Sound in our film

Sound is in horror films to build suspense for the audience. The movie is going to open with creepy music. This music will play during the title sequencing and while showing the setting to the audience. The creepy music makes the audience feel unsettled. This unsettling feeling prepares the audience to be more scared. There will also be a creaking screen door sound at the beginning. The creaking sound tells the audience that there is immediate danger when entering the doorway. Once they enter the house, there will be a sound of a door slamming shut. This will make the characters and audience feel trapped in the abandoned house. 

Footsteps will be used in our horror film. These footsteps will only be heard by John and the audience. This will create suspense and confusion as the audience questions if they are real or if John is hearing things that are not real. There will be a power down sound effect (like a computer shutting down) when the lights start to flicker until the lights fully turn off. This intensifies the fear from the audience and makes them wonder what will happen while the lights are off.

Mise-en-Scene in our film

Mise-en-scene is anything the audience can see that can convey to the audience the emotion you want them to feel as well as the narrative that is happening. The Mise-en-scene can be found in the chosen location, the lighting that is used, the props that are used, or character movements or facial expressions. Using mise-en-scene can also distract the audience from things happening in the background of some scenes by misaligning props and characters to create an unsettling scene.  In horror films, mise-en-scene are typically isolated locations and items, rocking chair and toy props, low lighting, and colors such as red, black, and grey.  All of these create a sense of fear and horror.

In our film, we are starting with the abandon building that is seen as a sense of isolation.  The burn marks on the house and the fence alarm the audience.  The Clue board game creates a sense of mystery for the audience since Clue is all about solving mystery.  The Clue game also has the weapons that show a sense of danger and can create a sense of fear and danger.  The close-up facial expressions, especially for John, creates a sense of fear for the audience because they will see how scared the character is and how scared they should be for what is coming up in the story.  

Color and lighting in our film

Color is an important aspect of every film. We are going to have the actors wear a shirt with the same color as their Clue board game piece. When John disappears and his Clue game piece disappear at the same time, it will increase the fear since they both disappeared without knowing how or why.  The house fence will be black showing the burnt marks of the previous fire creating a sense of confusion for the audience as to what does the fire have to do with the danger that is coming and the disappearance that is about to happen. The lack of color inside the house allows us to create more fear and shadows since the color will not distract the audience.

Lighting is also an important aspect of every film. We are going to be filming at night to have more darkness. This lack of light signifies that bad things are to come. The artificial lighting and darkness can show shadows in the scenes of things creating mysterious figures and a sense of fear.  The artificial lighting can also be placed in certain places to highlight the parts of the room the audience should focus on and direct the attention to the key items of the film.  We are also going to have flickering lights during the film. The flickering lights will move the film and show that something important is happening. It is also a transition from the characters being safe to there is danger approaching.

Scheduling time for filming

Scheduling the filming of a movie can be difficult.  We will need to take into account the weather and outside natural lighting.  A shooting schedule needs to be written based on costumes worn, props that are being used, and actors available.  We will need to make a list of the order we will film the scenes based on similarity of what is being used in similar scenes.  We will also have to find a time where the director, the script writer, the actors, and the production crew are all available.  This may be more difficult depending on how many people are needed for the film.  

Our movie needs to recorded later in the day. This will allow us to control the light easier with less natural light from the sun. This will also make it darker outside and give the audience the correct feel of trouble that is about to occur at the beginning of the movie. Nighttime will make the movie scarier for the audience because night or darkness signifies something bad will happen. The nighttime atmosphere can also signify that something can
be hiding in the darkness. 

Representation in our movie

Every movie represents an idea that can relate to the audience. Our movie represents the idea of loss. We chose this because one of the friends, John, disappears. The disappearance and loss of a person in a movie leaves a sense of emptiness and a search for answers as to why the person disappeared. The other two friends in our movie, Kyle and Brian, are losing him and have to try to find him. The characters and the audience are now left to wonder who took him, where did he go, and why did he disappear.  All of this can relate to the audience because everyone has lost someone or something and had the fear they would never find it or never find out why they are gone. 

The representation of the movie is meant to affect the audience's emotions. The emotions that loss affects the most is the audience's sense of grief and trauma. This makes the audience able to relate to the characters who are experiencing similar things that they have gone through. If they never found John in the movie, the representation would be permanent loss throughout the entire movie. This makes the audience feel more grief with the sense of loss after watching the entire movie. 

