The difference between Horror and Thriller

this video helps explain the difference between a horror film and a thriller. Looking back at this video we can understand that our trailer/film would correlate more to a thriller film not horror. I can say this because the video explains that a horror aims to make the viewers scared and to make them feel uncomfortable while watching the film. A thriller aims to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats and to feel nervous towards the character. In our trailer there won't be any jump scares or scary monsters but we will build as much suspense as possible.

Targets this week for your group

You need to complete your blank posts.


1) Questionnaire Results

2) Script

3) Animatic Storyboard

4) Shot List

5) Mood Board

6) Diary of Filming and Editing

Institution research

These are the six major film institutions (The Big Six). Film institutions are very important as they provide the money for films to be made, and without them, no one would ever get enough money to make a decent budget film. These companies also own studios, providing places in which major films can shoot exactly what they want. The only problem with film institutions funding a film is that they like to have complete control over the project, so if you go to them for money your film may not end up being completely how you originally planned. They are all about making money, and this stops film advancing as an art form. However a lot of good films are made by studios and the film business wouldn't be what it is today without these major institutions.

Warner Bros studios was founded in 1903. It was formed by four brothers called the Warner brothers, and was one of the first companies to make movies with dialogue in it. They also famously started the original 'Looney Tunes', as well as many more successful cartoons. Warner Bros have a very wide range of films. They tend to make high budget movies, to make a lot of money, and their films are shown around the world. Their films appeal to a very wide range of audience as they make films from many different genres. Previous Warner Bros films include: 'Harry Potter', 'The Departed', 'The Dark Knight', 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'P.S. I Love You', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Troy', 'Blade Runner', 'The Wrong Man'.

Paramount Studios was founded in 1916 and is one of the oldest film institutions. Steven Spielberg is a major partner with Paramount as he is one of the leading film directors in Hollywood and this is a major contributor to Paramounts success as he has many fans and followers who will watch anything he puts out, making most of his films instant money makers. Paramount are ranked as one of the highest-grossing film studios in the world. As with Warner Bros, they make a very wide range of films which targets many different audiences with each film. Paramount films include: 'Titanic', 'Transformers' 'Indiana Jones', 'Iron Man', 'Forrest Gump', 'War of the Worlds', 'Mission Impossible', 'Shutter Island', 'Paranormal Activity' .

Sony Pictures is another of the film studios in 'the big six'. Although you wouldn't think that Sony would be in the big six it does own Columbia Pictures, which is a much more well known company. Another slightly less well known, but still widely appreciated company that they own is Tristar Pictures. As Sony are primarily associated with gaming and electronics their film side isn't as well known. Despite this, they are still one of the highest grossing companies in the world. Most of their money comes from the fact that they are already such a big company so people have heard of them so will trust in them. They also do a lot of advertising for their films through their other products (such as the PS3 gaming console). Sony Pictures films include: 'Spiderman', 'Men in Black', 'Gladiator', 'The Da Vinci Code', 'Quantum of Solace', 'Hancock', 'The Pursuit of Happyness', 'The Adventures of Tintin, 'The Social Network', 'Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star'.

Walt Disney Pictures is probably the most famous film institution, mainly because most people grow up watching most of their films and TV shows. Disney are famous for their traditional family movies and cartoons but recently have made more action films for example 'Tron' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to reach out to a larger target audience by doing something a bit more appealing to teens and adults. They also own a large number of institutions: Touchstone Pictures, Pixar, Marvel, and most recently Lucasfilm. Pixar are seen as one of the best film institutions in the world, as they consistently make excellent films. Their films are enjoyable for both children and their parents, making them a real money maker. Pixar and Marvel both stray from producing a large number of films, opting instead for taking their time with each one and increasing the quality of the films. The quality of the films aren't as high as Marvel , but are more 'fun'. This is what makes for millions of fans as everyone is on edge waiting for them to bring out the next film. Through these companies Disney manages to get a huge amount of money, and it is a big factor in their recent success. Disney films include: 'The Lion King', 'Toy Story 3', 'The Avengers', 'Pirates of the Carribean', 'Beauty and the Beast', 'High School Musical', 'Tangled', 'Thor', 'Finding Nemo', 'Hannah Montana', 'Bambi', 'The Princess and the Frog', 'Alladin', 'A Bug's Life' .

