Final Girl

Most horror trailers such as Scream 2 have embarked upon the use of Final girl as a sadistic approach by Roland Barthes as auidences enjoy females being tormented. This is based on Carol Clovers theory of final girl as a significant amount of horror trailers have used these technique as a method of leaving the audience in suspense this can also be reflected in films such as Eden Lake, in which female's take on heroic characterisitcs.

Ouija Board Scene

The Ouija Board scene was the most challenging area of production as it involved using a variety of shot types and editing techniques to form cohesion, moreover, this scene was is the instgator to the moment of disequlibrium as the teenagers get punished for their sinful acts as they realised a demon which comes back to haunt them, we intentionally shot these scenes in a dark room supplemented by candles to get a saturated effect and make the audience understand the concept of the scene.

Smoking Scene

This scene was set in the attic and involved the immoral girl being punished for sinful act this links in with Carol clover who suggested that the permiscious character always dies first, consequently based on Ava's costume and behaviour the audience can establish that she is immoral which results in her death. 

Edited Establishing Shot

This process involved getting used to Final Cut editing by changing raw footage into our media product

Being Watched

The concept of supernaturality is that the villain or spirit is never revealed which means that creating a effective and effiicient horror trailer would be more challenging, hence we embarked upon suing techniques such as in Paranormal activity, by putting a point of view shot of  the teenagers being watched the audience are engaged with the trailer. 

Establishing Scene

The establishing shot is a necessity in allowing the audience to be aware of setting, hence as our trailer iis based on the spirit of the supernatural we shot a old school which brings about emotions of fear but could also suggest that the college is haunted by demons.

Preliminary Scene

As a collective we required to gain some expirence on using editing shoftware, as well as being able to upload film footage. Hence, we delibrated and decided to produce shoots in which we could practice editing. As a result we practiced the moment of disequlibrium in our actual trailer, to get a feel of how it would turn out in the real production.

Chase Scenes

This was the most challenging filming as a result of the various angles in which we had to shoot this sequence, and trying to capture the emotive feel that our trailer has obtained. As illustrated through our editing of this clip we used a variety of fade to black shoots for our moment of equlibrium. However as the clip progressed we decided to use more jump cuts to obtain a high degree of pace.

Moment of Disequlibrium

This is an advancement of the preliminary production in which we produced, as a group we keep practising our moment of disequilibrium to make sure that it could be embeded into our trailer, and would achieve its full effect.

Trailer Production

Risk Assessment



During the process of making a trailer it is inevitable that some risks may occur such as someone falling down from an unconventional place. To it is a necessity to implement a degree of constraints on certain things and making sure that the setting of our trailer has minimum risks. Thus, it is imperative to make sure that we have scouted our location so that we don’t come across any unfamiliar scenarios. Consequently, we have decided to construct a risk assessment throughout the duration of our scenes so that if any risks occur we will be able to tackle the issue swiftly.

Scene 1:

The establishing scene begins in the corridor of the college, as this scene will be held at the beginning of school; the probability of numerous people passing through the corridor is at a substantial rate. Consequently, as Sam will be walking through the busy corridor, therefore to make sure that people don’t bump into there we will be making sure that everyone in the corridor is aware of the our trailer production and that there is nothing on the floor. Furthermore, the next scene is Sam walking into the classroom. Therefore to make sure that the classroom is safe we will tuck all the chairs in so that Sam does not fall over and risk obtaining injuries.

Scene 2:

This scene will be held at the schools lockers. Hence, as the lockers is located on a sharp bend it is likely that someone may be around the corner, so when we open the lockers we will make sure that no one is coming towards the lockers so that people don’t bump into each to other and don’t get hit by the locker.

Scene 3:

As Sam and Michelle will be mocking about on the staircase, it is important that they stay vigilant so that they don’t stumble and fall, especially as the staircase is made of concrete, the likely hood is that they will obtain serious injuries. Additionally, sometimes the stair are wet or slippery, so we will make sure before we shoot the scene that the stairs are clear and make sure that Sam and Michelle hold on to the railings. Also as the will be holding a camera and a torch they should make sure that they concentrate on were they are walking.

