Why does your project exist?

We want to show a narrative in a horror setting by using the environment to do the storytelling. After all, that's our aim for the trimester. We want to convey a story about a family that has fallen apart in long-term isolation, the audience may not get it at first unless they explore. How much will the limited amount of vision compel the player to keep on exploring? Shadows and fog lurk in the environment causing an uneasy atmosphere, it is fear of the unknown.

We created our project for any consumer to experience fear as fun! This is heavily the reason why horror games are popular, we know in the back of our minds that we are not in actual danger. So experiencing the fear in any type of media form is relatively fun. A good kind of scare will leave you in an adrenaline rush, out of breath, excited, and perhaps all this energy has come seeping back into you, it weirdly feels good.

Although there's one difference between horror in video games and movies, we can't control the characters in movies. We as the consumer are able to control the character we play as, and perhaps make wiser decisions on how we can escape certain situations. I think one of the key things to experiencing horror in a controllable environment is that we get emotionally involved, not for the character but being AS the character. You start to forget who you're playing as and only think of yourself, we become too immersed in the environment and how we can safely escape... Unless you like to dig a deeper hole for yourself and get involved in whatever the horror brings. Although you are able to interact with the environment, it does not change the fact that when players move around the game space, but their actions cannot change the shape of game-world history, past or future, or impact in any significant way upon their surroundings (Barker, 2009).

As a storyboard artist, I need to think about the tropes and the rules of horror. I need to think about the camera (how wide our vision may be), atmosphere, cinematic timing (jump scares?), and even the sound. Each of these key points are taken from a storyboard artist and writer in the horror media, so I will delve into some of this a bit further;

Atmosphere really sells the feeling of "fear of the unknown", which is what we are trying to accomplish in our environmental storytelling project. The atmosphere can be aided by narrowed vision (could be enclosed spaces, fog, losing focus, darkness etc.)  Underexposed is probably the word we are looking for here, but this type of effect on the vision really adds to the mysteriousness.

It's a cheap trick but it's okay to use every now and then, but honestly atmosphere and sound gives the biggest impact when you want the consumer to feel dread. Although you don't want to do this out of nowhere and suddenly, we've got to have the camera shot linger. I've looked into dirty shots before and it's been used in a lot of horror films, an unfocused corner of the shot with the mains subject in sight makes it feel as though something is watching you. I'd take a look at the movie Scream, they do this right at the beginning. A lingering shot will build up tension before the jump scare, we are expecting something to happen and it makes us feel uneasy. It's worth taking note to make subtle changes to the environment.

How often do we see the conclusion to a horror themed piece of media? Not that often, maybe in a long ongoing series. The story can be cut-off right before something crucial is revealed, or in the midst of a dangerous situation with a slim chance of hope (Smith, 2017). It's almost critical to not allow the audience to have closure to the story, we want to keep them uneasy and not stop them from wondering what happens next.

This weird sense of adrenaline is what makes horror fun, this is the main key to why our project exists. Nothing too extreme to a certain subject, just having an overall emotional feeling you get from experiencing the horror genre.

References

Barker, C. (2009). Horror video games : essays on the fusion of fear and play. (B. Perron, Ed.). McFarland & Company, Inc. Retrieved November 1, 2023, from INSERT-MISSING-URL.

Brackin, A. L., & Guyot, N. (2020). Cultural perspectives of video games. BRILL. Retrieved November 1, 2023, from http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=6359631.

GameSpot. (2022, October 10). Why Horror Games Are Good For You | MindGames. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgKSDpmvW34&t=8s

Guest. (2020, January 29). Storyboarding for Horror – 7 Things to Remember. RunPee. https://runpee.com/storyboarding-for-horror-7-things-to-remember/

Lukas, S. A., & Marmysz, J. (2009). Fear, cultural anxiety, and transformation : horror, science fiction, and fantasy films remade. Lexington Books. Retrieved November 1, 2023, from INSERT-MISSING-URL.

Smith, V. (2017). How to make your writing suspenseful - Victoria Smith. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjKruwAfZWk