that something happened during the film that made Avraj into a zombie. this means that audience members are drawn to watch the movie, as they want to know what happened to him, which we successfully created, as our audience feedback members pointed out. However, it was also mentioned that we should increase the pace of our shots throughout the rest of the trailer, although we realised that this would have made it slightly more exciting and tense, this would not have fit with the slow, spooky style of music that we used. Also, having fast paced shots at the end of the trailer, meant we were able to add the 'terror glissando' effect, which made the end of our trailer much more exciting and meant it was able to give the audience just the right amount of tense, exciting few seconds, which i think would not have had the same effect if we had faster paced shots earlier on in the trailer and faster music.
Evaluation Activity 1- Screen Grab 9 - Titles/Names
The simple white text on the black background makes the name really stand out, as if we wanted the audience to notice who the actor is, which would mean people may want to watch the film, as it has this specific actor in it, we have made all the titles the same as this, simple and easy to identify, so that the audience has time to read the title without any distractions in the background which may lead to the title not being read. The thin text also makes the title simple, with no complications that would endanger the title of being misread or missed by the audience. The font also shows small sharp points on each letter, reinforcing the thrilling, fast paced shots and it is also appropriate to the genre of which our trailer is - horror.The way that the font is slightly jagged and sharp, implies the sense of danger, which is what we want for our film trailer.The black and white is also eye catching as it stands out so well and looks so clear and professional as it is plain and has nothing too complicated on it to distract the audience away from the name.
Evaluation Activity 1 - Screen Grab 7 and 8 - Camerawork/Props
These two shots show the prop we used in our trailer, the gun. It is a paintball gun, rather than a fake, plastic gun, which made it look much more realistic as it is actually used as a gun. Also, the size of the gun reflects the power the protagonist has, showing him as masculine and dominant. These shots also show areas in our trailer where i believe we have used camerawork effectively. The bottom shot shows an almost first person shooter like shot, where we can see where the gun is pointing into the background, looking for the zombie, this makes it clearer for the audience to see what is going on, rather than if we had the protagonist in the shot, which may have distracted the viewers from the main point of the shot, to search for the zombie. The top shot shows a birds eye view of the gun, while he is loading it. This shows the threat to the zombie that he presents, as a loaded gun of that size can be very dangerous, and it also shows the intention of the protagonist is to kill the zombie. Both of these shots show how important the gun is in our trailer, which adds to the anticipation of what will happen as the trailer proceeds
Evaluation Activity 1- Screen Grab 6 - Camerawork and Editing
This screen grab shows the antagonist trying to reach up to the protagonist, who is in a high place behind the camera. Looking down on the antagonist gives the protagonist a large amount of power and it makes the audience look down on the zombie as a threat. The bottom left hand corner of the picture shows a ledge, which shows the audience where the protagonist is situated. which gives them an idea of what the area around them is like, meaning they can almost picture the situation, which they feel they are part of.
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