Jelly Baby Conventions

In groups of 4 we had to create a horror film using jelly babies. The jelly babies were used as characters and we had to use the horror movie conventions to create our horror scene. Using different materials, objects and the jelly baby characters we created a short horror movie scene and we incorporated the horror film conventions to make the scene more alive and exactly what is expected in a horror.

Settings

horror films are usually set in abandoned houses, dark streets, forests or in a small communities. The typical setting is basically an abandoned or isolated area that tells the audience that the characters involved in the film are in danger. We used this convention in our scene by making the setting a forest and an isolated area.

Characters 

in horror films there has to be victims,villains, and the survivors. This is a typical convention in a horror film. Usually in a horror film blonde girls and nerdy boys are made to be the victims and the strong brave characters are usually the ones to survive the frightening situations. We used this horror movie stereotype in our scene by having the victims as a blonde girl and ginger boy and the other two brave characters as the survivors.

Sound 

horror films usually include non-diegetic, diegetic and Foley sound in them. So we also included these sound types in our scene because we wanted to create tension but the diegetic sound also so that there was a naturalistic feel in the scene. There were also some silences to also build the tension but also to make the audience feel for the victims because they know something bad is about to happen.

Please view the short horror jelly baby scene below:

scene 1 - 

 This scene just sets the scene. Starts with a mid-shot of the forest which is all that is seen at this point. The forest is a typical horror film setting used mostly to show how silly characters are and also how much danger they are in. The sound used in this scene is non-diegetic sound tension building music because we know there is danger heading for the characters.

scene 2 - 

 This scene shows the characters involved in the scene. You can see in the upper left the dark jelly baby we used to represent the villain in the scene as the dark brown colour is negative. The other jelly babies represent a group of friends and they are all different as the colours show. In the scene these group of friends come across an abandoned caravan in the forest whilst the villain watches them from a distance.

scene 3-







In this scene the less intelligent characters are inside the caravan and you can see the kitchen and the bedroom. The characters decided to go inside and explore the caravan whilst they are doing so the villain old man is watching them

Scene 4 -



In this scene you can see a mid close up of the van and also the other two jelly baby characters running away. In this scene we used diegetic sounds, screams of the characters trapped inside the caravan and also the running footsteps and heavy breathing of the other characters to add a sense of naturalism. While there will be diegetic sounds there will also be non-diegetic sound which will be tension music

What I learnt

Watching other media students examples of horror movie openings taught me a lot.
I learnt that Camera angles had a big effect on the movie itself if they are used in scene unnecessarily.

For example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIsrOugUrm4

• In this clip you can see the effects of bad camera use as the camera is shaky and unclear so the clip becomes confusing and difficult to understand. This shows the importance of using camera angles effectively.

Whereas if I were to do a close up on a murderer who was about to kill a victim this will be more effective because the audience will get frightened from the characters face and they'll understand the negative emotions he's feeling.

Also camera angles add a very good meaning to the scene. My group and I got inspired by the beginning of the film sinister which starts off with a pan and sets the scene. This is effective because it isn't the norm in horror and it creates a feeling of disorientation and makes the audience uncomfortable..

Please view the Pan example in sinister below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf1S81eEqNQ&safe=active

Breakdown sheet for shooting (2)

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number: 1

Date: 14/12/2013                                                                                          Time: 5/6

Setting: Garden                                                                           Location: Chantelle's house

Crew members and roles: Ashleigh, Joyce & Chantelle

Cast members: Carolina , Dina, Mary and Zaila

Extras: Siblings

Wardrobe: White nigh gown & pale clothes ( t shirt & jeans )

Make-up: Pale face, defined facial features

Props: Rope, Ductape and Rocking chair

Special effects: Pan

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: As this scene has no dialogue we need to make sure we try to eliminate as much background noise as possible that we wont want in this scene. this scence is also outside so we need to make sure we check the weather beforehand.

Breakdown For Shooting (1)

Storyboard scene number: 3

Date:   13/12                                                                                            Time: 6:00pm

Setting:  bedroom                                                                            Location: Sophie's bedroom

Crew members and roles: Ashleigh - Director 

                                         Chantelle - Make up artist

                                         Joyce - Set designer 

Cast members:  Carolina - main character ( girl)

Extras: sibling

Wardrobe:  white nightgown 

Make-up: Normal but unnatural pale make up
                dark hair 

Props: pictures of killings 

Special effects: no special effects are needed for this scene

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: a problem we could face maybe that Carolina is unable to come so to overcome this we will film a scene where she isn't involved.
another problem maybe the 

Animatic

As part of our Horror film preparation my group and I had to create an animatic. We firstly used a storyboard to draw the images that will be seen in our film. We had to make sure that our images were precise by drawing each one using the correct camera angle and also commenting on what sound and editing will be used in each one.

          


When we showed our Animatic to our class mates we got positive and negative comments. What we did well was begin our film in a different way which isn't typical in horror film. Using pan we created a disorientated feeling which made the film more intriguing for the audience. Also we used sound effectively as we matched the appropriate sound to the particular scene. But we also received constructive criticism which was to change one of our scenes which were unclear camera wise to something different using more camera angles and making the whole scene more effective.

please click the video below to view the Animatic for my horror film: