Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Edgar Allen Poe

Stimuli for a horror, Poetry. This poem is a poem, about his beloved young wife who had been ill for a long time, and who had finally died from TB. The poem had clear emotion as this subject was the cause of Poe's depression and his heavy drink and drug problem, also his obsession with tainted love as he yearned for somebody to love and look after him. I beleive this would make a good starting point for a horror film!

In the greenest of our valleys
   By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace-
   Radiant palace- reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion-
   It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
   Over fabric half so fair!
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
   On its roof did float and flow,
(This- all this- was in the olden
   Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
   In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
   A winged odor went away.

Wanderers in that happy valley,
   Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
   To a lute's well-tuned law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
   (Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well-befitting,
   The ruler of the realm was seen.

And all with pearl and ruby glowing
   Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
   And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
   Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
   The wit and wisdom of their king.

But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
   Assailed the monarch's high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn!- for never morrow
   Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home the glory
   That blushed and bloomed,
Is but a dim-remembered story
   Of the old time entombed.

And travellers, now, within that valley,
   Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
   To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
   Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
   And laugh- but smile no more.

Méliès

The first director, also the accidental creator of film trickery. A trip to the moon, his masterpeice.

A Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la lune - 1902

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895)

Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948) Opening Scene


Using the opening scenes of the film, I am starting to get a better knowledge of how to create a successful opening to a horror film. What makes this successful is the music, it sets the tone alongside with the darkness of the shots. In the scene the men are walking slow, immediately this creates a suspense. The pathetic fallacy also gives us a clear indication of what the film is going to be about. The baby crying in the opening scenes also tells us perhaps he can sense something, like naturally if a dog barks we know somethings up. These are somethings I can think about when starting to plan my film. The use of shadows in the film are very effective, there is always somethings scary about shadows, they are dark, mysterious. Sometimes in life if we see a shadow, we might skip a heart beat this I also will take into consideration when making my film. In the 1:53rd minute of the film, the happy upbeat music juxtaposes the scary music played just before, this heightens the mood set. I believe this is a very successful opening. (NOTES ON THE FIRST TWO MINUTES OF THIS CLIP).

An Illustrated History of Horror and Science Fiction Films

 I am currently reading this book, as i have decided that i would like to base my end product on horror, I am Reading it to get a little bit of background knowledge on horror films, also I enjoy reading and found this book in my living room. It will be an educational and fun pass time.