'THE HAUNTING' ancillary poster

Step 1. For my first Ancillary task, i decided to create a film poster for my short film horror called 'The Haunting'. Initially I started with this image, taken in a dark room with a single, natural source behind the model. I then used online search engines to find popular and successful modern horror film posters, and I picked out the key conventions that a variety of film posters shared. The first convention I noticed, was that all successful horror posters either portray a protagonist in danger, e.g. 'the uninvited' shows a female protagonist in distress. I decided to use my antagonist, and then manipulate the colours in Photoshop to try and make it similar to 'The uninvited' poster.

After digitally manipulating the image, to make it darker and connote horror more, I decided to portray the setting in which my horror film takes place. To achieve this, I used a picture of a heavily wooded area, to connote the country side and the sense of abandonment and isolation, I then layered it into my existing image, and 'flattened' the image in order to achieve the picture below.

After establishing the setting in my poster, I decided to create a heavy light to dark contrast, so I enhanced the shadow, and the surrounding light of the model, in order to gain a richer image. The colours on the model correspond well with the forest image above. The contrasting light and shadow work really well, and that is a good aspect to have in a horror poster.

After successfully creating my image, I decided to add my film title. What inspired me the most was the 2005 remake, 'Amityville horror', which has a really powerful advertising poster. What I find particularly inspiring was the title, the blood red against the hard black background worked really well and connoted violence and horror.
So I used the same style font, font size and colour in order to achieve the same effect.

Before adding the final touches onto my film poster, I decided to gain some audience feedback from my target audience, teenagers 16+. I passed a printed picture of the above image around my peers in sixth form. What I received in response, was the document below. 

After much consideration and improving my image as a consequence to some of the criticism I received, I complied to the requests of my target audience and improved my image.

The above image is my first, completed ancillary task. I used an appropriate font size and style for the information below the main title, and a large release date which has the same colour as the main title. I passed the new improved version around amongst my peers, and the criticism had successfully decreased. 

Pete's Media Blog

This slideshow is from 'Pete's Media Blog' and will help me improve my work, by reminding me in the importance of logistics, research and planning etc...


Presentation nov 4

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Practice shots/ Preliminary filming.

These are some of the camera shots that me and Cassie planned in our story board. After watching this video montage of ideas, it has become clear that we need to include more shots, due to the fact that the duration of each clip is too long.

Target Audience

Age, gender and class.
In order to establish the age range in which we target our audience, we needed to consider what age group visits the cinema most frequently. The average teenager visits the cinema at least once every two months, and watches already released films at a minimum of once a week from different types of media such as television (sky box office) or on DVD. After interviewing people within the age range of 30-50, i've come to a conclusion that the majority of older audience members, do not go the cinema as frequently, and watch less released films at home in comparison to teenagers. Therefore teenagers might be able to relate to the protagonist

Lighting Experimentation and Preparation

The Poltergeist is a 1982 American horror film directed by Stephen Spielberg, which was iconic for its powerful and efficient use of lighting. The simple, single source lighting was used to create incredibly dark silhouettes of characters in the film, creating a sense of mystery to the audience. This is a convention we plan to use in my short film, the antagonist will, at some points, be filmed with a strong light force from behind. We chose this method of lighting because it creates a heavy contrast between light and shadow. As you can see in the picture below, normal characters are made to look slightly terrifying, just by using simple but

powerful lighting.
Me and Cassie went out with a camera and our chosen actress, and took some pictures whilst we were experimenting with a single light source. The results were pleasing, as we achieved the desired result and subsequently, we are prepared and fully capable of using this type of lighting.
The three pictures below, were taken on the main stage at The Kings School with the main curtains closed, so the only light source would be from a high window. After recently watching 'The Ring' I wanted the pictures to vaguely represent the film, with the thin white ring almost present at the head of the character, and the character in the picture herself looks slightly like the antagonist in 'The Ring'.

Title Ideas

Preliminary Filming.

Preliminary filming

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Filming Schedule.

Inspiration and Idea Development.

The conventions used in this 'Phones 4 U' advert, are recognized by the vast audience and it forces the viewer to assume it's a horror film trailer. When in fact, after the antagonist confronts the protagonist, it's a simple mobile phone advertisement, and the company that invested in this advert, used a small budget in order to achieve the appropriate horror-genre semantics and conventions, such as dim lighting, dark and unclean setting, a simple and also unclean night gown for the antagonist to wear. The producers have made the genre in this advert easily recognizable by abiding by the rules of horror, with fast jump cuts in chase scenes and close up's on reactions etc, and the producer used these conventions, to then structure a narrative by abiding by the rules of simple horror syntactics, the main character first being unaware of the antagonists presence, then a pivotal point and change in the pace of the film where the protagonist is being chased, and then a abrupt and fast ending that then changes the tempo, and the two characters then confront each other.

