Contextual research fmp

Contextual Research
By Luke Ross

Director One : James
Wan
Director one: James Wan
Films:
• The Conjuring (2013)
• The Conjuring 2 (2016)
• Insidious (2010)
• Aquaman (2018)
• Saw (2004)
• Lights our (2016)
• Insidious Chapter 2 (2013)
• Insidious Chapter 3 (2015)
• Furious 7 (2015)
Born on the 26th February 1977
Age: 42 Years old
He is an Australian Film Director,
Screenwriter and producer. Mainly
focused on horror.
Quotes:
“For me, what usually makes a horror sequence scary is the journey not the
destination.” – the meaning of this, is an analysis on what the scary and thrilling
aspects of horror films are. James wan acknowledges that the scary parts horror films
are rarely the ending (destination) the scary scenes in films are for the majority of the
time from the start to until near the end. James Wan is saying that the best way to
create fear and build suspense is in the journey of the characters and the story. The
structure of horror movies and how they build suspense is something that I will need to
research to help with my final project.
“The key is to constantly keep the audience surprised. If they feel like something is
going to happen, or they they think from an educational standpoint that something is
about to happen because of all the moving parts, it is your job to break that expectation
and show the audience something different.” – James Wan in this quote explains how
its important to play off the audiences logic to make them believe that something is
coming like a jump scare, use soundtrack and close shots to build up suspense and
then remove the payoff, this creates tension and breaks the audience down so now
when suspense builds they don’t know if they are going to be fooled or if there is going
to be a payoff, this also makes it so that when the payoff finally happens its more
powerful than it would have been.
“For me, the sound design and the music score is a big part of what makes scary
movies work.” – In this quote James Wan points out how important and crucial sound
design and soundtrack is to horror films and building suspense. Horror films specifically
the films that James wan has made for example Insidious and The Conjuring suspense
is built using soundtrack and early sound affects.

part two
Insidious (2010)
The film insidious uses different elements from classic horror films to create its own distinctive
look. The colour grading and lighting for this scene imperticular uses light blue lighting around
a dark uncoloured room, this adds a twisted sense of safety, twisting it into an eary look. The
colour scheme of the people in the image is white clothing, this symbolizes purity, the added
lighting to this adds safety and purity. This lures the audience into a false sense logic. This
links into what James Wan was quoting when he spoke about using the audiences logical
stand point against them in the film to create a more impactful and eary look.
The Conjuring (2013)
The conjuring also uses James Wans style of misleading the audience with a twisted
style of lighting and colour grading, in this scene it can be seen that there is a strong
use of the colour blue and white, like in the insidious he uses colours that are normally
associated with purity and safety James Wan uses lighting to project the colour of blue
onto demonic like creatures. He also dresses the demons in the colour of white which
represents purity onto something impure. This is James Wans style but it also has
religious symbolism, presenting a demonic force in colours associated as good is seen
as the demons mocking and insulting god.
Saw (2004)
Saw is one of the first films that James Wan created, and even though saw is years
apart from ‘Insidious’ and ‘The conjuring’ it still uses the same colour schemes and
lighting. In this scene the victim is in blue which yet again represents safety, however
the victim is definelty not safe. The setting of the scene is white which is symbolism of
peace and purity, but the setting is a room used for torture, something brutal and
impure. James Wan has used these same techniques for 14 years through his filming
career and it still has the same impact, Twisting the imagery of what's considered safe
into something dark and evil.

