March 7, 2018

That's Horrifying

I'm back with another blog, and it's only a day behind schedule! I'll try to work on my procrastination by putting up the next blog on time. In fact, I'll try to publish every blog on time. On to the actual blog post. Since the last blog, I've met with my group mates and done research about the horror genre. Understanding a genre is very important if one is trying to satirize said genre.

I'll talk about our group meeting first. We were supposed to work on planning our film opening. That kind of happened; we got a general idea of what the first scene was going to be. Instead we argued some more about what we should do for our project. We made some progress other than the first scene, but not much. Most of the time was spent looking at other films for inspiration. One of the films we looked into was Tragedy Girls. It just happens to be a movie about someone who murders people in relation to social media. Luckily, there are some key differences between our idea and this movie: we only have one killer and the motives are completely different.

                                 

It should be noted I haven't seen this movie, only the trailer. This film is a similar idea to what we have in mind, but it definitely has a different goal. It most certainly has a light hearted tone due to all the comedy; we will have satirical elements, but we're still going for a darker atmosphere. I'm just amazed that an idea so similar to ours has nothing in it that I want to build off of. It somehow manages to be completely different to what I picture our project looking like, despite being similar concepts.

As far as genre research goes, I've found some interesting information. I did some research into sub-genres and decided what our movie would fall under. Our film would likely fall under teen-horror which, according to thescriptlab, "often play upon traditional teenage issues, such as dating and prom, and turn them into suspenseful and thrilling situations." I'd argue that's a rather spot on definition for what our film is trying to do.

According to an article by Variety, 60% of the horror movie audience is made up of 15 to 30 year olds. This is pretty good considering our film is based on social media which is mostly a young man's (and woman's) game. Another bit of information from the same article: the audience of horror is made up of 33% more minorities than an average movie. This might cause some issues given our two main characters are probably going to be rich white girls, but plenty of other horror movies have gotten away with this.

Sebastian had wanted to implement some social commentary into our film opening. He said plenty of movies do it, such as The Purge, Get Out, and even Tragedy Girls. I was skeptical of the idea at first, I didn't think it fit a satirical horror. Then I did some research and discovered I was wrong, shocking I know. Mike Epifani, a journalist with plenty of experience in the industry, argues that social commentary is the best genre for social commentary in his article creatively named "Horror is the Best Genre for Social Commentary". His main point is the comparison of successful protests and horror films: both get under your skin and make you uncomfortable. This isn't exactly statistical evidence or a scientific study, but he kind of has a point. After reading the entire article, I've decided Sebastian is on to something. We're probably going to be incorporating some social commentary into our film, here's hoping it goes well.

References:

Buffam, N. (2011, March 26). Horror. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/990-horror/

Epifani, M. (2017, October 20). Horror is the Best Genre for Social Commentary. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://www.heardtell.com/movies-and-tv/horror-best-genre-social-commentary

Get Out (2017). (n.d.). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/

Lang, B. (2016, October 26). Horror Movies Make Tough Times Less Scary for Studios. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://variety.com/2016/film/news/horror-movies-1201900551/

The Purge (2013). (n.d.). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/

MacIntyre, T. (Director), & Hill, C. L., MacIntyre, T., & Olson, J. (Writers). (2017). Tragedy Girls[Video file]. Gunpowder & Sky. Retrieved March 7, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GmFP7pfz1U&ab_channel=Gunpowder%26Sky

Tragedy Girls (2017). (n.d.). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3859272/
Epifani, M. (2017, October 20). Horror is the Best Genre for Social Commentary. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://www.heardtell.com/movies-and-tv/horror-best-genre-social-commentary
Buffam, N. (2011, March 26). Horror. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/990-horror/
Get Out (2017). (n.d.). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/
Lang, B. (2016, October 26). Horror Movies Make Tough Times Less Scary for Studios. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://variety.com/2016/film/news/horror-movies-1201900551/
The Purge (2013). (n.d.). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/
MacIntyre, T. (Director), & Hill, C. L., MacIntyre, T., & Olson, J. (Writers). (2017). Tragedy Girls[Video file]. Gunpowder & Sky. Retrieved March 7, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GmFP7pfz1U&ab_channel=Gunpowder%26Sky
Tragedy Girls (2017). (n.d.). Retrieved March 07, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3859272/

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