Our Schedule

Here's the schedule we planned for filming. However, delays occured due to the weather conditions.

Our Storyboard

(Excluding Images)

Shot 1: Pan of dark room (scene with shadow and photos)

A CHANCE MEETING

Shot 2: Mid-shot of both bumping into each other
Shot 3: Mid-shot of both lean to pick up books as they smile at each other

SOMEONE YOU THINK IS TRYING TO HELP YOU

Shot 4: Close-up zooming into locket as it slowly falls
Shot 5: Front view of her shoulder as camera stares behind it when he stares at her as she leaves

BUT ARE THEY ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM?

Shot 6: Over-the-Shoulder shot zooming in towards her in the locker room
Shot 7: Close up of her swiftly turning and gasping
Shot 8: Quick cut to her house as she sees a dark figure running past window
Shot 9: Cuts to her opening her email as it read “I’m watching you.”
Shot 10: Cuts to her picking up the phone as it rings, scaring her (connection cuts - withheld number)
Shot 11: Doorbell rings, she abruptly turns her head
Shot 12: Seeing her stalker run past/outside her window as he says “Remember me?”

BUT NEVER INVITE A STRANGER INTO YOUR HOME

Shot 13: Close-up of Carnell looks at photo of her and her friends
Shot 14: She says “I think someone’s watching me.
Shot 15: He digs into her pocket to reveal the locket
Shot 16: Close-up of her shocked face as she says "It was you"

BECAUSE THEN YOU’LL HAVE TO ESCAPE

Shot 17: Tracking shot of her running around her house

Inspired by a true story

Shot 18: Carnell holding a knife

From the director of…and…

Shot 19: Both running in isolated building

Comes a horrific tale

Shot 20: She looks at the window as he appears (ECU)

“Psychologically terrifying – The Sun”

Shot 21: Both attacking each other

“4 stars – Metro”

Shot 22: Slashing

Story Title

Shot 23: ECU of Carnell’s eyes opening

COMING THIS HALLOWEEN

Research in Storyboards

I've recently come across a storyboard of an upcoming movie in what looks to be an intense, intimate thriller called "The Retreat" whereby a married couple who retreat to a remote island to repair their marriage, only to be confronted by a biohazard-suited soldier who tells them that all humans on the planet have been wiped out, except the three of them. But is he telling the truth?


Here are a fews images of their storyboard:

Source: http://www.cilliansite.com/gallery/stage-screen/retreat-storyboards

My Fan-Based Trailer

Something I've edited as practice for making trailers using the program Sony Vegas 8.0 and clips from the movie "Red Eye".

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE FOLLOWING CLIP OR MUSIC
Red Eye (c) Wes Craven and Carl Ellsworth
Music (c) Harry Gregson Williams

Team Roles

Editor: Sahar (me)
Producer: Qainaat
Director: Adeeti (And Actor)
Camera Person: Sarah

Media Narrative

Title: Till death do us part

Tag Line: "If I can't have you no one can"

The film begins with a girl named Jayden walking out of a train station with books stacked in her arms. She suddenly trips and drops her books, so she bends down to pick them up. A guy named Carnell then kneels towards to help her pick up her heavy books. They both smile at each other and she thanks him as she leaves; her locket slips from her neck. He watches her walk away as she heads over to the local ice rink to meet some friends.

Jayden and her friends are having a good time skating around the rink. An hour later, her friends decide to leave to meet other friends for a drink up and spend the night with their boyfriends. She is invited, however rejects their invitation as she has an English assignment to complete and wants to skate a bit more.The next scene shows her ice skating alone, with a suspicious figure watching her as she does so. Once she is finished, she heads to the locker room to get her shoes changed. She then hears an unusual and sudden noise, leaving her wary. Jayden calls out waiting for a response but hears nothing, so she gets up to leave. However, the suspicious figure instantly approaches her view. With a sudden fright, she jumps backwards to only see that it was Carnell. He chuckles and apologises for the unexpected appearance and making her jump.

