Script 1st Draft

SOMNIUM 1st Draft

Choosing a Title

When beginning to come up with a title for the film, we decided that it should be one word. This is because during research we found this to be a common and powerful thing for many famous and well-known horror films. Examples of this include 'Psycho', 'Insidious' and 'Sinister'. We were initially persistent on the title having a significant underlying meaning that would not be obvious to the viewer to begin with but would be uncovered throughout the production. We first did some research into different words relating to female demon's, as the main antagonist in our production is similar to this type of character. We found a website suggesting many different possible words however felt that none were completely suitable for the title of our film.

After doing this we chose to look at different language translations for significant words relating to our storyline.  We started off with the word 'nightmare' due to the basis of our production being a young girl's recurring dream, but unfortunately we felt that the translations we found didn't suit our production and so moved onto the word 'dream' instead.

 We discovered that this word in Latin is 'somnium' which has an eerie and creepy vibe which is relevant for the title of the film.  We have therefore chosen to name our production 'Somnium' as it has an extremely strong link to the storyline of the film.

Character Profile - Rosie's Mother

Name: (Rosie's mother)

Age: late 30s

Rosie's mother is a strong woman who has always been by Rosie's side. She is a single mum who has always tried her best to provide for her daughter by working long hours. Always care for her as a child since the nightmares began and has done ever since.

Props: none

Traits: She is a strong and independent woman who is polite and funny. She has a large group of friends that support her in the struggles with Rosie. She will always put others before herself.

Character Profile - Craig

Name: Craig

Age: Early 20s

Craig is the boyfriend of Rosie and will do anything to keep her happy. He works as a shop assistant and enjoys his job. He looks after Rosie during her struggle and supports her by trying to make her feel as though she is not alone throughout it, even though he doesn't quite understand what is happening to her.

Props: none

Traits: He is a kind and generous man who will always look after the ones he loves. He takes things seriously and will show strong concern when his family or friends are in danger.

Character Profile - Evylyn Crick

Name: Evylyn Crick

Age: 76

Evylyn Crick is a ghostly figure who has haunted Rosie in her dreams and is now entering reality for revenge. When Evylyn was alive her daughter was killed by Rosie's great grandfather and so she is seeking revenge by hurting his family.

Props: bandage on her left arm, knife

Traits: She is an evil character whose aim is to hurt Rosie but haunting her in both her dreams and reality. She doesn't care how Rosie feels as long as she feels as though she has got her revenge on her and her family.

Character Profile - Rosie

Name: Rosie

Age: Early 20s

Rosie is a fairly confident character who works as a secondary school teacher. She has a degree in English Language. She has a close relationship with her boyfriend and appreciates his support when she is distressed. She suffered with intense nightmares as a child which have come to life to haunt her.

Props: A whiteboard pen whilst teaching

Traits: She is confident in her teaching job but struggles to deal with the problems that face her at home.

Cast

To play the main protagonist, Rosie, we have chosen a girl called Rosie Goddard.  We asked her to play the part as she is an experienced actress and has the look of a natural and innocent young woman.  She will portray this character to be a 20 something year old who is confused by the antagonist of the film.  Rosie Goddard has been involved in various productions including 'The Knife that Killed Me', a crime thriller starring well-known British Actors.

Rosie Goddard (playing Rosie)

To play the antagonist, Evylyn Crick, we first decided to search for an older woman to play her. We emailed a number of Amateur Dramatics Societies in the area to see if they had any willing volunteers to get involved with our production.  

"We are 4 A level students from Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School producing a thriller trailer.  In this trailer we hoped to have and experienced actor to play the part of and older woman who will act as the villain.  One menber of our group has visited your theatre and speaks highly of your productions.  We would appreciate if you could get back to us as we hope to start filming within the next upcoming weeks.  There would be no speaking in the part just practical acting, so it would not take up a lot of time to rehearse.  We could send scripts at a later date for a better understanding.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Frankie, Gabby, Alexia and Rosie." - The email we sent to the AMS.

