Research- Part 2

     Hello everyone, I am back with some more research. After brainstorming some more ideas on the film opening, I came up with a new idea of a slasher horror opening film. I feel that horror slasher films are great for openings as they truly create that sensation of horror and they utilize a tremendous amount of camera techniques, editing, and sounds. For example, Halloween (1978) utilizes numerous amounts of techniques and different camera angles.

    This film opening utilizes many camera techniques and sounds to create the sensation of horror. At the beginning of the film opening, it uses a black background with a white font to show the date and the location where the film is taking place. There is also a background sound of children playing around and it gets louder until the first scene begins. The camera then uses a pan and tilt around the house to show what the couple is doing. Once the couple goes upstairs and the lights turn off a high-pitched eery sound is played. The sound continuously begins to get louder with a piano note being continuously played and the longer the duration the deeper the piano note gets. As the camera approaches the kitchen and grabs a knife the audience can now tell that it is a point-of-view angle. The sound of the conversation the couple has is very quiet but once the guy leaves the sounds continue to get louder and a clock can be heard signifying time is up. As the camera approaches the girl a loud high pitched sound goes off, then the camera can be seen continuously stabbing the girl and the camera focuses on the lunges of the knife. The camera then leaves to go outside where it meets two older people where the character's name is revealed, Michael. Once the mask is taken off, the camera goes from a medium shot and gets further away until a high angle long shot.

    This film opening seriously inspired me as this is what I am looking towards making. In my film opening, I want a lot of emphasis on the camera shots and techniques to tell the story rather than a lot of character development and dialogue. In my film opening, I want people to want to have to draw conclusions for themselves and figure things out rather than telling them through dialogue what the purpose of the film is going to be about. Halloween (1978) is a great example of the director telling the story through the camera techniques and sounds used. Director John Carpenter used a variety of techniques in his film opening to his own advantage. The film opening perfectly represents what the film is going to be about, Mr.Carpenter uses the camera as the point of view of Michael, who is the main character and antagonist of the film and makes it seem as if the camera were wearing a mask. Then Michael ends up killing his first victim which we see through his own eyes. This already tells the audience the plot and character development of the film. There was barely any dialogue apart from the couple talking to each other and the older people at the end revealing the character's name.

    Also, we have seen a common trend in the audience loving slasher films for example films like Happy Death Day (2017), Hush (2016), Freaky (2020), and many other films becoming very popular in recent years. Hush got a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.6/10 on IMDb, and 63% on Metacritic. These films have always been a hit throughout the years and will continue to be very popular. Halloween (1978) was one of the most famous slasher horror films known to date. The film had a budget of around $325,000 and a Gross income of $47,160,000. Not only is that impressive the rating for the film is very good, with the film having a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.7/10 on IMDb, and an 87% on Metacritic. Halloween is a classic slasher movie that is praised by many directors and seen as a masterpiece, this is why this horror film has motivated me and gave me some inspiration.

    Slasher films like Halloween also do not need to have a large budget to be great, what makes these movies great is the suspense and horror that it brings out while using a variety of camera techniques and sounds. Slasher horror films follow the exact principles and outline I want to follow for my film opening. After conducting this research I will have to decide whether to continue with a Supernatural horror film opening or a Slasher film opening. I will further conduct research and will let you all know later on. Goodbye, see you all in the next blog!