EVALUATION

What did you learn?
From the start and until the end the planning and research of my short horror film, I have learnt a lot of important things. I have learnt the main conventions used in a horror film. Conventions like a  close up focus on specific things such as fascial expressions if they are trying to show the emotions the person is feeling or objects if that object is vital for the film as it is an "object of significance". A point of view shot is used to in all movies really but the point of using it in a horror movie is to get the audience feel involved in the film, so that they feel what the person feels in the film. It also puts the audience in a uncomfortable situation that they cannot come out from. All horror films follow many similar conventions, the narrative structure. The narrative structure is basically the steps a movie takes in the film and this is done throughout every movie. The movie begins in a normal environment, where the characters are introduced and the normal undisturbed life of the characters is shown. In the middle, the rising of the action occurs, this is when the normality of the movie is affected and has an adverse affects on the characters. Then there is the climax, where the main part of the film occurs, where it is revealed if the good side won or the bad. And then the resolution happens where the situation tries to go back to how it started however that might not always occur because if the film wants to make another sequel they would leave it as a cliff hanger.

How will it help you?
My research will help me make my own movie effectively horror because one thing I have realised is that all horror movie follow the same conventions which I will definitely take under consideration. I have done a lot of research on short horror movies like "Ding Dong" and "Click Bait" and "Doll Face." What short and normal horror movies helped me learn are the camera angles, shots and camera movement, mise en scene and sound that are used in each movie and how they all link to make it effective for each film. I am going to go and create my film using the norms of a horror movie conventions as that's what all horror movie use. By not following the conventions would make my film confusing for the audience because the audience know what to expect from a horror movie. I also have looked into different studies that prove that by following the conventions of horror movies makes the movie more effective.

How have you learned it?
I have learned this by watching all sorts of different horror movies, ones with a good review and ones with bad so that I can see what makes a good horror film and what doesn't. I have analyses a few horror movies on my blog but I have also watched other horror movies in my free time. I have been to the cinema to watch many films to analyse the sounds used and how the volume and scene are lined and how the timing and volume link together to get the best out of that scene and scare the audience. I also conducted gave out a questionnaire to people that watched the film to ask them what they think made the film scary and whether they think that the movie did justice as a horror.

film schedule

Scene 1: 18/11/16

Where: Red house park
              Hill Ln, Birmingham B43 6NA

Who:  Annika , Vishal, Shweta, Hamza Khan, Nafeesah camera crew

What: Hamza - smart clothing – long formal coat

           Annika- (light colours)

           Vishal – priest clothing 

           Shweta – jeans, short top, leather jacket (chewing gum and phone in had) 

           Nafeesah – dress (light colours)

Scene 2: 19/11/16

Where: 49 Derry down road B42 1RZ

Who: Annika ,Shweta, Hamza Khan, Nafeesah and  camera crew

What: Hamza – blue jeans and white shirt – (a couple of buttons undone)

           Annika – apron, yellow gloves

           Shweta – joggers and hoodie (playing on phone) (having in headphones)

           Nafeesah- pyjamas

  Scene 3 : 25/11/16

Where: 49 Derry down road B42 1RZ

Who:  Annika Vishal Shweta Hamza Khan Nafeesah camera crew

What: Hamza – blue jeans and white shirt – (a couple of buttons undone)

           Annika – apron, yellow gloves

           Shweta – joggers and hoodie (playing on phone) (having in headphones)

           Nafeesah- pyjamas

Scene 3 (part2); 26/11/16

Where: 49 Derry down road B42 1RZ

Who:  Annika, Vishal, Shweta, Hamza Khan, Nafeesah camera crew

What: Hamza – blue jeans and white shirt – (a couple of buttons undone)

           Annika – apron, yellow gloves

           Shweta – joggers and hoodie (playing on phone) (having in headphones)

           Nafeesah- pyjamas (white at first – innocence then they turn black – darkness/evil)

Scene 4: 27/11/16

Where: grave yard

Who:  Annika, Vishal ,Shweta ,Hamza Khan, Nafeesah camera crew

What: Hamza – ripped clothing including marks – scars on faces

           Annika – ripped clothing including marks – scars on faces

           Shweta – ripped clothing including marks – scars on faces        

           Nafeesah- ripped clothing including marks – scars on faces

Script for the film

Scene 1: (outside the house)- morning/afternoon
Dad: "we can make this work"
Priest: (waving) "Hello neighbours"
(walk into the house)

