Emily Pearson Media: 2013

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

The task we were set was to create a title sequence for a film. The film could be of any genre and could be a film that we made up. We were to make the video at least 3 minutes long and use a range of filming techniques. We were also set the task of thinking about what is seen in professional title sequences and how they are laid out and shown and develop our ideas from there. By doing this project, I was hoping to develop my understanding of title sequences as a hole and the process professional film makers go through. Also the importance of the style used when creating the title sequence. In the title sequence even the style of text is important. This must represent the genre and be something that can be memorable and not plain and simple. For example, the font used for Star wars if so iconic it will always be recognised and linked to the Star Wars films. Obviously I cannot create something on this scale but I want to understand how something as small as text is important. I also wanted to work with and understand how the title sequence introduces the audience to the film and eases them into it. A title sequence gives the audience an idea of what type of film it is, what it is about and in a way, the style of filming used. This is an important part of the title as it begins the film and has to grab the viewer’s attention straight away. This is something I brought into my own work.

For this task, I worked in a group of three, including myself. The people I worked with were Kirsty White, Charlotte Bowden. We made the decision to go with theme of horror. We chose this theme because it is something that appealed to all three of us in the group. We also saw it as an opportunity to work with different, low lighting for example. This is a technique we could build on in a horror title sequence but not as much is other films, such as a romance which usually uses bright, natural lighting. Moreover, when brain storming ideas, we found we had a lot of ideas we could link to horror and develop. We found that the type of ideas we were coming up with were always leaning to the horror side of theme and we did not have much in the way of other ideas. I feel this is because this is the theme we were mainly thinking off and focusing. We were more than happy with the ideas we had a chose to stick with it.

In terms of planning, I feel I took the lead role in this group. I was the one that led most of the organisation and in lessons, I found I was the one giving Charlotte and Kirsty the task that needed to be done and what I wanted them to do. They would often work together on these task but they would also carry out independent research and work. When we worked with research, we all worked together to get the information we needed. When we carried out the TAP (Target Audience Profile) we made the decision to use a questionnaire as the best way to gather information on what people expect to see in horror films. As well as this we went and asked people what they expected to see I a horror film and filmed their answers so we could take information from there. We devised this questionnaire as a group, working together to come up with the questions. We thought this was the best way of creating a successful questionnaire as we had some different ideas of what needed to be included. . I then went onto a website and created an online questionnaire to help our group. Charlotte and Kirsty did also have an input with this. However, once again, I feel I took the lead role. Once the questionnaires were created with worked together to gather the information and then we separated as a group. We had handed out the questionnaires and got people of our age range to fill them out. Charlotte and Kirsty analysed and collected the data from the completed questionnaires in a different way to me. I think this is mainly to do with how we understand and look at data like this. They worked together to collect the data and I became more in depended at this point. We worked together again however when collecting information from the video answers. Once we had all collected the data we begun working together again to process this data and work on our ideas. When coming up with the ideas for our introduction, we worked together. I think this was important because it meant we could all have an input into what was shown in our video and we all had a chance to pitch our ideas. What we did not want to happen was for one person not to have and ideas used. We each came up with a few ideas and then we agreed with some ideas or in some cases we would build on that one person’s idea as a group. I found this was an efficient way of carrying out the task and all three of us having a say. I think all our ideas were listened to and considered equally. When creating the storyboard, Charlotte and I created it together. This is because Kirsty was absent on the day and Charlotte and I made the decision it was important to get the story board done even though we had a member of our group absent. We still made sure to include Kirsty’s ideas how she described them and how she had written it down. We got the storyboard completed and showed it to Kirsty to see if she liked what we had done, once again working to include everyone in our group. She agreed with what we had done so moved on to the next part. This was location planning. We thought about where we were going to film the scenes we had chosen. We worked together to come up with the ideas of where the filming would take place. We decided as a group that we would do the some of the outside filming in a woodland area, as well as at a house and in someone garden. We made the choice to film at my house as it is close to a woodland area and I have a garden suitable for other outdoor filming. It was later that Charlotte and I sat down and planned exactly where each shot would be filmed. This consisted of labelling each clip, for example, we chose my garage as a place for some filming to take place and like specific clips to that area. We did the same for woodland filming and outdoor door filming. We found this easier as we could them grope the clips and get them all done when in that area rather then moving from place to place. This was an area of organisation both Charlotte and I worked on together; once again, Kirsty was absent. As well as working as a group on the majority of the work, we also did some individual planning and research during the project. This consisted of us doing our own research for blog work including research on title sequences, although we did research this breathily together, we did our own research on it. This was because we did not always get the chance to work together and the research was important to our work. Time planning was also a key element to planning. We had a deadline for this project which we had to stick to. A lot of the work was done in lesson but we also did work outside of lessons to reach this deadline. I personally worked in free lessons I had during the day as well as other free time I had, if I knew the work needing doing I set my self a deadline and worked to ensure I met that so I could move on. In terms of group work, if we did not complete it in lesson, we worked on it together to get it done in the chances we had to work together, mainly in free lessons. One of the problems we faced when filming was finding dates to film. All out filming was to be done outside of the school and this meant we would have to work with weekends and in the afternoons. We made the decision that in the afternoon after the school day was not an option. We would have very little time to get any filming done and it may seem rushed. Ideally we wanted a full planned to film. Luckily, we had a half term and took advantage of this and set two days free to get together and film. Absents in the planning stages did take place but was not a problem, the people in the group who were present worked together to insure the planning was done.

