Examples for inspiration - American Horror Story

American Horror Story is one of my favourite TV Series going, because it is just so weird. The most scary part of it is the title sequence. Below I have put the title sequence for season 1, because for me that is the most creepy one out of all 4. There are a lot of things which make it so intimidating. First of all, the use of lighting. It is all pretty dark and gloomy, but even when there is a significant amount of light it is coming from one particular place, weather it be the corner or from the object in focus, which brings me to the camera angles and closeups. There is clearly a lot of objects incorporated into this, such as dead things in jars and as well as what looks like surgical tools and traces of blood. It all sounds quite extreme but a major factor to this title sequence which prevents the visual side from seeming too over the top, is the audio. The mix of distant dripping sounds and the occasional static noises alone gives the sense of abandonment and uncertainty, which is definitely this right feelings to be giving off for this show. The sudden jump to almost silence to sudden up close, loud fuzziness is enough to make you jump. it still makes me feel slightly on edge when the titles roll on! 

Thinking more about the visual side, the use of what seems to be old photographs of children combined with the incorporation of fire and broken glass gives the impression of unfinished work and some extreme unpleasantness which is not yet finished. A lot of the quick snippets used are shot in quite a careless way which I think is deliberate, because it gives off the impression of trying to escape or trying to get away with something. I think a lot of the camera angles vary from closeups, to panning the rooms, because it is supposed make the viewer feel like they are looking through the eyes of one of the characters, weather it is somebody good or somebody bad. 

How This has influenced me..

This title sequence is probably for me, one of the best examples of title sequences I have ever seen, purely because it has incorporated the rights amounts of everything when it comes to lighting, camera shots and most of all, audio. This has got me thinning a lot about the possibility of having audio which is quite inconsistent similar to this example. Also, it has given me the possible idea that not all of my title sequence needs to be crisply clear all through out, it may also work quite well if there is some uncertainty in there, like in this example. I like the idea of having some shots look as though they are coming from the eyes of one of the characters involved. 

Examples for inspiration - The Orphanage

This 2007 Spanish psychological horror was written by Sergio.G Sanchez and directed by J.A Bayona. It is about a woman who lives in what used to be her home as a child when it was an orphanage for handicapped children. She lives there with her husband and adopted son. Her son begins seeing a boy called Tomas. Her son Simon soon goes missing and his Mother Laura is determined to find him. It becomes apparent that Tomas is the spirit of a boy who was drowned near the orphanage weeks after Laura's adoption. The social worker they have for Simon appears to been Tomas's Mother and used to work in the orphanage and was intact responsible for the death of all o these children as a consequence of her son's death. There appears to be supernatural things happening in the house, and it comes to Laura's knowledge that the children she grew up with are dead, after finding their remains in the woodshed. Six months later she is determined that her son is still alive, so she is left with no option but to try and communicate with the children she once knew in order to find her boy.

 Setting

This film is not one that is scary all through out, there is definitely some deliberate contrast shown which makes the darker parts of it that bit more memorable. The first scene is actually set on a sunny day in the garden at the orphanage showing Laura playing with her friends as a child, and the music over the top of it is quite peaceful. Similar to some of the other specific examples I have talked about, the actual environment the story is set in makes just as much of a contribution to the ambiance of it all. The Orphanage itself is very big and quite old fashioned, which is probarbly no surprise given the genre of the film, however the basement in particular has some extra significance, as well as the room that used to be the bedroom of the children. This is an interesting one when it comes to figuring out which characters are to be seen in a negative light, apart from Benigna the social worker. Not even the spirits around the house are given any specific identity apart from the fact they are the children who were murdered., they aren't portrayed as malicious or threatening. The main reason I have used this film as reference is first of all its title sequence, and use of audio, especially in one particular scene which I have below.

