Screenplay and first draft synopsis

Once developing a brief idea of how we want things to be produced and planned out, we decided that the script should be planned out also. We included information if its an interior or exterior scene and also whether its day or night. Now that are title for the film and character names are established, we wrote our first draft screenplay. We did this on a software program called Celvix. Now below in picture formats:

Screenplay pdf

View more documents from ditzychelsea

Now that we had established what our main idea for the trailer would be, we decided to have a go in writing a first draft synopsis. We knew that it would be our first draft because as we go along, some ideas may be cut or changed, so we didn't want to make any final decisions. Here below is the first draft. 

Synopsis: 

When first year college student Sarah arrives at university, she cannot wait to make new friends, socialise and more importantly, further her ambition to be a fashion journalist. In the mean time, Rebecca, an emotional and unstable student is also joining the same university, in a mind frame of disturbing thoughts that lead her to hurting people. Sarah and Rebecca become friends, and soon Rebecca reveals her true colours of a psychopath. How long will Sarah survive before its too late for her to run?

Brief plan

Once we had our idea in place, we had to think of the specified structure we would want to use to make our trailer. To decide on things that we want to feature in our trailer. Features such as, fade-ins, credits, voiceovers and typography sentences. We decided to open with fade-ins that would be black screen with typography on top of them, then a scene shown. We also decided that we would include production company titles, to make it seem like a real film trailer. Voiceovers we didn't really want to use, so instead we decided that on some parts of the trailer where scenes are shown continuously, we would use some dialogue from the film to help the story flow along for the audience to listen too. All the plans were made on A3 sheets of paper.

We also decided on locations that we could possibly film at. Some were interior locations, and others were exterior. Examples of some locations were: college, forest/park, inside a house ... 

On another sheet of paper we began to establish the type of shots and the length of the shots in seconds. In the description we also planned which characters are featured in the shot.

Researching age certification

Source: British Board of Film Classification.

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

The Idea

Now that most of my research is complete and up to date, I am now put into my film production group which is me, Chelsea and Ishmail. Already we have had to come up with a concept for the horror film trailer. Together, we looked at the idea of a physiological horror sub-genre where the focus is on the main character becoming obsessed with another character and acting completely abnormal. There have been several films that use this brief and have produced effective films. One example is 'Obsessed' which features a woman working as a secretary in an office becoming sexually intrigued by a high status working married man. She begins to go out of her way to spend as much time with him, and becomes increasingly jealous of the man's wife and plots to kill her. However, we recognised that our brief was to produce a film trailer that is aimed at teenagers and a certificate 15. So we have changed a few things slightly to achieve our brief instead. 

Here is the trailer and synopsis for the film Obsessed. 

Our Idea:

(Our victim) starts university and is introduced to (Our villain) at a freshers party in the first week of starting university. They become close girl-friends, going shopping together, watching films, partying and doing  girly things. On one visit to the villain's home, in a conversation to her mum, our victim finds out that she is on medication. After realising this, there is a shift in the villain's behavior. Other friends of the victim who talk to her, experience frightening threats off the villain, the victim's boyfriend is also feared for his life when the villain says she will kill him if he doesn't leave her alone. 


Following on from our idea, we needed a final name for our film. Because of the film example shown above called 'Obsessed' we also thought it would be quite effective having a one worded title, as our concept of the film is quite similar. However, we had to search for a similar word that had the same meaning. We came up with the word 'ATTACHED' through searching on Thesaurus. Other words we came up with were:

DELUDED
OBSESSION
ONE GIRL FRIEND
THE HOUSEMATE

The two main charcters in our trailer are females, and they will be the most featured. We research most popular girls names top 100, and picked our two names from their website. 

Source: http://www.bounty.com/baby-names/girls-names?page=4

Mulvey's male gaze - Audience theory

The Male Gaze is a term used by Laura Mulvey to describe what she saw as the male point of view adopted by the camera for benefit of an assumed male audience.


Mulvey views the practice of the camera lighting on women's bodies as evidence that women were being viewed as sexual objects for the gratification of men. She argued that the central active characters in films are male and that the male audience identifies with them in their viewing of females as passive.


http://youtu.be/LzuwVIRXAr4 > Here is a link to 'Jennifers body' which is horror film that challenges Mulveys theory. 


Mise-en-scene: The opening of the trailer see Jennifer swimming naked in a river, this automatically attracts to the audience she is being used as a sexual figure for the film. Commenting on gender representation, using a scene where she isnt wearing any clothing reinforces her sexual purpose. Further on in the trailer she is wearing feminine clothing that is quite revealing and in bright colouring. For example, a cheerleader outfit, where her legs are on show from wearing a short skirt. From this we can probably guess she is 'the popular girl' that every girl is envious of or wants to be friends with. In addition, she is also pictured wearing a pink jumper that is quite low cut. Putting this together with her already 'sexual image' portrayed it gives the audience an already expected role of her character. Her makeup is also girly. 

