Risk Assessment

Shooting Schedule

Treatment/Film Ideas

Idea 1: Camping film idea

Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of Wax meet the classic slasher Friday 13th

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Road trip, serial killer,
House of Wax; Camping trip, isolation, no contact with outside world.
Friday 13th: slasher, teenagers, mental


Scenario:
‘A group of teenagers adventure on a camping trip in the isolated woods where they are brutally murdered by their stalker....one by one’
‘Group of teenagers’ and ‘stalker’-character paradigm
‘Isolated woods’- Setting paradigm
‘Brutally murdered’- props: weapons such as knives, poles
Infatuation (mental issues- photographs of girls)


Treatment:
Opening shot is the teens setting off on their road trip, discussing who is sharing tents with whom. One of the teens gets his/her personal camera out and starts filming how excited they are for their trip and fooling around. (Close up, low angle, canted angles as he/she is filming other people in the car) The unsteady camera shots portray a structuralist view. Long shot to set the scene showing them getting out the car and setting up their tents. They are starting to become aware that they are not alone and start hearing noises and seeing movements. (Tone card- Someone’s obsession, turns into another person’s nightmare) A jump cut to the stalker in a room looking at photos of the girls, (Photos of them having fun, laughing).


Idea 2: Obsession/stalker storyline

Scream meets I know What You Did Last Summer
Scream: tormenting the teens, knife

Scenario:
A stalker seeks revenge many years later...he couldn’t forgive and forget
Stalker- Character paradigm
Infatuation- mental issues (photographs of girls)


Treatment:

The trailer begins at the moment of equilibrium when the two best friends are talking and painting each other’s nails (sleepover setting). Then there is a long shot of the girls walking home through a quiet part of town. (Disequilibrium)They begin to feel a little paranoid (unsteady camera movement) thinking someone is behind them, (jump cuts of them speeding up) but when they turn around they catch a glimpse of someone walking past. (Close up of their facial expressions; shock, confusion). Tone card: They have no idea... George (Idea of ‘Martin’ from Human Centipede 2) is wanting revenge...after all these years. Then there is a shot of many photographs of the girls on a wall, zooming in on their faces at one point. (Close up shot)


Idea 3: Supernatural (Ghost activity)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose meets The Amityville Horror
The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Possessed Child / The Amityville Horror: Paranormal activity

Scenario:
Possessed child – Character Paradigm
Family House – Setting Paradigm
Paranormal activity, objects moving


Treatment:
The opening shot is of a young child sitting at the end of her bed staring at the wall when objects around her start to move. Her parents start then start to believe that there is something wrong with her. (Medium Shot). Her parents start to worry about her and decide it is best to keep her locked inside on her own. When her parents return home they find that the house has been trashed (High shot, canted angle). The young girl wants to get her own back for what her parents have done and starts tormenting them, by messing with their minds and rearranging objects around the house. She is left with only one option now for revenge, and that is to slowly murder them in their sleep.

Questionnaire Resources- Film Posters and Questionnaire Results

Horror questionnaire results

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Question 15. Which of the following horror film posters scares you the most?

Presentation1

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 Analysis of results;
From our questionnaire results we have realised our trailer needs to target the avid horror genre fans, which are mostly between sixteen and seventeen years old, both male and females appear to enjoy the genre therefore our trailer must appeal to both genders. The majority of people who took part in the questionnaire are students, who watch a lot of TV. This would account for why our results show, that most of the candidates heard about the latest horror films through the film trailers, and that a good film trailer would be the thing that makes them want to go to the cinema. This means making a quality trailer, that appeals to our target audience will be key to its success. From the questionnaire, we found that the audience's favourite thing about horror films is 'the suspense' and 'being made to jump', these answers mean we can ensure our trailer is constantly engaging the audience, along with the result showing their favourite component of a horror film was 'fear of the unknown' these are all factors we can now incorporate into our horror trailer.

As the majority of people who took part in the questionnaire answered that they were most likely to watch the film at home, we need to ensure our trailer makes the audience want to pay money to visit the cinema. When asked what the audience like within a story line they replied something realistic that they can relate to, this is a component we can very easily incorporate into our plot making the story more engaging and interesting for the audience. As a plus point from our point of view, they would prefer to see a quality 2D horror film, rather than a horror film with little plot and substance but has 3D effects. Lastly when asked out of five posters which scared them the most, the highest amount went to those that featured close up shot of what they assumed was the villain/killer. Both 'One Missed Call' and 'Nightmare On Elm Street', the top scoring horror film posters, displayed dark images which didn't reveal the identity of the killer, but showed enough to entice the audience into going to the cinema. From this we know that when making our poster we need to ensure we are showing the killer, in an up close and eerie photo but be careful not to reveal too much of their identity as to keep the mystery, which is one of the audience's favourite components of a horror film.

Questionnaire

Bussing scene analysis

During the filming of our bussing scene we only had a small amount of time, to shoot enough sufficient footage to create the chase scene. We learnt the importance of planning in order to remain focused. Creating a detailed storyboard proved very beneficial as we could refer back to our plot and had all our shots pre-planned. Traditionally horror films are set during the night or in a dark place to connote the coming events, but one problem we faced was we were shooting during the day which made creating the horror atmosphere difficult. This issue put more emphasis on our shot types; they had to create the scary atmosphere need to make a successful horror scene. We depicted the killer as a silhouette, a mystery character dressed in black. This is following props theory of the eight characters and structuralist theory as the audience is attracted and entertained by their fear of the unknown. Feminist theory was conveyed through the powerful female protagonist, by fighting the killer she is portrayed as breaking the stereotypical female victim. We wanted to subvert the typical blonde promiscuous female victim viewed in numerous horror films.

We used Todorov’s theory to compose our scene. Starting with the period of equilibrium, which is accentuated by the diegetic sound of the birds, and carrying over into the period of disequilibrium conveyed through the discontinuous, fast paced editing. When in post production we realised that the light actually added to the atmosphere in the scene. The light becomes brighter as she is running away, which connotes a hope that she will escape and portrays a sense of freedom.

Analysis of 2 horror trailers

  

Media presentation

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