The aim is to "Produce a two minute opening sequence of a film to a genre of your choice"
I think i should explain to you that the infomation coming up in my blog is not the original stuff, when we first were given our task we decided to go down the route of Vampire Genre mixed witha bit of horror, we had written tonnes of stuff about it, storyboarded it and began filming. However after we filmed and began the editing process we realised this just was not working. None of the shots would work and the whole storyline was honestly just rubbish and none of us liked what we had produced. So we scrapped the idea and started fresh, we didnt think we should wait until we finished editing the first one because by then it still may not have worked and would have been too late. Sooo...now we have come up with an entirely new idea for out opening sequence :)
We considered the many genres that our film could be eliminating the Vampire Genre, However this was not a hard choice for "Bi Jug Productions" we decided that we could still incorporate some aspects of the genre horror/thriller , we thought that if we planned carefully enough, kept the storyline simple but good we could easily make it work, we orignally chose this genre because we all thought we could really get our teeth into it and produce something really good, I am the only one out of us three girls who really really enjoys horror films but the other two even though they do not like horror/thriller still liked the idea of producing a horror/thriller film...which is a bit confusing but hey. I am a huge fan of any horror/thriller film and the gorier the better.
Genres;
Horror;
Horror;
Film; Are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain.Early horror movies are largely based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre, such as Dracula, Frankenstein and the Phantom of the Opera. More recent horror films continue to exploit the monsters of literature., and also draw inspiration from the insecurities of modern life.
Fiction; Horror fiction is a genre of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to scare its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural. The trait of the genre of horror is that it provokes a response, emotional, psychological or physical within each individual which causes someone to react with fear. In order for that response to be elicited there are different techniques used, such as unreal figures like phantoms, mummies, or more real situations and figures serial killers, rapists and kidnappers. The main ingredient within horror is that the reader or viewer can relate to it somehow and that there’s always something unexpected on its way. The whole horror genre is built upon people’s fear of the unknown and anxieties.
According to H.P. Lovecraft: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
Alfred Hitchcock; 13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980
Was an English Film maker and producer who produced many techniques in the suspense and pyschological thriller genres. After having lived in United Kingdom for quite a while and establishing a highly succesful career here in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker.
Torture Porn
Another Genre we all wanted to do was "Torture Porn" or just "Torture", now yes this may sound quite bizarre, and to be honest when we discussed what we wanted to do and our teacher told us what genre it came under, we found it quite weird too. It was unusually weird as we are a group of three girls, and girls do not usually approach this, but still we really liked the idea of this. Splatter Film also came under the genre of horror.
Splatter Film, I have researched the term of Splatter Film and the characteristics from Wikipedia. It is a sub-genre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. These films, through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body. Most typical horror films deal with fear of the unknown, the supernatural and the dark, the impetus for fear in a splatter film comes from physical destruction of the body. There is also an emphasis on visuals, style and technique, including hyperactive camerawork. Where most horror films have a tendency to re-establish the social and moral order with good triumphing over evil, splatter films thrive on a lack of plot and order.
Slasher Film is a sub genre of the horror genre typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking, and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a chainsaw or scythe. Although the term "slasher" may be used as a generic term for any horror movie involving graphic acts of murder, the slasher as a genre has its own set of characteristics which set it apart from related genres like the Splatter Film.
Torture Porn, or otherwise known as Gorno. I researched into torture porn also from the website Wikipedia. Torture porn is a sub-genre which has come from the other other subgenre of Splatter Film, Toture porn depicts nudity, torture, sadism and mutilation. Major films such as Hostel, Saw and Captivity have used Torture Porn within their films. These films include nudity and alot of torture, making viewers uncomfortable. The first film that was classed as Torture porn was the Hostel. The gruelly torture the victims went through clearly portrayed this, however as the realease of the saw sequels came out the torture within films began to get more gruelsome and cruel. Saw is classed as Torture Porn by critics however the directors disagree with the classification. Torture porn is seen as a very popular genre in the box-offices. Saw which was made for $1.2 million grossed over $100 million, whereas Hostel which cost less that $5 million grossed $80 million. Torture Porn combines both sex and violence.