Scene 4:

This scene is located in the school gym which is large and usually contains various chairs and tables as January is exam period. As a result, we will clear the sports hall and make sure that there are no lose footballs or ladders which may fall and hit us. I also noticed that one of the door handles in the gym is broken and has a nail in it. So to extinguish that problem we will refer the issue to the school caretaker so that he can fix the problem. Furthermore, this scene will be held in the dark so it is imperative that we stay vigilant to make sure that no one runs into any static objects and hence injuring themselves.

Scene 5:

Furthermore, the next scene is held in the toilet as Ava goes for a cigarette. As a result of the toilet being pitch black and Ava only being armed with a torch it is important that she knows were she is going so that she doesn’t bump into the wall. Additionally, I have noticed that the toilet floors are usually contains water on the floor. Consequently, we will inform the school cleaner, and wait for it to dry before we proceed with the trailer production. Another risk is that the camera will fall into the toilet therefore we make sure that the toilet seats is closed which means that the camera can not be destroyed by the water.

Scene 6:

This scene the most amount of risks. As all the characters will be running around the school we need to make sure that their shoe laces are tied properly. Additionally, as the chase scenes will contain a lot of screaming and running it is important that the characters run slam into shut doors and run into static objects. So before we proceed we will make sure that the floor is dry and that the characters know where to run and making sure that no one will be around so that the characters don’t collide with anyone proceeding. Also when the characters are running down the stairs they need to watch out for the staircases.

Scene 7:

Lastly, this scene will be the cliff-hanger in which the camera drops hits the floor as it fuzzes out. The most substantial risk would be that the camera breaks as it hits the floor. As a result, to make sure that the camera don’t break I will make sure that the camera drops rather than throwing it, I also spoke to the insurance company who I ensured that they will replace the camera with a new one, so that if the camera breaks it will not affect our production schedule.

Conclusion

To conclude, I think that it is a necessity to create a risk assessment when producing things because it minimises the chances of something unpredictable happening. It also makes our trailer more safe and encourages use to be more cognisant of our surroundings in given circumstances. We all came to a consensus that the risk assessment especially as our trailer is held in the dark would to need as guideline to safety in the dark.

Ouija Board

Production Schedule

Props

There are some of the significant props which will be used in my production as a method of interacting with the audience and providing a narrative to stimulate their minds:

Character Profile

Horror Villains

This image is from the horror film Chucky.

Analysis of cast, costume, props and locations

Script

Characters

Sam (Samantha): 18, Tomboy; virgin; intellectual

Ava - 17 promiscuous; pretty, Sam’s best friend

Jared- 18 Ava’s boyfriend

Michelle: 17

Scene 1

Location: In the classroom

Narrative structure-period of equilibrium

Characterst- Sam, Ava, Jared, Michelle.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Establishing shot of the corridor and then, Sam walks into the classroom with her camera and joins all her other friends, it switches to hand-held she talks about how excited she is that it’s Halloween. Sam produces an Ouija board and tells the others about her plan to do séance after school. The others laugh and joke amongst themselves about how it’s not going to work but they’ll go along with it just for fun.

Scene 2

Location:In the corridor

Narrative structure: Period of equilibrium

Characterst: Ava, Michelle

A close up shot from within the locker. Showing Ava reaching inside and getting a book out. They get a text from Sam telling them about the details of the séance that night, they laugh and joke about how she takes spirits and ghosts to seriously.

Scene 3

Location: Walking up the stairs

Narrative Structure: period of equilibrium.

Characters: Michelle, Sam, Ava, Jared

 Ariel shot of Sam and Michelle walking up the stairs to meet Ava and Jared. Close up of them discussing why they’re meeting them in the attic. Long shots of the empty playground, indicating that the school is empty and that they are alone. They walk into the attic and see Ava and Jared with bags full of alcohol and drinks.  

