RESEARCH
For the research for my short film project, I researched the concept of horror and what attracts people to the genre with a focus on the Scream franchise. I have seen all the Scream movies but chose to concentrate on the original Scream (1996) and Scream 5 (2022) which is widely hailed as the "reboot". I have also researched short films.
For my primary research, I developed a short survey to gather my own data. I received a total of 13 responses to the survey. 92% of respondents were aged 16-25. this is significant as we know that this age group is most likely to like this genre. 46% of respondents reported that Horror was their favourite genre and 69% stated that they liked horror films. When asked what they lik about horror films, comments included:
"I like the feeling of being on edge." and "I enjoy being scared!"
Style Research
Short Films are defined as any film with a runtime of less than 40 minutes. Other than that, short films can cover any genre or features as a full length movie.
Short films typically follow the same pre-production and production processes as any other film from research to screen writing, casting and lighting.
Short Films are a key feature at the Academy Awards so they are definitely a career worth exploring.
Types of Short Films
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Live-action Short Film (also called "narrative") - is like any other fictional film with live actors, but with a shorter run time. Typically, filmmakers make shorts early in their careers and go on to produce feature length films.
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Documentary Short Film - similarly like the live-action short, teh documentary short is a documentary but with a much shorter run time. In contrast to the live action short, those making documentary shorts often continue to make these rather than moving on to feature length.
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Animated Short Film - like other shorts, animated shorts use the same techniques as feature length animations. The key difference with animation is that some animated shorts can be produced by an artist more of less on their own.
Scream (1996)
The original Slasher Film
The original Scream movie is an absolute classic and regarded as many peoples favourite ever horror movies due to its utter brilliance. I fell that the whole phone calling the victims tactic used by the “GhostFace” character creates a very unsettling and uneasy atmosphere for the characters on screen. What also adds to it is the fact that its humorous it helps to distract from the gory and brutal killings by GhostFace. The start of the film really sets the tone for the rest of it pretty quick straight away introducing how the rest of the film will pan out with the phone call teasing each victim.
Scream also makes fun at how a horror movie should happen this is done by the characters answering trivia questions about other horror movies. They are also fans of horror films themselves little do they know there in one at the moment. What makes the films atmosphere so tense and jumpy is its beautifully wrote score which matches which marries the scenes perfectly. GhostFace has a sort of animal like quality and this is projected on screen so feel physically and visually.
Cinematography is key for a film to be brilliant and screams is just stunning the use of lighting to dim the setting and the mood for each scene and helping contrast what's happening but not to pull the focus away from the story. Fast pace shots when GhostFace is in attack mode including jump scares cut up shots to add tension and make it dramatic with a combination of close ups too. Great character close ups of the phone calls to show the raw emotion and wide shots to open up the scene an create depth on screen.
Scream 5 (2022)
A Slasher Film for a new age
Set Twenty-five years after the original Scream film, a high school student called Tara is home alone when she is attacked by Ghostface. Tara's older sister finds out what happened and quickly returns to Woodsboro with her boyfriend. when they arrive. Later that night, Liv's ex-boyfriend Vince is killed by Ghostface. After seeing Ghostface at the hospital, Sam tells Tara that she has been getting hallucinations of her biological father.
Sam and Richie ask Dewey for his help with stopping Ghostface. With the new attacks being on people related to the original killers, Mindy comes up with the idea that the attacks are connected to the original killings.
Ghostface then murders Wes and his mother the Sheriff at their home. He then moves on to attack Tara and Richie at the hospital but they are saved by Dewey and Sam. Dewey is killed at the end of this scene.
The attacks continue at a party to remember Wes where it is revealed that the killers are in fact Richie and Amber who declare that they are fans of the Stab Films and decided to go on their own killing spree to bring back the original friend group.
The cinematography is of course similar to the original films - it creates the same mood and the shots of Ghostface as classic. But, personally I prefer the original and it will be my main inspiration.