Film script

starts off  near the crime scene, were Tom is reporting the murders.

THOMAS: We are now reporting  live from the scene of a murder investigation. We believe that the source of this murder is from the recent outbreaks from the West Park Avenue mental asylum.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

insides Chloes living room while she's watching the news report

THOMAS: We would advise anyone within the area to stay inside until the murderer is caught, the police have informed us that this man has the potential to go on endanger the lives of others. 

To the first murder outside under the bridge.

(long shot of a stramnger being followed by the stalker.)

( reverse shot of the other end of the pathway showing murderer walking off and showing the victim laying dead in the background)

TITLES- BASED ON A TRUE STORY


ALEX:  Who is it?  (shouting, while looking at pictures of potential suspects)

( back to Chloe's living room face timing the detective/ boyfriend )

CHLOE:  This stalker person is really creeping me out Matt, when will you be home?

ALEX: I'll be a few hours, you'll be fine, don't worry about it.

CHLOE; What was that?

ALEX: what?

CHLOE: I just heard something

ALEX: Dont be silly, i'll be home soon anyway stop worrying

CHLOE: Okay try and be as quick as...

ALEX: Chloe.... who's that behind you..

she turns around and lights turn off , Chloe screams 

MURDERER:  You better hurry home. ( fade to black transition)

TITLES- STALKER 

Targets this week for your group

1) Questionnaire Results

2) Script

3) Animatic Storyboard

4) Shot List

5) Mood Board

6) Diary of Filming and Editing

Ted 2 - Official Trailer (HD)

From this trailer we can see that this film is a comedy, the trailer shows many conventions of comedy. At the start of the trailer we see ted marring a woman, this would suggest the film is a comedy as the target audience of 15 - 30 would find it amusing.

the non-diegetic sound in the establishing shot of the location sounds up beat and cheerful telling the audience that this could be a happy story, especially when ted announces him and his wife will be trying for a baby. what works well with the sound is that when a joke is about to be told the music stops so it focuses on the joke making the audience hear it. highlighting the comedic aspects of the film making people want to see it.

What Is the Difference in a Horror Movie & a Thriller?

In this video it explains the difference between a horror film and a thriller. Looking back at this video we can understand that our trailer/film would correlate more to a thriller film not horror. I can say this because in the video he explains that a horror aims to make the viewers scared and to make them feel uncomfortable while watching the film. A thriller aims to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats and to feel nervous towards the character. in our trailer there wont be any jump scares or scary monsters but there would be allot of suspense.

Title research

This is an idea for our title, we are going for the red bold font. The red will connote blood and danger

Research and Planning list

Our male antagonist

Conventions of horror films

The conventions of horror films are: murders, female with sex appeal, 'jumpy scenes' and creepy music. In a horror film the intention of the film is to scare the audience.  To scare the audience the main theme of horror films are peoples worst nightmare. So for example a serial killer, a clown or a ghost. Also tension is created by creepy music. The music is usually very slow paced. The camera shots in horror movies are mostly long shots and close ups. Close ups are used to show the facial expressions of the characters, most of the time the close ups are on the character that is being attacked. This is because it enables the audience can see and even feel their fear. Long shots are used to show the whole setting, sometimes long shots shows things creeping up behind someone, this creates tension. When the audience can see something or someone creeping up behind a person in a long shot it creates dramatic irony. 

In almost all horror films there is a teenage girl being killed. The girl is seen to be the damsel in distress. Also she is seen to be fragile and helpless. The girl always seems to be alone in a place far away from anything. This makes the girl vulnerable.

The target audience for horror films are young people aged 16-30 Many teenagers will want to watch a horror film as they will feel as if they can relate to the film. Teenagers are used most of the time in horror films. Also young people will want watch horrors as they will want to see blood and gore, which is shown a lot in horror films. The colours used in horror films are usually black and red. This is because stereo typically these colours connote evil and death. Teens would would be the target audience because they usually want to have adrenaline rushes and they also want to have the shock factor. Older people will not be the target audience as they will feel that horror films are boring and unrealistic as they would of seen many before.

Age certificates

This would be suitable for people aged 4 and overAll ages are admitted, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young childrenIt is suitable for people aged 12 and over, but in some cases the parents may feel that some things in a 12 film are unsuitable.