Scene 4

Location: Gym hall

Narrative structure: Period of disequilibrium

Characters: Michelle, Ava, Jared, Sam

All the teenagers are now in the hall where they set up the Ouija board,camera pans around them in a circle as they do the séance.

Scene 5

Location: Toilet

Narrative Structure: Period of disequilibrium

Characters: Ava

Ava goes to the toilet for a cigarette and is locked in, the others hear her scream and run to investigate they find only her cigarette on the floor.

Scene 6

Location: Various locations

Narrative structure: Period of disequilibrium

Characters: Michelle, Jared, Sam

Various shots of the others running around the school screaming and shouting.

Scene 7

Location: Corridor

Narrative structure: Period of disequilibrium

Characters: Sam

Camera falls to the floor, long shot of Sam running and then it switches off.

Comparing Scenes between Scream 2 and Blair Witch Project

Location Scouting

Changes To Idea

The changes to my initial ideas arises from acquiring experience from the nature of my production, this was usually based on group decisions occurring from team work.

Treatment Analysis

The Treatment analysis is a  annotation highlighting genre conventions/paradigms, this as a result means that I can elaborate on some of the key events and vocabularies used to sustain a better understanding to Warner Bros hence expanding on my initial pitch.

Treatment

Characters:

·         The geeky girl Sam (Samantha)

·         Boyfriend (Jared)

·         Girlfriend (Ava)

·         Friend (Michelle)

It is the Monday morning of the 31^st October 2011, when 8.25 in the morning everyone is getting ready to go to Media Lesson. Ava and Michelle are already in class (sitting at the front) bright and early gossiping about what happened to Sophie (A disliked girl in the class) over the weekend and talking about boys. On the other hand, Jared is sitting next to Ava fidgeting with his brand new Blackberry 9700 which he seems to be well pleased about acquiring. 2 minutes later Sam walks in just before the lesson commences as usual with her geeky high pitch voice, and nerdy glasses. She then rudely interrupts Ava and Michelle’s conversation saying that “I have got something to show you”, she then reaches into her huge bag and brings out a hand held camera, Ava and Michelle struggle to contain there laughter as they don’t understand why Sam has brought in a camera.

After being mocked for being such a geek Sam reveals that she brought the camera to Jared, Michelle and Ava because she wanted them to play a game. Sam then got the camera out and starting filming Jared, Ava and Michelle who don’t seem too pleased about having a camera in their faces. Sam for the second time reaches into her bag and brings out candles and some random letters from the alphabet. She then whispers that she has planned to play the game seeing whether the big fuss about the Ouija Board is true. Ava, Jared and Michelle initially seem to hesitate and disagree with this idea, deeming it “risky” and “taboo”. However, Sam eventually manages to persuade the group to take part in this adventure/experiment to see whether it is actually real since it is Halloween today.

Sam says that the group should meet at lunch time to discuss the idea and plan how they are going to manage to play the game in the school without being noticed by anyone especially the hated caretaker. Time then paces, and lunch time has begun and the corridors got crowded and noisy as Sam continues to play with her new camera; the group of four decide to meet by the lockers because Ava needs to get some red lipstick. Sam at this point reveals her plan that they would wait for school to close at around 6 and hide to make sure that the school caretaker does not discover them as it is winter time and the school gets dark quickly. This plan seemed to have established a consensus within the group. They all go their separate ways as they have got different lessons whilst Jared and Ava flirt for a while without knowing that they are being watched from the crack of a door. Then after lessons the group decide to meet up in the attic of the school to hide (no one goes up there), Ava and Jared are continuously flirting in the attic waiting for Michelle and Sam to come up. In the long run, Michelle and Sam turn up after looking out of the window, waiting for the last car to drive off from the car park and so that the gates can close which meant that no one apart from the group was still left in school. Sam and Michelle then head up the stairs towards the attic, Sam seems to be very excited about this forthcoming coming events, she comes prepared with the camera to video the Ouija game as well as torches for the group as it will be dark as the caretaker has witched all the lights off. Being trapped in this creepy school didn’t seem to deter the teens from carrying out the scary game. They then head down the stairs from the attic towards the sports hall, where they were they laid out the game in the centre and continued to laugh and joke about this game. The group play the game in the dark and play with their torch lights pretending to be ghosts and evil sprits. After a while they get bored of the game. Sam and Jared head off around the corner (kissing) whereas; Michelle goes to the toilet heading down the stairs to the bottom level of the school. That left Sam to clear up the mess left behind from the Ouija board game. Still recording after packing up the mess Sam turns around with the camera in night vision to see the face of Michelle right up in the camera, after being shocked the teenagers laugh about the situation.