Genre, Audience and Representation Theory.

Genre Theory.
Genres have characteristic features that are known by, and recognized by the audience. This 'formula' is reproduced again and again. For my short film horror, the recognizable conventions, which include characteristics such as costume, setting, characters and situations, will all help the audience recognize that the genre of the short film is horror. Producers of generic horror narratives depend on a certain amount of immediate communication with the audience, that's why I've interviewed my target audience, in order to establish and recognize what expectations they want to be met, when watching a horror. As the role of the Producer, I want the narrative to be easily comprehensible to the audience, and to ensure this I will stick to, and use, key components of horror genre, with semantics such as characters, locations, props, music and significant shooting styles. The relations between theses elements that structure the narrate in my chosen genre of horror (the syntactic) should be obvious to the audience from the beginning, the audience should immediately expect at the start of the film a fairly stable equilibrium, and the lead character is suspecting that she is being followed, then a disequilibrium as the antagonist is established, and this leads to a face paced chase scene, followed by a brief moment of suspense and anticipation as the protagonist escapes and ponders at the enigma of if their escape was actually successful. Genre is not set however, it is fluid and defined by the audience, which is why I need to interview my audience in order to familiarize myself with how they perceive horror films, and what they expectations they are wanting to be met.

Representation Theory.
Representation refers to the construction, in any medium, of aspects of 'reality' such as people, places, objects, events,cultural identities and other abstract concepts. The term refers to the processes involved as well as to it's products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity - Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity (the 'cage' of identity) - representation involves not only how identities are represented and constructed within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also deferentially marked in relation to such demographic factors. For mine and Cassie's short film (aimed at a fairly young demographic) I need to take into consideration how the main protagonist will be represented, I need to ensure that when my audience watches my short film, they have a preferred reading and don't disagree with mine and Cassie's ideologies. To achieve this, we have taken popular aspects of mise-en-scene, camera, sound and editing in order to make the representations feel natural and unmediated. In a film, the director wants the audience to be on the side of the protagonist and hope that the antagonist will fail. This means that the audience has to identify with the protagonist – they have to have a reason to be ‘on his/her side’. But directors only have a couple of hours to make you identify with the protagonist – so, they have to use a kind of ‘shorthand’. This is known as typing – instead of each character being a complex individual, who would take many hours to understand, we are presented with a ‘typical’ character who we recognize quickly and feel we understand. To ensure this me and Cassie interacted with our audience demographic, in order to establish crucial concepts that would represent our antagonist and protagonist in such a way, that the audience would immediately side with the protagonist. The typical horror stereotypes that have been idealized by society and reused constantly in horror films over the years, are a 'ditsy' blonde, innocent looking woman protagonist, and a dark haired, pale faced with a partially covered face. These representations have been used frequently, in films like Paranormal Activity and The Grudge, the audience is immediately sympathetic towards the female protagonist as she is faced with an opposing force, which is the desired result for mine and Cassie's short film.

Audience Theory
I need to ensure that my media text is heading in the right direction, i.e. my target audience, and I need to know how they will respond to my text. There are several effects models (theoretical explanations) as to how an audience ingest the information of a media text. The Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that the audience passively receives information, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. The information passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated, and this suggests that as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media texts, and are behavior can be easily changed my the media makers. It assumes the audience are passive and heterogeneous. Therefore I need to ensure that there is nothing in my film that could be seen as promoting violence or anything else that could be interpreted as offensive. The Two Step Flow Theory was created to prove that the mass media has not reduced the population to a mass of unthinking drones. Instead, Paul Lazarsfield, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet conducted a variety of social experiments, and their results showed that information does not directly flow from texts into the minds of the audience unmediated, but it's filtered through opinion leaders who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence. The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow. This diminished the power of the media in the eyes of researchers, and caused them to conclude that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpreted texts. This is sometimes referred to as the limited effects paradigm. The Users and Gratifications Theory (1948) suggests that media texts have the following functions for individuals and society; surveillance, correlation, entertainment, cultural transmission. This was expanded later on in 1974 with the added functions of media texts; Diversion, Personal Relationships and Personal Identity. The Reception Theory extended the concept of an active audience further, in the 1980's and 1990's a lot of work was done  on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognized codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means.