Lighting: When we see 'evil' scenes the lighting is much darker and less focused on any characters, but rather focused on the background and where the location is. However, when we see her as the innocent girl, there is natural lighting that focus' on her in support of closeups. This suggests that the audience are to recognise the girl as 'pure' rather than 'disturbed' because otherwise that would challenge Mulveys theory.




Sound: Dialogue from the trailer 'You want it?' in a very seductive voice. This sexually suggestive act works with the closeups shot of her body where she zipping down her clothes with nothing underneath. Furthermore, the majority of dialogue has sexual connotations or is openly sexual. 

Camera angles/shots: One particular extreme close up shot that sexualises the women. The close up is of their lips about to kiss each other. This is a classic shot that would fantasize the 'male gaze'. Another shot is one of her outfits - because they are already quite revealing, camera angle work in connection with this, for example, when she is wearing a short skirt, the angle is high so we can see more of her legs. 

Editing: In the beginning, fading shots are used into each other. There are 3 shots that are shown in slow pace, this adds to the audience looking at her as an sexual object. Continuing on, the editing begins to get quicker when we aren't seeing her as evil. But when she is being evil, the editing is much slower. 

Character Research and Narrative 'Propps' Theory

In films there are general characters that are recognised in films who help the genre of the film and story-line flow along. Below are the most popular type of characters featured and the type of role that they play, also with a few examples I have found from recent modern films. 

The popular girl: The popular girl usually has friends and enemies. You either like her or you don't, or just pretend to like her to gain popularity. She is usually respected by the majority of people because of her wealth and good looks. She is also sometimes known to be smart, snobby and two face. 

(Left) Regina George - Mean Girls

(Right) Meredith - Bratz Movie 

Both girls in their films are at the peak of popularity, however, towards the end of the film both lose respect from some of their peers at their school.

The Jock: The jock is known as the popular good looking male athlete who normally attracts the popular girl. Jocks are also known as a male who is very muscular, not very smart and usually revolves conversation topics around sports. 

Duke - She's the man

Duke in 'She's the man' film displays features of a jock, as being the captain of the football team, the star player, having the muscular physique he attracts a lot of female attention.

The Wanderer: The character which puts themselves in situations which are hard to handle and turn out to be fatal. However they manage to escape it in some way, the wanderer is often the seen as the weakest within the group. 

Bella Swan - Twilight 

Bella, is a classic example of a wanderer. She gets caught with a young boy she likes who is a Vampire. She falls into a trap where she now has to become a Vampire too because she wants to be with so much.

The Final girl: The final girl is the last character left alive to confront the killer. She may sometimes turn out to be more intelligent than the other victims who have been killed and  may be seen as an 'action girl' or 'hero'.

Laurie Storde - Halloween

She is the last girl to confront the killer but is also saved by one of the male characters. 

The pervert: The pervert is the character who puts themselves in situations that allows them to get closer to a girl that they have put their eye on.

Furthermore in character research, Vladimir Propp explored the conventional narrative theory via the work of Russian Formalists from the 1920s. 

Vladimir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action' or functions. From a comprehensive study of folktales Propp came up with seven different character types: 

'Narrative Theory' on Prezi

Analysing horror trailers (Filth to Ashes and Insidious)

Above is the trailer for 'Filth to Ashes' a horror film about teenagers who come across a physiological killer who thrives on killing people with imperfections. Now, I will analyse the code and conventions of this trailer and how the meaning is conveyed to the audience. Starting with the mise-en-scene; the location is in a deserted, isolated place this conveys the message that the acts that are going to take place in the film are unknown to other people and remains a mystery to anyone who does not visit the location. The costumes of the actors are very casual, like normal teenager clothing, such as jeans, t-shirts etc... this shows that this can happen to anyone while traveling in a big group. Focusing on the hand props used in the trailer, we see shots of a gun and a bloody knife. From seeing these weapons it conveys a message to the audience that this film is probably going to be gory, with explicit images of death. In particular, one shot displays a girl reloading a gun, this could mean that she is trying to protect herself from being attacked by someone or something.


The use of blue coloured lighting adds a mysterious, eerie atmosphere to the trailer. This is used throughout the trailer, especially towards the end where the group are in an abandoned warehouse. The low key lighting creates noticeable contrasts and shadows, adding to the tense atmosphere and the fear that there is some impending doom. The use of blue light filters establishes a cold tone and creates an atmosphere of dread.