Universal Pictures is another major film institution. They have large theme parks around America which help promote their business, helping them make more money. Universal, like many other film institutions, make a large range of film genres to target a large market of people. They are another company that go hand in hand with Warner Bros and Paramount as they are all in it more for the money than for the art form of making films itself. However they don't disappoint bringing out big budget films that have been highly successful and have made many films that are seen to be classics for example 'E.T' and 'Jaws'. Universal films include: 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', 'E.T', 'Bourne Identity', 'Despicable Me', 'Back to the Future', 'A Beautiful Mind', 'American Graffiti', 'Love Actually', 'Bruce Almighty', 'Jaws', 'American Gangster', 'Mamma Mia!', 'Jurassic Park', 'King Kong', 'Meet the Fockers', 'The Mummy'.

20th Century Fox is another very large film institution well known across the world. 20th Century Fox was one of the film institutions that started a little later compared to the other big companies. This institution is owned by a news corporation which also own the Fox television channel which helps in making them a lot of money. The TV channel has pumped out many shows that the world has loved for many years. They sometimes even make films from the TV shows they play on their channel for example 'The Simpsons Movie'. 20th Century Fox tend to make very high budget films and like many other institutions, make films for a wide range of genres. Many people criticize them and say that the company is nothing more then a logo where as other institutions have more to show for, like Universal with a theme park and Sony with its electronics. However 20th Century Fox are still a widely well known institution. Famous 20th Century Fox films include: 'Avatar', 'Star Wars', 'Independence Day', 'Home Alone', 'X-Men', 'The Simpsons Movie', 'Ice Age', 'I, Robot', 'Marley and Me', 'Taken', 'Minority Report', 'Prometheus', 'Die Hard', 'Speed', 'Alien', 'Eragon', 'True Lies', 'Titanic', 'Moulin Rouge!', 'Road to Perdition', 'Night at the Museum', 'Austrailia'.

Finally, Lionsgate Entertainment was originally formed in 1998, it is based in California where it is able to produce different types of media products from movies to TV dramas to music, Lionsgate is the most commercially successful mini major film and television distribution company in North America and the seventh most profitable movie studio, with total income estimated at around $2 billion. Although not part of "The Big Six," Lionsgate is still a widely known and successful company. Lionsgate are known for producing highly successful film franchises such as The Hunger Games series, as well as this they have also produced several successful horror films such as Cabin in the Woods, The Possession, Sinister ,Texas Chainsaw 3D, and the SAW series.

It seems that many of the large film institutions  that started right at the beginning of film making are the most successful production companies in recent times. This makes sense as they have had the most time to evolve and grow to what they are now, giving the audience the best possible films they can make for us to enjoy.

Title and Font research

This is the idea we have for our title research. The red font colour is common in horror films as it indicates to the audience violence is likely in the film, as the colour connotes blood and danger, which is what the audience would be expecting from a horror film. The text and font is bold and clear, which allows the title to stand out clearly against the background. The black, stormy background suggests to the audience the film takes place at night perhaps and it also has connotations of early horror films as they often used storms to represent danger and horror.

Horror film Conventions

The conventions of horror films are: murders, female with sex appeal, 'jumpy scenes' and creepy music. In a horror film the intention of the film is to scare the audience.  To scare the audience the main theme of horror films are peoples worst nightmare. So for example a serial killer, a scary clown or a ghost. Also tension is created by creepy music. The music is usually very slow paced. The camera shots in horror movies are mostly long shots and close ups. Close ups are used to show the facial expressions of the characters, most of the time the close ups are on the character that is being attacked. This is because it enables the audience can see and even feel their fear. Long shots are used to show the whole setting, sometimes long shots shows things creeping up behind someone, this creates tension. When the audience can see something or someone creeping up behind a person in a long shot it creates dramatic irony.

In almost all horror films there is a teenage girl being killed. The girl is seen to be the damsel in distress. Also she is seen to be fragile and helpless. The girl always seems to be alone in a place far away from anything. This makes the girl vulnerable as she is far from civilisation and therefore, help.

The target audience for horror films are young people aged 16-30 Many teenagers will want to watch a horror film as they will feel as if they can relate to the film. Teenagers are used most of the time in horror films. Also young people will want watch horrors as they will want to see blood and gore, which is shown a lot in horror films. The colours used in horror films are usually black and red. This is because stereo typically these colours connote evil and death. Teens would would be the target audience because they usually want to have adrenaline rushes and they also want to have the shock factor. Older people will not be the target audience as they will feel that horror films are boring and unrealistic as they would of seen many before.

