Group Meeting #1

    I really wish I could write more in this blog post, but unfortunately, we ran out of time right when I started presenting my ideas to the rest of the group AHHHHH. I did get a little bit of feedback on my lighting set-up (a research post on that is...imminent) which is one of my most pressing matters at this moment. I had originally planned to shoot the entire scene in red lighting, but one of my peers mentioned that it would look more natural if I shot it in a less stylist manner (I don't know how to properly describe it, but she meant to use flashlights and more natural lights to make it look like a casual get-together). She recommended looking into the scenes in Stranger Things in which the characters played Dungeons and Dragons in their basements for some inspiration.

Still from Stranger Things

    I really love this lighting set-up, I am a bit worried that since I am shooting on my phone, it won't be able to capture the footage well since it's so dark, but I'm definitely going to look into how to light a scene like this. Still brainstorming with this feedback, but I am thinking that we would open with one of the characters testing out this "ritual" and going fine and shooting this part in natural lighting. But when the main character tries it out, the lights go red to signify a tone shift; I am so bad at putting my thoughts into words unfortunately, but I hope this makes sense. Which brings me to...

The Script

    Before starting the group meeting, we watched Andrew Stanton's Ted Talk. He gave so much great advice for how to grow a story, but I'm particularly interested in two points that he made. He talked about building a character's spine, which is basically their motives, a story cannot move forward without the character's intentions and actions being made clear, right? I hadn't thought about this before, but now, I realize how absolutely essential this would be to my opening. What brought this group of teenagers together to do something like this? How did someone get ahold of this object? What are their relationships? Why would someone WANT to be possessed? So many questions!!!

    I'm still hoping to keep the dialogue to a minimum, so I want to express as much of the character's motives (acceptance, escape, etc.) through their actions and facial expressions. Andrew Stanton also said something in his Ted Talk that really resonated with me, "the audience wants to work for their meal, they just don't want to know that you're making them do that." Re-reading my first draft of the script, I realized that I was giving away too much frankly unnecessary, time-consuming information that could be better shared visually, for example, instead of outright saying the steps to do the ritual, I could just show them. Instead of developing the "villain" of the film, developing the characters would be crucial to building the rest of the plot. It would make so much more sense to show why the characters are doing this than rather having the characters constantly ask questions because frankly, narratively, why would they care? I'm going to create another, hopefully better draft of the script with the characters more fully realized (also, I need to create a "voice" for each of them, little quirks to the way they speak). I'm hoping that hoping that by fleshing-out the characters, their actions will feel natural, and the script will be easier to write. Getting to read my groups' scripts also really helped me gauge where I should be at at the moment. The main thing I got from getting to read the others' scripts is that I need the dialogue to seem more natural, like a group of friends at a party.

What I Still Need to Do

• Lighting and scene research. I have done some researching on seance scenes in horror, but I want to write a more comprehensive blog post particularly focusing on the production aspects of it. Fingers crossed this'll be done my Saturday. 
• STORYBOARD, I've done some general storyboarding, but the drawings are so bad that I honestly would rather just keep them to myself. Now that I've got a clearer plan of the scene, I hope to finish my final storyboard by the end of the week-early next week.
• Next draft of the script. This script will make me lose all my hair by the end of the year, but I'm beginning to understand that it starts to shape itself as time goes by, and this is still a learning process for me, so it can only get better (hopefully).
• Location. It's between my room and my living room at this point. My garage is a mess. I'll try out lighting and some of the shots in both locations and then compare.
• Plan out the 2 minutes...some of us *ahem* have a really bad sense of time.

    

 Gope Boards

    I think I mentioned this in previous post, but what I knew the second I came up with this idea was that I did NOT want to use an Ouija board. While researching other spirit boards I came across something called Gope boards (or kwoi boards). 

Some images of Gope boards that I found online.

    Gope boards are spirit boards that were used in Papua New Guinea. They were crafted from old canoes (typically the remains of enemy canoes) and were believed to represent ancestral spirits. They were given to boys when they reached adulthood to protect them from evil spirits. I loved their designs and decided that this was what I wanted to replicate.

    A couple weeks ago, my dad had bought a stone engraving pen, so my first thought was to use that to carve out the wood design. About an hour into that, me and my dad realized that it was definitely not going to work. The design just ended up looking really goofy (which I guess would work for a horror comedy but not for this!!)

First Gope board attempt lol...

