Vodcasts 1: Titles

I created a vodcast on the common title conventions of horror.

Film Opening Analysis 5: Poltergeist

Director: Gil Kenan

Writers: David Lindsay-Abaire (screenplay), Steven Spielberg

Budget: $35,000,000

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Rotten Tomatoes

"A family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces must come together to rescue their youngest daughter after the apparitions take her captive." - IMDb

Titles

The film begins with the usual idents for 20th century Fox and for Metro Goldwyn Mayer. There is then a multicoloured, almost futuristic pattern, with the introduction to the movie in a white font, over it. There is some strange movements below it which suggest a mysterious and ghostly aspect to the film. 

When the title does appear, it is the grass behind some houses and this creates a mysterious affect. 

Also, after this, a zombie, animated, breaks through and then is seen being strangled by a hand. The camera then zooms out and we see that the zombie is actually in a video game being played by a young boy on an iPad. This is almost a premonition to events that occur later on in the film, relating to the supernatural.

Semiotics

There is a good use of a high angle/ariel shot over the tops of some houses, and then behind them is a field, where the title appears.

The non-diegetic sound used is a typical horror movie sound track during the title sequence. This is in keeping with the codes and conventions of a horror film.

Narrative Exposition

The theories can be applied to this opening is Propp's character theory, Barthe's theory of narrative enigma and Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposition. In the characters that we are introduced to in a scene where a family are in a car, it could be said that the Princess archetype is established in the older daughter. There are a few questions that are left unanswered in this opening sequence, for example, where are the family going? , who is the zombie? etc.

The theory of binary opposition is the transition from the creepy, horrific zombie to the car with the family in. This is a common feature used in horror film openings. 

Film Opening Analysis 4: The Cabin in the Woods

 

Director: Drew Goddard

Writers: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Runtime: 95 minutes

"Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods." - IMD

Titles
From the very beginning of this movie, the genre is established. The first Ident to show up is the Lionsgate ident. Normally, this ident would feature two doors opening onto a bright, sunny sky, with clouds. However, in this movie, the doors open onto red clouds that look like they could be fire. This shows that the movie will be dark and horrific. There is a use of binary opposition here, and it could be said that the two different Lionsgate idents are representation of heaven/hell.  This then fades to black. Pools of blood then appear on the black screen. The font that appears, saying "Lionsgate Presents" is simplistic and red which further hint towards the genre. The font also fades out which gives a mysterious tone.
After a sequence of two men talking in a work area, the title appears suddenly along with a strange, muffled scream. The title is big, bold and red. It looks almost comedic as it looks quite amateur, which is done for effect as the movie isn't scary yet.
The names of the actors appear on different places on the screen, in red.  

Semiotics
The colours and music in this opening sequence play a large role in defining the genre and establishing a certain feeling to the film. The colour red has connotations of violence/ death, and just the fact that it's blood, further establishes the genre of horror. The colour black has dark and scary connotations. After the title sequence there is a swipe up, and the scene changes. There is a close up on a coffee machine. There are two men chatting, and this signifies work and friendship as they seem close and are also in an office area, wearing shirts and ties. 

Narrative Exposition 
The most prominent theory used is the theory of binary opposition; the title sequence vs the scene in the office, the opposition between characters; the weak girl and the strong man.

Film opening analysis 3: Insidious

Director: James Wan

Writer: Leigh Whannell

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery

Budget: $1,500,000 (estimated)

Rotten Tomatoes: 66%

"A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further." -IMDb

Title
The font colour used for the film production company, main actor's names, director, are in a scary, red font. 
The titles start in red, and look very harsh and unfriendly. The words then fade upwards. They then fade into a pale blue cloud/smoke and then fade to black letter by letter, which gives a scary and ghostly feel to the opening sequence.
The font strongly links to the conventions of a horror film and gives the audience a sense that it's a ghostly film.
When the actual title of the movie appears, it is in a red font again. The tops and bottoms of most of the letters are pointed to look like horns. This adds a demonic feeling to the film. The title flickers as though there is a fire underneath it and there are shadows behind it. This links to hell and devils and horror in general.

Semiotics
The lighting in this film opening is very low-key. The whole sequence is pretty dark, again linking back to the genre. There are a lot of ghostly figures/shadows that can be seen. A woman is seen holding a candle, she looks as if she is wearing a dark veil and dark old-fashioned clothing, suggesting she is evil. 
There is a grandfather clock that appears a few times, this shows it's significance, or the significance of time itself in the film
In terms of editing, most of the scenes fade in and out from black, which make it very mysterious looking. 
There is non-diegetic music at the beginning of the opening which is almost a ringing, echoing sound.  When the shadow is first seen, we hear a violin playing fast and this creates a large sense of unease.