When we started filing, some changes did take place from the planning stage. One of these changes was added scenes. When we started filming, we were going with the storyboard. However we found that while we were filming and in the filming environment, we came up with more and more ideas to include. This benefited our work because a lot more was included and showed a wider range of ideas. These added scenes also meant that the storyboard need change so Charlotte and I (Kirsty was unable to attend the first day of filming due to illness) worked together to redo the story board and add in the new scenes. This is the most major change that took place. As for the scenes, they were all filmed how and where we planned apart from one. This was a clip where a photo was burnt. Originally, the photo was to be held in the hand of the main character and he would use a lighter to set fire to it. However, this became a problem when filming as we could not get the photo set alight. This was due to both the weather and the lighter. When we tried with matched, we were met with the same result; the photo would not set alight. We moved on to using a large metal bin with a lot more paper in it, already alight and the photo would be thrown in to that. This worked much better and we were able to get a really good, successful shot. This was a smaller change but did have an effect of our video and was a change from what was planned. However my group and I agreed this was a change for the better. I do not feel they affected our organisation to much; the redoing of the story board took more time to do but was vital if we wanted to include the new scenes. I do not think it affected our planning but I do think it improved it.

A change that took place in editing was linked, once again, with the story board. We put the clips in the order we had planned. However when we watched them all linked together, there were some clips that did not look right on after the other. The example of this was a body falling to ground filmed in day light after a shot of a murder and the body being laid on the ground. We, as a group working on the editing process, made the decision theses clips did not fit together so we made to choice to spread them out in the full video. This made a difference to the video and improved the look of it. Another place we changed the order was a body falling to the arm and then a clip of just the arm falling. However we found a continuity error so cut the arm clip out completely, once again making an improvement to the video. Luckily this did not affect our time as both actions were very quick. However it did mean we had to change the storyboard again. We did not see this as a problem as when we had to make the first change, Charlotte made a storyboard on the computer. This meant it was just a case of moving the names of the clips about until they were in the correct order.

