Main Task Locations, Cast, Costume and Props

Locations:

Jasmine's House
I have decided to set the basis of my film in a house. For a psychological horror, this is a main convention which I feel will allow the audience to put themselves in the characters positions. This will also create realism, something that every film must include in order to create a film of a professional and sophisticated level. I am going to also use a few other locations, so the audience do not get uninterested in where the action is taking place, e.g. flashbacks, but the majority of footage will be found inside of the home. Also,the idea of using a home is a place my target audience would normally associate with security and comfort because they will be living away from home, so the idea of a family home that presents scenes of terror and horror should unnerve them completely.

Cheney School (Drama Room)

Me and my partner thought it would be practical to film in school rather than out of school, this was because it would be more convenient, for e.g if we had any filming errors we wouldn't have to travel to a far location to shoot again. All of our film is based in this room because it presents a sense of homeliness.

Cast:

Leena Wilkes (Oria Malik)-Protagonist

For the character playing 'Leena Wilkes' , i have chosen one of my friends to act her below. As you can see she has pulled of a very upset and depressed look, i have planned for her to be wearing dark clothes to connoatate that she's not happy and jolly like her mum. She fits in with her role because she looks simple with no makeup and special hair done.

Maya Stone (Zahra Malik)- Protaginists Friend

This is our protagonists friend, who is a typical teenager, who likes her education and fashion. As you can see she doesn't look like a very mature neither very young teenager and pulls off a realistic look. 

Maya Stone (Zahra Malik)- Antagonist's Friend

 Alveena Wilkes (Elly) Protagonist's Mum

For the character playing ‘Leena's’ mother, I have chosen to use the actor below. With hair and makeup she is able to pull off a sophisticated look, where the audience can believe her to be a mother. She has a normal look which I think is important for the mother to have in my film and she also seems happy and joyful.  

Hair, Costume and Makeup:

For my main task have decided to go with a more natural look for my cast, i intend not using dramatic makeup and hair as the normal horror genre would use because our film needs to look realistic. If dramatic makeup is not used the audience are also then able to relate to the characters, making it scarier when they begin to put themselves in their position and understand the characters more well rather than the usual stereotype.  I also feel that in psychological horror films, you do not tend to see characters with overwhelming makeup; it is more subtle and realistic. I am aware that the makeup of the antagonist needs to look tired and tormented. I am going to try and achieve the look where by ‘Leena’ will look pale, but fresh faced, again reflecting a pure and innocent person, but also reflecting the fact that she is troubled and determined. 

‘Leena’ will be wearing a casual outfit consisting of skinny jeans and a dark blue jumper reflecting her young age and her innocence. Also, I think this will also reflect the stressful  side of ‘Leena’ as the dark colours will present a lone and boring life. I plan to dress the antagonists (Leena's) friend's outfit consisting of a red party wear top and black shiny jeans, this connotates she is happy and cheerful and not in the same position as 'Leena'.

I am going to have 'Leena's' hair straight and down, reflecting a young and girly person, but i don't want her to look perfect reflecting the fact that she has been neglected. I therefore think that she should look hard done by stress, and by having messy hair I believe that I can achieve this look, along with makeup and costume. The antagonists friend 'Maya', will have her hair long and straight as I think that this is a typically teenage girl hairstyle, this look  will allow the audience to appreciate her age and make it more believable to the fact that that she is a teenager. 

Props:

For my main task i only need a limited amount of props, these include:

Some school books that Leena Wilkes and Maya Stone are going to be working from

This is the book that our protagonists friend is reading, ans is really concentrating hard on her English Literature exams.

This is the book that our protagonist is supposed to be reading because she is depressed and isolated.

A TV and remote:

Makeup for the mum (Alveena Wilkes) person that scares Leena Wilkes when she looks into the TV:

Codes and Conventions (Psychological Horror)

In this post I am going to identify the codes and conventions that we have used in our psychological horror opening.

Production Company logo at the beginning: this is a typical convention in most film genres, including horror, to have the institutional information at the very beginning of the film. This typical convention in every film, helped our product seem more like a real horror film, and also draws audience attention because of the good reputation that our company –Clockwork Productions – has amongst horror fans.

Non-Diegetic Soundtracks: All horror films rely on music at the beginning to build up an atmosphere, we have also used this typical code and convention. A typical horror soundtrack would be eerie, jumpy and on edge, we have chosen to use a soundtrack that was pre-loaded on iMovie called 'Dragons Den', this soundtrack had an exact beat that went with our credentials. We did this, as not only did we want a sound that was haunting than scary, we wanted to convey the fact that our film is the most typical of psychological horrors because it was based in a house, and we wanted to build up the tension gradually.

Black and White Typography: we chose to use these two colours because; black is a typical convention of horror films, as the colour has connotations of danger and White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection. This gives the audience the message that this film is consisted of mixed emotion between characters. The style of the font for the title is also a typical horror style, and makes the genre obvious.

