Analyse Of a Horror Opening

Scream Opening:

Genre-

In the opening of this clip it comes apparent very quickly that it is a horror. The use of screams behind a telephone ringing shows the similarities between the phone she answers and what will happen next. The theme of horror is shown through the noises used and the font that the title is written in.

Character-

The character shown is a blonde female, this along with the female dressed in all white is to show her innocence. The female is shown through the male gaze theory whilst she is running and looking scared. The use of this character is to heighten the fear as the female shown to be so innocent can not cope or deal with the situation in hand.

Atmosphere-

The atmosphere in the opening is tense, this is created through different factors. With the constant calls from the stalker it creates a sense of fear and unknowing. The popcorn poppy denotes the danger the girl is in. At the start where things don't seem to be going wrong but when the situation accelerates the popcorn pops violently and shows the change in situation. The fast cuts that are used create the feeling of unknowing.

Themes-

The theme of horror is throughout, during the conversation she says she is going to "watch a scary film" she says this whilst playing with the knife, which connotes the presence of a killer and death in the film. Other themes include the use of innocence vs evil, this is shown through the girl being in white which shows her innocence.

Setting-

The setting is made to look like a family setting. The house seems to be a working home, it shows how the killings and calls have come out of the blue and totally opposite to what they have experienced before. The house is large which shows they have alot of money so could give a reason why they have been targeted.

Sound-
When the titles are up on the screen the sound in the background is of screams and other sounds which combine with the telephone ringing to show straight away the big impact the phone has on the storyline. The sound of the phone ringing is made to echo around to give it a scarier edge.

Titles-

The only titles shown is the title of the film 'Scream' it is written in red to connote death and blood. This shows the genre which it is in. As there are very few titles it makes the opening scarier as it looks like its truer to life.

Post by: Kat Ransom

Film Brief

Considering the film as a whole, we had to come up with a film brief:

       

 'A masked serial killer is stalking distinctive women. His next victims been captured. She must uncover the truth to save herself, and his next victims.' 

Character Profiles For Our Main Characters

Our group 'Orange Productions' have decided our film opening will need three main characters. One will be a stalker man, he is mentally deranged and takes pleasure through stalking young girls and playing with their minds. He takes photos and records the girls and posts them on his bedroom wall in a way he is obsessed but so obsessed he could commit murder to have the ones he wants. The man wears a mask to cover his true identity yet dressed in dirty cloths with dirty hand and nails. For this character we need to find an actor who is talented at playing someone mysterious, someone that will terrify the audience and portray the sickness of the character. He will need to create a higher fearful atmosphere and scare the audience. The name of this character is Bill Hasely, we felt this name by itself creates a scary atmosphere it is a fearful name like one such as 'Freddy Kruger' or 'Michael Myers'.  We need to ensure we pick certain qualities from our actors to ensure they play the part correctly and scare the audience, we also felt that the name chosen seemed real it is a name that is realistic and sounds like a real person we needed this as we want the film to be as if it is real and is describing true events this will add a much more eerie and dark atmosphere to the audience and leave them terrified.

We researched into actors that we feel could play this part well:


Males to play the part of Bill Hasely (stalker)

     

This is Robert Englund, he played the part of Freddy Kruger in the nightmare on elm street series. The character he plays is scary and dark and comes across as a psychopath, this is what is needed for our film we need the audience to fear this character. He plays this part extremely well although he is in a costume with a mask he still adds a scary effect through his body language and even the way he talks is low tone and scary adds an eerie atmosphere making the character come across as more terrifying. We feel he would play our stalker character well in our film as he is eerie and gives off a fearful atmosphere. This is a good actor to base our character on due to his body language and tone of voice so when undergoing our auditions we will need to ensure our character will be able to play a character that scares audiences and overall gives out a terrifying eerie and worrying atmosphere.

