Art Of The Title

Target Audience

As our opening sequence is a psychological horror we did a tally chart of the age groups that like watching psychological horrors and we found out that people between the ages of 15-25 most enjoy psychological horrors/thrillers.

This chart shows how many people out of 80 between those ages enjoy watching psychological horrors rather than any other genre.

As it shows on the chart people between the ages of 15-25 enjoy watching psychological horrors the most so we decided that this will be our target audience, as it is a very popular genre between those ages.

Psychological Horror Prezi

Update

In today's lesson we finished our opening sequence! It is now uploaded on youtube with all the sound effects and credits we were trying to fix.

Costumes - Main Character

In our opening sequence we decided to dress our main character in a regular and comfortable outfit, that a teenage would wear on a daily basis, so it is not a stereotypical girly outfit nor is it a boyish outfit. The reason behind is is because we want to portray that this sequence happened on a regular day in the life of a teenager and it is nothing too tacky or overwhelming. She is wearing a simple top, jeans and a backpack. 

"You Shouldn't Have Done That"

Our group got inspired by the creepypasta "Ben Drowned" which is a story about a boy named Ben who had a cursed copy of the game: Legend of Zelda. The quotes that we want to use in our opening sequence were "You Shouldn't Have Done That"

Click here to watch the creepypasta "Ben Drowned"

In our opening sequence the screen automatically turns back on in the static room with the words "You Shouldn't Have Done That" after she turns it off.

Representation On Lighting

The colour scheme of our entire opening sequence is mainly in the grayscale and all the colours are dark and cold to represent the feeling of the character and audience and create an effect of danger and fear. The lighting is also quite dark and it sets the entire mood of the sequence and puts the audience in a state of fear.   

The colours are not vibrant and happy but the opposite.  We also got inspired by Psychological Horror game Silent Hill P.T. as it has a shot that we tried to recreate using the school corridor and the outcome is quite similar. The picture above is of our opening sequence corridor and the picture on the left is of Silent Hill P.T. The lighting is really important in horror films because darkness is stereotypically associated with the horror genre and danger.

     

Representation on Locations

We decided to shoot our film in a school. By basing the storyline on a horror event in a school it adds tension as a school is meant to be a safe place of education and peace, but it works as a paradox as the main character is being followed and killed in the safe place so it creates a sense of irony in the sequence.

We got inspired by the Horror films "The Expelled" and "Summer School", which are also filmed in a school setting and are again set at night.

As the scenes that we are filming are meant to happen after the school has been shut, we filmed it around 5-6 o'clock, so the scenes look realistic and dark. 

Update (Sound) 20/03/2015

Today my media group and I arranged the sound effects and the music in the places that we needed it. We added diegetic and non- diegetic sounds to it. The diegetic sounds were the TV static that we added when the computer screen turns back on and says "YOU SHOUDN'T HAVE DONE THAT" with an appropriate creepy font. This creates a creepy and robotic effect to the sequence as if the character that wants to kill her is inside the computer and makes it obvious that he is controlling the computer. It also makes the sequence look professional.

We also decided to make the atmosphere more intense by adding the sound of a heartbeat. The sound of a heartbeat racing is often heard when a person is scared and the fact that it is dead silent in the room and we can hear it intensifies the setting and adds to the suspense, because the audience feels like they are the character as they can hear the heartbeat so clearly.

We added non-diegetic music in the background. The violins also add to the suspense and the feeling of fear that the character might be experiencing at that moment. We also removed the violins for the last part of the sequence as silence is the most important sound that can be used for a psychological horror because the audience feel like they are alone in that room and expect something bad to happen and by adding silence it feels like the moment is longer than it actually is so it adds to the anticipation. 

Prezi on Gender Representation In Psychological Horrors

Who Would Distribute Our Film?

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Production Credits

The Production Credits a.k.a. Opening Credits are the names of the most important members of the production and making of the film. There is a certain hierarchy order of those names. An example of the way the order goes by usually is:

PRODUCTION COMPANY presents
a NAME LASTNAME production
a NAME LASTNAME film
"TITLE"
Lead Cast
Supporting Cast
Casting Director
Music Composer
Costume Designer
Associate Producers
Editor(s)
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Executive Producer
Producer
Writer(s)
Director

Opening credits can either be put in front of a black or coloured screen or in front of the moving picture of the opening sequence of the film and the actual footage. By putting the credits on a coloured or black screen the audience can focus on the names of the members and cast that has created the media (film, video game etc). Recently putting opening credits in front of moving footage of the opening sequence of the film has been used more, as it is time consuming otherwise and the audience lose interest and get bored from the start if that is not done, so it decreases the suspense and excitement from the film and the effect that needs to be produced to capture the audience's emotions and feelings into a piece of media. An example of psychological horror opening credits is "Black Swan"

The opening credits directly relate to the film as the colours are gloomy and contrasting and the mise en scene is fitting perfectly with the film's plot and title. The non-diegetic music is creepy and suspenseful and what you would expect from a psychological horror so it fits the genre and plot perfectly. These opening credits are done on a background instead of the footage itself and on the opening sequence, but are still very effective and would not bore the audience or remove the enigmatic feel. 

Sound in Psychological Horrors

Sound is a key factor in setting the suspense and atmosphere in the psychological horror genre. Psychological Horror games like Silent Hill don't really use non diegetic sounds. They use diegetic sound effects such as crying babies and static radio effects to increase the creepiness and suspense. They also don't use any music to make it seem like a real life experience. Here is an example of Silent Hills P.T. gameplay:

 In comparison to games psychological horror films such as The Shining use a lot of non-diegetic suspenseful and creepy music to increase the fearful mood of the film and trigger emotion from the audience as if they are in the film. Music and sound is key in adding emotion to a scene such as fear, terror, anticipation and can completely change the meaning, genre or story of any footage.