    Plan B was to just buy a similar object on Amazon, but to be honest, I really didn't want to do that. This is the backbone to this film, so I want to make it authentic and to my vision. So, I went to Micheal's in hopes to find a sculpture or some kind of wood to paint on, and luckily for me, I found a perfect plant pot.

Plant pot I found at Micheals (my dad's hand by the way...not mine)

      

    Obviously, this is a small departure from the original idea (huge departure from the original script, which I'm happy about because I did not love that). I bought some paint and candles at Micheals and got to work with my design. 

Quick design sketch I did before painting on the planter.

    The original design looked a little too Lucha libre masks to me, so I simplified the design a bit to include less paint (I wish I could include that sketch here but unfortunately, I forgot to save the image). I painted most of the of the colored portions but taped paper for the more precise designs because I was scared to mess it up. After ripping of the (fake) plants at the top, I attached a candle to give it character (and also, it'll play a big part into the intro). 

Final result! LOVE the effect that the candle gives it.

        
        Now that I've created this first element, everything is starting to feel more real. There's no turning back and changing the idea now. At the same time, finishing this aspect has really helped me further visualize the opening, and now I know what I want to keep and change from the script. 

 Script/Screenplay/Whatever This Is Called

   I have to say, writing is not for the weak. This was so hard. I tried to make the dialogue seem as realistic as possible, but I’m scared that when delivered, it will seem…clunky. I based the script around a lot of other movies I’ve seen, Talk to Me, Hereditary, The Others, etc. (actually most the characters names are based off of horror story characters, Charlie Graham from Hereditary, Laurie Strode from Halloween, and Theodora from Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House. While studying conjuring boards, I fell into a Wikipedia rabbit hole and found that “Jonah” is a superstition among sailors of bad luck). This screenplay is just to have a general idea of what direction the dialogue will go in. There will definitely be a lot of changes and improvisation during production, especially due to time constraints and in the coming week I’ll continue to tweak it.

 Progress Update...Do I Finally Have an Idea???

    I think I finally have a pretty fleshed out idea of what I want my scene to eventually become which is SUCH a relief because I've be stressing about coming up with a concept for the past two weeks. I've had so many interesting ideas in my head that I've really liked on paper but would either not translate well on screen or I just couldn't flesh out the idea. I've decided to go with something a little simpler, and very common for horror films: a seance (I'm going to research folklore and old stories to come up with a more original background than like a Ouija board seance). For what it's worth, I'm going to try to add my own spin to the idea, so it doesn't feel like a re-hash of any other horror movie. 

    

    I got home today really excited to start storyboarding it until I realized that I am unfortunately a very bad artist. I got through about like maybe three slides, but I decided that the drawings just weren't going to translate my vision. I have the visual story almost entirely imagined, so, for now, I'll just type in everything until I can translate it into drawing. Also, I was thinking of shooting all the scenes with just me (no actors, script, mise-en-scene elements) just to get a clearer idea of how it would look and to prepare before even beginning production. 

  

    So, the scene would open with some establishing shots. It's a small get together, there's four friends playing cards in a basement (I'll have to film in my garage, so we'll see how I'm gonna pull this off). We see a half empty popcorn bowl, close-ups of hands with cards, the friends laughing, etc. The final establishing shot would be an overhead shot of everyone sitting in a circle, the table and cards in the middle and the title fades in. We cut to the door opening and the last friend comes in. He's immediately the life of the party, the camera follows him into the room, he sits down and pulls out some artifact type thing (still in the progress of this). The camera lingers on it for a bit. The friends ask him where he got it and he pulls out his phone camera and jokily tells a creepy story of his dead grandma. As he tells it, the camera rotates around the table to get a close-up of all their reactions. We land back to the artifact as he slides it over to the girl across from him. She's the quietest of the group. Initially she's reluctant to try it out, but eventually gives into the pressure. The boy explains that she has to ... (initially the idea was to spill her blood on the object but I'm not sure how I would do that), and she does. The tone is still carefree at this point but as soon as she ... something shifts. She recoils in horror like if she's seen something, and everyone starts laughing. She starts screaming loudly, by this point they realize something is wrong. Her hand shoots up and her eyes begin to roll to the back of her head, the lights are flickering, now everyone is screaming, chaos has ensued. This goes on for a few seconds before the lights go off. Lights come back on and we're focused on a close-up of the boy's face. In the background, we see and hear the friends go to check on the girl. He doesn't stand up, his breathing intensifies, a ringing noise comes on, and the scene ends. 

