CREATING FEAR IN FILMS

Fear is a powerful and fundamental emotion.

Some of our best-loved cinema memories involve frightening characters, scary moods and shocking moments.

And almost all audiences demand a level of fear from films (no matter how much they may pretend otherwise).

At some level, it seems, we need to feel that cinema can terrify us.

So it follows that many genres - not just horror, but also thrillers, crime stories, war films, and others - must deliver fear in a variety of convincing ways.

• But what is fear, exactly?
• Why do people want (or need) to be scared?
• And how can we successfully weave fear into powerful stories?

The workshop will answer these questions, illustrating its concepts with some carefully-chosen clips.

We'll try to answer the basic questions -

• Why do we want to be scared?
• Does it perhaps do us some good?
• And if so - how?

We'll also look at the crucial idea of patterns.

Human beings tend to see the world in terms of patterns, and understanding this concept is a big step towards creating powerful emotional and psychological effects within narratives.

Using this and other ideas as jumping-off points, we'll:

• Go deeply into the psychology of fear.
• Detail its various levels and types (shock, repulsion, horror, terror, suspense).
• Explore the deep psychology behind the things that scare us.
• Demonstrate how to build fear into narratives in ways that really work.
• Give you the tools you need to create frightening characters and disturbing atmospheres.

Meanwhile, stimulating exercises will help you to master the ideas and apply them to your own work.