Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Institutional Research


Hammer is a film company formed in the United Kingdom in 1934. It is known for the 'Hammer Horror' films released between the mid 1950s until the 1970s, notably Dracula, Frankenstein and Egyptian Mummy films. Hammer is still in operation today, releasing films such as 'The Woman In Black'. Hammer Horrors were done in a very gothic style, and the trend seems to continue in their releases. 





The Asylum is a film company formed in the USA in 1997 which focuses on producing low-budget and straight-to-video films. The films they produce have been called 'mockbusters' due to the nature of the company capitalising on a huge film released around the same time. Notable films from them include 'Sharknado' and 'Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus'. They aren't strictly a horror film company, but their most common releases are horror films (such as Mega Piranha, capitalising on Piranha 3D). The Asylum closely work with the TV channel 'SyFy', who often air their films.

Inspirational Opening Sequences

Criminal Minds
http://youtu.be/2NM_iiGhXrg
http://youtu.be/O8W9qr7DB-o
 This intro inspired me as the music is fast-paced, but carries a serious and dramatic tone, which is what I want to capture with the film. 

The Walking Dead

Taken Sequence Analysis - Taken

http://youtu.be/goKJvWO3AqM
The title sequence consists of a black background with white text stating the main production company name, with no logo. The text comes on in a typewriter style, then fades away in reverse. The next clip shows cityscape on a black background, but the city is coloured red where the title appears, also in red text, then as a red silhouetted plane flies towards the title, it fades away. The names of the stars appear in the same fashion as the production company. Then a blood splatter hits the screen and drips down. This occurs for the remainder of the actors. The red colour has connotations of danger, and with blood splattering across the screen, it implies that there will be violence occurring in the film. I analysed a title sequence of a notable film of a similar genre to mine, to find out what other films utilise, so we can spot any trends or conventions that we can use.

Music Source



This is the music I used for my film, and where I sourced it from. I looked for royalty free music on Google and I found this site, it had a navigation checklist on which I checked off the 'Horror' option. I was looking for some dark and dramatic music, which would suit the Crime Thriller genre. I selected this track as it has a dark and domineering string section, with some haunting choir music.