Research- Horror Film Openings

I spent a lot of time both in my Media lessons and at home watching horror film openings and taking detailed notes on every aspect of the opening. I watched over 15 films and have many notes that I can use when creating my own film, and when editing it too.

Here are some of the notes, written into paragraphs from 2 of the films that I watched. The 2 films I have chosen to publish my notes on are the ones that I found most effective on my own production.

Halloween (John Carpenter:1978)

This paticular film had a massive influence onto the world of horror. It was the most profitable film ever made becuase at such a low budget it managed to attract so many viewers. Here are the notes I gathered from watching the frist 3 minuted of the film:

• In the opening titles you see a blank screen and then the music comes in, with a production logo in the background of the shot.
• The font used throughout the title scenes is serif and the writing flickers from orange to red to represent the pumpkin light flickering.
• The music is long and drawn out with fast paced music following it, this makes the viewers heart rate skip beats and creates real tension.
• There is a sound of a clock ticking in the background, the camera is very slowly zooming in to the title scenes. The zoom is not noticable.
• The first shot sets the scene of a typical horror film house, it is detached and white and has a big tree in the front garden. The house signifys isolation.
• The use of blue tinted lighting is used to signify coldness and super-natural.
• A point of view camera shot is used as a person works up the pathway and into the front door of the house.
• A sherif is shown in the opening three minutes, always in horror films a local sherif gets killed because the target audinace is youth and youth is seen as against the police.
• Dr. Lumus in the film is an intertectual refrence to Psycho's 'Sam Lumus' and Scream's 'Billy Lumus'.

As you can see I picked up a lot of notes from this film, and I will use some of their ideas in my own production.

Trick or Treat (Charles Smith: 1986)

I chose to research into this fuilm because I had seen the film before and I like the opening of the film, I think it introduces the character very well, which is what I want out of my production so I will analyse the first 3 minutes of this film, and here are my notes:

• In the opening titles there is a voice over of a middle gaed man with a very deep voice talking about gothical gods and how you should follow them, and do as you are told by them.The font is 'Times New Roman'
• Then the music comes in, the music is a very popular heavy metal song 'Stand Up- Fastway'. Fastway made the complete soundtrack for Trick or Treat.
• The opening shot pons through some gothic items that are on shelves in a very dark bedroom, you then see some heavry metal posters, all of this signifys the main character is a goth.
• The camera then reaches the boy, where then the msuic quitens and a non diagetic voice over is played in the background, the voice over is the main character talking.
• The shot then is of flashbacks that the boy is having from his time in school, and it shows a women, she is a stereotypical sex driven school girl, which means that we can predict she will get killed later on in the film.

I like the opening to this film very much, and I want to base the opening of mine to be alot like this one, I believe it is what would work best for my production.