From this project I learnt about the importance of the layout and the order of the title sequence. I did not realise before this project that the names in a title sequence are in a set order, for example, the directors name is always show before the names of the actors. I also learnt how title sequences are use. They are not only used to start the film and list names but also to introduce the film and introduce the viewers into it. On top of this, my group and I worked on our filming techniques including how to keep the camera steady and the importance of having a still shot. Two ways we develop and used as a group in filming was ways you keep the camera still. In some shots we attached the camera to a tripod to ensure it did not move. In another shot, when the camera moved along the old table, we put the camera on top of a toy bus with wheels and pushed the camera along. This gave it a much smoother, steadier shot compared to if we had filmed it holding the camera. This is one of the main techniques we developed and learnt doing this project.

I do not reel any problems occurred in the project, just changes that we made to improve what we were doing. I don’t think this should be avoided as it is development on our work and is just something that came up during the project.

I am happy with the resources we had to carry out this project. We used Windows Live Movie Maker for all the editing and, personally, I found this really easy and simple to use. It allowed us to complete the task and ass the elements we wanted. I found no complications using the software and I am happy with the result we got. We also used a online resource to get the type of text we wanted, I found this efficient and offered a lot of text for us to choose from allowing us to find the text to match the style of our title sequence.

I feel this was a really successful project. We did not come cross any problems and complications, we reached our deadline and the end result looks good and is the high standard we wanted.

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Title Sequence storyboard

Thursday, 21 March 2013

Pitch

http://www.slideshare.net/emilyepearson/tittle-sequence-pitch

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Linking theory side of media to the practical side

Age ratings

In our theory lesson, we looked at age ratings. This could link to our practical lesson as it gives us an idea of who our target audience is. My group and I have made the decision that our introduction/title sequence which has the theme of horror will be aimed at people our age, 16+. However it made me think about what types of things to include because although it is aimed at this age, people younger may want to watch it. Although films have age ratings indicating the age you must be to buy them, this does not stop people under that age watch them once they are in the home. For example a mother could buy it for their child although they are under that age. Something else that came up in the theory lesson is that parents have a say in what their children watch and they have the responsibility of allowing or disallowing their children to watch films. This can relate to our practical lesson in the way of what to include. It is aimed at the age of 16 but some younger teenagers may also want to watch it. Although this is something that would never be released as a film, we must still think of it in a realistic way and link it to the real film industry. We would not want to include anything that would stop parents allowing their children to watch it as a wider target audience is created.

Film category's

In both the practical and theory side of media, we look at different films as examples to the work we are doing. Know the categories those films could possible be in helps us understand them as bit more.

The different film categories of British films are:

Category A - Films made with British personnel, money and resources.
Category B - Films that are co-funded with money from British and from foreign investment, but the majority of finance, cultural content and personnel are British.
Category C - Mostly foreign involvement
Category D - American film with some British involvement

Cinema showings

Some films are shown in some cinemas but not others not shown in one cinema more then other ones. Their are many reasons for this but two that I can think of are cultural areas and large populated areas. If there is a particular area where a lot of people life after moving from abroad, they would show films more aimed at them from their culture in the cinemas nearest them rather then places where there are not as many people from other cultures. This is similar to age, if there is an area where the majority of people are in early 20s - 30s, they wont show a film aimed at older citizens. Also in the larger cinemas, such as the Ciniworld in Milton Keynes, alot more films are going to be shown because a lot more people go there and alot more people pass through. On top of this there are alot more screens so the cinema are are able to show alot more films at a time rather then a smaller cinema in a less populated area. It is all about the cinemas making money. The busier cinemas are bound to make more money.

A good example of this is from when I lived in Sussex. I would go to the Crawly cinema which was a very large cinema with several floors and screens. Crawly also had a large population of different cultures in the community so there was often films aimed at their culture showing in the cinema. This cinema was a ciniworld cinema which has a hole selection of Bollywood films available for viewing. This is an example the cinemas widen their target audience, something we look at in our piratical lessons when creating our own work. All though our target audience is mostly to do with age, it is use full to have a wider idea of how target audience affects films in the real media world.

