Horror Lighting

Lighting in horror films is key because it can create an ambiance appropriate to the film and it can hook an audience. Normally the lighting is very dark and gloomy, this is because it want to create a chilling atmosphere. It also triggers in the audiences minds and pin points the bad guy in the film be it a monster or a zombie. It also creates a personality for the character and indicates if they are bad or not.

As you can see in the picture above the lighting of the bad guy is dark and chilling, this creates an atmosphere and personality for the character. This picture is from friday the 13th.

This is another example of lighting, the left side of the face is totally dark, but you see the right side with the blood smeared over the characters face, this gives the audience an idea of whats to come. This picture is from Halloween.

Film Roles for our group

During the planning of the film, we quickly decided group roles for the group to avoid confusion. This hepled us throughout the making of the opening sequence because we all knew our roles so this conquered future confusion and arguements because of the simple plan. The roles were as following:

Directors: Ben and Richard
Camera: Rob
Sound: Ben, Rob and Richard
Props: Ben and Richard
Musical Director: Ben, Rob and Richard
Location Confirmation: Ben and Richard
Editor: Ben and Rob
Actors: Aaron, Ben and Richard

Shot list for our opening sequence

• Scene One: Panning Long shot
• Scene Two: Establishing Shot
• Scene Three: Close Up
• Scene Four: High Angle Long Shot
• Scene Five: Mid Shot/Close Up
• Scene Six: High Angle Mid Shot/Long Shot
• Scene Seven: High Angle Long Shot
• Scene Eight: Low Angle Close Up
• Scene Nine: Close Up/Long Shot

Below is the storyboard to demonstrate this:

Similar Horrors filming styles

Another similar type of film to ours filming wise is Rec.

This uses a lot of hand held footage which is similar to ours, we wanted to research a film that used the shot types we did and what made them so good. As we used very similar film shots, we also tryed to impliment some of the scenes in the film Rec.

Target Audience

We created a questionnaire to ask some students what they thought of our opening sequence and see if they have any ideas on how to improve it.

The questions were:

• Did you like the opening sequence
• Would you go and watch the film based on what you saw in the opening sequence
• Did the music work well with the ambiance
• Should there be a voiceover with the images
• Does the text work well with the images
• Are the images appropriate
• Are the correct transitions used between each scene
• Was the contrast appropriate
• Is the opening scene steriotypical of a horror film

We gave this questionnaire out to seven people and listened to the compliments and constructive critism. The age group and gender group was specific to our target audience. We asked both boys and girls because we feel the fil, is appropriate to both age groups. The film is aimed at any race. The geographical location was tricky because we were generally aiming to everyone wherever they lived.

There was one question that proved to be most unanimous in that everyone felt the same, everyone said at the second time of watching the openig sequence was much better.

Steriotypical horror fans

• Male
•  16-24 years old
• Into sports or technology
• Social status- working or middle class
• Branded clothing- Fairly expensive
• Student or having a part time job
• Horror/action

Production Companies and information

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount is consistently ranked as one of the top-grossing movie studios. The word used "Paramount" connotes this film production company is a notch above the rest. Paramount means at the top, a fitting name for the company.



DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totalling more than $100 million each. It started in 1994 and was founded by the before unkown Steven Spielberg. The title Dreamworks make the conveys the firm as heavenly, a dream production that will never dissapoint.



Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films. It was launched 1998 and is owned by Channel 4.



This is more of a low budget film producer which cannot compete with the likes of the above. It was created in 2002. The title Vertigo means a spinning or whirling. The logo is quite simple and connotes the films they produce.



This is a British coorparation, again its a small firm which makes and produces low budget films. The title is quite ironic as its called "Working Title" and the logo suggests it does work with a simple font and colour scheme.



20th Century Fox is one of the largest film corporations in the world. It is resposiblefor fims like oscar winning Avatar and Stars Wars. The large image connotes the reputation of the company.  The lights could also suggest star quality.

Italian Job Title Sequence

SE7EN and The Italian Job are quite similar regarding to there title sequences.they both dont give much if anything away in regardsto the plot. But they both involve clue in the form of clipsin the title sequence.
The Italian Job included, in order of sequence:

• Actor names
• Comapny logo and name was included
• Main title of the movie
• Maps the setting "Italy", especially Venice

There is non diagetic music throughout the title sequence, this music is quite slow paced, but this really doesn`t relate to the pace of the film, so this conveys the idea of giving nothing away.

