Today we had a group discussion and even though we have based all our research around our initial title 31, we have changed our idea after doing some extra research. We have decided that that we are going to change our title to '31.10.10'. All the planning and research we have carried out and blogged will still apply to our new title.
We have decided to change the name of our title simply because we though having just 31 isn't enough to excite the audience, although it represents the date halloween, we thought we could take it a step further and represent the actual date of halloween this year. There will also never be October 2010 again, so the 10 10 really has a lot of significance to the present day. It also signifies that the film is going to be very modern and will always be remembered for it's date.
Our title was influenced by other film's whose titles consisted of numbers, for example, Friday the 13th and Case 39. These numbers also had a huge significance in the film and really informed their audiences on what the film was about.
Synopsis: In a small town called Camden the man behind door number 31 isn't who the neighbours think he is. To them hes just a vulnerable man who's never had anyone but himself. On the night of trick and treats one man changes everything in the spine-tingling horror, written and directed by an extraordinary collaboration of Naresa Azemi, Rema Kadir and Asma Begum, who have all been previous award winning horror directors and writers.
The man (Jason Shrew) kills the children one by one after he puts them through a roller coaster of hell with his horrifying Halloween games that he plans all year. When a string of grisly murderes puts the town on high alert, the man dissaperas to his family farm in the countryside and leaves the parents wondering what happened on the night of celebration?
Jason Shrew had a troubled life growing up, his parents abused him, they were both alcoholics. He tried to find an escape. He attempted every possible thing in the book to be seen as a popular kid by his classmates but regardless he remained the outcast. One day everything changed. He realized that if he turned to crime and deviance he would finally get some attention. The journey to hell for many people started on that day.
The gifted cast of '31.10.10' take the audience into the mind of a very troubled man, longing for some attention and love, but he goes about things the wrong way and takes kids and families through some gruesome and chilling encounters. How many murders will it take for the parents to figure out who the killer is? Will someone survive? Embrace yourselves for this award-nominated horror movie and strap yourselves in because you are in for the fright of your life.
In our group, we came up with our concept which will be everything from mise-en-scene to props, plot and story line and all the other conventions we will need to include in our trailer.
We have decided to call our film 31 as it really grasps onto the horror idea as 31 is a significant date in October as it is Halloween. It is also the number 13 if you flip it around which isn't the luckiest number/day only on a Friday. Our storyline is about a man who no one sees all year round, until the 31st October, which can be no other day than Halloween. He snatches any children who trick or treat at his door and puts them through a roller-coaster of hell with his horrifying Halloween games he plans all year. He then viciously kills them but who will survive? Will he get away with his cold-blooded, sick minded games? Why does he do this? All will be revealed if you patiently wait. Embrace yourselves for an inviting trailer which will make you want to come and watch 31 at a cinema NEAR YOU!
These are all the things that are put into the scene e.g. the setting and decor. Narrative films often manipulate the elements of mise en scene to intensify or undermine the ostensible significance of a particular scene.
Lighting:
Light effects the way colours are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and focus attention on particular elements of the composition. Most mainstream films rely on the three point lighting style, and its genre variations.
Summary/Plot Line and Narratives:
There are three typical horror elements found in many horror movies:
A fierce creature is the first typical element found in horror movies. A lot of movies in this genre use fierce animal to make a plot, making that animal huge, savage and intelligent can without a doubt horrify people. Using characters who are frightened all the time and are running away from the creature also excites people. These characters always succeed in escaping from some danger, but sometimes fail to escape from other dangers.
The supernatural is the second thing which is used as a typical horror element in this movie category. Supernatural things are often used to scare people and have a unique style and have become very popular.
The third horror element is murder. Filmmakers often use a scary human character to be a typical element. In some movies, the character wears scary clothes and a mask as he commits the murders. These movies nearly always start with a group of friend or people and each one gets killed until there is a revelation of the murderer in the end of the movie. During this time the audience anticipated who is the murderer and most of the time incorrect. These are also conflicts at the end of the movies, which surprise people as most conflict are related to revenge.
This helps our concept as it gives us an idea of what to base our concept around and how to go about doing that.
