Monday, 30 November 2009

My horror film ideas

We decided not to go with this idea because it was not going to work. We therefore came up with another idea:

Thursday, 19 November 2009

What makes a Horror Film?



Personal
An ideal horror film is one which scares the audience. Depending on what fears the audience has, either it being the dark, clowns, spiders etc, horror films should identify with them all. Most horror film involve bodies being ripped apart, and harming of innocent people. Although the audience themselves would never want something like that to happen to them, they attraction is being frightened with the knowledge that we are always safe. If a horror film is good, we come out terrified of the dark or whatever, but deep down we know we are a safe distance away and that is where we get the pleasure from.






Ideology

In horror films, there are implicit or explicit messages embedded within the narrative; i.e. that the innocent virgin girl generally lives to the end; however her rebellious slutty friend is brutally murdered. A more advanced message is the fear of strangers/hitchhikers, that the media exaggerate that they are all evil and want to murder you.

Horror films have adapted to the way our society has rapidly advanced. Rather than film like the exorcist, where praying saves the day, due to religion not playing as bigger part in our lives anymore, and science increasing, horror films has modified to that. In our modern understanding in horror films the power of science and psychological powers defeat the fear and evil because it more believable and relatable than religion.

Industrial/Financial Benefits
These benefits to a horror film are huge. It is easy to make, as there are little special affects, and popular, famous actors aren’t needed, therefore, because they are so popular and watched, a huge profit is made. The horror industry draws in huge audiences because we love being scared without being harmed. Therefore, horror film-makers can get away with re-inventing and franchising every successful horror product. For example, there have been 9 incarnations of ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street,’ but this is acceptable, however the thought of a Lethal Weapon 5 seems ridiculous because it has already been done, therefore predictable. But audiences love horror being predictable to a certain extent because they know they will always been shocked or scared whatever happens.




Expectations
Horror films generally follow the set of guidelines which make it a horror. For example, the setting is normally in an isolated place, in the dark, where innocent, naïve teenagers get brutally murdered by a psycho which they were slightly rude to previously. Also that there must be huge amounts of gore, blood and murders, so it lives up to the title of horror. Themes generally involve a large number of death, people with mental illnesses and the supernatural. There must always be a central villain, whether they have accomplices to help, there must always be the one evil character that the stereotypical hunky male hero can kill when saving his gorgeous cheer leader girlfriend. These are the expectations from an audience, that the film makers must live up to, because otherwise it does qualify to fit in the category.

Friday, 6 November 2009

Intro to Using Final Cut Pro Editing Package

In the lesson after our preliminary task we were introduced to Final Cut Pro which we are going to do all our editing on. Firstly we were explained how the rushes tape is put onto the computer. The rushes tape was uploaded onto the computer; we accessed an edit proxy (digital copy) of the raw footage. When we got the rushes into the computer, we put it into final cut pro to begin editing. Firstly, we created a log bin, in which we could store the ‘best bits’ of the sequence. To find these, we watched the footage, and when we found a part that looked correct, we pressed ‘I’ to start it, and ‘o’ to finish it, we the pressed modify and put it into the log bin we created previously. This short sequence we just created is what we would like to use in our final sequence. After doing this for all the shots, we went into the log bin to organize the order of our shots.

By referring to our storyboard, we then organised the order that the shots we had logged would be shown in. We did this by watching the sequence, and also watching a shot that we filmed, at the same time, we then dropped the shot onto the sequence and made it so it fitted into the sequence and looked fluent. We did this by dragging the short sequence onto the time line, and using the time wheel we moved it to the right place of the sequence we wanted to watch. We did this for all the shots to create a fully finished sequence and finished by saving our work to final cut pro.

Intro to Using Final Cut Pro editing package

In the lesson after our preliminary task we were introduced to Final Cut Pro which we are going to do all our editing on. Firstly we were explained how the rushes tape is put onto the computer. The rushes tape was uploaded onto the computer; we accessed an edit proxy (digital copy) of the raw footage. When we got the rushes into the computer, we put it into final cut pro to begin editing. Firstly, we created a log bin, in which we could store the ‘best bits’ of the sequence. To find these, we watched the footage, and when we found a part that looked correct, we pressed ‘I’ to start it, and ‘o’ to finish it, we the pressed modify and put it into the log bin we created previously. This short sequence we just created is what we would like to use in our final sequence. After doing this for all the shots, we went into the log bin to organize the order of our shots.

By referring to our storyboard, we then organised the order that the shots we had logged would be shown in. We did this by watching the sequence, and also watching a shot that we filmed, at the same time, we then dropped the shot onto the sequence and made it so it fitted into the sequence and looked fluent. We did this by dragging the short sequence onto the time line, and using the time wheel we moved it to the right place of the sequence we wanted to watch. We did this for all the shots to create a fully finished sequence and finished by saving our work to final cut pro.