Mood board

This is our mood board, this represents what ideas we have for the trailer, as shown we plan to have a kind of Scream inspired film now, we have brought this in as we can easily access the locations we need, the story revolves around the escape of a convicted murder from a prison. The prisoner uses a mask to conceal there identity, which will add mystery and suspense to the trailer as we can't relate to the antagonist and this makes him appear inhuman and almost like a machine.

On the board we also have the weapon of choice our murder will be using, as we have researched we have seen that each antagonist in a slasher film has had different weapon of choice like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre the main weapon is a chainsaw, or in Halloween Mike Myers uses a kitchen knife more often than not, in our trailer the antagonist will use a meat cleaver to kill his victims.

 Our character types are also shown on screen as we see, their will still be a group of people being hunted, and the primary character in the film will be a film, this goes against what the audience would expect from a female character as we are often given a male protagonist as they appear strong and physically able to beat the antagonist.

Certificate research

The British Board of film Classification or BBFC is the organisation responsible for the censoring of all films and DVD’s. They currently use a certificating system from U to 18 this is an easy way of telling people what films are suitable for who and allows parents a reference as to what films there children can view.



This is the first Certification U this stands for Universal which means that the film is suitable for all ages and there is nothing unsuitable for children. Examples of these kind of films are Turbo and The smurfs 2.

 

 

All ages are admitted, but does contain violent scenes and can contain moderate violence and mild language and drug reference. An example of these kind of films are Wreck-it-Ralph.

 

 

 

The 12A certificate was introduced in 2002 to replace the 12 rating in cinema's only, films under this  category are considered unsuitable for viewing by young children and under age children must be accompanied by a adult over the age of 18. Films under this category can contain soft drug references some strong language and moderate violence, the films can also contain sex references. Examples of this certificate include RED 2 and Pacific Rim.

 

The 12 certificate is for DVD use only as no child under 12 can rent or buy this film.

The 15 certificate are for 15 years and older, so nobody under 15 can view or rent/buy the film. The film can contain hard drugs, frequent strong language, strong sex references and  limited sexual violence. Examples of this film are The Heat and Cloverfield

 

This film category can only be viewed by 18's and over. It contains no limitations on what language can be used hard drugs fully allowed,  explicit sex references along with detailed sexual activity are also allowed. Very strong and gory violence is permitted. Examples of this kind of film include Django Unchained and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

 

Our trailer is likely to be rated an 18, as we plan to produce a horror film, this means we will be including blood and gore, this could be extreme, as well as this it will likely contain features that are simply not suitable for a lower rating

Costume Research

Our film is based on the idea of having 4 main characters, 3 of these will be the "victims" and a escaped murderer who is hunting them. The murderers costume will be most important as it needs to convey the evil nature of our antagonist in order to unsettle the audience and make him a credible threat. It would not make sense to have our murderer dressed in a hoodie and jeans and wearing trainers as a murderer must be psychopathic and therefore would not dress casually. Therefore the costume needs to convey to the audience the idea of the murderer being crazy and therefore be abnormal. We are already planning to have our murderer in some form of mask which will help to put across the idea of his lunacy and make him a credible threat, it also conceals the murderers identity adding mystery and suspense to the character as the audience won't be able to tell who or what is under the mask. For the rest of his costume, we thought about him wearing black, muddy, worn-out work boots to as these would be conventional footwear for a killer to use. An example would be the character Zep from the original Saw film.

The rest of the killers costume would ideally be mostly black, which has the practical benefits of making them harder to identify in shots which we can use to our advantage in teasing the character to the audience in our trailer without fully revealing him. Black trousers, a black jacket and black gloves with the mask would make our killer look creepy and reveal almost nothing about him to the audience, further helping to make the character intriguing and terrifying.

For our victims, costume-work will be easier to decide on as there is a broader range of acceptable outfit. It is conventional for the victims in horror films to be relatable for the audience, making it easier to put yourself in their shoes and therefore making the scenario more frightening. This is why most of the time teenagers are the victims in these films as teenagers are the main target market for the horror genre. Our 3 victims will also be teenagers and will dress accordingly in t-shirts, hoodies and trainers. Ideally, most of the victims costumes will consist of bright colours like white in order to contrast with the darkness of the villain and to make them seem more vulnerable in a dark environment as they stand out more. Each costume should also be tailored to reflect each characters personality, helping to make them more identifiable to the audience. A good example is from the costume-work in The Cabin in The Woods, which can be seen below. You have the "jock" character wearing an American football jacket to show he is the strong, sporty and typically stupid one in the film. Then you also have the contrasting choice of costume for each of the female-characters, with the blonde woman wearing a short skirt and the ginger woman wearing jeans, making the audience sympathise more with the ginger woman as she seems more respectable and less promiscuous than the blonde woman.