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/whatson/category/bollywood

Saturday, 2 March 2013

My TAP

Responses on survey mokey in graph form

Demographic Target Audience Questionnaire Results

We asked people who watch horror films fill in this questionnaire and it was answered by 6 people

Psycographic Target Audience Questionnaire Results

this questionnaire was answered by 11 people

Results from hand out sheets (handed out to our age range in the Sixth Form study room)

Although some people answered no, some still gave use full information in the other questions.

People who answered yes (4 people)

age 16 - 0/4

age 17 - 3/4

age 18 - 1/4

age 19 - 0/4

Male - 1/4

Female - 3/4

Who they watch it with

Family - 0/4

Friends - 4/4

On their own - 0/4

Whether they have a job

Yes - 2/4

No 2/4

Do they buy the newest films out

Yes - 0/4

No - 2/4

Sometimes 2/4

How much are they willing to pay

£5-£10 - 1/4

£15-£20 - 2/4

£20+ - 1/4

What makes them buy films

Friends - 1/4

Family - 0/4

Adverts - 1/4

Social media - 0/4

Other - 2/4

TAP

TAP stands for Target Audience Profile. It is research and information about the target audience for our introduction sequence. The point benefits of having a TAP is that we can focus on that when we are planning so our title sequences is well suited for the ages it is aimed at. On top of this, it also gives us ideas and examples of what we should use when filming, for example, what should be shown. Having a TAP also helps our group stay on track, we are all working from the same ideas rather then all having different ones (although these can be included as well). It also means that our group can work more consistently and not having to stop to get more ideas as we have them there already. The TAP also helps us to stay on track, we can focus on what information we have got from our target audience and not go off track which in turn means that less missteps in our planning and development will take place. The TAP is now our main focus point.

Questionnaires are a good way of finding out information from our target audience. There are two different types of questionnaires, Demographic and Physographic.

Demographic questionnaires look at:

Who the person is
Their age
Their gender
Their job
Their location
Their marital status
Their income
Their education level
Their nationality

So this is very much the person them selves and what type of people are interested in buying horror films, is it mainly single men? Do people with a lower income tend to bye less films? Does any of this really effect their film choices at all?

Psychgraphic questionnaires look at:

Why they do what they do
price sensitive customers
weather people prefer to buy the newest, fashionable films
and weather people are open to choosing new, unproven films

This questionnaire is very focused on what makes people bye the films they do.

I created one of each of this questionnaires on survey mokey and uploaded them on top my facebook page and then asked people to share the link so there was a wide range of people who could answer it. Below are the links to both my questionnaires.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S2WXV6Q

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YKCYRL3

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Assessment of other student Title sequences

Above is the marking criteria for a video task. I have looked at a video on you tube to assess using the marking criteria.

This video was done for AS coursework by the people involved.

Holding shot steady

In the first clip, students are in a dark room with what looks like a Luigi board. In this shot there is no camera movement at all. There is a lot of camera movement (shaking) when the clip changes to letters spelling out words and peoples faces. However the movement if very strong and watching i got the feeling this movement was done for effect and looked really good and worked well in the video. When the shot changes from the faces, the camera once again remains perfectly still. After this, the clip changes to a group of people walking. When the group is being filmed from a distance there is no camera movement. However one person is being filmed walking using an over the shoulder lot. There is some un intended camera movement here as the person holding the camera and filming walks behind the person being filmed. This is the only bad and un intended camera movement in the video. I think the movement of the camera is excellent in this video and comes under a level 4.

Framing shot appropriately

I think the shots are really good in this video. When filming of the group takes place all the people are central. No one is off frame and all the people involved can be seen. There is also no unnecessary background. The screen is always full and everything is perfectly laid out so the viewer can see everything that is going on. There is never any wasted space on the screen.

