Character in horror

Eastern:

Most horror actors are females

Western: 

Most of horror actors are males

A timetable for next week

Next week I will mainly research about the language of the horror film.

Film analysis--The Texas chainsaw massacre

Mise-en-scene:

Dark light, shallow space

Cinematography:

MCU, gray color, shallow focus

Editing:

Cut in, reverse shot, rhythm and montage

Sound:

sound bridge, diegetic sound, good quality

Mise-en-scene:

Dark light, shallow space, frontality

Cinematography:

CU, deep focus, 

Editing:

reverse shot, match on action, rhythm

Sound:

directed sound, good quality

Mise-en-scene:

Dark light, matte shot

Cinematography:

MS, gray color, depth of field, point-of-view shot

Editing:

reverse shot, match on action

Sound:

directed and diegetic sound

Mise-en-scene:

Dark light, shallow space

Cinematography:

MCU, gray color, shallow focus

Editing:

Cut in, reverse shot, rhythm and montage

Sound:

sound bridge, diegetic sound, good quality

Mise-en-scene:

dark light, shallow space

Cinematography:

CU, deep focus, following shot

Editing:

reverse shot and match on action, montage

Sound:

off-screen sound, good quality

Mise-en-scene:

low light, frontality

Cinematography:

MS,deep focus, following shot

Editing:

establishing shot, eyeline match, rhythm and montage

Sound:

Directed sound with off-screen sound

Mise-en-scene:

shallow space on the TV

Cinematography:

CU

Editing:

reverse shot, graphic match montage

Sound:

Directed sound

Mise-en-scene:

Frontality, low light

Cinematography:

MS, canted framing, rate

Editing:

reverse shot, graphic match montage

Sound:

Directed sound

Mise-en-scene:

shallow space on the TV, bloody

Cinematography:

CU

Editing:

reverse shot, graphic match, montage

Sound:

Directed sound

Mise-en-scene:

low light, deep space and frontality, 

Cinematography:

LS, depth of field, following shot, rate

Editing:

match on action

Sound:

Directed sound and music

Mise-en-scene:

low light, frontality, shallow space

Cinematography:

CU one the murder`s face, deep focus, point-of-view and following shot, rate.

Editing:

reverse shot, match on action, montage, cut out.

Sound:

Directed sound and postsynchronous sound

World horror market

The first image shows the world horror market and the second one is the Chinese horror box office.

A short comedy film

The shooting angle and the story is interesting.
I like the music.

The risk of my research

     Eastern                              Western

   
      Like                                   Like



      Dislike                               Dislike



I try to make out a horror short film which could be liked by audience from both Eastern and Western, but there is a risk of my research, which is how to ensure that I could make out a style which liked by the two areas` audience.

Maybe the project just be loved by Western audience but be disliked by Eastern audience, or maybe neither Eastern nor Western audience dislike it.

What I shall do?

The answer is: to do more experimental films(maybe only one shot), and show them to audience, get feedback from them and prepare next one.

The audience could tell me what they like and what they dislike.

At the same time, I try to find out more elements which be liked by those two areas` audience, so that I could have more elements to perfect my project.

Recreational Terror and the Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film

The universe of the contemporary horror film is an uncertain one in which good and evil, normality and abnormality, reality and illusion become virtually indistinguishable. This, together with the presentation of violence as a constituent feature of everyday life, the inefficacy of human action, and the refusal of narrative closure produces an unstable, paranoid universe in which familiar categories collapse. The iconography of the body figure as the site of this collapse. Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer unfolds in this postmodern universe. The film, which details the sanguinary activities of a psychotic serial killer, was ready for release early in 1986 but remained on the distributor's shelf until 1989, when Errol Morris, director of The Thin Blue Line brought Henry to the Telluride Film Festival(Village Voice 1990, 59). Among the obstacles the film faced was the unwillingness of the Motion Picture Association of America(MPAA) to give it an R rating .The reason? Its "disturbing moral tone" (McDonough 1990, 59). Fearful because an X rating means death at the box office for nonpornographic films, distributors lost interest. Even the director John McNaughton expressed concern over whether the film would find an audience. As he told Variety, "[Henry] may be too arty for the blood crowd and too bloody for the art crowd" (quoted in Stein 1990, 59). McNaughton's concern and the MPAA's judgement rested on the film's tendency to play with and against the conventions of the contemporary horror genre. What makes it an innovative and daring film also makes it difficulr to classify. This holds true as well for the postmodern horror film, of which Henry os emblematic

