Plot Synopsis

Plot Synopsis:

Megan Harris and Demi Proud have organised to meet up in a double date with two boys over Facebook. However, things aren’t as sweet as they sound. After being made to travel through an intimidating forest, tragedy strikes, as Megan experiences a traumatic asthma attack and Demi is brutally attacked by a sadistic serial killer, much to her astonishment. This turns out to be ‘man’ that Demi has talked to on Facebook. Potential love turns into a tragic scene, as both girls die in the forest due to a shocking turn of events.

This produces enough intrigue from security services to make a court case that revolves around the court case of the murder of Demi Proud, as an attempt is made to find out who is responsible for Demi’s demise, and the reasoning for murdering her. Through this court case, shocking discoveries are made as the killer is eventually revealed, but it is not who is initially suspected.

Our film aims to attempt to provoke the audience into asking themselves mentally various questions after witnessing the events of the film. These questions that may potentially be asked during the duration of the film could include 'Who killed Demi?', 'Why did that person kill Demi?' and 'What will the final verdict of the court case be?'

Location Research - Three potential locations

In this post, I will be analysing the images I took below and explaining why I personally believe they would make good locations for a horror film.

Something to note about all three photos is that they have been taken in the dark, which is already a good start for a horror film as darkness creates vulnerability for the characters in the dark, which as a result, increases the anxiety for the viewer, as they worry about the fates of the characters who are involved in such a dark location.

As my group have planned for the first location of our opening sequence to be shot on a pavement, I thought that this would be a good location to be filmed in. I feel that this has a good look, and something that the audience could feel intrigued enough with due to the dark lighting that creates vulnerability for the two female teenagers that will be walking alone through the pavement to meet their 'dates'. Also, since there would be no-one out if this location gets used, isolation would also be created which makes the audience feel quite sympathetic for these girls, as with the exception of each other, they have absolutely no human being around them whatsoever. If this location is used, it would be used at the very beginning of the opening sequence, when the two girls are using their mobile phones, checking any personal messages they may have received from their 'dates'.

The second location that I feel could be used in the opening sequence of our horror film is next to the forest, which will be featured when Demi and Megan (portraying with the same name) look for their dates that are supposedly waiting past the forest. I also feel that this location would make a good horror location due to the dark lighting, but also due to the mysteriousness that is wielded by what could potentially lurk in the forest. This makes the two female characters even more vulnerable than they initially were due to what could unsuspectingly emerge out of the forest, which as a result, garners fear from the viewer, as they should be worrying about what could possibly jump out from the forest and frighten the two female characters, and how they will be affected by this unexpected surprise.

Finally, the third location that may be used in my group's opening sequence would take place inside the forest (which I unfortunately wasn't able to get an image of, as the image would have been way too dark to see clearly), where the girls face tragic situations that sees them both dying in the forest. I feel this would be a good location to film in as the forest exudes abandonment, darkness and fear, which all could be used to make the audience's intrigue raise significantly. The audience should feel enough fear-related emotions once the girls enter the creepy forest together, but that should increase exceedingly once the two teenagers go their own separate ways, which produces even more isolation for the characters as they are on their own, and even more anxiety for the viewer as they get a clear idea that something is lurking in the forest, and feel immense fear that it may be out to get one or possibly both of the girls.

Initial Ideas Storyboard

This is our storyboard which contains our initial ideas for the opening sequence of our horror film. As evident through the image, our group has discussed about what type of editing we would use, the type of cinematography that would be approrpriate for our opening sequence, the questions that our audience should feel tempted to ask themselves after watching the opening sequence, what sounds (diegetic and non-diegetic) that would be featured in our opening sequence and the plot of our horror film.

Audience Analysis through Pie Charts

In this post, I will be analysing in detail about the pie charts shown below that were made based on the audience survey that my group conducted recently.

In the audience survey that my group have conducted, we have made many discoveries that could influence the production of our opening sequence.