part three
Bibliography
I used different sources when researching
James Wan for inspiration on my project.
These were:
1. James Wan. (2013). James Wan
Quotes. Available:
https:www.Brainyquote.com/aurthors/ja
mes_wan. Last accessed 4th of April
2019.
2. Graham Winfrey. (Jul 22, 2016 5:24
pm). 5 Rules From James Wan For
Making a Successful Horror Movie in
2016. Available:
https://www.indiewire.com/2016/07/5-
rules-from-james-wan-making-a-
successful-horror-movie-in-2016-
1201709025/. Last accessed 4th of
April 2019.
3. The List. (2015). Films: James Wan.
Available:
https://film.list.co.uk/listings/james-
wan/. Last accessed 4th of April 2019.
James Wans filming techniques
James Wan uses various different aspects
to create his horror movies, these range
from the shots and scene setups he uses to
connotate and convey depth and emotion
(to interior rooms, exterior buildings and
characters.) to how he uses lighting, colour
schemes and colour grading to show
religious imagery and create disturbing
scenes. I find his use of colours to be
visually pleasing and inspiring for my work.
The way that the colour choice symbolises
hidden earnings and the way it contrasts
with the choice of lighting in a horrifying
way is the style of horror that I want to
convey with my final product.
Shots
James Wan uses different shots
but he feels that these shots are
the best for horror because of
how they make the audience
feel. The shots:
• POV
• Medium low angle shot
• Tracking shot (Waist Level)
The reason that these shots are
favored by wan is because they
are a great way of making the
audience feel close quartered
and claustrophobic but more
importantly the POV shot can
build suspense because as we
see what's happening from the
main characters perspective.
Story
When James Wan is writing a story for his
films, he focuses a lot on the journey rather
than the destination, although the ending is
important James Wan believes that the
audience is more entertained by the journey
to get to the ending rather than the ending. Mise en scene
James wan arranges the set and props so
that the basic parts of the scene are at the
front and in view but creepy and scary
aspects are hidden in the background
Visuals and set design
James Wan designs his sets to character
build and cause suspense. He does this
affectively, by creating a center to focus on.

Director two: Wes Craven
Director two: Wes Earl Craven
Films:
• A Nightmare on elm street (1984)
• Scream (1996)
• Red Eye (2005)
• Cursed (2004)
• The hills have eyes (1977)
• The house on the left (1972)
• The People under the stairs
(1991)
• Swamp Thing (1982)
Born: 2nd of August 1939 Died: 30th August 2015
Wesley Earl Craven was an American film director. Writer, producer, and actor. He
was known for his pioneering work in the genre of horror films, particularly Slasher
films, where his impact on the genre was considered prolific and influential.
Quotes:
“The first monster that an audience has to be scared of is the filmmaker. They have to
feel in the presence of someone not confined by the normal rules of propriety and
decency.” –
In this quote Wes Craven points out that its important when making a horror to go
further than others as a film maker, by showing that your willing to go more horrific it
makes the audience fear the film director and what he is going to do next.
“As long as you keep the audience on the edge of their seats, either scare them or
keep them guessing, you can put anything in there that you want.” – Wes craven here
explains that in a horror movie as long as the story is interesting enough to keep the
audience on the ‘edge of their seat’ then as a creator you can be as creative as you
want.
“The experience of going to a theater and seeing a movie with a lot of people is still
part of the transformational power of the film, and it's equivalent to the old shaman
telling a story by the campfire to a bunch of people. That is a remarkable thing, if you
scream and everyone else in the audience screams, you realize that your fears are
not just within yourself, they're in other people as well, and that's strangely releasing.”
– Wes Craven is talking about being relatable with fear, find something the majority of
people fear and take advantage of that fear and bring it to life in the cinema.

part two
A Nightmare on elm street (1984)
Wes Craven when making a nightmare on elm street took a unique approach at the
time, before a nightmare on elm street was made people was scared to go to bed
in the dark due to other horror films at the the time. Wes craven decided to play on
this by creating a killer that kills you in your dreams and then you die in reality. This
meant that there was even the fear of horror in going to sleep. Wes Craven uses a
bright colour theme for his horror, the favored colour in this movie is red which is in
symbolism for blood, but he uses a bright red rather than a dark creating a
contrast.
Scream (1996)
In this movie Wes Craven played with the concept of a serial killer in a group.
The film itself is more playful than scary, but is still mysterious. The colour
scheme is mainly black and white this represents a noir but without a detective
and this is because as the audience it makes you the detective. All of the
characters wear white this symbolizes innocence, this is a good use of colour
scheme in clothing because it confuses the audience as to who the killer is when
its missing simplistic hints, it means the audience really has to look. And when
the killer plot twist is revealed its more of a dramatic shock to the audience as
they didn’t see it coming.
Red Eye (2005)
This film follows a character that’s a hotel manager getting on a plane to go to her
grandmothers funeral. On the plane she meets a man who she thinks is a polite person
that she likes, but as the film progresses she realizes that to be a mistake. The film starts
of bright and cheery in colour with the plane lights on full but as the film moves towards the
dark realization that the man beside her is a killer, the plane lights darken as does the
colour grading of the movie. This is affective and visually makes the audience aware of
danger.