I had found an article on the internet from the Guardian Newspaper- Kira Cochrane on the rise of "Torture Porn", which really helped which discussed the catergory of the rise of Torture porn.
Within the article is tells us that torture porn films usually contain women, which is most disturbing as "it's the violence against women that's most troubling, because it is here that sex and extreme violence collide" however some are equal with the cast being both men and women "In most of these films, both men and women end up being sliced, gored, dismembered, decapitated. In that sense they offer audiences equal-opportunity gore."
I read that many torture porn films have a tough time with the publicity and advertising with their films. They get alot of criticsm for the adverts and billboards which our out. "The publicity campaigns for many of these films flag up the prospect of watching a nubile young woman being tortured as a genuinely pleasurable experience. So, for instance, a recent US billboard campaign for the upcoming (mainstream) film Captivity featured the film's star Elisha Cuthbert (just voted the 10th sexiest woman in the world by the young male readers of FHM magazine) in a series of four photographs. In the first (labelled ABDUCTION) a black-gloved hand covers her mouth. The second (CONFINEMENT) shows her, with bloody fingers, struggling to get out of a cage. The third (TORTURE) has her face encased in an odd white mask, tubes shoved up her nose, and apparently filled with blood. Finally, under the word TERMINATION, she is shown laid out, apparently dead."
I think whenever I watch a Film which is categorised as Torture Porn i do think weather or not they have an affect on people in the world who watch it. like does it inspire them to carry out such crimes and torture to other people, does it cuase a problemt o younger people who obviously watch the films illegally. The article says "Of course, watching one of these films won't turn a sane, decent individual into a killer or a torturer, but you have to wonder what effect this widespread meshing of sexuality and graphic violence will have on the young men at whom they are primarily aimed. The clear logic behind all these films, TV shows and images appears to be that if a young, good-looking, barely-clad woman is sexy while alive, she's even sexier when she's being tortured, or when she's a bloody corpse" Torture Porn seems a really interesting genre to do, i think that as we are a group of girls and after having read that article a group of girls tackling a film with this genre is unusual, most directors are male who produce these films and also cast women for their films. Its as if we are saying that yes this could possibly happen to us girls but maybe with not as much drama or gore...
Eli Roth Infomation from Wikepedia
Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American Film Director, producer, writer and actor. He is part of the group of filmmakers dubbed the Splat Pack because of their association and their focus on the horror genre.
Film critic David Eldestein in New York Magazine credited Roth with creating the horror sub-genre "Torture Porn" or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act. Roth has said he hates the term, and feels "it is far more reflective of the critics who use it and their lack of understanding of the genre than of the films themselves"
Eli Roth created both Hostel and Hostel Part II
Within the article is tells us that torture porn films usually contain women, which is most disturbing as "it's the violence against women that's most troubling, because it is here that sex and extreme violence collide" however some are equal with the cast being both men and women "In most of these films, both men and women end up being sliced, gored, dismembered, decapitated. In that sense they offer audiences equal-opportunity gore."
I read that many torture porn films have a tough time with the publicity and advertising with their films. They get alot of criticsm for the adverts and billboards which our out. "The publicity campaigns for many of these films flag up the prospect of watching a nubile young woman being tortured as a genuinely pleasurable experience. So, for instance, a recent US billboard campaign for the upcoming (mainstream) film Captivity featured the film's star Elisha Cuthbert (just voted the 10th sexiest woman in the world by the young male readers of FHM magazine) in a series of four photographs. In the first (labelled ABDUCTION) a black-gloved hand covers her mouth. The second (CONFINEMENT) shows her, with bloody fingers, struggling to get out of a cage. The third (TORTURE) has her face encased in an odd white mask, tubes shoved up her nose, and apparently filled with blood. Finally, under the word TERMINATION, she is shown laid out, apparently dead."