Audio

A lot of the music through out this film is actually the opposite to what you might think, it is quite gentle and emotional, because aside from the supernatural side to it it is still quite a sad story and I find it a very refreshing psychological film to watch because even though it is supposed to be scary, Sanchez has done a very good job of giving all of the themes of the film an even flow. I was unable to find a clip with just the opening title sequence, but in my opinion it is actually a very innovative opening. It consists of each name appearing on what appears to be wallpaper around the house, which is then ripped away by the hands of the orphans. The music used isn overly frightening but it does have more of a sense of mystery and urgency to it, and it gives the sense that onto of a horror this is also a mystery film. 

Regression Scene

I have picked out this particular scene because this is probably one of the most frightening, upsetting scenes throughout. The reason for this for me was not because it takes place in pitch black, but because of the audio used. When the psychic, Aurora tries to get into contact with the sprouts in the house she sees them in the bedroom, all in bed dying as they were years before when they are poisoned. Their screaming and crying can be heard through the transmitter, and even though they can't be seen, this scene has always stayed with me because the sounds that can be heard are so extreme and upsetting. Even though its quite a distressing scene, I think the use of audio here has been used brilliantly. 

How this has inspired me..

The main influence I have taken away from this example is the use of audio, weather it is the lack of it in some parts which creates more suspense, or the crackling transmitted sounds of the distressed ghosts. I think both samples are really effective, this has made me think about the possibility of having dialogue in my sequence, and if so possibly have it edited in some way to make it sound faded or static to make it sound more threading. Its also got me thinking about the possibility of having quite minimal sound in some parts. 

Examples for inspiration - The Others

 This 2001 horror/thriller was written, directed and scored by Alejandro Amenabar. I have incorporated it into my research because I think it is very well made. It tells the story of a young woman who believes she has been given a second chance from God after attempting to smother her two children in their sleep and then take her own life. Both of her children suffer from a rare disease causing them to be unable to handle exposure to sunlight, causing their daily life to be focused around a series of fixed rules to ensure their health and well being stays in tact. Through out the film there are growing disturbances in the house such as unexplained noises and the moving of objects. Grace Stewart (played by Nicole Kidman) begins by blaming her new housekeeping staff however she comes to believe their is something worse going on. Her children claim to be seeing ghosts and it eventually gets to a point where the family is unable to continue on with their lives until something is done. (There is a very clever twist however I won't divulge that!)

Environment and characters

The films is set just after World War II, so the design of the house and the areas surrounding it will automatically be quite antique. The fact that the two children can't be exposed to sunlight is a convenient aspect because this has triggered a very lugubrious mood to the film. We constantly see dark rooms, with only an oil lamp to give any illumination. The house itself is quite plain and actually very depressing, which I think gives off the right kind of vibe for this film. However some people could argue that it is very cliche. But we must remember the time this adaptation is set in.

Although there are no assigned "goodies" or "baddies" in this film, there has been some deliberate dispositions placed on certain characters to make us feel a certain way towards them. It makes the audience uncertain about who they should be vulnerable towards. The two children are contrasts of one another, the boy being very timid and easily frightened and the girl being quite rebellious and finding great fun in making her brother scared of "ghosts"

Audio

The opening title sequence used has inspired me significantly. This is because, the music itself which was created by Alejandro Amenabar is very gentle and slightly eerie however it isn't overly scary. This might also be because the first scene of the film begins with a scream from the lead character as she wakes up suddenly, so the jump from the introductory music to this is quite a shock. The Title sequence itself along side the music is very effective, because it shows key parts of the film in a hand drawn version. The lighting of this is similar to the lighting in the film, very dark and it look a lot like somebody is hovering a candle or a lantern over it. This helps put the viewer in the right mindset, after the title sequence they will be expecting a very dark film, not just literally but also psychologically. 

Through out the film, especially during scenes of suspense there is actually a lack of audio which I think gives the whole thing more suspense and makes it more believable, and put the viewer in the position where they feel like they are there in the situation with the character. (and lets face it, if theres no music, your expecting a big thud at some point, so that'll have you sitting there on edge)

How this has influenced me..