    

    So yeah, that's what I got for now.

Kendall Roy image to represent how I'm feeling now that I've finally visualized an idea.

Obviously, I'm just getting started on this and there's so much research, planning, and eventual production left, nut I feel really happy with my idea so far. I also have some other visual ideas that I want to incorporate into it. I want to use lighting. I've never worked with lighting before, but watching past projects, I feel like it is definitely underused and often forgotten in productions. I was thinking that red lighting and lighting from candles will help enhance the eerie vibe. I also want to have less editing and longer takes, I'll eventually see how the project comes out filmed, and this is just a personal preference of mine, but I prefer longer takes with camera movement. I just think it looks more "cooler". 

Script Research (AKA Ari Aster Save Me...Save Me Ari Aster)

    I've never really written a script for anything, so I figured before I start working on any of THAT, I do a little bit of screenwriting research. I found this article by Studiobinder breaking down tips for how to write a horror story. Advice that they emphasize again and again is to watch and analyze other film and directors to shape you own vision. And so, I went down a rabbit hole of reading and watching interviews of some of my favorite productions. While most of the interviews I found had little relation and offered no help for my endeavor, I did find a No Film School interview with Ari Aster that offered some insightful advice. Aster discusses how he built his own fears and past experiences into the making of Hereditary. When asked about how his own life bled into the screenplay, he said this: "What's beautiful about filmmaking is that you're able to take more personal stuff, put it through the filter, and out comes an invention". 

What Am I Scared Of...

    I really like Aster's way of looking at horror, I do think that incorporating my own fears will be much more effective than doing a cliche rehash of another horror idea. After some introspection, I begun to brainstorm what I really find terrifying, so I guess here's a little storytime. When I was eight, my friend received a chainmail that, long-story short, said that she would disappear if she didn't send the message to a certain number of people. The message was so obviously fake, but I was an eight-year-old with an overactive imagination and bad anxiety. I think what terrified me so much was this feeling of having absolutely no control of what could happen next. For months, I was paranoid at any sound or shadow in the corner of my eye. It's fascinating to me is how after experiencing trauma (talking more in general now...not implying that receiving a prank message is traumatic), our brains become unable to separate reality from imagination. I know that horror film exploring trauma and mental health have become a little disliked by audiences in the last couple of years, but I truly want to use this my own opening. Obviously, it'll be hard to express a character's trauma in just two minutes (especially without professional actors), so developing context (showing the actual traumatic experience) will be necessary.     With the similar theme of confusing reality, I find the possibility of myself losing my mind to be absolutely terrifying. One of the most underrated horrors I've seen, We're All Going to the World's Fair, uses this fear to show a character's spiral. I loved We're All Going to the World's Fair so much because it's very ambiguous in whether the character's experience were real or if she was truly losing her mind. 

    These two fears seem really different from each other, and I might not incorporate both, but I do believe that both will make a great basis for a horror film. Just for brainstorming reasons, I was think generally that the film should open with the character viewing someone else losing their mind (maybe being chased by something that's not there) and have that be the character's catalyst for trauma. But for now that's all I've got.

Where Do We Go From Here

    I think this'll be my last research post for a couple days, I've done quite a bit of research thus far and I think it's finally time to get started. Tomorrow, I hope to get started on the script (and maybe even finish a first draft of it). I'm excited to see how all of this research will shape my story. 

Sources

Buder, E. (2018, June 7). “hereditary”: How Ari Aster pushed his horrifying film “as dark as it could go.” No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/2018/06/hereditary-ari-aster-interview

Kench, S. (2023, October 30). Horror writing tips for Fiction & Film. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-horror/

 Scheduling

    A little bit of a shorter blog post today, but I started developing a production schedule. I chose to put it into my Google calendar because I started using it last year and it's really helped me keep on track with school and all my extracurriculars. Since we're still in the early stages of production, this schedule is open to change (and I am preparing for it to change a lot). So far, it's just a very rough outline of the production process; I've included a lot more details and tasks for the pre-production process because I have a more general idea of what I need to prepare before production begins. Once I find actors and finish my script/storyboard/shot list, I'll begin to detail a more comprehensive filming schedule, including shooting times and dates. Once I know what my story outline will be, I'll also start making a mise-en-scene development schedule (making costumes, set design, any props, etc.). As someone who is very much not organized and a big procrastinator (case in point, I'm writing this blog post at 10 PM on a Saturday night), I hope that creating this schedule will help me stay on top of this project. I really think that having a clear schedule + pre-production elements like shot lists and script will go a long way to making this whole thing run smoothly, if I follow this schedule and all goes to plan, I'll have my entire portfolio done in time without having to rush elements of it.