This is suitable for ages 15 and over. 15 rated films contain adult themes, strong language and drug and sex references.

Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and explicit sex references along with detailed sexual activity are also allowed.

Representation in our film

There are many types of representation and stereotypes in Horror films, this is a guide to some of the typical stereotypes that can be expected to be seen in Horror films such as Halloween:

The Female Victim- 
The female victim are often portrayed as being vulnerable and in need of protection, by the films protagonist or hero, this kind of representation began in the early days of horror as the main character was often heroic and almost always male. The victim isusually young, blonde and attractive, which helps to appeal to a wider male audience. However this character is often seen as having an annoying and stupid personality, They are often the one character the audience wants to be killed. They are usually never killed first but are normally saved until one of the last victims, they will normally die in the most graphic way possible. The director will often use this character to help build suspense in the audience, as she will often be on edge and very easily scared by loud noices, this would make the audience far more jumpy.

Non-Believer-

There will also often be a character in horror films who is portrayed as cocky and overconfident, they will often try and convince others in the film that there is no antagonist and that they are overreacting. This character can be either sex but is often portrayed as a male. The characters cockiness is usually the thing that gets the character killed off, there death is oftenly near the beginning. The audience will normally be reassured by their calm attitude and belief that there is nothing wrong, however when they are eventually killed this calm attitude disappears and the other characters often become panicked and this can lead to other deaths.

 

Hero-

Almost always a male character they are often seen as strong and very masculine, they rarely show enough emotion given the situation, and are often either the only one to survive or the last character to survive. There is an increasing trend in which this steretype is being protrayed by a female lead instead of male character, this can broaden the audience and attract females and males, as females could be attracted by the strong female lead as well as the strong male lead.

Hysterical Character-
This kind of character is often female. They are normally the character who doesn't want to investigate anything suspicous, she is normally the most likely character to be left behind in a situation. This would normally lead to her to eihter being killed first or left till last. Her emotional outbursts would help build suspense in the audience and it could also build hysteria in the audience making them more jumpy and frightened.

Evil Character-
Evil characters are varied and can range from serial killers to demonic possession. If the antagonist is a human they often wear masks, so we can't identify them and it also leaves mystery as we don't know what they look like under the mask, they will also never expose their emotions which means as the audience we can never connect with them. As human's they don't react normally to injuries, and they can often reanimate after the protagonist thinks he's dead, this hints to the audience that there is something unnatural. The unnatural creatures such as Demons are known to play on the fears of the audience and films that contain these monsters in them are often the scariest because they take place in places normally associated with safety such as homes, but they also make the most innocnet looking things the victims worst nightmare. This character is strikes fear in the audience everytime they appear on screen and they are also what builds the most tension.

Prop research

The most commonly used props in a horror movie seem to be masks and weapon-focused. A hockey mask or some form of face-covering is stereotypical of the genre, adding to the fear the antagonist instills to the audience as their identity is hidden, raising enigmas. Famous examples include Mike Myers from the Halloween film franchise and Hannibal Lector.

 

The mask is an effective prop for this genre as part of every horror is the build-up to the antagonists reveal, showing them gradually to the audience to create suspense and tension. With the use of the mask the suspense of the film is not deflated as soon as the villain is revealed to the audience, as there are still questions raised surrounding the man behind the mask, what he really looks like and why he is after the protagonists rather than showing the full picture straight away. This is why we are thinking of using a mask in our trailer, as this will allow us to show off our villain without giving to much away and still giving the audience

questions.

Another key area for props in this genre is weapon-focused, normally what the antagonist uses to hunt down the protagonists. The most commonly used are knives (like Mike Myers, above), chainsaws (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and machetes (Friday the 13th), all weapons that would create a lot of blood and gore. This makes the antagonist a more credible threat and plays on audience fears of stabbing and obviously, dying. We are using a ghost/poltergeist as our villain so a weapon prop would not really be fitting with the villain so we may not use this f

Costume research

Our film is based on the idea of having 4 main characters, 3 of these will be the "victims" and a escaped murderer who is hunting them. The murderers costume will be most important as it needs to convey the evil nature of our antagonist in order to unsettle the audience and make him a credible threat. It would not make sense to have our murderer dressed in a hoodie and jeans and wearing trainers as a murderer must be psychopathic and therefore would not dress casually. Therefore the costume needs to convey to the audience the idea of the murderer being crazy and therefore be abnormal. We are already planning to have our murderer in some form of mask which will help to put across the idea of his lunacy and make him a credible threat, it also conceals the murderers identity adding mystery and suspense to the character as the audience won't be able to tell who or what is under the mask. For the rest of his costume, we thought about him wearing black, muddy, worn-out work boots to as these would be conventional footwear for a killer to use. An example would be the character Zep from the original Saw film.

