Genre research- Horror

My primary objective for the foundation portfolio is to create the impression of two distinct genres within a single movie. To accomplish that, I need to do some research on the two genres I hope to achieve with my promotion trailers, starting with the horror genre. As I'm focusing on sound in this production, I'm also going to research sound specifically after basic research of the genre itself. 

While searching for some background information, I came across this article by Master Class. 

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-horror-fiction 

According to masterclass the goal of the horror genre in literature, cinema, and television is to frighten, shock, and sometimes even disgust viewers. A horror book, movie, or television program's main goal is to make the reader feel uneasy by using terrifying scenarios, ideas, and imagery. In the horror genre, narrative and characters have equal significance to mood and setting. A horror story's study of the unknown frequently shocks and provokes.

There are 6 Sub-genres of horror novels: Gothic, Paranormal, Occult, Dark-fantasy, Survival, and Science fiction horror. Often more than one of these merge together to create a hybrid of these sub-genres, for instance The Blair Witch project has Paranormal, Survival, and Gothic sub-genres to create a horrifying horror film. 

Another source I looked at was the reliable no film schools 'Defining the Horror Genre in Movies and TV'     https://nofilmschool.com/horror-genre

According to them now, the goal of the horror film and television genre is to evoke in viewers feelings of terror, disgust, dread, and fear. It has thrilling rides, inventive monsters, ghouls, ghosts, slashers, animals, and gore. Since French director Georges Melies produced the first horror picture in 1896, the genre has undergone changes. The works of Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, and Edgar Allan Poe served as inspiration for the first horror film.

Horror movies frequently depict the advancement and social consciousness of society. Jump scares, haunted houses, slashers, zombies, and other ominous monsters are a few of the clichés. Certain movies, such as Scream and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, spoof these clichés by bringing them to the attention of the characters.

Now focusing on sound in horror, I found this article about the progression of sound in film. 

https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125964757.pdf 

For a quick summarization: in addition to helping to tell the story, portray people and objects, highlight the environment, and serve other purposes, sound in horror films also reacts to the psychology of the viewer and works in tandem with the visual effects to incite fear and build anticipation in the viewer, which results in the viewer's natural identification and engagement with the film's content. All of these demonstrate how important sound is to horror films. 

My main takeaways to the horror genre and how sound effects it is how it is based on the human psychology of fear and anxiety. In this setting, the goals of both horror and sound design are to create a fresh scene that is full of fright, anxiety, and dread. The purpose of sound in horror films is to occasionally produce a jarring dissonance that evokes uneasiness and increases the likelihood of being startled. Something I've seen personally without doing research is a repetitive sound playing like the harsh dissonance of music, then a very sudden stop of the music as a character turns around and is met by the horrifying demonic presence. 

As Far as editing goes, I'm not entirely focused on just that since I'll be more focused on sound during post-production but something I will use as compared to our comedy trailer is the lighting and colourisation of the film as a whole. The ambient lighting will be a low saturated monotone blue scheme. This picture of one of the scream movies is the most accurate dictation of what I'm trying to explain. 

                                                                            

As for editing techniques, I'm going to try to challenge myself to use intellectual montages to give our story a deep meaning, and since we are doing trailers for a film that's never going to be made, using this editing technique we may be able to tell the full story without giving it away during the trailer (nobody likes that). 

I'll be using this research when planning our pitch for this project.