BLOODFEST INTERNATIONAL YOUTH SHORT FILM COMPETITION is a celebration of empowerment of youth, an opportunity to self lead imagining their own youthful unique stories and to collaborate equally with adults. Horror film making is a safe place to confront fears, secure in the world of make believe. A place one can achieve great catharsis (transition from high tension to relief), or triumph - depending on whether or not the hero overcomes their foe.
Horror characters are thrilling in that they do the absurd, the unimaginable, the terrifying, the things we ourselves would shy from doing. And most thrilling of all, Horror uncovers the possibility that there is so much more to the world than what we sense or understand. Infinite possibility...
Horror is a genre which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers or viewers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society. Bloodfest is asking kids and teens to 'actively participate' in the arts as opposed to 'passive observation.'
Horror films also have portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBTI and Disability which are inclusive and diverse going against the main blockbuster cinema trends.
Some sub-genres of horror film include action horror, comedy horror, body horror, disaster horror, holiday horror, horror drama, psychological horror, science fiction horror, slasher horror, supernatural horror, gothic horror, natural horror, zombie horror, first-person horror and teen horror
Why should kids make horror? A lot is demanded of young people, and there is push for them to be creative. What about being creative in the taboo? Can a young person's interest in playing dead, playing thrilling situations, or playing horror themes be of value to their experience? We believe so. Combining scary stories and children is not a new idea at all. The infamous Brothers Grimm first published their dark tales in 1812 and are ever popular with kids that are thrilled rather than scared when the wolf finally appears… The Grimm fairytales were didactic in nature at a time when discipline relied on fear, and many of their tales such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’ were written to be ‘warning tales’ for children.
Bloodfest allows children to be the creators of their own scary stories and characters giving them freer licence, as we their audience, get a glimpse into what young people find confronting and frightening.
We have gathered young people and industry professionals to create and take part in the festival. This is done alongside with artists and us as producers.
Bloodfest - watch your back, the children are coming for you!
Boo
Nat & Curly
Nat & Curly (cv here)
WHY HORROR?
Horror Films are a safe place to practice survival skills.
Horror Films require us to face the unknown, to understand it, to make it less scary, they allow us see our fears and put them into context to play what if ? And in doing so they shape our belief system how we see each other, and how we see ourselves. They are a safe place to explore and for some a good bit of fun.
The fact is we are just getting to understand how our brains work, but scary stories that’s something that won’t go away.
In the words of Arthur Conan Doyle
"Where there is no imagination, there is no horror."
There’s something about horror that speaks directly and instinctively to the human animal. Millions of years of evolutionary psychology have ingrained in our minds certain fear triggers - a survival instinct - Fear of the Dark where predatory animals might be laying in wait - Fear of animals with large sharp teeth who would make a quick meal of us. Fear of Poisonous Spiders who can kill with one bite. So ingrained into our developmental psychology that research done by Nobuo Masataka show that children as young as three have an easier time spotting snakes on a computer screen than they do spotting flowers. Research by Christof Koch show that the right amygydala, the portion of the brain associated with fear learning, responds more vigorously to images of animals than to images of people, landmarks or objects even though those are much more dangerous in our civilized world.
This may explain the shape of our movie monsters: creatures with sharp teeth or snake like appearance. The fear of being eaten alive also explains the cannabilistic traits of human monsters like Dracula and Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
But brain scan research in 2010 by Thomas Straube at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena show that scary movies don’t actually activate fear responses in the amygdala at all. Instead, it was other parts of the brain that were firing - the visual cortex - the part of the brain responsible for processing visual information, the insular cortex- self awareness, the thalamus -the relay switch between brain hemispheres, and the dorsal-medial prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain associated with planning, attention, and problem solving.
Excerpted from John P Hesse Lesson The Psychology of Scary Movies
The Human Brain and Horror - John. P. Hesse
Horror characters are thrilling in that they do the absurd, the unimaginable, the terrifying, the things we ourselves would shy from doing. And most thrilling of all, Horror uncovers the possibility that there is so much more to the world than what we sense or understand. Infinite possibility...
Horror is a genre which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers or viewers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society. Bloodfest is asking kids and teens to 'actively participate' in the arts as opposed to 'passive observation.'
Horror films also have portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBTI and Disability which are inclusive and diverse going against the main blockbuster cinema trends.
Some sub-genres of horror film include action horror, comedy horror, body horror, disaster horror, holiday horror, horror drama, psychological horror, science fiction horror, slasher horror, supernatural horror, gothic horror, natural horror, zombie horror, first-person horror and teen horror
Why should kids make horror? A lot is demanded of young people, and there is push for them to be creative. What about being creative in the taboo? Can a young person's interest in playing dead, playing thrilling situations, or playing horror themes be of value to their experience? We believe so. Combining scary stories and children is not a new idea at all. The infamous Brothers Grimm first published their dark tales in 1812 and are ever popular with kids that are thrilled rather than scared when the wolf finally appears… The Grimm fairytales were didactic in nature at a time when discipline relied on fear, and many of their tales such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’ were written to be ‘warning tales’ for children.
Bloodfest allows children to be the creators of their own scary stories and characters giving them freer licence, as we their audience, get a glimpse into what young people find confronting and frightening.
We have gathered young people and industry professionals to create and take part in the festival. This is done alongside with artists and us as producers.
Bloodfest - watch your back, the children are coming for you!
Boo
Nat & Curly
Nat & Curly (cv here)
WHY HORROR?
Horror Films are a safe place to practice survival skills.
Horror Films require us to face the unknown, to understand it, to make it less scary, they allow us see our fears and put them into context to play what if ? And in doing so they shape our belief system how we see each other, and how we see ourselves. They are a safe place to explore and for some a good bit of fun.
The fact is we are just getting to understand how our brains work, but scary stories that’s something that won’t go away.
In the words of Arthur Conan Doyle
"Where there is no imagination, there is no horror."
There’s something about horror that speaks directly and instinctively to the human animal. Millions of years of evolutionary psychology have ingrained in our minds certain fear triggers - a survival instinct - Fear of the Dark where predatory animals might be laying in wait - Fear of animals with large sharp teeth who would make a quick meal of us. Fear of Poisonous Spiders who can kill with one bite. So ingrained into our developmental psychology that research done by Nobuo Masataka show that children as young as three have an easier time spotting snakes on a computer screen than they do spotting flowers. Research by Christof Koch show that the right amygydala, the portion of the brain associated with fear learning, responds more vigorously to images of animals than to images of people, landmarks or objects even though those are much more dangerous in our civilized world.
This may explain the shape of our movie monsters: creatures with sharp teeth or snake like appearance. The fear of being eaten alive also explains the cannabilistic traits of human monsters like Dracula and Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
But brain scan research in 2010 by Thomas Straube at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena show that scary movies don’t actually activate fear responses in the amygdala at all. Instead, it was other parts of the brain that were firing - the visual cortex - the part of the brain responsible for processing visual information, the insular cortex- self awareness, the thalamus -the relay switch between brain hemispheres, and the dorsal-medial prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain associated with planning, attention, and problem solving.
Excerpted from John P Hesse Lesson The Psychology of Scary Movies
The Human Brain and Horror - John. P. Hesse
Curly talks Bloodfest on ABC Radio