Horror Comparison: Japanese and Holliwood

No matter what type of female ghosts, no matter what is the story about, the female always plays a role of beautiful classical Japanese woman, but why they are so scary after death, I think it suggests the level of depression that Japanese woman is going through in their life. The other main female cast in the film, who is not a ghost, must have friends or relatives bothering by the ghost, or passed away, or even more the ghost threatens her own life, at this point, the female cast will start digging out the truth, surpassing the death etc. Also at the same time, a gentleman or a male friend will be with her all the time, helping and caring, but in the end, the man will given out his life or suffering from life.  The most important part of the American hour film, such as Hostel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, violent and blood always parallel with the progress of the story line.  For example, blood flow like flood, this scene can be the representation of blood and violent will always be the main theme of American horror film.   First of all, violent and blood can be devised into: 1, Series type murder; 2, the Corpse. Series type murder such as the Scream, Hostel, Final destination series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc is just the continuous of it, audience can personally feel the pain and stimulation.  These films are not just unique in its timing, it also have similarities in the character plot. For example, the story is normally several people contact to go to a place, but on their way incident occurs, then they change the plan, but its always too late. Then, people lost or got murdered one after the other, at the end seeing their scary dead body, which leads to a question: who is the murder? I think among the large quantity of film in this style, the scene from the Final destination and Saw is most creative and unique. It is even more disgusting watching the scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in which they hang human bodies like pig, at the same time you can also see intestines coming out from the body.


Ref. http://wenku.baidu.com

Japanese horror film

From viewing the horror the film we can feel horror film is changing through the time, not just the visual or the horror feeling it gives to the audience, but also the cultural and religious ingredient has been added in. In addition, horror films can can also demonstrate the limit of human moral sense, express the most dark, original desire of human instinct, some of the horror film production able to satisfy the known or the unknown curiosity of the audience.   Horror films have different characteristics in different areas, this is due to the geographic location, environment, cultural, religion etc. I will briefly analyse the different characteristics between the Japanese horror film and the Hollywood horror film.   Japanese horror films should be particularly familiar with people around my age, for example Ringu, Ringu II, The Grudge I, II, III, IV etc. If lets say, the number of dead people in the Hong Kong horror film is under a must die situation, but the Japanese ghosts will push people into a circumstances which death is the only option, also most dead people are innocent people, the purpose of it is just for the story line to be developed, emphasizing the horror feeling with the increasing number of dead people. Japan is a country with large horror film productions, its main characteristic is that Japanese horror film stick onto a story, where the horror film from Hong Kong and Hollywood use effects and sounds to scare the audience.   Chinese cultural takes great part in Japanese cultural, but the definition of Ghost is entirely different between Japan and China. In China, ghost is mostly refereed to dead people or soul. But in Japan, ghost is mostly giant red or black, things like cow horn on top of their head, scary face with a big mouth that can eat human being. Other ghosts are just monsters. Japanese believe that soul can occupy on anything, such as pot, draws etc, and this is the soul of dead people. Therefore, most items we see in Japanese horror films are closely related with our daily life, such as the mirror in Ringu.   Japanese also believe that in the atmosphere we live there are different spaces and so called 'friends'. Thus, after the horror film that  is based on rooms, there are rooms turning into hall way, turning into the whole building, turning into school, hospital etc. Also, spaces, changing from small to large, from static to mobile, such as lift and train etc. These scene in the film is largely close to our daily life, so it creates a sympathetic chord effect in our heart.   After the film Ringu, there must be a model for the large quantity of horror film. For example 1, white cloth, long hair, scary white colour skin, extremely cold body,  2/3 of eyes are white or eye ball full of blood, hand with no finger nails or hand with full of blood. 2, crawling out from somewhere, in Ringu, the scene crawling out from the television has become a classic, so now mostly are crawling. 3, large quantity of hair in the tub.