The rest of the killers costume would ideally be mostly black, which has the practical benefits of making them harder to identify in shots which we can use to our advantage in teasing the character to the audience in our trailer without fully revealing him. Black trousers, a black jacket and black gloves with the mask would make our killer look creepy and reveal almost nothing about him to the audience, further helping to make the character intriguing and terrifying.

For our victims, costume-work will be easier to decide on as there is a broader range of acceptable outfit. It is conventional for the victims in horror films to be relatable for the audience, making it easier to put yourself in their shoes and therefore making the scenario more frightening. This is why most of the time teenagers are the victims in these films as teenagers are the main target market for the horror genre. Our 3 victims will also be teenagers and will dress accordingly in t-shirts, hoodies and trainers. Ideally, most of the victims costumes will consist of bright colours like white in order to contrast with the darkness of the villain and to make them seem more vulnerable in a dark environment as they stand out more. Each costume should also be tailored to reflect each characters personality, helping to make them more identifiable to the audience. A good example is from the costume-work in The Cabin in The Woods, which can be seen below. You have the "jock" character wearing an American football jacket to show he is the strong, sporty and typically stupid one in the film. Then you also have the contrasting choice of costume for each of the female-characters, with the blonde woman wearing a short skirt and the ginger woman wearing jeans, making the audience sympathise more with the ginger woman as she seems more respectable and less promiscuous than the blonde woman.

We have also had an idea for a fake news report to feature in our trailer, with a news reporter setting the scene to the audience. If we end up going along with the news report idea, we would likely have our news reporter in a smart suit and tie to add to the realism, as this is typically what you'd expect to see in a real life news report.

Questionnaire

These will be the questions that we will ask our audience, we hope that this will give us a better idea of what the target audience want to see.




1.What is your age and gender?

2. What would be a good location for a Horror film?
- A house
- A park
- A Forrest
- A school


3.Would you prefer the Antagonist to be a person or a ghost that cannot be seen?


4.What would you expect the Protagonist in the film to be like?


5.What would you expect the Antagonist in the film to be like?


6. What is you favourite genre within Horror?
- Blood and gore
- Ghosts
- Thriller
- Psychological


7. What is your favourite horror film? and why?


8. Would you prefer the Antagonist to be realistic or to be a character that is sub-normal?


9. Would you prefer if the Horror film is based on things that actually occur? e.g. stalking murder etc


10. Do Horror films containing blood and gore appeal to you?


11. What would you expect to see in a horror trailer?

Character research

Firstly we have our reporter, Thomas Cunningham. He will be our character who is in the establishing shot, telling the audience about this 'mysterious killer' who had recently escaped prison/mental asylum. Thomas should be wearing a reporter type clothing such as a trench coat and a shirt making him look the part (below),  we may have to try and find a border in editing to make our establishing shot look more realistic we will need to find a new broadcasting sound to start of the establishing shot.

We now have one of our main characters within the trailer. This is Chloe Young, she will be our female who is targeted by our mysterious killer. we decided to use a female character as stereo-typically they are known to be the weaker more vulnerable race relying on males to be their savior. she will be wearing  casual clothes as she is only a  teenage girl in our film with no profession. In the insidious 3 trailer Chloe is like the girl in the wheel chair character.  

Research and Planning targets

Alex your group needs to make some decisions about your film as soon as possble. The posts listed below ideally need to be completed this week.

1.      Location research – you need to decide on the setting of your film ASAP, include google earth images and pictures you have taken.

 

2.      Description of the actors and interviews

 

3.      Prop research and analysis

 

4.      Costume ideas

 

5.      Questionnaire and feedback on your initial ideas