Colours play a big part in making horror movies as they connote specific things. There are suitable colours for every situation and it is very important that we get it right in our horror movie to make it look professional and realistic.
The antagonists in most horror films are usually wearing black no matter what genre of horror this is. The colour of black gives connotations of death, danger and gives an eerie atmosphere as it's a dull colour. Villains usually wear black to portray themselves as someone dark and un trusting. It is usually easy to spot the antagonists in movies just by the colours they wear and their actions. For this reason, our antagonist will be wearing black just so we can stick to typical conventions of antagonist.
Protagonists in films are usually wearing light colours to connote their innocents in the situation. The colour white is used connote purity and the colour blue connotes new life or something fresh. Red is sometimes also used to connote blood or danger which is used to foreshadow the unfortunate dilemma to come. In our film, the protagonist will use light colours to achieve the portrayal of innocence and cause the audience to feel sympathy for them.
Ropes are used for hanging in horror movies. They are effective as it can make characters look as if they hanged themselves when that might not be the case. The cyclical structure portrays to the audience that the event occurring is ongoing and can't be stopped.
Knives are one of the most common objects used in horror movies. Household items are effective as they're easy to get hold of in emergency situations. Using knives in horror films even just for cooking can foreshadow bad things to come where the knife has to be used again. The sharp edge on them connote something painful and sudden.
As we are creating a horror sequence we have to pick the correct non diegetic and diegetic sounds to help build a typical horror atmosphere and add to the mise en scene. As a lot of the best horror music is already used on movies we may have to ask for copyright or compose our own music for our sequence. To ensure we have the ability to make the right choice I have done a little research into horror music sound designs.
these are a few ingredients
very high pitched strings
there is often no repeating melody
if there is a melody there are a lot of tension keys/notes in them
often very slow moving in pace (not exactly slow tempo)
the begin of the composition is often very low pitched.
The tutorials are not exactly what we are looking to use, but the idea behind many sound designs employed can be used for what we want to do. Technological horror is fairly new genre of horror making more room experiment with various conventions of sound.
Diegetic sounds such as doors closing, glitches etc may have to be recorded post production, this may be a hard task to do as majority of the diegetic sounds are parallel and synchronous.
The main character of our opening sequence is not the final girl, the music she is listening to may have to portray her in a way that the audience are able to identify her as that. Also as there will be glitches added post production during editing the non diegetic music will have to accompany that with drum rolls and melodic white noise.
Our final decision was too find a non copyright music and sound effects. We needed relaxing music to create contrast between the high tension of the soundtrack used when the killer enters the scene.
Initial ideas: camera angles and shots following the plot.
The first shot of the sequence would be a point of view shot of the laptop. In technology horror films I've researched, the first shot is always off the faulty technology.
High angle shot of protagonist leaving the room to answer the door after the bell rings, gives illusion of someone watching, audience are in a higher position as they can see what the protagonist can't. You can see laptop in background while it will be glitching.
POV shot of protagonists partner neck down. Makes audience wonder who it is.
Close up of the couple holding hands. Has connotations of unity. Close up of feet going up the stairs.
The couple will rush off into a room, We could possibly use a panning shot to follow the action and the thrill of them running in.
Low angle shot of protagonists partner running down the stairs. Making him seem superior after what might have just happened in the room. He then leaves the house.
Medium shot of protagonist back on his laptop so we can see them and what is happening on the laptop. The anonymous email will appear on the screen at this time
Close up of computer screen when dead boyfriend shows up on the screen. The camera will then start to zoom out as the pictures starts to fade and change to the antagonist
Close up of the protagonist to emphasise the feelings felt at this time in order for the audience to connect.
