Audience research for our film and similar films age certification

Audience Certification of our media storyline from HayleyBarakat

Similar films classification
The film 'Hostel' has been certified at age 18, The reason it is an 18 film and not anything else is that it contains strong bloody violence, torture and strong sex scenes.

The Doctor who programs are age graded at U, PG, and 12, This is because in some episodes there is little to no violence, but in some episodes there can be some violence and upsetting scenes.

Mise-en-scene - Costume/Makeup

Mise-en-scene

Costume:

The typical costumes in horror films are normally things that are either ragged, ripped, covered in blood or dirt.

Most of the costumes just look like someones dies in them or they haven’t bothered changing for a while.

This picture is from the film ‘Friday the 13th’. The costume here looks old and ‘tatty’ and gives the character a really creepy look to him. Costumes like this are really common in horror films as they makes the villain stand out from the rest of the characters as people don’t normally look like that, so they appear as more frightening. It wouldn’t really have the same effect if the villain was walking around in new clean clothes like the rest of the characters.

Make-up:

The most common makeup from horror films is usually that they’re made to look death by having a pale white face and dark looking eyes. Also their hair looks untamed and messy and sometimes coverings part of their face acting like a mask.

                                

This picture is from the film ‘The Grudge’. This type of look appears as really disturbing to the audience as is not normally what teenage girls look like as she also looks a bit psychotic or possessed. Also her face is being show in the dark which could make the audience feel like she could be there in the dark with them.

Mise-en-scene Lighting

Mise-en-scene

Lighting:

The most common lighting in horror films is usually bright and colourful when the action isn't happening and then as soon as it turns night and the action starts the lighting goes dark and makes it uneasy to look at, but there will still be a bit of light so that the audience can see what’s happening.

                                

This is a picture from the film ‘Paranormal activity 4’. The lighting here is dark in certain places of the room but still light up in others, this is scary as it appears that you can’t see what’s in the rest of the room. Also the colour of the lighting here has a blue tint to it which suggests that there is something up at it isn’t the colour of a normal light that you’d expect to see. Also the colour blue has connotations of coldness and could be associated with dead corpses.

                                           

Here, is a picture from the film ‘Insidious’, This lighting is particularly effective as you can only see part of the villains face because of the candle that they’re holding, which makes it look scary as the image is really black and makes them look dead and really old. This is a common lighting in horror films as it makes the audience feel as if they might see the same thing when they’re in the dark.

Mise-en-scene - Setting

Mise-en-scene 

Settings:
The most common settings of horror films are mostly isolated and abandoned places that are really old and sinister, or either regular looking houses to make the audience feel like that could happen to anyone.

       

This picture is from ‘The conjuring’. The idea of the house being in the middle of nowhere gives the audience the impression that if something happens to the people who live there, there will be no one around to help them, or even know they’re dead. Also the colours shown by this location are are browns& greys which makes the area look really dead and abandoned.

 

                                     

This is a picture from the film ‘Paranormal activity 4’. The setting of this film doesn't look particularly scary, it actually looks really homely, this is why it scares the audience, it looks like a nice normal family living in a nice normal house on a normal street, until the idea of unwanted presences are brought to the scene, making the audience feel like it could happen to them.

Most common characters in horror films

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Most common characters in horror films

In most horror based films the main victim is normally an innocent young woman who possibly lives on her own, or with her partner, and the partner usually won’t believe that there are strange things happening to her until near the end of the film and then they will most likely die whilst realizing they were wrong. They will normally end up dying from doing something stupid, they normally end up going to inspect some strange sounds/movements and then get killed.

An example of this is in the film ‘Halloween’. A psychopathic man escapes from an sanitarium and start to kill a groups of students.

When the tension of the film starts to build, Jamie Lee Curtis is on her own in her house at night and the villain is not able to been seen only dark figures of him are shown.

Here is a link to the trailer of the film 'Halloween'.

There is sometimes a male character who plays the hero and will appear to be tough and masculine and will try to save the woman but will possibly die by doing so.

yet in some more modern film women heroes have started appearing to make the films different.

