StoryBoard

Mood Board

Proposed Plan

History of horror

In class we discussed what genre for the movie trailers that we are going to produce.
the options where action, horror and comedy.
comedy was decided to be dropped because it was recommended that it was very difficult to create humour that would humour the audience.
action was dropped because it was to expensive. In the trailers of action films that we viewed they all had special effects and as students we cant afford them.
we decided to do horror because it was the most doable out of the three and it didn't need a large budget. 


The codes and conventions which make up horror are:
-Blood
-Death
-Killing
-Villain
-Victims
-Haunted houses and isolated settings
-Monsters
-Evil
-Weapons
-Darkness
-Storms
-Chase sequences
-Gore
-Violence
-Screams
-Ghosts

Building upon the success of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera, Universal Studios entered a Golden Age of monster movies in the '30s, releasing a string of hit horror movies beginning with Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931.


Despite the success of The Wolf Man early in the decade, by the 1940s, Universal's monster movie formula was growing stale, as evidenced by sequels like The Ghost of Frankenstein and desperate ensemble films with multiple monsters, beginning with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Eventually the studio even resorted to comedy-horror pairings, like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which met with some success. Other studios stepped in to fill the horror void with more serious-minded fare, including RKO's brooding Val Lewton productions, most notably Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie. MGM, meanwhile, contributed The Picture of Dorian Gray, which won an Academy Award for cinematography, and a remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while Paramount released the highly regarded haunted house picture The Uninvited. Notable international entry Mahal marked India's first foray into horror.

Various cultural forces helped shape horror movies in the '50s. The Cold War fed fears of invasion (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing from Another World, The Blob), nuclear proliferation fed visions of rampaging mutants (Them!, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,Godzilla) and scientific breakthroughs led to mad scientist plots (The Fly). Competition for increasingly jaded audiences led filmmakers to resort to either gimmicks like 3-D (House of Wax, The Creature from the Black Lagoon) and the various stunts of William Castle productions (House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler) or, in the case of Great Britain's Hammer Films, explicit, vividly colored violence. International efforts include the first full-length Japanese horror Movie(Ugetsu), the first Italian horror movie in the sound era (I Vampiri) and the acclaimed French thriller Diabolique.

Age Rating

The film trailer that we are producing is targeted at age 15 and upwards.  For this film to be viewable for 15 year old it need to be able to follow the restrictions. 

An age 15 horror movie is a film that only people of the age of 15 and above are allowed to watch. The reason for this is because the age of 15 has certain qualities that are to mature to be viewed by a younger audience.

For example:

·       strong violence

·       Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').

·       portrayals of sexual activity

·       strong verbal references to sex

·       sexual nudity

·       brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

·       discriminatory language or behaviour

·       drug taking

the reason for our film being rated this is because we believe that the content that is in our horror is perfectly suited for 15 year olds.

15 year olds are (mature) and they are at the age where they have an understanding of what is going on in the world. For example sex, powerful violence, discrimination and drugs. The examples that are listed are what some 15 year olds are introduced to.

Horror poster analysis

The poster has many conventions of a typical horror poster, for example the image that is used. The image is of a child's doll holding a knife. This image is typical of a horror genre poster because it has connotations of the horror genre, for example the knife the doll is holding. knives represent cutting and the fact that the doll is looking at the audience could be interpreted as it wanting to cut/kill (you/them). The image also creates terror by the use of a child's toy. Children have connotations of innocence and the fact a doll, something that a child plays with is looking to kill, it leaves the mystery of what the child/person behind the toy is capable of.

The background is dark. This is a typical of a horror poster. the Dark background makes the image the centre of of the audiences attention. this means that the image is the main element that they want to sell to the audience.

The title of the film 'Child's Play' is in a simple font. The reason for this could be that it shows simplicity like a child, like the film title says 'Child's Play'.

the title is unique, if you look at the P in the play it resembles a knife. The P in the title links to the image of the doll holding a knife. The play links to the doll as it suggests that the 'play' isn't normal, like the doll isn't normal.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

What would you expect in a Horror film?

What is your favourite horror film?

What is your deepest fear?

Does the dark scare you?

Have you every tried to conquer your fear?

Do you like the Horror Genre?

Why do you watch horror films?

What is your reaction to when you see something that scares you.