Costume.

'The Last Exorcism' is a 2010 American found footage horror film directed and edited by Daniel Stamm. I decided to watch this film to gain some inspiration and costume ideas for mine and Cassies main antagonist.
For our main protagonist, instead of challenging costume conventions of a typical Horror, me and Cassie decided to study how female antagonists are portrayed in Horror films, and we decided that the best costume idea, was the classic white gown, covered with blood and dirt. The white gown is used on several antagonists in films such as the last exorcism  the ring and the grudge. Therefore due to it's frequent use in horror films, the white gown is associated, by the audience, with dark, female antagonists. The reason why it's such a popular item of costume is because the usual connotations

 of the colour white, is innocence,purity and sinlessness, and it helps contrast against both the dark stains of blood and dirt, and the characters horrifying facial appearance. It powerfully subverted the viewers expectations when it was first introduced into horror films, as the iconography of the white gown connotes to the audience a harmless child, when in fact, it shocked the audience more to find out that it was actually the antagonists costume. Making the antagonist look slightly approachable by cleverly using aesthetics is one of the greatest achievements in horror film history. Initially my main thoughts on the antagonists' were to use dark coloured and rag-like clothing, and to contrast against this, use light coloured clothing on the protagonist. Now, after further studying classic horror conventions, i now may have to reverse that idea. Cassie and I were considering using a pastille blue colour for the protagonists dress as we feel it has a virtuous and harmless nature it can also represent sky and a sense of freedom which is soon to be taken away from her by the antagonist when she is trapped and murdered.

As you can see here, the protagonist, unaware of the antagonists presence, is dressed in a simple gown, and it contrasts against the antagonists attire. In this screenshot, the main character and potential victim of the assailant, is a naive and angelic figure, and this will make the audience feel much more sympathetic towards the character.

After this research, Me and Cassie have decided to change the costume, in order to match these horror conventions and therefore, we will be meeting the expectations the viewer will have, and they will then recognize that our short film is a horror.

Equipment Testing.

Cassie and I tested the equipment to familiarise ourselves with it. This would mean that we are efficient and organised on location so everything runs within our filming schedule.

Equipment testing presentation

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STORY-BOARD.

1) Within the first establishing long shot we are introduced to the protagonist she runs across the car park, slightly running as if she feels uncomfortable with her surroundings she wraps her coat tighter around her. The lights are natural with the sounds being diegetic with wind whistling to connote loneliness. Jump cut to  put her keys in the lock but drops them, jump cut to close up on keys on floor and her hand picking them up.

2) Jump cut to mid shot of protagonist unlocking her car and stepping within. As she pulls away long shot of Harriet standing on the side of the road as the protagonist drives past.

3) Zoom out and panning shot of the car leaving the car park it should be mostly or entirely empty to connote her isolation. The sound will be diegetic with the sound of the car pulling away. The lights again are natural.

4) Jump cut to a zoom shot of the car pulling up the long drive that was shown in the location shots it will then zoom out to show again a sense of isolation and desolation within the area she is driving. Sound will be ____________ and the lights will be natural. The car will slow to a stop and appear to breakdown.

5) Jump cut to a close up of her arm turning the key in the ignition the engine wont start. Jump cut to a long shot of her getting out of the car and checking the engine. The engine will be smoking.

6) Jump cut to mid-shot of protagonist on her mobile phone, jump cut to close up of phone with no signal.

7) Long shot of her running to the house the sound track again __________ lighting still natural. It will zoom in on her running towards the house and the zoom will follow her as to represent her being followed or haunted by harriet. A jump cut will then show a shot of her running towards the house through a window giving achieving voyeurism.

8) Jump cut to long shot low angle, of the house showing it is imposing. The light will be natural and the sounds ______ the protagonist will walk up to the house.

9) Jump cut to mid shot of her knocking on the door of the house and entering. Sounds will be diegetic.

10) It will then go to  a jump cut of the previous shot of it being a low angle long shot of the house and the door will slam shut showing a sense of "no escape."

11) It wil then jump cut to a long establishing shot of the inside of the house within a room filled with old furniture and books showing age and a feeling of untouched history she will walk around looking with wonder, wide eyed.

12) A close up of her face with her eyes wide looking about frantically clearly feeling on edge and uncomfortable, she will shut out "hello?" until she is answered with running footsteps from another room .

