Mood Boards

We felt as if it would be a good idea to make a mood board to get an idea of what our horror opening would include, or we would like to include. We thought we should use things you would find in a normal zombie horror as a basis for our own opening. We then added anything we felt was needed.







We then felt it was a good idea to take this and create another board with titles of the specifics used, or that we wanted to use. This was to make it clearer, what we wanted to include.

Initial Ideas For Horror Opening

As a group, me and the other people I am working with created our own kind of mind map of initial ideas for our horror opening. This was to create a two minute opening of a horror film (of any genre) for our course work for the year.

We started with things we had seen in horror films before to base our work upon, and these were our ideas: 

We then decided that we liked the idea of creating either a horror about zombies, or about clowns. Then we had an idea that we could include both. We soon settled on the idea of having a couple walking through the forest and suddenly running into a clown, then see the clown being attacked. We are not sure weather we want the couple to be attacked yet or not, so we have a very vague outline of our plan.

Sound Elements And The Effects They Have

Sound elements in horror films can be rather effective. In this post I shall be looking at how sound elements can create different effects and present different aspects to a piece of film. Sound elements can range from a few different things, either a song being played in the background, a sound effect or even no sound at all.

Sound Elements In Zombie Horror:

In zombie horror films, sound elements can vary. One example could be when there is no sound at all being played which builds suspension when it stops, as the viewer then starts to feel scared and expects something to happen. Even though they suspect something to happen they are still rather surprised when a sudden loud noise is made or something jumps out, of course the noise added to the sudden action is what terrifies audiences.

Most of the time sound effects or elements that are used within zombie horror are usually sounds such as suspension music when something suddenly appears (especially in the older movies) which adds to the sense of fear that the viewer has from the extract they are viewing.
Or even noises from voice effects such as screams, loud noises or something that does not sound so pleasant like a zombie making a tone of strange 'roaring' screams.

Sound Elements Generalised:

There are different effects that can be added to sound files that are within films. These are different sound elements. These are the different elements that are used:

• Duration
• Pitch
• Timbre
• Intensity
• Space

These all change sound to make them, well, sound different to have a different effect more than they would on their own.

Diegetic Sound:

Diegetic sound in films is when a sound is made and is also visible on the screen or is implied to be present. The most common uses of diegetic sound in films are as such: 

• actors speaking to each other (dialogue)
• sounds originating from any object on the screen, like footsteps, police sirens or a TV ect.
• music that comes from a sound system or orchestra

An example of diegetic sound would be for instance in "The Walking Dead" when Carl is shooting a zombie you can hear his gun firing as well as being able to see it.

Non-Diegetic Sound:

Sound is said to be non-diegetic when the source it comes from is neither present or implied in the narrative universe. Common times this is the case are:

• music or score is used to urge emotions
• actor’s commentary or narration
• any extra sound added for effect within the film

Film Classification

The BBFC:

The role of the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is to place a classification (age rating) upon film for either to be shown in a cinema or on TV or DVD.

The Classifications are as followed: 

• U - Universal - Suitable for all ages. A U film is considered suitable for all ages over four years of age, however not guaranteed that children will be upset by curtain themes as it is impossible to to know what will upset each individual child. U films are set to be positive and reassuring to balance out anything scary or violent. 

• PG - Parental Guidance - Essentially can be viewed by anyone, however an odd scene may not be suitable for children under 8 as a PG film should not unsettle or disturb children around 8 or older.

• 12A/12 - Only suitable for children over 12 year old and people older. Usually contains themes or material that are not suitable for children under 12 and can not be viewed at a cinema alone unless accompanied by an adult.

• 15 - Only suitable for ages over 15, no one under 15 can see a 15 in cinema or rent or buy a 15 piece of film as the can contain a fair amount of violence as well as use of bad language.

• 18 - an 18 should only be viewed by adults no one under 18 should be watching, buying or renting anything rated 18. This is because they usually contain extreme amounts of violence throughout the film as well as a lot bad language, or impressionable themes such as drugs. 

The issues that are used for rating classifications are the following: 

• Discrimination 
• Drugs
• Dangerous behaviour 
• Language 
• Nudity
• Sex
• Threat
• Violence

For any more information on any of these age ratings please visit the BBFC website: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ 

This will give a bit more information on what fits into each age rating.

