Shortlist

Script

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Character Profiles

Name: Chris Mullen
Age: 17
Occupation: College Student
Character Traits: Chris, on the surface, appears to be a very innocent and normal teenager, however deep down he is a very disturbed and mentally unstable which becomes increasingly evident as the film goes on. He resides at his grandma's old house who has since died. Chris used to live with his dad however he left his dads house after he was constantly bullied and abused. This previous behaviour and other factors cause Chris to become scared of water. His hair is medium length and skin fairly brown, however as the film goes on his hair becomes more messy and his skin with the use of makeup becomes paler. Chris will be liked by the audience and they will sympathise with him, however they will also be a little afraid of him with some of the things he does in the film. Chris' personality can be described as sarcastic and slightly radical and on the verge on being a maniac, and he is a mix of introvert and extrovert.


Name: Desperate Man
Age: 23
Occupation: Unemployed

Character Traits: The injured man on the floor is not necessarily a prominent character however he is important in the first two minutes as he frightens and scares the audience with his bloodied appearance which is discovered later in the film to be Chris' fault. The injured man is actual a bully from Chris' school, who Chris has acted out his revenge against. The audience therefore have mixed views on the injured man because they sympathise with Chris for being bullied, but they also sympathise with the injured man because he is close to death. The injured man has medium hair and will be covered in blood. He wears similar clothes to Chris.


Name: Operator
Age: 24
Occupation: Emergency Services Operator
Character Traits: Like the Desperate Man, the operator isn't a particularly prominent character. However the operator tries to help Chris in his situation, get him to calm down and finally find out where he is. The operator is unable to find out where Chris is, as the other end of the line mysteriously goes dead. With this character being a very minor one the audience will feel apathetic towards him.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Video Questionnaire - Questions

The movie begins with an establishing shot of a peaceful lake, the camera then cuts to a closer medium long shot of the lake with the exaggerated noise of surrounding wildlife to express how tranquil the lake is. The serenity is the interrupted by the splashing noise of water and heavy breathing made by Chris. The camera pans left while zooming in to reveal a boy who has emerged from the lake and is crawling on the ground trying to escape something. The camera cuts to extreme close up of Chris and then cuts to a high angled body shot of Chris from behind his back. While this is happening eerie music plays in the background which becomes louder and faster. The next shots are fast paced and of Chris running out of the park. While Chris is running he passes an injured man on the floor who is bloodied and asking for help however Chris being startled carries on running. The next scenes are on dimly lit, deserted streets and Chris is trying to get a signal on his phone, he eventually does and dials 999. The dialogue in this scene is of the operator, "Hello 999 what is your emergency?" and of Chris who says desperately, "Please, please, just listen they're after me again, you've got to..." and then the phone cuts dead the screen fades to black and white noise fills the sound. When screen is faded out the white noise dramatically cuts and there is Chris' voice over which says, "My name is Chris Witten, 17, and this is how I died. The final scene begins with the text "Day 1" on screen, significantly brighter colours and an overhead of Chris in his bedroom waking up for college when his alarm goes off.



1. What genre do you think the film is?



2. What is your favourite genre of film?



3. Why do you enjoy this genre of film?



4. Who do you think the film is aimed at?



5. Do you understand the storyline?



6. Where do you watch films the most?


▢ Cinema ▢ Phone ▢ TV ▢ Laptop/Computer


7. In what locations would you expect the film to be set in?



8. What kind of music would you expect to be in the film?



9. What rating do you think is suitable for the film?


▢ PG ▢ 12 ▢ 15 ▢ 18


10. What type of props would you expect to see throughout the film?

Production Logo

Treatment No.2

Treatment: Short Film

Title: Rising Waves

Duration: 2 minutes

Audience: Young adults and teenagers of both genders

Distributor: Warp Films - Sheffield

Characters: Chris, Desperate Man

The movie begins with an establishing shot of a peaceful lake, the camera then cuts to a closer medium long shot of the lake with the exaggerated noise of surrounding wildlife to express how tranquil the lake is. The serenity is then interrupted by the splashing noise of water and heavy breathing made by Chris. The camera pans left while zooming in to reveal a boy who has emerged from the lake and is crawling on the ground trying to escape something. The camera cuts to extreme close up of Chris and then cuts to a high angled body shot of Chris from behind his back. While this is happening eerie music plays in the background which becomes louder and faster. The next shots are fast paced and of Chris running out of the park. While Chris is running he passes an injured man on the floor who is bloodied and asking for help however Chris being startled carries on running. The next scenes are on dimly lit, deserted streets and Chris is trying to get a signal on his phone, he eventually does and dials 999. The dialogue in this scene is of the operator, "Hello 999 what is your emergency?" and of Chris who says desperately, "Please, please, just listen they're after me again, you've got to..." and then the phone cuts dead the screen fades to black and white noise fills the sound. When screen is faded out the white noise dramatically cuts and there is Chris' voice over which says, "My name is Chris Witten, 17, and this is how I died. The final scene begins with the text "Day 1" on screen, significantly brighter colours and an overhead of Chris in a care home, waking up for college when his alarm goes off. 

Suggested elements:

This horror theme contains music which will make the audience feel a mystery coming to point and intense which i thought would be a good theme to set at the beginning of our storyline sequence because it would give a good effect.

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=038&Search=Search

Treatment No.1

Treatment: Full Film

Title: Rising Waves

Duration: 89 minutes

Audience: Young adults and teenagers of both genders

Distributor: Warp Films - Sheffield

Synopsis: The film "Rising Waves" follows the life of Chris Mullen who is a 17 year old college student who develops paranoid schizophrenia and a fear of water. Chris is a perturbed young man who has had an unstable upbringing: he was regularly bullied and beaten by his dad and subsequently he moved in with his grandma at 14 but she died due to suspicious circumstances. The film begins with Chris emerging from a freezing lake and he is trying to escape something he believes is in the water. He runs from the lake which is in deep woods and manages to find his way to a dimly lit street where he gets his phone out and rings the police for help. While he is ringing the police the screen cuts to blank and the non-diegetic white noise becomes louder and then cuts abruptly to hear a loud scream. The next scene is about 2 weeks before all of this happens to Chris and shows him waking up in his care home, wondering why he is there. The audience should be able to realise that he has been put into a care home for abandoned teenagers who aren't able to look after themselves, and Chris still believes he lives at his Grandma's house. The next 10 minutes follow Chris' morning routine with a lot of fast paced shots to show how hectic his mornings are before going to college. Chris is bullied at college and is ostracised by his peers and this is shown when Chris is involuntarily involved in a water fight which results in him getting soaked and humiliated by a group of 10 boys. Chris ends up trying to fight with one of the boys who is particularly cruel but this leads to the gang of boys teaming up and punching him to the point where he is bleeding from the nose and mouth. At this point Chris experiences vivid flashbacks of being drowned by his dad and his grandma's funeral in which he is the only person there. The next scenes turn into a sort of dream where his grandma emerges from the grave and starts bullying him and taunting him in the voice of the group of boys. On his way back to his grandma's home he passes a neighbour who tries to have a conversation with him but he tells her to "f**k off". He is back at his home and there are similar shots to in the morning but this time there is very contrasting atmosphere and darker scenes which connote the changing mood of Chris. Outside of his bedroom it begins to rain heavily and at this point Chris begins to cry. He then goes downstairs for a glass of water but when he is just about to take a drink but when he puts the glass to his lips the water turns into blood and he smashes the glass on the floor he then sees somebody pass a window in his kitchen but it is all in Chris' mind. He escapes his house thinking somebody is following him where he then ends up to the scene at the beginning of the film. At this point there are two different camera angles, one which is a long shot of Chris on his own at the side of the lake (to represent reality) and another shot which is a medium shot showing Chris and the person he can see in his head (this represents Chris' fantasy). Chris falls into the lake and the next scenes are similar to the start but from Chris' point of view where this time the audience can actually see the scary monster that has been taunting Chris. The final scene is at dusk time and Chris is standing at the top of a bridge overlooking a busy motorway and he looks extremely depressed and scary. There is a long shot of Chris standing upon the edge of the bridge and then a point of view shot. The next shot is used to represent Chris jumping off and the camera is lowered into the traffic.

Suggested Elements:

Props that are used

Mobile phone – this is a vital prop and is used when Chris is trying to ring 999 but has no signal.

Hoodie – this is worn by Chris and will be wet and muddy to show how much of a struggle Chris has been in when he escapes from the lake

Jeans or joggers – these are worn by Chris throughout his escape scene and will be muddy and wet just like the hoodie

Trainers – these are also worn by Chris in the escape scene and are important for him to be able to get to freedom. The camera will have a close up of Chris' trainers to show how fast he is running.

Make-up – make up will be used to make Chris look ill in his escape scene, and as if he has seen a ghost

Alarm clock – this will be used in Chris' waking up scene

Pillow – also used in Chris' waking up scene. Chris will be lying still face towards the camera with his head rested on the pillow

Duvet – used in Chris' waking up scene. The duvet will be over Chris (up to his neck) and he will have his hands firmly gripped upon the edge of the duvet as if he is having a nightmare

Bed – used in Chris' waking up scene. Chris is sleeping in the bed

Preliminary Exercise

Analysis of 'American Horror Story: Coven' title sequence

The title sequence of American Horror Story features a number of actor's and actresses' names who play a part in the series. Next to each name is a symbol which has something to do with the character they convey in the series. Another noticeable element of the title sequence is the slightly faded black and white colours that are predominantly featured, this conveys that the series is a dark horror/drama programme. 

Throughout the title sequence there is the repeated use of font. The font used by the producers is unique, slightly faded and white which helps it stand out against the predominantly black background. The use of contrasting will help the audience remember the show and they would be able to tell what programme the font is from without being told. 

A noticeable element that is present in the title sequence is the non-diegetic sound of a chainsaw. This sound is effective because it differs in pitch and volume, For example throughout many points of the title sequence the soundtrack is low pitch and quiet, but whenever a fast paced edit comes on screen the chainsaw soundtrack becomes slightly higher in pitch and much louder. The simultaneous use of the fast paced edit and the soundtrack becoming louder makes the audience nervous and intrigued and subsequently they will want to carry on watching. 

Analysis of the First 15 Minutes of 'The Ring'

The Ring Film Analysis

The opening begins with a long shot of a chilling, dark, pitch black house as the camera dollys in. In the background there is the non-diegetic sound of white noise accompanied by rustling in order to create tension amongst the audience. This is also an establishing shot as it sets the scene for the first 15 minutes of the film when the girls get murdered. This scene is effective because it immediately lets the audience know that there is a possible danger within the house due to the connotations of the colour black, as well as it confirming that it will be a horror film from start to end.

Another shot used in the film is a low angle on the character Katie, which is used to show how vulnerable she is as well as it showing she is in possible danger. Another interpretation of the shot is that it is from the perspective of the murderer and would therefore forebode Katie is about to get killed. This subsequently causes the audience to feel agitated and fearful for Katie as she is the protagonist and they would want her to survive. There is also the diegetic noise of heavy breathing coming from Katie which emphasises how scared she is, which would make the audience sympathise with her.

Another analysis that can be made of the opening sequence of The Ring, is the field of depth change from being shallow when focusing on the blood and then deep when focusing on Katie. This shot is effective because it lets the audience know that Katie is seeing the blood when they do. Once Katie has seen the blood the camera then focuses on her as she pauses on the stair which emphasises how shocked and bewildered she is. The camera stays stationary as Katie moves closer which in the background the non diegetic sound of a piano like screeching noise grows louder. This adds to the claustrophobic atmosphere as the audience can't see past Katie's legs.

As Katie enters her friend's bedroom there is the use of a eyeline match edit, when the camera shows the blank television and then a close up of Katie's face to express how horrified she is. Then there is the use of a fast paced edit of multiple images which are too fast to notice properly and then the screen pauses on close up of the TV screen to the right. While this happen the non diegetic background music grows ever louder and more high pitched which delivers a shock when accompanied by the fast paced edit and the diegetic sound of Katie's screams. The scene then finishes and goes on to the more light hearted school scene. This 'cliff hanger' is used to leave the audience wondering what happens to Katie and subsequently leaves them wanting to carry on watching the film. It also brings the audience down from their shock.  

Research Into Similar Films

Submarine 2010

15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: To lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life.