Carnell attempts to make conversation with Jayden; however she is clearly uncomfortable with this and says she has to go home and walks away as fast as she can. Whilst she walks away, he is watching her again. She quickly goes home, and sits on the sofa with a cup of tea. She gets up to look out of the window as she sees an unusual dark figure, and immediately notices someone’s standing their, staring at her. When she turns her head to look away and back, the figure disappeared. She turned her back once more and felt someone running past across the window. She feels her stomach turn at the thought of someone watching her, but decided to shake away the unsettling thoughts. She sits on her computer to start her English essay and checks her mail. She sees a message that was sent from an unknown email. Suspiciously, she opens the message and her heart raced reading it as it read ‘I’m watching you.’ Her phone suddenly rang, making her jump instantly. She answers the phone but the other line immediately cuts. She then jolts at the sound of her doorbell. Jayden cautiously headed to her door and peeked through the hole. It was the 'stranger' from the train station. This makes her feel anxious, however she opens the door and he says he needs directions. She tells him to ask someone else but he persists. She eventually gives in, and he forces himself into her home.

She goes to the other room to grab her mobile phone and text one of her friends to come to her house as soon as possible as she feels unsafe. Suddenly, Jayden hears a smash from the living room. She runs to see what has happened. She is horrified when she sees Carnell fuming with rage. He laid his eyes on a photo of Jayden and some of her friends, which filled him up with jealousy and anger, so he threw it. We get a flashback of his shrine to her.

He turns his attention away from the photo as he notices her unsteady breathing and asks what’s wrong. She replies with ‘I think someone’s stalking me’. He asks if her parents are in and she tells him that they have gone up north for a couple of days. She then says ‘I need to call the police’. She grabs her phone and starts dialling when all of the sudden Carnell snatches it from her and the electricity cuts off – so her house is in darkness. She looks up at him warily as he says ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you’; he shoves his hand into his pocket and takes out the locket she dropped at the train station. She stood silently before responding... ‘It was you’.

She becomes extremely frightened and screams trying to run out the house. He grabs and pushes her against the wall. She screams for help, but nobody is around to help her. He abrasively places his hand over her mouth and she struggles for freedom. He says ‘you’re mine’ as if he owns her. She grabs a wooden ornament and hits the side of his head which instantly shoves his hand away from her mouth, so she runs to the kitchen while he chases. She runs out the back door screaming for help as he continues to pursue her.

The streets were dark and no one was around. She spots a door opened in a building and rushes in to call for help. However, no one was inside and by the time she realised it, Carnell was already in the building and locked the door, blocking the only exit. Jayden tries to find other doors or windows but all were locked.Carnell is trying to chase and catch her; she’s trying to find a way out. The whole setting is deadly silent. The only sound that can be heard is the heavy panting from Jayden as she runs aimlessly through the corridors, trying to find a weapon to defend herself. She then stops as she sees a window, hoping to find a way out from there. She cautiously paces across the dark room, heading towards the window as silently as possible. As we now temporarily see through her eyes, we watch as she gets closer to the window, when all of a sudden, Carnell speedily emerges on the other side of the window. She screams and runs off. She finds a room and hides in it while trying to come up with a plan. She realises the only way to get the killer off her back is to get rid of him once and for all.

Jayden finds a sharp piece of wood. She tries to reach for it silently; however the wood slips through her fingers and clangs against the floor. Carnell hears and follows the sound of the crash with a knife in hand. He finds her and attacks, trying to stab her viciously in the chest but misses and stabs her in her left arm; Jayden is in agony and drops to the floor, but still has the wood in her right hand. Carnell grabs his knife and is about to slit Jayden's chest open, but she quickly grabs the wood and stabs Carnell in his side. She leaves him in the floor and runs down the corridor. She lets out a sigh of relief. But she feels woozy and ends up faintly from a huge loss of blood. The camera zooms out of her face for a fews seconds and then last scene shows her eyes abruptly opening.