We were unsuccessful in doing this so instead we have asked a girl called Layla to play the part which she has agreed to do. She is a good friend of the group and also achieved A* at GCSE in drama. She has performed in a number of stage productions so we felt we could reply on her. We will give her make up in order to age her face. 

Layla Khan (playing Evylyn Crick)

George Bury has been cast as he too is an experienced actor who is keen to perform. He is an A Level drama student and has agreed to play the part of Rosie’s boyfriend, Craig, who will comfort her throughout the production while she is distressed.

George Bury (playing Craig)

The production will involve a younger and older version of Rosie. Playing the younger version will be Gabby's next door neighbour, Eleni Gregoriou. Her character is 8 years old and has a very similar look to Rosie. Appearance had to be taken into consideration here after casting Rosie's older self as they are both acting as the same person.

Eleni Gregoriou (playing Rosie)

Eleni's real mother agreed to play the part of her screen mother. She has no experience however we don't feel this was an issue as her part is only very small. We can also capture a more natural relationship with them actually being mother and daughter.

Lisa Gregoriou (playing Rosie's mother)

Cast Research

By researching into other films, its clear that if we had a large budget where we could hire well- known actors, we could choose a highly respected actress such as Emma Watson for the part of Rosie (older version).  At the age of 24, she is a young, up and coming British actress who has shown versatility in the various different productions she has been involved in. Richard Dyer's star theory suggests that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. If the actors in a film are famous and well-regarded then it will attract a larger audience and therefore produce a greater profit.

From firstly starring in the Harry Potter series, Emma Watson became extremely well-known and well regarded in the film industry.  This breakthrough led her to other projects such as 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower', 'The Bling Ring' and most recently 'Regression', a thriller set to be released in 2015.

She has a young and innocent look which would help portray the character perfectly as she is supposed to be scared and distressed by the woman from her dreams. With her being such a well-known and recent actress in the film industry, our production would gain a larger audience of fans wanting to see her work.  This technique is great for drawing in a larger audience as it helps to attract those people who are interested in this particular genre and also those who aren't.

Synopsis

A 20 something year old woman is devastated when her childhood nightmare of a ghostly elderly woman comes to haunt her in her real everyday life. Evylyn Crick is seeking revenge on Rosie as when she was alive her daughter was killed by Rosie's Great Grandfather. Will the support of her family and friends be enough for her to survive or will it all become too much for her?

New Ideas

The decision to change from our original plan and make and new one allowed us to develop a more interesting and creative idea. To start we laid out a basic premise for our production which highlights at the main features of the trailer, this being the idea of a young woman's childhood nightmares becoming a reality.

In order to expand on this idea and create more detailed and specific plans we broke down the trailer into different aspects and focused on each more closely, for example characters, location etc. We first began to think of some locations which would give strong connotations of mystery and danger in order to reinforce the idea that it is a horror. These locations include dark alleyways and fields. 

The next step in our planning was to create profiles for our characters, including their physical appearances, age, gender, likes/dislikes and more. We did this for each of the main characters, the protagonist and antagonist. The idea is that the protagonist will have horrible nightmares of a scary old lady (antagonist) who is seeking revenge and eventually begins to appear in reality.

Finally we began to create ideas of different scenes which could be included in the trailer. This involved us thinking about what events could happen where and how we could portray them occuring, without giving too much of the story away.

Change of Plan

Unfortunately a member of the Media Studies class dropped the subject so we decided to merge groups.  Gabby joined our group and we put our ideas together to develop a new and overall stronger idea between us.

Production Company Logo

As a group we have taken inspiration from the famous production companies I researched into in order to make it look as professional as possible, and created 'White Productions'. We chose this title as it is simple and doesn't really give any obvious meaning which is quite mysterious. We have used a black simple font which is bold on a white background as this makes it clear to the viewer what the production company is called. We added a shadow to the background of the wording as this creates a sense of mystery and darkness. Shadows are widely associated with the horror genre and so therefore work effectively for a horror production company logo.

We chose a white squinting eye which has a scary quality as the close up of an eye is shot often used in horrors as it creates tension and makes characters seem worried and vulnerable. The single eye represents fear and therefore can be associated with the horror genre effectively. This image helps to draw the audience in as the eye is looking straight at them, therefore creating intrigue before the film has even begun.

The colours black and white hold connotations of good and evil through binary opposition. This links in well to the theme of our production in particular, as well as many other horror films, which have both good (protagonist) and evil (antagonist) characters involved. The simplicity of the production company logo as a whole was inspired by other logos, particularly Hammer Productions and Twisted Pictures as we are aware that both of these are extremely successful.

Production Company Logo Research

When researching into other horror production companies I found it common for the logo to be quite simple. For example, two companies I looked at - 'Hammer Productions' and 'Twisted Pictures' - both include a plain background with the production name in the centre.

'Hammer Productions' involves a bold, block, red font over a greyish white background. As the company produces horror films they have chosen a red font as it suggests connotations of danger or blood. The bold block writing stand out to the viewers and should therefore be recognisable for them to relate it to other films that they have seen by this production company.

The 'Twisted Pictures' logo presents a white block font on a black background.  The writing appears to have scratch marks covering it, with the image of a sharp objects wrapped in barbed wire. This sharp imagery connotes violence and pain which is conventional of the horror genre. The scratches also give suggestions of danger or violence which too are commonly seen in horror.  The jet black background also implies mystery and threat and against the white writing creates the binary opposition of good and evil which can cause confusion for viewers. The way the font fades out towards the bottom creates mystery as it makes the audience wonder what could be lurking below.

For our own production we decided to use 'Blumhouse Productions' to accompany our own production company as it is highly associated with the horror genre, having produced a range of micro and low budget films such as 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Insidious'. This logo seems to be presented on an image of the dark and dirty wall of an isolated house. As I have previously found through research, isolated locations are conventional of horror films and therefore will fit perfectly with our own production, which will also be set in an isolated house.

Positions and Roles of the Crew

Director: Frankie Roncoli
Assistant Director: Alexia Docker
Producer: Rosie Chatterjea
Editor: Gabby Royle
Assistant Editors: Frankie Roncoli, Rosie Chatterjea, Alexia Docker
Director of Photography: Gabby Royle
Make up and Hair: Rosie Chatterjea
Script: Frankie Roncoli and Rosie Chatterjea
Storyboard: Gabby Royle
Sound Production and Designer: Alexia Docker

Roles Explained:

• Director - this role involves directing the making of a film, generally controlling the dramatic and artistic aspects. They will give guide the technical crew and actors in order to achieve their vision of how the film should be.
• Assistant Director - this person aids the Director in the making of a film.  Their duties involve things such as tracking the progress of filming, preparing call sheets and generally supervising cast and crew, providing a key link between them and the Director.
• Editor - the editor is the person who arranges all recorded film into a specific and artistic order, cutting and adding various transitions and edits.
• Assistant Editors - After the Editor has done their job Assistant Editors will step in and evaluate the production, offering suggestions for additional improvements.
• Director of Photograph - this is one of the major creative roles within the making of a production and is responsible for camera and lighting crews working on the film.  Their role is to make artistic and technical decisions.
• Sound Production and Designer - this person is responsible for ensuring that dialogue recorded during filming is clear and understandable.

Further Target Audience Research

According to a survey carried out by the BFI, 32% of the British public aged 16 and over enjoy watching horror. This puts horror at 10th place for the most enjoyed genre. Out of this percentage, I it was found that generally males and females are quite equal in terms of their preference for horror. It is evident that more of both males and females below the age of 35 enjoy this genre, suggesting we were correct in deciding to target an audience between the ages of  15 and 25 of both genders. Although we carried out our own surveys in Sixth form to gather information about target audiences, our finding were accurate to those of the BFI.

The red dotted box highlights results for horror

When surveyed on which genre is their favourite, 15% chose horror. These people were of both gender and also of all social classes. This means that by creating a horror trailer we are able to reach out to a much larger audience. The BFI also found that 28% of the sample would like to see more dark horrors, the majority of which were females under the age of 35. This again is significant as it emphasises the fact we should target people in this age range.

