Settings in Horror films

Below I have done research on settings used in horror films and have presented my information in slide form.

Settings

This research will help influence our film concept, as we have to consider what would be a good setting to use to set the horror mood.

Below is link to a forum which shows suggestions for a good horror movie setting:
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/

It is a good idea to research into other people's opinion on horror movie settings because it is important to know what atmosphere frightens people and makes them feel uncomfortable, and from this we can conclude on a suitable setting for our movie setting.

Music and Sound

One of the most overlooked aspects of films is the sound. An audience can easily forget that if the music and sound effects were taken away from a horror, the fear factor would decrease dramatically, possibly even disappear completely. If you was to watch a horror movie and turn the sound down, you would suddenly forget how scared you were and the images on the screen wont scare you half as much as they would if the volume was up.

From the information I have read about horror films, I have found out that music in horror movies are probably more powerful than in any other film genre. The music in a film is used to communicate with the audience, so we must interpret it. You can watch a horror film without music, but it isn't frightening, however it can be gruesome. If you add the music, you add the tension.

Orchestral music is seen as the most recognised and common type of music used in horror hilms. Orchestral music has been used since the start of the horror genre and is still the most popular type of music used in horrors and thrillers. The reason why orchestral music is used so much in horror films is because the composer can vary compositions following each event happening in the film. Orchestral music can be seen as a very neutral type of music and it appeals to a wide audience. This sort of music helps set a certain mood and gets across different emotions in a horror film.
As well as the classical orchestral music, we have to consider that modern alternative horror music is also used in many films. This genre uses synth-based music and industrial music.
An example of this music genre is used in horrors such as Blair Witch 2, which consists of alternative rock and heavy metal music. This music works well with horrors as it is quite dark and brooding, which suits the visual style of the film.

From doing all this research about music and sound effect in horror films, I have realised how important it is to use the right kind of music in our horror trailer. Without effective horror music in our trailer, the audience won't be drawn to the movie and they won't feel like it is going to be a scary horror. We have decided that we are going to use Modern Alternative Music for our horror trailer as our film name is 30/10/10 and this represents the present day and comes across as very modern. It is always the right music to use when linking it to our overall concept.

Props

What is the significance of props in a horror film?

When you try to examine characters without props, they are meaningless. In other words, they are not scary at all. For example, try to imagine Jason Vorhess without his machete, Freddy without his claws or Michael Myers without his mask. Many great horror films have a lot of memorable moments and the use of their unique props helps to add value to their character. It is a known fact that every killer in a horror film has a good prop beside them. Even the normal protagonists who don't kill anyone, for example ghosts or vampies have props. An actor in a horror film can only do so much to scare the audience without their props. If Jason Vorhees stood over a victim, looking very plain-like and his shouting would not give anyone a fright. But if you add his machete, mask and ripped clothes, then you are sure to get frightened and want to run away.

This research is significant to our horror concept; because we have thought about the idea of using crops such as a mask to keep the killer anonymous - for him to have a hidden personality. This therefore has a scare; as nobody knows who the killer really is. Suspicion causes fear.

Mise en scene

Mise en scene: These are all the things that are put into the scene e.g. the setting and decor. Narrative filsm often manipulate the elements of mise en scene to intensify or undermine the ostensible significance of a particular scene.

Lighting: Light effects the way colours are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and focus attention on particulare elements of composition. Most mainsteam films rely on the three point lighting style and its genre variations.

There are three typical horror elements found in many horror movies:

• A fierce creatre is the first typical element found in horror movies. A lot of movies in this genre use fierce animals to make a plot, making that animal huge; savage and intelligent without a doubt to horrify people. Using characters who are frightened all the time and are running away from the creature also excites people. These characters always succeed in escaping from some danger, but sometimes fail to escape from other dangers.
  
  
• The supernatural is the second thing which is used as a typical horror element in this movie category. Supernatural things are often used to scare people and have a unique style and have become very popular.
  
  
• The third horror element is murderer. Filmmakers often use a scary human character to be the typical element. In some movies, the character wears scary clothes and a mask as he commits the murders. These movies nearly always start with a group of friends or random people, and each on gets killed until there is a revelation of the murdered at the end of the movie. During this time the audience anticipated who is the murderer and most of the time is incorrect. These are also conflicts at the end of the movies, which suprise people as most of the conflict is related to revenge.

Mise en scene is important to when we start producing our concept because we have to consider the key elements, as shown above, that will showcase our trailer to be of a horror genre. These ideas influence us on how our character should look and what type of lightening would be suitable.

Costumes

The concept of our film trailer was to focus on the idea of keeping the Antagonist anonymous. To do this, we had chosen to use a mask to keep the face hidden. I have researched other films and had seen certain masks used for the killer. This has influenced me into how our Antagonist should look.

Friday the 13th

On the left is shown the Antagonist in the film 'Friday the 13th'. He is shown wearing a mask to keep his identity hidden. This is a good way to go about what we want our Antagonist wearing as the mask is quite scary as only holes for the nose and eyes are shown. The mask is a way of keep a personality hidden and this is what we want to achieve in our film trailer.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

On the right hand side you can see the Antagonist from the movie 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. Here he has a more distorted face, this is another way to have the Antagonist look scary as it is not something that you would come across everyday, due it to not being normal.

Analysis on Horror Film Posters

Below I have shown a PowerPoint SlideShow on slideshare on the analysis of film posters. The information consists of what makes the film poster appeal to the horror genre.

Analysis of film posters

Teaser trailers

I looked at teaser trailers, and found out that they are different than normal film trailers.

Below I have identified the differences, as I would have to take this into account when producing my trailer.

Teaser trailers are usually made for big-budget and popularity themed movies. The purpose is to tell the audience less about a movie's content than simple to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming release.

Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film.

The following videos are of a teaser trailer and an official trailer:

Below I have shown in bullet points the conventions found in teaser trailers.