Narrative Exposition
The main theory that can be applied to this film opening is Barthe's narrative enigma theory. There are many questions that can be asked about the film opening. These unresolved questions create a sense of unease and fear, but also the curiosity that makes the audience want to keep watching, in order to discover the answer to these questions.

Film Opening Analysis 1: The Conjuring

 

Director: James Wan

Writers: Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes

Genre: Horror

Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated)

"Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse." -IMDb

 

Titles 

The first ident in this film is the one for Warner Bros. It changed compared to how it would normally appear, there is a very stormy, dark sky behind the logo and the logo itself is a dark silvery colour. This establishes the genre as horror and already gets the audience scared for the film itself. The New Line Cinema ident appears and has the same background and colours. 

There is no title or opening credits. 

 Semiotics

There is a few seconds where there is a black screen, following on from the idents, and a voice over begins. There is a woman's voice explaining how "you will think I'm crazy" and a man tells her to "tell me everything". There is a cut to an extreme close up of a doll's eye and some of her face. She looks very scary and weird. Again, this emphasizes the genre  of horror.

Narrative Exposition 

During the opening sequence, there is some use of the different theorists. For example, there are two girls who could be seen as the 'helpers' as they describe how they allowed a ghost to enter the body of the doll. This is Propp's 7 character archetypes theory. The doll could be seen as the villain, using this same theory. 

This film opening however, breaks Todorov's narrative theory as there is no equilibrium; the film begins with them talking about the disruptio.

 

Film Opening Analysis 2: Saw 1

Director: James Wan

Writer: Leigh Whannell, James Wan

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Budget:  $1,200,000

"Would you kill to live? When a madman tries to teach how much life is worth, two men find themselves in a room with no idea how they got there or why they're there." - IMDb

Titles

The titles in the opening sequence are in a blue font. This has futuristic and lonely connotations. The font, on a black background sets the genre of horror.

There isn't really any sound at this point which creates an eerie feeling to the opening of the film.

However, just as the words begin to change slightly, so does the sound. The words begin to move around, almost in a water-like fashion, and we begin to hear the sound of non-diegetic water dripping in a sinister way.

 Semiotics

When the water begins as non-diegetic sound, it causes the viewer to question what is happening. We are then presented with a medium close-up of a man drowning. This is quite a disturbing scene and again, links back to the genre of horror and mystery. We can then realise that the man is in a bath tub when he suddenly sits up. The camera follows him as he climbs out of the bath and falls onto the floor, he then stands up in a tracking shot. The camera work in this part of the opening sequence makes the audience feel very disorientated, as like the character we dont know what’s going on.

Narrative Exposition

The main theory that can be applied to this opening sequence is Barthe's theory. There are many questions that can be posed about this.

For example, Why is the person in the bath? who are they? etc.

 

Continuity task 1

In preparation for the micro-drama, we created a short piece which had to include, 2 characters interacting, and a few lines of speech. 

I think that this actually turned out quite good as we really focused on varying the camera angles. I think that if we had used some similar shots that we used in this in our actual micro-drama, for example, over the shoulder shots, the final product would have turned out better. 

Micro-Drama

Pre- Production

 As a group of 6 people we created our own micro drama. This was in order to practice our filming and editing skills, to further develop our ability to work well as a group, to become accustomed to using pinnacle Editing Software, and particularly, to include the following theories:

• Propp's character theory
• Todorov's narrative theory
• Levi-Strauss' binary opposites theory
• Barthes' narrative enigma theory.

In response to this task, we sat down as a group and on an A3 sheet of paper, began brainstorming ideas. We very quickly decided that the best genre to base our micro drama on was Horror. We though that it would be a suitable genre to work with as the genre conventions are very clear and rarely change. We also found that in horror films, there isalmost always a very clear divide between good and evil and we wanted to incorporate this into our micro drama. 

Our next step was to decide the storyline. We came up with a basic, traditional horror narrative. I began to sketch out a 6 square storyboard just to give us an idea. 
We then fine-tuned our plan and characters. 

Storyboard
Me and Riona sketched out some boxes on a large A3 sheet and decided to do half the boxes each. We were chosen for this task because we art students. We didn't go into too much detail in our drawings, but we gave enough detail to get a sense for the scene and to get the general idea. On our storyboard, we decided not to write the shot types underneath the boxes, but instead I wrote a list on a separate piece of paper, of the different shot types/ camera angles, with a number in front of each that corresponded to a box on the storyboard. I think that our storyboard turned out well. We didn't spend too much time on the characters and the detail but I don't think it matters as the storyboard is pretty easy to follow.  
Riona's Blog.