I think whenever I watch a Film which is categorised as Torture Porn i do think weather or not they have an affect on people in the world who watch it. like does it inspire them to carry out such crimes and torture to other people, does it cuase a problemt o younger people who obviously watch the films illegally. The article says "Of course, watching one of these films won't turn a sane, decent individual into a killer or a torturer, but you have to wonder what effect this widespread meshing of sexuality and graphic violence will have on the young men at whom they are primarily aimed. The clear logic behind all these films, TV shows and images appears to be that if a young, good-looking, barely-clad woman is sexy while alive, she's even sexier when she's being tortured, or when she's a bloody corpse" Torture Porn seems a really interesting genre to do, i think that as we are a group of girls and after having read that article a group of girls tackling a film with this genre is unusual, most directors are male who produce these films and also cast women for their films. Its as if we are saying that yes this could possibly happen to us girls but maybe with not as much drama or gore...
Eli Roth Infomation from Wikepedia
Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American Film Director, producer, writer and actor. He is part of the group of filmmakers dubbed the Splat Pack because of their association and their focus on the horror genre.
Film critic David Eldestein in New York Magazine credited Roth with creating the horror sub-genre "Torture Porn" or 'gorno,' using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act. Roth has said he hates the term, and feels "it is far more reflective of the critics who use it and their lack of understanding of the genre than of the films themselves"
Eli Roth created both Hostel and Hostel Part II
We looked at the typical conventions from Slasher Films, Found from wikipedia.
- The Killer—With notable exceptions, the killer in the slasher film is usually male. His identity is often, but not always, unknown and/or concealed either by a mask or by creative lighting and camera work. He is often mute and seemingly unstoppable, able to withstand stabbings, falls and shootings by his victims. His background sometimes includes a childhood trauma that explains his choice of victim, weapon and location (the killer can be made out to be pitiable or understood). Slasher villains tend to prefer hand held weapons such as knives, axes, hatchetes, and chainsaws as opposed to bombs or guns.
- The Victims—The victims tend to be young, attractive, high school or college-aged adolescents. Much has been made about the choice of victims. Some theorists claim that they young people are punished for indulging in vices such as pre-marital sex or drugs. Other theorists claim that is simply a matter of the activities making the victims unaware of their surroundings, making them easy prey for the killer.
- Final Girl—Slasher films frequently only have a single survivor. She is frequently a female peer of the victims but is cinematically developed in comparison to his or her cohorts. She frequently doesn't indulge in the illicit activities of her friends. The heroine is also known as the final because by the end of the movie, all of her friends are dead, and she's left alone to deal with the killer. Certain movies do deviate from this in favour of having a final boy who tends to be morally suspect.
- The Violence—One thing that separates slashers from thrillers and murder mysteries is the level of violence. Slashers de-emphasize plot and character development in favor of violence and terror. Plots are constructed around giving the audience the experience of watching the killer murders. The deaths are often violent and graphic, with originality being valued in the later films to hold audience interest.
Film/TV Analysis
We chose to analyze both Film and Tv as when we did our spider diagrma and storyboard not all our inspriation came from films we had seen but also from television.
Saw; The movie series ranging from Saw I-VI
Saw began in 2004, a horror film directed by Darren lynne Bouseman, It follows the story of the pshycotic John Kramer, who sets out to kill and punish those who have done wrong or who do not appreciate life, however he never actually kills anyone, this is beca
use he has made a puppet known as Jigsaw, each invidual victim is captured by the Jigsaw Killer, whose name is a misnomer, he never directly kills anyone, instead putting victims in situations where they must go through physical and/or psychological torture to survive and escape with better appreciation of life. Each Saw film follows a similar storyline, the victims are captured an
d place in, what will be the place where they will die, then as always there is screen or tape recorder which will also be in the room. Usually after they regain consciousness the screen will turn on or they find the tape recorder and listen to what is said, here is where we see/hear Jigsaw and their fate is told. Within the first Saw the graphic deaths were nothing compared to the following sequels, as each Saw was produced they became more and more detailed and vivid, you can actually see very graphically the torture and the deaths that occur.
use he has made a puppet known as Jigsaw, each invidual victim is captured by the Jigsaw Killer, whose name is a misnomer, he never directly kills anyone, instead putting victims in situations where they must go through physical and/or psychological torture to survive and escape with better appreciation of life. Each Saw film follows a similar storyline, the victims are captured an
d place in, what will be the place where they will die, then as always there is screen or tape recorder which will also be in the room. Usually after they regain consciousness the screen will turn on or they find the tape recorder and listen to what is said, here is where we see/hear Jigsaw and their fate is told. Within the first Saw the graphic deaths were nothing compared to the following sequels, as each Saw was produced they became more and more detailed and vivid, you can actually see very graphically the torture and the deaths that occur. http://www.officialsaw.com/
This link here is the offical saw website which allows you to view all the trailers to each saw film.
After having watched all the saw films openings we decided to really look into the opening of Saw II as out of all of them we felt SAW II had alot of camera angles/movements and other media techniques that could help us get inspiration from.
SAW II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhQ5IrxSPc
As the film begins the first angle we see is a full point of view shot, the camera acts as if it were the victim within the film, we see exactly what the victim sees, and the way he sees it. Th shot is really effective as it makes us feel like we are the victim in the film and starts to really get us into the film. The camera acts as if it were the victim by moving the camera around the room in the motion of a shaking head. In the film we know the victim is waking up and searches round the room to find out where he is, this is exactly what the camera does. We are then revealed the identity of the victim and are shown a establishing shot from behind the victim, this allows us too see properly what his surroundings are and gives us some insight into what is going to take place over the next couple of minutes. the camera begins to use short snappy shots that get the pace going, it quickly zooms into the behind of the victim and then shoots from directly above which makes him appear vulnerable, which he is. the victim has positions his upwards so that the camera can then zoom in to it...allowing us to see what has happened to his face. However it is no ordinary zoom that the camera does, the camera in time with the music cuts different shots getting closer and closer until we see a very extreme close up shot of his face. Here we see that there is serious damage to his eye, the camera then shoots the peice of cruel equipment and does a extreme close up of the spikes within the face mask, which tells us that this is what most probably will kill him, The sound within the two minutes is a non-digetic music which is very eary and has a echoey sound to it and really sets the scene and makes it more dramatic aswell as also building tension, you can mainly hear the non-digetic sound if you listen very carefully as most of the other sound is digetic and over powers the non-digetic sound, it also really blends in within the shot as it does not sound like normal music but just sounds like an echo and faded drum beats and. The digetic sound within the shot does over power the non digetic sound in some parts of the clip, the sound of the victims breathing is really emphasized and also the movement of the all the objects is also emphasized and made lounder, for example when the victim turns the mirror the mirror squeeks extra loudly, again with the timer the timer is made louder to exaggerate the timing and also makes the shot even more intense and the sound of the timer is fast paced. Also as the camera moves the sound of that is also clearly head to make it seem as if the person is really turning his head. The lighting for the opening scene is very dark with little light which could show that there is no hope for the victim, the main colours in this are dark greens and the only other colour that really stands out is when Jigsaw appears on the screen in black and white. The camera once Jigsaw appears on the screen switches from viewing the victim to the video, doing over the shoulder shots, here we can identify the 180 degree rule, the camera sticks to the left hand side of the victim when viewing the video and when the camera switches to the victim to see his reaction it stays to the on the right hand side which does not confuse the viewers as the eye contact relationship has not been changed.