part three
Wes Craven filming techniques
At the start of Wes Cravens career in
horror film directing he liked to take a
unique direction with brightness and
colour for his horrors. Where the story is
dark and the scenes are horrific Wes
craven decided to use the traditional
colours that would be scene in the genre
except he brightened them up making
everything clear and this contrasted the
visuals of horror giving the audience a
good graphic view of the murders. Wes
Craven also likes to give his killers
personality, instead of making them
horrifically scary so your scared
whenever they're on screen, he makes
then fun and interesting as they toy with
the victims this makes it entertaining
when the killer is o screen. An example of
this is with Ghost Face on Scream (1996)
and A nightmare on elm street (1984).
Story
Wes Cravens take on story is to come up
with an interesting concept and then use
character building around the concept to
make something great.
Shots
Wes Craven uses simplistic shots
sticking to basics on the majority of his
films however in 2005 he made a return
with the film red eye, it was very different
to his other films, the main area of focus
in this film is suspense and story where
as in his previous it was fun, violence
and gore. This film is much more of a
serious thriller. The majority of the shots
use in this are medium shots at high
angle or tracking shots which are used
when a character is running but that is in
the last two acts of the film. As the
majority of the film is two people sat on a
plane the camera switches to close up of
each of them throughout.
Bibliography
To find out information on Wes
Craven I used different recourses so
that my information on him would be
accurate. The sources were:
1. AZ Quotes . (2010). Wes Craven
Quotes. Available:
https://www.azquotes.com/author
/3388-Wes_Craven. Last
accessed 8th of April 2019.
2. IMDB. (2007). Wes Craven
Quotes. Available:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0
000127/. Last accessed 8th of
April 2019.
3. IMDB. (2007). Wes Craven
Biography. Available:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0
000127/bio. Last accessed 8th of
April 2019.
Mise en scene
Wes Craven uses Props mainly on
the villain characters of his movies
an example would be Freddy
Krueger.

Director Three: Zack Snyder
Director three: Zack Snyder
Films:
• Watchmen (2019)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
(2016)
• Man of Steel (2013)
• Wonder Women (2017)
• 300 (2006)
• Dawn of the dead (2004)
• 300 Rise of empire (2009)
• Legends of the Guardians: The owls of
GA’HOOLE (2010)
• Justice League (2017)
• Army of dead (2020)
Born: 1 March 1966 (age 53 Years old)
Zack Snyder has made a couple of horror movies however, he has moved
onto dark superhero movies, but he is still relevant due to the dark tone he
takes and how he works cinematography. Zack makes movies look visually
beautiful regardless of what people think of the story. The tone and
atmosphere he creates is suspenseful and thrilling. I also chose this director
as he created Watchmen (2009) which is a film that I'm taking heavy
inspiration from in style as a premise for my film.
Quotes:
“Reality's its own thing. And I'm not really into reality that much. I'm into this
cinematic stylized reality that can comment on reality. It's like the most
beautiful parts of reality and the saddest parts, but it's none of this middle
ground.” – In this quote Zack Snyder points out that the best part of films is
that you can choose the most exiting parts of life to put in it and you can miss
out the boring parts.
“When reality is a prism, your mind can set you free.” – In this quote Zack
Snyder is saying that when you reach a block in writing a story for things
logical its like a prism and your mind and creative can free you from this and
create a way out or means of escape.
“I’d say the purest experience for the movie is not to have read the book
because I think when you’ve read the book you're just ticking boxes.” –
stating his opinion on books and films not replacing them when they're based
off them.

part 2
Dawn of the dead (2004)
When Zack Snyder was making Dawn of dead he wanted to create a fun and visually
pleasing zombie film. He played with the generic ideas usually seen in zombie films at the
time but he decided to add his own twists to the story. In this movie he used POV shots
and wide lens, at medium shot in high angles, the POV was to make the audience feel
immersed in the scenes as if they where themselves being chased, the sound design
around these scenes in the cinema or with surround sound where at the time to make the
audience feel like they where the characters in the scene. The medium, high angle shots
where to show the amount space taken by zombies and showing the danger in this scene.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
In this Film Zack Snyder has big focus on cinematography and religious
imagery, he also uses shots to give visual demonstration to what's happening in
the story, no matter what people say about the films plot it is agreed that the
director put work into making the film look visually beautiful and providing
hidden Easter eggs for comic fans and religious contrasts to the story’s. an
example of the Mise en scene in the film he will set up a scene to resemble a
religious picture and this is to show how people see the heroes on this world.
300 (2006)
In the film 300 Zack Snyder has a heavy focus on colour grading and colour
schemes, He uses bright golden colours in battles to show how the sky is a rich
heavenly colour, this is to that the characters are represented as godly. This is a
recurring patterns with Zack Snyder and his movies, he is big on applying heavy
religious imagery to his scenes, this is his way of visually showing that his
characters are evil or they are good without saying that they are evil or good.