13)  Jump cut to POV shot of her running around to face the door and the place of which she can here the footsteps coming from.

14) Jump cut to mid shot of behind the protagonist as she opens the door from which behind she heard the footsteps. Then jump cut to low angle of her descending the stairs she will be silhouetted by the light behind the door and again she will call out "hello?"

15, 16, 18) Jump cut to mid-shot of her walking towards a mirror showing her reflection within the mirror, she will turn around and it will be a POV shot of her looking behind  her. Then as it goes back to the mid shot of her looking back in the mirror but the reflection will have harriet behind her. Protagonist will scream and run out of the room.

19) Jump cut to high angle shot of her running back up the stairs. The high angle will give a sense of her being trapped within Harriets games.

20) Jump cut of her running passed the window while harriet looks within giving a sense of intrusiveness and intimidation.

21) Jump cut mid shot protagonist rushing into a room to try and hide from Harriet.

22) Jump cut to POV view shot of her backing away from the door as the foot steps walk backwards and forwards, the camera zooms in as they walk finally to the right, and no more shadows, sound __________

23) POV shot of her hand reaching for the door handle, jump cuts between close up of her face scared and wide eyed and POV shots and opens the door.

24) Jump cut to shot reverse shot of POV with her looking both ways down the corridor, left, right and left again. Upon the last look Harriets face will be there.

Black Out.

Audience Interaction.

Me and Cassie went out and interviewed our target audience, in order to establish what conventions they might look for in a horror and what are there favorite aspects about that particular genre. Interviewing our target audience was extremely beneficial, and with this constructive feedback the planning and preparation for our horror film will be a lot easier, and will guide us towards a higher quality of film.

"I like horror films because: They raise my adrenaline levels, they can have hidden satirical messages and because they have gore!! Some of my favourites include Paranormal Activity, Saw, The Unborn, Shaun of the Dead, Alien"

"Horror films offer the auduence a variety of emotions; digust, fear, horror and sometimes exhiliration. For this reason amongst others i prefer horror as a genre and the variation in different plots, depending upon the sub-genre. I love the thrill, suspense and adrenaline rush. I prefer older horror films such as the Exorcist and the Omen as they appeal more to me and concentrate more on psycholoigal human defects."

"I love the adrenaline rush you get from watching horror films, and the victims in the films... you just want to scream at them! However i do not like the blood, guts ect. But i do liek the supernatural stuff, and i also like the "based on a true story" horror films such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

"I like horror films because they are scary and rise my adrenaline. They put me on the edge of my seat and have me hooked. I love the effects of strobe lighting in horror films and the blood and gore! I also love the horror films that have a psychological effect on your afterwards and make you feel like it's going to happen to you."

Location Shots.

These are the shots for our second location, the abandoned mansion. Obviously when we actually film there will be no cars, and the whole film will be filmed at night. My particular favorite shots are the fifth and seventh photo's below. The use of overgrown vegetation over the road, and on the wall outside of the mansion really signifies to the audience that the are is well and truly abandoned, and it makes the viewer question why the area is abandoned...

Location shots

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Risk Assessment.

Tripping over wires, trailing on the floor.
Solution- Tape them down to the ground, and beware of there whereabouts. 


The equipment getting wet.
Solution- Eat and drink away from the equipment. If it starts to rain, use an umbrella and rain-cover sheets to keep the equipment protected from water damage.


General car risks
Solution- keep at safe speeds, obey the speed limits, wearing seat belts. Make sure there's no eating and drinking in the car, litter could fall under the brake pedal and create a potential risk. Ensure petrol isn't exposed to a naked flame.


Falling in the river
Solution- keep a safe distance away from the river. Also ensure that the actors can swim.


A bare bulb/ naked flame, causing the curtain to catch fire
Solution- Keep potentially dangerous equipment away from flammable material, such as curtains and furniture.


Falling over and landing on car keys
Solution- ensure there are no potentially dangerous objects on the floor that our actors could fall over.


Dropping props and equipment.
Solution- Ensure the giant framed mirror and equipment is carefully handled.






Equipment List


In order to have a sense of clarity and organise our thoughts Cassie and I have created an equipment list to ensure we have all the desired and needed props, costumes and camera equipment needed to make our filming successful. We collaborated a list of items we feel  we need but if we need anything more then we will adjust the list as necessary.

