Fears: Pre-production research

 A limited level of research went into the pre-production of fears, this is largely due to the main idea's having already been formed in the head of Josh for years. The movie is to be a form of psychological horror that focuses on addressing two questions that form the basis for the films inspiration.
"Why aren't horror movies scary?" and "What are we afraid off?.
It has been observed that, generally, horror movies are shocking but not very scary in modern times, with a small amount of research, largely based upon asking friends and family questions and general observations of the issues raised in mass media, we determined that this was due to fears of the real world being far more prevalent and frightening than fears of ghosts and goblins.
It is much more real and much scarier a thought to most people that they may loose their job, get mugged on the way home from work or the feeling of dread when an envelope with the word URGENT on it falls through the door.
Thus we decided to create a horror movie that sought to raise and address these questions and answers.
To do this the movie would follow a persons everyday life, while presenting usually normal situations that many people deal with everyday, in a dark and horrific light, using classic horror cliche's such as dark lighting, chase cams and other techniques.
These techniques are showy and unmistakable and though they may be comic to a certain extent, we believed it was more important to ensure our audience understood the point being made about the potential fear people feel in these situations as opposed to ensuring the film itself was terrifying.
This is in part due to the difficulty with make a letter with the word URGENT on it seem as immediately frightening as an axe murderer charging towards you while wearing some murdered teenagers face as a mask.
To Further ensure that we would be well prepared to embark on production of the film we viewed several old horror films, in particular the works of Hitchcock, who's focus on the psychological effects of horror is exactly what we have planned. The potential use of unusual and disorienting camera angles and filming techniques has been picked up from this and applied to the script, with light and dark being used to radically alter the appearance of the shots on screen. Darkness in particular is used to help isolate the character during moments of panic and give a feeling that the fears he is facing are so all consuming and overwhelming that they override reality.
Overall in depth research is limited due to the experience and passion that both of us have for horror movies and our experiences with a very fearful, modern age.