They then go and find Jared and Ava who had wondered off as they were still joking about how fake and “crap” the Ouija Board was and calling it a waste of time as they walked on the squeaky floor boards. They found Jared and Ava and they planned to leave the school ad get home before their parents start worrying. However, events swiftly change as a door slams behind the group they all start screaming, and they start running down the stairs in hope of finding an escape route. Jared seems to disappear from the group and they had no chance of finding him has it was dark and they could risk their lives. With Jared lost Ava, Michelle and Sam hide to in the school computer rooms on the second floor, after running down the creepy stairs that squeak. They then suddenly see a flash go past the glass door, they all started sobbing and crying out for silent help as they believed that they had released a malicious ghost as a consequence of playing the Ouija Board game which has was extremely psychotic.

Ava then decides to peak out the door to see whether the ghost was fake and to see whether it had disappeared but as soon as she stepped out the door, with the flash light, all that was heard was a lot of screaming and shouting from the helpless Ava. This meant that she had been captured by this demonic spirit. As a result the group was condensed to 2 people. Sam and Michelle were the only two left and they were terrified but had to keep silent as the ghost was still on the loss and they didn’t want to let the ghost know of there were about. But they knew that if they didn’t make a move the likely hood would be that the girls would both get captured by this oppressive spirit.

Therefore, they decide to split and run different ways to confuse the ghost but it seemed like Michelle was the escape goat in this situation as she vanished like Jared did earlier in the scene. Consequently, only armed with a Torch the geeky nerd Sam with her small frame went around the school looking over her shoulders every time trying to spot the ghost, Sam searched for a hiding place in the school which she hoped that the ghost could not reach her. So she ran straight into the girl’s toilet, looked the door and hid in it for several minutes. It seemed as if the ghost had left Sam alone and gone back to the pit of heel.

Sam in the dark toilet shocked with sweat, was still filming in hope of capturing the ghost on the camera, after being in the dark for so long, Sam felt a bit safer and she planned to stay in the school until someone came to rescue her using the cameras night vision to spot the ghost.

Except, the door Slammed open, Sam who was in a state of shock dropped the camera under the toilet which gave the ghost a clear idea where Sam was located. All that could be seen was a body covered with blood everywhere, then slowly footsteps progressed to Sam`s toilet she screamed ferociously in suspense hoping that someone could hear her but is it too late?....

Pitch Analysis

The intention of analysing my pitch, is to analyse some of the key words that I have used and explaining them to a an audience who has not got specialist knowledge of media on the other hand, analysing my pitch allows productions companies such as Warner Bros, to get a greater insight into the content of my media product and the structure in which it is likely to adapt making their verdict easier and my marketing more details.

Pitch

The idea behind the pitch is to construct a selling line which may be pitched to a renowned production company such as the Warner Bros, who could potentially fund my media product, hence the pitch is a simple phrase which sums up your idea and the content of your trailer in the space of one line, making it easier to digest and process.

(Blair-witch project) meets (Scream 2), when a group of teenagers embark on a supernatural game for fun and to experiment, but everything goes wrong.