Equipment:
Video Camera
Tripod
Camera
Car
Car Keys
Macs
Editing Software
Mobile Phone
Escot House
Long Mirror

Costume:
Josie must be in pale pastel colours or white to signify the connotations of innocence and purity. Her makeup will be minimal to show her natural face.
Harriet must dress in dark colours, preferably black or charcoal grey, her makeup will be heavy, and I will experiment with different shades and types of makeup. This will show her "unnatural" which can be seen to have a deeper meaning of her being an unnatural being.

Props:
The props we use must all fit in with the sense of age such as the locations within the house must be rooms that have been relatively untouched.
Ideas for background props are things such as china dolls, rocking horses, and old books. The codes that are signified by these props are a sense of history or "unloved" possessions. This can directly related to the background of Harriet and show she was once a loving child, but is now tormented and haunts this house.

Short Film Horror Analysis and Criticism.

The short film horror LOVEFIELD, is an excellent example of a horror, as it has the text book conventions and characteristics that are known to, and recognised by the audience. The key expectations that need to be met, in order to pleasure the audience's needs, are plots that involve death, fear of an antagonist or opposing force.

Screenshot 1. Establishing shot and title. The editing in this scene is a simple fade technique, to establish the setting. The title LOVEFIELD is clearly shown in the middle, with capital letters and white font. Capital letters are always used in film posters for horrors, as they want it to really jump out and catch the readers attention, the title 'LOVEFIELD' however is slightly disconcerting, as you don't expect a horror to have a name that connotes
happiness and a different genre entirely. This, however, was intentional as the producer of this piece of media text is trying to confuse the viewer, as the story is just about a woman giving birth, whilst using typical conventions of a horror to connote a different story entirely to the viewer. One of the connotations that is used to manipulate the audience in this opening scene is the simple sound of wind blowing, it makes the viewer feel isolated and alone, much like many protagonists in typical horror films. The other connotation is the plain and boring colors used, and the natural and slightly weak lighting, making the setting look austere. A high angle shot, used to look over the fields and establish the setting.
Screenshot 2. The camera then sinks slowly down into the wheat. Editing fades into different shots of the head-height vision, of the wheat field. The camera position is held at head height, and pans around, almost like a P.O.V shot of someone looking around. This connotes to the viewer the feeling of being alone, which is a typical feature of a horror because it's a more personal look into the setting, and subsequently making the audience more scared, as it adds tension and suspense. The depth of field is mainly focused far away, and the panning follows which way the wheat is moving, making it seem to the viewer that there is a presence in the field. As the camera pans at a low height out of the field, there is some diagetic sound of a sign, 'creaking' in the wind. Camera follows the sign upwards, to then reveal a black crow, an animal which is a signifier for death and horror, and the sound of the crows squawk is added to the diagetic symphony is the wind blowing and the swinging sign, simply horrifying. Camera closes up on the crow as it disturbs the dead silence of the area with it's piercing high pitched squawk.

Screenshot 3. Several cuts from the close up of the crow, to the wheat field, where the depth of field is reduced and focused to near the camera. A violin is being played as non diagetic background music, another typical horror convention that creates tension and suspense. The camera then pans across, the diagetic sound of a mobile phone 'beeping' gradually increases in volume until the camera reaches a close up shot of a dropped mobile phone. This prop is used to connote that an event has taken place that has forced a character to obviously drop the item, which then make the viewer assume that something/someone is chasing that said character.

Screenshot 4. Various other props enter the screen as the camera pans left, using depth of field to focus on items such as money, handbag and keys. There is a quite, crying shriek from a female character (not on the screen) and then as a hand reaches down and grabs hold of the grass, but then soon slips away, the scream and cries of agony get louder, connoting that the female character is in pain. Camera continues to pan left, as a pair of woman's underwear is displayed on screen, connoting that perhaps a sexual assault is being committed, terrifying and disgusting the viewer (shock and awe). The foot then begins to shake violently, due to the pain the woman is experiencing. As the non diagetic sound of the violins return, they slowly build up to an intense climax, and then silence as the foot stops shaking and remains perfectly still on the ground. The viewer now assumes that the woman is dead.

Screenshot 5. Violins are then used for sharp, piercing dissonance as (what we can only assume) a male, bloodied hand pierces a knife into the ground next to (what we can only assume) the victim. Violins and crow squawk, now used to create tension as the hand leaves the knife, and the camera gradually moves upwards the male figure, costumed in jean overalls and a white tank top and a trucker hat, connoting that he is a farmer or the negative slang term 'hill-billy'. A skull tattoo is revealed on his arm, whilst the camera establishes his appearance, obviously this connotes to the viewer that he is a dangerous man.

