INITIAL FILM IDEAS
ROUP: MATTHEW, ALICE, BEN AND GEORGE BY ALICE FIELD-RAYNER
HALLUCINATIONS – PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR Characters Character 1: Antagonist Male Dark clothing Black big boots
Character 2: Killer Antagonist/ protagonist Male Armed with a gun Dark clothing
Mise-en-scene: Set at night Dark Street lights Ally way or a dead end street Garages
Character 3: Doctor Alexander from 'the meeting' Character 4: A young child
Character 5: Characters 1's mother Character 6: Someone from past
PLOT : • • • • • • • • • • • • •
It starts of in ally way with a fight between two men, faces hidden at first. Character 2 injures character 1 with a metal pole around the head. Character 2 runs off. Character 1 try's to walk away but gets caught in a dead end street. Staggers then slumps against garages because he is injured. Editing Effects on man as his head is spinning with confusion- point of view through characters 1's eyes- blurry views of the ally way and the pole with blood on in front of him. Character 1 then begins to hallucinate about all the people he has killed in his past. Character 3 appears, talking to character 1 Then gradual characters 4,5 and 6 appear speaking to him Includes flashbacks of how the killings happened e.g. The meeting Then character 1 winces as a pain shots through his head, all the other characters disappear as he closes his eyes. Character 1 then opens his eyes to find character 2 standing over him with a gun Then screen goes blank and a shot gun noise goes off, echoing in the ally way.
OPENING SCENE: Instead having each character (3,4,5&6) Appear on stage we could just play upon the audiences imagination. For instance, instead of the child he killed appearing in front of him there could be diegetic sound of the child's laughter turning into crying with distorted images coming up of the child covered in blood, and a hands around a child's neck or a knife covered in blood in character 1’s hands. At the start it could show how character 2 is related to one of character 1’s killings, for instance a shot of character 2 and character 4, walking in a park with the sun shining to make the audience think of happiness. Therefore, this will contrast to the dark lighting down the ally way.
QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS: Lighting:
Camera:
The whole of my audience who answered my questionnaire agreed that lighting implied a sense of danger and created tension, therefore the light from the street lights in my idea will give a eerie feel as things could be hidden in the darkness. Furthermore, 90% responses agreed that a scene being shot in the darkness adds to the overall atmosphere of horror and creates suspense, which is why I chose to set my idea at night-time.
Within the opening scene there will be quick paced camera shots in order to increase the overall tension as this is what the audience of my questionnaire thought. Additionally, at the start when character 1 and character 2 are introduced, fighting, a slow tilt up from the ground will be used ( an establishing shot ) as this is important to the audience in order to understand the location of the scene and how it’s a dead end which makes the characters appear vulnerable.
Sound: Instead of having non-diegetic sound such as, suspenseful music over the top of the action, I will focus more on silence moments and diegetic sounds such as, children laughing and crying and the sound of the men fighting as I think this will be more effective. From my questionnaire, 24/26 responses agreed that the use of the diegetic sound was affective.
https://www.youtube .com/watch?v=o4zcPM x1j7U This is a link to fight sound effects, some of this could be used in the editing of the film.
INITIAL IDEA BY MATTHEW
INITIAL IDEA: A BROKEN HOME For my initial idea, I wanted to focus upon phycological horror as well as teen based fundamentals. This is because I have focused my research over the past few months on psychological horror. The film will be based around new couple that encounters a horrific curse that tears their relationship apart. We will breaking the stereotype of females and males by forcing the genre roles to swap throughout the film. To do this, I will use the idea of the curse to dominate the female character, as she will swap from a friendly, approachable person to a dominating figure who is takes control. The male character, turns into a weaker, vulnerable character whom suffers from an abusive partner as the curse develops within the film. This will eventually lead to the husband becoming a acholic, building up a series of emotions that eventually lead him to breaking point with includes the killing of his partner. The start of the opening sequence will be a female character laying dead, surrounded by vegetation. The film will include flashbacks to when the couple where happy as I want the audience to see that the female should be the victim, not the other way around. The curse will slowly get worse throughout the opening sequence causing the partners relationship to deteriorate.
INITIAL IDEA: CHARACTER ROLES Female Character & how she progresses
Male Character & how she progresses
At the start of the film, the female character will appear as the stereotypical women, who is attractive, young and kind and along with the male character they will appear as the perfect couple. Within the opening scene the female character will appear to the audience as the victim and the protagonist.
At the start of the opening sequence, the male character will give a strong impression to the audience of a loving ad ideal partner in a relationship. Additionally, showing off how they have a strong connection within there relationship. Instead of the curse affecting the male character he is instead at the end of the abuse given from his partner. As the female character becomes more aggressive because of the curse the male character will appear vulnerable, weak and scared of his partner. This will take away the masculinity of the character, making him come away from the stereotype.
As the opening scene progresses and the female becomes cursed, her personality will change. This means that she will become a unpredictable psychopathic antagonist who is abusive towards her husband, and in control of the relationship. Furthermore, this is breaking he stereotype as in the psychological genre of horror the male character is usually the antagonist.
Although, this character is the weak one towards the end of the opening scene, he eventually kills his wife when he gets angry at her.
INITIAL IDEA: MISE-EN-SCENE Setting The opening scene is going to start in a isolated forest and then it will change to a loving family home. The idea of setting it in a normal everyday house is so it relates to the audience. When the curse begins the change things the house will become dirtier with rubbish and empty beer cans over the house.
Props The props will be everyday household objects. Then as the curse becomes apparent there will be more rubbish scattered around the house such as empty beer cans and bottles, out of date newspapers, dirty plates and used mugs. Also some of the objects seen in the previous scenes e.g. a lamp will be broken.
Costumes The women character:
Lighting The lighting at the start will be warm, light and appear friendly. Then as the opening scene continues the lighting will become darker and in harsher lighting when the abuse is happening.
She will appear in a white dress at the beginning which will indicate her purity and innocence. This is influenced from the film ‘Scream’ as the main protagonist is wearing a white dress whilst sitting in her room, which is coincidentally painted white.AS the opening sequence continues her dress will change to become tattered and worn. Her makeup, will appear ghostly with a pale face. The male character: He will begin the opening sequence wearing smart clothing, as he has come from work, as he is a hardworking character. When he becomes the subject of abuse his clothes will become tattered and worn and he will appear in more casual clothing as he has stopped going to work because he's a alcoholic. The clothing will have drink and food stains on it and perhaps blood.
INITIAL IDEA QUESTIONNAIRE INFLUENCE: “Do you think that showing the gun in the background of the shot, is an effective way to show that it will be significant later on?” 50%’of people agreed with this. However in this idea I decided to not use a weapon but instead to use a camera pan of the household objects and the start and then the end of the opening sequence to show the destruction of the house.
“Whilst watching this film, do you feel as though a sudden outburst of violence is an effective way to portray the mental illness that the patient is suffering from?” This would be a good way to start showing the signs of the problems caused by the curse. Since the female character begins the scene as a pure, innocent women. An sudden act of violence (even if its subtle to begin with) would be a good way to show her personality slowly changing towards a more ferocious individual.
“As you can tell, an eerie silence was used during this clip, would you say that this was an effective technique as the silence creates tension to further show of the characters emotion as he soaks in the information?” the “eerie silence” would be an excellent way to begin the opening scene, accompanied with a slow zoom into the female laying dead in the forest. The ‘eerie’ silence would take away any distractions causing the audience to be forced to concentrate on the female laying dead, and would make the audience focus upon her injury's.
INITIAL IDEA BY BEN