SAW II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhQ5IrxSPc
As the film begins the first angle we see is a full point of view shot, the camera acts as if it were the victim within the film, we see exactly what the victim sees, and the way he sees it. Th shot is really effective as it makes us feel like we are the victim in the film and starts to really get us into the film. The camera acts as if it were the victim by moving the camera around the room in the motion of a shaking head. In the film we know the victim is waking up and searches round the room to find out where he is, this is exactly what the camera does. We are then revealed the identity of the victim and are shown a establishing shot from behind the victim, this allows us too see properly what his surroundings are and gives us some insight into what is going to take place over the next couple of minutes. the camera begins to use short snappy shots that get the pace going, it quickly zooms into the behind of the victim and then shoots from directly above which makes him appear vulnerable, which he is. the victim has positions his upwards so that the camera can then zoom in to it...allowing us to see what has happened to his face. However it is no ordinary zoom that the camera does, the camera in time with the music cuts different shots getting closer and closer until we see a very extreme close up shot of his face. Here we see that there is serious damage to his eye, the camera then shoots the peice of cruel equipment and does a extreme close up of the spikes within the face mask, which tells us that this is what most probably will kill him, The sound within the two minutes is a non-digetic music which is very eary and has a echoey sound to it and really sets the scene and makes it more dramatic aswell as also building tension, you can mainly hear the non-digetic sound if you listen very carefully as most of the other sound is digetic and over powers the non-digetic sound, it also really blends in within the shot as it does not sound like normal music but just sounds like an echo and faded drum beats and. The digetic sound within the shot does over power the non digetic sound in some parts of the clip, the sound of the victims breathing is really emphasized and also the movement of the all the objects is also emphasized and made lounder, for example when the victim turns the mirror the mirror squeeks extra loudly, again with the timer the timer is made louder to exaggerate the timing and also makes the shot even more intense and the sound of the timer is fast paced. Also as the camera moves the sound of that is also clearly head to make it seem as if the person is really turning his head. The lighting for the opening scene is very dark with little light which could show that there is no hope for the victim, the main colours in this are dark greens and the only other colour that really stands out is when Jigsaw appears on the screen in black and white. The camera once Jigsaw appears on the screen switches from viewing the victim to the video, doing over the shoulder shots, here we can identify the 180 degree rule, the camera sticks to the left hand side of the victim when viewing the video and when the camera switches to the victim to see his reaction it stays to the on the right hand side which does not confuse the viewers as the eye contact relationship has not been changed.
I think that Saw II contains many camera angles within the opening two minutes, which sets the scene and also shows that even with the large variety of angles it can all still fit into two minutes and look extremely good. We have been inspired by the techniques used in Saw II and will most probabaly used some the shots in our opening scene. Also as we all have seen the whole of the film we all we again inspired by the storylines, props and overall out come of the film.
Hostel, Part I and II
They were both directed and produced by Eli Roth, both films follow a similar storyline that being, that backpackers fall into a trap and end up being bided on a 
auction website. This auction website is from the company of "Elite Hunting" and auctions people off to be torture, these people who do bid can have the victims tortured in any way they like all for a certain amount of cash.
Hostel: part 2 pretty much has the same story line as Hostel part 1 where rich business men and women all place bets on random people (usually back packers) to kill in any way they please. This one follows a group of 3 girls backpacking across Europe when a stranger invites them to the village party that is held every year, little did they know they would be lead to their death. One of the girls meets a guy along the way and he ends up a victim just like the most of the girls. To the viewers surprise one girl manages to escape, but the only way you are allowed out of the building is to kill someone, so she ends up killing the man you tries to kill her.
This film crosses the boundaries of gore, making you cringe in your seat and cover your eyes, but you can't stop watching! The way that the killers used their tools in this film really inspired us into using the theme of murderous household weapons like hammers, drills etc. You can tell we used this idea because in our clip there is a shot of the tools covered in blood which almost looks similar to the Hostel: Part II advertising poster.