Images of Locations

A few images of our locations - for the scenes of the train station, locker room and the character's house.

Images of Streatham Ice Rink Locker Room

Adeeti's room

Research into Stalkers

In order to grasp a more depth of detail and realism into our narrative, we had to make it as authentic as possible by researching deeply into more cases and articles from a reliable source (BBC). Here are some of the few cases we have found:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/906045.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/6442721.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/4254763.stm

Here's a video about a rapist night stalker who was caught in London:

Modelling or Copycat Theory

Me and my partner's research on the Copycat Audience Theory.

Modelling or Copycat Theory

View more presentations from MrsUzumaki.

Scream Essay

The most inventive element about this movie is that it follows the basic direction of a typical horror movie but also includes a good amount of innovation with the self-criticism and ironic approach of the movies. The characters tease the generic pattern of a horror movie, while simultaneously proving that the typical rules are to be taken very seriously if you want to be part of the surviving cast at the end of the movie. Most horror movies contain those of reoccurring elements such as the final girl, teens that sin, gore etc. Scream contains each of those elements but are portrayed in a unique way. For example, the teens in this movie all drink beer and have sex despite the fact that they know better than to do this; especially since one of the characters mentions the basic rules to follow if they do not want to be killed. However, they all break those rules and therefore individually die. Although, the twist is that the Final Girl loses her virginity towards the end but still manages to live in the end, thus changing the constant cycle of who survives in horror movie.
The most obvious and inventive parody in Scream involves a sequence from Halloween, where the killer is stalking Jamie Lee Curtis through the house. While that scene is playing on a TV, similar events are happening in the very room where the TV sits. As Michael Myers is approaching Curtis' character from behind, the masked killer is sneaking up on the guy watching the video, who is screaming at the TV, "Look behind you!" Since he's so familiar about the genre, he should consider taking his own advice, making an ironic approach to the whole concept of horror movies.

Additionally, in the beginning of this movie, Craven immediately grabs the attention of his audience with the on the spot action within the first 12-minute prologue to the movie, instantly hooking his viewers into the story. He used the basic elements and icons, such as gore and a teenager home alone, while at the same time creating an inventive way to kill off this character by creating an entertaining yet horrifying mind play between the victim and the killer by questioning about other horror films, making it quite amusing to the audience while concurrently building tension and suspense.

In most classics, the reason the villain always seems to commit such horrendous crimes is due to the fact that they were just born that way, such as Mike from Halloween who was ultimately born “pure evil”. Similarly, we predict the same for Scream, up until the very end where we discover that the killer actually had a motive. This movie is proven to be an evil “game” but with a purpose. Therefore, Craven in a way recycles this element of a killer born evil by adding two killers with one that supposedly with no morals and thinks of it to be a “fun game” and one with an intention of vendetta.

Overall, Craven successfully manages to attract fans of the horror genre and impress them with the use of classics. He brings back this genre with a fresh and innovative style, creating a new generation of horror movies.

Conventions of Trailers

• Voiceovers
• Determines genre
• Captions/text on screen revealing aspects of narrative
• Title of film comes at the end
• Review and Ratings are included
• Promotes stars/director/writer
• Music creating atmosphere and reflects genre
• Name of production company/distribution at opening
• Short 2-3 mins (teasers are about 1.5 minutes)
• Story not in narrative order
• Best bits included

Group work on Deep Learning Day

With the people we had to work with, our task was to recreate 2/3 scenes from any horror movie, either making a parody or a homage.

Marketing Horror Films

Audience:

• Male-based
• Teens
• Trailers in specific channels at a certain time
• Posters (on buses, bus stops)

- Word of mouth

- Online Advertising - pop ups, youtube, social networking sites

- Magazines - film entertainment (cover story)

- Film marketing - USP, advertising, publicity, promotions

Publicity - attention from media, star interviews, press screenings, Gala premiers

Promotions - merchandise often with 'third party' e.g. McDonalds

Example: Blair Witch Project - no stars, no special effects or soundtrack, cheap location, budget of $25,000. But film was promoted widely and appealed to the target market due to official website, trailers and posters.

