Opening credits

Opening credits at the beginning of films identify all the main people involved with the making of the film including actors, directors, producers and other main crew members. However the decline of TV movies after 1964 and the increasingly short "shelf-life" of films in cinemas has largely contributed to the vast majority of cast and crew information being displayed at the end of the movie rather than at the start. Some credits in movies and television are shown during a teaser or 'cold open' which is a brief scene before the main act starts; it helps to prepare the audience. A cold open (also known as a teaser) in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show.

The micro-elements of the horror genre

Sound
Non-diegetic sound assists the tension being created by creating atmoshperic sound that often leads to the climax or the thought of a climax. The heartbeat sound effect is often used in horror films to create suspense; it connects the audience with the film as their heart will more than likely be beating fast aswell as a result of fear. The heartbeat sound effect was used in the film The Shining which proved very effective to me as an audience member. Silence is a common feature of horror films as the audience can focus more on the camerawork and events taking place. Sound effects such as screams often follow silence which creates a jump-scare. 
Diegetic sound is also very important as the characters often hear strange noises that lead to the audience and also the characters suspecting that something bad is about to happen.

Editing styles

Fast paced editing creates a sense of unorganisation which makes the audience more flustered as they are unaware when something will scare them. The audience are more vulnerable as they are so focused on trying to catch up with the scene that they do not expect a horror moment when it occurs, making it scarier.
Match on action is often used when the character is walking in to a potential threat however the audience are often made aware of the threat before the charcter; creating tension as the audience are unable to communicate to the character what awaits them.

Mise-en-scene

Props and weapons are often used in horror films for example in Scream the victim was playing with her kitchen knifes foreboding that these would later be used as a weapon against her. The victim had blonde hair which stereotypically made her niave to the issues that made the audience so on edge. The idea of possession is popular within horror films and so it is common for props such as dolls or other chidlrens toys to be posessed for example in the film Annabelle. These tend to be everyday props that might result in the audience fearing various household items. Clowns used to symbolise the idea of childrens fun however horror films have abducted their innocence and created them into a more feared icon.
Victims are often in an isolated location whether it be in the woods (Cabin in the woods) or in a haunted house in the middle of nowhere (woman in black). This adds to the idea of vulnerabilty as the victims are unable to call anyone ot help, they must deal with the issue initially on their own.

Camerawork

CCTV, high-angle camera angles are often used to give the impression that someone is watching. The film Scream uses these types of camera angles from outside the house that the victim is in, giving the impression that they are watching however the character is unaware creating a sense of dramatic irony with the audience.
Establishing shots are also used in horror films to set the scene, it often ivolves communicating to the audience that the victims are isolated making them vulnerable.

Extra editing time!

Today I decided to continue to edit after class in order to identify what we still have yet to film! As the location of our horror opening is in my house its important for me to try to film when I can so that when Esme comes round we do not have everything left to do it one day as I made this mistake during my GCSE production period last year!

Horror conventions

• Suspense is created through sound e.g silence or ambient noise.
• Isolation with characters or a location often makes people vulnerable and puts them in jeopardy. Innocent children are more vulnerable.
• Pathetic fallacy sets the mood often eerie fog or rain.
• Climax however not having closure, creates mystery.
• Dark or neutral colours create a blank canvas, emphasising when bright colours enter a scene e.g red (blood).  
• Close escape  
• Sexualised victim
• Unpredictable events
• Sudden, dynamic changes
• Deformed antagonist
• Various props can be used in order to create a sinister setting e.g antiques, weapons or anything that could symbolise past life and death.
• Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. In many horror films the cross is used to protect people from paranormal activity. However it is stereotypically known that these props tend to aggravate any paranormal creature resulting in more violence.
• Lighting is also effective in horror films as the dark can hide things creating mystery and the fear of the unknown. Shadows also create mystery as you never know whose shadow it is.
• Often in horror films, innocent objects, people, or songs are warped to create a sense that you are never safe. For example clowns are now associated with fear not happiness.

For our main brief we aim to include silence in order to create suspense, we also aim to include a child as they are vulnerable and innocent making the audience want to find out whether they survive the possession or cursed events. We also aim to include sudden, dynamic events which will scare the audience as they will not be able to predict them!

Extra editing!

Today Esme and I decided to edit our work at lunch - we focused on finding appropriate sound using freesound.org to which we would use in our piece.

Organisation of Actors, locations and props

Our horror piece requires 3 actors; a mum, dad and girl. We have selected various friends and family members who we believe would best uphold these roles, their pictures are in our character profiles. Zac Levin will play the father, despite being 16, he looks much older because of his beard. Olivia Martin will play the motherly role as she comes across as very mature and also looks older than she is. My sister Lily Wiltshire will play the role of the young girl because featuring a younger girl would be more challenging and the concept of the film may scare them. We would require parental permission to feature anyone younger however we can make my sister look younger than she is. Her bedroom is laid out perfectly as one wall consists of a wide window which we will feature in our horror piece. Our other location is a park in Cranham as it is local for everyone involved, so it is easy to get to, but it also is often empty and so we can take advantage of this in order to have no distractions when filming. An isolated park proves to be the perfect location for a horror film as people are vulnerable when isolated. The park is also a place of joy and happiness which fits in with the horror genre as horror films tend to destroy concepts of childhood for example in the film Dead Silence the puppet is possessed and it kills an innocent wife. We have been influenced by this concept of possession by including it in our own horror piece as the doll possesses the girl who then has an out of body experience as she stares at her possessed self outside the window. The props we will require for our piece include a doll, a book and a torch. These are everyday household items which help to reveal the normality of the situation prior to the possession. The bedtime story will end in "and they lived happily ever after" this will help to foreshadow that they will not live happily ever after... We will also require make up in order to make the possessed girl look different, in order to do this we aim to make her look dirty with backcombed hair- much like the girl featured in the exorcist. We aim to also black out her eyes either via editing or the use of blacked out lenses which you can purchase from fancy dress stores.

Storyboard evaluation

Esme and I decided to start our piece in the park because it reveals an equilibrium (Todorov's narrative structure) as the family are all happy, united in the park. The parents watch Alice happily as she swings on the swing with her new doll. Credits will be continuously fading in and out during this section until the title appears; Inside. We then go back to the park where we see a long shot of the family leaving the park, we plan to include credits on each tree as they walk out of the park. This is the last time the audience are presented with the united, happy family. We feel this is effective because they are walking away from the camera, into the distance where we can no longer keep an eye on them. This shot will then fade out and fade into the girl's bedroom. During the fading out of the shot we will hear a voiceover of the mum reading a bedtime story "and they lived happily ever after". We will then see the mum close the book and kiss her daughter goodnight. We feel an over the shoulder shot of the mum reading is the best shot to use as we are presented with the girls innocence as she reacts to the story as it is told.

The diegetic sound used also foreshadows that this will not be a happy ending. Once the mother has said goodnight to Alice, she leaves the room and switches the light off on her way out. Alice then lifts the covers over her head and switches on a torch. The camera is placed under the cover so the audience feel involved. Alice then sings the nursery rhyme 'ring a ring a roses' to her doll, once she sings the line and they all fall down, the torch light stitches off leaving the screen black. At this point the audience may think nothing of it and will not expect what's about to happen. Alice then switches the torch back on however the camera is now placed over Alice's shoulder (or a POV shot, which ever works best), her doll is then positioned directly in front of her face. She then screams and  struggles to escape from the covers. At this point we plan to use fast paced editing to enhance the panic expressed by Alice. The camera then becomes still, using a mid shot fixed on Alice who is looking at something out of the cameras view. We then pan to what she is looking at, out of the window is another version of Alice; her eyes are one colour (black out or white out, again whatever looks best), her face is dirty, her hair is messy and she looks possessed. We then zoom to the desk in front of the window where we see some crayons and a family picture. Alice's parents have a noose around their necks drawn on by the crayons. The screen goes black and the opening is over leaving the audience wanting to know the significance however we have laid out the puzzle pieces but you will only see the full picture right at then end when the final piece is put in place and it all comes together.

Character profiles

Our storyboard!

This is our storyboard for our horror film. Earlier in the year we were given the chance to create our own film poster. I created one for a film concept that I developed called 'Inside'based on the possession of a little girl through her doll. This is the basic idea which we have developed into our main brief. We decided to call our film 'Inside' as it relates to the film poster. The title suggests something is inside the doll, but you don't know what.

Inside film poster