Up until now I had had the idea of using stop motion animation for my sequence, however after re watching the title sequence for this film, it has led me to broaden my ideas when it comes to the method of animation, because I really admire how effective the hand drawn art is. I think I found it so effective because it is very melancholic and monotone, which reflects the mood of the film and also the time it is set in (my chosen story is set in modern day so this is something I will need to take into account)

Examples for inspiration - The Woman in Black

The House

 The Woman in Black is a 1983 novel by Susan Hill, which is another reason I felt it was appropriate to use this as an example, it is also not the first adaptation of this book brought to life. It has previously been made into a film and has been performed as a play. After seeing this film in 2012 which was directed by James Watkins, I realised that one of the aspects of it which frightened me the most was not only the woman herself (who is in fact terrifying) but also the adaptation of Eel Marsh house and the village it is near. The design of the abandoned house allows it to feel cold and eery, I think this has been achieved by dark, Victorian style of it. To be honest, if it wasn't for the attention to detail payed to the design of set, I wouldn't have found it half as scary. The long hallways, never ending stairs and the lack of light and care for the house allow it to feel like a very unwelcoming place. Even the outside lands around the house are off putting. It is surrounded by the marshes and the incoming tide, as well as being completely overgrown and neglected. You would have to be pretty stupid to go in there along to be honest.

 The Woman

Before seeing this adaptation I had begun reading the book and was actually really impressed and slightly relieved to see that her appearance almost matched her written description (in my opinion)
I realised that it was the smaller details which made her more terrifying to me. First of all the jet black 19th century dress accompanied by a black bonnet and face net do make her rather

intimidating. However aside from this, the thing that scared me more was way she was filmed when it came to camera angles and lighting. For example there is a scene near the start (image is shown on the left) where she is shown behind Arthur as she slowly turns to face him. However she the focus is not on her, so she is blurred and she is not on screen for more than a few seconds and in that time she does nothing more except turn on the spot in a very doll like manner. The audio to accompany this is silent until there is the faint sound of a distant female breath being drawn. Even when she is shown close up at the end (again shown on the left) it is frightening because it looks believable and not overdone. Her face is pale and covered with a net, and her eyes are made to look dark and sunk backwards slightly not her head, but not so much that it looks too exaggerated.

I actually found these more subtle encounters with the character more frightening than the instances where CGI was used to show the closeups of her screaming face - Although they did still scare me. But I'm still a sucker for the good old subtleties .

Audio

There is no doubt that the opening audio for this film is pretty creepy and I think it does a really good job at putting the audience in the right frame of mind for what is to come (which is what I will need to achieve in my title sequence). This piece of music used which was composed by Marco Edward Beltrami purely for the purpose of this film, is really effective because it is quite a subtle piece of music and definitely sent a chill or two down my spine, especially when it was accompanied by the first scene. The fact that it gradually builds up and ends on a high pitched overflowing of sound completely on its own definitely sets an uneasy mood for the rest of the film. So I think this is a piece of audio works extremely well. Even though I have not yet decided on specific audio, I still think this is important to take into account.

How this has influenced me..

The setting of this film, has encouraged me to think a lot about not just the characters I will incorporate into my title sequence but also the surrounding environment, and how this will reflect the ambience of the story in the time provided. Its got me thinking a lot about the colour schemes and possible camera angles I will use and how this will effect the viewers perspective. Re watching certain parts of this film has reminded me how effective and chilling I find the more subtle inputs and how I remember them more than the bigger, more computer generated moments, so this is something I will take into my own work. 

Mood board time!

When it comes to putting something psychological or supernatural on the screen, it can be easy to fall into a trap of clichés. I do believe that when something is being brought to life from a book, there is sometimes extra pressure and demand to make the adaptation not only believable but also to allow it commensurate with the book. I want my title sequence to be chilling, I do not want to watch it in 3 months time and feel like it is a complete cliche. 