There will also be the villain who will be causing all of the scared and usually either ends up being defeated, appears to be defeated and maybe a sequel film will be made where they come back, or they could stays alive and kills everyone. This is the character/characters that will be the main part of the film and plays a big impact on how frightening the film is. the most common villains in horror films are things like: ghosts, vampires, zombies or possible people being possessed. Also in most cases there appearance won’t be shown and are wearing masks or only their figures are shown and maybe just quick shots of their faces.

An example of this is in the franchise of the Saw films.

The Jigsaw wears this mask when talking through video to his victims.

These films are particularly frightening because the Jigsaw is some sort of psychopathic man who puts a group of victims together and plays with them by making them go through stages of killing them or making them make the decision of dying or killing someone else in extremely gruesome ways, and in the end only 1 of them will survive.

Here is a link to the first of the 'Saw' films.

Also a quite common thing is to have a couple (boyfriend & girlfriend) who are usually really annoying and keep the audience frustrated and on edge to help build up the tension on the film as they make a lot of obvious mistakes, and would make the audience want to shout at them things like ‘no, don’t go in there!’.

There is sometimes also a character that pretends to be helping out but which in actual fact there are on the villains side and throughout the film it’s either really obvious what they’re doing or it will be a big twist at the end.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene

There are very common stereotypical mise-en-scene used in horror movies., such as typical settings, dark lighting and everyday costumes and make-up.

Setting

The whole aim of horror movies is to be as realistic as possible, whilst still frightening the audience, therefore, common settings are forests, hotels, warehouses, ancient buildings or even a normal family house.

This is the main setting in Psycho.

The effect of using a motel meant that no one was there to find out about the death or could save them. The size of the hotels rooms also suggests a claustrophobic feeling.

All the paranormal activity films are set in a typical home, but it is supposedly haunted.

The effect of this is that it could happen to the viewer, making it more realistic, so as to be more scary.

Lighting
Most horror films have dark lighting in scenes to represent the face that something scary will happen in this scene.

The whole frame has an eery yellow colour to it creating a dark shadow on what the audiences attention will be drawn to.

Drawing the audiences attention to a person, object or place is an effect often used in horror films to foreshadow the plot.

Costumes and Make-Up

In order to make horror movies more realistic and relatable the costumes worn by the victims are everyday clothes that the audience would wear, but they usually represent what type of person they are, for example, the athletic hero or the innocent female character.
On the other hand, the 'bad guy' in the film, such as the murderer, usually has an odd costume. Sometimes if the bad character is human they have a mask, or if they are not a normal person, they will have something abnormal about them.

An example of abnormal make up is Freddy Krueger awful skin and teeth and the fact that his hand is a claw. With his costume, he wears an easily noticeable stripy jumper.

Typical Characters

Representation of women

Stereotyping is very common in horror movies, for example, in most scary films, female characters are portrayed as the "damsel in distress" and usually get killed as a result of their actions. In our  film, when the main character is run over and is sent into a coma, the man in her dream is punishing her in order to get her to work with her friends after they have had an argument.

Also, there are common portrayals of a "dumb blonde" character who, most of the time is the first one to die or is the main character. An example of this is in the film "Scream".

Although Drew Barrymore is a very famous actress, she unexpectedly chose to play the dumb blonde character in this film.

Due to the characters actions, she is killed within the first 5 minutes of the films. For example, she continues to have a conversation with the killer and reveals details about herself, only becoming suspicious of him when he tells her that he can see her.

Storyline 1

Story line 1 – Action/Adventure

Normal girl, normal life. Realises her family aren’t who they say they are. Actual family of superheroes. Becomes a superhero. Saves people.

Beginning:

A teenage girl on her way home from school is kidnapped. She is told her family isn’t who she thinks they are and soon learns that her parents had given her away because of their duty to the world as super heroes and to keep her safe.  Unfortunately due to a villain who wants to destroy her mum and dad’s life, she must now go through serious super hero training and help in the battle between super heroes and villains.