Scene 2: (inside the house) -evening
Mom: (sighs) "Finally done, just this room left"
Dad: "Do you need any help"
Mom: "No...it's fne"
(Dad leaves)
Mom: (grunts) "why...is this door... soo..."
(dad comes)
Dad: "Get out the way"
(Dad grunts while struggling to open the door
(Door opens)
(Mom and Dad cough)- making grunting noises
Dad: "What's that..." (points towards the doll sitting in the window sill)
Mom: "awhhh she's cute" (mother slowly going to pick up the doll)
(Daughter 1 nters room running and picks up the doll before the mother)
Daughter 1: (shouting) "can I have it? can I have it? pleaseeee!"
(THUD)

Scene 3: (Night)
(Mother tucking in daughter 1)
Mom: "Are you sure you want to emm... sleep with this doll"
Daughter 1: "Yess mom... I love this doll"
Mom: (sighs) "alright then"
Daughter 2: "Mom... can you shut the light now"
Mom: "Can you get off your phone first please!"
Daughter 2: (kisses teeth and rolls her eyes) "okay... I will" (mutters under her breath)
(Camera cuts to the downstairs scene in the living room)
Dad: "Are they all settled in upstaires"
Mom: "yeh, but... I don't think I am"
Dad: "It's okay, we'll all settle don sooner or later, I'll make sure of it"
Mom: "I mean, I know the girls are fine, and I know with your love it'll al be good"
(Dad nods)
Mom: "you know what Aaron I think we're gonna be here for a long time" (she smiles)
(Daughter 1 flies into the wardrobe)

Scene 4:
Daughter 2:(screams) "moooom, daaaad...."
(parents run up the stairs out of breath) "what happened"
(close up of daughter 1's face)- she growls
(family screams)
Mom: "call the priest... NOW"
(priest enters)
Priest: (shouts)"James 4:7, 1 peter 5:8, mark (:38, Matthew 12:22" (biblical verses)
(Screaming)
Daughter2: "where are we going? where are we going?"
Mom: "please she won't hurt us!"
Daughter 2: "mom... she's dangerous"
Dad: "Everyone..... STOP RUNNING"
(JUMP SCARE)
(they are looking for the daughter)
(they look in every single room)- jump scare inside the room
Dad: "get in here... it's safe"
Daughter 2: "Dad I don't know about this"
Dad: "JUST GET IN"
Daughter 2: "Dad...... w-wh-hat's thatt"
(close up of daughter 1's face)- daughter smiles

Scene 5: (graveyard)
Daughter 1 screams into the camera

CREDITS ROLE

Storyboard

Made with Storyboard That
Made with Storyboard That

Location ideas

COMING SOON

Final idea for the plot

This horror movie begins with a family consisting of four people moving into a new house that they have bought with many dreams and aspirations. The house is very homely because it's not too big or small. They have a priest as their neighbour which made it seem like they have moved into the right area. While moving into the house the two daughters are making a video with their little cam recorder. The younger girl is very happy with the move however the elder one isn't.

The elder daughter wants go back home because she misses her friends and school. She feels like she won't be able to settle down with new friends and school.
As the family are walking in with lots of boxes in their hands and everything scattered everywhere they girls decide to and explore the house. The mother also decides to start sorting out the rooms. The mother had finished all the rooms but when she got to the last room in the house she found it odd that the rom door was jammed. Because she couldn't open the door she called the father. The father also found it difficult to open the door but eventually managed to open it. However when they opened the door there was so much dirt/dust that they were coughing. Considering that all the rooms were nice and clean it was really odd. Both of them walk into the room, with only one dim bulb hanging in the middle of the ceiling, and notice a doll sitting on the window sill. The doll was not a normal fancy doll. It looked quite old as it was dirty and looked different compared to dolls nowadays.

The mother was just about to go and grab the doll when the younger daughter runs into the room and grabs it before her. Just as she grabs it the bulb twitches a little.

Both the sisters share a room, so when later on that night the younger daughter started to act differently the elder daughter started to freak out. They ignored her behaviour for a couple of days but when she became violent and threw the elder sister across the room without even touching her, that's when they realised that this is a totally different problem. The immediately called the priest over and told him to do an exorcism.

