In all horror films, there is some kind of backing track, whether it is diegetic, atmospheric sounds, or non-diegetic music to increase the pressure. Both are important when it comes to creating the perfect backing track.
Below are some videos of the famous "Scream" movies that show exactly how important the music is, by only having the music, compared to the original.
If we compare this to the original, it is possible to see how much the music plays an incredibly important role in inducing fear and suspense into the viewer.
After seeing the effects of music in the first film, a similar track was used in the second film during another "phone death" sequence which has now become immortalised by the "Scream" films.
Once again, if we compare this to the original we can see the true effect of the music
NB: for some strange reason the first few lines of this post don't seem to conform to the standard posting rules of keeping the whole word together, so some words go onto the next line without warning, I have tried to re-post this and edit the HTML but the problem still persists. Also, larger gaps between lines and paragraphs also seem to be present on these lines, meaning that it seems out of place with the rest of the blog. Sorry for not being able to correct it
This film has influenced our film ideas, with the multitude of "mirror shots" which I really wanted to put into the thriller. I feel that, although slightly clichéd, the use of a mirror shot shows a subtle skill, which will also allow us to bring in a generic trigger used in many other thrillers.
Moreover, the lighting used in this film is reminiscent of film noir styles, bringing an extra realm of suspense and tension into the film. This is something that would be great to be able to mimic.
We are planning on making a pastiche section to this film in which the reflection in the mirror doesn't reflect reality, but the mirror does eventually alter reality, and cause death.
Halloween:
The POV shots used in this intro sequence are extremely interesting and make for a fantastic method of bringing the audience into the film, and making them feel part of the sequence, as though it is happening to them. Being immersed in the film is of great importance in thrillers, as the building of suspense and tension cannot be achieved without the audience being engrossed.
Psycho:
The silhouetted figure from behind the shower curtain has become a classic generic trigger within murder stories, and by having this darkened, unknown figure, a mystery as to the identity of the killer is conjured. The killer is then finally shot in a low angle, but without any of his features being distinct, making it impossible for the killer to be identified. This is something that can be used to hide the identity in a murder mystery
Furthermore, the use of the fast paced editing causes the tension to increase constantly up until the girl finally actually gets stabbed. This style of editing is very useful in thrillers, especially in sections which are of high tension or great action sequences.
Underneath is a video with our pre-production storyboard in it. As it is possible to see, the drawings are very basic, as are the descriptions of the audio changes. This is because our planned venue had not replied with information about if we could film there. As it happens, we have now found out we could not film there, so had a change of venue, causing slight alterations to the storyboard and more recently, the initial actor that was going to play the murder victim had to pull out. This actor has been replaced by another actor who looks very similar and also is a strong actor, named Ezra Veng.
The results of our questionnaire are shown above. These results show that a murder mystery would be the most watched thriller and that stars aged 17-18 would be best received by the audience. Moreover, the results show that people would still rather go to watch a thriller in the cinema as opposed to DVD or online. This means that releasing it to a cinema-base would be more prudent than releasing straight to DVD.
As well as this, these results show the popularity of our 2 narrative ideas, a murder mystery based on a sport or a murder mystery based on a teenage house party. The house party received more popularity than the sport idea. This gives us the opportunity to build upon our basic idea of a party-based thriller, and extend it to turn it into the full intro sequence.
Over the last 2 weeks my partners and I have been working on our preliminary task, in which we had to show examples of a few different camera shots including:
Establishing shot
Close-up
Over the shoulder
Panning, and
Long-shot
Moreover, we had to apply certain filming rules to the project, such as keeping the 180 degree rule and maintaining continuity by shooting match on action shots and using the editing software to make ensure the shots flowed correctly.
Below is a picture show how the 180 degree rule is applied.
As it is possible to see in the picture, if the camera starts on one side of a conversation (such as in the green area) it looks as thought the person in orange is on the left and the person in blue is on the right. The 180 degree rule dictates that; if the previous shot was within one side of the line dotted in the photo, you cannot make a straight cut to a shot from the other side, i.e. one should not cut from a shot straight from the green zone into the red, or vice-versa. The reason for this rule is that, if one did cut through the line, it would deceive the viewer and look as if the people conversing switched positions. The only way to get around this issue i.e. if a shot from the opposite side is wanted, then you must pan over the line instead of cutting over it. Once this pan has taken place, you have then crossed the line, and the 180 degree rule is then reapplied to the new side. (If you were on the green side, then panned into the red, you must then stay in the red zone whilst cutting.)
A match on action, is a type of continuity editing which joins together 2 different views of the same action at the same moment, a cut is used between the two shots to make it seem as if the shot is one continuous movement, and ensures there is no jarring between the shots. The action begins in the first shot, and ends in the second. Such as when opening a door, we see the person opening the door from behind and starting to walk into the room in the first shot, and coming into the room from the front in the second shot. An example of this is in our preliminary task.
Although the video was not of the highest quality, it did help all three of us learn how to use the film camera, such as learning how to white balance, Zoom, focus and control the aperture. In Addition to this, I learnt how to set up and dismantle a tripod on both a dolly and on a spreader. Finally, after filming we used the editing software (Adobe Premiere) to ensure there was continuity between the shots and the skills we have learnt in both filming and editing will help us to film our coursework; a title sequence to a thriller film
Below is the actual preliminary video.
In the filming of this task, I only actually filmed the section where Johnny, the boy in the blue jumper, looks up at me entering the room. This shot was a high angle shot which was also a medium close-up. To compensate for this low amount of filming, I edited the whole of the dialogue and Johnny's reaction to my entrance.
From the filming section, I learned how to operate and change parameters on the camera, which I was previously unable to do. I also learnt that although filming looks very simple, it isn't and I had to reshoot many shots multiple times, as it was often the case that the focus, aperture or zoom was not exactly as we had planned.
From the editing section, I became aware of a new piece of editing software that I had not used before, and began to get used to it. By the end of editing my section of the sequence, whilst experimenting with some special features throughout, I feel that I have gained a large amount of experience in using the strong, but dated software (Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0is now 4 years old, which is a long time in terms of technology, as there have been 4 more recent versions of the software released, the most recent being Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 v4.2.1) Some of the video effects I tried to use were: lighting effects, pixelations, and video transitions(like dip to blackandDissolve)
NB: the small stalled bit before the conversation starts is not in the original video, but there was an error when uploading, which causes the stall.
During the filming of this task, as a group we came up with 2 main ideas for the thriller intro-sequence that we will have to film.
A murder mystery based on anindividual sport, such as boxing, in which the contenders are seen psyching themselves up, and after the 1st contender has come out, and the 2nd hasn't someone goes backstage to find the 2nd contender dead in their changing room. this would be a 'Who-Done-It?' style murder mystery
A murder mystery/psychological horror starting at a teenage house-party in which someone is killed under strange circumstances, such as by his/her hallucination.