Middle

Teenage girl goes through training, at first unwilling to believe she needs it until she has an encounter with one of the villains side kicks. She then takes training seriously and is trained to be a super hero.

End

In the end the girl has to go to fight the villains as they hold her mum and dad captive. She wins the battle but then decides she would like to go back to a normal life. Has to leave her real mum and dad and go back to her old life.

Similar story lines to our film

Films that are similar to our story line:

Some of the saw films can sort of link to our story line.

the story line of saw is: The man’s (Jeff) son gets killed in a car accident and has to find out who killed his son, the people who could have been part of his sons death, all get tortured/killed in different ways and Jeff has to find a way to save them if he chooses to do so and maybe along the way forgiving them for what they may have been a part of with his sons death.

Our film is sort of like this story line as the main girl in our film gets run over and put into a coma after she has been run over, and in her coma she is getting tortured and followed by a creepy man, she fell out with her friends before she went in to the coma, but now they are in the coma helping her get away from the creepy man, along the way she is forgiving them one by one.

            


The reviews for this film are good, on the website 'IMDB' the film has been rated at 7.7/10
Here is a link to the webpage http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/

Click here to see more reviews of the 'Saw' film






Another film with similar aspects to our film is "The Haunting in Connecticut" This film is similar to ours as the boy in the film is diagnosed with an illness and soon starts to have weird visions & nightmares, and it also has some scenes of torture.




Link to some reviews about the film "The Haunting in Connecticut"

Iconography/Generic conventions of horror

Horror

Iconography: This is where certain pictures or sounds are associated with certain genres of film.

Examples of iconography in horror films are things like: blood/gore, knives, small places, forests/woods, fire, trapped. Also things like not being able to see who the killer is, e.g the face being covered up by long black hair.

It usually consists of a woman being on her own at some point and is gradually being chased throughout the film.

All of these things are what appear most frightening to the audiences, builds up the suspension and makes them feel really on edge.

Another effective example of iconography in horror is shadows/dark areas, this makes the audience feel really tense, as they they won't be able to see what is causing the shadow, also is there are dark areas in room it makes the audience feel really uneasy as they know that anything could be lurking about in the dark.

                                         Here is a video of the trailer for the film 'Hostel'

                           

In this film the characters in it are tortured in the most disturbing horrifying ways. For example things like chopping off limbs, cutting into people and drowning them etc.. It is a typical convention for horror films to have extreme scenarios that could be peoples worse nightmares.

Story line 2

Story line number 2

(Action)

In 3014, the world is at it’s end, a child starts to have strange dreams about what big disasters have happened in the past from up to hundreds of years ago and starts to think it could be some sort of message, the child tries to tell his mum about these dreams but she doesn't pay attention to him. the boys start to see premonitions in his dreams instead and they become true, he has to try and work out why he can see in to the future and what he has to do.

Beginning:

A young boy starts to have weird dreams about bad things that have happened world wide from up to hundreds of years ago, he starts to get really curious about whether they’re just dreams or are something more.

Middle:

The child becomes even more confused and scared when he meets a girl who keeps having the exact same dreams as him, the boy tries to tell his mum but she  doesn't listen to him,  his dreams soon start to be about the future, he has to try and work out what he has to do with all these dreams and if he can stop them from happening. he tells his mum again about the premonitions before they happen and she eventually believes him that they’re not just dreams anymore.  

One day he wakes up from a dream where the sun explodes and wipes out all life on earth.

He starts to panic and he doesn't know who to tell because he knows no one will believe him.

Ending:

The boy doesn't know how to prevent the world from being destroyed, in his dream he gets taken to another planet with the girl to help save human kind from being extinct whilst the rest of the world is blown up by the sun.

Story line 1

Story line number 1

(teen drama)

A girls best friend starts doing drugs, and she doesn't know whether or not to tell anyone to help her friend but is she tells someone her friend may fall out with her. she eventually dies and the friend commits suicide because she feels responsible.