As somebody who has always been into watching lots of psychological and scary things I already have a lot of specific examples I can take influence from. I have thrown together this mood board because some of these examples are from moment which have stuck with me ever since I first watched them. The images above are all from specific films, not title sequences however they are all relevant to me in this instance because some of them for different reasons, quite frankly scared the pants off me. 

These are just a few of the examples I could have provided, but it is clear from a first glance that all of these snippets have something in common, they are all very dark and quite chilling. Thats why I have chosen to provide these examples. The surroundings such as the long empty corridor in "The Grudge" or the sheer size and pressuring nature of Eel Marsh House in "The Woman in Black" all add to the unnerving  emotions these films give off, just as much as the characters themselves. "The Others", "The Woman in Black", "Insidious 2" and "Poltergeist" are all supernatural films which have their main environmental focus point on a house. This is something which I know I will be aiming for myself so I will want to look in more detail how these adaptations have intertwined the characters and the supernatural forces together, and how they have created these environments in a way that will make the audience feel vulnerable but at the same time eager to watch. The same goes for the adaptation of the more feared characters in the films. 

A Tale in the Sting

For this brief, I have chosen to work with the "Titles" choice, because I love the idea of giving a book its own title sequence. This idea was appealing to me because even though I am taking the story from my chosen book, the title sequence itself will be something completely original and not yet done.

My Chosen Book

A lot of the books I have read have already been turned to the big screen, however I have recently been reading a new psychological ghost story called, "The Haunting of James Hastings" by Christopher Ransom. It is about a young man who lives in LA with his loving wife of five years, later to find she has been tragically killed after being hit by a van. The story begins 12 months later, when strange things begin happening around the house and in James's mind. He starts to think he is loosing his sanity, but he also begins to ask the question weather or not his wife is back to haunt him.

I thought this would be a rather interesting title sequence to produce, because I want to create something quite dark and sinister. Also, the descriptions from the book have allowed me to visualise the surrounding environments and characters and the fact that this book hasn't been adapted to film means I wont be influenced by somebody else's visual response to it. I am simply going of what information the book has given me and the way in which I have interpreted it. I watch a lot of supernatural films and series so I will have a lot of examples to use for research and inspiration through out! 

Maya - 3D modelling

After being introduced to MAYA we were given the task of creating a basic truck and another object of our choice. I decided to model a laptop because I didn't want to do something too complicated at this point giving the fact I had never used this software before. 

After completing these models, I felt really pleased because it wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I became familiar with the basic tools which allowed me to create, move, rotate and resize shapes. This allowed me to play around and alter the camera angle which was helpful because I got a better idea of how well put together my models were. I would consider using MAYA more in the future because it was less intimidating than I thought it was going to be, and once I got the hang of it, it was really enjoyable. 

Pendulum 

After getting past the first basics, we were given the task of creating 2 pendulums in MAYA. The first of which was pretty basic, the second one however was segmented and needed to have more weight to the end of it, it needed to look more realistic. This was achieved by making the end ball flick up more in comparison with the rest of the shape, which gave the sense of weight and gravity. 

Bouncy Balls

I have also created two bouncy balls using Maya, one of which is made to look hard and heavy and the other is made to look soft and more bouncy. I did this my creating key frames after I moved the ball individually, and also after squashing or stretching it and changing its dimensions to make them look more realistic. The green ball actually looks like it os bouncing forwards, although this wasn't deliberate, I like the way it looks! 

Turn Around

I also took the truck I had created and made a quick 360 degree turn around of it. This was the quickest task I did out of all of them, but I think it is an effect that I will use in the future because it looks very professional. 