Both films do not hold back when it comes to bloody scenes, they show you everything! This is why we chose to look at it: to see how we could film our own bloody scenes without it looking cheesy, cheap and not high quality, also because they show you in depth the characters emotions and this is quite an emotional clip and we thought we could take ideas from this and re-work them for our own.Overall we thought that Hostel really expressed the genre torture porn. We found watching both films quite horrific at times which means it’s really good if it makes you feel like that!
auction website. This auction website is from the company of "Elite Hunting" and auctions people off to be torture, these people who do bid can have the victims tortured in any way they like all for a certain amount of cash.Hostel: part 2 pretty much has the same story line as Hostel part 1 where rich business men and women all place bets on random people (usually back packers) to kill in any way they please. This one follows a group of 3 girls backpacking across Europe when a stranger invites them to the village party that is held every year, little did they know they would be lead to their death. One of the girls meets a guy along the way and he ends up a victim just like the most of the girls. To the viewers surprise one girl manages to escape, but the only way you are allowed out of the building is to kill someone, so she ends up killing the man you tries to kill her.
This film crosses the boundaries of gore, making you cringe in your seat and cover your eyes, but you can't stop watching! The way that the killers used their tools in this film really inspired us into using the theme of murderous household weapons like hammers, drills etc. You can tell we used this idea because in our clip there is a shot of the tools covered in blood which almost looks similar to the Hostel: Part II advertising poster.Both films do not hold back when it comes to bloody scenes, they show you everything! This is why we chose to look at it: to see how we could film our own bloody scenes without it looking cheesy, cheap and not high quality, also because they show you in depth the characters emotions and this is quite an emotional clip and we thought we could take ideas from this and re-work them for our own.Overall we thought that Hostel really expressed the genre torture porn. We found watching both films quite horrific at times which means it’s really good if it makes you feel like that!
Like Saw, Hostel creates a atmosphere that makes the vieweres feel uncomfortable, with all the brutal torture scenes, it makes us feel extremly worried and again vulnerable while watching as the scenes are so graphic, Hostel like Saw has again inspired us from the use of camera angles and movement, when the camera gets right up and close to when the victims get hurt, we can graphically see bones and flesh being ripped apart, there really is no border line, hostel certainly has gone way over the limit of gore.
Captivity
A 2007 torture porn film, deirected by Roland Joffe, the film really is a one off film that really messes with you mind, the tag line for the film; "When You Think The Worst Has Happened....Think Worse" makes you think the film is seriosuly awful, not nessacrily with gore but physiologically the film does mess with you. At one point the victim Jennifer is made to believe that she has been showered with acid, a form of pshciolgical torture, we see this as a point of view shot, the girl is laying on a chair with a shower head above her conencted to acid, the acid begins to pour out and the camera switches to the next scene of jennifer laying captive on a bed with bandages on her face, we think that she has been violently tortured here, but as she starts to peel the bandages away we are reavealed that she wasnt poured with acid, she was made to belivbe she was to mess with her mind, she begins to loose her sanity, This scene really does disturb you. The film opens with the torture of a young man (whose face is covered) - 2 tubes are inserted into his nose, and (via a foot pump) a greenish fluid in pumped in through one pipe - causing blood to pour out through the other. The man's captor then kills him with a large hammer.
The opening scene, is very grap
hic and at first you dont realise what is going on, but as it carries on you really dont want to watch it, the camera is postions at a low angle, making the victim well the props seem more powerful, which in this case they are, they are the powerful things in the scene as they are controlling whats is going on.
hic and at first you dont realise what is going on, but as it carries on you really dont want to watch it, the camera is postions at a low angle, making the victim well the props seem more powerful, which in this case they are, they are the powerful things in the scene as they are controlling whats is going on.The colours in the scene also make us feel uncomfortable, they are very dark and yet bright, things which are yellow or white appear very bright and vivid which makes the scene more strange, the story of whats going on doesnt match with the colours, nothing should be bright and really makes a contrast, of good and bad, the colours represent good yet there is no good going on here.
After watching Captivity we like the way the pshciolgical torture it had and may possible include this somehow in our final peice, Captivty really did mess with your mind with all the sick and twisted story lines which keep getting worse and worse, i did not think this film was as good as Saw or Hostel but still i really thought it expressed the genre of torture porn extremly well, it expressed it so well that the original version was only realeased in Spain Argentina and the U.K