Finding actors for our film

No film is complete without actors to play the roles. Casting is about finding the right people to act each character in the film to make it more believable for the audience. Our film has three characters, John, Brian, and Kyle. John is the scared person in the group and needs to be someone who can act scared during the film. Brian is the troublemaker in the group and needs to be someone who can make conflict during the film and make the audience be interested in the problems. Kyle is carefree and we need to cast someone who is calm and can make the character portray someone who is able to think even under the pressure of the scene. Each character should also be a teenager.

When casting people for the roles, we need someone who can act on camera. We will use the scene when they first get to the house to test the actors' ability to act on camera. The actors will also need to be able to memorize their part of the script. Not every actor can memorize lines but can be a good actor. For those people, we can give a character with less lines or create cue cards around the house to help. We made a list of friends that may be options to cast for our movie. We will have to pick people who are close by and available to record in order to for them to act in the movie. Finally, we will need to pick who should be John, Brian, and Kyle. 

Shot List

 

The shot list helps to organize the shots and put them in one place. The shot list helps the director and camera person have the same idea of what shots should be used. The shot list is based on the storyboard but may be closer to the final cut than the storyboard would be. 

The most important shots are shot 1, 7, 9, and 15. Shot number 1 is important because it shows the burn marks on the abandoned house to make the place more scary. Shot numbers 7 and 9 are important because they show John start to get more worried about being in the abandoned house and create suspense for the audience. Shot number 15 are important because they tell the audience that John has disappeared and make them question where he went.

Choosing a location for our film

Our horror film is going to take place in an abandoned house. We need to find a good house to film in for the movie. A perfect location for our film should have a creepy feeling to it once the audience first looks at it. In the beginning we thought we could use one of our own houses to film in. We would just have to use different effects to make it look scarier. However, after further consideration, that seemed hard to do.

To avoid the need for special effects or practical effects, we are going to shoot in a real empty house. We found this place through our location scouting. As the director, it was my job to get permission from the owners who happen to be someone I know very well. Last year, their house mostly burnt down in a fire and is being rebuilt. For now, the house is completely empty and will be the perfect setting for our horror movie. 

This house is in a residential neighborhood that is walking distance to mine. This will allow us to take breaks if needed during the filming process. We can also get resources from my house and easily bring them over to the abandoned house. We will have access to the entire property so we can film wherever we want. This will allow us to film the characters walking up and talking outside to house. 

Equipment needed to film

Every film production needs equipment. We carefully considered what equipment we are going to need while also keeping the cost low. We also want to limit the amount of time spent learning new technology or mechanical equipment. The main categories of equipment we will need is camera, sound, lighting, and props.

For camera equipment, the camera operator will use an iPhone. Certain shots will be taken while using a tripod. For other shots that are not handheld, we will use a four wheel dolly or skateboard to help move the camera easily. The iPhone also has a built in microphone to capture the sound.  Lighting is an important part of our film because we are making a horror film. We are going to use handheld flashlights, interior, exterior, and natural light, and possibly a stage light. This will allow us to have light in the abandoned house that has no electricity. The main prop in a film is the Clue board game. This prop moves the story along with a board game that links our characters and the movie to our story.

There will be some things we may need to buy in order to film our movie. One thing is a wireless lavalier to capture dialogue clearly. This will allow the audience to understand the conversations from the characters. Another thing is extension cords to have lights where we need them. This will help us better control light and shadow to get the right effect for our audience.

Storyboard

 

The storyboard is an essential part in creating our film. It allows us to easily visualize what our scenes will look like before recording. It gives everyone equal understanding of what comes next in the scenes. The storyboard organizes the film into important shots for the story. It tells the camera person what shots need to be used for each scene. 

Our group discussed the important scenes to include in our storyboard. We decided to start by showing the abandoned house the characters will be playing in, which will include burn marks to set the scene. The next few scenes show the action building up. The middle scenes are when John starts to hear the footsteps that only he can hear. We put these scenes for the storyboard because they build suspense for the audience. The final scenes show John disappearing. These scenes are on the storyboard because they show the main conflict in the story.

Working on Character development

 

Horror films have different types of characters.  A variety of character traits can create complexity in the story or a strong engagement with the audience.  The troublemaker tends to create fear for the other characters and the audience.  They also tend to get the other characters into trouble and dangerous circumstances. Our character Brian in our horror film is considered the troublemaker of the group.  He is the one that chooses the abandoned house as a meeting place.  He likes to scare his friends by screaming when they come up to the house. 