The priest was unable to help them. The spirit was able control everything around it. It turned all the lights out. The elder daughter was running around with a torch and her phone light. The whole family made their way to the room they found the doll in, and that's when they see their daughter standing in the far back corner of the room with the doll in her hand and... smiling.

The story then cuts to the graveyard scene where the family is laying in front of some graves with the doll leaning against one of the grave stones.

The props to be used in this film

http://prezi.com/7dzu0aqrnqbr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Character profile

Audience research

Create your own user feedback survey

I used 10 males and 10 females to avoid gender bias and to make the results more applicable to both genders.

I randomly handed out my questionnaire to people on the street instead of school because students in the same school might have similar thinking. By asking people outside of school it enabled me to get a variety of opinions.

The top two preferred  horror genres were revenge and paranormal.

Majority of the participants said that the graveyard  was their preferred setting for a horror movie. I think this is the case because a graveyard is more relate able to real life events than a mansion or a haunted house .

As the majority preferred to watch horror movies based on real life events, we are going to base our film on a real life story.

In our film we are going to use props such as blood but only to an extents because there are still people that don' t like such things. If however all of the participants said yes and to an extent only then we would have considered putting more props of that type in our film 

The aim of our film is to scare the audience more than anything else.

Introduction of the group

My group consists of four people which include:

Shweta(me) -l will be in charge of the mise en scene.

Hamza-who is in charge of the camera angles and camera shots

Annika- who is in charge of the editing 

Vishal- who is in charge of the sound

Horror movie plot ideas

Idea 1:
As a group we had decided that our film is going to be a paranormal/psychological film because we thought that this genre would be more effective in scaring the audience as more people can relate to paranormal incidence than someone walking around with a mask on or some outer space invasion. We based our film around a revenge story. Our story was going to start at a graveyard where the funeral of a boy (Vishal)were taking place. The mother(me), the Father(Hamza) and the daughter (Annika) were present with a few other family members. The plot is that the father had murdered the son and when the father starts to abuse the mother the sons soul returns to take revenge on the father. The father however dies at the end and the film ends at the grave of the father.

Idea 2:
As a group we had decided to change the plot. Out new plot is to do with a family that moves into a new house. The house itself is not haunted but a doll, found in the house by the youngest daughter, is haunted. The daughter gets possessed by the spirit inside the doll. The doll is found in an empty room which was hard to open in comparison to the rest of the rooms. All the rooms except that room were clean. That room was full of dust to the extent that it was difficult to open the door. We kept the cast in this plot the same as the first plot. The reason why the youngest daughter gets possessed is because she was the first one to touch the doll. The haunting however does not start straight away, it gradually builds up to a dangerous level where everyone dies and the family is destroyed.
The film ends at a graveyard where all the family is buried.

Analysis of short horror film (clickbait)

Clickbait is a short horror film which lasts 4:10 minutes. The moral of this film is to be careful what you click on. The girl in this film was searching for horror stories and ended up clicking on the wrong site. considering that the film was set on Halloween suggests to us that something sinister is going to happen, as Halloween symbolizes death and evil.  

Overall in my opinion this film was able to scare the audience with its good editing and camera work. The sounds used in this film also play a great role in scarring the audience as it adds to the nerves.  

If you compare this short movie to longer movies, it uses the common conventions like low key lighting and the fact that its set on Halloween. Halloween connotes to evil, sinister, ominous.

Analysis of short horror film (ding dong)

Doll face analysis 5

Doll face analysis 4

Doll face analysis 3

Doll face analysis 2

Doll face analysis 1

Doll face

Doll face is a short horror film which lasted 7:13 minutes. This film is set on Halloween night, where a normal couple are playing chess until someone knocks on the door. This however was normal as it was Halloween. When the guy opens the door he sees a "Dollface". The couple did freak out a bit but then just thought that the person just dressed up really good for Halloween. The "Dollface" had left her purse outside their house and the guy sees it and goes to return it however 4 hours pass and he still doesn't return. The wife goes to look for him in that shop and is found to have got herself stuck in a terrible situation. She finds her husband dead and so tries to escape the shop however any obstacles come in the way to stop her from getting out. The end of a film is left as a cliff hanger so the audience is left thinking whether the wife had died or stays alive. 

