AS Media Studies Horror Film: Amelia

This is our final main horror opening.

The British Board of Film Classification

The British Board of Film Classification states the guidelines for a 15 rated film are:-

·         No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.

·         There may be frequent use of strong language – the strongest terms are rarely accepted. Also continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.

·         There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

·         Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.

·         Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.

·         Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons especially knives.

·         Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury in horror in unacceptable.

·         Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592478/index.html

The British Board of Film Classification states the guidelines for a 18 rated film are:-

·         There are no constraints in theme, language, nudity or horror. However the board can cut or reject content such as detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts that is likely to promote the activity.

·         The board can also instructive detail of illegal drug use which basically means the more explicit the images of sexual activity, unless they can be exceptionally justified by context.

·         When sex material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality, safe sex and health, exceptions to the normal constraints on explicit images may be made in the public interest. Such explicit detail must be kept to the minimum necessary to illustrate the educational or instructional points being made.

·         Material which appears to be stimulated is generally passed at ‘18’, while images of real sex are confined to the ‘R18’ category.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592497/index.html

We need to take this into consideration to avoid creating a 18 rated horror movie as otherwise we would have cut our target audience so we have decided to have no sexual activity or visible violence as we would have run the risk of our film being certificated at a 18 which means our 15-17 year olds would be unable to watch the film as it would be illegal for them to watch it.

House Of The Devil opening Analysis

The ‘House of the Devil’ was made in 2009 but it is set in the 1980’s and it was directed by Ti West.






The first title is the film title, actor names but only the starring roles and the main characters , the casting director, the production designer, the original score, the sound designer, the director of photography, the executive producers, the co-producer, the producers, the writer, the director and then the editor. The film also pauses on the titles up until the casting director, this could be to allow the audience to read the titles. This will influence our film as this is as how it does professionally and we want to film to look professional.

The mise-en-scene is very effective for signifying that the film is set in the USA in the 1980’s because of the costume as this is something that people in the 1980’s would wear in America. This will influence our film as we would have to find similar clothing that British people would have worn in the 1980’s in order for it to be believable. The housing is good for signifying that it is set in the 1980’s as they are brightly coloured and they are quite old fashioned. This will influence our film as we will have to find an isolated house that was built in or before the 1980’s.

In the opening seconds there is a diegetic church bell ringing in the background this suggests that it is heaven at the moment as the main character has just looked at a house during the day however later on it suggests that the ‘devil’ may come later on in the film.  The non-diegetic  sound when the main character is walking is quite positive and hints at a sense of adventure for the girl it suggests that she will overcome future problems such as being haunted by the ‘devil’. This will influence our film as we could include non-diegetic music that sends subtle hints to the audience at what might happen to the character as it engages them.

The cuts between the over shoulder shots are quite slow, this suggests that it is a normal conversation and that the film doesn’t want to create much tension yet as the film is the equilibrium stage in ‘Torodov’s theory’. This will influence our film as we could also use slow cuts to show that the girl is in equilibrium when she is in her room.

When the main character is walking to her destination the camera is following her by panning walking. This suggests that the character is going on a long journey as the camera panning lasts about 2 minutes. This will influence our film as it is an effective way of following the characters story. There is also a distant over the shoulder shot when the two characters are talking by the side of the car this suggests that is a normal conversation between them and it allows the audience to feel part of the conversation.  

Location

At first you see the character Amelia in an empty class room. We chose an empty class room because emphasised the theme of isolation. The empty class room is used for deliberate effect as it creates a sense of the unknown, also a classroom is supposed to be considered a safe environment to be in this means it will create more fear for the audience as they may feel unsettled in somewhere they are supposed to feel safe and secure. We chose this classroom as it is one of the oldest classroom and the  décor is quite dark which means it is very effective for our film as it a contrast of a bright learning environment.

Next you see Amelia walking into the woods, the woods is considered to be a horror convention this also adds the effect that the film is sinister, as it signifies to the audience that this is a horror film.  We chose this as it was close to the school which meant it is convenient for filming and this woods also clearly signifies the film is set in Britain because of the scenery and weather. It is important to have  a British location as our target audience live in Britain therefore the audience can relate to the film more as it it set in the same country as they live in.

Copyright - Music licensing

"Music licensing is intended to ensure that the owners of copyrights on musical works are compensated for certains uses of their work. A purchaser has limited rights to use and reproduce the recorded work without a separatteky arranged agreement."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_licensing

Taking this into consideration it restricted us on what music could be used in our horror opening as it takes 70 years for the music to become copyright free. We then decided to find copyright free music as no of us are able to compose our own music. We used the website http://www.freesound.org/ as all the sound is copyright free and we were able to find music that created tension for our film.

Titles

In Prom Night the titles come up in this order:-

• Production companies
• Title of the film 
•  Actors names ( the most famous and main characters appear first)
• Names of the peope who casted the actors
• The costume designers name 
• Music supervision
• Who the music is composed by
• The editors name
• The production designers name
• The director of photography name
• The names of the executive producers

This will influence our film as we will base our relevant titles in this order to make it look professional.

Actor

We chose Ellie to be our main character as she is a similar age to the character, therefore she is better at representing a teenage girl. One of the main reasons we picked Ellie is because she has blonde hair and we wanted a character that would go against the convention that  of having a sexual convention so we didn’t want to have a brunette female lead character as it follows the conventions of horror. We were inspired by ‘Prom Night’ as the lead character ‘Donna’ is blonde but she doesn’t get killed in the film so she is the final girl.