Ref. http://wenku.baidu.com

Horror Films: Why We Like To Watch

Horror is an ancient art form. We have tried to terrify each other with tales which trigger the less logical parts of our imaginations for as long as we've told stories. From the ballads of the ancient world to modern urban myths, audiences willingly offer themselves up to sadistic storytellers to be scared witless, and they are happy to pay for the privilege. Theories abound as to why this is so; do we derive basic thrills from triggering the rush of adrenalin which fear brings, or do horror stories serve a wider moral purpose, reinforcing the rules and taboos of our society and showing the macabre fate of those who transgress?

Horror movies have long served both purposes. They deliver thrills by the hearseload, as well as telling us stories of the dark, forbidden side of life (and death) - cautionary tales for grown ups. They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time. Nosferatu (1922) is not simply a tale of vampirism, but offers heart-rending images of a town beleaguered by premature and random deaths, echoes of the Great War and the Great Flu Epidemic fatalities. At the other end of the century Blade (1998) is not just a tale of vampirism either, but reflects a fear of the powerful yet irresponsible elements in society, echoes down the corridor indeed of the seemingly impunitive behaviour of those at the top.

Each generation gets the horror films it deserves, and one of the more fascinating aspects of the study of the genre is the changing nature of the monsters who present a threat. In the early 1940s, a world living under the shadow of Hitler's predatory tendencies identified a part-man, part-wolf as their boogeyman, whose bestial nature caused him to tear apart those who crossed his path. In the 1990s however, there was no need for a part wolf component: Jonathan Doe (Se7en 1994) and Hannibal Lecter (Manhunter 1986, Silence of the Lambs 1991, Hannibal 2001) were entirely human in their calculated and stylised killing methods. As we move on into the twenty first century, the ghosts and zombies are back in vogue as Eastern and Western superstitions converge, and once more we yearn for an evil that is beyond human. In an era of war and waterboarding, supernatural terror is more palatable than the fear inherent in news headlines.

From: http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/  

Environment research

Environment 1: Alone and confuse 

Environment 2: Abnormal and strange

Environment 3: Mad

Horror research -- Sound

Without the atmosphere, there is another important part in my horror film making.

That is the sound.

From my feedback we could see, there are 75% people think the sound is important to make my film horror.

Another two element are the color and environment, these three elements is the main constitute of my horror, and this is an Eastern style horror, so I could say that the Eastern horror will mainly focus on sound, color and environment making.

Atmosphere research in horror

Atmosphere is an important part in Eastern horror making, as I researched before, Eastern people believe that they could be revived sometimes in the future when they was dead, so the revenge of the ghost and the place when dying will be an important topic in the horror story. On another hand, people will always afraid of something unknown, so the location and environment also becomes important.

In my short film "The wall in the heart", I increased a room, the actor in the room cannot go out, although there are doors on the wall. There are nothing in the room, only white walls and white floors. The reason why I increase this location is to know how horror the atmosphere brings to audience.

I had chosen 20 people to give me feedback about the atmosphere, I make my short film into three parts, and there is an interesting phenomena that, it is very  average answer about every part. I create three different atmosphere into my short film, why the answer becomes so average?

This means the atmosphere is really important in an Eastern horror film. Though the environment is different in my short film, but three atmosphere have three groups of audiences, they just try to find out what they interested in.

A short film with questionnaire to show

When you finish looking, could you please help me to finish the questionnaire below, thanks.

A questionnaire of <The Wall in the Heart>

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XQXDG7P