(Click on pic to enlarge)

 I Should Write a Horror About This 

    Picture it: it's 2 AM on Wednesday school night and you wake up in cold sweats. You're a week and a half into your AICE Media Project and you still have no idea what you're going to do. The room around you starts to feel a little too claustrophobic and your eyes begin to go hazy as a million possible images play in your mind.

    Anyways, for little inspiration, I decided to dedicate this blog post to other horror movie openings. Specifically, I wanted to research some cold opens.

Cold Opens

    Personally, I find the most effective horror openings to be the ones that immediately throw audiences into the nightmare. I think this is partly because MOST horrors are slow-burn, so I usually have at least half an hour to mentally prepare my body for the rest of the film. Since I'm pretty much set on a horror opening, I want to make something intriguing from the get-go, so while I love a good horror slow-burn, I think this is the way to go. I decided to put together a list of all the best "cold opens" in horror that I could think of to watch and then chose two to focus on. 

It Follows (2014)

    I watched this film a couple months ago and while I didn't love it, I thought it was an incredibly effective, simple (but also very unique), and low-budget horror. I specifically chose to study this scene because it's just one of my favorite openings to a horror. It instantly sets the tone for the rest of the film without giving too much away. The opening also ends with quite a shocking, gruesome frame that I can't really recreate but it's a good example of the kind of startling imagery that I would like to convey. While I was unable to find a video of the actual scene on YouTube (I think it's just blocked on school grounds), I was able to find an interview in which the director, David Robert Mitchell, breaks down the opening scene. It's a short interview, he only breaks down about a minute of the opening, but I was really intrigued by his discussion on horror conventions. Mitchell specifically studied and incorporated horror clichés into mise-en-scene elements (particularly her wardrobe). However, he also played on lesser used conventions in horror to catch audiences off-guard. There are very, very few horror films that are shot in daylight, much less ones set in a seemingly normal suburb. It's this sense of normalcy contrasted with whatever the girl is experiencing that makes this scene so unsettling. This is a technique that I definitely want to try in my opening. I'm tired of horror films feeling so predictable and cookie-cutter in terms of how they look. I'm still brainstorming at the moment but there's a playground close to my house that would be a PERFECT setting to get this contrast. I also wanted to bring up It Follow's cinematography that really help develop the tone. The opening, along with the rest of the film uses slow pans and negative space to create a sense of paranoia. I love these techniques because they utilize basic techniques to creep audiences out, which is exactly what I'm trying to produce as someone with absolutely no budget. 

Talk To Me

    This example is more gruesome/violent than the last one, which is not really what I'm trying to emulate, but it has techniques that I would like to use. Like the beginning of It Follows, this opening puts us right into the scene. It begins with a party full of teenagers and hip-hop music playing. The only aspect that indicates the genre at this point is the lowkey lighting, which sets the mood for the rest of the scene. While the music and atmosphere feel out of place with the genre, it does establish the carefree, dumb teenager characteristics that become important later on and (again), serves as a juxtaposition. I love this introduction because of how abrupt the change is. These super abrupt changes are sprinkled all over the film and are so effective for shock value. I also chose to focus more on this opening because it's a more modern (movie was released last summer in fact) representation of teenagers. Truth is, it's unlikely that I'll find anyone other than my friends to act in this, so I have to shape my film around how a teenager would act, and I really love how this opening characterizes its characters in just two minutes. 

So Long, Life Before Cambridge Portfolio Project

    Next week we're officially starting to work on the final portfolio for this class. I'm really, really excited to begin working on this. I've never gotten to work on such a large and long project before, especially one with so much creative freedom (or any creative freedom...). But, I'm also quite nervous for certain aspects of it. Right now, I'm pretty much drawing a blank to even a general idea. It's funny because at this point of my life I've seen quite a few film openings, but I don't think I actually have ever realized how every idea begins with a blank piece of paper. I know there are certain genres that I skew more towards than others (I'm really eyeing the horror genre for this project), but I'm also really open to creating something completely out of my (genre) comfort zone.