Effectiveness and why?

Doll face is a very effective film considering it's a short 7 min film. This film has used a lot of different types of camera angles and shots to create different effect. Editing in this film also plays a really important role as it makes the film scarier. 

Key conventions?

The key conventions in this film used would be the use of low key lighting and the fact that it's set on Halloween.

Which key aspects of the film I would use and why?

This films time lapse was really good. They moved the movie 4 hours in future without making it obvious. I would use this idea as the film I'm making can only be 5 mins unlike normal horror movies which last at least 90mins.

Improvements?

This films story line did not make sense. There was a lot of confusion with the relationship between the characters.

The horror project- prelim task (conjuring 2)

Opening scene of The Conjuring 2:

The opening scene of the conjuring 2 is a background story. It's all set in the dark house that is presented in this movie. The women presented has a vision of the future. She is blessed to see things other people can't. In her vision she sees four people and a mirror.

This part of the film is mostly to do with her life and how a nun is haunting them. When she comes out of her vision she is in shock as she saw her husbands death. She then starts crying and decides that they are not going to carry on with ghost hunting.

Analysis of the poster:

Analysis of the trailer:

Plot:

Lorraine and Ed Warren, in one of their most terrifying paranormal investigations, have to travel to north London in order to help a single mother who is raising four children alone in a house plagued by malicious spirits.

Features within the trailer:

Sound
Diegetic:

The trailer starts off with a blank black screen and all you can hear is a conversation going on between Lorraine and the little girl. There is then a sound of the leaves rustling creating a cold scene. There is a lot of diegetic sound used at the start of the trailer to set a naturally scary scene. The clock ticking and the wind blowing also create a deeper sense of fear in the audiences mind.  

Non-diegetic:
When the trailer is a quarter way through that's when the non-diegetic sounds start, like the building up of music in the background when there is a fast paced scene so that tension is built.

Mise en scene:

Throughout the whole trailer there is only one scene that is in daytime which is at the start, suggesting that from that scene onwards everything went downhill, because darkness is connoted with evil and unlucky.

Conventions used:

• The films title appeared at the end of the trailer
• A montage was used to put all the different scenes together
• A lot of non-diegetic sounds to make the film more dramatic and to set the scene 
• There is an almost cliff hanger at the end which makes the audience want to watch the moie to find out more.

Alternative poster:

Analysis of the film:

Review: Good/Bad

Good:

The Conjuring 2 starts with a bit of a background story, however within the first few minutes of the movie the audience is in the swing of the movie. The director doesn’t waste any time whatsoever in bringing in the horror of the movie.

The Warrens, ghost hunters, are sent on the behalf of the church in order to investigate some paranormal activity going on in a family in London. According to the first movie, a family is being haunted and they are scared  for their lives. However this time round there are a few new twists, so all of it is not the same as before - but it's not a completely different from the format, which might have made it a bit more tense in places.
What's really enjoyable about this movie, is its old recreation of 70s England. James Wan has  done a really  great job of this, which is in fact surprising as he's not originally from there. Also, the support role of Janet Hodgson, played by Madison Wolfe, gives a solid performance.
It's arguable that this film is as strong as the first one. I mean I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed part one, or even likes movies of a haunting or possession theme/genre.

Bad:

This movie was officially 2016s worst movie! The fact that this movie was directed by non other than The James Wan is an insult to the film. Wan had made many blockbusters but this one just didn't make it. The audience had many high expectations from this film, this film had come to me as a shock as the fear factor just was not there. The trailer had made this film look way more dramatic than it actually is.

We are all wishing that Wan takes into account everyones' opinion of this movie and hope it helps him create a better movie next time.

Analysis of existing review:

conventions of horror movies

http://prezi.com/-f1yrydy8_cq/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Horror conventions

https://bubbl.us/?h=33ea7e/6a9041/34TiQWWnQNclI&r=1682454011

Introduction

My name is Shweta Sethi and I am currently attending Hamstead Hall Academy sixth form. I am studying three subjects: Maths, Psychology and Media Studies. I find media studies a really interesting subject.

I am looking forward to creating a horror film as its one of my favorite genres. 

In this brief I am looking to create a short horror film which would last about five minutes, with a poster created along side the film and a double page spread which has a review of the film