Characters

The Characters:

The protagonist will be Helen, a 16 year old girl who can pass for a few years older plus a smart work outfit along with car keys adds a few years on.

The killer will be was Gary, however due to injury we had to use a replacement, the new actors name is Joe.

Re-edit

Re- edit/ re-shoot 

Like many films made there aren't always shots that work well first time, there are always bloopers etc. Therefore there were a few scenes we had to re shoot once we got the footage on the macs when we noticed a few errors.

As the cameras were always busy being booked in and out, we booked a particular day but when we started to film after we finished school that day we discovered that even though it wasn't too dark to the naked eye the video camera didn't have enough light to capture the movement of the running sequence therefore we filmed all the inside scenes then. We then booked the camera out a few days later and  re-shot this on the 25th November 2010 3:30pm -4:00pm, I then edited it so it looked darker.

As friends were used as actors who have no experience of acting it took a few takes to get them used to being on camera even after running through directions and dialogue etc. one scene we had to re-shoot was the scene where the girl's laying on the sofa putting the vodka bottle down, this took 3 takes as the first time her hand was too far away and the second she felt uncomfortable and smiled during the filming, however the third take was perfect, the restless sleeping didn't look realistic in this scene so this was re-shot on the 25th November 2010 6:45 as this was an inside scene the time was not essential.

One thing I noticed when looking on the footage on the camera once a scene was filmed which consisted of filming a door opening from both sides was the fact that when we switched from one side to the other the continuity of how far open the door had to be differed so that was re-shot, on the same day minutes later.

One more error we encountered was that as we filmed the girl running out the house at night, (darkness wasn't a problem due to the light on the porch) however as it was dark and only lit by this light it caused a reflection on the window which had to be re-shot in a different position, this was also re-filmed on the same day moments later. 

Filming Schedule

October 12th

• Film the setting in day and night
• Forest area to set scene in during the trailer.
• Use pans and zooms.
• Must Be slow to create an eerie feel.
• No actors needed.

October 13th

• Re shoot night setting earlier (at dusk) not sufficient lighting to shoot in darkness

October 29th

• Film front door scenes with protagonist (Still camera looking at door slight tilt to represent something unusual)
• Pick up mail montage, change appearance of arm so it looks like its on different days (Close up on mail, only see hand and wrist)
• Reading letters and putting on the table. (Over shoulder shot then short pan around to see table)
• Actors needed - Helen Palmer

November 14th

• Film the break in
• Gloved hand opening door shot from inside and outside (Pan from letters on table to door, close up on door handle)
• Pick up knife (Close up on knife block, slowly pulls out menacing blade)
• Shadow in frosted glass door (Similar to front door shot static camera, bright kitchen light contrast with dark figure)
• Protagonist wake up shock (Point of view shot from the intruder looking at protagonist, point of view shot from protagonist at intruder, blurry to show awakening from deep sleep)
• Also film alcohol sequence where actor slams a bottle of drink down on a table and rolls over asleep. Under the influence = Vulnerable (shot from the level of the protagonist on the couch. Camera pointing at where the bottle will be put down)
• Actors needed - Helen Palmer, Joe Phipps

November 20th

• Chase scenes through forest (tracking shot of both protagonist and intruder)
• Running out of the house (shot from front, back and side to get different angles of running to, away and past the camera)
• Take photos for poster, magazine and other print advertising.

Shot in the Dark  This was our first idea for our trailer we have further adjusted.

Film Noir

The crime genre: are usually about solving the mystery of a crime, the protagonist is usually on the side of the law, e.g. a detective.
The gangster genre: (Godfather) usually about the planning of a crime and the protagonist is a criminal.

The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.

Protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.

Storyline were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex,

Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.

Film noir films were marked visually by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, Venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were the reason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and film noirs.]


The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).

Postmodernism

A postmodernism text often mixes one cultural period with another. To understand the text we need to be familiar with both cultural periods and the meaning created by putting them together.

Very often postmodernism favours the more modern culture; the Armstrong and Miller sketch is unusual in favouring the older culture period.

Treatment

My groups idea:
Genre: Thriller/Horror

Treatment: A young women is haunted by her past, as her ex boyfriends jail term is coming to an end she receives poison pen mail. Events start to escalate.

Story board.

 1) 3 friends getting along shot of them playing tennis shows friendship. 2) Long shot of girl receiving flowers from both her male friends, she's forced to make a decision. 3) Female chooses one over the over goes to close up of rejected male. 4) Fades to black for 2 Months later to appear. 5) Close up of females face as she cries stop to which the cameras pans round to male character inflicting violence and pain, shown by the bruises on females face. 6) long shot of male running out of a house he previously broke into and assaulting an old women. 

 7) The police are called and the male is arrested over the bonnet of the police car from mid shot to close up of expression on males face. 8) Jumps to court seen where the women testifies against her boyfriend (now ex) 9) Female leaving courtroom close up of males expression. 10) Fades to black. 11) Jumps to females house where there's a pile of letters all similar to each other with one saying 'I will kill you'. 12) Horror, shock and fear across the face of female.

13) Female in a bar drinking away her problems at work, friends and confining in the bar man about the letters she's received. 14)Close up of women's back zooming out to a shot of the male watching her through the window. 15) Close up of pub door, female leaves the bar drunk, close up of male around the corner of the pub. 16) Long walk home so she cuts through the woods, long shot of scenery. 17) pushed over by the male on her front turns over, and kicks him to the floor. 18) Where the male drops his knife (close up) female picks up the knife. Trailer ends.