   

     After we went over the different purposes for a film opening, I've kinda begun to rule some out. I know that I have very little interest in making an opening to develop setting. It could definitely be an interesting project, I just can't see this being intriguing in my veryyyy homogenous suburb. I'm also not too keen on making a project to showcase technical elements. If I had more experience with production elements like lighting or cameras, I would definitely look into this method, but I don't. The film opening I'm most interested in is one that develops tone. I feel like this method encompasses everything I hope to do with this project. By developing tone, I can balance focusing on mise-en-scene and lighting elements with the actual plot.

    Another film opening I'm looking into is one that develops background. I feel like this opening would be really effective if I want to make a project with background "lore", if I went with the horror genre, I think I would definitely want to provide as much background as possible. I also really love it when films begin with some kind of voiceover or radio explanation of a past event so maybe I'll incorporate that into my opening. Either way, I'm really anxious and excited to see how these next couple of months pan out.

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

     This project has most definitely been the one that I enjoyed the most so far and the one that I feel I have benefitted from the most. The brainstorming process had both its pros and cons to the overall final project. On one hand, the case studies we worked on for other bands' promotional and distribution practices really helped make the marketing strategies we chose for our band a much smoother process. We also organized and sorted out each person's roles from the beginning, so instead of accidentally having two people working on the same thing, each person had their own part of the project they were assigned to. The day we started the project, we made sure to have general feel and idea of the band so that when each person started their work, the idea of the band expanded but the root remained the same. However, the pre-production stage of the music video was actually a little detrimental. We had originally planned to shoot a storytelling/promo combination. Once we had finished the first shooting session on Friday, we realized that there was way more promo (we had filmed the band performing in a garage that night) footage than we had anticipated. By Sunday (our second and final shooting session), our original idea and storyboard had been completely discarded. 

   

     Sunday, we met up at Veronica's house to finish the shooting. Rather than our original idea of a breakup, we changed the video to be a complete promotional video. We decided to shoot a mock photoshoot. While we already had footage of the band performing, we thought it was also a good idea to show the band interaction. We molded the rest of the shooting process around showing the band's relationship, and we luckily ended up shooting a lot of footage.

     

     The rest of the week was spent finishing our presentation and post-production. On Sunday, we all had already finished our parts of the presentation (for the most part). By Wednesday, we were putting our finishing touches on the project (mostly just editing social media posts, magazines, and websites to show the band rather than our previous placeholder image). I started editing the footage on Tuesday which ended up being a very lengthy process as I am not the most experienced editor. Thursday was our last day of class before the project was due, so we all checked each other's work to make sure everything fit together and then began writing our script for the presentation. We wrote the script on a google document to make sure that no body repeated information or had the wrong information. The project was due on Friday so between Thursday and then everyone began recording their lines and putting it into the Canva document. I finished editing the video and changing anything I had gotten feedback on. Honestly, one of the hardest part of the project was getting the video into the Canva document. Since it was too big of a file, Canva wouldn't just let me import it in and any attempt to compress the video would take hours and lower the quality. What I ended up having to do was publishing the video into Vimeo and then embedding the link into Canva, Unfortunately, every time we tried downloading the presentation as a video with our audios already recorded in, the video would not automatically play. In the end, we posted both the video presentation without the video and the Canva link with presenters mode in hopes that it will work for anyone trying to watch it. Finally, we were able to submit the project.

     Being one of the first longer project we've had to work on, it was at times hard to balance all the components and due dates. Eventually though, our group fell into a rhythm and made good pacing to have everything finished in time. I really liked getting to work on the video production because I feel like it's been the project that we've had the most creative freedom. It was nice to plan out mise-en-scene elements and shot composition having already learned about it in class. I also think that in general this may on of the longest group projects I've ever had to work on, so I learned a lot of how to work with another group (especially one I had never worked with before) and how to blend and adapt to everyone's creative ideas. This project makes me feel really good about the Cambridge portfolio, I am really excited to get to work on another long-form project like this one. I feel like so much I learned in this project I can use to benefit my portfolio. 

 Music Marketing Blog Post #1

    So far, I've felt like our brainstorming portion of this project has actually been going really well. The day we got our song, we immediately started planning out the look and feel that we wanted to create for the band. This was actually pretty difficult because we went with a song by The Teskey Brothers, which has male lead vocalist with a particularly rough, older sounding voice. We really wanted to create a band that was targeted to a younger audience, so it was a little bit of a challenge to fit that image around this voice. We made a Canva presentation and separated each role. I was to research on performances and shows for our band. 