Beginning:

Girls friend starts hanging around with the wrong sort of people and starts being peer pressured into taking drugs and she starts getting really addicted.

Middle:

one day the girl was arguing with the friend and her friend passed out and had a really bad head injury,The girls friend ends up dying.

The friend comes back as a ghost to help her friend,she tells her that she has three chances to go back in time and prevent her friend dying. if she succeeds her friend will stay alive as normal- if she fails her friend will die.

Ending:

she succeeds in saving her friend, yet on the exact day and time that she died previously she goes to cross the road to run up to greet her friend and gets ran over and unfortunately dies.

Iconography

Psychological Horror Movie Research

Iconography -

An image or symbol which indicates a certain genre or topic.

An example of iconography in horror films are bloody and weapons, such as knives and axes. However in a psychological horror, the fear caused for the viewer is mental rather than jumpy, therefore shadows and darkness are used to make the film more mysterious. This is because it makes a character look more trapped, creating a chlostraphbic feeling, making the viewer feel panicky.

Iconography of shadows

This is from the original Dracula film.

This is used to show the viewer that someone or something is coming, leaving them to predict what it is and what will happen, which is why it is a mentally scary film, rather than a classic horror.

Iconography of darkness

This is a still from the film 'Session 9'.

The fact that the viewer cannot see the other end of the corridor adds a sense of foreboding as to what will happen to the character if they continue forward.

We could use shadows and connotations of darkness in our film to show the difference of our character in her nightmare state, in contrast to reality.

Semantic Field - Eyes

 

Psychological Horror Movies Research

All horror movies have a villain, however those in psychological horrors are murderers and there is usually an element of mystery surrounding these characters. A semantic field associated with horror movie murderers are their eyes, because they show the most emotion. All these characters below have very intimidating and frightening expressions because of their eyes.

 

 

This is Hannibal Lecter from 'Silence of the lambs.'

Although he has to wear a mask which covers the majority of his face, because he is a cannibal, his eyes are still visible as it intimidates the viewer.

 

This is Norman Bates from 'Psyco', who had a fixation with mothers, therefor he kept his mothers body mummified and spoke to her. The fact that he looks like a normal man, the fact that he has a weird obsession suddenly makes his character a lot more sinister.

 

Finally, John Kramer or "Jigsaw" is the game maker from the Saw movie collection tortures people using different contraptions. Our movie 'baddie' also tries to torture our main character, therefore we may include a series of different traps in our movie.

2 Minute Opening Plan

Plan

Firstly, there is a scene of the girl walking home from the party, still annoyed and distracted from the argument. A screech is heard and the audience sees her reaction before the screen goes black.

The action flashes back to the start of the argument. The tension gradually builds up between the group of girls until someone reaches the end of their tether and screams at her as she walks out of the party.

The sound of their argument is asynchronous as the girls scream in the last scene is replaced by the screech and crash of the car as it transitions into the next scene. All sound stops and the screen goes to black.

A siren can be heard as all the friends crowd around her body on the floor in a point of view shot, shouting her name. The shot cuts out and back in as if she is blinking until it totally cuts out as if she is unconscious, but the shouting of her name continuos .

The girl wakes up strapped to a chair in a dark room. She tries to pull against the restraints as she can still hear people shouting her name. The volume increases as footsteps begin to be heard. The girls thinks it is her friends coming to find her but instead a creepy looking man comes in the door holding a needle to torture her with.

As he goes to inject the shot cuts to her in the hospital, as it matches on action of the needle as a nurse just pulls away from taking some blood. As the shot pans out, all her friends are crowded around their friend who is still unconscious.

The doctor walks through the door and he is the same man as in her dream and asks her friends to leave whilst he does some checks. He draws the blind so they cannot see in and the darkness matches on action to the next scene.

The girl begins to scream due to what he injected into her and the mans facial expression is shown as the action matches back to the hospital where her body begins to shake and machines beep causing all her friends to panic.