Research & Planning:

Horror/ Thriller

History of the Horror Genre…

A story in which the focus is on creating a feeling of fear. Such tales are of ancient origin and form a substantial part of the body of folk literature. They can feature supernatural elements such as ghosts, witches, or vampires, or they can address more realistic psychological fears.

Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer, and the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Thus they may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural, and thriller genres.

Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, curses, Satanism, demons, gore, torture, vicious animals, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers. Conversely, movies about the supernatural are not necessarily always horrific.

Settings/Camera Angles/Iconography

Graveyards Churches Hospitals Basements/ Attics/ Lofts Isolated communities

Camera Angles: High/ Low Camera Angles ( Affect – Power) Jump cuts Ambient sounds – Diegetic (Realism) Ghost or Monster sounds – Non Diegetic

Iconography: Low Key Lighting ( High Key to emphasis shadows) Weapons Blood Religious Symbols Dark coloured clothing Dark colour in general ( Red & Black)

Poster, Trailer & Website Analysis…

The Mise en Scene shows a close up of the male protagonist with only half his face shown on the poster, while in the background there is smoke in which another face appears from. The Mise en Scene suggest that the genre of the film is horror due to the close up of the male character as we can see his feared facial expression. The smoke could also suggest the wind which is not only a film convention but a real life ghost encounter story convention.

Cold areas are a common haunting type of place to set a horror story and the face in the wind, the poster does follow these conventions. Also, there is minimal text on the poster which pushes the main focus onto the main male character showing he will play a significant role in the movie.

There is minimal text on the poster and the audience can only see the film title, release date, actor’s name and tag line. The tag line “Do you believe in ghosts?” suggests that the figure in the background is in fact a ghost.

There is a consistent design on the text because on the film title there is a rugged line that looks like it has almost been scratched this can also be seen on the tag line, release date and actor’s name. This then gives shows continuity throughout the poster and this can also build a strong brand identity for the film.

The colour scheme for the poster is very simple but striking to look at. The colour grey is used mostly throughout the poster but in different shades, as well as using the colour white. This basic colour scheme can connect to the 1800’s time period in which the film is set as the clothes worn in the 1800’s would have been very plain and most likely to be black and grey.

Trailer…TrailerQuestions:Why is their so much symbolism to children?Who were the people in the newspaper?Who was the child talking?Why is Daniel Radcliffe’s character there?Where is the film set?Who is the woman in black?Category: Horror – Directed by James WatkinsComments: The diegetic sound of the girl talking brings lots of suspense as the climax at

the end shows the woman in black The close up shots of the old fashioned dolls create a creepy and makes the

audience question why are the children associated with this woman as children are normally described as angelic and innocent.

Audience: Rating 15 – thriller violence. Aimed at Males and Females aged 16-45

Website…As the website opens, there is an automatic pop up on the webpage which shows you the official trailer via a YouTube video.

This then shows they are promoting the film very well, as it straight away gives you the option to watch the trailer before you even look around on the website.

The website also includes a gallery page which allows the viewer to see different pictures taken from the film. This is another good way of promoting the film because it allows the viewer to see some freeze frames of the actual film which makes the viewer more interested and feel more in tune with the film.

The website also has a synopsis page where it gives a brief overview of what the story is in the film. This way the viewer can feel more in tuned with the storyline and even if they don’t watch the trailer they will still be able to know what the film is about through the synopsis.. The synopsis is like a trailer in the sense that it arouses questions for the viewer and this makes the viewer want to see the movie more. I think I will include a synopsis in my website as it will give an overview to the viewer as to what my film is about. Furthermore, it will be complying with codes and conventions of film websites because most of them have a synopsis of the film to give the reader an insight to what the film is about.

This page of the website is the games page which offers the viewers a few games to play which are to do with the film. This is slightly unconventional because not many film websites have a games page however, it is good for the reader because it gives them something fun to do which is in relation to the actual film.

Target Audience… Finding the best target audience for my trailer, will give me a more prominent

idea for what kinds of Horror style shots to do in the trailer. As my target audience is male and female aged 17-30, this shows a wide range of ages.

Most horror audiences are targeted at the same ages and also can be targeted at both genders showing I am following the conventions of the audience of a horror movie.