Mirrors Intro Analysis

I will be analysing the intro to the film ‘Mirrors’ which was released in the year 2008. Mirrors was directed by Alexandra Aja who has directed horror movies before, which gave her some experience in the genre. The reason I am analysing the intro to this film is to gain an insight into how horror films are put together. This will help us to put our own horror intro together. It’s is rated an 18 so it’s aimed towards adults who are into horror films. 

The introduction is 3 minutes long. It starts off by fading into a shot from below a man running. The camera isn’t kept still, its handheld to put us into the film and make it seem more realistic. From his face expressions you can tell that he is very afraid and must be running away from something. He is in the subway and in the background you can see that the walls are graffitied on suggesting that he is in a rough neighbourhood. He comes to a gate that is locked so he’s trapped on the other side. This was clearly shown because the camera was behind the gate where as he was on the other side trying to get through.

The cameras movements are still very jerky as he carries on running still looking very scared. It flicks through lots of angles to give it a quick pace, to almost make us feel out of breath just as he is running. The camera sometimes zooms onto him very quickly to say that something is defiantly happening to him, it’s putting all our attention on him. We get wide shots showing us the whole setting, which is still in a subway because of the trains. The lighting is very dingy to create a scary atmosphere. The music is scary music (violins) to make the audience very tense about what's going to happen next. It has high-pitched long notes to drag the running out, to put us in his position again. 

He comes to a door that’s padlocked so he grabs a fire extinguisher to smash it off. The bang sound effect has been added for dramatic effect, if it’s added they can make it louder and change the pitch etc to exaggerate the effect. He is now in a room with no way to get out except for the door he came through. The clips are now longer than before which shows the running is over. There are lots of lockers with mirrors in that open up to face him. You can see his reflection in all of them with a point of view shot seeing into the mirrors. This puts us into his shoes to see what it feels like with all of the mirrors pointing at him. The lighting in the room is very dark and a light is flickering on and off which really sets the scene. It makes it seem like something is wrong in the room. 

When he gets upset the camera gets really close to his face to emphasise the fact he is scared for his life. The camera keeps changing from the mirrors point of view to an over the shoulder shot of the mirror. They are putting us in both places, the monster and the man. They are giving us a taste of what it feels like in both places to see what it feels like. When the mirror kills the man he falls to the floor and there is suddenly a loud bang noise that was added over the top, it then goes straight into saying ‘Regency Enterprises Presents’. I guess its saying you have seen the beginning of the film which was very scary and to watch the rest at your own risk. It’s like an invitation to watch the rest of the film. 

After analysing this film’s intro I have learnt that to create a brilliant horror film we must: Have tense music to slowly scare the audience, hand-held and still camera shots to make it seem more realistic, loud sound effects to exaggerate the effect and to make it more scary, and finally to set the scene with good lighting. Good lighting can determine what the genre will be.

by Ben Schramm

Hard-Ware and Software

Hard-Ware

• High Definition Video Camera
• Tri-pod
• iMac

Software

• iMovie HD
• VisionLab
• Garage Band

by Ben Schramm

Aliens Intro Analysis

I am going to look at the intro of Aliens to analyse for our project. This will help us with out own intro for a film that we will be creating with our own editing, acting…etc. Looking at different films will help inspire us for our own film and help give us ideas about how to put the music together and put the clips together. It will help us to create a successful intro to a film. 

Aliens was released as a sequel to the famous Alien film. Aliens was released in 1986 and was a big hit. It was directed by James Cameron who also helped to write it. This film is a sci-fi horror so that means its set in the future (which is where the sci-fi comes in) and is a bit jumpy with aliens (the horror part). It does contain a bit of gore, which adds to the horror genre. The film was rated an 18 so it was defiantly aimed towards the adult sci-fi fans who were also into a bit of horror. 

The intro of the film starts right away with scary music to build up tension. At the moment are titles slowly fading in and out over the music. This must resemble the slow build up the film has until you see a creature (in this case the Aliens). Then you can see in the back some blurred shapes which then slowly fades into the title of the film Aliens. The music is getting louder and tenser. Suddenly the I gets brighter and slowly, then quickly turns the whole screen white. This must resemble the whole film. It slowly builds up the tense until it scares you. 

We are now in space tilting towards a distant space ship. The space consists of a blue colour just like the titles did. This is a cold colour which shows how space is a scary place, meaning the Aliens. The music is now quieter after the bright screen from earlier. The ship is just floating in the distance making space out to be enormous and the ship really small. This resembles power, humans aren’t as powerful as they think they are because there are loads of other creatures out in space that are more powerful. The intro has lasted 2 minutes with scary music and with a lot of titles over the space background. The only types of shots used were a long shot and a zoom in on to the ship. This was taking us to the ship to change setting for the next scene.