Submarine is similar to our film in the sense that it has a male, teenage protagonist similar to the one in our film. I like the opening sequence of the film because it features a lot of establishing shots and despite not being of the horror genre the scenes look slightly creepy, for example one scene is of a skeleton in Oliver's room and then cuts to Oliver sat in the corner of his room looking depressed. Other scenes feature water which is what our film is based around and they also establish the location of the film which is what we have planned to do in our film. I particularly like the Submarine logo against the blue waves in the background and I plan to have our logo looking similar to the one shown at 1:40, however I feel we should change the colour of the font to red which has more connotations of danger and death.

Halloween 1978

Exactly 16 years after he gets arrested and moved to a bedlam because of murdering her sister on the Halloween night, a demented young man escapes from the asylum and runs into a young, shy girl's family Halloween party.


Halloween is similar to our film in the sense that it is the same genre of our film (horror) and also features a lot of low key lighting. The colours present within the film are predominantly reds and blacks which connote danger and death and therefore make the audience feel more tense and more likely to feel scared. 
We could take the use of colours from the film Halloween in order to make our film seem scary and nervy. 

Eden Lake 2008

Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences.

Eden Lake is similar to our film in the sense that is uses similar settings which are the forests and a lake. Our film 'Rising Waves' begins at a tranquil lake and then our protagonist Chris is shown running through a forest to escape something that is in the water. A lot of the scenes feature muddied characters who are trying to escape the bunch of teenagers who are terrorising the couple. We could incorporate the mud and blood combination in our film to express how desperate our character is to escape from the lake at the start of the film. I believe using this will make the audience see our film as more life-like and realistic and therefore they will 
be more engrossed in our film and more likely to be scared. 

The Shining 1980

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

The Shining is similar to our film because it is a psychological horror film which features a man who become increasingly insane when he starts his maintenance job. This relates to our film because ours features a male character who gradually becomes more mentally unstable to the point where he believes there is something in the water. The start of the film The Shining features a piano-like soundtrack which gradually increases in loudness which builds up the feeling of tension. We will try and use similar music at the start of our film because I believe that type of music engages the audience and builds a sense of tension. 

Audience Profile

Audience Profile

(Age & Gender )

"Audience profile" is a term used to describe the characteristics of those who read, view, or listen to a given medium, such as a television channel or a magazine. I am going to cover the following; age, gender, race and sexuality for audience profiles linking to our storyline.


Age:

The age range that we are targeting our audience to be is within the 15 to 35 age range. The age range is set because we believe our storyline would be unsuitable for younger children as it contains scenes that may be inappropriate for children under the age of 15. The chart below shows statistics of the percentage of people in different age groups that go and watch movies at the cinema and clearly shows that the age range we have chosen is most and we feel that it would be suitable to shoot a film of this age group and attract the most audience.

Gender:

Gender conventions within the horror genre; we generally see gender as being very stereotypically presented which can mean women being presented through media as 'objects' mainly sexually and emotionally orientated. Women are usually presented to be beautiful and much more emotional compared to men who are stereotypically seen as being much more tough and less emotional. Women can also be represented as part of a group or a family, they tend to work and think of part of a team, the take the role of a helper they are generally never a leader.

Gender Audience:
We are looking to attract both genders for our film as the horror genre is suitable for both and our storyline isn't biased towards one group. The actors taking part in our film are all male lead characters but may have both genders as a background in certain scenes shot outside with public around.

Research into possible distributor of our film

After researching a number of different film companies we decided that we wanted an independent UK based one that has released popular but films that didn't require too much money to make. We believe Warp films would be a good distributor of our film because they have a base near Barnsley in Sheffield, and they have a good knowledge of the UK market and what is popular. Warp films has released popular and typically British films like Four Lions, Submarine and This Is England. This Is England won three BAFTAs including best british film.


Warp films is a independent UK film production company which has bases in Sheffield and London. It was founded by Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett and was initially granted financial support from NESTA who gave them a remit to produce several short films.




Warp films have produced the film Submarine which features the protagonist Oliver Tate and follows his life at home and school as he tries to get and maintain his relationship with Jordana. This film, despite not being of the horror genre, does feature a teenage protagonist similar to our main character Chris. Many of Warps films have been typically British films that aren't Americanised which is exactly what we want our film to be. We also believe our target audience will be from the age of 15 above which is the audience Warp Films distributes its films to.

