This shot is one of the first

shots of the opening and is a

close up in a party scene. We
originally didnt have this
scene in the film but decided
the narrative of our opening
was a bit weak and thought it
would be a good idea to add.
We drew inspiration from
several party scenes in films
we had seen in the past like
Wolf of Wall Street and
Beerfest(1), these films arent
horror films but both include
party scenes where there is
alcohol consumption etc. so
from this we decided to
include shots of people
drinking at an implied party.

In this shot there is a conversation between the main character and

someone from the party and they are talking about her leaving the party.
To film this we got all the lines the character had to say in one recording
and then during the editing process split the clips up and arranged them
in the order the conversation needed to be in, this made filming much
easier and more convenient. We used over shoulder shots for this
conversation because it allows the viewer to see who is speaking and
who is being spoken to and lets them see any reactions etc. that may
occur. This kind of shot is used for most conversations in all genres of
films and we saw it in the conjuring (2) however, when it was used in the
conjuring it was a very on-edge scene but ours is a much more casual
scene.

This was shot in a playground and is a shot of the

swing beginning to move on its own. We used this
shot because its in a playground and in horror films
children are often found scary because their
innocence is often revoked or destroyed and replaced
by something evil so using a playground was a
convenient horror convention to play on. Also the fact
that the swing moves is portentous of that there is a
presence in or around the playground.

This close up on the main

characters feet was
inspired from a shot we
saw in the opening of the
film The Ring in which
there is a close up of
someones bare feet
walking through a small
puddle of water(3). We
decided it would be a
good idea to include this
shot because it would
add some more diverse
camera work to our
piece.

For this shot we used a slight pan across the alley to

show that the antagonist is no longer following her from
behind so for a second the main character may believe
she is safe. We also used this shot to allow the viewer to
see the entire setting and to try and highlight how
sinister the alley looks and shows how secluded and
closed in it is. We thought using this alley was a good
idea because a very common convention of horrors is to
be isolated and to have no escape and as this is a
narrow alley with only two directions to run in, that
feeling of no escape would hit the viewer when watching
the opening because they can see that the main
character has nowhere else to run.

This shot is a Point-of-view (POV) shot of the main

character running up the alley, this shot reinforces the
idea of isolation because we can see that there is nowhere
to run but further into the alley. We also used this shot
because it allows the viewer to feel like theyre also being
chased by putting them in the same position as the main
character. POV shots are used very often in horror films,
for example in the film Halloween the start of the film
includes a long POV shot(5) however this POV shot is from
the killers perspective whereas in our film it is from the
protagonists POV.

This reaction shot is

particularly significant within
the opening as it is the first
time she notices something
happen she hears a band and
glances round to see what it
was, but theres nothing there.
This shot was also useful
because she shows some fear
in the expression she is using
which obviously implies that
what just happened is a bit out
of the ordinary. We also wanted
to use this shot as women
being portrayed as the weak
victims is a very big convention
of horror films and this shot
implies that she is going to be
the damsel in distress.

In this shot we used what is

commonly known as dramatic
irony which means the viewer
can see or knows of something
on screen and the main
character doesnt know. We
have done this by having the
antagonist stood in the
background with the main girl
walking obliviously in the
foreground. We saw this kind of
dramatic irony when looking
into The Woman in Black as
there are several shots where
the woman can be seen on the
screen but not by the main
character(4). In this shot you
can also see the characters full
attire; we had her dress like that
because we wanted her to look
like she had just been to a party
and was dressed up for it.
The title of our film opening is New Years Eve. We chose this title
because as it is a simple title it sounds rather ominous especially
because New Years Eve is often a happy and fun occasion and the
fact that the viewer will know its a horror means they will know that
something bad is going to happen. We got the idea of using a popular
holiday as the title from films such as Halloween, however, we used
New Years Eve which doesnt have many connotations with horror
which meant we had to try and make the narrative as strong as
possible to portray that it was a horror. Originally we didnt use this
font but we made the last minute decision to change it because the
rest of the title screens we used were in this font and figured it may
look better if all the title screens were in the same font. We also
thought that the simplicity of this font enhanced the fear factor we
wanted to put across.

3.

2.

5.