We have also had an idea for a fake news report to feature in our trailer, with a news reporter setting the scene to the audience. If we end up going along with the news report idea, we would likely have our news reporter in a smart suit and tie to add to the realism, as this is typically what you'd expect to see in a real life news report.

Questionnaire

These are the questions we hope to ask our audience, there responses will help us get a better understanding about the genre and what people expect from horror movies. As well as this it will give us an idea about who goes to see horror films as we recognise our target should be young adults, however this Questionnaire could bring some surprise results.

1.What is your age and gender?

2. What would be a good location for a Horror film?

- A house

- A park

- A Forest

- A school

3.Would you prefer the Antagonist to be a person or a ghost that cannot be seen?

4.What would you expect the Protagonist in the film to be like?

5.What would you expect the Antagonist in the film to be like?

6. What is you favourite genre within Horror?

- Blood and gore

- Ghosts

- Thriller

- Psychological

7. What is your favourite horror film? and why?

8. Would you prefer the Antagonist to be realistic or to be a character that is sub-normal?

9. Would you prefer if the Horror film is based on things that actually occur? e.g. stalking murder etc

10. Do Horror films containing blood and gore appeal to you?

11. What would you expect to see in a horror trailer?

Location Research

This is one of our location ideas, it is an abandoned house in Leatherhead, which makes it easy to get to as its only a 5-10 minute walk from our school. It is also an abandoned so we won't be disturbing anyone. However this location is boarded up and we don't want to risk anything illegal. We did visit the house to see what it was like but in the end we decided not to use it because of the law.

This was another idea for a location, this is west park hospital in Epsom, it is located just down the road from Epsom train station, it has the benefit for being perfect for our horror story as it used to be a mental hospital. However this location has recently been demolished and no longer has as many features as it use to have, this makes it unusable for our film ideas, along with this problem it would have also been illegal again to trespass although we could have probably emailed the relevant people to request use of the site.


For our location we came to the decision to use 40 foot recreation ground in Leatherhead as one of our location, this provides us with several ideas such as a chase scene. Another location we are going to use the house pictured, the film will be based on a murderer on the loose and he finds and murders a group of friends in this house, these are likely to be our final locations as we feel they would be most appropriate to the film.

Prop research

The most commonly used props in a horror movie seem to be masks and weapon-focused. A hockey mask or some form of face-covering is stereotypical of the genre, adding to the fear the antagonist instills to the audience as their identity is hidden, raising enigmas. Famous examples include Mike Myers from the Halloween film franchise and Hannibal Lector.

The mask is an effective prop for this genre as part of every horror is the build-up to the antagonists reveal, showing them gradually to the audience to create suspense and tension. With the use of the mask the suspense of the film is not deflated as soon as the villain is revealed to the audience, as there are still questions raised surrounding the man behind the mask, what he really looks like and why he is after the protagonists rather than showing the full picture straight away. This is why we are thinking of using a mask in our trailer, as this will allow us to show off our villain without giving to much away and still giving the audience
questions.



Another key area for props in this genre is weapon-focused, normally what the antagonist uses to hunt down the protagonists. The most commonly used are knives (like Mike Myers, above), chainsaws (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and machetes (Friday the 13th), all weapons that would create a lot of blood and gore. This makes the antagonist a more credible threat and plays on audience fears of stabbing and obviously, dying. We are using a ghost/poltergeist as our villain so a weapon prop would not really be fitting with the villain so we may not use this for our film.

Well done Tom, you have included a detailed character list of the stereotypical characters in horror films. Could you develop this further by interviewing possible actors for your film and explain how they adhere to the typcical horror character stereotypes?

Also, your group needs to make some decisions about your film as soon as possble. The posts listed below ideally need to be completed this week.

1. Location research – you need to decide on the setting of your film ASAP, include google earth images and pictures you have taken.- Done

2. Description of the actors and interviews- Done

3. Prop research and analysis- Done

4. Costume ideas- Done

5. Questionnaire and feedback on your initial ideas- Done