StoryBoard and Timeline

This is my storyboard and timeline, it shows the rough plan of what our ideas are. We can now follow these ideas and refer back to them if needed later on in the project.

Paranormal Activity (Film) 2009

I went to the cinema to see this film because I felt that it was relevant to the teaser trailer that we are currently creating due to the hand held camera shots throughout the film. I want to include these sorts of effects and shots within my trailer to make it more effective as what has been done in this production.

This film was very unique and I felt that it had very different shots and effects that havent really been used before in previous horror films. Shots with the camera in a hand held point of view but strangely placed in a fixed position is one example, these sorts of shots really challege the normal conventional shots. Personally I felt that these shots worked to the films advantage and played a very important part in the overall scariness of the film. This film was not completely covered in gore, it was quite opposite. Paranormal activity was more creepy than anything else, this effect substituted for the typically used gore effect.

Paranormal activity was quite dark and mysterious up to a point the audience did not know entirely what was going on, this built up tension very well and was able to keep building gradually until the very end where the tension hit its climax, at this point the tension was relieved and the film ended in a shock and a sort of suspense. This style is mainly designed for cinema viewing and the reaction of the people watching it, this will not have the same effect and atmosphere on dvd release because you havn't got the audience showing their emotions.

Key Conventions of Horror essay

There are many key conventions of horror and these are combined together to create the horror genre in more depth. Over a period of time as horror films have grown and become increasingly scary and popular amongst their targeted audience, the creators of the genre have established important effects and styles they must include to get the overall atmosphere and mood they set out for. When seeing a horror the audience expects certain givens, this includes the key conventions of horror, these are for example; Blood, death, killing, weapons, screams, fear, monsters, villians, victims and all together darkness and mysteriousness. Without these very important signifiers the genre would not specify clearly enough what it is atempting to acomplish as a film and even what genre it is.

When you think of horror films certain things come to mind, somthing in all horrors that you imediately pick up on is the location or setting. The audience is able to remember the place the horror was set because it plays an enormous part in the film and the horror genre. People who have watched certain horror films are left with the memory of where it was set and why. This brings the point of why stick with the stereotypical location to set a horror film, for example colleges, universities, hospitals, small towns and villages. All the settings of horror films seem to follow a structure (small, remote, isolated places with no communication) the creators of these films specifically follow this structure because it works very well and can adapt to a range of situations. One horror film that challenges conservative ideology is " A Nightmare on elm street" this is set in a small town but is in no way isolated, this is a very clever because it does'nt follow the structure but still works on a very intelligent level. What is meant by this is that although it is definetly categorized under the genre of horror it in some way seems different or almost like a hybrid. The killer (Freddy krueger) does'nt isolate them in means of location like in most horrors, he seperates their minds form reality by attacking them in their sleep. The writer of nightmare on elmstreet (Wes craven) had found a new way to portray the location of horror films, in my opinion this is one of the scariest horrors because you are not isolated in a location like other typical horrors you are amongst friends and family but there is still nothing that they can do. The location of the horror is very important and new locations are being thought of rapidly, this is improving the horror genre and making it more exiting, also more realistic aswell.

The key covention of Lighting has had an enormous effect on horror films, and has drastically changed the genre over a short period of time. When the genre was first experimented with in early productions, in films such as "The cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919)"  "Nosferatu (1922)" and even slightly later films such as "Dracula (1931)" the idea of darkness within the world of horror had not been used to its full potential. Now lighting is one of the main coventions that we associate with the genre. This has happened because the use of darkness or low key lighting adds a mysterious and unknowing element to the films, the audience does not know what is lerking in the dark corners, and therefore creates the suspence and dramatic uphold that leaves the viewers on the edge of their seat. Then suddenly when the tension is at its highest point somthing will happen to shock the audience for example a monster lundging out at you from within the darkness. The creators of the horror films now had somthing new to adjust and perfect, somthing that they could change and vary in so many ways. One of these is motivated lighting, this could be used to highlight the protagonist and show that he/she is in a dangerous or vunerable position. This is for example the victim walking down a dark tunnel with a torch as the only light sorce, this emphsizes the fact that the villian or killer can see the victim but not the other way around. The motivated lighting technique used in these circumstances would give the impression that the viewer is in the protagonists shoes. Lighting has changed the horror genre forever and is always improving, there is so many other ways of showing scared, tense and a build up of tension through lighting.

The key conventions of horror has to be input and balenced in the correct proportion, the film must not include all of the conventions otherwise it will appear to be another genre, basically a spoof or a parody. The creator has to be careful when trying to make a new and different style of the genre because one false decision could effect the entire film. This is somtimes what seperates a good horror from a bad one.

Overall there are many key conventions of horror films some more noticable than others but all playing a part in determining the outcome of the film, horror is expanding and becoming more and more popular with time. Key conventions have a big role in this and will continue to spring new ideas.

Horror film Idea

A family from london moves to a small village. The family are used to the busy and non-stop atmosphere of the big city; this is a big change for them, but also for the people who live in the village.The people in the village are used to a certain way of life and have been that way for some time, there about to change on the account of some middle class settlers. The family consists of the two parents Steven and Emily and their two sons. Steven has had a job offered. The two children are both reluctant to move away from their lives in the city (London).

The local people at first seem normal and welcoming to the family, but things soon start to change. When Emily starts to manipulate the entire look of the house and destroys unknowingly what is a part of the villages history, the two boys are having numerous parties that go on into the early hours of the morning.The Dad builds a supermarket over the top of many local businesses.After all this the local inhabitants start to build up a hatred for the family and want them out immediety. When the family refuse, the people of the village result to more violent methods. With everyone in the village with the same point of view, even the police whats stopping them from doing anything? even murder!