     Using the music research that we had done; we came up with the methods of marketing that would fit the target audience and goals that we set out for the band (Lemon Drops). I specifically researched music festivals in Australia (where the band originated). I thought music festivals would be the best live shows for the band as they are a huge platform for new fans, for people to be introduced to the band, and to make connections. I also tried to find blues/rock festivals since it was the genre that best encapsulated the band. The last festival I went with (All Things Go) is actually a very popular for smaller, independent artists that would be an incredible opportunity for The Lemon Drops, All Things Go is also known for supporting women musicians, and while the lead singer is male, the majority of the band is women, so it felt like fitting festival.

    Once we completed the basic idea for the marketing campaign, me and Veronica began to storyboard while Camila and Violette worked on the social media aspect and internet presence of the project. We decided to go with a storytelling style to fit the lyrics of "So Caught Up". After we finished with the storyboard, we planned out logistics and scheduling for actual shooting. We had to decide which house visually fit the theme of the video best to shoot at, what props to bring (keyboard, guitars), and who would be acting. We met up at Violette's house later after school (a couple hours before I'm writing this), to begin shooting the promo part of the video and do band photoshoots for the social media. While we had originally intended to have limited promo shots for the video, leaving the shoot, I was actually surprised by how much footage we were able to get, and now we are considering changing up the initial idea before our final shooting session on Sunday.

Representation of Mental Illness in the Women of Sharp Objects

    In 2018, HBO released an 8-episode mini-series adaptation of Gillian Flynn's book Sharp Objects. Helmed by Big Little Lies director, Jean Marc-Valle, it followed the story of a journalist, Camille Preaker, who returns to her childhood hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to write about the murder of two teenage girls. As details of the murders are uncovered and Camille’s stay is lengthened, old childhood traumas resurface, and Camille is forced to confront her past. The show was lauded for its realistic characterization because Sharp Objects’ representation of mentally ill women, particularly women who are broken by the oppressive culture of violence in the South, shows audiences a reality that society doesn’t typically want to confront.

    

    Sharp Objects explores intergenerational trauma and familial relationships through three characters: the matriarch of the house, Adora Crellin; her daughter, Camille; and Camille’s step-sister, Amma Crellin. Camille is the outcast of her family. Immediately after she graduates, she flees the town and gets a journalism job in Chicago. When she returns, it becomes evident that she doesn't longer adhere to what Wind Gap’s expectations of a young women should be. She rejects femininity, choosing not to wear dresses, but rather long, black attire to hide the scars of her self-harm. When confronted about having children, she acts almost repulsed by the idea. Camille suffers from depression and has tried to commit suicide in the past. She cuts words into her body and her entire body is scarred. The story actually starts shortly after she is released from a mental facility. Trauma from her mother and her sexual assault in high school have left her a broken woman.

    Adora and Amma Crellin on the other hand, fit perfectly into the deep South's model of womanhood. Adora has gained respect and given her family a good name in the town. She is a perfect, delicate Southern Belle, who dresses in flowery and feminine dresses. However, as the story develops, audiences learn that Adora is deeply disturbed as a result of the abuse that she endured as a child, and the implied sexual violence that she went through. She uses her fragile personality to manipulate people's perspective of her. Adora's character completely upends previous stereotypes of what her character should be like. Even though she gives off a meek appearance, Adora may actually be the most powerful character in the show. Her abusive childhood led her to grow up with a need for attention, and with this need, she cultivated habits of inflicting her own pain into others and continuing a cycle of abuse to her daughters. While discussing any bit of Adora's mental illness would be revealing a huge spoiler, its actually one of the instances of this disorder being explored in media through a thoughtful lens that examines what could have led someone to develop this dependence.

    

    

    The youngest daughter of the show, Amma, shows a final perspective (and arguably the most impactful) into female mental illness. Amma embraces her femininity and burgeoning sexuality and she uses her body to get the attention of older boys. Like Adora, she deeply craves attention, which she was receives plenty of from her mother. Although she is barely fourteen, the show's costume designer dresses her in mature and revealing clothes and she is seen doing drugs at parties. It can be argued that Amma shows sociopathic tendencies, and she has learned how to pass the abuse she has received from her mother to others, 

    Sharp Objects' representation is discussed and analyzed so often because mental illness and trauma, especially in women is not often explored in this fashion. Rather than portraying Camille as a monster, or crazy, or a danger to society, Sharp Objects is incredibly empathetic to her illness. This type of representation is so incredibly important to take away social stigmas against depressed and suicidal people. And while Amma and Adora aren't depicted in a particularly positive way, their characters still highlight the dangers of abuse and how much it can impact a person's development and perspectives on life.

