Week 6 4/25

3 Main Ideas

• The importance of horror
• Challenges when creating a horror film
• Self achievement and new experiences

20 Time One Pager

Horror movies. Are you the type of person that binge watches them Halloween night, or watches them here and there, or maybe you avoid them at all costs. The truth is, you can’t. They make their rounds on the TV, they have their suspenseful commercials including their best jump scares, or maybe you’re on Youtube, about to watch a funny cat video, then BOOM, they advertise by showing their trailer and you have to wait the excruciating five seconds before you can skip the advertisement. People think that scary movies are all blood and gore, that there’s no story, no character development. For some cases, that’s true. When making a horror film, it’s common for people to think that to create a scary movie it’s high budget and all effects. Professionals use grand sets and famous actors, Americans seeing these creations from Hollywood underestimate the work it takes to go through the process of making a film. People think horror movies are blood and gore, but there’s more to the genre than they think.

The author in the article has produced many horror shorts. They say when writing the script, it’s best to keep it simple. One does not simply have a “full scale satanic church with a goat emblazoned altar.” Which is something most people don't have, especially an amateur like me. I’m working with a regular bedroom in my house; no altar, no goat. Sadly. He says it's best to keep your cast and crew happy because they aren't being paid and that is important to me. A piece of advice they have is to focus on the story and not the gore. “Telling a compelling story with characters that feel real and should always come first.” What he said is something I can fully agree with. Also, as a bonus tip, they recommended watching many other short films to see what works and what doesn't work. For me, there will probably many trials of failure before there is success, if there’s even a success. The author says it’s normal with the process of making a film, especially if it’s a beginner.

Horror films are one of my favorite movie and television genres. They have good characters and storylines, but I'd say the horror films full of blood and gore are awful. There's no story or suspense. It grosses me out and it's hard to watch. I enjoy a jump scare here and there, but if people are constantly being tortured and getting limbs torn off, then I'm not a fan. It’s like comparing the Saw movies to the Conjuring movies, to me, they don’t seem like the same genre. Making a set, using the correct lighting, even writing the script was more difficult than I thought it would be. Even though it’s supposed to be a dark and scary set, it actually has to be well lit for good screen quality and then using effects afterward to add the desired lighting. The bottom line: making a film is a handful and takes time.

Week 5 4/17

I chose to contact someone with experience or someone in the field industry of horror movies. As much as I'd like to have a mentor ship and meet famous directors like James Wan, Guillermo Del Toro, Stephan King, or M. Night Shyamalan and learn from them on what makes the best horror films, I sadly can simply send them an email or shadow them for a day. It would be an amazing experience, but close to impossible to accomplish; it isn't a feat that can be accomplished in one three day weekend. I don't think meeting or emailing someone would be any different from finding tutorials on Youtube or the internet. There might be some specific questions that can only pertain to my project specifically, but all horror movies generally follow same guidelines and techniques for a satisfying end product. The Youtuber D4Darius has some really good advice for making short films and he's tried making a few of his own.