Screenshot's 6,7 and 8. The tension builds, as the male character turns around and runs to the car. The diagetic sound of the crows caw becomes more frequent, so does the non diagetic sound of the violins in the background. The editors used quick jump cuts in this particular moment in the film, in order to connote urgency and panic. Strategically, the camera never reveals what the character face looks like, as in many classic horrors, the antagonist doesn't have a face. In films like Halloween and Scream,
the antagonist wears a mask, and in horrors like The Grudge and The Ring the female antagonists face's are covered with long, black wet hair. Close ups on the hands, to connote urgency and panic.






diagetic violins speeds up, as the (assumed) antagonist grabs a blanket and runs back into the field to the (assumed) body of the victim. Faster
                                                                            jump cuts are still being used.


Screenshot 10. Jump cut to low angle shot next to the body. Non diagetic and diagetic sound still loud, with constant jump cuts to the close up of the crow.

Screenshot 11. P.O.V low angle, intimidating powerful figure looking down at the victim. Covers the camera with blanket. Darkness. Jump cut to crows head, waiting for the caw to occur, gets the audience in a state of high anticipation and tension, then................

Screenshot 12. "It's a boy!!" Lighting is increased, connotes happiness and the mood has now changed as the narrative is now partly established. Cheerful violins now playing as non diagetic sound.

Long shot of setting, police car pulls up. The narrative is now fully established.

The narrative is fairly simplistic and definitely not the stereotypical horror narrative of an evil antagonist trying to hunt down/kill a scared, innocent protagonist. The genre conventions of horror, help disguise the narrative and divert the viewers expectations by creating signifiers that make the audience think that the narrative is something else entirely. The institution behind this short film, looks like a small budget, production, that could possibly just be filmed for a small arts evening or some other similar occasion. The quality of the footage is surprisingly good, considering it's a product of 'Matt Ratt Productions' and they are a small filmography company that have only created three short films in the past.

I think it's very clever how the divert your expectations of the narrative in this film, with all the typical horror conventions and connotations like the diagetic/non diagetic sounds, the good use of costuming for the antagonist that suggests he is a rough individual, with his dirty overalls, scuffed work boots, sweat stained tank top and skull tattoos on his arm. My only criticism of this film is the fact that they showed the supposed, antagonists face half way through the film. I think it would have been more effective if they limited the amount of 'face-time' with the antagonist, and focused more on the protagonist as a typical horror makes the audience feel sorry for the victim, it never lets the audience get personal with the assailant. 

Initial Narrative.

Using low key lighting, little dialogue, shadows and mirrors we felt we could create the enigma and terror that would hook our audiences to their seats. Our narrative so far is:

Scene One
We meet our protagonist in the car park of her workplace, she will appear isolated by the use of pathetic fallacy as she will be by her car in the heavy rain and diagetic sounds of thunder will rumble around her. She will fumble with her keys, dropping them as to give her a relatable universality. Our audience will therefore feel more attached to her. She will be blonde and wearing white to connote a sense of innocence as purity. This effective use of costume is used in the film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock In the opening scene in that link we see Marion in her white underwear and afterwards white clothing so show she is innocent. Thereafter she steals money her costume changes to darker colours to display her corruption. This use of costume I will consider when dressing my own protagonist to connote successfully my characters personality. The car park of her workplace will be deserted bar her own car, giving a further sense of isolation. She will ring her boyfriend to tell her she is on her way home from work and is going to take a shortcut because of the rain. This sets up why she is in the car park and why she takes an alternate route home. The sounds will be diagetic at this point, using rain and thunder and no other traffic or people should be heard. This reestablishes her loneliness and isolation. We will use a pan shot to establish the scene and thereafter mid-shots and long-shots of her to show her costume and the connotations of it will be established subliminally by this. We will use continuity editing to give a natural realism to the piece and therefore, again, a universal appreciation. The lighting will be dark, shadowed to create an enigmatic feel to the film.

