Horror films

In a good horror movie we expect to see it set in a scary location (usualy in the middle of nowhere) and loads of silly mistakes that dump the characters in trouble, but their are many more cliches used in horror films, some are obvious whereas some are a little more subtle. I used the opening couple of minutes of  'jeepers creepers' and straight away the most obvious cliche is used, the main characters are in the middle of nowhere, and to make things worse the characters themselves are cliched, they are both defenseless teenagers. People love watching teenagers get into these situations mainly because a large proportion of the horror market is teenagers, it is much more effective for a teenager to watch someone they can relate to getinto these situations than watching an old lady get into the same ones. 'Did i just see that?' moments make the viewer extremely nervous and scared for the character, a good example would be a zombie darting across an aisle in an abandoned super market, they make us want to shout out to the charcater in a pantomime fashion they're behinf you but we just cant and we know that the character is totally oblivious and will proabably die as a result. In the opening of jeepres creepers we see the camper van turn off the road through the cars back window they do not notice however and we as an audience are wondering what they know that we don't. After seeing the caper van turn off we see a truck in the distance speeding toward the car but it takes a while to reach and every second that goes by without a reaction, suspense is building and then finally the protagonists notice the truck. This is a good example of a climax/anti-climax. In alot of horror movies we expect to see lots blood and gore, films like saw show massive amounts if this and this helps us get involved in the film as we are now feeling a bit ill and scared of the people responsible. One of the biggest cliches in horror is the lonely situations, like when your car breaks down in the middle of a spooky woods adn nowhere but a creepy house you could find help, these really make the film scary as all of us have been to a woods we find spooky and the thought of being stuck there at night al alone is a freaky prospect. With our film being similar to paranormal activity and following some of the same conventions we need to make sure that our film is full of jumpy seens that will really freak out the audience. We will also have to ensure that our trailer reassures the audience that our film will be packed with these type of scenes, but we must be careful that we don't ruin it and that we keep the audience guessing.

Title analysis - Resident Evil Afterlife

The title of this film gives us a lot of information and suggests a lot:

• The use of the colon tells us there is more than one film in the resident evil franchise.
• The E in evil is much bigger and more pronounced than any other E on the poster which draws attention to the type of film it will be and also makes it obvious that 'evil' will be one of the themes.
•  The fact the title is in a different, much more interesting font than the information about the release takes you away a little from the fact the film in fiction, and tells us the film is not just ordinary.
• The fact the character on the poster is leaning on the title and it is slanted gives us the idea that she can combat the resident evil in the film, and that she is potentially the protagonist.
• The backdrop is dark and it is raining which gives us the idea the film is not set in a nice place.

Film idea 1

Our third idea is another horror, we plan to make a trailer for a zombie apocalypse film. The film will be set in a post apocolyptic world with either no other people or very few other people in the trailer and will follow just one person, however there will be glimpses of beings but it will be quick and due to this we are not sure whether or not to make the fact there is zombies obvious from their costume and make-up, trough action titles that explain the plot, or both. The plan is to have a trailer like that of '28 days later' although this could be very difficult due to lack of budget and equipment.

Pros

• We have both seen the film and the trailer and are aware of the conventions and cliches expected of this type of film.
• The trailer could be filmed with only two of us which keeps things simple and saves us from having to find numerous people to act for us.

• We are both familiar with the genre and sub genre and we have a clear idea of the things we want adn don't want in the trailer.
• Some shots will be simple and easy tro film but will be effective.

Cons

• With the equipment we have, it will be extremely difficult to make some shots clear, scenes when it's going to be dark, the character will be hard to see clearly as the cameras are not of high enough resolution and we dont have access to powerful lights.
• Filming in public will be tedious as we will have a limited time period in which we can film due to lighting and during this time there will have to be no-one around so they don't compromise the shots.
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Film idea 2

The second idea for our film is a horror film similar to Paranormal Activity. The advert to Paranormal Activity is composed of quick and simple shots which we could recreate fairly simply. The only shots in the advert that we would not realisticly be able to do is the shots showing the audiences reaction as we dont have access to a cinema or screening room, and the more complex 'happpenings' such as the sheets floating. Both of us have seen the Paranormal Activity films and are interested, this is partly the reason for us considering this idea. Making similar shots to the film is well within our capability as we will need to purchase little equipment or props, considering the first Paranormal Activity only cost a reported $15,000 to make we should be able to make our trailer for a few pounds.

Pros 

• We are both interested in the Paranormal activity franchise
• We can create shots that fit in with the genre and look good with the equipment we have.
• A huge budget is not required in order to make the trailer

Cons

•  Creating the shots may be tedious as methods of making the paranormal happen may be noticable in the shots.
• Lots of takes of most shots will need to be taken as we may not be able to see the errors on the camera screen.