A way of categorising audiences in terms of personality, likes and consuming activity, is psychographics. This involved the idea that all people can be classified into groups based on their values, attitudes and lifestyles (VALs). New categories are always being created by market research and advertising agencies, as this helps to target possible consumers of their clients products.

For example, the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation model (4Cs) is one method of classification which was developed by Young and Rubicam. This includes categories such as Struggler which includes people who are seen as disorganised with few resources apart from physical/mechanical skills (e.g. car repair). They can be heavy consumers of alcohol, junk food and lotteries and their media choices involves impact and sensation. Another category in this model is the Mainstreamer who is domestic, conventional, passive and a conformist. This group favour big and well-known 'family' brands'. This is the largest group of the 4Cs. Other's include the Resigned, the Aspirer, the Succeeser and the Reformer. Our production however will target the Explorer. These people are seen as having high energy. They are experienced and like to challenge and explore new frontiers. Their choice highlights sensation, adventure and indulgence and they are the first to try new brands (mainly younger people i.e students). This category are more open to trying new things and should therefore be interested in the horror genre and our film in particular. This is because it will present new things and experiences which the audience can indulge in.

Conclusions Drawn About Characters

From the research I have done, we have decided to have both a female protagonist and a female villain. This is due to the fact that it is more acceptable now for women to be playing this role, while at the same time it still challenges the stereotypical portrayal of women which is emotional and vulnerable. We feel this will make our production that extra bit more interesting as it is rarely seen that the female villain attacks another female.

Star Image Theory

Richard Dyer suggests that both performers and stars have become interchangeable in terms of media and are not the same thing any more. In his book he explains that perception of a film is influenced by the perception of its stars, and this determines the way in which the audience experiences a film. he believes that a star is constructed through the media for example in films, music videos, magazines etc. for example Lady Gaga has become famous for the extravagant outfits we see her wear, more so than from her singing ability, however this could be a different person to that of when she is at home. Dyer explains that there is a 'paradox' of the star which is that they should be both ordinary and extraordinary, and both present and absent.

A star nowadays is instantly recognisable and is often used to brand products. Their image is powerful and therefore can be used as a devise for profit. This is often used in the world of film as certain actors and actresses can attract a specific type of audience. For example after Daniel Radcliffe was seen in the Harry Potter films, he got a huge fan base and so his new films such as 'The Woman In Black' will attract a larger audience.

Research into Representation

The Revision Express Media Studies text book states that "representation relates to the representation of reality in the media". This relates to the idea that our whole knowledge of somebody in the public eye comes from the way they are represented in the media. For example, our perception of celebrities who we don't know personally, comes just from the way we see them in the media. In order to further my knowledge of this, I have researched into the representation on women in particular as we plan to have a female dominated cast.

In the media, women were traditionally portrayed to be the 'damsel in distress' characters and were usually the victim of whatever is occurring in a film. There were often presented as 'objects' either sexually or emotionally orientated. Angela McRobbie says that men and women are often represented through stereotypes in the media and are often shown in traditional gender roles. For example woman are usually shown as innocent, beautiful, victims. Males on the other hand are usually seen as the aggressive, strong and the hero or villain due to their more masculine traits and behaviours. This idea is seen throughout many films for example in 'Psycho' where women are being punished for their sins by men.

However since this film was made, representations have changed slightly with equal rights of men and women being introduced. This means that now it is more common now to see a female portraying the villain rather than the damsel in distress than it ever has been in the past. A film that supports this idea is 'Jennifer's Body' where the killer is a strong woman. This is due to the changing representations of women in modern society and how they are now seen as more powerful figures.

Compared to other genres of media other than horror, women often play a more active role. This is because they are now seen a lot more as being the hero with the role of the 'final girl' becoming quite popular. This idea was put forward by Carol Clover and suggests that in horror films it is usually the 'ideal' girl who survives against the antagonist. The victims of the film are often the ones who challenge the innocent representation of women.