Scene Two
Within this scene it will be pan shot of an entirely rural area, and her headlights will be seen in the distance, the rain will still be heavily pouring down and thunder bellowing in the sky, her car is seen to suddenly stop and a zoom will be used to focus in on her car, then a jump cut will give an extreme close up of her turning the keys and nothing happening. This will be accompanied by tense music to give the audience an instant sense of eeriness and tension. She will then get out of her car shown by a long shot of her, and go round to her bonnet and look at the engine. Resigning to her cars failure she will pull out her mobile and there will be the sound of no signal. She will look around her shown by a point of view shot, the nearest shelter being an abandoned mansion of Escot House. Another long shot is shown of her running towards the house in search of  a phone. The lighting will be dark and the house appearing to be empty. These shots will establish and reaffirm her isolation in the rural area and the soundtrack will be used to create a sense of shear tension and uneasy emotions in the audience. The music in the previous link to Psycho shows very effective uses of soundtrack with the use of violins playing. This use of violins is used in the iconic shower scene of psycho, within that link the scene is shown will and without the music showing the absolute importance of music to create the desired atmosphere.

Scene Three
We will use a low angle long shot to establish the mansion to give an intimidating impression to the mansion, the rain will appear to be isolating the house even more so as it will drown out noises from within the house the audience will instantly feel gripped as they enter the house with the girl. when the door is closed, it should be closed with a defining thud as if you symbolise her not being able to escape its clutches. The music should be a cello sound often used on the TV show "true blood" which is used effectively to create a pessimistic omen to the scene. The lighting should be dark as to create a sense of evil or wrongness associated with the colour and lighting.

Scene Four
Josie will call out if anyone is home and will hear running footsteps in the basement. She will go to investigate calling out "hello?" with no reply. She enters a basement filled with dust and sheets over everything but a long mirror. She walks toward the mirror reservedly and stares into it. We will use a shot reverse shot to show this scene of Josie looking into the mirror seeing nothing, then a shot of Josie looking around and then as she swerves around to look back into the mirror Harriet will be standing behind her staring. Harriet will be in black, with dark eyes, dark hair and a slightly mocking smile on her face as if to show her torturing intentions with Josie. The lighting should be candle light if possible to give a flickering and shadowed effect as though all the shadows around her are moving giving more sense of unease. She will exit the basement.

Scene Five
The next long tracking shot will be alongside Josie running down a corridor in the near dark. As she runs past one of the windows harriet will be outside it with a hand on the glass. I spoke about the use of mirrors and windows within my mood board. I think the use of someone staring through a window is very intrusive and will make the audience feel goosebumps as they imagine this happing in a situation they can relate to. Josie will not notice Harriet there which gives dramatic irony to the piece as the audience know that Josie is not free from her but she continues to run deeper into the house. Josie will stumble across a door and rush in as to protect herself from Harriet.

Scene Six
A mid shot will show Josie backing away from the door as shadow will appear under the door of feet and then the shadow will leave with the sound of running feet down the hallway. The room will have china dolls and a rocking horse typically associated with scary films as I described previously in my mood board. Again the lighting will be low key and create a sense of tension as the footsteps are heard. The sound should be silence all bar the diagetic sounds of footsteps running. There is still a sense of unease as we hear nothing but sounds of Josie respiring and slowly creeping forward, as to raise tension, and opening the door.

Scene Seven
Again a shot reverse shot will be used here to give the jump when Harriets face appears. it will also be a point of view shot as Josie looks to her left down the corridor and then down the right and then as she looks left again Harriets face will be there. This will be end of the film and it will go black as to leave a cliff hanger and the audience guessing at what happens to Josie. There will be some intense music for this final shot, ending either very high pitch or very low pitched violins or cello to create the negative, tense atmosphere. The lights will be low key and sparingly dim.

Brief.

I've decided to change from short film thriller, to short film horror. The two genres are sometimes closely related, so I decided to pair up with another media student, who created a horror genre mood-board. Together we have created a narrative, that contains the essential elements and conventions of a horror, and also some conventions of a thriller that will keep the viewer in high levels of anticipation and excitement.

 

My Thriller Short Film Moodboard: Genre Theory.

 For my Thriller mood board, I based all my research and information around the genre, instead of brainstorming ideas for the narrative. I began my presentation by defining and explaining what a thriller is, and i wrote it on the bottom of the the title but because the quality of the picture is quite poor, i will type it out. "Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds of thriller. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action adventure thriller, medi-evil thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller. The list goes on and on with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this opening to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics. But what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground it the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing it's job.'