Psycho vs Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Similarities

• Dark corridor, stairs



• Keep the corpse of old family



• Birds in the movie



• Both villain dress up as ladies



• Both leave it to their audience to use their imagination (blood imagery)



• Killers aren't defeated



• Domestic settings



• Psychological problems



• Multiple killings



• Taxidermy



• An attempt to embed story in reality



• Editing (fast, quick shots to create horror)

Differences

• Norman keeps his mother, family keeps their grandad



• choice of weapon (knife/chainsaw or sledgehammer)



• Norman dresses up as his mother, Leatherface dresses up as an old lady (for no apparent reason)



• Psycho strings, low base music from Texas



• Killer in Psycho is caught



• Disfigured killer in Texas



• Psycho killer wants Marion (bird)



• Texas killer is the animal hunting humans

Movies Analysed

• Nosferatu
• Hammer's Dracula (1958)
• Coppola's Dracula (1992)
• Psycho (1960)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
• Carrie (1976)
• Halloween (1978)
• The Faculty (1998)
• Scream (1996)
• Shaun of the Dead (2004)

My Horror Movie Survey

20 people – 10 boys, 10 girls within the age range of teens to early 20s (16 – 22)

1. Do you watch and enjoy horror movies?

Yes
No

2. How often do you watch them?

Rarely
Once in a while
Every month
Very often


3. Why do you watch them?

For fun?
For the thrill?
The unknown – curiosity?
Other (please state)

4. What is your favourite horror movie?

5. What is your favourite weapon used in horrors?

Knife
Saw
Chainsaw
Other (Please State)

6. Do you enjoy slashers? Why?
Yes
No


RESULTS:

1. Do you watch and enjoy horror movies?

Boys enjoy more horror movies than girls

2. How often do you watch them?

Guys seem to watch horror more often than girls. But no one watches them that often.

3. Why do you watch them?

Boys – some suggested Women. More boys say horror movies are “fun” than girls.
Most girls say their reason is curiosity

4. What is your favourite horror movie?

Girls – Scream, Devil, Saw series (2), Texas Chainsaw (remake, 3), The Uninvited, Paranormal Activity, The grudge,

Boys – Saw Series (2), Paranormal Activity (2), Dracula, Evil, Friday 13th (classic), Texas Chainsaw, Silent Hill, Nightmare on Elm Street (remake)

Only one (boy) considered a classic as their favourite.

5. What is your favourite weapon used in horrors?

Girls – one suggested psychological powers

Boys – Some suggested death traps, axe, shotgun and powers.

It’s implied that boys prefer more deadly weapons than girls.

6. Do you enjoy slashers? Why?

Girls who enjoy slashers say that they like the gore, it’s fun or thrilling. Girls who don’t say it’s unnecessary, makes them feel sick, it’s too excessive or just that it does not look pleasant.

Guys who like slashers say they like the thrill, fun to watch, demonic, exciting, like the gore or think it’s funny to watch people die, which suggests they like the death convention of horror. Guys who don’t like it say it’s uncreative, unnecessary and disgusting.

Overall, it’s implied that guys enjoy more slashers than girls

Further Detail in Audience Theory

Each of these theories were researched and noted in detail:

• Hypodermic model
• Cultivation theory
• Desensitisation
• Modelling or copycat theory
• Uses and gratifications theory

The BBFC Ratings

U - No descrimination/drugs/horror/imitable behaviour/bad language/nudity/sex/voilent or problematic themes

PG - No descrimination/anti-drug message/imitable behaviour/mild bad language/natural nudity with no sexual content, sexual activity may be implied (mild)/ serious are featured, moderate voilence

12(A) - No misuse of drugs, moderate physical and psychological threat, moderate language, nudity must be brief and discreet, mild mature themes, moderate voilence

15 - Allow discrimination/drugs/horror/imitable behaviour/bad language/nudity/sex/themes appropriate for over 15 years of age/voilence

18/R18 - Allow discrimination/drugs/horror/imitable behaviour/bad language/nudity/sex /mature themes/voilence

How horror effects audiences

Normal - fear, anxiety, nervousness, alarm, alert, jumpiness, suspense, enjoyment
Extreme - panic attacks, hysteria, crying, fainting

The vulnerable - Older people, women of weak institution (fragile), children

Moral Panic:

• Cohen (1972) argues that a moral panic is when the media amplifies an event to refer its consequences to much wider social issues
• A moral panic is essentially a 'crusade' against behaviour or perceived negative developments in society
• Horror films are more often of the centre of moral panics
• Mainly papers - daily mail, daily express, news of the world, sun, mirror

How and Why?

• Raising alarm in people
• An event/incident is represented of a decline in standards or values
• Society is becoming more dangerous or more permissive
• Appeals to a fragmented and fragile post-war consensus
• Morality today is not as strong as it once used to be - invoking "golden age"
• Politicians and campaigners use this panic to further their aims
• The panic arises by deliberately isolating the event from the socio-economic political circumstances in which the crime took places

E.g. Violent video games, swine flu, terrorists, immigrants

Moral panics have caused changes in the Law including the 1984 video recordings Act that gave the BBFC power to classify videos and an amendment to the criminal justice and public order bill that insisted BBFC took issues of 'harm' on broad when classifying films.

Final Girl Theory

This was a theory that was created by Carol J. Clover in her book “Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film”.The final girl has an androgynous (unisex) name, is known to be a virgin and pure; sometimes described as innocent; and tries to avoid sins or maybe a shared history with the killer. Examples of the final girl can be found in films such as; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974/2003), Friday 13th (1980), Scream (1996), Alien (1979), Halloween (1978) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). It refers to the last person standing, who is usually a female, in horror films - particularly slasher films. The final girl is also the one who generally tells the story.
The final character must show terror in order for the audience to associate themselves with and so Clover argues that the final character must be female, as a male-dominated audience would reject the portrayal of terror in the hypothetical "final male". So whilst the killer is male, the audience is rooting for the final girl to win. Thus, the final girl theory was the turning point in Feminist Horror Film Theory.

Androgynous: Having male and female characteristics. Hard to distinguish if it is a man or woman.

Examples of Final Girls:

(Nancy Thompson - Nightmare on Elm Street)

(Ellen Ripley - Alien)

(Sidney - Scream)

Spectatoship and the 'Male Gaze'

Representation of women:
- Fragile ( needs a man's strength)
- Clothing (white to present blood or convey innocence/purity, slightly revealing - low cut, Blond/brunette, victim/survivor)
- Position in relation to men tend to be - married, submissive)
- Men are the dominant gender
- Sacrificed (e.g. Nosferatu)
- Camera angles - low angle viewpoint towards men, high angle viewpoint from men)
- Camera pans up and down on figure (sizing the female posture)

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory:
- Born with ID/Superego
- Oedipus complex
- Phallic symbolism

1950s Dracula: Hammer
- Low angle of women
- Manipulation
- Male dominance
- Seduction
- Shadows
- Male responds with pity, attraction

Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure and Narrative (1975):

• Women are presented as sexual spectacle and objects of pleasure for the characters and audience
• Men have this gaze to avoid being 'castrated'
• Men fetishise women imbuing them with an overvalued and unrealistic status - 'fetishistic scopophilia'
• The gaze is constructed through camera man and production team establishing and framing a shot, by the 'look' within the film of the male spectators gaze is thereby constructed through these mechanisms.

Supporters:

- Ann Doanne (1982) added women have a 'marginal game' within the film, just like in patriarchal society.

- Suzanne Moore (1988) added male bodies are on display in certain conditions (they are always in active poses as if they can walk away from the woman's gaze)

- Van Zoonen (1994) 'men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at'.