 Production
When filming our micro drama, we all had a say with the camera angles and decisions. However, our main 'camera man' for the bonfire scene was Adel. We all decided to have 2 different cameras which meant that we could cut between both and this would make editing easier. I think that we should have perhaps have varied our camera angles more. In one particular scene, 0:57 to 2:38, i think we could have changed it up a bit. We could have had perhaps an extreme close-up of Sophie's mouth as she spoke and perhaps changed angles.
Adel's Blog. 
 
Post- Production

Editing
The editors for our micro drama where Kristian and Jon. We collectively decided that they should be our editors as they have the most experience and skill with editing. This meant that the other members of the class could learn off them as they edited our piece. In the editing, there were some difficulties with the software used, Pinnacle, when trying to create the end credits so this was something we all need to make sure is resolved when creating other pieces with this editing software.
Jon's Blog
Kristian's Blog


The script
Sophie and Jon wrote the script together. As a group, we decided the basic storyline and a few key lines from the piece. They then went and 'filled in the gaps' with a few lines of speech. 
Sophie's blog.

Dusk, 6 students huddled around bonfire.

Sophie - So did you hear about the party ehh on this Friday Bronnie?

Bronnie - Yeah. Ehmm, what are you guys dressing up as?

Sophie - I don't really know... What about you Riona do you know?

Riona - Ehmm, I'm going to be an elf.

Sophie - Yeah? Nice!

(Laughter)

Riona - You guys?

(Riona looking at Bronnie and Christian)

Bronnie- Ehh, I am going as a princess.

John – Suits you.

Sophie - I think I’m actually going to go as an ehh, as a fairy. Like with all fairy dust and everything

(Laughter)

John - Going to make someone disappear?

Sophie - Yeah, pretty much.

John – I was going to go as the devil.

Sophie - Yeah?

John - Yeah.

Sophie - With horns and everything?

John - With the horns and everything.

Sophie - Ohh Nice!

(Leaning to the left)

John - That was the idea.

Sophie - I am already looking forward to seeing that.

(John laughs)

John - What about you Christian?

Kristian - Ehh, I think it's kind of obvious... Superman!

Sophie - He is going to take it to the next level. Definitely.

(Short pause everyone looking at the fire)

Sophie - What about you Adel?

Adel - Ohh, I am not going

Sophie - No? Shame... You'll join in the next time then!

(Adel chuckles)

(Everyone stays silent for a moment and eats their marshmallows)

Sophie - Did you guys ever hear the story about the scary Haunted House? In the woods?

Riona and Adel - No

John - Where is it?

Sophie - It's ehmm... argh. I can't remember what the town is called but it's in the woods and I think, like, we should go there once because it is so scary.

John - Yeah, we should!

Sophie - It's ehmm it's this huge mansion.

John - Yeah, but what's the story though?

Sophie - Well I was first going to tell you.

(Everyone laughing, laughing even more, when Sophie drops her marshmallow on the floor)

Sophie - Ok anyway back to the story.

So it is actually this really, really old mansion and ehmm, there used to live these two old people there and ehmm it was really scare cause then this one night in the winter, they ehh, they were at their house and it was so cold that they had to get firewood from the woods. So they just went outside, and they took their car to drive a bit further inside the wood. Basically what happened was that eh, the husband he left his wife in the car and said "I'll be right back" and then he actually never came back and she froze to death in the car. So now the house it's still standing there all by itself and it's all old and it's really...

I don't know it's kind of scary. I went around it last time and it was just so creepy, just the feeling of it and thinking of that story...

(Sophie shivers)

Sophie - Uhh, it actually does give me shivers quite a bit.

(Riona chuckles in the background)

John - We should go!

Sophie - We should definitely go to this haunted house!

EXT.

NIGHT, 5 students standing in front of an ominous house.

(Diegetic sound of owl and wind in the trees)

Sophie - Oh my god, this house looks so abandoned

Kristian - It's creepy

Riona - Yeah...

Sophie - It is right? I told you guys it would be.

(Diegetic sound of Bronnie screaming)

Sophie - What happened?

Kristian - The princess is gone!

(John evil laugh)

John - Hahahahah! You’ll never get your princess back!

Sophie - Here! Take this leaf! It will help you save the princess!

Bronnie - Help me!

Hero - I'll save you!

(Kristian punches John)

John - Arghh!

(Krristian helps Bronnie down)

Bronnie - Thank you so much!

(Non-diegetic sound of heroic music in the background)