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. 

Questionnaire Results

Collecting the results of my survey is imperative in being more efficient in my production but to also give my feedback evidence and hence reliability. Moreover, the survey results allows me to extract key perspectives from my target audience feedback, this was constructed on Microsoft Excel, which granted me the opportunity to structure my results in a cohesive manor which made the analysis process more precise and time efficient.

Horror Questionnaire

The Primary aim of conducting this survey is to create a microcosm, reflecting opinions on contemporary horror, but to also form a foundation and create the fundamentals to my media product, this questionnaire is designed to encourage my target audience of teenagers, to have an input on the content and overall perspective of my horror production hence, granting me insight into the potential content and form of my horror trailer.

Trailer Report (Scream 3)

Scream 3
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Wes Craven
Produced by	Cathy Konrad Kevin Williamson Marianne Maddalena
Written by	Ehren Kruger
Starring	David Arquette Neve Campbell Courteney Cox Arquette Patrick Dempsey Jenny McCarthy Parker Posey Deon Richmond
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Cinematography	Peter Deming
Editing by	Patrick Lussier
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release date(s)	February 4, 2000
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Gross revenue	$161,834,276[1][2

Scream 3

Scream 3 is a 2000 American slasher film directed by the renowned Wes Craven, the trailer initiates with the main character picking up the phone, this is portray in greyscale which could connote that the horror trailer is misty. The horror goes straight into disequilibrium in the pace of the trailer speeds up hence creating tension and suspense. This is also supplemented by a range of screaming and non-degetic sound which increased as the trailer became more intense. Furthermore, the trailer has obscured the identity of the villain play placing a mask over his face this is a common feature of horror trailers leading the audience to anticipate futuristic events. The villain also used a weapon (knife) to be more of a threat to the victims but to also bring about the feeling of penetration through the sadistic approach conveyed by the theorist Roland Barthes.

As the trailer progresses the editors have implements a substantial degree of jumps cuts to place the audience on the edge of their seats but to also capture the emotions of the main characters through the use of close-up shots which depict fear and vulnerability. Moreover, the trailer intentionally changed the lighting to create gloomy effect, as the trailer is a thriller the use of explosions and a range of running scenes is effective method of instilling fear into the mind of the audience hence having a physiological effect on the way they interpret the trailer. Lastly, the editors have used montage editing meaning that the trailer has used a variety of different shots in which the audience have to digest.

Trailer Report (Eden Lake)

Eden Lake
Theatrical poster
Directed by	James Watkins
Produced by	Christian Colson
Written by	James Watkins
Starring	Kelly Reilly Michael Fassbender Jack O'Connell
Cinematography	Christopher Ross
Editing by	Jon Harris
Distributed by	Rollercoaster Films (UK) The Weinstein Company(US)
Release date(s)	September 12, 2008 (UK) October 31, 2008 (US, limited)
Country	UK
Language	English
Gross revenue	$3,983,997[1

Eden Lake

Eden Lake is a British Thriller Horror Film, written and directed by James Watkins, in which a romantic couple take the weekend of to spend time around a peaceful lake. However, events soon change as the couple encounter a group of teenagers, who consistently made noise and distracted couple from their romantic companionship, as a result the boyfriend confronts the teenagers who then come back to haunt the couple. The trailer initiates with an establishing shot of a car driving into green land, as the brightness of the grass blossoms, this clear indicates that the trailer is in period of equilibrium according to the theorist Todorov, this is also depicted through the couple who seem to be in love illustrated through kisses and hugs shows closeness as they laugh consistently. However, the couple are interrupted by teenagers playing football and making noise which is complemented by the non-digetic sound of Dizee Rascal music in the background, stereotyping teenagers by suggesting that they listen to contemporary music.

The moment of disequilibrium occurs when the teenagers drive the four wheel drive towards the couple at speed causing the male to rescue the women which could connote gender representation, as he is seen as a hero. The teenagers also depict representation by swearing which could imply that teenagers are not law abiding citizens and hence immoral and unrighteous. The trailer has also followed conventions by implementing a knife which is a weapon used to penetrate, this suggest that the film is likely to encounter blood, as the trailer progresses the scenes become darker instigated by the main character crashing the car, this is followed by screaming and blood as the teenagers catch the trapped man, the film then focuses on the final girl theory by carol clover has the female takes on a heroic personality as she battles with the teenagers, this could also be linked in with Roland Barthes theory of sadistic as we  the audience enjoy watching pain being inflicted on others.

Trailer Report (Blair Witch Project)

The Blair Witch Project
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Daniel Myrick Eduardo Sánchez
Produced by	Robin Cowie Gregg Hale
Written by	Daniel Myrick Eduardo Sánchez
Starring	Heather Donahue Joshua Leonard Michael C. Williams
Music by	Antonio Cora
Cinematography	Neal Fredericks
Editing by	Daniel Myrick Eduardo Sánchez
Studio	Haxan Films
Distributed by	Artisan Entertainment
Release date(s)	July 30, 1999
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$500,000-$750,000
Gross revenue	$248,639,099

Blair-Witch Project

Blair Witch Project is an American horror film produced in 1999; the narrative is presented in the form of a documentary pieced together from amateur footage, filmed in real time. The film is about three people who went to in the woods about someone called Blair Witch in which they were never seen again, the concept is that the footage after many years has been discovered and is presented as a film. On the contrary, to many supernatural and mystery horror films Blair Witch project has embarked upon the use of hand held camera which makes the film seem more realistic and interactive.  The Blair Witch Project has used diegetic sound extensively through the use of dialogue, which suggests that the trailer has embarked upon the use of continuity editing.

The moment of disequilibrium is signified by the male character screaming at the female character (Heather) because they have lost a map. Consequently, the trailer shifts from being set in the light to be located in the dark surrounded by dense woodland implying isolation, the mood at this point is also captured with a variety of screaming and running which suggest that the characters are vulnerable, as the camera is shown in night vision. The camera then switches to a point of view shot of the Heather looking terrified as she explains why the teenagers have been placed in this situation, The trailer then ends in suspense as the camera drops on the floor and Heather running off to the wilderness screaming, this trailer moreover conforms to Todorovs theory and hence allows the trailer to be consumed in a logic manor rather than confusing the audience by making them figure out the narrative structure (Continuity).