Today I watched: Orphan

Orphan is a story about a seemingly normal orphan girl named Esther. Nothing is unusual about her apart from she is quite lonely and she paints fantastic pictures. She gets adopted by a family who are struggling to get over the loss of their third child who was unfortunately stillborn. As the film goes on Esther does increasingly evil things including purposefully pushing a girl off of a slide thus breaking her ankle, murdering a nun who might expose her secret and setting fire to a tree house with Daniel (another child of the family) inside.
She doesn't only put people in physical harm she plays with their heads. At one point she butchers a rose bush   that is planted in memory of Jessica, the still born child, and presents the bouquet to the mother Kate.

Don't be fooled by her innocent look, Esther is incredibly evil.

Kate is the only one who can see that Esther is clearly evil. With a bit of digging she finds out that *SPOILER ALERT* Esther isn't a small child she is a 30 year old dwarf from Russia who pretends to be a child to become close to family's. In the end she is always rejected and murders them, moving on to her next victims.

The opening of this film is fantastic, disturbing but fantastic. The way it sets the tone for the film. You know straight away that this is of the horror genre.
It starts with a dream Kate is having of losing her baby. She is taken through the hospital on a wheelchair all happy until she sees she is losing an extreme amount of blood. No one else seems alarmed but she knows that its not right. She has her baby but it is taken away from her, then she awakens from her dream relieved that it is over.

Similarities to my sequence:

• Starts of with a dream sequence depicting something that didn't in reality happen.
• Both characters wake up at the end revealing it was just a dream.

Differences to my sequence

• The dream sequence of Orphan is incredibly dark following conventions of the horror genre whereas mine is still conventional (chase scene, antagonist, murder) but it is no where near as disturbing.
• In my opening sequence the dream seeps into reality: the antagonist from the dream turns up at her bedroom door. In Orphan it is just a nightmare that has no truth in it.

I like the darkness of the content but Orphan is more of a psychological horror whereas I want mine to be more traditional horror. A film that makes you jump out of your seat, a slasher movie. When watching Orphan I wasn't scared, this is not the effect I am trying to create. 

Today I watched: The Exorcist

I have decided to watch some more existing horror films to further familiarise my self with the genre so today I watched The Exorcist.

The start of this film was extremely slow. The opening sequence was around 11 minutes long and it was set in Iraq  It started off by showing of a boy running through an archaeological dig site to report that 'something' had been found. When (who I assume was the leader of the dig) went to investigate he found that amongst the small items found was a strange head of a small statue. It then cuts to him sitting at a table at a cafe, he takes a small pill with a drink, he shakes as he does so until he swallows the pill. 

If I was watching the film without knowing what it is I would not have known it belongs to the horror genre. Nothing particularly conventional of the genre has happened and definitely nothing scary has happened. At this point in the film it looks like it could be an Indiana Jones type movie where the protagonists have to go searching for artifacts.

The man next walks past three men working in a forge hammering a sheet of red hot metal. A forger with one eye turns to the man and wipes his brow of sweat. The man looks startled to see this and then the shot cuts to the next; A close up of a grandfather clock. The location is now in an office of the mans son who is cataloguing peices of statues. He speaks softly to himself "evil against evil" as he looks at a strange coin and the statue head . The grandfather clock then stops ticking, his son stands up and we learn that the man has to go somewhere. Where? we do not know. He embraces his son and leaves on foot. 

I still wouldn't have guessed this is a horror film, it still feels like an adventure film to me due to the locations and props. My own horror opening is incredibly different to this. My locations (dark woodland) and props (bloody knife) are more conventional.

As he walks through the town the camera movement goes unsteady and the man is nearly knocked down by a horse and carriage. He finally arrives at some ruins at which he is drawn to a particular statue. Here the sound intensifies, there are dogs snarling and fighting nearby, the wind gets louder and louder and sounds like screaming. There is an underlying note that also gets louder and louder at this point. I really liked this use of sound and how it intensified the feeling that something bad is about to happen. The the shot cuts to a bloodred sunset and fades to the next location. The location of where the story will take place.

To be honest I found the lack of convention in these first ten minutes extremely frustrating. There was no evil antagonist, helpless victim, dark low key lighting or anything I was expecting. Neither the Mise-en-scene was frighting or the tone. However, later in the film this changed and it was truly horrific. It wasn't scary though, it was just really strange and unpleasant. Not even laughably unpleasant. I didn't even get to the end of the film and I don't plan to.

I want my opening sequence to be very different from this film. I am going for more of a typical slasher movie whereas I feel this story is a bit more serious. I want my horror film to be scary, enjoyable to watch and not too heavy. I feel The Exorcist is very different from what I am trying to achieve but I am still glad I watched it

Social Drama or Horror?

When we were first told of this task and our options I thought Horror is for me. But then I went on to think about it further and if it would be the best choice.

