Sound in horror

Sounds in horror makes the audience to feel frightened,nervous and anxious as they get the feeling of anticipation. Sound in horror includes high and low pitch and tones of sound. These sounds create a sense of nerve as the audience are aware of what comes after these sounds.

low pitch music:
Low pitch music is used in films to create a sense of danger. In the film Jaws, low pitch music slowing building a higher tempo, was played to create a dramatic tone and to create a sense of danger. Every time this music occurred in the film the audience understood Jaws was coming and the characters where in trouble. This low pitch sound made the film thrilling and shows how sound can easily create tone. This sound is still one of the most famous sounds of movie history.

High pitch music:
High pitched sound are used in films to build fear and to create suspense and anticipation in the film. In the the film Psycho, the shower scene uses high-pitched string instrument notes with very fast attack to build the tempo, tension and to create fear.

Lullaby music:
Lullaby music has become more popular with horror as the sense of innocents and children singing is scary for the audience listening. Lullaby music can be twisted and altered to make the lullaby sound frighting. You can do this by changing the words in the song to horror related words such as death and die. This makes the audience feel scared and worried about the following scenes.

No music:
Silence can also be used in films to create tension as the audience anticipate the next sound which is usually the next scare or a everyday sound which leads to a sudden scare which catches the audience off guard. 

Storyboards

Graphic visualizing process (storyboarding) is when directors begin to think about bringing their ideas to life. Thinking about the story, character development and meaning.

Why are storyboards important?

• pitching an idea
• links planning to film process
• visualizing images and ideas
• visualize links between shots, action/graphic matches
• timings,continuity and pace
• technical awareness and understanding
• revise narrative sequences
• chance to make decisions and revise

Graphic Match is a part of an editing process. Matching a graphic of a similar shape and size, and matching it to another one in another shot.

Cutting is linked with t.v soaps etc. This can be over used and lose detail, meaning and the tone of the scene. Therefore some directors don't cut too much and in fact use the camera to tell the story instead of editing more cuts in post production. This is to hold the verisimilitude and the audiences attention. Therefore creating a completely different feel and making it more of a movie or real life rather than just some edited t.v programme.

How to storyboard:

• photocopying a set of storyboards sheets
• use small frames
• draw in pencil
• number the shots
• make short notes
• note down the camera position
• little annotations on the storyboard with arrows

The storyboard is generally about already knowing what the scene is going to look like so it therefore is easier for the process.

Pre-production research

BBFC guidelines on horror:

U- should be mild should take account of the presence of young audiences. The outcome should be reassuring. 

PG- can be fightening but shouldnt be too intense. 

12- sustained threat with occasional gory moments only. 

15- sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is not acceptable. 

18- no constraints at this level on theme, language, nudity or horror. 

My group have decided we are most likely going to do a 15 mainly because we are around the same age so we have an idea of what we would normally see in a 15 horror film, but also because it doesnt give us too strict boundaries so we dont have to restrict our ideas. 

Representing women:

In films during the ...   women were represented as the 'damsel in distress' who were always the victim and never the culprit. They wore dresses, had beautiful hair and looked stereotypically feminine. This is because at the time women were seen to be the weaker sex and didnt do bad or horrific things. However, across the course of the 20th century many changes have taken place to how women are represented on screen. For example, the Dracula story offers an interesting take on that change, as the different screen versions remain true to the original novel in making women broadly passive figures. The film began to show good women vs bad women through Count Draculas success lies in his seduction of women from good to evil. In todays films women are shown that they can be just as powerful, violent and evil as male characters which could be argued to be a positive and negative thing for representing women. 

    

Day 1 of filming

Before we could go out and start filming our continuity task, we firstly had to learn how to put up and use a tripod and camera.
Once we were shown how to use all of our equipment, we began filming. However, we faced a few problems even though we stuck to our shot list and plan. 

Furthermore after we finished filming we then had to be shown how to take the raw footage off the camera and put on to the computer ready to edit in Premiere Pro. When we started to go through our footage we noticed we would have to re-take some scenes as even though we thought we had everything we need some of the shots have errors in them such as top of the heads cut off, or camera jolts. This made us realise how hard it really was and how much effort we would have to put into completing this task at the level of standards we need to be at. 

Planning - Brain storm

This is our plan of what we think should be included in a horror thriller which includes: camera and editing, sound, costume, characters and setting. We have chosen to look at horror thrillers as our survey told us that it doesn't have a large market so we thought that we would be different and create one as to target a new audience. We came up with our ideas about what should be included by our research, when we watched openings of horror thrillers and noted the typical codes and conventions as so to include some in our own opening. We also looked at horrors today compared with horrors back in the 1930's, and talked about how codes and conventions have been adjusted to what film producers think audiences want to see now.

This is what we think should be in an action thriller which includes: characters, sound, setting, costumes and editing & camera. We have chosen to look at action thrillers because our survey results showed it is the most popular subgenre of thriller and is most enjoyed by audiences.