Variety of shot distances

A lot of different shots are used in this video. The shots i noticed were:

Establishing shot (When the people enter the building and when walking outside)
Wide Shot (when walking outside)
Long shot (the people walking outside)
Medium close up (The faces of the people when camera is shaking)
close up (when looking at the Luigi board)
extreme close up (shots of people eyes)
over head shot (looking down at the people in the dark room)
Low angle (looking up at the person in the window in the dark room)
Deep shot (people walking)
Medium shot (when the girl has rope put round her neck)

Because there is such a wide range of camera shots, i would say this would come under the level 4.

Appropriate Material for the task

I think at the vary start in the darkened room is the strongest point of this video regarding showing the theme of horror. The rest of the video does not show much in the way of horror. . However the horror type filming is shown for over half of the video. All the footage show is very strong and the idea is carried out through out the video. I think this ares would come under level 3.

Selecting mise en scene

I think the mise en scene is good in this video. At the start quite a few props are used.

Luigi board
cards
rope
a candle
book

I think all these props were uses really well and all help relevance to what was going on. No prop seemed out of place or unused. They also help the viewer get an idea of what is happening, what is going on and what the students are doing.

The costumes are very basic but then i think that is all that is needed for this video. The people involved just wore what they were wearing but seeing as they were playing students anyway, not costumes were truly needed. I think for mise en scene, the video could be graded a level 4.

Editing for meaning to the viewer

In this video, at the start the footage is sped up. I think this is a really good affect and it makes the movements a lot sharper and looks really affective with whats happening in the clip. It also keeps the views focus and makes what they are watching more interesting rather then a lot of slow movement.

Short lack fade outs and fades in are also used during this time which adds to the affect. It adds something different to watching the same thing constantly and creates a good contrast between the fast movement ans slow blackouts. This footage was also made black and white which fits whats happening perfectly and makes it seem aerie fitting the theme of horror. The theme is also brought out when the footage of a girls face and then her being strangled are merged as it adds a ghost looking affect. The use of a heat camera effect, although only use very quickly and for a short time, still adds great affect to the video and adds a bit of interest. The main part of editing is getting the clips placed together correctly involving movement match. I saw no problems with movement match in this video. Because of this and the range of editing skills used i think this would come under level 4.

Varied shot transitions, captions and other effects
There is not a range of shot transitions but the transitions, although quite quick cuts do not seen untidy. There is no judders between cuts and movement continues to be smooth. The transitions from clip to clip are very well done.
I think the placing of captions and texts are very poor. The names of people involved appear on hands and i think they look very out of place and randomly put there. They don't blend in the the surrounding much but at the same time they don't really stand out. At one point text is placed over a girls thumb and it is not in line with her thumb but instead quite wonky. I think this takes away the affect of the wording being there. Also the text font used never remains constant which i feel looks quite bad. I think this will come under level 2.

Use of sound with images and editing
There is really aerie music used during the start of the opening sequence. I think this music fits really well with what is going on on screen and ties in the theme of horror. I think the music also fits with the actions that can be seen as the speed of the music is in time with the speed at which things are happening and movement is being made. The music also ends well and it does not fade into the conversation but also does not end to abruptly. When the people in the video are talking their voice and what they are saying can be herd really well and very clearly. This is important in a video and the sound for this video is really well done. There is a point where the clip changes but a voice can still be herd. However that voice fades out really well and effectively. I think the sound for this video would come under level 4.

Using titles appropriately
I think the title is really well used in this clip. I like how all the focus is on the title as it is the only thing that can be seen on screen. This makes the title stand out. I think this would come under level 4.

Conclusion
I think this is a very strong, well presented video where all the shot sizes and editing was used correctly. I think improvements could be made with the text.

Director Wes Craven

Wes Craven is a Director, Writer and producer. He writes and directs mostly horror films.

Background

Wed was born in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio on August 2nd 1939. The first film he wrote, directed and edited himself was 'The Last House on the Left' which was released in 1972.

