LULU- Motif

What is a motif and why is it important?

A motif is a recurring short music idea that has an importance in the context in which it is used.

It is important as by repeating itself the motif can create a theme or/and mood.

Particularly famous are horror movies motifs. 

You can hear 10 of the most famous motifs by opening the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YoEjzF7iYE

LILY: Sound In Horror Films

This is some research I did into just general sound in horror films. However Lulu is currently learning how to use garage band, and making a motif for our film.

Sound is one of the most important aspects of horror films. A film can become scary using the sound alone, for example this iconic scene from Jaws, is infamously scary due to the musical motif, but when replaced with other music, the entire scene changes meaning entirely.
ORIGINAL SCENE:

EDITED SCENE:

-Common conventions used in horror films include using isolated beats amongst long suspenseful beats.
-Musical motifs, such at the one in Jaws, which are used specifically to symbolise one element of horror, to build tension for the viewers so they know when it is coming.
- Diegetic sounds are often exaggerated, for example, creaking doors or the wind/ bad weather.
-Sound gets louder and faster as something comes nearer.

LULU- Garageband

My work on Garageband

What is GarageBand?

GarageBand is a whole music creation studio right inside your Mac with a complete sound library that includes software instruments, presets for guitar and voice, and virtual session drummers. An intuitive interface makes it easy to learn, play, record, create and share your hits worldwide.

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I used Garageband in order to create a unique motif for our antagonist (the stalker), me and Lily then decided to use this motif also as our opening soundtrack as the opening shots are from the stalker's point of view.

The motif was modified more than once as I was looking for the sound that could better represent the character were creating.

While adding the motif to the our product I felt like something was missing and it turned out to be sound effect to use in order to make the changing of scene more interesting and also to create suspense. The sound effects I used are:

"Title Pulse Ring"
A sound effect that can be found on Final Cut Pro

Heartbeat
Heartbeat also found on Final Cut Pro or if you prefer on Youtube

Heavy Breathing
The heavy breathing sound effect is an original that I recorded by using my iPhone's vocal memos.

LILY- Key Shots and Storyboard

After compiling all the research, into other films, it is now time to begin thinking about our own horror film.

 Here is a quick draft of some essential shots I wish to use in the filming of my main task, put onto a storyboard but in no specific order. These shots where inspired by the research I did into other films, as most of theme are common shots used in that genre.

After making a shot list I decided it was time to attempt to put it together into a first draft story- board.

Our storyline, which we came up with by discussion, consists of a girl, (Hannah) being followed by someone. However as have decided to name our movie 'FearOnline' it focuses on the influence of technology over her life. She exchanges texts with him, which is how he follows her.

The opening, just over a minute (approx) of our film will focus on only having music, no dialogue, as well as a selection of establishing shots, our opening titles, and shots of Hannah running. Openings with no dialogue such as these are commonly used in all genres of film, especially horror as they are used to build tension, you can see Lulu's full description of our secondary task here:http://lilyandlulumediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/lulu-secondary-task.html

LULU- Propp and our narrative

Propp!

We looked at the work of Vladimir Propp and how he analysed a series of Russian folk tales around the 1920's.  He noticed that the same characters and events  kept being repeated in each one of the stories and wrote a book about it titled "Morphology of the Folk Tale" that was published in 1928.

The characters that are repeated and are also present in our Secondary Task are:

The villain- the stalker 
The hero- Hannah
The helper- Hannah's friend (Cesca)

The events that are repeated and are also present in our Secondary Task are:

Our hero is pursued (by the stalker)
The hero ignores the interdiction (don't talk to strangers/you have to be 18 to use a meeting website)

LULU- Secondary Task: Plot and Actors

Secondary Task: Horror 2 minutes clip

For our secondary task we had to choose our film's genre and film the opening for it that had to be two minutes to two minutes thirty long.

Title: FearOnline

Genre: Horror

Actors: Hannah S, Francesca Quince

Set: Westonbirt School

Plot/Story arc: 

Hannah lives in Westonbirt’s boarding school. One night Hannah and two of her friends decide to stay up all night together and to have fun they sign up on a meeting website. The girls start a conversation with a 45 year old man from their own country. The girls pretend to be an older woman and to be interested in the man, the girls are having fun teasing him, until he realises and starts to threat them by saying terrible things, even though the girls know nothing could happen to them they are so shocked by what the man said that they disconnect and delete their fake profile. The next morning Hannah wakes up to the sound of a text message. The nightmare begins.

Script

Cesca: Hey!
Hannah: Hey!
Cesca: How was your run earlier?
Hannah: Good! But you know that feeling that you get when someone is watching you..?
Cesca:Yeah
Hannah: I had that
Cesca: That's so weird

Cast

 Hannah Southam as Hannah 

Our protagonist had to be a good looking teenager, with a gentle and innocent face so that the audience would have grow fond of her immediately.

The Stalker

Not shown in order to create mystery and suspense.

Francesca Quince as Cesca 

The character of “the friend” had to be a face that transmitted calm and trust as this character is the protagonist helper so someone she can trust.

The Set

Westonbirt School

Gloucester, England

LILY- Task 6- Typical Traits of Horror Films

Our genre for our opening two minutes of a film is horror, so as a part of research I have decided to look up, further typical traits of horror films. 

• TITLES: When it comes to the opening titles of horror films, they usually appear in white or red colours. However in some cases another colour is used which represents what the film is about. For example in 'Halloween' the titles are in orange.

• SOUNDS: Sounds in horror movies- ambient sounds are used along with music. Diegetic is used to make things which would not usually be scary, scary! For example footsteps, breathing, or the telephone ring in scream. Music is also used to build tension, usually it begins slow and soft, but builds up as tension increases. Music can make or break a film: take a look at this famous scene from Jaws, the iconic music replaces with one rather different.

• SETTING: Common settings for horror films include: desolate places, which can be urban or in the countryside, along with by lakes, in a haunted houses, abandoned warehouses and many more. 

  

  THE WALKING DEAD IS SET IN AN ABANDONED FICTIONAL VERSION, OF THE CITY ATLANA, GEORGIA, AMERICA.

  
  

  

  AN ABANDONED HOUSE ACTS AS THE SETTING FOR THE FILM 'THE ABANDONED.' 

  
  
• CAMERA WORK: The shots used in horror films tend to be very cliche. They usually contain high and low angled shots to create drama along with point of view shots from the villain's perspective, showing them stalking the protagonist or target. Horror films also often contain an establishing shot, to show location. As well as plenty of handheld camera's to make the shot less smooth.

ESTABLISHING SHOT IN THE WOMEN IN BLACK TO SHOW LOCATION

POINT OF VIEW SHOT

THE BLONDE VICTIM IN SCREAM 

• EDITING: Horror films usually contain a variety of editing styles. Some being slow editing containing simple, long pans. Whereas as suspense builds, the editing gets quicker, flicking between shots at a greater speed.

• CHARACTERS: The representation of characters in horror films are very stereotypical. For example the victim is usually a girl, who is blonde and attracts male viewers to the film. Whereas the hero of the film is usually a hunky, man who is handsome and saves the day.

  

  THE GIRL BEING SEXUALISED IN 'JENNIFER'S BODY' TO ATTRACT MALE VIEWERS.

  
  

  

  THE HUNKY MALE HERO IN THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
• TYPICAL SITUATIONS: Situations that tend to happen include: power cables being cut, a car not starting, victims hear a sound and then go to look for it, the audience knowing something the victim in the film does not, along with many more.

  

  DOLLS ARE OFTEN USED IN HORROR FILMS AS THE ANTAGONIST.