SM6P07NI Digital Media Project

25% Research and Proposal

2019-20 Autumn

Student Name: Sugam Neupane

London Met ID: 15042900

College ID: [email protected]

External Supervisor: Binod Gautam

Internal Supervisor Vijay Amrit Chaudhuri
Assignment Submission Date:

Word Count: 2514

Project File Links:
YouTube Link: Keep Unlisted YouTube URL of your
Project Here
Google Drive Link: Keep Google Drive URL of your Project
Here with Anyone in Organization can
View Option Enabled

I confirm that I understand my coursework needs to be submitted online via Google Classroom under the
relevant module page before the deadline in order for my assignment to be accepted and marked. I am
fully aware that late submissions will be treated as non-submission and a marks of zero will be awarded.
Abstract

The report given below is about Short Film titled “Mr Mystery”: The Psychological short
film, the current situation of Filmmaking and its techniques and ideas.
The introduction includes the perception of the topic and the description about the
scenario that will be shown is the video. It also includes the recent state about the films.
It also contains the reason of having to complete this project. Discussion about other
different short films and similar projects are done. Background includes the tools and
techniques used in making this film Study of different methodologies of approaching the
project have been carried out and the explanation of chosen one for this project has
been done.
The work completed till date have been mentioned and the work left to be carried out
have also been mentioned likewise.
We usually define “fear” as a negative emotion, which is unpleasant. Normally, we
desperately want to avoid this emotion because it causes distress and terror. However,
the aesthetics and psychology behind horror films explain “fear” can be a pleasurable
experience. “Fear” is an essential element in horror genre, which is why we consistently
crave the adrenaline rush in scary films. Neuroscientists, psychologists, and filmmakers
constantly study viewers’ fear responses to see which techniques can terrify audiences.
This thesis demonstrates the different methods filmmakers create to attract the
audience in enjoying horror films. As well as, including psychological and scientific
studies to explain how scary films affect our brain and body. Keywords: horror films,
psychology, aesthetics, mise-en-scène, cinematic technique
Contents
Section A: Research..........................................................................................................1
1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1
2 Literature Review.....................................................................................................2
3 Product Review........................................................................................................3
4 Summary and Conclusions......................................................................................4
Section B: Project Proposal...............................................................................................5
1 Project Title..............................................................................................................5
2 Research Question..................................................................................................6
3 Treatment.................................................................................................................7
4 Resources................................................................................................................8
5 Contribution of Others..............................................................................................9
6 Evaluation & Testing..............................................................................................10
References.......................................................................................................................11
Bibliography.....................................................................................................................12
Appendix..........................................................................................................................13
Section A: Research

1 Introduction

My topic is Mr Mystery. It is a horror short film that is filmed in a room according to the
budget. This video will include horror scene of a man who is working. Many sound
effects will also be added.
This project is the production of a horror short video for the viewers. Sensible
developments, live catches visuals and sound of better places and different moods and
many audios with licence will be included in this project which will be edited in premiere
pro and after effects.
The main theme of this horror video is to entertain and scare people. Along with
focusing the viewers, the motive of this video is also to show the afterlife of a soul who
is still unknown about it. Every sector like audio, casting, edits is researched. Scary
environment is the main focus of this project.
The report given below is about Short Film titled “Mr Mystery”: The Psychological short
film. The introduction includes the perception of the topic and the description about the
scenario that will be shown is the video. It also includes the recent state about the films.
It also contains the reason of having to complete this project. Discussion about other
different short films and similar projects are done. Background includes the tools and
techniques used in making this film Study of different methodologies of approaching the
project have been carried out and the explanation of chosen one for this project has
been done.
The work completed till date have been mentioned and the work left to be carried out
have also been mentioned likewise.

“A short film is any motion picture not long enough to be considered a feature
film.”
This project is the production of a short Film for the media company “Sugam Visuals” as
the Final year project (FYP). Realistic movements live captured visuals and audios will
be included in this project which shall be edited in Adobe Premier Pro and After Effects.
The aim of this short film is to convey a strong emotion to the audience. Whether it is,
anger, sadness or laughter. Such emotions do not give the audience time to think about
the film or make their minds' up. There will also be a strong connection with the
characters in the film, as the character is focused throughout.
Why do we watch horror films? What makes horror films so exciting to watch? Why do
our bodies sweat and muscles tense when we are scared? How do filmmakers,
producers, sound engineers, and cinematographers specifically design a horror film?

1
Can horror movies cause negative, lasting effects on the audience? These are some of
the questions that are answered by exploring the aesthetics of horror films and the
psychology behind horror movies.
This video may long 3 to 5 minutes which will contain all the objectives of this video.