One of these discoveries is that people prefer to see bloody effects when the titles appear in our opening sequence, which has influenced our group to incorporate bloody effects into the font for our title sequence. The implementation of blood is typical of being featured in many horror films, as witnessed in the audience survey when most of the people we interviewed said that they generally would expect to see blood in a horror film.

Another discovery made by our group when checking back on the results of our audience to see that most of our audience liked watching horror movies. This is fortunate for my group as we were already set on producing an opening sequence to a horror movie, so to know that our potential audience are already interested in horror films is a relief for us, as our chosen genre is a preferred choice amongst our target audience.

A third discovery that was found by our group when we looked back on our results is that the audience prefer horror films to start out with an equilibrium (peaceful and balanced) rather than a disequilibrium (frightening and unbalanced). This is also fortunate for our group, as we already decided to feature an equilibrium in our opening sequence, which would however shift into a disequilibrium by the end of the opening sequence.

Finally, another discovery that our group has made when checking the results to our audience survey is that whilst the audience generally have mixed views about where they would like the titles to appear over, more of them prefer to see the titles to appear over a pitch black screen. However, as the audience have mixed opinions, we still may decide to feature the titles in our opening sequence as it seems like a more professional thing to do when incorporating titles into our opening sequence.

Vox Pops

This post will show Vox Pops about what our potential audience thinks about horror movies, what they generally expect to see in horror movies and whether or not they like the idea of cliffhangers being used.



Overall, this video shows that most of our potential audience likes horror movies, which shows that our group's idea of producing an opening sequence to a horror movie is a good idea (due to keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, as well as usually featuring twists, which are both reasons that are given by our target audience), as horror movies wield a certain amount of appeal towards our potential audience.

This video also showed that most of our potential audience generally expect to see a death of some form featured in horror films, as well as blood and gore. As most of our potential audience feels that death is a typical convention of many horror movies, this has inspired our group to consider implementing death into our opening sequence, as it would help to establish our film as a horror film so it can appeal to fans of the horror genre.

Finally, whilst our audience generally had mixed views on whether or not they liked cliffhangers, all of them stated that cliffhangers make them want to find out what happened next, which shows that whether or not they like cliffhangers, our potential audience are all interested by them. As most audiences seem to be interested by the concept of cliffhangers, it is enough to make our group consider implementing cliffhangers into the end of our opening sequence of our horror film.

Conventions of a horror film

This Prezi shows the typical convention of a horror film.

These are the types of cinematography that would typically be featured in a horror film:

Extreme Close-Up (used to show fine detail of the subject or items that has some significance to the subject):

Establishing Shot (used to show the location, and not to make the audience feel bewildered as to the whereabouts of the characters):

These are the types of characters that would usually appear in a horror film:

The male protagonist (usually attractive, to garner likability from the audience): 

The female victim (also usually attractive, to garner likability from the audience. They are usually the victims due to how vulnerable and weak females are generally perceived to be):

The supernatural villain (usually supernatural as it is something that is unexpected, so therefore more likely to produce a reaction from the audience rather than the stereotypical ugly male villain):

These are the types of locations that would typically be featured in a horror film:

Old-fashioned houses:

Graveyards:

Abandoned Warehouses:

Horror/Thriller 2 - The Strangers (Bertino, USA, 2008)

In this post, I will be explaining how cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene, editing, titles and questions prompted for the viewer to make an attempt in answering are all featured in the opening sequence of 'The Strangers'.

The images below were all featured in the dolly shots of various houses:

These images include the objects inside the house as well as the blood covered knife and blood soaked wall:

Horror/Thriller 1 - The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Derrickson, 2005, USA)

In this post, I will be explaining how cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene, editing, titles and questions prompted for the viewer to make an attempt in answering are all featured in the opening sequence of 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose'.

Watch from 0:00:00 - 0:05:13

- This is the title of the film 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose'


- This prompts the viewer to ask themselves why this man is holding a doll.


- This shows the fade from black to white.


- This shows the low-key lighting, as well as the abandoned house in an extreme long shot.