Character
- The three protagonists in our opening are all female. This is conventional of many horror films, such as Scream (Craven, 1996) and The Ring (Verbinski, 2002).
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| Alexis, Imogen & Sophie of Gutted |
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| 'Sidney,' the protagonist in Scream |
Plot
- In 'Gutted,' the antagonists are undead zombie creatures. Zombie films are a popular subgenre of horror, with notable films such as Dawn of the Dead (Snyder, 2004).
- Within the opening sequence, Sophie, one of the protagonists, is killed. This is conventional for many horrors, such as the Scream trilogy (Craven, 1996-2000), in which a character- usually female- is killed within the opening sequence. This technique is used to create fear early on in the film, to establish the genre and scare the audience.
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| A zombie in Gutted |
- The chase half of the opening is set in a graveyard, which is a frequently used location in horror films, because of it's connotations of death.
- The costumes of the zombies are ripped and bloodstained, which is conventional for many zombie films, such as Dawn of the Dead (Snyder, 2004)
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| Zombies in Dawn of The Dead |
- We used non-diagetic sound in our opening in the form of a royalty-free soundtrack. Almost all film openings of any genre will include a soundtrack of music or at least some non-diagetic sound to create an opening with more dimensions.
- The soundtrack we chose was low and ominous in the slower parts, and suspenseful during the chase, adding to the tension of the opening; conventional for a horror film.
- A significant part of our opening consists of Alexis' dialogue in the form of a video diary, which involved our actress operating the camera herself while talking into it to give a realistic effect. This use of handicam positions the audience with the protagonist, as it breaks the fourth wall.
- Similar techniques can be noted in films such as Cloverfield (Reeves, 2008) and Blair Witch Project (Myrick/Sánchez, 1999)
Handicam techniques in Cloverfield
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| Alexis' handicam in Gutted |
- We used a fast cutting rate in our opening which gained speed as time went on, particularly during the chase scenes. This is a common technique used in horror openings; beginning slowly then increasing the pace to a climax at the end of the opening.
- A good example of this is the opening of Scream (Craven, 1996), which begins with a girl making popcorn and end with her hanging dead from a tree.
- In post-production, we edited the footage to bring the saturation down, particularly in the initial outside scene, to make the corpses look more realistic as well as creating a more filmic and atmospheric look.
- In graveyard scenes, we darkened the clips slightly to create a more intense visual.
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| Drained colouring in Gutted |
- Showing 'gore' is a vital part of any zombie film. We used prosthetic intestines which I made with liquid latex to add the gruesome zombie element to our opening.
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| Gore in Gutted |
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