2
2 Literature Review

Although watching horror films can make us feel anxious and uneasy, we still continue
to watch other horror films one after another. It is ironic how we hate the feeling of being
scared, but we still enjoy the thrill. So why do we pay money to watch something to be
scared?
Eight Theories on why we watch Horror Films
From research by philosophers, psychoanalysts, and psychologists there are theories
that can explain why we are drawn to watching horror films.
The first theory, psychoanalyst, Freud portrays that horror comes from the “uncanny” –
emergence of images and thoughts of the primitive id. The purpose of horror films is to
highlight unconscious fears, desire, urges, and primeval archetypes that are buried
deep in our collective subconscious – images of mothers and shadows play important
roles because they are common to us all. For example, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, a
mother plays the role of evil in the main character’s subconscious. We watch scary
movies because they help us to release our anxiety and fears deep inside our
conscious.
The Greek Philosopher Aristotle introduced “catharsis,” which is a process where we
release our negative emotions by watching violent or scary movies. In other words, they
help us to “purge” our aggressive emotions. We also burn our negative feelings and
worries about the real world and expel them by watching horror films. In the end, the
killer, the antagonist has to suffer, which gives the ultimate resolution for the viewers.
Dr. Dolf Zillman’s Excitation Transfer theory (1983) is a continuation of the catharsis
theory. From the article, “The Psychology of Scary Movies,” author John Hess
comments on Negative feelings created by horror movies actually intensify the positive
feelings when the hero triumphs in the end… And even some small studies have shown
that people’s enjoyment was actually higher during the scary parts of a horror film than it
was after.
A third theory of the Excitation-transfer process is not limited to a single emotion. For
example, at first, when the audience sees the villain defeating the hero they are angry,
but this excitation changes to pleasure when the second stimulus occurs when the hero
wins. This “pleasure” makes up the third theory, Dispositional Alignment Theory, which
indicates that, we like watch horror movies because we want the “bad” people in the film
to be killed.
Noel Carroll, film scholar states the idea that horror films are the product of curiosity and
fascination. In his article, “Why Horror?” Carroll quotes that, “horror genre gives every
evidence of being pleasurable to its audience, but it does so by means of trafficking in
the very sorts of things that cause disquiet, distress, and displeasure” (Jancovich, 2002,

3
p. 33). He talks about audience’s reactions to the horror that exists outside of everyday.
Therefore explaining that the emotions of disquiet, distress, and displeasure are not
pleasurable, but horror films can manipulate these emotions as quite enjoyable. Also,
according to Carroll, we want to understand why monsters exist in the first place and
they are fascinating because they are part of fantasy. He states, “thus, we are attracted
to, and many of us seek out, horror fictions of this sort despite the fact that they provoke
disgust, because that disgust is required for the pleasure involved in engaging our
curiosity in the unknown and drawing it into the processes of revelation, ratiocination,
etc” (Jancovich, 2002, p. 37). Carroll argues that “disgusting” is “fascinating” since it
violates our classificatory schema. Moreover, Carroll states, “all narratives might be
thought to involve the desire to know…However, the horror fiction is a special variation
on this general narrative motivation, because it has at the center of it something which
is given as in principle unknowable” (Jancovich, 2002, p. 35). This meaning, the
audience already knows that the plot and the characters are already “disgusting”, but
the surprises in the horror narrative through the discovery of curiosity should give
satisfaction.
Marvin Zuckerman (1979) proposed that people who scored high in sensation seeking
scale often reported a greater interest in exciting things like rollercoasters, bungee
jumping and horror films. He argued more individuals who are attracted to horror movies
desire the sensation of experience. However, researchers did not find the correlation to
thrill-seeking activities and enjoyment of watching horror films always significant.
The Gender Socialization theory (1986) by Zillman, Weaver, Mundorf and Aust exposed
36 male and 36 female undergraduates to a horror movie with the “same age, opposite-
gender companion of low or high initial appeal who expressed mastery, affective
indifference, or distress.” They reported that young men enjoyed the film mostly when
female companions were distressed by the movies. Young women enjoyed the movie
mostly when their male companions were less frightened.
DJ Skal, cultural historian, explains that horror films are a reflection of our societal fears.
In his book, The Monster Show, he talks about horror entertainment links between the
great social crises of our time. David J. Skal’s work is described as “directly related to
the country’s current economic woes and fears about a failing safety net and a changing
world.” Horror entertainment is the outlet to let out social anxieties and become a place
to escape from societal failures.
Professor Glenn Sparks told Seeker, a media of discovery, “fear is a negative emotion
that comes about when people are under siege or threat.” But in the case of watching
horror films or going on rollercoasters, people enjoy fear that comes with experience.
According to Seeker, 6 “the enjoyment some people get from fear is likely not from fear
itself but from “the physical and emotional release that follows scary situations.” In other
words, Seeker explains, “for certain individuals, the desire to feel fear is a manifestation
of an adrenaline-seeking personality.”

4
5
3 Product Review

We can find many similar Short Films in YouTube. For this review, I have chosen the
Room - Short Film by The Indian VagaBONG.
This short film completely ignores the people who went through the worst of dangerous
moments. As the person is sleeping and is trapped in the same room in a loop. A
person is always scared whenever he is trapped alone somewhere as human like to be
surrounded with someone else. This project is similar to mine as the person is scared
and already dead. I have learned many ideas from this short movie as the scenes
where the ghost comes and many more.
I have used YouTube as my research platform to watch different similar videos as mine.
I searched Google for many scene researches. And adobe premiere pro websites to
learn and research about my ideas of making horror short film. I researched John
Hopkins Libraries for different horror ideas. I used Zotero which is excellent free
research and citation software.