Use of Sound in Thriller films

Use of Sound in Thriller films

 Sound is used in Thriller films in order to elicit a certain response from audiences. This can be to build tension through the use of sound effects or use of diagetic and non diagetic sound. Below I will explore the methods used in order to elicit certain responses from the audience.

  

Genre Conventions

Genre Conventions

Storylines:
A Nightmare on Elm Street - Freddy Krueger, an evil being from another world, stalks a group of teenagers and kills them through their dreams.

Saw - Two men are held hostage by a psychopath, who is set on teaching his victims the value of life by putting them into demented life or death games.

Friday the 13th - While trying to re-open a summer camp, a group of camp counselors are mysteriously murdered by a machete swinging slasher.

Characters 
Characters in horror films usually have a different characteristic to others which makes them look different to the others in the film. 

Characteristics: suspicion, distrust, self-doubt and paranoia of others, themselves and the world. The elements of psychological horror focus on mental conflict and become important as the characters face perverse situations, often involving the supernatural, immorality and conspiracies. 

Iconography
Iconography is used to describe the visual language of cinema, particularly within the field of genre criticism. Iconography is an important aspect of genre such as; if a film was western then we would expect to see dusty roads, horses, guns, etc. If this was to be a modern horror film then we would expect to see dark scenes, pop-ups, etc. The genre indicators are called the iconography.

Music

Music creates a representation in genre conventions as different music themes can set a different emotion which makes a scene different to others. Horror films usually have themes that build up tension and suspense of what may happen next but if this was to be an emotional scene then music such as instruments like violins would be used to create a different emotion to the audience. 

The video below is an extract from the psycho which uses non-diegetic music to help create and build up tense within this part of the scene.

Settings

Setting in films can connote the genre of a film which are usually helped along with lighting used in the shot; if it was to be a comedy genre film then the setting could be a room filled with high key lighting as there is no need to have dark shots. However with horror films, you would expect to see silhouettes and low key lighting not showing much of the setting which makes the audience feel uncomfortable as they would want to see what's around them. 

Settings that are usually used in horror films are; hotels, abandoned houses, cemeteries, etc.

Title sequence ideas

These are a few title sequence ideas that may suit our storyline as we have chosen a psychological horror genre, the story's main knowledge is about a person who has fear of water. The picture with the water scene would be a good way to start off the scene and carry on the film about what happened before the person landed in the water.
The title sequences with the blood is also inspiring for our storyline because it will have a different effect to the start of the film as the emotion of the audience will be changed into thinking what the story is going to be about.
The title sequence used for the conjuring was also inspiring because it gives a different look to the start of the film and straight away states to the audience that the film is going to be about horror.
I think that me and my group will have to decide upon a title sequence which will give an effective and good approach to the audience so that they can easily figure out the genre and possibly parts of the film.

Iconography in Thriller films

   Iconography is the symbols and objects you see on screen. We associate and expect different iconography with different genres of film. For example, we'd expect different iconography in a thriller film than the iconography we'd see in comedy film.

    Some examples of iconography in thrillers are;

Shadows

Shadows help build tension as they leave the audience wondering who or what the shadow belongs to. More often than not the protagonist is unaware and doesn't see the shadow unlike the audience which creates tension as the audience wants the protagonist to notice. This is an example of dramatic irony.

Confined Spaces

Small confined spaces make the audience nervous and build tension as the protagonist is usually vulnerable when in a confined space as they have no easy way of escaping anything. Also 3% of the population are claustrophobic so this would play on their fears.

Running Water

Running water has connotations of death as it could represent the draining of life. It can also be used in a setting where you wouldn't expect there to be any running water. This will put the audience on edge as they wonder what the cause is.

Street light

Street lights at night are often used in thrillers to keep the emphasis and focus on the protagonist and the fact that there is almost complete darkness surrounding them, apart from the spotlight from the lamp. This further accentuates the fact that the protagonist is alone in the dark and creates fear for the audience as they do not know what might be underlying in the darkness and therefore a tense atmosphere is created.


  We will draw on these ideas in our own film to conform to the conventions of the thriller genre.