The sound featuring in the trailer is diagetic and non-diagetic. The music has a distinctive heart beat sound thumping and a knife slashing which builds up panic, determining the mood of the film. This is seen when the teenagers are entering the warehouse in darkness. The dialogue from the film trailer is more female centered suggesting the emotional state of the character, and making it obvious to the audience that the girls are the pivotal victims. The sound starts at a slow pace supporting the editing flow, and then increases in pace as the film trailer goes along, allowing the linking of scenes together more effective.


Used to convey expression, we see plenty of close-ups of girls faces, that show their panic and fear. A memorable closeup is when a girl has blood splattered across her face, using an image like this one allows the audience to engage emotionally with her character. Furthermore, the movement of the camera is handheld. The 'shaky' nature of this if often used to suggest greater authenticity, or to convey realism.



My second trailer to closely analyse is Insidious. Which is a physological horror about a boy that is believed to be possessed by the devil, which is living in his house and terrfies the rest of the family. Starting firstly with the mise-en-scene; the house that the family lives in is quite traditional and family orientated, this suggests that the story is going to be centered around an ordinary family who don't usually have experiences like this. It also makes the story seem a little more real with having this type of family. The costumes that they wear are the expected clothing for each family member. However, the colour of the clothes are dark, so we don't expect a happy storyline. 


In this trailer there is a great use of grey and blue back lighting. This a signal to the audience of coldness atmosphere within the house. There is also a great use of shadows, creating a sense of mystery and fear. However, at the beginning of the trailer when the family aren't living in the house there is use of natural lighting showing happier times. 


We get both diagetic and non-diagetic sound coming from this trailer. Right from the beginning we receive diagetic sound from the scene, where a man is talking in time to a clock-timer. The timer is a sound of a heartbeat that is played throughout the trailer, and is faint in some parts when there is dialogue. The sound of the heart beat creates tension for the audience, because they don't know whats coming next. To make it much more effective the trailer cleverly uses silence to portray fear, they do this between different shots. Dialogue from the film help carry out the storyline to the audience, by the end of the trailer we have brief understanding what the film is about. 


The continuity editing is very fast pace in the trailer, at the beginning it shows multiple shots quite fast and soon picks up pace when displaying the storyline further. Between each shots it fades into a black screen where typography will come on the screen. Close-ups and extreme close-ups are used to show the actors fear in their facial expressions. Especially the mother, who is scared for her son - she seems to be the person that we see that films point of view from. To add to this, panning and zoom ins are effectively used to slowly show the audience what is happening in each shot. Movement of the camera is in handheld mode. This adds realism to the audience and make us believe that we are seeing everything authentically through the eyes of the character.


Lastly, the typography used in the trailer focus mainly on the word 'Insidious'. It also bigs up the directors who have directed other successful horror films. The words are in a scratched effect and blink on the screen. They also play around with the word 'Insidious' by cutting it down to 'Is' ending up with sentence 'Is Insidious here' and 'Insidious is here' before showing a link of shots. 

Film value chain and Specialist distributors

For film distributors this process on how they release their films to the public is done in considerable easy steps. Independent distribution companies however might do it differently. But the majority of the main companies use this process below:

Film Value Chain (1) on Prezi

Example of an Independent Distributor:
An example of specialist film distributors are Arrow Films. Arrow Films specialise in World Cinema, Classic, Horror and Adult Titles. All of these specialised films are targeted at a niche market of people who have a strong love and interest for films. Specialist film distributors such as Arrow Films have an impact on the home entertainment sector, this a sector in which generates a lot of money each year in the UK. Since Arrow Films is an online company it allows many people to see what they have for offer and purchase these independent films. However since specialist distributors do not have a huge budget most of their films go to what is known as 'straight to video'. This means that instead of releasing the film at the cinema first it goes straight to DVD or VHS. 

Arrow Films Website

Features of a multimodal text

A mulitmodal text is when text has been combined with two or more ways for someone to have a better understanding. Film trailers are a good example of multimodal text, they make meaning through a powerful combination of different modes of communication. For example moving images and written text on a screen. The film trailer which I have decided to analyse its multimodal text features is Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. 

At the beginning of the trailer the production and distribution company names come up. This is a feature of written text which gives the audience instant information about who has produced this film. Following on, other sentences are shown on the screen - sentences such as 'don't listen to them' and 'don't turn of the light'. These short effective sentences set the genre to the audience also. 

However, there is also spoken language featured in the trailer. 'this house is unsafe for a child', 'we have been waiting for you to set us free', 'get her out of the house'. They are said in contrasting voice tones, some soft and hush and others harsh in loud whispers. These quotes help define the story without giving away the film plot. Giving a choice to the audience whether they want to see what happens at the end. 

Creaking doors, slamming doors, fast non-digetic music, loud chimes and clock bells, light explosions and smashing glass are all apart sound effects and music featured in the trailer. It makes the trailer become fast pace particularly,the The non-digetic music which is played throughout the trailer builds up tensions and anticipation which makes the audience excited to see what is going to happen next.