Age Rating Within Zombie Horror:

World War Z:

World War Z is classified a 15 because there is a sustained threat throughout the whole film (because of the zombies and how fast as well as threatening they are) and has several scenes of hoards of zombies running about attacking people and climbing over vehicles not only in long range but also close up frames. Even though a majority of the violence is off screen and there is little blood, this film still has some rather powerfully impressionable scenes such as when the main character cuts off another characters hand or when hitting a zombie repeatedly with a crowbar. This film also has mild bad language in it. It would appeal to its target audience as it is filled with action and has some pretty terrifying scenes of zombies running in masses with a great amount of speed which makes the scenes really fast scaring the audience which is what the audience want.




Flight Of The Living Dead - Outbreak On A Plane:

Flight Of The Living Dead is classified as a 18 mostly because of the rather large amount of violence and gore that is throughout the film. There are a lot of loud noises from many turbulence's, a large number of jump scares, blood coming out of zombie mouths, and a lot of scratching and biting of non-zombies and of course the obvious, a great amount of death to characters. This movie consists of a lot of repeated profanity. This would appeal to it's target audience as the film is set on a plane and people do not often associate a zombie film with this type of setting so people are drawn to the uniqueness of the setting of this film as I am sure that many people often question when thinking about a zombie horror film "What would happen if there was a zombie outbreak on a plane?" Well no need to worry because this film has you covered when it comes to plane's full of zombie's.

Night Of The Living Dead (1968):

The original Night Of The Living Dead is classified as a 15 rated film, however remakes and re-edited versions are rated 18 and over. This is because there are multiple scenes where they are extremely violent and gory. Though the film seems rather docile it is actually rather extreme on the violence side of things. Because the film is not in colour but in black and white it tones down the effect that the blood and gore has, which makes it look much less violent. There are also rather a large amount of disturbing, frightening scenes as well as a few mild language problems. This film could appeal to it's target audience as this would be about the time that people's fears were the unknown of zombies, wear-wolfs, vampires, witches, giant spiders ect. So everyone would be wanting to go see these things that everyone thought were so dangerous and scary. The amount of gore would attract anyone who likes it.

Conventions of Setting in Zombie Horror

The setting in the zombie horror is always placed in a environment that is placed in an isolated area such as the countryside, a farm or a forest. Sometimes however such as in 28 Days Later, the setting is placed in a large city that is known on a large scale by many people but being portrayed as a barren land, in a mess, completely run down and abandoned. The mess of rubbish can suggest that something terrible must have happened because no one has cleaned it up, so then it is a question of what exactly has happened for the place to get in such a state. These two differences are both rather powerful in their own ways and can portray two very different impressions.

Being in an environment that is isolated and away from big towns or cities, can in fact make the audience have a sense of there is no escape form what is happening even in places that are out of the way, which then creates fear in their minds as zombies will be everywhere that they go.
 If set in a largely populated and popular place such as London like 28 Days Later is; the setting can create a different sense of fear in comparison to somewhere isolated. This difference would be a sense of fear of something of such catastrophic proportions more than likely happening in your very own neighbourhood. The closer to home, the more scared you should be of a sudden zombie apocalypse happening at your front doorstep.
Closed in environments that are surrounded by zombies and there is no possible escape from are often also very favourable in zombie horror as once again it puts viewers into panic mode as soon there's nowhere to run to. A example of such would be this scene from Dawn of the Dead (2004) where there is clearly no getting out of there so easily.


Going back to isolated area's as they seem to be a more fitting and a reasonable convention for us to work with for our own horror opening I decided to see what effect a forest gives and how it creates such a overwhelming sense of discomfort. For this I decided to turn away from film for a while and turn to TV shows as The Walking Dead seems to have rather a lot of examples of zombie horror in some kind of forest.

The anticipation that can be displayed as well as that can be conveyed over to the audience that is given from such a setting is actually rather frightening. This puts characters in such such a large space which is actually masked by foliage which then can disguise something that is rather dangerous. For example there are several times throughout The Walking Dead series that characters are in a forest and randomly get attacked by zombies of which they did not recognise to be present before hand. This can terrify a viewer and make them feel vulnerable as they never know when the zombies are coming.

 I found that this tactic can be rather effective, especially if we was to use first person camera angles as we plan to for our opening as the viewer would have a personal connection to the situation that is happening which will feel as if they are the ones running through the forest, being chased and randomly running into zombies. I would say the viability of us being able to use a forest or a wood setting would be more likely than using a run down building as we would need permission for that, also we can't really travel to a large city and clear everyone out just to film something.