Se7en Title/Opening Sequence

2 secs: A book is being held, looks quite an old book.
3 secs: A title comes up, "Newline Cinema Presents".
7 secs: An inter title is shown, the font is white and black which could connote this is set way back in time.
8 secs: Distorted hands appear, they look dirty,bloody and grubby, quite scary and peculiar.
13 secs: Actors name comes up, "Brad Pitt"
16 secs: Close up of the hand holding a sharp razor blade, and then starts to cut his fingerprints of. This connotes
maybe he`s trying to hide something or be unknown, it is very suspicious.
18 secs: Actors name pops up, "Morgan Freeman".
23 secs: Title of the film, "SE7EN".
24 secs: Title flashes bigger.
29 secs: Actors name comes up, "Gwyneth Paltrow".
34 secs: Close up of some writing, some overlapping images that may link into the story. Actors name comes up, "Richard Roundtree".
36 secs: There is a red filter which may connote danger, something is about to happen or happen later.
39 secs: The blooded hand comes up again cutting up some film, maybe he could be hiding evidence. Very suspicious.
43 secs: There is a collection of photos, paper and clips. Maybe the person it the title sequence is making something.
52 secs: Then the suspicious man starts to cut up some newspaper, again very suspicious, maybe he`s sending someone a message, trying to cover his identity. New actor, "John Cassini".
61 secs: There is a POV shots of the man crossing out words in a script or book, again very suspicious of the character.
71 secs: The man appears to be crossing out or drawing over a picture of a boy.
74 secs: Another red filter comes up during the crossing out of the boy, connotes danger maybe for the young boys safety or has the crime already been committed?
85 secs: Grubby hands appear while he is marking books.
90 secs: An arrangement of photos are sprawled across the table/desk, maybe he is creating something or researching something?
96 secs: The person is playing with a sharp needle. This could connote he is depressed or self harming, or it could be a tool to make something with.
102 secs: Appears to be threading the needle, connotes he is making something or doing something sinister.
107 secs: He appears to be binding together a book with the needle.
118 secs: More photos and some hair samples, the hair samples could connote something bad.

This title sequence already puts the frightners on the viewers, we cant see the face of the assailant. We can only see his tool and props and the behaviour is very suspicious. Also the non diagetic sounds create a scary atmosphere for the viewers.

Questionnaire Results

Q:Where do you most often watch a film?
Josh: Cinema
Ben: Cinema
Christian: Cinema
Q: What is your favourite genre of film?
Josh: Thriller
Ben: Horror
Christian: Comedy
Q:What is your favourite film?
Josh: Inception
Ben: Wolf Creek
Christan: The Other Guys
Q: If you go to a cinema what is your favourite food to eat?
Josh: Popcorn
Ben: Popcorn
Christian: Sweets
Q: What time are you most likely to watch a film?
Josh: Midday
Ben: Anytime really
Christian: Evenings



This questionnaires really shows how the cinema is great for movies in general and how peoples opinions is genres differ, i chose three random people what was their favourite genre and three different answers were given. This also shows how diverse all the genres have got and how much variety there is now a days.

House Of Wax

 The film "House Of Wax" was released in 2005. The plot is Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki) with her friend Paige (Paris Hilton) and Paige's boyfriend Blake (Robert Richard) are on their way to a highly anticipated football game in Louisiana.
Eventually, Carly's delinquent twin brother, Nick (Chad Michael Murray) and his friend Dalton (Jon Abrahams) also join them. Night falls and the group decides to set up camp for the night. The campsite is later visited by a stranger in a pickup truck who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave or address them until Nick smashes a headlight with a bottle. The next morning, Carly and Paige go exploring, Carly falls down a hill and lands in deer remains and sees a fake hand. Wade's car's fan belt is found to be damaged. The group meets a disheveled, rural man named Lester (Damon Herriman), who offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt, while the rest of them go to the football game. Two people come across a deserted and haunted town which isn`t even mapped in America. They come across a museum called "House Of Wax". This museum because a nightmare for all of the friends involved. This made 70 milions dollars in box office after the film cost 40 million dollars to produce. This is quite steriotypical of a modern horror film, a group of people break down, go into a haunted or deserted town, look for help and come across some form of evil.

1408 title sequence analysis

14 secs: Black screen with the production company, "Dimension films present". Non diagetic music, scary tones in the music,slow paced.
29 secs: Sideshot of road to make it look big and ominious. Their is a pathetic fallacy where the weather represents the mood in which the film conveys, a dark and scary, miserable set of events.
35 secs: Camera pans across the scene, actor name appears."Samuel L. Jackson"
42 secs: Title fades in  off the car lights, the title looks a s if the title is parallel with the rain. "1408". The title also could connote a ghost by the wat the font is conveyed.
45 secs: Car stops as if the its gone the wrong way. Camera shot tracks car.
56 secs: POV shots of the lost character.
59 secs: Close up of character looking at map, this connotes that he`s lost and doesn`t no about his location.
75 secs: The car pulls up at the hotel near and amongast the woods. This connotes that the hotel the chararcter is going to investigate is cut off, this then connotes a typical horror movie, alone, cut off and no help.
77 secs: Some more actors names.
84 secs: Torrential rain while the audience see a spooky bridge, this also connotes that the destination is cut off and in the middle of nowhere, typicalof a horror. The bridge also connoted a moat.
88 secs: POV shot of the house, but it`s not the main characters POV, it`s someone elses which connotes someone elso watching.
93 secs: The character is inside the hotel, the Mise en Scene is nuetral, not bright but not dark, in the middle.
96 secs: The main character announces his presence, introduces himself.
102 secs: Dialect- Mike the main charater talks to the ownersof hotel who have the ghost problem.
113 secs: Shot reverse shot of the two parties discussing the ghost problem.

Preliminary Task

Blair Witch Project

This film is very similar to ours in that its hand held and teenagers are in danger. Its about three film students go missing after travelling into the woods of Maryland to make a documentary about the local Blair Witch legend leaving only their footage behind. Both Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez directed and wrote the film and are both known for tantalising horrors.