 What Makes Horror Horror?

Horror films take an audience’s worst fears and bring them to life. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes horror as, “painful and intense fear, dread, and dismay”. Despite the nightmare-inducing stories, the horror genre remains one of the most popular both among audiences and filmmakers. 

A Little History

The horror genre of film arises from old folklore and mythology. Georges Méliès’ short film, The Haunted Castle (1896), which featured floating ghosts and skeletons, shocked audiences at the time, and is now considered to be the first piece of horror put to film. German Expressionist films of the 1920s, which focused more on the filmmaker’s aesthetic expression rather than realism and relied heavily on production design, paved the way for what was known as the “Golden Age of Horror” in Hollywood. The 1930s saw a surge of horror films (a lot of which were creature features produced by Universal Pictures).  Early Hollywood horror cinema was highly influenced by classic nineteenth-century Gothic fiction literature. Audiences flocked to see movies such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). With the 1940s and 50s came a wave of psychological thrillers, a prominent name of that time being Alfred Hitchcock. The 60s and 70s introduced supernatural aspects to the genre, and became much bloodier. Finally, slasher films in the 80s and 90s ushered in a new subgenre of satirical horror. Present day horror, especially with the rise of studios like A24, has seen more and more original and reflective stories from visionaries such as Jordan Peele, Julia Ducournau, and Ari Aster. 

Content

    It's hard to pinpoint specific content that makes up the horror genre because it's so incredibly diverse. There are dozens of subgenres that make up the horror umbrella: supernatural, psychological, creature/monster, folk, giallo, slasher, gore, found footage, just to name a few. Although there are so many genres, horror films typically feature some sort of paranormal or supernatural aspect, like ghosts, many are set in haunted houses (the film 1408, however, is set in a haunted hotel), and the main character is in some sort of danger. They are characterized by extreme violence, not shying away from showing some blood. Main antagonists are also found in most horror movies, which the heroic protagonist has to defeat. Another common stereotype of the horror genre is the "final girl". This woman is usually the only one to survive the string of killings, although she suffers a great deal by that point. Older slashers are now criticized by people who claim that the "final girl" stereotype is rooted in misogyny and were used by male directors as an excuse to torture women.

Laurie from Halloween is one of the most famous final girls.

    To scare audiences, horror films rely on suspense. A good horror film builds up suspense through foreshadowing. Filmmakers use cues and symbols that audiences recognize to foreshadow what is to come. For example, objects disappearing or mysteriously moving is used in almost every paranormal film. Without the proper environment and build-up, scares can feel cheap.

Production Techniques

Horror films use specific techniques to elicit emotional fear responses from the audience. We scream and cover our eyes while watching horror films because we as viewers have been conditioned to react based on these techniques. 

Sound

The simple usage of sound can be used to create a suspenseful environment or to carry out an effective jumpscare. Horror movie soundtracks typically use dissonant chords to (subconsciously) have the audience at the edge of their seat. Many composers create leitmotifs to represent characters, these sound motifs let viewers know that danger is imminent. John Williams’ Main Title Theme from Jaws (1975) is one of the most popular examples of this. Filmmakers also often depend on stings for jumpscares, which shock an unsuspecting audience. In fact, once the volume of horror films is muted, it loses most of its shock factor. Lastly, certain subgenres of film, such as body horror and gore/splatter films, rely heavily on foley and SFX to nauseate audiences. This scene from Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 Suspiria remake is a great example of how sound can be used to disgust viewers. 

Cinematography and Production Design

Horror films are known for being dark, and not just in their subject matter. Since most horror films are set during the night, the color palette is usually dark.

Color pallet of 2016's The Witch

This darker color and lighting obscures a lot of the camera's view, creating a foreboding feeling. The use of shadows and silhouettes are also a very common way for horror films to draw out suspense, a technique that got popularized primarily by Hitchcock’s films. Horror films use unconventional camera angles and composition. In fact, many horror directors utilize something known as negative space. Negative space is usually the empty space of a shot that surrounds the subject. Horror films use this technique to play with the audience’s imagination (examples: Psycho and Insidious). Director Mike Flanagan is known for using the negative space of his shots to hide ghosts or other figures in the background. Tracking shots and pans are used to create a sense of dread and anticipation (and many times end with a jumpscare).