Research into the certificate of the film

A certificate 15 film can feature any of the following:

•  Strong violence
•  Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   Portrayals of sexual activity
•   Strong verbal references to sex
•   Sexual nudity
•   Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   Discriminatory language or behaviour
•   Drug taking
•  Violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
  Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.
• At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat.
• Dangerous behaviour such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.
• Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. Promotion of drugs which are easy to obtain are unlikely to be allowed.
• Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Our film idea is a certificate 15 because we believe it would be unsuitable for younger children to watch. Our film includes a moderate amount of violence and a moderate amount of swearing. Our violence isn't too strong and will not dwell on the infliction of any injuries. Our character Chris does eventually commit suicide but the way he does it will be vague and have very little screen time, however this type of scene we believe would be inappropriate for anybody younger than 15 and may cause them mental trauma or problems. Our film won't feature any drug use or sadistic violence and will mainly feature on Chris' journey to his death and how he tries to escape danger within his life. 

Shiva's storyline

My story idea

Beginning:
Opening scene - establishing shot of a town/city with buildings
Gang selling drugs to the locals and expecting a delivery to be arriving soon
Set off to the location of the delivery and get the parcel handed over.

Middle:
Another gang arrives after the people delivering have left and steal the parcel and take off with the group that have just been robbed left in shock...

Film Idea - Ryan Lee

My film idea is an action/crime film about drug dealing. In the story it starts with students dying at parties due to drug use. Autopsies can't work out what the drug is or where it could have come from. It becomes a race against time as the crime detective has to work out who is dealing the drugs as it is nearing the end of the year at college which is when students across the region throw parties to celebrate where they will more than likely take drugs. As the detective unravels more of the mystery the gang creating and dealing the drug become more violent in a bid to avoid being discovered. The story ends with the detective busting the gang during the parties.

It would be a similar story to 21 Jump street in that there is a mysterious drug being passed around students but it wouldn't be a comedy but would instead be serious.

Horror Genre Research

Research into the horror genre

Storylines – One specific example of a horror movie plot is the typical psychological horror storyline. This storyline generally begins with a seemingly sane person who may show developing signs of insanity. Throughout the film this person becomes increasingly agitated and more mentally unstable. An example of this storyline is that of Jack in the film “The Shining” which features Jack as a mentally unstable father who attempts to kill his family.

Characters -

Protagonist - The protagonist is a typical character within many different horror movies. The protagonist in a horror movie is somebody who the audience relates with or sympathises with. They are usually trying to escape danger and murder which is inflicted upon them by the antagonist. The protagonist can be anybody regardless of age and gender however the role is typically filled by teenagers and young adults who are morally good in order for the audience to sympathise with.

Antagonist – The antagonist can take many different forms, such as: a serial killer, a possessed character, a ghost, a monster, and a mentally unstable person. What these characters all have in common is that they instil fear into the audience due to their unattractive appearance and they are also seemingly immune to normal injuries. For example if they are stabbed or even set on fire they are able to carry on as if nothing has happened to them which makes the audience acknowledge how inhuman they are. This character helps bring fear and suspense to a film.

The sex appeal – This character is normally filled by an attractive promiscuous woman and is often one of the first people to be killed. The sexually appealing character is usually the one to scream the most. Screaming is a common convention within the horror genre due to it being a reaction associated with danger, and when somebody screams the audience will associate that with fear. This character also helps to attract a wide male demographic.

The irritant – This character is conveyed as being annoying and a 'know it all'. This character is often portrayed by a man who is partnered with the 'sex appeal' character. Due to their behaviour the audience are usually happy when they are murdered.

Music – The music that is used in horror movies is often of a low pitch and slow tempo giving an eerie and creepy effect. When there are any scary parts coming up in a film the music normally goes very slow and quiet and once the scare has happened the music usually speeds up again. This adds to the suspense in a film and makes the audience more likely to be scared.

Settings – A typical horror movie setting is in an isolated location, for example in a wood. The woods connote danger and vulnerability and if there are a lot of dense tall trees this can add the sense of the unknown. The weather in these settings is usually very stormy, raining and generally cloudy in order to justify the darkness in the film. When all of these conventions are used together the film becomes more scary due to the fear of the unknown that people associate with darkness.

• An abandoned house
• A warehouse
• An isolated town/city
• Countryside