Here is an example of the opening to a horror film, this film is called 'The Shinning' thought to be one of the top horror films to date. The opening credits create a very uneasy feel for the viewer with the non-diegetic sound building tension. There is no specific horrific scene but the sound makes a viewer want to carry on viewing. This tells me that hone it comes to my final task sound is extremely important when trying to create tension.
This is the opening scene to The Woman In Black I have personally seen this film and thought it was an excellent horror/thriller film. The film creates its horror scenes through frightening the audience by making them 'jump' with fear by people and objects appearing on screen suddenly. This opening scene ends on a cliff anger encouraging the viewer to continue viewing the film as the opening scene is an impact seen with questions unanswered and shocking scenes. This would help me in my final task by deciding whether I would have a strong impacting opening scene.
This is the opening sequence to the 1978 hit 'Halloween' the opening credits are dated but that is because of the age of the film. The opening proves that horror films still have a similar narratives and follow the same codes and conventions. This opening again follows with the shock scenes and opening with action.
Here is the opening credits to the original movie Dawn Of The Dead. In these opening credits we see the narrative explained to us in short cut clips with scenes from around the country of a zombie attack. The short clips create tensions in the opening and create a narrative hook as as an audience we want to continue viewing to find out what caused this.
This is the opening to the 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre which has been voted the 3rd best horror film of all time by timeout.com. The use of a black out creates high tension until the flash of the horrific images come up of screen making an audience jump right from the start, even though there is no physical action on screen only flashes of images.
This opening has been taken from a recent film called 'Sinister' from the makers of Paranormal Activity. The opening scene is very short and also is shocking to an audience, this is because they don't fit the codes and conventions and the audience witness the murder of what seems to be a family with children which is unusual. This opening has shown me that a horror film would only have to have one shocking scene to create a atmosphere.
Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher, his narrative theory idea was that all texts that involve a narrative had a five stage cycle to them. Each stage happens in most narrtive texts such as plays, books and films. These stages involve the equlibriums.
Here is a short video clip of me talking about the narrative in Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho. The camera shots and quality are not top quality die to it being filmed on a Iphone 5 demonstaring my use of a range of technology and new media. Bleow there is also a clip from the famous shower scene from Psycho to compliment my video.
Here is a short video i have found during research of the hypodermic needle theory explaining it in brief. The source was YouTube and was uploaded by Brett Lamb.
Basically in brief the hypodermic needle theory was created over 80 years ago during the first world war. It tells us how mass media affects the audience and almost offends a modern day audience as it represents the audience as being stupid and naive and believes that an audience will accept anything they are fed without using their own minds to question and think about the information they are being given. This model is very dated and was mainly used for propaganda during the war. It suggests that the mass media can affect the way we behave and the decisions we make. This model has been linked with modern day audience in the form of rap music and the sexual representation of stars thinking that an audience may copy these without taking in and using their minds to think about what message they are sending out.
The theory then proved ridiculous to media researchers and they then came up with the Two - Step theory.I have taken the following information form the website www.mediaknowall.com and it is a brief paragraph on the two step flow diagram which was discovered during my research of the hypodermic needle model.... "The Hypodermic model quickly proved too clumsy for media researchers seeking to more precisely explain the relationship between audience and text. As the mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world and did NOT reduce populations to a mass of unthinking drones, a more sophisticated explanation was sought. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice. Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm."
Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who analysed old Russian Folk stories in the 1920's through his analysis he discovered that the same events were repeatedly taking place throughout these stories. Propp broke the stories down into different key characters and moments the appear in many texts. This theory is know known around the world by many writers, directors and literacy theorists and has had a massive influence the stories they tell to a modern day audience. Here are some examples of his theory and some characters in film they apply to.
The Villain - (Antagonist) usually has an issue or struggle with the protagonist. (E.G Lord Voldemort Harry Potter)
The Helper - Helps the protagonist on his quest. ( E.G Donkey Shrek)
The Hero - The hero departs on a search usually to defeat the villain or rescue the princess (E.G Tom Cruse in Knight and Day)
The Princess - is a reward for the villain, marries the hero and usually sought after the hero during the narrative. (E.G Rapunzel Tangled)
The Donor - helps the hero by providing him with a magic object. (E.G Letters in P.S I Love You)
The Dispatcher - the character who send the hero on his quest (E.G Agent Z in Men In Black)
The False Hero - This character may seem to be good but wants to steal part of the hero's 'Lime-light'.
Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher, his narrative theory idea was that all texts that involve a narrative had a five stage cycle to them. Each stage happens in most narrtive texts such as plays, books and films. These stages involve the equlibriums. 
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Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who analysed old Russian Folk stories in the 1920's through his analysis he discovered that the same events were repeatedly taking place throughout these stories. Propp broke the stories down into different key characters and moments the appear in many texts. This theory is know known around the world by many writers, directors and literacy theorists and has had a massive influence the stories they tell to a modern day audience. Here are some examples of his theory and some characters in film they apply to.