We have decided to have a female main character who will be portrayed as the stereotypical 'ideal' woman. Her nightmares will connote innocence and vulnerability. Her job as a teacher will emphasize that she is caring and feminine which are some of the typical characteristics of the ideal woman. By doing this, the audience will be able to connect and empathise with her more and want her to survive against the antagonist.

Alternatively, there are stereotypes about how children  too are represented in the media and the horror genre in particular. Stereotypically they are seen as innocent, with a willingness to be loved. Young researchers (aged 10-17) from a British organisation called 'Children's Express' looked at how children are represented in the media found that there are "seven deadly stereotypes". These include; 'children as victims', 'cute kids', 'little devils' and more. It is more common to see the children playing the victim in media, however it is becoming more and more accepted to see the child playing the villain or the 'devil' character in the horror genre. For example in 'Orphan (2008)' Esther's character is a young girl who is adopted by a husband and wife, but isn't as innocent as she makes out to be. Throughout the film she acts as the antagonist.

Research into Ideas, Mise-en-scene, Shooting and Editing Style

Having looked at a wide range of horror films, we have found that many use similar techniques and conventions which are effective in clearly expressing the genre and creating interesting final products.  This can be done through certain methods in terms of mise-en-scene, shooting and editing.

Mise-en-scene

• It is clear that one of the main aspects of horror films in terms of mise-en-scene is dark colour schemes and lighting. The majority of horror films use blacks and reds for titles and other wording, as these colours connote danger. This is seen in 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and many more. 

• It is also common for the lighting in scenes of horror films to be dark and mysterious as this creates a more unsettling experience for the viewer. I found this in many films for example 'Shutter Island' which uses a slightly dull blueish filter over scenes. Another notable convention seen in this film is the use of an isolated location. This is extremely effective as it make you worry for the victims as it seems like there is nobody around to help them.

• Objects such as knives and axes and other sharp/dangerous things as something which is seen often as again they are very unsettling and scary for the audience. It also reinforced the idea of it being a horror. This is evident in numerous horror production, for example the 'Saw' films.

Shooting

• I have found that some very effective camera shots can be used in order to create intensity in a horror film. Extreme close ups are a particularly good way of making something seem more scary and make the audience feel fear. For example, in the iconic shower scene in 'Psycho', lots of close ups are used in order to make the viewer feel on edge as she is being killer. This adds to the intensity of the scene as oppose to if it were just one basic medium shot of her. A range of different shots is also uses to break the scene up and make it more flashy which adds extra thrill.

Editing

• Fast paced editing is one of the most commonly used editing techniques used by editors in the horror genre. It creates intensity and excitement when building up to a main event during the film. This again is seen in the 'Psycho' shower scene.

Research into Similar Films

In order to further develop my knowledge of the thriller/horror genre I have researched into some similar films to the one me and my group will produce. For example ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ is a film where in the dreams of his victims, a child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him. I have looked at this film as ours will involve the use of dreams widely throughout.

There are various different posters that were made to advertise the film. One common thriller conventions seen in this poster is chiaroscuro lighting. This creates a dramatic atmosphere within the picture which makes the audience feel scared.  The red in the poster could connote blood or danger while the white may suggest good and purity.  The darkness in the image also creates mystery which is a common convention of the thriller/horror convention.

The title uses a simple white serif font.  This highlights the fact the film is targeted at an older audience.  The word 'NIGHTMARE' is much larger in comparison to the rest of the title.  This is because it is the most frightening and significant word.  The character on the poster has his face masked by a hat and darkness.  This creates mystery and intensity when looking at it as the audience has no idea who or what he is.

There are many other variations of this poster which hold more information such as the release date and characters which are possibly more suitable for advertising.  These versions are from 2010 however there was an earlier making of the film in 1984.  This cover uses similar conventions though such as the dark and red colour scheme connoting danger an violence.  This poster holds the slogan, 'If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming she won't wake up at all'.  This instantly grips viewers and makes them want to know more.  I feel it would be beneficial and extremely effective if we included a statement like this.