Marketing

Because the target age of horror films ranges from late teens to young adults, the marketing steers towards a more mature depiction of the film. Trailers, usually underscored by dramatic covers of popular songs to attract viewers, include the most shocking scene of the films. Most horror posters feature the main villain’s face or mask as the cover. Body parts are also really popular on horror posters. The posters are typically dark and bloody with disturbing images. Because of the Halloween season, most horror films are released in an October date; however, horror films also perform very well during summer release date (while not as big a summer blockbusters released this year like Barbie, Talk to Me, made on a budget of just $4.5 million, ended grossing way over ten times its budget).

   Screenshot of the Blair Witch Project website made by the directors.

    A particularly groundbreaking marketing case in the horror genre was the Blair Witch Project (1999). Because of its genius marketing strategy, an indie found footage film (a genre that was practically new in the 90s), made on a budget of just $35,000, became one of the highest grossing horror films of its time. Because this was so early in the internet’s history, many consider Blair Witch to have been the first film to mass market through the internet. The directors of the film, Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, created a fictional legend, The Curse of the Blair Witch, and kept a website that discussed this curse. The entire marketing relied on the audience believing that it was a true story. The internet reported the actors of the film as missing or dead, and their missing posters were found on the website, which also included fake police reports and interviews. This strategy was so believable, that the parents of the actors received cards from multiple fans of the film who believed that their children were actually dead.

Samples

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

    Released in 1920, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is now widely considered to be the first full length horror film. Made in Germany during the Expressionistic movement, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is known for its eccentric production design, characterized by abstract sets and harsh makeup. While Caligari's horror style would be unconventional compared to today's films, it was highly influential visually and content-wise for what the horror genre would become in the following decade. 
    The film begins with a man named Francis telling another man the story of an ordeal that he and his wife recently encountered. The film flashes back to this memory, set in a small town in Germany. Francis and his friend, Alan, attend the town fair. There, they see a doctor performing his somnambulist show. The Doctor awakens the somnambulist, Cesare, and Alan asks him when he will die. Cesare replies that he will die at dawn, that night, Alan is stabbed to death. Francis becomes suspicious that Cesare was involved as a string of crimes occur. 

    Although Dr. Caligari was made so early in the history of horror films, it still includes many conventional factors of a traditional horror film. Twists and turns are all over the plot. The movie features violent murders, often only showing the knife and screams. Suspense is built up and foreshadowing is used to clue in viewers to what the ending will be. The film also deals with obsession and insanity, popular even in today's horror films.

Rosemary's Baby (1966)

    Husband and wife Guy and Rosemary move into a New York apartment building despite being warned by friends and witnessing the previous tenant's peculiar behavior. Rosemary befriends a recovering drug addict named Terry who has been taken in by Rosemary's neighbors, Minnie and Roman; however, a couple days later, Terry commits suicide. Not too long after, Rosemary becomes pregnant. That night, Rosemary eats some food made by Minnie and begins to hallucinate and experience weird dreams. Rosemary begins to question why her neighbors are so interested in her baby.

    Although Rosemary's Baby is an older film, a lot of its horror still holds up today. This is because the movie relies, not on cheap jumpscares and special effects, but rather on creating an uncomfortable environment. The film is deeply rooted in fleshing out Rosemary's paranoia and growing distrust in the people around her. The film's scariest scene, for example, relies on implies the violence rather than explicitly showing it, making the scene so much more disorienting and terrifying. Tight shots are used to represent Rosemary being trapped in her situation. Rosemary's Baby's most effective technique, however, is its subversion of stereotypes. Typically, trustworthy characters like the doctor, elderly neighbors, and her own husband, are the hidden antagonists of the film. These subversions are why Rosemary's Baby is now considered one of the greatest psychological horrors of all time.

Other great horror films:

Black Swan (2010)

Let the Right One In (2008)

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Wailing (2016)

Saint Maud (2019)

Possession (1981)

Sources

Defining the Horror Genre – The Acronym | IMSA's Official Student Newspaper

What is Horror? Definition and Examples in Film (studiobinder.com)

The Evolution of Horror Films: A Look a Horror Movies from the 19th to 21st Century – Media Services News (american.edu)

The First Horror Movie & The History of the Horror Genre - NYFA

Why The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Remains Horror's Most Influential Film (cbr.com)