What is Iconography? Iconography literally means image writing. For part of my research and planning, I carried out a task which involved analysing horror posters which is iconography and ideology. I annotated two posters for Friday The 13th and Devil and I have inserted two print screens below:
What is the significance of props in a horror film? Without props, horror characters would not be scary. For example, try to imagine Jason Vorhees without his machete, Freddy without his claws, Michael Myers without his mask and even Jigsaw without his puppet tricycle thing. Many great horror films have a lot of memorable moments and the use of their props help to add value to their characters. It is a known fact that every killer in a horror film has a good prop beside them. However, even the normal protagonists who don't kill anyone, for example ghosts or vampires have props. An actor in a horror film can only do so much to scare the audience without their props. If Jason Vorhees stood over them looking very plain-like and shouting would not give anyone a fright. If you just add his machete, mask and ripped up clothes, you will definitely want to run away.
Don’t turn around!
This research links to our concept because our main protagonist will also have a mask which is used to add that extra horror in the film and it will keep the audience scared.
A synopsis is a short summary of what takes place in the film.
Below I researched on horror film synopsis's and carefully analyzed and highlighted key elements of the summary. I have grasped onto the main characters, the stock characters, the plot and the setting.
I will now do some research on different types of music and sound affects used in horror films.
One of the most overlooked aspects of films is the sound. An audience can easily forget that if the music and sound affects were taken away from a horror, the fear factor would decrease dramatically, possibly even disappear completely. Reading this may make you think it’s not true but we all know when we watch a horror movie and turn the sound down, we suddenly forget how scared we were and the images on the screen don’t scare us half as much as they would if the volume was up.
From the information I have read about horror films, I have found out that music in horror movies are probably more powerful than in any other film genre. The music in a film is used to communicate with the audience, so we must interpret it. You can watch a horror film without music but it isn't frightening, however it can be gruesome. If you add the music, you add tension.
Classic Horror Music
It has been recognised that orchestral music is the most common type of music used in horror films. When collecting research about music in horror films, I found out that orchestral music has been used since the birth of the genre and is still the most popular type of music used in horrors and thrillers. A reason why orchestral music is used so much in horror films is because of the composer can really vary his compositions as he follows the events in the film. Another possible reason why orchestral music is used so much in horrors is maybe because it is a very neutral type of music and it appeals to a wide audience. Orchestral music really helps set a certain mood and get across different emotions in a horror film.
An example of classic orchestral music in a horror film is the soundtrack for Friday the 13th; Press play to listen below:
Modern Alternative Horror Music
Although orchestral music is the most common type of music used in horror films, it is not the only genre used. Horrors also use modern alternative music. This genre uses synth-based music and industrial music. Examples of this music genre are used in horrors such as Blair Witch 2 that consists of alternative rock and heavy metal music. This music works well with horrors as it is quite dark and brooding, which suits the visual style of the film. Some filmmakers replace the classic orchestral horror music with music that would normally never even be considered for a horror film. One example of the most extreme case that used this type of music is American Psycho that consists of American 80s rock and pop music. When listening to the music used in this film, I can see that horror films definitely require the right kind of music to function properly. The song Hip to be Square by Huey Lewis and the News is used used in American Psycho as the protagonist slaughters one of his victims. I felt that this created a very odd feeling for us as the audience. From research, I have found out that this produces a complete audio-visual dissonance.
Below is a clip of the American Psycho Scene that uses Huey Lewis and the News - Hip to be Square in the background; Have a listen and see what mood it creates for you! :
From doing all this research about music and sound effects in horror films, I have realised how important it is to use the right kind of music in our horror trailer. Without effective horror music in our trailer, the audience won't be drawn to the movie and they won't feel like it is going to be a scary horror. We have decided we are going to use Modern Alternative Music for our horror trailer as our film name 30.10.10 represents the present day and comes across as very modern. It is always the right music to use when linking it to our overall concept.
The Scott Pilgrim trailer encapsulates most of the best bits of the film - this technique is used to attract the audience and get them to come to the cinema to see the full film:
The trailer uses non-diagetic music throughout
The title of the film is presented to us by the use of a voice over. The voice over is used because it represents what kind of the film Scott Pilgrim is. It is funny and not very serious. The director's were not aiming to represent realism
The trailer holds a narrative structure - beginning, middle & end
It uses many credits displaying release dates, production company, directors and the famous stars:
The Unique Selling Point (USP) of the film is the fact that they have made it a sub-genre - video game/love:
