Thursday 12 December 2013

Inspiration: John Carpenter

John Carpenter is a director most famous for his contributions to the horror genre with his films Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1982).  His films, especially Halloween, will serve as inspiration to use for my own horror film opening sequence.



John Carpenter started off his Directing career with a number of short films throughout the 60s, starting with Revenge of the Colossal Beasts in 1962. His short films were mostly science fiction and fantasy, and three were about giant monsters, namely Godzilla and Gorgo. His first feature film was Dark Star in 1974, which was followed by his next film Assault on Precinct 13 in 1976. However, it was his third film, Halloween, which finally established him as a great horror director.

Halloween was a huge success. Filmed in under a month on a minimal budget, Halloween is one of the most profitable and iconic horror films ever made. It will serve as my main inspiration, due to its great use of practical effects and the way it creates suspense, all on a small budget. Halloween was followed a couple of films later by another Carpenter classic - The Thing in 1982.

Other horror films by Carpenter include The Fog in 1980, Prince of Darkness in 1987, and The Ward in 2010. He is also better known for his collaborations with actor Kurt Russell, in Escape From New York and Escape From LA, as well as Big Trouble Little China. He is also responsible for the cult classic social commentary piece They Live in 1988, in which Roddy Piper established the film with the line: "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum".

Overall Carpenter is a great director, whose films are generally unappreciated on release, but now many are classics and will serve as inspiration.

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Location


As our sequence will be within the horror genre, a prime location is woodland areas. Below are some shots of a potential filming location: