Horror Genre Research

Horror Genre and its History
This timeline shows how the Horror genre has transformed and changed over time, starting from 1920 to the present day.
http://www.dipity.com/bethbrewer100/Horror-Genre-and-its-history/

This is a presentation that looks into the conventions of horror genre. I've learnt that there are certain conventions that make a horror film a horror film. e.g. dark lighting. This will be helpful when using it in my end product, as I will be aware of the things to include and has helped expand my ideas.

Conventions of Horror Movies

Certification
Most horror films are rated either 15 or 18.

In a film with a certification 15, the films can include:

• Strong violence.
• Frequent strong language.
• Portrayals of sexual activity.
• Strong verbal references to sex.
• Sexual nudity.
• Drug taking.

In a film with a certification 18, the films can include:

• Very strong violence.
• Frequent strong language.
• Strong portrayals of sexual activity.
• Scenes of sexual activity.
• Strong horror.
• Strong blood and gore.

Iconography:

Below I have created a collage of common horror iconography on the website 'Photovisi':

Horror iconography usually follow a pattern, using the same or similar iconography in order to make the genre identifiable to the audience. This means it makes it easier to label who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist through the iconography associated with them. Iconography can be a symbols that are featured in all horror movies. These include:

• The Haunted House
• Symbols of Death
• Disfigured face
• Masks
• The screaming victim ('The final girl').
• Murder weapon aka: Knife, meat cleaver, chainsaw etc.
• Binary opposites of good vs evil.
• Dark places.
• Blood and bloody body parts.

Director research:
As part of our genre research, we have chosen to look into a famous horror film director, who has directed many famous horror films, that have been a hollywood success. Below is the link to a slideshow group member Beth has created using a website called 'Zenfolio'.
http://bethbrewer.zenfolio.com/p981291258/slideshow

Preliminary Task

This storyboard shows the shots and dialogue of what I plan to do for my preliminary task to trial some of the techniques and to see. This was created by my group member, Beth. She used an online storyboard maker tool, and this allows us to visualise what our film would look like. 

Script

(Character A walks into the room through the door. Character B is sitting at a table alone)

Character B: Hey! You alright?

Character A: Hey, yeah. Why didn't you come to my party last week?

Character B: Nobody invited me. I thought it was weird you didn't invite me but, I didn't want to say anything. 

Character A: Oh sorry, I thought you knew.

Character B: That's okay. I'll come to the next one.

Character A: Yeah, I've got to go now, so bye.

Character B: Alright, see you later.

Below is a video of my preliminary task, where shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and match on action are all used. Beth and Simran did the filming whereas I did the editing.