In the past we had to make film posters and I chose to make one for a Horror film. The finished product was... less than perfect. It was too light, the subjects looked too friendly and the bottom line is it wasn't scary. Given this it may pose a bad idea for me to choose the horror genre again, alternatively I have learnt from that project, I know where I went wrong and am more able to identify the conventions because of it. So it is a case of learning from my mistakes.

I find Social Dramas are quite often depressing. They feature a character that is quite often disadvantaged and are on a journey of self discovery. They have to overcome hardships to better themselves and quite often the desired result is not achieved. I love them as art films but I have to be in the right mood to watch one, they aren't films I can just turn on and relax too, they require a certain level of concentration.

I have decided to make the opening sequence of a Horror film because I think I will enjoy it more and it will play to my strengths. I am already thinking of ideas, locations, props and actors.

Research - Horror

What are the conventions of the Horror genre?
Characters - There are always victims, they are mainly females as the audience assumes them to be more vulnerable and less able to fight back than men. If the victim was a soldier with extensive knowledge of firearms and self defence it is more likely they would defeat the antagonist and there would be no film.  

There is also an antagonist that they must overcome/avoid.  Their appearances can be rather contrasting from one film to the next. All Superheroes look pretty similar consequently the audience knows what to expect the hero to look like in that type of movie. In contrast the villains in horror films take many different forms, this makes it even more scary for the audience because they don't know what to expect.

Mise-en-scene - The locations are usually remote areas, giving the sense that the character is totally alone and completely vulnerable. This way if the character does run into trouble (which they will, because it's a horror film) there is no one to help them. Dark, low key lighting is used so not everything is visible. This is incredibly scary because it adds the possibility that absolutely anything (or anyone...) could be present.

Sound - Ambience music is used to signify something bad is about to happen, long periods of silence are used as a form of suspense.

Editing - Slow, long shots are used to build tension and fast cuts and short shots are used to convey a sense of panic. For example whilst lurking through a supposedly deserted house lots of slow shots could be used to build suspense

Cinematography - Lots of close ups are used to show the facial expressions. Point of view shots and over the shoulder shots are used a lot, these make the audience feel more involved with the action.

The Pro's and cons of me choosing the genre


Pro's

• Horror is easily definable - It is easy to identify what is scary and the conventions of horror aren't easily confused with those of other genres.
• Locations are easy to find - lots of horrors take place in everyday locations to at to the realisticness of the story and add a feeling of this-could-be-real. Even if I wanted to include typically scary locations Bury St Edmunds has the fantastic ruins in the Abbey Gardens and a graveyard amoungst other things.

Con's

• The line between scary and stupid - This is hard because what one person may find scary another may think its ridiculous. 
• An original concept - So many horror stories have been done before it will be hard to think of a storyline that hasn't. 

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Research - Social Realism

We have finished the preliminary task and are starting on our coursework. We must produce the two minute opening sequence to either a Social realism or Horror film. Now I have the task of choosing which to do.

Social Realism
What are the conventions of the Social Realism genre?
Characters - They are realistic characters that the audience may be able to relate to as opposed to superheroes and millionaires that the audience may aspire to be.

Mise-en-scene - The locations are usually run down urban areas such as industrial towns and blocks of flats as the characters are usually from disadvantaged areas. It wouldn't make sense for the main character to rely on benefits but live in a gated community where everyone has a swimming pool.

Sound - The music is culturally specific. This reflects the characters background and gives the audience more of an insight into their lives and how they might react to certain situations.
Editing - Tends to be slower paced. Fast cuts are used in action sequences to create a sense of speed but when not much is happening lots of slow cuts are used. Social Drama's use loads of slow cuts because quite often not much action is present in this genre, they are more about what actions mean and how they make the characters feel.
Cinematography - Lots of close ups are used to show the emotions of the characters. Long establishing shots show the surroundings and perhaps isolation of the character. Unsteady camera work (not shot form a tripod) creates the feeling that the audience is present in the scene.

The Pro's and cons of me choosing the genre


Pro's

• The locations are easily accessible - there are plenty of places I can get to that would be good locations for me to film.
• The budget is usually low - Because it is a realistic film I will not have to pay for props, travel to locations, fancy costumes etc.
• Their is no need for special effects - Social Dramas do not tend to have any special effects, this is good because I do not have access to the technology needed, or the knowledge of how to use it for that matter.

Con's

• Must be believable - I think this would be hard for me to achieve. I would find it hard to think of an original concept that is not a cliché.  
• It will be hard to get across the genre in the first two minutes as the conventions could be confused with those of other genres.
• Locations - I would need to film it all outside because any houses I have access to are not representable of the type of image I need to create. For example it would be unrealistic to be telling a story of a disadvantaged teen and then the viewer sees the new kitchen with all the mod cons.