Pitch

Phobias

We have looked at some phobias that we could include in the opening of our film: Lygophobia- Fear of darkness. Agraphobia- Fear of sexual abuse. Agliophobia- Fear of pain. Arsonphobia- Fear of fire. Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns . Enochlophobia- Fear of crowds. Nyctophobia- Fear of the dark or of night. Pediophobia- Fear of dolls. Pyrophobia- Fear of fire.

Today we have been getting together ideas for what we want to do for my opening film. We have decided to create a Horror film and we created a little mind map with some of our ideas on there.

Research into Horror movies

Research into Horror movies

Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears. Horror films often feature scenes that startle the viewer.

These are some of the most popular horror films:

1.      "Psycho" 

2.      "The Omen" 

3.      "Rosemary's Baby"

4.      "Dracula" 

5.      "Frankenstein" 

6.      "Friday the 13th" 

7.      "A Nightmare on Elm Street" 

8.      "Bride of Frankenstein" 

9.      "The Exorcist" 

10. "The Silence of the Lambs" 

 Horrors don’t always beat records when it comes to earning the most money in the box office but they do have high ROI, the number one movie for ROI is the hit "Paranormal Activity," which was made for $15,000 and had a box office gross of $161,830,890 for a return of 539,336.30%. ROI stands for return on investment, the lower the budget along with high earnings means a high ROI. 

Questionnaire

Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical codes, narrative and characterisation.

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises is a super hero film that was released in 2012 and was directed by Christopher Nolan, the film has the super hero Batman in and the film was the third of its trilogy by Nolan. The film includes stars such as Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman. The film has grossed over £1 billion and is still growing.

The Dark Knight Rises about a terrorist who wants to destroy Gotham called Bane, Batman has not been seen for 8 years due to him being accused of killing an innocent man, but as soon as Bane shows up the Batman does to and he has come to try and save Gotham.

The film starts by introducing Bane, it jumps straight into action, Bane is taken onto a plane with the CIA but they don’t know its him, Bane talks and they then remove the bag from his head and they then know that its Bane, Bane then crashes the plane with him escaping with the Dr, the film opening with an action scene gets you in the mood for the rest of the film and it sets the mood for what the film is going to be like. When they find out its Bane on the plane they seem quite happy, this is probably because everyone is looking for him because he is a big fret to Gotham.

Super hero films usually have one main villain (Bane) and one main hero (Batman), and they both usually meet and have a big battle, in the film Bane and Batman do meet and fight and usually the hero wins but in this case Bane wins and it then makes Bane look more powerful and that Batman has met his match. 

The film has a lot of action in and the lighting throughout he film is quite dark this is to keep the atmosphere the same throughout the film, at the end the lighting is bright and colourful, you get to see Bruce Wayne and Alfred together and the lighting tells you that it is a happy place, you know throughout the film when its happy or sad or when something is about to happen from the light, the light creates emotion and atmosphere to suit the film.

The sound also suits the genre of the film, the sound tells you and gets you in the mood for different scenes, if it’s a action scene then the music will be fast and up beat and then for sad slow scenes the sound will be slow and subtle.

Many different things play a part in letting the audience know what type of film they are watching and what genre it is but I would say that the most important thing when it comes to action is probably sound because sound creates mood and feeling better than anything else and it allows you to connect and feel what is happening in a scene.   

Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical codes, narrative and characterisation.

Se7en

Se7en is an American film that was released in 1995, the genre of the film is Thriller and it has grossed over $327 million. The film was directed by David Fletcher and written by Andrew Walker.

The film is about two detectives, one a rookie and the other a veteran, they both investigate a series of murders related to the seven deadly sins. They find clues at each grime scene and then realise they are dealing with a serial killer.

I will be looking at how the opening of the film shows the genre of the film using different technical codes.

The film doesn’t start with titles it starts by introducing the first main character which is William Somerset one of the two detectives who is played by Morgan Freeman. The shot shows him getting ready for work and then the next scene goes straight o the first crime scene and it shows a man dead lying In a puddle of his own blood, this instantly shows you that the film has blood and death in it, this gets you in the mood for the rest of the film and it shows you what the film is going to be about.

After this there is a shot of William walking through the hall way into the kitchen, he is looking at everything around him looking for clues, this shows he is always working and is trying everything he can to solve the crime. This also shows that he is in charge and operates the investigation. David Mills the second detective and main character then comes up the stairs looking for Somerset, Somerset is the veteran detective and Mills looks up to him and follows his orders, and Somerset is in charge. Throughout this scene the lighting is dark and the dialogue is quiet, this creates a feeling, it’s a tense place and no one wants to be there. The whole film is pretty much in the dark there is no colourful places and objects in the scenes, creates a feeling for the whole film and makes you on edge throughout the film because you know that something is going to happen.

Somerset and Mills are then walking down the street and the camera is low and it is raining and dark outside, the camera being low shows they are bigger than everyone around then and they are in control, the weather creates atmosphere for the film and shows that it isn’t a happy place.

There is then an establishing wide shot of Somerset in his bed alone, this shows the emptiness of the room making him look small and lonely, he then pushes a hand to makes it start ticking and the tick is louder than it should be, the ticking could be like a timer for the next murders, something bad is going to happen, the camera uses a close up of the timer so you know where the ticking is coming from and it could be related to the film in some way. The ticking slowly gets louder creating tension and it makes you feel uneasy like something’s going to happen.

The titles then play and the text used is bold but it shakes and along with the music makes you feel uneasy and uncomfortable, the music is mainly like sound effects of different noise that you don’t normally hear. There are also images and clips of the seven deadly sins which suits the whole film because that is what the deaths are based on, the titles suit the genre of the film and again set the mood for the film.