              



This is Derek Mears, he played the part of Jason Vorhees in the Friday the 13th series. In this film he creates a scary atmosphere not only through the mask he wears but his whole body language. The body language this actor uses is different to Robert Englund however still portrays a scary atmosphere very well. He moves slow around which creates fear. However you cannot ever hear his voice in the Friday the 13th series so this is a downfall to this actor as the voice needs to be low pitch and scary and this is a vital part of choosing an actor to play the stalker in our film opening. The actor is big built muscle wise which also adds more fear to the audience, it shows he has more power as our protagonist is a female the size of our character will clearly show he has complete power over her, creating the protagonist to come across more innocent and help less this creating fear and worry to the audience. The way the actor looks comes across as threatening and scary i feel he would play the part in our film well as our stalker need to have this effect on the audience, the character needs to be feared.


   

This is Nick castle, he plays the part of Michael Myers in the Halloween series, this actor gives the same effect as Jason Vorhees in Friday the 13th, the body language he portrays adds a terrifying atmosphere we need our audience to be scared by our character so i feel Nick castle would also play this part well.


Female:

Our second character is a young girl named Kate Young who is stalked in our film, she needs to be portrayed as innocent and beautiful. She needs to be a stereotypical 'high school cheerleader' she needs to be a popular girl in school that all the boys are after.

This is Reese Weatherspoon she would fit the part well as she has the look a high school girl, she has blonde hair which shows innocence and has all the attributes we would need in our piece.

Jennifer Aniston is a good fit to the character of our choice as she fits the ideal description perfectly. In most horror films the male gaze theory is used so the character would have to be attractive but shown to be innocent. This is the characteristics needed in our film.

 

This is Emma Watson, she fits the criteria for the role as she is shown to be innocent and a lovable character. She would also work in the male gaze theory.

If had the choice we would use a actor like Emma Watson as it would create a more innocent feel to the film. The male character we would use is Robert Englund, he would fit the part of the stalker well and would create fear throughout.

Post by: Kat Ransom

Use and examples of masks in horrors

masks in horror for media

By Will Howlett

Mind Map Of Ideas For Our Film

This is the mind map of our final genre which is 'Horror', i created this asking people what aspects they thought of when the word horror comes to mind. This is what i came up with and this helped our group to consider different storylines and motifs.

By Kathleen Ransom



Exploring Certification of a '15'

(Suitable only for 15 years and over)
No one younger than 15 may see a '15' film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a '15' rated video work. As a group we had to look over at what fits the criteria of a '15' certificate film. We had to look at the film as a whole and if the scenes we were looking to put into the opening, and the film, would not be accepted if the BBFC were to certify it. Looking at the criteria of a '15' rated video it seems as though our film would fit better in this category, as well as being suitable for our target audience.


Discrimination
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.


Drugs
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be accepted.


Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.


Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.


Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, 'f***'). The strongest term (for example, 'c***') may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.


Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.


Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.


Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.


Violence
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence muse be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.


Considering the points of a 15 certificate we have decided as a group that our film will be certificated as this. This is because there will be some violence in out group as a whole, some indication of nudity may be shown throughout the film, frequent strong language and appropriate for 15 year olds.

By Jess Wilding

Target Audience Profile

Target Audience-
not a niche audience,

Our film is in the category of a horror genre aimed towards the teenage age group between 15 and 18 this is because of the use of teenagers as the protagonist this will create verisimilartude to the teenagers lives and create the hyperdermic needle theory which will mean that this film will be most effective when scaring the audience when shown to this age group. As our film is certified as a 15 due to the use of threat and blood this clearly shows that my film will not be aimed towards anyone under the age of 15. There is use of the male gaze theory in the opening of our film and will follow throughout where the camera pans across pictures of young girls, this links more towards the male gender however the pictures we used for this clip are trying to follow the stereotypical lives of a teenage girl so this will create verisimilartude towards the teenage girls. The type of audience we will be aiming for will be from social demographic groups C and D this is because from research we found that these were the main groups that took interest in the horror genre so this will help us when advertising our product and distributing it as to where to advertise to attract the correct target audience.  However our film is not really particually aimed towards the age or gender of our audience more towards whether they enjoy the stereotypical conventions of a horror film as we follow these with uses of such things as a stalker/murderer blood threat and violence. Our film is very alike 'Scream (1996)' as it follows these generic conventions so our target audience will be the same target audience of films such as these.

Alex Cockburn