Films

Wes wrote and directed 'Nightmare on Elm Street' which was released in 1984. However he did not go on to direct the 5 sequels to this film.

In 1996, Wes Craven became very successful with his film release of 'Scream'. This film became the winner of MTV best movie award. Wes almost turned down the opportunity to direct 'Scream' because the first scene reminded him too much of his first film 'The Last House on the Left'.

The other films Wes directed are:

Scream 4 - 2011
My Soul to Take - 2010
Paris, Je t'aime - 2006
Red Eye - 2005
Cursed - 2005
Scream 3 - 2000
Music of the Heart - 1999
Scream 2 - 1997
Scream - 1996
Vampire in Brooklyn - 1995
New Nightmare - 1994
The People Under the Stairs - 1991
Night Visions (TV Movie) - 1990
Shocker - 1989
The Serpent and the Rainbow - 1988
The Twilight Zone Saga - 1985-1986
Deadly Friend - 1986
Chiller (TV Movie) - 1985
A Nightmare on Elm Street - 1984
The Hills Have Eyes part 2 - 1984
Invitation to Hell - 1984
Swamp Thing - 1982
Deadly Blessing - 1981
Stranger in Our House - 1978
The Hills Have Eyes - 1977
The Fireworks Women - 1975
The Last House on the Left - 1972

Here is the trailer for Wes's latest film, Scream 4.

This is the triler for another one of the films Wes Directed, 'My Soul to Take'

Techniques

Wes Cravens films have been described on the IMDb website to challenge audiences with "bold visions". Wes was also said to have reinvented the genre of youth horror.

Trade mark techniques from Wes's film include:

The use of elaborate booby traps to catch the villain
strong female characters are within the film
films include un-glamorous deceptions of sadistic and realistic brutal killers
films include brutal and graphic violence
the villains are often deformed and monstrous looking
his films contain important social issues
children getting deformed or murdered by the villain

Friday, 15 February 2013

Director Review for opening of Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the woods

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-cabin-in-the-woods/

Director: Drew Goddard

Drew Goddard says that the original idea for this film was that there would be no title sequence and the film would start with the view of a copy machine. There was a certainty however of having the title of ‘Cabin in the Woods’ appear during a conversation about baby proofing a house. The director said, because the start of the film seems irrelevant, he was “delighted by the idea that the audience might think they walked into the wrong film”. Drew Goddard said this was kind of the idea, to trick the audience. However, this became a concern when it was sent to the studio. The production company found a way to keep the brake room scene and still make the audience aware they were in the correct film and there was the theme of horror in the film. This was where the blood scene came in.

Drew wanted a sense of history involved in the title sequence to suggest “other themes were at play” which is why the historic images were used in the blood scene. The idea was to like sacrifice into the film, the director said he wanted it in a historical context and “feel bloody”.

A choice was made of when to cut from the blood scene to the break room scene based on the music used. The music used during the blood scene was described by the director to “build and swell” and the choice was made too cut to the break room scene when the music reached its crescendo. This would be a sudden stop. Drew said this “sets the tone immediately “and shows the audience what type of film it is.

With the blood scene, the decision was made for CGI not to be used because it would seem slick.
Instead the choice was made for ink to be used to create the ‘blood’. A trial and error technique was used with trying to get the correct consistency to make the ink look like blood when filming. Because the camera moves from one puddle to the next, the ink had to be easy to guide. The technique that was used was shooting chocolate into relief moulds that were made out of blue play doh. This way the blue could be keyed out and changed to red and they got the correct effect.

Friday, 8 February 2013

What people expect to see in horror films

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Title Sequence Analysis

Cabin in the Woods 2011

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-cabin-in-the-woods/

Aspects that makes a good title sequence include:

The music
the images shown
the colours that are used
the type of text used
how the genre is show

Analysis of Cabin In The Woods

Music
The music used at the the start of the title sequence is very eerie and the type of music that is associated with the theme of horror. Seeing as the theme for this particular film is horror, it fits well. It sounds quite mysterious. The music also end very abruptly.

