Initial Group Meeting And Ideas
Synopsis: Ashley Walton a 17-year-old girl has frequent appearances of an anonymous figure and his suspicious behaviour who consistently take pictures of her on her way to and from college, as well as going about her normal life; seven days later she starts receiving these photos in brown envelops one at a time. She informs her friends of suspicious activity which keeps occurring, however her friends continue to tell her she’s just being paranoid. On that same day Ashley looks out of her window to see a man watching her. Assuming that this is the man with the camera, she tells her friends who are at her house but when they look out of the window, he’s gone. Several days later, she receives a picture of herself tied up in a dark room a situation that hasn’t happened yet. Realising that things have got out of hand, she decides to take matters to the police, and Erin her friend drives her to the station and leaves to go home. PC Quinn is on duty and takes the report offering to take her home but end up stopping at his house for an unknown reason. After hearing a noise from the car Ashley goes to investigate leading into the kitchen where she is hit with a frying pan resulting in her being knocked out. Ashley wakes tied up in a dimly lit room, surrounded by photos of her scattered on the floor with her face scratched out. On the wall are photos of the boy that was in her garden with the same style photos leading to the realisation that that boy was not the 'camera man'. She hears a thud from the other side of the door and the boy enters the room to help bring her to safety by untying her from the corner which he explains that he was the last target but managed to escape trying to warn her. As they find a way to escape, Noah tells Ashley he will distract PC Quinn allowing Ashely to escape. Noah fights Max Quinn but is attacked and ends up being strangled to death. Meanwhile, Ashley hears his screams and goes back for him only to find his dead body. She runs to her safety through the forest where she is chased by Max Quinn who eventually catches up and hits her with a branch to be left for dead. She’s discovered by dog walkers and ends up unconscious in hospital. Ending with Max being seen taking more photos of his next victim leaving him open to attack again.
Settings: Woods: Gunton or Bacton Woods City/ urban area: Norwich back roads Ashley's House: Use one of our houses in the group Study Room: Use one of our houses in the group Garage: Use one of our houses in the group
Character Profiles: Name: Ashley Walton Age: 17 Gender: Female Character’s role in the narrative: In our horror trailer Ashley Walton is our protagonist as her progress in life is the storyline of our story. Ashley is on the side of ‘Good’ which signifies her actions will benefit those in danger. Although Ashley is our main protagonist she also represents the ‘final girl’ which was a theory by Carol Clover. The final girl is connoted in many conventions including her name ‘Ashley’ which is a unisex name given to the final girl in horror films to battle stereotypes of females which is often represented by the ‘damsel’ and ‘dumb blonde’. Dramatic motivation: Ashley is the next victim of Max Quinn, after her rescue from Noah she hears his screams from outside of the house instead of carrying on she turns back to rescue Noah. Although he is already dead she still turned back in hope of helping him and saving his life. Therefore, her dramatic motivation is saving the innocent from the deadly Max.
Name: Erin Age: 17 Gender: Female Character’s role in the narrative: Racheal is the false hero in our synopsis, even though she takes Ashley to the police station so she can report what has been happening Racheal leaves her on her own. A typical convention of this character type is causing the hero/protagonist more suffering which she has effectively done by not only leaving Ashley at the Police station but causing her suffering which is anchored by her capture by Max who is the police officer on duty the night Ashley goes in which connotes the following tragic events. Dramatic Motivation: Racheal tries to help her friend Ashley by taking her to the police station as she thinks this will benefit her with the recent events which have happened with her being stalked. Although, this does lead to more suffering for Ashley her friend and the main protagonist however Racheal wasn’t aware this would cause more suffering for Ashley as her intentions where to help her friend not to put her in more danger.
Name: Noah Greenwood Age: 19 Gender: Male Character’s role in the narrative: Noah represents the helper in our trailer as he tries to warn Ashley our protagonist as he knows what Max is capable of due to being his latest victim. A common convention for the helper stated by Tzvetan Todorov says the helper sends the hero on his way even if it results in his death. The convention is anchored in our trailer as Noah goes to the garage where Ashley is captured in order to save her life resulting in her survival. Dramatic Motivation: Noah was the previous victim of the antagonist Max Ouinn before he began to target Ashley. Luckily, Noah was able to escape and tried to warn Ashley as he doesn’t want her to suffer as well.
Name: (PC) Max Quinn Age: 24 Gender: Male Character’s role in the narrative: Actively opposes the protagonist hindering the protagonist's progress toward a resolution of their problem. The antagonist represents an opposing force that is depicted as 'evil'. Dramatic Motivation: A tragic event in his past involved in a police inspection, however the police actions weren’t suitable for the case as they done nothing to help the young Max who was the victim. As a result Max turned his pain into revenge and became a police officer to make sure others suffered like he did.
Primary and secondary audience The primary audience for our trailer idea would be targeted at teenagers from fifteen up to young adults aged around twenty-one. Our trailer targets this primary audience due to the synopsis of our trailer, this age range of fifteen-twenty-one are more likely to connect with our main protagonist compared to thirty year olds. However, our secondary audience would be from the age of early twenties to late twenties due to the genre of our trailer being horror which targets and intrigues a wider audience and age.
Three similar existing films -
Halloween Taken The Resident
We have chosen these films in particular as they all link in with our trailer one way or another, for example ‘Taken’ links in with our horror trailer idea as our main character is taken by a stranger and held hostage. Therefore, ‘Taken’ and our trailer have similar conventions in the storyline and narrative. ‘Halloween’ links extremely well with our trailer idea as we have the same main character role with using the final girl theory and conventions to tackle stereotypes and keep our trailer interesting. We have anchored this theory by using the main conventions such as; a unisex name to signify the character is unique compared to other female characters, type of clothing by wearing jeans, jumpers etc so the character isn’t sexualised, an interest in education which we have shown by our protagonist Ashley who is stalked around her college and arriving home with a backpack connoting an interest in her studies as the bag is efficient to carry books, her make-up is minimum which suggests she isn’t fussed or bothered about her appearance and finally this character in particular potentially ‘fights back’ the villain as she goes back to help Noah who was previously captured. Finally, ‘The Resident’ trailer links to our trailer as the storyline shows scenes of the main protagonist being stalked by someone she does not know showing vulnerability and instability. This is represented in our trailer as our protagonist Ashley isn’t aware she is being stalked or who it is until she is captured by the antagonist Max. Typical conventions have been used in ‘The Resident’ which connotes this as multiple scenes such as a shot under a door and through a vent opposite her bath anchors the idea that the viewers are in the perspective of the stalker in these scenes which creates dramatic irony as the audience are aware that she is being stalked and watched however the character isn’t.