Generic conventions report

For this project, we're trying to avoid the major clichés of horror films, although some are effective in creative the fear we want in our audience.

We started by looking at the different subgenres of horror, and the different features that define each one:

·  Action Horror - A subgenre combining the intrusion of an evil force, event, or supernatural personage of horror movies with the gunfights and frenetic chases of the action genre. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical action-horror films include gore, demons, vicious animals, vampires and, most commonly, zombies. This category also fuses the fantasy genre.

·  Body horror – In which the horror is principally derived from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body. Other types of body horror include unnatural movements, or the anatomically incorrect placement of limbs to create 'monsters' out of human body parts.

·  Comedy horror – Combines the elements of comedy and horror fiction. The comedy horror genre almost always inevitably crosses over with the black comedy genre.

·  Gothic horror – Gothic horror is a type of story that contains elements of Goth and horror. At times it may have romance that unfolds in the setting of a horror tale, usually suspenseful. Some of the earliest horror movies were of this sub-genre. Examples include universal horror films such as The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy.

·  Natural horror – A sub-genre of horror films "featuring nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers." This genre may sometimes overlap with the science fiction and action/adventure genre.

·  Psychological horror – Relies on characters' fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability and at times, the supernatural and ghosts, to build tension and further the plot.

·  Science Fiction horror – Often revolves around subjects that include but are not limited to killer aliens, mad scientists, and/or experiments gone wrong.

·  Slasher film – Often revolves around a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, mainly with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe. Slasher films may at times overlap with the crime, mystery and thriller genre, and they are not the entire horror genre.

·  Splatter film – These films deliberately focus on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. Through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, they tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the theatricality of its mutilation. Not all splatter films are slashers, and not all splatter films are horrors.

·  Zombie film – Zombie films feature creatures that are usually portrayed as either reanimated corpses or mindless human beings. Distinct sub-genres have evolved, such as the "zombie comedy" or the "zombie apocalypse".

Locations

 

A common location for horror films are dark forests/ in the woods

Another common location is in a large house or mansion, usually dark, eerie and very scary looking, or an American family home.

Characters and Storylines:

There are a variety of characters typically associated with Horror films and to go along with them also a range of common storylines.

Examples of characters from different types of Horror films are shown below:

Slasher

Torture

Zombie

Psychological horror

Vicious animals

Religious horror

Curses

Haunted house/ghosts

Vampires/werewolves

Soundtrack

This is the soundtrack we are planning to use, Bradley found this on a royalty free website and it fits our opening sequence plan perfectly.

The mood of the soundtrack is perfect for our intentions; it ties in very well with our shots and is a good all rounder for fulfilling our needs. The instruments used create great atmosphere and provides a good Horror themed tune.

 

 

 

Production Logo

The idea for our production logo is going to be something along the lines of a 6 fingered bloody hand appearing on the screen from far away to eventually come forward and hit some glass at the front of the display, which has our company name "ChairEdge studios" displayed across it. This glass then cracks and smashes when hit by the bloody hand, to which the glass and company name fall off of the screen towards the bottom.

Here is the bloody hand image we propose to use:

 

this image will come from behind our company name, smash the glass the name is on, which will look very cool and will confuse the audience with its 6 fingers as opposed to the normal 5 fingers conventionally placed on our hands. 

Production schedule

Timetable representing times when the whole group/some of the group are available to work on the project:

We've found the characters needed for our opening sequence and have worked around there schedules by filming only at times suitable for everyone.

 

Costume/ Prop List

Props/costumes list- The actors in our opening sequence will include:


A sick looking girl, she will be wearing pale make up ,this will created by using pale foundation and a darker shade under the eyes to create the bags , lips will be a natural color ,


Hair will be done and messy greasy looking


Character will be short and skinny wearing a hospital robe

A lady in a shirt and pencil skirt, hair up


Professional looking, make up will be minimal, this will include mascara, blusher, foundation and lipstick/lip gloss, character will be tall and thin








Additional
 Props will include pills, photocopy machine and medical records on clipboard
 
 
Spilled container of pills
 
 

Photocopy machine on location





Medical records on a clip board

Similar Films/ Ideas

The films listed below are all Horror films, they have similar ideas to our opening sequence

Production Meeting Minutes

Today we discussed the idea's we have for our production company name and started to create our logo. We decided as a group that our production company name should link in with our chosen genre. After thinking of a few ideas, we drew up a shortlist of potential names and rated each one out of three. Our decided production company name is Chairedge.

For our logo we took an existing image of a bloody hand print, as this ties in well with our genre, and added an extra finger, the logo is still in the process of being completed.

Audience Research

From conducting our audience research I learnt that Our targeted audience have a varied view on which genre is the most appealing to them, however Horror was seen to be among the most liked genre. They found our summary of our oepning sequence to be good ,interesting , and liked by all. We took their suggestions and ideas into consideration and discussed as a group how we could incoperate them into our opening sequence.

Story board

This is our storyboard , Firstly we discussed the images and captions as a group and decided what each box would contain and the caption to go with it , then the drawings were done by me (Rachael), and the captions by Brogan and Bradley.

  

 

Location

Last week, we found a location for the opening sequence, which satisfies all the criteria's we are looking for in a location that is right for the genre of horror.
Bradley, the editor has done a location recee, which included him taking different pictures of the location itself and angles/ shots that we are to use in our opening sequence.



This is the corridor that will be shot in reverse order to what this image displays, this is where the 3 jump/speed cuts will take place to show the photocopier room and the evil character.

This picture shows the view after the jump/speed cuts have occurred, of the photocopier room and the end of the corridor, which are both used for the rest of the opening sequence.

This picture shows the stair way that we intend to also film on, this is where we feel the security camera effect should be placed on the opening sequence as it is unique but original in that this effect has been used of other films in our genre style of films before, but not in the way we intend to use it.

This shot is the view from the photocopier room of which we intend to show the evil crazy character appearing at the bottom of the stairs in the shot, and appearing from the side.

This shot is the reverse shot view from the photocopier room of which we intend to show the evil crazy character appearing at the bottom of the stairs in the shot, and appearing from the side.

These are some possible shots of a possible location for filming to give a feel and establishing shot of where the action is happening.