What is shown?
At the very start of the title sequence, images of puddles of blood spreading on a surface are shown. This suggests straight away some form of horror and perhaps death is present in the film. This also gives the viewer an incite in what to expect later on. Inside the puddles of blood there are, what look like, Egyptian drawings. This suggests the type of horror in the film might have something to do with a curse or legions. Everything shown is related to the film its self. After this sequence, the film starts immediately introducing the viewer into the storyline. We meet some of the characters and begin to get a idea of what the film is about and the charterers involved. No horror is suggested here but as suggested from the sequence at the very start, this is something that will appear later on.

Colours
the colours used at the very start of the title sequence are colours associated with horror. These colours are blacks and reds. These colours suggest gloom and red, especially in horror films, is instantly related to blood. However, the gloomy colours end when the main footage starts. All the colours are bright and there is no suggestion of gloom at all. This suggests the film starts off light and quite happy and the gloom and horror comes later on.

Text
The text is red and bold. it fades in and out, which is effective; it looks good at the start with the blood and maintains its effectiveness in the opening clip, even with the bright lighting.There are several points where the text is smugged or has a splattered effect around it. This suggests the idea of blood and links back to the theme of horror; although no horror is shown it is still suggested through the text. The title of the film appears unexpectedly during footage of men talking. Mixed with the sound of people screaming, and the speed with which it appears may make some of the audience jump, which is something associated with horror films. Although the text appears over footage, attention is not drawn away from the text, as the colour and positioning of the text make it stand out.

How Genre is Suggested
With the start of the main footage the theme of horror is not strongly shown; it is only before the main footage starts and through the text design that it is suggested. It does not affect the title sequence, which is strongly related to the film, it it hints, using the blood at the start, that horror will be introduced at a later point.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Title Design

Horror film titles

Iconography - Images and symbols

The photos, images, short clips or full scenes used during the introduction are usually used to draw the viewer in and create interest from the start. If the first few clips of the film are really dull and boring, it may spoil the film and the viewer could loose interest quite quickly and lower their expectations for the rest of the film. In horror films, the type of images appearing during the introduction consist of clip or a sequence of images relating to the type of horror involved. It is important that the images relate to the film itself as if there is not connection then there is not much point having those images in the first place. The type of things used are often used in the film its self. In the titles for horror films, these images are also very important.

The symbols used in horror films and horror posters are also always relevant to the plot of the story. Sometimes the most recognisable symbol is that of someone screaming or the face of the 'monster' its self. When people see this type of imagery they automatically link it to horror. It also helps to make the film more appealing and interesting. If the photos were dull or did not suggest the theme of horror well enough then interest is taken away.

Colour

Colour is another important feature of the title design. Horror films include gloom and darkness and the type of colours used are greys and black. Theses colours are used with in the title as well as through out the rest of the film. It starts the theme right from the very start. In the title design for horror, bright colours are never used. This is because bright colours are not associated with the theme of horror.

Typography

The type of text design used in horror titles (and any other title for any film) are also very important. They must relate to the theme because if they don't it makes the title look bad and unplanned. If the theme is horror the person designing the text to be used for the title would not be bubbly text but something more plain, maybe with one of the letters looking like it have blood dripping from it. But at the same time the text cannot be boring, if the text was boring then the title may not look as interesting and attention may be lost.

Bellow is an example of a good text design that could be used for a horror film.

Bellow is a poster for a horror film Scream, this is a good example to show the imagery, text and colours used to represent horror films. The colours are dark and the images relates to the film. The text also stands out and is quite a dramatic font.

This is another poster for a different film. Once again, dark colours and dramatic text is used. This poster also shows the face of the monster unlike the poster for Scream which shows the face of a frightened person.

Both posters relate well to the theme of horror.

Emily Pearson Media