This introduction contains some very important points to making a scary intro for a horror film. Mainly the music, which is noticeably scary through out the whole 2 minutes. Colour meanings just to add to the effect. And also different camera  techniques to show different forms of power in the film. This helps to give different characters status.

By Ben Schramm

28 weeks Later

28 Weeks Later Intro Analysis

To help us understand what makes a horror film a horror film, we decided to analyse the intros to several horror films each. This will help us with our own horror film intro about zombies. This film in particular is a great film to refer to because it’s your typical zombie film. A biological virus escapes and turns everyone into zombies who gets bitten by one.

The targeted audience of this film is for 18 years and older, due to the violence and blood. It wouldn’t suit anyone younger. This is the age that people really start to like that gore, blood and jumpy films and this film fits perfectly.

The genre is clearly horror because of the jumpy scenes, blood and obviously the zombies. 28 Weeks later was released in 2007 and it’s the sequel to 28 Days Later after being a big success. The film consists of chase scenes, gun scenes and hiding scenes. It was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo who also directed Intacto. Intacto was a thriller so Juan had some experience with making thrilling films, which he could put into 28 Weeks Later.

The intro to the film is 3 minutes long and introduces 7 characters to the story. 4 male and 3 female - 2 elderly, 2 in their 30’s, 1 in their 20’s and 2 children. The scene starts off in a dark house, with candles lit to set the mood. This straight away suggests that this is a horror film because its dark with only littler light. This creates a scary atmosphere. The characters are eating around a table talking about the zombies. This suggests that they are comfortable talking and that they have been there a long time. What also suggests this is the fact they have photos of friends and family set up on a shelf and wall. They must have barricaded themselves inside this building and have been there for a long time. Their clothes are dirty with holes in suggesting that they have only one pair of clothes or hardly have any to wear which also suggests they have been there for a long time. The food they are eating at the table isn’t anything special, it just looks like pasta with a basic sauce so that means they obviously don’t have much food. Maybe they’re saving the better food for later or maybe they don’t have any at all. So just to some up so far they’re clothes are in bad condition, its really dark, bad food and they’re all friends or family.

The camera is either kept nice and still to show everyone or it’s hand-held, suggesting that they can’t keep the camera very still. The shots are mostly close up to really put you right into the film. They really want you to feel as if you are a character in the film sitting down at the table eating dinner with them. They want you to feel comfortable enough to listen to them talking.

Suddenly there are loud knocks at the door with young boy shouting for help. The tension now builds up from the music slowly getting louder, shall they risk blowing their cover to the zombies by letting the boy in or shall they leave him. The music really gets the audience going because they’re not sure what’s going to be behind the door so they’re getting really scared. As the music builds up, the cut-rate gets quicker which adds to the tension. As soon as the boy is let in the house the cut-rate slows back down which relieves the tension.

The boy starts to talk about how zombies were chasing him while the girl goes over to one of the walls in the house, she removes a cloth that was blocking a hole. She looks through the hole. The music builds up and the boy says there were loads of zombies. As he says that the camera is close up to him. While this is happening there is a build up of music again getting louder. This suggests that something bad is going to happen. Suddenly a zombie appears in front of the hole and its arm goes through the wall. This really makes the audience jump because the music builds up and you don’t know when something is going to happen or so even if something is going to happen, because nothing jumpy happened before.

So what makes a horror film from 28 Weeks Later? I would say little light to make it dark and gloomy. A mix of hand-held and still camera work to make it seem professional but also put you into the film. Close up shots help put you in the film and to make it seem more serious. And finally the build up music build the tension up to get the audience scared.

1st Story Board Draft

3.
2.
1.
Drawn and written - Ben Schramm

Coloured - Sophie Grayling

Video or Magazine

For our project we could either create pages for a music magazine or create a two minute introduction to a film. We have decided we will be working in a group of four, each of us putting our own input into the work. As a group we have decided to go with the video project rather than the print project.

We have chosen video because we feel we are more technically advanced in this project as opposed to the print which we can use to our advantage. We have a wider variety of software and knowledge to use for creating special effects, titles and putting videos together. We think that with this software we will be able to create a better video than a music magazine as well as we are more able to show off our creative skills whilst doing a film.

Ben Schramm