Timeline of Horror Movies

1890 – 1899 – Devil’s castle,

1900 – 1909 – Notre Dame de Paris

1910 – 1919 – First Frankenstein, full length movie of a monster (Notre Dame), The Student of Prague

1920 – 1929 – Nosferatu, The Phantom of the Opera, The Monster, Waxworks,

1930 – 1939 – The Unholy Three, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, King Kong, The Bride of Frankenstein, The werewolf of London,

1940 – 1949 – Egyptian Horror Movie The Mummy’s Hand, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man, Dead of Night, The pictures of Dorian Gray, Mighty Joe Young,

1950 – 1959 – New cycle of horror movies begin, Dracula, Godzilla, House of Wax, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Blob, The Fly,

1960 – 1969 – House of Usher, Brides of Dracula, 13 Ghosts, Little Shop of Horrors, Psycho, The Birds, Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary’s Baby,

1970 – 1979 – The Exorcist, The Hills have Eyes, I spit on your Grave, The Wicker Man, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jaws, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Carrie, Dawn Of the Dead, Halloween,

1980 – 1989 – Halloween, Friday 13th, Evil Dead Series, The Shining, Pet Cemetery, Hell Raiser, Nightmare on Elm Street, An American Werewolf in London,

1990 – 1999 – Sequels and series of horror movies began, the genre films become increasingly more knowing and ironic, Blair Witch, Dracula, Scream, Blair Witch Project,

2000 – 2009 - The Exorcist (1973) is given a cinema rerelease. Remakes become a trend. US studios begin to look to Japan for ideas. Slashers become popular. The Ring, Zombie videogame Resident Evil is made into a film and sparks a new interest in zombie movies e.g. 28 Days Later, Saw, Descent,

2010 – The Last Exorcism, Nightmare on Elm Street, Piranha, Resident Evil: Afterlife, The Wolfman, I Spit on you Grave, several other remakes.

How does Hitchcock create tension/horror in the shower scene?

When it came to the famous shower scene, Hitchcock mentions that "The point is to draw the audience right inside the situation instead of leaving them to watch it from outside, from a distance. And you can do this only by breaking the action into details a cutting from one to the other so that each detail is forced, in turn, on the attention of the audience and reveals a psychological meaning.”
As the killer slowly approaches suspense is created through the music. The camera slowly points towards a dark shadow or silhouette slowly becoming bigger as the killer approaches the main character. The classic violins play their high-stringed and high-pitched tune. The camera then cuts to shot where we can clearly see the reaction shot of her terrified face, making it the most powerful shot of the sequence. Then we get an extreme close up of Marion's gaping mouth as we hear her scream. The music simultaneously plays a screechy tune as it coincides with the blood curdling scream.This gives the viewer a greater feeling of her terror as the shot intensifies the dramatic effect of the scene.
For the next couple of shots, we can clearly see the brawl of the "mother" and Marion as the struggle conveys Marion’s current vulnerability. The stabbing creates tension and terror as we hear a sound effect in each stab, emphasising the impact of it; the audience would be horrified at this point as they would doubt at each moment whether the protagonist of the story would make it. The next two shots are significant as this is where Alfred Hitchcock demonstrates his editing skills as he cuts from one shot to another, each rapidly shifting towards the next with several close-ups to make the audience feel insecure. The camera shifts to Marion flailing and taking the force of the stab and this enlarges the emotion of pain and fear the audience feel for Marion.
When the murder was committed, a powerful shot shows Marion with her arm out stretched, grabbing the curtain with desperation seemingly trying to hold on for her life, before she leans forward and collapses. This shot creates sympathy from the audience as Marion’s hand is shot extremely close as her face is blurred, making it seem that it is reaching out for us but we can’t help her.
The following shot is of her blood swirling down the plughole. This may reflect and symbolise her sins washing away. The editing in the following shot becomes one of the most powerful shots as it cuts from the circular drain to this extreme close up shot of Marion's eye, gradually zooming out circularly.
The last important shot in the scene has the camera panning across to the bedside table to remind us of the money.