Analysis of Questionnaire (Open discussion questions)

We used open and closed questions within our questionnaire to gather both qualitative and quantitative data.

Question 2 – What features in horror films are you interested in? Please explain.

Most popular requests
• Suspense,

• Tension,

• Psychological,

• Gore,

• Sex appeal,

• Familiar surroundings,

• Twists,

• Jumpy bits

• Blood.

Through this question we found that these aspects were the most popular suggestions in which people would like to see in a horror movie. The features people were interested in the least the were special effects and the gradual building of music. This has helped us gain knowledge into what our target audience wants to see so that they enjoy the movie which potentially will make our product a success.
3) What do you look for in a horror trailer? Please explain

Here is a summary of the response we received from this question:

• Damsel in dresses

• Suspense, fast paced, clues to narrative

• good plot

• Not so much revealed, hint at the plot

• Twisted ideas – issues that concern my demographic, things I can relate too e.g. Eden lake, working class ‘chavs’

• Mysterious killer

• Jumpy bits

• Makes me want to know more

• Building music- voice over
The results we received were largely what we expected. A few people said they were interested at issues/topics which related to their demographic. To us, this seems like good idea as the audience can then sympathise with the characters. As we plan to target a young audience, incorporating an issues witch relate young teenagers will be a good idea.
Question 5 – When on a date, do you look for anything particular in a horror? Please explain.

Most popular requests
• A scary moment

• Jumpy scenes

• Something that scares the girl
Through research we found that the most frequent audience that go to the cinema are teenage groups of girls, teenage group of boys between 16 and 25 and couples aged between 20 and 30. We took this into account and asked this question on how we can make our movie attract this audience. These were the most common answers in our results which show us that our movie has to be scary or ‘jumpy’ in order to appeal to a coupled audience.
Question 8 –Please note down any comments that you think might help us?

Most popular requests


• Should involve teenagers

• built tension

• handheld shots


This has influenced us to use teenagers in our teaser trailer. This is convenient for us and it will meets the needs of our target audience.

Questionnaire results (Bar Chart)

Questionnaire results (Bar Chart)

Nightmare on elm street still

nightmare on elm street still
Originally uploaded by Daniel Harris8

 This is a still that I have analised from the film Nightmare on elm street. I feel that this is a very good horror shot and captures the atmosphere and mood of the scene.

The Role of the Distributor, Distribution plan and Marketing plan

The role of the distributor is very important and vital if the film is going to succeed. The distributer decides when and how the film is going to be released, this is done so its chances are optimised.The vast and ever expanding audience type makes it a difficult job for the distributor amongst other aspects, he/she cannot treat every films distribution the same. It would simply not work out. Every distribution plan is tailor made and personalised for the maximum success of the film, the distribution plan has to almost be perfectly organised and laid out so that the release of the film is suited to the audience. It has to consider mainly the demographics point of view with aspects such as age,gender,income... but also lifestyles,social networks,media consumption patterns etc as well.

The Marketing plan is very complex, and there is a lot to be considered. The aim of a marketing plan is to create visibility, raise awareness and engage interest. This can be done in a range of different and effective methods, this includes things such as; posters, adverts on television and the internet, free gifts, magazine and newspaper articles, interviews with the directors and cast, trailers etc... The marketing of the film has to be completed well to compete not only with other marketing plans but also other leisure activities. The aim is at the entire public audience and with there being more choices than ever before it is getting increasingly more difficult to attract even a small section. It is hard to communicate and target every audience because everyone is different and might not react to the same type of advertising. Older audiences may have seen a film advertised on the television or in a newspaper and react to it differently to a younger person seeing it on the internet, radio or on some form of advertising panel. There is one way of marketing a film that almost applies to everyone, this is word of mouth. Word of mouth seems to suit every audience in the way that the reputation of the film is spread from one person to another in a matter of minutes. This is also a very strong method of marketing and enables the person who has seen the film to give his/her opinion about weather it is worth seeing to multiple people in different audience type categories, if this person thinks of the film as good or even excellent this will have a positive effect of the amount of tickets sold.

"Dawn Of The Dead" Horror Teaser Trailer

House of fears teaser trailer (2008)

A nightmare on elm street (2010)

Vladimir Propp Narrative Structure (The Shining)

Vladimir Propp's narrative structure has its advantages and it disadvantages. There are points in the theory that are correct, and almost perfectly suit the structure of the film. This is for example "The hero is persued" This happens in the shining where Jack is chaseing Danny through the maze. There are also other points that are not only incorrect they seem to be misplaced within the structure, what I mean by this is for example "The hero is transferred to the general location of the object of his mission/quest" In the shining the character is already at the destination and has been there almost since the begining of the film, but in the structure it notes that the character should be transferred there almost three quarters of the way through. This example like a few others in Propps theory was incorrect, some more noticeable than others but still wrong. Overall this shows that Propps structure is very good at basic narrative structures but seems to struggle with more complex ones.

"Return of the Repressed"

The term "Return of the repressed" is theorised to be the existence of certain thoughts and feelings that eventually show their selves as symptoms if they are not discharged. They are expressed by a person almost subconsciously, The person would feel strongly about the matter all the time but not want to express it, instead they would find it shows as a reluctant erg.

Sorority Row Trailer (2009)

The reason that I have choosen Sorority Row is because it is a recent horror film with a good twist in the middle. It also targets a wide audience mainly teenagers Male and Female. Sorority row in my opinion uses all the correct conventions of the horror genre, and the trailer is designed very well to entice the viewer.