Final Idea

Title: The Summoning

Final Idea:

It is the morning of Halloween, when a group of media students attend class. One of the media students the (geek or freak) brings in a hand held camera. This is because she has also brought in an Ouija board as a result of it being Halloween. Initially, at first her friends were resilient about the idea of playing with a board which has had its negative histories in the past. The students were fascinated by the fact that they would stay behind school to play with this board as the lights would be off because it is the end of the day. They then got hold of torches and when to one of the rooms in school to experiment on whether the Ouija board actually works, armed with only torch lights the students after roomed around the school.(Equilibrium) However, a door slams (disequilibrium) and they then believe that they are being chased by this ghost. Consequently, they run around a barren school fearing for their lives hoping to escape the horrific ghost of the supernatural which they had released, one or two students disappear in the dark (Period of new equilibrium).

Trailer:

Our horror trailer will be a mixture of Blair-witch project and Scream 2.

Setting:

In a large school, all the lights are off because the caretaker has turned them off as it is the end of the day, isolated location, and many different rooms. The attic: the classroom, the corridors, the basement, the staircase, outside around the school premises, the toilets, the canteen etc.

Characters:

·         Geeky girl Sam (Samantha)

·         Boyfriend (Jared)

·         Girlfriend (Ava)

·         Korrina (Michelle)

Pitch:

(Blair-witch project) meets (Scream 2), when a group of teenagers embark on a supernatural game for fun and to experiment, but everything goes wrong.

Shot Types to Use:

·         Close up shot – a close up shot will be used to show the characters emotion on a constant base as they shift through different periods of Todorov’s equilibriums structure.

·         Long shot – long shots will be used to establish location and make the characters look venerable and small. Furthermore also using this technique to establish mise-en-scene and the environment which the characters are at.

·         Establishing shot – the establishing shot will indicate location, and therefore giving the audience and insight into where the trailer is taking place.

·         Tracking shots

·         Bussing sequence

·         Shot reverse shot

·         Over the shoulder

·         Different angles   

Original Ideas

First Idea: As a collective we collaborated and came up with the idea of setting are horror trailer in woods or a forest. The initial idea was that a group of teenagers who got lost in the woods whilst planning to consume alcohol, during the course of the trailer a psychopathic killer, which is usually used in the sub-genre of slasher film appears who then tortures and kills the teenagers for being impure. This initial idea came from the film Friday 13 blended in with Halloween. We were planning to use the woods behind the school as our key location.

Second Idea: A geeky kid is being bullied because he doesn’t follow the stereotypical representation of gender, in other words he does not conform to the ideologies of how teenagers should present themselves in terms of fashion. One day in school the same the same events as usual happens, Michael the geek gets bullied, but this time he has had enough and comes back to haunt and punish the people who bullied him. He then drags them to the dark haunted basement of the school and kills them all in various ways by using a huge butcher knife.

Third Idea: a group of teenagers follow the conventions of life by partying. However, this party is not so an ordinary party were people have fun and then end up drunk. This is because the house in which the party is set in a remote location and has been haunted by ghosts in the past. However, the teenagers decide to take the risk, representing teenagers of today’s society. The party start of fine and everyone is happy, drinking, smoking and generally having fun. On the other hand, events change swiftly as they let an elderly man into their party because he had run out of petrol and it was raining heavily. This man t hen goes upstairs whilst the party is going on, he gets a hammer and kills all the people upstairs and then comes after the girl who is hosting the party which supports the final girl theory.

Fourth Idea: our fourth idea arose from the empathise of iconography, we wanted to go against most slasher films which were located in remote isolated location and make our horror trailer in the London, hence the establishing shot of the big Ben, and parliament. The idea was based on a road trip just like in chainsaw massacre in which equilibrium was when they were all smiling on the road trip. However, in our trailer we planned that the car would run out of petrol in a barren area. They then knock on a big house and eventually get let in. however evens swiftly change as the owner of the house disappears puts on a mask and chases and kills everyone.