Psycho Marketing Campaign

• With the release of the thriller "Psycho," Hitchcock actually changed the way people went to movies.


• To build word of mouth and increase publicity, he worked with theatres to have them stop selling tickets after the film had started. People were actually turned away at the box office if they showed up late.


• His other campaign elements include asking people not to reveal the shocking surprises of the film to others, to help in creating a huge thrill for the film that took it to phenomenal box office success.


• Hitchcock believed the strongest selling point of his film was the ending. So he went to enormous lengths to keep it a secret. He bought every copy of the Psycho novel he could find and made his cast and crew take oaths of silence.


• The casting directors held auditions for the part of Norman’s mother, to better conceal the fact that no such role existed.


• In the trailer, he comically begs viewers not to reveal the ending.


• Newspaper ads warned audiences that “no one will be admitted into the theatre after the start of each performance of Psycho”.

Conventions of Horror

• Vunerable characters
• Blood/gore
• Tension/suspense
• Dark colours
• Low lighting
• Empty spaces
• Silence
• Angle shots - ECU, CU, POV, Etablishing Shot, Tracking, Reaction shots, Over the shoulder shot
• Death
• Vendetta
• Weapons
• Expletives/explicit language
• Dark coloured clothes
• Dark setting
• Trapped/confined spaces
• Deserted/abandoned places
• Apocalypse

Focus on:

1. Mise-en-scene
2. Camerawork and editing
3. Characters
4. Narrative and themes
5. Narrative Structure
6. Icons
7. Music and sound

Audience Theories

Propp

- he was a formalist who was trying to uncover the building blocks of folk tales and stories
- he analysed 100 folk and fairytales to identify how characters are used to move the narrative forward.
- the emphasis was on looking at characters not arepresenting real people but as functions whose role was to move the narrative forward.

Roles:

1. The villain (struggles against hero)


2. The hero (or protagonist that overcomes misplaced connotations or 'goodness' that go with 'hero', strictly speaking, the protagonist has the role of driving the narrative).
3. The donor who provides the hero with a magic gift


4. The helper
5. The princess


6. The princess' father


7. The dispatcher (who sends the hero on his way)


8. The false hero
   

Example: Anastasia

1. Rasputin
2. Anastasia
3. Grandmother
4. Puka (dog)
5. Anastasia
6. Nicolas (dead)
7. Vlad
8. Demitri (her love interest)

Todorov:

Basic narrative theory

• A state of equilibrium (level)


• Disrupted by an agent of change


• Leads to a process of final resolution
  
• Return to a new equilibrium
  
  

Extended theory:

1. Exposition (background information/intro. to characters)
2. Development (of situation)
3. Complication (main event and action)
4. Climax (confrontation)
5. Resolution (restoration of equilibrium)
   
   

Example: Scream

1. Exposition - Casey is introduced showing that she is a high school student. Currently, she is at home but immediately the plot expands into something bigger as she gets killed.


2. Development - The plot develops as a high school student is killed one by one after we find out that the students that get killed are close to protagonist Sidney.


3. Complication - Sidney accuses her boyfriend being the killer and once she finds out he isn't, more accusations takes place, creating distrust between each character as they continually get killed off one by one.


4. Climax - Soon only 3 characters are left to accuse. Sidney finally finds out and confronts who and why the attacker is killing off people close to her. She confronts Billy and so he eventually gets killed.
   
5. Resolution - It ends with the survivors being treated in the hospital, implying that it will seemingly all go back to their normal high school lives.
   

Flaws:

• He ignores character, tone and mood in his analysis which differentiates one tale from another.
  
• Levi-Strauss was a main critic as he came from the structuralist approach of seeking meaning in those tales which Propp does not do.

