Analysing Horror Posters

Analysing Psychological Horror Posters (The Unborn and Triangle)

I chose these two film posters to analyse as i know them to both be of the horror genre with one being a psychological horror and the other being a suspense horror. I could therefore consider the ways in which each displayed the main genre of 'horror' but then also look into the factors which related to their sub genres'. I have also seen both films and could then create an analysis of each with hindsight and generate a more in depth meaning to a film poster. I found the representation of genre to be a key component with the victim of each seeming to be a woman with the character feared both male. (This is not the case in 'Triangle' as the actress shown as the protagonist is also the killer in a repetitive twist causing her to spiral into a never ending circle in a fight to get back to her son).

6 shot analysis of a Horror Film

This task enabled me to look into the conventions of a horror film through screenshots throughout and to see how i could apply these to my own short film. This film challenges some conventions of a traditional horror as the vampire is a young girl with the hero being a young boy, yet the film is constructed for an adult audience. I have been able to look at this concept of defying all laws of conventions of horror films to look Horror Film screenshots and annotation (Let the Right One In)

Pitch Script

Pitch Script

The script that i have constructed for our pitch is similar to the treatment, outlining our plot before the 10 shot storyboard is explained to the audience. It also involves when we shall be shooting our short film and represents the organisational skills of our production team.  I shall read from the script exploring our ideas before we recieve feedback on the piece we are creating.

Sample Scene for Pitch

This is a scene that the team shot on our first visit to the site. This scene will be apporximately half way through the film and shows the protagonist going about his usual evening routine at home after getting in from a day at work. In the scene we have attempted to use sound as a main focus to create tension and build the pace of the piece.

10 Shot Storyboard for 'The Set-Up'

10 Shot Storyboard of 'The Set-Up' for Pitch

This storyboard displays the first time in which we visited the location where we would be filming our scenes. We took photographs of key moments which we thought displayed our plot and theme to show in our pitch and to convey the horror elements effectively making an audience interested in viewing the final short film. Taking the 10 shots helped us to realise changes we would need to make from our original treatment as the layout of the location and the exact storyline did not completely fit. By being an organised production team and visiting the house a week before we were due to film we were able to address this issue and change the storyline slightly in a way which fitted the surroundings yet still captured horror conventions and the suspense they created up until the climax.

Feedback from Pitch

We received audience feedback from all who viewed our film pitch and were able to use suggestions on what went well and what could be improved to help us develop an even stronger final piece. From our audience feedback we were commended for our research into the conventions of our specified genre. We had hoped that this would be reflected in the screening as this was an area we had paid particular attention to forming strong in depth judgements on other films of the horror genre and using the points which were included in most such as tension building music and using an unsuspecting protagonist.
Much of our feedback focussed around the concept of lighting and how this could be improved. Our original shooting was too light therefore to create the darkness we needed to edit the saturation levels which in turn made the video grainy and too dark to clearly see the image on screen. Suggestions were made on how we could avoid this by shooting with natural darkness possibly filming later in the day, a point which we then used for the final filming of our piece and allowed us to successfully tackle this issue.

Logging of the Filming Process

The Filming Process LOG.

This logging of events shows the development of the filming process and as this continued i posted new instalments. The log explains how dates were planned for the shooting of our film and how problems with filming were overcome. The plan i feel was set out well and organised correctly leaving enough time to resolve any issues that may occur. Fortunately, the production team and all actors were reliable and able to attend all necessary filming for their needed performance. Now that the filming process has finished, i feel we could have improved efficiency by keeping in touch more often with all cast members including the many extras who played a part in the 'Surprise' scene. The last minute arrangements for the outside party scene worked well in this instance. However to avoid any unnecessary problems with setting for our film, we should have confirmed this at an earlier stage as the location for the last scene was confirmed on the date of shooting.

Screen Shot Analysis (About a Girl by Brian Percival)

Looking at this short film proved to be exteremly important for our team. With our film being of both psychological and thriller genre, by viewing this short film, we were able to focus on the concept of 'psychological' in more depth.
This one screenshot is a scene from the short film ‘About a Girl’ and I feel is one which represents the whole piece in this one frame. Age, gender and social status are all addressed in this short film and our stereotypical views are confirmed by the representation of working class people and the shocking twist whereby the protagonist disposes of her dead baby in a canal. This film was of great importance as it built expectations of a typical diary form documentary about a girl who was aspiring to be a superstar. However the shocking finish was such a surprise to the viewer due to the codes and conventions throughout which followed a similar suit and kept to the explanation of a troubled child’s life. E.g. the constant representation of the girl as a child, challenges the idea of being pregnant.

Screen Shot Analysis (About a Girl by Brian Percival)

Short Film Treatment 'The Set-Up'

Short Film Treatment (The Set-Up)

My short film treatment covers all aspects of the film i am planning to create with my prduction team. Not only does it outline the plot of the film and the shots that will be used as well as reasons as to why these shots are used but it will also look into the ways we plan to organise ourselves as a production team.