                        

2010

1984

Another film similar to our ideas is 'In Dreams' directed by Neil Jordan starring Annette Bening and Robert Downey Jr. about a woman who dreams of distressing future events. This poster uses extreme chiaroscuro lighting over a woman, slightly covering her pale white face creating an intense feeling as you see the fright in her eyes.  This again uses capitalised red serif titles which look as if they have been scratched into the black background.  Many thrillers use this technique as it adds a sense of violence and danger.


The colour scheme within the poster also suggests a binary opposition of possibly good vs. evil or danger.  The snow white face against the jet black background highlights connotations of good/purity and evil/death/danger which act as a binary opposition.  This idea was developed by Claude Levi Strauss and is a commonly used thriller convention where the narrative is arranged around the conflict of binary oppositions for example good and evil, day and night, male and female, antagonist and protagonist, etc.

Initial Ideas

We have used a technique which is used by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in the making of ‘Hot Fuzz’.  This technique involved writing down as much information as possible about different aspects of their production including setting/locations, characters etc. through the use of mind maps and lists.

We have adapted this when creating ideas for our own production.  First of all we accessed memories about events in our lives.  We have decided to develop our idea based on Alexia's experience of seeing herself in a ghost like form.

We then created a premise for the film including a brief idea for a beginning a middle and an ending.  We decided to include an equilibrium as this is an effective convention seen in the majority of thrillers.

Finally we have begun to lay out the basic characteristics of the main character.  Our idea is to have one teenage girl who has two sides to her; normal and evil both trapped in one body.  The plan below states the simple yet important information about each personality within the main character.

Contemporary Media Landscape

We would want for our trailer to be viewed on the TV and internet and possibly in front of well known new horror and thriller films in cinemas, for example 'Annabelle' or 'Oculous'.  By making the film available on the web, it would allow us to target the younger ages.  The internet is a great way of attracting our preferred target audience as social networking sites allow viewers to share and comment on the production on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The internet allows for promotion through the use of hashtags and official pages. It also creates a virtual relationship between the audience and the media, and as it is known that these sites are extremely widely used by our target audience age of 15-25, making the trailer available on sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter would make it easier for the audience to become aware of the production as well as helping to advertise it to a wider range of people. Because these sites are so widely used it would be easy for a following to be maintained for the production. Through the use of fan pages and messaging, our audience can communicate easily and chat about the trailer and film. Using social media would benefit the production as it would give our audience a chance to feel more involved with the film.

We would want for the trailer to be shown in cinemas before movie screenings. Showing our production in this way would help to promote the film as aims the aim of a trailer is to attract the attention and interest of the audience. Showing it in the cinema is a more powerful way to display trailers as viewers are usually paying full attention.

We would also consider showing our trailer on TV and radio. This would be beneficial as it attracts a much wider audience, including those outside the target audience. As well as just the trailer, interviews with cast and crew could also be shown on certain entertainment channels and radio stations.

Target Audience Research

There are a number of different audience theories which suggest reasons as to why people watch certain media texts and what happens once they've experienced them. The hypodermic needle theory suggests that media texts are injected into the viewer as they are passive and powerless to prevent influence. This theory is heavily linked with a number of cases for example 'A Clockwork Orange' supposedly influencing a number of rapes and violent crimes. It is the idea that audiences are easily influenced by the media they consume.

The uses and gratification model on the other hand is based on the idea that the audience is active rather than passive. It states that the audience uses the text for their own personal gratification for 4 needs:

• diversion - escaping form everyday pressures, distracting yourself from the real world
• personal relationships - companionship through identification with television characters or other people in the media
• Personal identity - ability to compare life with the characters and situations portrayed
• Surveillance - information gathering

With this in mind, in order to narrow down our target audience we produced a questionnaire asking questions such as age, gender, gender preference of a hero and villain, favourite genre and opinions of possession story lines. In doing this, we were able to see which people prefer what and therefore determine the audience in which our production will attract.

One of the questions asked ‘Would you prefer a Male or Female Villain?’ and results from the questionnaire showed that females only would prefer to see a male villain, although more females than males would prefer a female villain (right). Due to the fact that our production’s villain will be played by a female, we can conclude that a large proportion of our audience will be female. Similarly, when another question saying ‘Would you prefer a Male or Female Hero?’ we found more females than males to say they prefer a female hero character (below), which our film will include.