Paul Well's Research

- small focus group study: 12 members, 4 age groups

• 16 - 25 (1975 to 1984)
  
• 26 - 40 (1960)
  
• 41 - 55 (1945 to 1955)
  
• 56 - 80 (1920 to 1944)
  

Conclusions:

- The relationship to being frightened changes with age and relates to broader factors affecting emotional responses.

- 1970s - 1990s more anaesthetised to explicit special effects, 'monster' films in 20s and 30s have strong personal response to images and iconography of horror (cinema was new and unknown)

- Young audiences are becoming harder to shock


Limitations:

• Change of audience over the years


• Experience


• Small minority of people
  
• Development of horror conventions and technology
  

Noel Carroll

• Horror films have a three basic act structure: onset; discovery; confrontation


• Some sub genres of horror, like the vampire sub genre, conform to a complex discovery plot onset; discovery; confirmation; confrontation

Carol Clover (1992):

• The pleasure of horror are masochistic for both males and females


• Audience responses involve a wide spectrum of emotional responses from laughter, joy in being scared, to white-knuckle horror.
  
• It is also important to consider how the genre is promoted and sold. A fuller knowledge of audience activity is needed.


• Her close analysis of narrative and style in the horror film led her to conclude that horror is 'far more victim-identified than the standard view would have it'.

Nosferatu - Examining the Opening

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1. What ideas are introduced?
In the beginning, several ideas were introduced, such as death and black magic. Hutter picks up the flowers from their natural habitat thus "killing" them, eventually they wither and die. Later on, we discover Knock Reading through several mysterious symbols and equations; one of which shows the triangular symbol of black magic. Black magic invokes when wishing to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction. But the main feature of black magic within that particular scene is personal gain without regard to harmful consequences to others as Knock sends of Hutter to a long journey in hopes of gaining money out of it - to which additionally greed is also introduced.

2. Who are introduced?
An exaggerated, madly in love couple are introduced. As well as the devious Knock. We can clearly state from the beginning who the hero is and assuming who the villain is.

3. What are they doing?
We can see that the husband is picking flowers for his wife - showing clear affection for her. Later on, we see him heading for work. Whilst back at, the wife is shown as a sensitive, simplistic and innocent woman while she plays with the cat and sows.

4. What are the connotations of this?
The is a stereotypical young married couple as each are portrayed in a certain way. It seems the husband is always the one to work while the wife stays home. The wife sits by the window waiting for his return from work as she plays with the small kitten. She is also portrayed quite simplistic as she calmly does her needlepoint.

5. How would you describe the music and what effect does this have?
The music within this movie is played to help audiences understand feelings and expressions being portrayed by the actors. In the beginning, you can hear a more happy melody to represent the love between the couple. The flute is played to emphasise the wife's innocence. In the scene where Knock begins to smirk as he gets greedy with money, the music becomes harsh and you hear the piano's notes being played in a careless manner as the notes become slightly high-pitched. The orchestra is using low bass to mimic Knock's evil expression as his eyes read the rest of the sheet.

6. What questions are left unanswered?
The main question left unanswered is the mysterious stranger that walks up to Hutter and says "you can't walk from your destiny". This clearly shows now heroes always have a destiny and how they will soon prove it.

7. How is this piece edited?
Most angles and shots are used to show the emotions and expressions of characters. Other shots are to represent areas and unfamiliar environments to raise that uncomfortable feeling when going to a strange place such as mountains are in the shots to emphasise the long, difficult journey utter embarked on.

8. Effect of editing?
Editing is mainly used to keep music going throughout even when speeches were shown. This is known as a music bridge where the music is played over the script and scenes that cut to the next.

9. What themes are introduced?
Others themes such as suspicion and mystery is introduced, whereby a suspicious stranger walks towards Hutter talking about his destiny. Also, when you see the hero leaving his love to pursue his "destiny" is presented as Hutter embarks on his journey to a far and strange land.

Task Brief

A promotional package for a new film film to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following 3 options:
- Website
- A film magazine front cover
- A poster for the film