 Because i chose a short film instead of a music video, i will have to do a film poster and a film review. I have taken some examples of contemporary thriller films from a a variety of sub genres, such as horror thriller (The Crazies), mystery-crime thriller (Shutter Island), action/adventure thriller (Limitless) and psychological thriller (Black Swan). My narrative is going to be a gang-violence related horror thriller, with scary, intimidating looking characters that chase after a main protagonist. So I'm going to be focusing on more thriller-horror conventions for my film poster, and in my film review i will be pointing out the recognisable thriller conventions.

 I found a thriller short film on YouTube called strangers, and I took screenshots of it and turned into a step-by-step storyboard, and i picked out all the key conventions and ideas behind the short-film.
In the establishing short, a lone man gets on a train, immediately connoting that he's in an urban environment, which is a typical setting for a thriller. The train is quite poorly lighten, creating a lot of shadow and this therefore creates a lot of intrigue and suspense, another typical thriller convention. The two shots of the newspaper and the man holding the Jewish star necklace defines the characters, by using simple codes that the audience can recognise. Looks are shared between the two characters, creating a lot of racial tension.

Then the antagonists are then introduced and recognised, as the skin headed group of men spray paint a swastika on the Muslims newspaper. Tension, suspense, excitement and intrigue is present in the audience. A fast-paced chase scene is then quickly introduced and the Jewish man and the Muslim are then running away from the Nazi's, with typical thriller camera work, shaky and fast editing that connotes urgency, and then they narrowly escape, by swiftly moving through opposite train doors, and they then go their seperate ways.

What makes this video so succesful and an amazing short-film thriller is the fact that not a word is said throughout the whole video, tension and fear are just implied through the use of music and camera work such as the extreme close up on the faces so the audience can really see the emotions and reactions of the characters. I want my short-film to be the same as this, the non-use of speech is so powerful in this video, and it makes the sudden escape so much more exciting. In my shortfilm, I want to use this same approach to film making, so i won't concentrate on speech but music, and camera work that can all imply fear, urgency and tension etc..

So this part of my mood board was focused on possible narrative settings, i already have some ideas on where i would like to shoot my short-film. Because i live in exmouth, i know where a lot of narrow alleyways and rough urban enviroments can be located, and they would be perfect for a get-away or confrontation with the enemy scenes. All my footage will be shot at night and in quite contricted spaces. Every succesful thrilller takes place in an urban environment and problems usually start to escalate at night-time, as the darkness and simple street lighting connotes mystery and a lot of suspense, so shooting my footage in Exeter and Exmouth at about nine o clock onwards, will be perfect for my short thriller.

Film-Noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas that were usually used in the 1940's and 50's crime films/crime fiction. Film Noir can have variable main protagonists, so you can take any character any character and face him/her into the plot. Usually policeman or ordinary citizens are introduced, and then lured into a life of crime. Film Noir isn't a distinct genre, but it has recognisable conventions. They are very similar to thrillers, or to be more precise, physchological crime thrillers, as they rarely have intense action and tense chase scenes, but they deal with mental and emotional struggles, as well as rare scenes of blood, murder and violence.

In order to prepare and brainstorm ideas for my ancillary task of creating a movie poster, I thought it would appropriate to include modern thriller movie posters, so i can pick out the key conventions of the specific sub-genres. The three film posters i am most fond of are 'The Crazies', 'Shutter Island' and 'Law Abiding Citizen'. I think that a heavy use of shadow and silhouettes would be an important element to include in my thriller film poster, as i'm mainly focusing on the psychological horror thriller. Initial ideas so far are to have the main protagonist centre front, with heavy shadowing so you can only see one half of the character, the shadowing stretching vertically

and covering half of the protagonist, who could possibly be in a running pose, I'm not entirely sure if i  Then in the background, will be a silhouette of a city landscape, with a line of character infront of it (the antagonists). These antagonists will be wearing dark clothing, so therefore their bodies will be more or less completely shadowed. I've recently watched a clockwork orange, and i have a slight obsession with the masks they wear, and i really want to try and incorporate masks into my film. So i may or not may not use frightening in the background, and that's the only visible aspect of the evil characters. I'm going to do some sketches of possible poster options, i'll include masks but it's not a definite idea.

I created a short list of Sub-Genres, so i pick out
possibilities for my own short film. The thriller genre has so many sub-genres, it's difficult to choose. Even though this opening to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics, I decided to narrow my choices down to either horror thriller or psychological thriller. I decided to choose both. A horror psychological thriller won't be hard to do, as there are so many recognisable conventions that can be used together to make a great short film. 'Strangers' had elements of both, although it was more psychological thriller than horror thriller.