part 3
Zack Snyder filming techniques
Zack Snyder uses Various different filming
techniques, His favorites and most
commonly used technique is to frame his
characters in reference to religious story's
and religious pictures. In his Action films he
adds lots of religious symbolism, he usually
uses famous religious paintings from the
bible and uses the colours and set up of
the scene to resemble the picture. In the
film Batman v Superman he shows
superman as Jesus in imagery, he is
referenced to be a god in the film multiple
times and the way the scenes are shot and
framed when he dies a link to the bible and
how artists have depicted the events of the
bible happening. In the film batman uses a
spear that he intends to defeat superman
with, this is symbolism of the spear used in
an attempted murder of Jesus in the bible,
the man decided not to us the spear on
Jesus as he is made to see the light this is
parallel to how batman sees the light and
doesn't’t use the spear on superman. Zack
Snyder uses much more religious
symbolism and colour throughout.
Story
When Zack Snyder tells a story
in his films he enjoys expedition
and build up, rather than going
straight into an action sequence
he likes have build and he will
create steaks around the fight so
that when it happens there's a
lot more meaning than the fight
just a happening.
Bibliography
To find out information on Zack Snyder
while researching him I used different
recourses. These resources where:
1. CBR. (2016). Zack Snyder Explains Why
Batman Used a Kryptonite Spear in Dawn
of Justice. Available:
https://www.cbr.com/batman-v-superman-
kryptonite-spear-explained/. Last accessed
11th of April 2019.
2. BrainyQuote. (2014). Zack Snyder
Quotes. Available:
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/zack_
snyder. Last accessed 11th of April 2019.
3. AZ Quotes. (2014). Zack Snyder Quotes.
Available:
https://www.azquotes.com/author/13850-
Zack_Snyder. Last accessed 11th of April
2019.
Shots
Zack Snyder mainly uses shots not just to
follow the characters as they tell the story
of the characters visually, it puts more
impact on what happening in the scene.

Horror Theory
Codes and Conventions
Codes and Conventions in horror films are used for the
majority and generically to create fear and suspense, the
majority of horror films use cheap and cliché scare tactics
to get quick scares out of the audience, the reason that
they are so cliché is because they are an effective means.
James Wan is a director that started horror films off using
new codes and conventions, the main one is the fake build
of suspense using slow music with no pay off. James wan
will build up suspense using a creepy and eary soundtrack
that gets faster and louder, this gets the audience afraid but
then when its dine with the build up there will have been
nothing there, its affective because it effectively builds off
paranoia.
Sub-Genres
There are a multitude of Sub genres that play off Horror, films
with horror as the main aspect but are about something
different, possibly made to tell a story not just scare. Found
footage is a subgenre that multiple horrors are themed around,
its affective because it puts you in a realistic situation as if
your watching a recording that actually happened, this opens
the door to playing with a multitude of fears. Body horror is
also popular in horror, films that mutilate the body as the main
selling point seen in films like the fly but also in something
James Wan plays on in SAW but with a twist. Sci-Fi horror
Generally plays on the fear of the unknown as seen in films
like Alien, Clover field Lane and Event Horizon, which also use
the fear of claustrophobia.
History of horror
Horror films have been around for a long time but they first
raised to Hollywood popularity in the 1960s, prior to this
they where low budget monster movies or low budget
murder films, but it wasn’t really touched upon until
Hitchcock's big psycho in 1960 and his film The Birds it also
started the theme to bring to take something people usually
see everyday and add horror and fear to the object or
animal, something that Stephen Spielberg plays with in
Jaws. In the 1980s to late 1990s Slasher/ Horror films
became big setting a new bar for what people expected to
see in the cinema. It is Clear that in this Time Wes craven
brought something new to the genre.
Themes
Horror films use different colours and styles that present it as
a horror film. The colours used are usually grey, black and red.
But the colour commonly used in horror films for victims is
wrote and this is to symbolizes purity which adds to the shock
when they become the victim. The white isn’t necessarily
always on the clothing a lot of the time it can be the colour of
the walls in the characters room like on nightmare on elm
street for example. The common styles used in horror movies
is to frame the movie from the perspective of the victim this is
in all types of film not just found footage. The idea is that the
audience will feel claustrophobic and feel what the victim is
feeling (fear).