Setting

The setting for our film trailer will be in an isolated location surrounded by wild trees, creating an eery atmosphere. The green will be luscious and vibrant contrasting with the action taking place, which in one scene the protagonist will run down a woodland alleyway like this as she's being chased.

This picture will possibly be featured in the film connoting a cross road in the protagonists life, as it will be edited with another direction arrow. The other side of the wooden fence is another narrow pathway, no lighting through out which means that filming would have to take place at dusk and edited into night scenes as we don't have to technological appliances such as large lights to film scenes.

Shots like this will be used through out the trailer as the identity of the stalker is kept as a mystery. The lighting behind the person creates the outline.

Focused analysis; The Orphan trailer

Focused analysis of The Orphan trailer:

Location: The movie was filmed in Toronto, Canada the original setting was supposed to be in Fall but while filming a record amount of snow fell, changing the setting. The snow gave the story line an edge to it as the purity and angelic style of the snow contradicts the dark and deadly story.

Throughout the trailer the colours are bright due to the snow there are a few dark scenes at night which are typical of horror films, where the disequilbrium are most commonly present. The house that the film was filmed in is large and spacey, if it was a cosy little cottage the effect wouldn't be the same you can loose yourself in such a large house.

Each location of the setting, the orphanage and the school are brightly decorated with white making them look bright and airy which contradicts again with the story.

The setting changes as soon as the audience connect the fact that Esther is not a normal child as she kicks and screams in a toilet cubicle that is lit to look very cold.

After this scene the trailers pace increases with snapshots of a variety of places, there are ways the crew try to darken some scenes such as the play area choosing one thats very dark, contrasting with the snow. To the point of 1:38 where the pace slows down creating tension in the audience.

Characters: There are a few protagonists in this film, Esther, Kate and then the rest of her family which are not prominent but are important.

Esther comes across as an innocent girl, dressed in pretty clothes the audience empathise, 'isn't she pretty/cute' however some may say the first shot of her creates an eeriness to her as she's not socialising with the other girls but instead several floors above them in a room all on her own. She's well spoken and neatly dressed throughout the trailer always wearing ribbons but always dressed differently to the other children, she's odd. Through out the trailer her dark side becomes apparent.

Kate is portrayed as a loving woman adopting a child, this theme is carried through out the trailer which emphasizes that this is a normal family not deserving anything bad to happen to them. This idea of innocence is carried onto the other characters such as the little girl Max and the boy Daniel.

Sound/ Music; Non diagetic music playing behind the diagetic speech is peaceful and soothing music the family are finally starting to piece their lives together however there's always calm before the storm. The music stops once a class mate takes the mick out of Esthers outfit, instead of different music picking up the non diagetic sounds turn to a type of wind hollowing sound to then a deep toned heartbeat in a slow rhythm. These two then mix together to have a stronger background noise as the pace of the editing speeds up. The pace slows down once again building before building up once more this is so tension is built in the hearts of the audience.

The diagetic sound creates a link between the mum and Esther they both have common ground of being different. The clip when the class mate takes a dig at Esthers outfit is the key point when the action starts to build. Esthers scream is key to the audience to demonstrate that she is not normal, the narrative style of the Nun starts the audiences question into why Esther is different what type of trouble has found her? Kate's enquiry into the little girls past makes you question how much don't you know about the girl that has been adopted. Through out the trailer it is clear that the mum knows something is wrong while the dad is still oblivious to what is staring him in the face we can tell this by the line: "There must be some explanation."

Focused Analysis

Horror films are typically dark with selected lighting used, the darkness represents the unknown where danger lurks striking fear into the hearts of the characters and the audience. Tension can be created with the use of streams of light from the distance gradually making its way toward the screen. Quick flashes of light are used, innocence can be portrayed by softly lighting a characters face. 

What a character is wearing can help identify which genre you are watching. For example if most of the characters were male and in army gear, you would say you were watching an army/war film. In horror films the main costume design doesn't vary much from say a comedy, however throughout the film the costumes may become torn, covered in blood or dirt trying to escape from a murderer, identifying the film as a horror. On the other hand the murderer can be dressed in obvious attire related to horror such as dark clothing, a mask/large hood or cap to hide their identity.

Props can give a genre away relatively easily however you have to be careful not to break the verisimilitude by having an object that doesn't fit with the genre. Props in horror films are typically weapons such as knives and guns, used by the perpetrator but also used as protection by the characters.
The position of objects and characters in a frame can portray different meanings, for instance if you had a character peering round a door in the distance in the left hand corner and the rest of the frame is of the room they are peering into connotes the meaning of anxiousness hoping the room is safe to enter. However if we had that same character standing in the middle of the room their legs shoulder width apart and arms on their hips suggests they are comfortable in their surroundings.

Horror films are typically set in an isolated area with little escape routes such as roads. For example 'The Shining' was set in a large hotel (which makes the characters feel inadequete in comparison) in the middle of no where, we know this via the opening sequence of a long car journey with far long shots and establishing shots. Any location connotes the sense of helplessness, which engross the audience. Many locations even some in towns or cities they have a sense of abandoness to them such as 'Silent Hill'. Other settings horror movies are sometimes filmed at are woodland areas the trees obstructing the path during chase scene adds suspense.

Mood Board

 

This collection of images shows typical colours and images provided by Horror movies.