Planning

Scream Opening

Scream

The first thing the audience will hear while watching Scream is itself a loud high pitched scream from a young girl, this immediately gives the audience a good understanding of what the film is going to be about. From just the opening noise we can already guess what genre of film it is, Horror and thriller. This is due to the loud fearful screech. The screech has already created suspense for the audience. Due to the scream we already know that the victim is female, probably young and vulnerable. While you hear the scream the title of the film appears on screen. To start with the title is white, bold and in a horror, edgy style font. After a few seconds the white font begins to turn red and the lettering starts to run down the page like blood. The red blood symbolises death and danger. As well as the scream a phone also begins to ring, this happens while the title of the film is still showing. The ringing of the phone ends the titles and starts the opening scene.

 

 

 

 

 

We meet the main character in the first 10 seconds of the first scene. The protagonist is female which links in to the high pitched screech heard at the beginning of the titles. It is also stereotypical to have the female as the victim in a horror film as she wont be able to fight anything off and will be vulnerable. She answers the phone to a man with quite a deep voice, we learn later that the caller is the killer. This follows Propp's narrative theory, the female protagonist is the Princess, the one waiting to be saved and the killer is the Villain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The phone rings three times. The first time is when the audience is introduced to the killer. When she picks up the phone you can see that the main character is completely alone. This increases vulnerability and it also give the impression that something is soon to happen to the girl. The caller claims to have the wrong number and the call ends there.

 

The second time the phone rings it is the same person, this suggests to the audience that he didn't have the wrong number and that the girl is in possible danger. As the girl is on the phone the camera pans out and the audience are able to get a better look at her location. She is in a big house. It is dark out side and the house is located out side a forest. This is a typical horror film location as it gives a mysterious and spooky vibe. After the girl hangs up you see shots of the garden where there is a swing. This give the impression that there is a possibility of a child character. The swing is also moving so this could suggest a windy night or that someone has just been on or near it.  The character is completely alone for all the phone calls and all the noises the character makes are emphasised. This creates a more dramatic effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clothing

For clothing i have decided to keep it casual and simple. I have picked a red skirt, white T-shirt, black tights and hat. Even though i wanted to give the impression of normal everyday clothing the colours i have picked foreshadow. I picked red to show danger and fear, white for purity and hope. I also picked black for fear and death. Not only have i used black and white for the clothing but i have used objects with in the film foreshadowing the exact same. Queenie already owns the clothes that i picked out so no money was spent on clothing.

I painted Abbies hand with coffee to give the impression of dirt and dried blood. Even though it did not go to plan it still added to the effect of the film. If i were to refilm i would probably use paint or buy fake blood.

Location and filming

The location I used for my film opening was the schools sixth form block, as the film itself is set in the school i didn't have to worry about hiding anything that might give the location away. Although the genre of my film is horror i had to film during the day as i did not have access to the block in the evenings. I will edit the lighting.

I painted Abbies hand with coffee to give the impression of dirt and dried blood. Even though it did not go to plan it still added to the effect of the film. If i were to refilm i would probably use paint or buy fake blood.

My Film Synopsis

After that Night Erin has been suffering night terrors and flash backs. But what has caused this....College is over for the day for most but not for Erin. She is staying back for extra time in order to complete work for the next day. Completely alone…well that’s what she thought. A series of unnatural and strange events take place that evening and Erin finds herself in serious danger. The dead need a home and a victim and they’ve chosen Erin as their prey. She tries to reason with the spirits but there’s no bargaining with the dead. Erin’s goal is to escape the building and return to safety but the spirits want to play so escaping won’t be as easy as it sounds. Will she make it to safety or will she fall victim to the underworld?  

Our Group Preliminary Task

Our group preliminary task (filmed in school). I managed to edit a few shot but was unable to finish as  the files became corrupted and we were unable to email them to myself. However, the filming that we done is on the school computer so there is still proof that we have done some work. We planned to film a small modern day Hitchcock film that showed a shadow (or hoodie) walking towards a destination where they would then meet an acquaintance and exchange some money. We kept the identities hidden until they met to create a mystery-suspense feeling.

The shot types we used were:
 - A long shot (shows the figure walking past a second floor window)
 -A over the shoulder shot (showing somebody holding money)
 -Close up (of the money)
 -Close up (of feet walking past the camera)
-Mid shot (of somebody waking up to the camera)
 -Mid shot (of a door banging and the money holding figure turning to look)
 -Mid shot (of the hooded figure closing the door and walking over to a table)
 -Mid shot (shows both people walking to the table, stood on opposite sides)
  -Close up (of the money holding figure saying “Have you go the money”)
-Close up (of the hooded figure replying “Yes”)
-Close up (of the two figures throwing the money down onto the table)

Group I worked in: Abbie, Queenie and Bryony

Our Group Preliminary Task Evaluation

The Purge

 

 

The very first shot we see in this title sequence is the establishing shot. It is a straight forward shot, with no angle it doesn’t have a setting. it is a black background with white text. The text contains statistics and facts. ' America 2022 unemployment is at 1%. Crime is at an all-time low. Violence barely exists.' This creates a sense of realism, people will buy into this fact making them think The Purge has or could very well happen in the future. The final words at the end of this section of text are ‘With one exception…’ this creates a sense of suspense without there being any characters or settings.

 

The next shot used is more or less the same as the first only this time it shows a quote.‘Blessed be the new Founding Fathers for letting us Purge and cleanse our souls, Blessed be America, a nation reborn’ This gives the viewer the impression of good deeds. The quote is there to mislead the viewer into thinking that positive things are being done.

 

In the first 3 minutes of the film CCTV footage is showing images from The Purge. It show violence and criminal acts being committed. This footage includes dates and time to create the feel that The Purge was an actual event. Over the top of the footage music is being played, the music is very soft and light. This could be used to create disoreder to the viewer.

 

 

 

After the CCTV footage is shown we are shown a shot of a smartly dressed business man driving home from work. He is having a conversation. At first it seems like he is talking to some one sitting in the passenger seat but as the camera pans around we can see he is alone and is actually talking on his bluetooth. An over the shoulder shot is also used so we can see the destination and other props that are being used in this scene.