American Horror Story

When I first read about American Horror Story, I was dubious as to how successful it would be; bearing in mind it’s from the same creators as Glee: Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy (IMDB, 2012).  Yet even just from watching the title sequence I was amazed at the difference between the programmes. I did really enjoy the series, the story was completely messed up and twisted, but it was the title sequence that has really inspired and helped me with my own work. I find it really creepy, the way the light flashes on for a second to give you just a glimpse of basement, or pickled baby part, and the next shot will change rapidly so as to disorientate and disturb. The majority of it is actually in the dark, with scantily lit jars and dark corners, but I think this creates tension, and keeps you wondering what you are going to see in the next flash of light. Whilst parallel to the unsettling imagery, the sound, by Caesar Davila and Charlie Clouser (Wikipedia, 2012), is even more disturbing and really helps to create suspense and tension. Each weird click brings up a new flash of imagery, which is edited really well against the sound. They also show photos of young Victorian clad children, but alternate between positive and negative flashes. I find this really interesting and played around with it in my own film when I was editing. Although the title sequence was created by another company (Prologue) for the programme, Murphy and Falchuk will have told Prologue exactly what they wanted out of it, and the imagery seen is gradually explained throughout the series (Wikipedia, 2012). Whilst editing and shooting my coursework, I have incorporated some of the techniques used in this title sequence, and feel that they have really helped me make my film more creepy and unsettling. It has helped me realise that often in this kind of genre, less is more.

References:

'American Horror Story' (2012.) IMDB. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1844624/  (Accessed: 14 April 2012)

'American Horror Story' (2012.) Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Horror_Story  (Accessed: 14 April 2012)