Horror films are usually set in scary, dark and haunted places. These places could range from haunted houses, to streets, to gardens and dark and damp alleyways.
Key themes of horror films are the good versus the evil, nightmares, beyond death, suicide, murder, ghosts and mainly the supernatural.
In every horror film special effects are used to make the film more terrifying and to induce jump scares to frighten the audience and to keep their attention and interest throughout the film.
Horror films are designed to scare and unsettle the audience.
Other settings are usually in isolated places to make the character feel cut off from civilisation. This makes the character feel trapped and isolated in a haunted and ghostly place. This creates more tension for both the character sand the audience.
They can be sometimes set in a place that has a dark past. For example an abandoned house or mental asylum.
Sometimes in horror films children will play the more sinister role.
Props like knives and chainsaws can be used to create more fear.
Costumes are used to create more fear in the antagonists.
In my own film opening I will use some of these key conventions to create more fear and tension and to make my film opening more scary. Also, using the key conventions will make my Film Opening more interesting and I could use the key conventions to make the audience more unsettle and frightened.
Alfred Hitchcock as nicknamed "Master of Suspense" because he interpreted a kind of psychological suspense in the films he directed.
Alfred Hitchcock was born on August the 13th 1899 and he died on the 29th of April 1980.
Alfred Hitchcock directed films such as; Rear Window, The 39 steps (1935), and Psycho (1960).
Alfred Hitchcock is renowned for his depiction of violence and suspense.
Alfred Hitchcock joined the Film industry in 1920.
He also made appearances in the start of his own films. This was because he knew the audience were watching for him, however he only appeared at the beginning of his films in order not to take the audiences attention away from the plot of the film.
This relates to my genre, horror, because Alfred Hitchcocks work has inspired me to try out some of his own shots and scenes which I can base on some of his scenes.
Wes Craven
Wes Craven directed; A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dracula 2000, Red eye, The Hills have eyes and the most popular one, Scream.
Wes Craven has become known for his genre bending and innovative horror and challenging audiences with his bold visions.
He was born on the 2nd of August 1939 and died on the 30th of August 2015.
He also directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 with a known horror antagonist, with the name of Freddy Krueger.
This relates to my genre,, horror as his storylines, plots and characters have made me think of what type of horror film I would like to do for my film opening and the different types of antagonists I can use and what characteristics the have.
Match-on-action: Match-on actions means editing techniques of films and videos where the editor will cut from one shot to a view which resembles the first shot's action.
Shot-reverse shot: This is a film technique where a character is portrayed looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.
180 degree rule: This is a cinematography guideline which states that two particular characters in a scene should maintain the same left/ right relationship with each other. Also, the camera should pass over an invisible axis which connects the two characters. This is called crossing the lines which makes the shot become a reverse angle.
Below I have chosen a few different types of shots from various genres to gain inspiration for my own film opening. I have chosen the genre of horror for my film opening. These pictures give me an idea of the different types of shots I can do to make my film opening scarier. One of the pictures shown below Is of a shadow, this makes the horror movie more scarier and it may increases the tension of my own film opening.
My Chosen genre for my film opening is Horror. I chose Horror as my genre because I can use all the different camera shots and angles. Also, I will be able to chose and apply different sounds and visual effects in order to make the film opening more terrifying and interesting to watch. I have also decided the plot of my movie opening.