Fifth Idea: This idea is about an innocent young 8 year old who is very gifted in school but he gets bullied for being so clever. This child one day gets pushed by this big bullies and he hits his head and gets a concussion. Ever since, he has never been acting the same, he starts underperforming in school and isn’t on the same level as everyone else, as a result his parents are really disappointed and they stop speaking to him. He then goes insane and believes that he has got a massage from the devil to torture his family and kill all the bullies in his school. He then wakes up from what appears to be a dream with blood covering his body.

Sixth Idea: A bunch of teenagers have all decided to got to a local grave yards at night because one of the teenagers in the group believe that she saw a spirit arise from the grave. The gate of the grave yard slams and the teenagers are trapped in a huge grave yard in the middle of the night. This instils immense fear upon the teenagers as they become paranoid. Consequently, they start running around the grave believing that a ghost is chasing them. One of the members of the group fall into a ditch and starts screaming because his leg got seriously injured during the incident, this as a result supplements the scary factor and they become increasing scared trying to find an escape route. They then go into the church seeking refuge from the evil spirit in the graveyard, but hat they didn’t know is that the church is also hunted they then encounter a ghost in the church which kills them by injecting them with the spirit of death.

Seventh idea: A boy has constant arguments with his dad and he has been on the receiving end of corporal punishment which he didn’t like, so I day after a serious altercation with his dad the boy decided to run away and seeks shelter in a desolate abandoned farmhouse which he used to be play in as a child with his dad. Furthermore, this farmhouse reminded him of the good times in which he had as a teenager. However, he didn’t know that the farm house had just got new tenants, two old couple. They meet and they seem very pleasant but things change when it became dark, the elderly couple were acting strange, which later is found out because they were worshipping the devil, the boy then screams runs, but the front door automatically looks and he cant get out. As a result, the two old couple stab him to death after a long chase.

Eighth idea: It is Halloween and we are all going out knocking on doors to get sweets. We knock on various doors to get treats, but then we knocked on door number 666. No I responded so we decided to throw eggs and damage the front door of this house. We then decided to enter this house to throw eggs at the occupants but that was no the case because the occupants were vampires. They then started to chase use rebels before sucking our blood and as a result infecting us with this disease. Consequently, the disease spreads and the estate becomes contaminated.

Ninth: A school caretaker at Negus Sixth Form College is preparing to look up the school today after a long day at work. However all of a sudden he hears a noise from the basement and decides to go check it out. He at first believes it is a mouse and decides to walk way from the situation, but then he feels a tap on his shoulders and turns around to discover that, it was in fact the hands of a zombie. The caretaker out of hear takes a shovel and hits the zombie across the head. Thinking that the zombie is no longer a threat he again walks way, again the zombie gets up and grabs him throwing him against the way causing the caretaker to collapse. The zombie and the caretaker struggle with constant usage of different weapons by the caretaker to defend himself from the attacks. Ultimately, the manages to go to the school physical Education department and then he gets a baseball bat which he uses to hit the zombie before escaping brutally battered.

10^th Idea: A boy friend and girlfriend have been in a relationship for a long time and are happy and are so in love. They are in the same media class, one day one of their friends suggests that they should play with an Ouija board, which one of the students had brought in from home. They play with the board and get haunted in the woods behind the school after saying behind to experiment with the board. Consequently, they stumble across creepy things on trying to escape and there are many horrific events which they embark upon. This unleashes an evil spirit which causes supernatural events to occur.

Questionnaire Analysis

The questionnaire result analysis allowed me to navigate the genre of horror in which my product would epitomize by applying the opinions of my target audience to my horror trailer. The result analysis strived to achieve a balance in age and gender to represent a more accurate view of society, hence handing my questionnaire equally in respect of gender resulted in my data collection to be more acute and consequently granted my finding reliability. Generally, my results reflected a positive light on my previous though of genre and thus firmed the fact that I was going to generate a media product in the supernatural sub-genre.