John is ‘The Hysteric’ in our horror film.  The Hysteric is the character who freaks out about everything.  They are also the ones that are seen as the most annoying characters.  They are also the characters that seem to get into the most dangerous situations because they stop thinking rationally.  In our horror film, John is overly cautious about being in the abandoned house.  He looks around the house because he is suspicious of his surroundings.  He gets scared with sudden noises and sounds.  He will end up being the one who disappears.

Kyle, the third character in our film, can be seen as the ‘Reluctant Hero’.  Although scared by what is happening in the abandoned house, he knows that he must overcome his fear to find his friend John.  He has a carefree attitude that helps him remain rational when all others are being irrational.  A similar character is Ellen Ripley in Alien who is saved because she stayed rational when all other crew mates are becoming irrational.  She is then thought of as the hero.

Current progress on the script

Script writing can be a slow process, especially when you have never written one before.  Since we are writing a horror film, the script also must invoke fear.  The first thing we had to decide was what type of fear we wanted to invoke.  We decided on the fear of the unknown and the fear of being lost or taken.

The fear that we want our audience to feel must come through our characters.  The audience must be invested in our characters so that the scares are more real for the audience.  There also has to be some unique threat to make the horror memorable.  I think that the setting in our movie is going to enhance the sense of fear. We originally were going to have our three characters hang out at one of their houses. We have decided to film in an abandoned house to make it feel scarier and more suspenseful (don’t worry I know the owners).

 

What do different horror films have in common?

Settings in horror films are very similar in description.  Most of the settings are bleak, gloomy locations, such as haunted houses and abandoned buildings.  Similarly, some horror movies use desolate locations such as small towns and remote cabins in the woods. The settings give off an isolated feeling and a perception of confinement.  The locations are usually seen as older locations with creaky floorboards and possibly some spider webs.  These places will sometimes contain creepy items like old dolls, masks, or bloody weapons.  

The Codes and Conventions of Horror Films talks about how lighting effects the mood of the film.  Uplighting or close-ups are used to make the expressions of the characters more extreme.  If a film shows only a little of the gore, it leaves the fear up to the audience's imagination.  Bright lights will create a sense of contentment while darkness creates fear and uncertainty.  The term chiaroscuro is using a contrast of light and dark.  This makes the audience anxious about what is going to come out of the shadows.  It also creates a sense of disorientation.  Flickering lights are often used to let the audience know that the action is moving from safety to danger.

In The Exorcist, the shadow of Father Merrin was used to show the struggle between good and bad. The image of the shadow is to show a stunning visual that is also scary at the same time.

In our film, we are going to use an abandoned setting to create a sense of uncertainty and fear.  The action will be built around discovering the dangers that come from the abandoned house.  Shadows in the lighting will show the uneasiness of the characters and the suspense of what is about to happen.  The flickering of the lights will help to transition the scene from friends safely hanging out to a danger soon to come.  The last thing is the close-ups that will show the intensity of the disappearance of one of the characters. 

What is the Title Sequencing in horror films?

 

In the movie The Shining, the title sequencing starts with the director and states "A Stanley Kubrick Film."  It is followed by the lead actors, the movie title, and then the supporting actors.  Next comes the producer (Stanley Kubrick) and the production company.  Following that is the script writer which, in this film is also the director and writer (Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson).  The title sequencing ends with the director and producer who is also Stanley Kubrick.

 In the movie The Cabin in the Woods, the title sequencing starts with the film studio and production company.  It is followed by the director and states "A Drew Goddard Film." It is followed by some of the action in the movie and then the movie title pops up with some creepy music like a jump scare.  It then lists the actors, producer, script writers (Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard).  Lastly, it ends with the director Drew Goddard.  This movie continues playing the story line at the same time as listing the essential people to the movie.

In the movie The Sixth Sense, the title sequencing starts with the production studio and production company.  Then comes the producers and lead actors before the movie title and supporting actors after the movie title.  This is followed by the producers again.  Finally, the script writer and director (M. Night Shyamalan).

For our movie, the title sequencing should start with our logo (Shadowglide Entertainment).  It would follow with "An Alexander Ellis Film," as the director of the film.  It would follow with our lead actors and the movie title.  We would then put the editor and script writer.  It would end with the director (that would be me).  We can have the words fade in and out and possibly put them in red as a sign of danger.  We could also have the title jump out like in The Cabin in the Woods with some creepy music.  

What is the narrative structure of horror films

The most traditional way to structure a horror film is the 3 Act structure.  Signs is a good example of a 3 Act structure where the story line follows a beginning, middle and end.  Act One is the sinister beginning.  It starts with a horror teaser.  Some will start with a violent act or murder that is a shock to the audience.  Others will start with an introduction of the backstory.  It's the time to introduce the characters and setting to the storyline.  In the first act, the main character's weakness or mental insecurity can be shown and eventually used against them later on.  Next would be where the main characters meet the danger for the first time.  They now realize what they have gotten themselves into.

Act Two is the Horror Unleashed.  It starts with danger escalating and the characters start to look into researching the villain or the situation.  The characters may disappear, and some may be murdered.  A key discovery is made that changes the direction of the story.  The characters are making a plan to stop the danger or get away.  At this point, it looks like the main characters have won, but something changes to make the danger worse.  The main character prepares their final plan to avoid the danger one last time.

Act Three is the Resolution.  It is the final confrontation with the villain.  It is the scariest moment of the movie.  The character must face their biggest fear in order to survive.  The characters are either changed by the experience or die.  What a way to end!  Some films will leave the storyline incomplete to have the option for a sequel.

Another option for a horror film structure is nonlinear storytelling.  This would not follow the traditional beginning, middle, and end outline, instead it jumps around in the story by adding flashbacks or flashforwards.  By changing the events in the story timeline, it creates a more intense and emotional experience for the audience.  The introduction of the characters is more meaningful then in the traditional three act structure.  In a nonlinear structure, the storyline becomes more intense and creates a stronger sense of fear for the audience.  Donny Darko is a good example of a nonlinear storytelling where the story jumps around and confuses the audience.  The object of nonlinear create disorientation for the audience.

Tailoring the 3-Act Structure for Your Horror Film | Raindance is a good resource for the information in this blog about structure in a horror film.

What features do horror companies use in their logo and what is our logo going to be?

Horror film logos typically use the colors black and red that represent mysteriousness and darkness with a splash of danger or blood. White can bring a sense of ghostly figures and cold isolation.  We chose a logo that followed this color scheme.  The white in the Eagle shows a strong ghostly figure with the red movie reel and wording that represents danger.  Shadowglide is a name that represents the darkness and danger that can be found in the shadows, and the glide to move quietly to sneak up on someone or something.

 Eagles are birds of prey.  They are a symbol of strength.  They are also known for their majestic flights.  Eagles are also known to stalk their prey until they have the opportunity to swoop down and capture or take their prey away. 

The same is true in horror films.  The villain or the monster takes their prey away after hunting them down. Typically, they will hunt and follow the person they are after.  One example is in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre where the masked man chases and hunts down the group of teenagers that were on a road trip until he could attack them.

What are common techniques in a horror film?

 What is the best way to scare our audience?

Horror films use different techniques to scare their audiences or create suspense in the plot.  Horror film cinematic techniques can range from visual effects to sound effects.  

Visual effects add more detail to the story.  They create imagery that enhances the suspense element in the movie for the audience to keep them engaged.  Low key lighting and shadow play create suspense by allowing the director to use a contrast between light and dark that allows for shadows to be highlighted in the frame.  This shadowing gives an uneasy feeling for the audience by building tension in the scene and giving sense of danger in the darkness.  Sudden changes in brightness make the audience question what will happen next.  Dutch angles and distorted lenses are used in horror films to show disorientation and a sense of character imbalance.  Red herrings lead the audience to believe something will happen but in actuality something else happens.  They build suspense and surprise aspects for the audience.

I am only going to write a little about sound effects since I have already made a separate blog about sounds. Horror films use several types of eerie music and loud sounds.  These sounds build suspense and create intense emotions.  Low frequency sounds, such as a tuba or thunder, can be used in a horror film to increase an audience's heart rate which makes it easier to scare them.  Diegetic sounds create a sense of realism and the audience can feel involved.  Non-diegetic sounds establish mood and atmosphere in a scene.  Horror films will also use silence to produce isolation in the scene and with the audience as the character is left with their own thoughts.

As far as visual effects, we are not sure what will be used in our horror film.  We will need to see how things develop while we produce our film.  Sound effects are in a similar situation. We have a general idea of what sounds we want to use but do not have a complete idea about the sounds we are using. There may be some loud sounds, diegetic sounds, and non-diegetic sounds.  I feel like silence will add to the suspense of our storyline. We will see what we can use to scare everyone watching the film!