We are able to determine the rough age range that our production will attract from the graph below which suggests that people aged between 15 and 25 are mostly interested in the thriller and horror genres. We will therefore target out film toward this age group as the production will be based on these genres.

From the results, we can conclude that the audience we are targeting will be both males and females however mainly females, who are between the ages of 15 and 25. This is due to the things involved in the film for example characters. The cast will be mostly female, which will attract a female audience as they can connect better with the characters.

Questionnaire

In order to determine a target audience for our film we created a questionnaire and asked a sample of people to fill it out.  This allowed us to see what types of people enjoy which key features of a thriller production.  These are the questions we included:

1.  How old are you?

Under 15

15-25

25+

2. Gender

Male

Female

3. Would you prefer a male or female villain?

Male

Female

Not bothered

4. Would you prefer a male or female hero?

Male

Female

Not bothered

5. What is your favourite genre of the ones listed?

Horror

Thriller

Action

6. Does possession as a theme appeal to you?

Yes

No

Not bothered

Genre Conventions

'Genre is a way of categorising media products in terms of setting, character, storyline, key signs, message and more', as said by Joe Nicholas and John Price in ‘Advanced Studies in Media’.

Various conventions are used throughout film in order to enable an audience to identify the genre.  The trailer that we create is going to be of the Thriller/Horror genre.  Thrillers and Horrors use a range of different conventions to do with lighting, camera and editing techniques, sound, characters and enigmas:

• Lighting – A common thriller convention is chiaroscuro/dull lighting.  This is often used to create an eerie and unsettling atmosphere throughout which is key.  For example in 'Shutter Island' many of the scenes are shot in a dull light with a blueish filter.

• Setting - Horrors and Thriller are often set in isolated and creepy locations.  This presents the idea of helplessness and makes you feel fear for the victim characters.  An example of this convention is 'The Cabin in the Woods' which is located in a remote cabin. Other conventional locations for horror films include urban environments, lakes, roads, dark alleyways, large houses and anything else that could connote isolation or the feeling of being alone.

• Camera shots – Thrillers will usually use a wide range of shots varying from extreme close ups to create tension and shock, to long shots which can establish a setting. High and low angle shots are often used to connote fear or threat. Point of view shots are also very conventional in horror films as they allow the audience to connect with the characters and get a better sense of what they are feeling. Another technique is handheld shots, which usually make it harder for the audience to see what is happening. This creates mystery as it is not clear what is going on.
• Editing – It is common for thrillers to involve fast paced editing as this is an effective way of building unsettling intensity and a sense of panic/chaos which is important more often than not. The main purpose of a horror is to frighten an audience and make them feel on edge, and so this helps to create that feeling.
• Sound – A common convention of thrillers in terms of sound is to have sound bridges as this subtly highlights links between different scenes.  The music will often be slow and tense to begin, leading to a crescendo where something significant happens.
• Characters – The convention associated with thrillers is that there will be an antagonist/villain who goes against the protagonist/hero. Usually the hero will embark on a mission to kill the villain or solve problems.
• Enigmas – The enigmas or puzzles are often solved at the end of the film by the protagonist. Enigma codes are used throughout trailers to make the audience wonder. It helps to draw the audience in if they story isn't told fully as they will have to see the whole film to find out what happens.

When planning and producing our own horror film trailer, we will be sure to take into account all of these conventions in order to make it recognisable as to what genre we are portraying.  For example, we plan to use a teenage girl as the protagonist, fighting against the antagonist who is inside her.  She will appear innocent on the outside however the inner self will have a dark and creepy look.  It is also a common convention of horror for the antagonist to have a hidden identity that the audience uncovers as the film progresses, which we may incorporate into our own production.

Film Trailer Analysis

Schedule

I have created a schedule for my work throughout this coursework project in order to keep myself organised and know what I have to be doing at all times, from carrying out initial research all the way to completing my final evaluations.