6
4 Summary and Conclusions

Watching a horror film makes us feel safer and reassured more than a scary
documentary because we know that the plot, setting, and characters are unreal.
Documentaries are real and truth is scarier than fiction. Therefore, watching a
documentary or even a horror film based on a real story gives us constant reminder that
it happened to someone and can happen to us too. The satisfaction at the end of the
horror film makes it addicting to watch. During the movie, our body freezes and muscles
tense because of quick-paced scenes that make us vigilant of the upcoming,
unexpected turn of events. But the moment we relax our muscles and come back to
reality, we are pleased.

7
Section B: Project Proposal

1 Project Title

The title of my project will be “Mr Mystery”. As there will be mystery and a loop in the
video the person gets in the loop after the monster throws some unknown object to him
and he then falls in the loop. He tries to get out but he will be confused. It will be a really
suspense horror movie.

8
2 Research Question

4.1 What are the factors that attract the audience to horror?
In his paper, “Understanding the Popular Appeal of Horror Cinema: An Intergraded-
Interactive Model,” psychologist Glenn D. Walters identifies three primary factors that
attract the audience to horror entertainment. First, filmmakers and producers create
elements of mystery, suspense, gore, terror, and shock into their film, which creates
tension.

4.2 What is the main thing to show in a set?

Different mise-en-scene, including lighting, costume, and incongruous sounds, creates
the suspense leading to a big reveal. In the same fashion, multiple size shots and
camera angles like long tracking shots can capture the character’s nervousness leading
to tension. Another allure of horror is relevance. The audience finds some kind of
relevance in the film, whether it can be universal like the fear of death, the unknown, or
cultural, social and religious relevance. For example, South Korea is a highly
competitive country and is the one of the top countries with the highest suicidal deaths.
Because of strict studies in middle school and high schools, many students commit
suicide by falling off of the rooftop of their school. There are many films with young girls
coming back to haunt their enemies with long black hair and pale skin—a highly
profitable film genre due to its social relevance.

4.3 When will horror film loose its entertainment?

In a horror movie, having too many realistic qualities can lose its entertainment value.
The audience knows that what is happening on the screen is unreal. Sometimes when
we see a protagonist running into the trap of his antagonist, we scream “WHY?!”
because it is obvious the protagonist should have ran in the other direction.

9
3 Treatment

I aim to produce a sequence with duration of 3 to 5 minutes approximately in length. My

production will be called “Mr Mystery” based around the genre of horror. During the
planning stage of my production, I was aware that the horror genre will be a challenge.
The audience will be able to identify the genre of the film due to its content. This will
keep the audience entertained and attached to the characters role and engage them to
the production more.
I aim my production at people between 10-60 for both males and females. This is
because people younger than 10 may be scared negatively by the scenes and also for
adults older than 60as they may find the horror film disturbing and uncomfortable.
Feedback from the viewers and my target audience can be accessed by the internet
easily. I would like to see the feedback of “Mr Mystery” to get a perspective and improve
my works.

10
4 Resources

Likewise, there is lots of software that are being utilized for editing which are mentioned
below:
AVS editor, Sony Vegas Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After
Effects. I chose Adobe because it is a timeline based video editing software application
developed by Adobe system and published as part of the Adobe creative cloud licensing
program. It is gears toward professional video editing, while its sibling, Adobe premiere
Elements, targets consumers markets. Adobe is a most reliable software and user
friendly. Adobe supports most of the camera format up to 4k and high-level video
masking.
After filming the necessary clips, all the clips will be viewed one by one to get the
perfect clips. After selecting the clips, all the selected clips will be merged and will be
edited in Adobe Premier Pro. Later titles, audio, sound and effects will be added where
necessary. After every editing, the video will be saved. Every part of the video will be
checked in a detailed way until the perfect outcome.
The production of Short film mostly related with the technical specification like camera,
lighting, and different audio works. Raw files such as footage and audio are taken in this
stage of development. The shooting of the Film on the basis of things decided in pre-
production will be done and also necessary changes will be made in shooting.

11
5 Contribution of Others

I have used different audio resources from GAMEAUDIOGDC and Rocket Stock and
the licence is bought from their respective websites.

12
6 Evaluation & Testing

Testing is done too ensure the product has meet its standard or not and also it points
out the errors that had been made. Testing also ensures the users reliability and
satisfaction. The feedbacks will be put into action for further improvement.

13
References

Freud, S. (1955). The uncanny. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.) The standard edition of the
complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 17, pp. 219-256). London:
Hogarth. (Original work published 1919)
Jancovich, M. (2002). Horror, the film reader. London: Routledge. Johnston, D. D.
(1995). Adolescents’ motivations for viewing graphic horror. Human Communication
Research, 21, 522-552.
Zillmann, D., Weaver, J. B., Mundorf, N., & Aust, C. F. (1986). Effects of an opposite-
gender companion's affect to horror on distress, delight, and attraction. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 51(3), 586-594

14
Appendix

Figure 1: Guidelines to create promotional video

Figure 2: Gantt Chart

15
Figure 3: Editing Software

16