Thriller Theory
In thriller there are multiple conventions used, the lighting in
thrillers is usually low key lighting and they use quick cuts
to intensify the scenes. Thrillers like to use shadows in to
create mystery and use intense music to create tension in
the scenes. A common sound affect used I thrillers is
diegetic sounds of breathing, this is to make the audience
feel uncomfortable and as if they're are there. A common
use of shots in thrillers is black and white shots this is to
make things seem dark and bleak. A common convention
seen in action thrillers is the use of shot montages that
show scenery around the area before going into the
location an example of this in use would the be mission
impossible series.
Sub-Genres
There are multiple sub texts that combine with thriller, thriller is
about building suspense and thrill seeking, normally found with
a Explorer demographic. Commonly linked with thriller are
action/ thrillers and horror/ thrillers. There can also be western/
thrillers and there are also romantic/ thrillers and so on. Most
sub genres use the basic aspects thrillers but there are
thrillers that use a small sub genre from romance or western.
Insidious as an example by James Wan is a thriller, horror and
has aspects of romance although it doesn’t follow the typical
romance structure. Red Eye by Wes Craven switches in sub
genres, being a thriller overall it opens with romance moves to
horror then to action and finally takes aspects of a fairytale
happy ending.
History of Thriller
Thriller has always been prominent in movies as a sub
genre, but it finally found its main link, in 1960, this link was
horror. In 1960 Hitchcock made the film psycho in 1960 and
it made combined horror and thriller together on the big
screen, this was something that changed how thrillers
where made, this aspect of thriller opened the door for
years to come for what directors could create. In the early
2000s psychological thrillers became a big area of focus,
these films would have horror value but in a realistic
situation, this would made the audience feel connected to
the story as they would have to find logical solutions to the
story.
Themes
The most common theme in thrillers no matter the sub genre
is that the storyline is designed so that the audience feels like
its something that could happen to them. This creates the
feeling of fear and the urge to keep watching to see how the
story ends. In the cinematography of thrillers a common theme
is to use close ups and extreme close ups of the protagonist,
this is used to show their emotion in that particular moment.
The shots of the antagonist will cut quick and the majority of
the time it will cover up the face of antagonist to keep their
identity a secret. This is an affective way of keeping mystery
around the antagonist until the reveal at the end.

Slasher Theory
Slasher films usually follow the convention a psychopathic
serial killer that usually stalks their victim, they are normally
revealed to be personally close to the victim under the
mask. The films will typically open with a murder of one or a
large group of people, the victim will be friends or close to
these people. Usually the friends of the victim who are
murdered are characters that do things they are not
supposed to. The main character and main victim of the
attacks is usually pure of souls and at the end of the film
they prevail and survive. A convention with the killer in
slasher films is that they appear to be immortal or
indestructible when in act they are human and as normal as
everyone else.
Sub-Genres
Slasher films can have multiple sub plots but its main focus is
mainly horror, but horror isn’t really a sub-genre to slasher,
slasher is smore of a sub-genre to horror. A slasher film stakes
heavily from horror but it can have other sub genres, slasher
films usually contain romance between two characters
sometimes between the protagonist and another character or
between two characters that know the protagonist but they
include this to bring realism to the situation and steaks.
Slasher films also use aspects of thriller. This is affective for
slasher films as the film focuses on fear and suspense.
Slasher films also have action as sometimes characters
attempt to fight back against the killer and these fights take
into the action sub genre.
History of Slasher
Like Horror and thriller Slasher films became known in the
1960 from Hitchcock's movie Psycho. After this movie it
wasn’t until the 80s that slasher was defined with a new
face, and that was Wes Craven with films like a nightmare
on elm street and this carried on into the 90s and early 20th
century with films like scream in 1996. he shaped out
slasher films to be serial killers that twist and threaten the
places the audience would associate with safe. This can be
seen in nightmare on elm street where the serial killer
attacks them in their dreams. But the 90s also had films like
chucky were the serial killer was a kids toy.
Themes
Slasher films have themes of colours and lighting they are
fond of using. Slasher films like to have white colours around
the protagonist to symbolize purity this can be seen on things
they own, where they live or what they wear. The antagonist
will usually be wearing a colour scheme of red, black and grey,
these colours on the antagonist are not bright they are dull and
darkened, this is used to represent danger and their motives.
The colours on the victims of the serial killer in these movies
are normally bright and full of colour however in films like
scream when they die their clothes are stained with a dark red
and the lighting of the scene makes clothes look darker and
less bright.

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