Anticipation

With this task, I had to show the ball's anticipation before it bounces off the ground, similar to the way a person would bend their knees before jumping off the ground. This was simple because I had to go about it in the same way I created the movement of the two bouncy balls. I made it squish downwards and shrink and as it left the ground, made it stretch and extend before going back to normal size. I did this whilst created the key frames each time I moved it. 

Crit Feedback

 After receiving feedback from my peers, we came to the decision that if this animation was to be done again, I would need to pay more attention to the squash and stretch element of it by making the curves thinner as they stretch further away. 

This animation received quite a lot of possotive feedback because of the way in which I had gone about it. People seemed to like the fuzzy effect I gave it using biro. However I think it could have been improved with further manipulation on Photoshop, for example the changing of the colour levels. 

I am really pleased with the unravelling of this sound, however it was a popular suggestion that it would be a better ending to have the ribbon disappear off the screen completely. 

This animation is probably the least fluid out of the 5, it could do with having a few more frames added in there so that it wouldn't look as jumpy. However I did enjoy the whole process of creating it because I love to paint!

A lot of people did seem to think that this animation could use more colour, which I agree with. The intenseness of the sound it shown through the animation however it is very simplistic. 

Larger drawings.

For my 5 larger drawings I wanted to keep using a mix of media because I knew this would create some very contrasting interpretations of the sounds. I found working on a larger scale like this to be an interesting change and it made me realise how much I have missed working large scale. 

My three favourite medias to use together are watercolour, acrylics and fine liners. So I savoured this opportunity! 

I used watercolours and fine liner for this second piece too because I think fine liner is a really useful way of creating ripples and bends in order to make the shapes look as though they are moving. 

I chose to use charcoal for one of the pieces simply because I love to use it. I like being able to show the contrast from light to dark. 

One of the medias I find the most therapeutic is biro. I find it really easy to create gradual blending with black biro so I thought it would be interesting to do this on a larger scale. 

Frame Time

I chose hand draw my 5 animations because out of everything we have done so far, I feel thats what I have been the most successful with, also it was an excuse for me to use some of my favourite medias such as acrylic paints and biro. I kept the animations quite simple because when visualising sounds I often see one singular object or shape in my head which moves around is manipulated by the sound.

In this animation, I have animated a singular bar which gradually bends with the sound and snaps back into place quickly as the sound suddenly stops. I used black pen to try and bring it out from the background more. 

For this one, the noir sounded a lot like a harp, and the image which kept coming to my head was a ribbon sort of shape which gradually unravels as the sound gets more high pitched. 

One of the sounds was quite static and fuzzy, so I imagined a small squiggle which gradually grows and gets more over grown as the sound gets louder. 

In this animation, It sounded like a bubble browning and then suddenly popping. 

For this fins animation, I wanted to do something a bit different. I created a stop motion animation on paper. The noise sounded like a wave which is radially growing, so I kept adding more to this frame and then taking a picture of it, so once it is played back it will show the biro work growing up the page. 

Experimental drawings

After studying the sounds we were provided with, I carried out some experimental drawings with a mixture of medias in order to get a better idea of which sounds I would want to focus on for my larger drawings and final animations. I was surprised at how difficult I found this task, I had to listen to some of the sounds multiple times to try and visualise the noise in my head.

The popping sort of sounds kept bringing images of bubble like shapes to my head, so I used acrylic to put this down on paper. It was really enjoyable to simply paint since I haven't done that properly in a long time. 

For the drip like sounds I couldn't help but think if the obvious, I thought the use of charcoal would show more variation instead of everything being in bright colours. I have always loved using charcoal because I find it really easy to work with, being able to go from one extreme of darkness to light makes everything that bit more effective. 

I noticed that some of the sounds were quite gradual and either died down or built up. On the other hand some of them were very static and didn't really change much, so whilst listening to them I scribbled some patterns down to see what came to mind. 

Final Large Drawing 

I knew I wanted one of my animations to entail some serious scribbling so for this one I just went with the flow using felt pen.