Analysis of Horror assessment

Analysis of Horror assessment

Introduction:

As practice for our final assessment piece for film we had to remake an existing horror which was made by previous students. After careful planning we managed to shoot the horror, which has a similar plot to the one we were meant to recreate. Then I edited the shots we had taken and put them together to get the best possible ‘continuity’ throughout the film.

Analysis:

If we compare the remake to the original we can see that it has a similar plot and has similar features. The story in both versions is a book which is haunted and causes supernatural things to happen. The main character loses her friend (s) and ends up seeing them dead in the bath. The sequence ends in the bathroom with a shot of her friends alive in the mirror.

The core of the narrative plot in both versions is a sequence of shots taken in the hallway, using close-ups and shots of a long duration to show fear and to build tension.

There is a good variety of shots throughout the film. We managed to put together shots from different angles inside and outside the house, use mirrors to great affect and use close-ups and mid-shots where we thought most appropriate. However, I do believe we could have added some more shots. A high angle shot looking down the stair case could have show how the main character was inferior to the supernatural things occurring in the house. Also, on some shots we zoomed in on characters. This was not very affective in our film. When getting to our final film, we will look at getting rid of these errors. Finally, more shots would have helped with the editing. I feel like we didn’t have enough shots to get perfect continuity. At times (shots of girl walking up the stairs) the continuity was excellent, however, others (girl running down the hallway) weren’t. There aren’t many jumps in the film apparent to the viewer, but I think we still could have made it a lot better with more shots

We succeeded in having good composition throughout the film. The shots include the most relevant elements to the plot. We used the rule of thirds well and made sure that our shots looked picture perfect. Our close up of the hand looking for the die underneath the sofa is probably our best shot, but most of our shots looked very nice.

This ties in well with the mise-en-scene. The light, setting and objects all included in the film were relevant to our horror. Although the light effects which we used were very basic, in the end the film as a whole looked good. We didn’t use very many props; we only used a book and a knife. These were appropriate to the horror genre.

The location we used was also appropriate to the film. It made the main character feel like she was trapped in the narrow hallway and scared in the dimly lit lounge.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the film looked good, but we still have many things we can improve on. We affectively went from a period of equilibrium to distortion. We built up tension through a series of fast and long shots and used lighting and props well to represent our horror in the right way. We can improve on the quantity and variety of our shots through longer planning. In the end, though, I believe the film worked and it was a good effort for our first film.

Sam Van de Schootbrugge-incentive