Horror Genre

Horror
A film that depicts the viewers emotions, worst fears, terror of the unknown, disgust and nightmares. The horror genre is a genre that often feature scenes throughout the film that scare the viewer with the use of macabre and also that of the supernatural. The genre also overlaps with many other genre’s such as fantasy, science fiction and thriller. Most plots of horror films involve an evil force, event, or personage commonly of supernatural origin into the everyday world. Elements that feature in horror films are often torture, gore, ghosts, demonic forces, supernatural organisms and serial killers.


Example
Halloween (1978)
Director- John Carpenter
Release date: October 25, 1978
On Halloween 1963, the small town of Haddonfield is shocked when six-year-old Michael Myers returns from trick-or-treating and for some unknown reason stabs his older sister to death with a big kitchen knife and is found by his parents staring into space with the bloody knife in his hand. Sent to a mental institution, Michael spends the next 15 years just sitting, still staring into space despite the best efforts of his Doctor, Dr. Samuel Loomis. Now, on October 30th 1978, something triggers Michael off and during a storm manages to steal a car from Dr. Loomis and Nurse Marion (who was coming to take Michael to a court to keep him locked up) and goes back to Haddonfield where he steals a white mask. There, Laurie Stode, Michael's younger sister, finds that Michael is stalking her during the day (at school, at her home etc - but she doesn't know who he is.) As Dr. Loomis arrives and with the Sheriff frantically looks for Michael he doesn't know that Laurie is baby-sitting Lindsey and Tommy and that Laurie's friends Annie, Lynda and Bob are disappearing one by one.


This horror film set the conventions of horror films as it made significant use of first-person camera perspectives, unexceptional settings, and female heroines, all of which now define the horror film genre and are used in frequent other horror films.


This example of a horror film and the research of the horror genre allowed me to explore different ideas, when thinking of the storyline for our main-brief. The fact that Halloween contains a family in danger, made me think about using the concept of a nuclear family as it highlights that the horror that is in the film can happen to anyone, this makes it more scary and realistic.

Different camera angle revision

Camera Angles

The term camera angle means slightly different things to different people but it always refers to the way a shot is composed. Some people use it to include all camera shot types, others use it to specifically mean the angle between the camera and the subject. We will concentrate on the literal interpretation of camera angles, that is, the angle of the camera relative to the subject.

Eye-Level

This is the most common view, being the real-world angle that we are all used to. It shows subjects as we would expect to see them in real life. It is a fairly neutral shot.

High Angle

A high angle shows the subject from above, i.e. the camera is angled down towards the subject. This has the effect of diminishing the subject, making them appear less powerful, less significant or even submissive.

Low Angle

This shows the subject from below, giving them the impression of being more powerful or dominant.

Bird's Eye

The scene is shown from directly above. This is a completely different and somewhat unnatural point of view which can be used for dramatic effect or for showing a different spatial perspective.
In drama it can be used to show the positions and motions of different characters and objects, enabling the viewer to see things the characters can't.
The bird's-eye view is also very useful in sports, documentaries, etc.

Slanted

Also known as a dutch tilt, this is where the camera is purposely tilted to one side so the horizon is on an angle. This creates an interesting and dramatic effect. Famous examples include Carol Reed's The Third Man, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and the Batman series.
Dutch tilts are also popular in MTV-style video production, where unusual angles and lots of camera movement play a big part.




When filming for our horror opening, we included the high angle shots because we wanted to portray a sense of CCTV when watching the mum and daughter. The use of the CCTV effects allows the audience to feel as if someone or something is watching the innocent family, which adds to the genre being horror.

Research behind our character profiles

When deciding on our characters and who were going to be the actors, we concentrated on the whole concept of the main brief and who would suit which character best. We chose a traditional mother, father and daughter to be the characters in our mini brief. This is because, the fact that they're an average traditional family adds to the scary concept to the mini brief. We know this because it the audience can relate to the characters which allows the audience to feel as if the situation could easily happen to them.


Due to the fact that the mum and dad of the mini brief are supposed to be happily in love, we decided to ask two people in our year who were in a happy relationship. This would allow the performance of being in love to be performed more naturally due to the true emotion, rather than two strangers trying to act as if they're in love. We also chose Izzy's little sister to be the little girl in our min brief. This I because she is only young and would portray an innocent young girl.

Character Profile!