Typical House Location: A house is somewhere you would expect to feel secure, and most Psychological horror films, are established in a house which makes it one of the key codes and conventions we have used. Its links with the supernatural which makes it an ideal establishing shot to set the scene. However, we didn’t play it up as the typical convention it is in other horror films (in the dark) because the idea was to show the afterlife of the protagonist after her mum had died, and make it seem from the first shots that someone was watching over Leena Wilkes's House.

Types of Character: Our two characters, Leena Wilkes and Maya Stone are the typical characters you see in other horror films; the one who panics at the first sign of strange things, and the one who is disbelieving, and thinks everything will be fine.

Reaction Shot: This was included a lot when our protagonist kept seeing someone in the TV screen . This type of shot is used a lot in many horror films, as it creates tension and with reduced vision, the audience are on edge at the possibilty that something may be hiding.

Flashback. Flashbacks are used in quite a few horror films, as there is often a dark secret that gets out of hand, and can be a good way to unravel parts of the story, bit by bit, to create a sense of mystery. This is what we aimed to do with our flashback of Leena Wilkes and her mum in the past, this helped the audience understand where all this depression was coming from in Leena Wilkes.

Main Task Pitch and Feedback

Young, happy and full of life, but not for long. In her last year of university, Leena Wilkes loses an important part of her life. She now thinks she's alone.... But is she?

This is the pitch for our main task, it was originally "London, 2012. Jennifer Dawson has lost an important part of her life after a tragic accident. She now think's she's alone, but is she?" we decided to change it because we felt that it didn't give enough information about our main character and who she was. Also we thought that "London 2012" was not relevant enough in the story-line to put in the pitch. After our teacher had given us some criticism, we added "young, happy and full of life, but not for long" to give some background information on our character and to draw the target audience in, to make them wonder why she was happy, and not anymore? We also added an ellipsis to create suspense, and keep the reader interested.

Furthermore when we asked our class mates about our pitch they asked us the following:

• How will your target audience relate to this?

Our target audience is young adults, our pitch relates to our audience because our protagonist is a university student and most young adults will be interested in watching a psychological horror of their age group. 

• How does your sub genre fit in with this pitch?

We have related our pitch to psychological horror by adding an ellipsis to create that extra suspense and keep the audience in tact with the horror genre.

• Why would we pay to watch your film?

You should pay to watch our film because there aren't many psychological films that get released very often in Oxford and our film is also going to consist of  better genre horror conventions and not the typical conventions like "fake blood" and "predictable scenes".

The Ring- Does the Frequency of Cuts Relate to the Tension/ Excitement in a film Extract?

In our theory side of AS Media we were watching an extract from 'The ring'. After watching this extract we were analyzing whether the frequency of cuts relate to the tension/excitement in a film extract, we drawed a graph to clearly show whether this question was true or false. As you can see on the graph there is a line drawn in pencil, this was to show were i thought was most tension and were i thought there wasn't much when the line goes down. After doing this we watched the extract again and made a frequency table to assure ourselves how many cuts there were altogether by splitting it up into certain duration's within the film. From the data gathered we can conclude that the extract started off with a minimal number of cuts then increased and decreased one after the other until 1:46-2:12 minutes, this was the time duration when the number of cuts increased the most, this showed us that the frequency of cuts does relate to the tension/ excitement of this film extract because this is when the extract was building up in tension and excitement.  Another thing we saw in this extract was that there were some hidden images at the end between 2:11-2:12 that the audience would be unaware of in such a quick time, there are a total of 5 hidden images which also builded up the frequency of cuts and made tension. 

Target Audience

The target audience for my short film will be young adults aged 16-35 , i have chose this because the main characters in my main task are of similar age. This may terrify my target audience more as they may may feel as if they could be targeted against hallucinations or they might find they are in the same situation as Jennifer Dawson. Being a young female, myself, I know about the fear of being home alone when it's dark and. The disappearances and deaths of young girls has always been in the news, frightening young girls and parents.  

Psychological Horror

The type of sub genre that i am going to be using for my main task is Psychological Horror, this is based on horror fiction that relies on characters' fears and emotional instability to build tension. 

Psychological Horror films gnerally rely on the characters beliefs, fears and any hidden truths about the character or what they have done. Psychological Horror tends to involve ordinary people who tend to be the person subjecting the horror onto the charecters. The evil work of the character is not shown until the end when the story is fully established. 

An example film: 

An example film of Psychological Horror is Apartment 143 we chose this because it matched with our target audience of young adults and when we did out market research majority of people said they didn't find 'fake blood' and 'predictable scenes' scary in horror movies. This film doesn't include any of this, theres always the unknown in the next scene its not predictable of whats going to happen next and its not typical of the horror genre.

Other Example Films:

§  Eraserhead

§  The Strangers

§  The Thing

§  The Blair Witch Project

§  The Haunting in Connecticut

§  The Sixth Sense

§  Dark Water

§  The Unborn

§  The Exorcist

§  The Omen

§  Gothika

§  The Shining

§  The Others

§  Paranormal Activity

§  The Ring

§  Silent Hill

§  The Village

§  The Uninvited

§  The Haunting

Psychological Horror usually tends to follow a number of conventions:

•       The killer usually appears to be normal; there are not usually any usual physical signs that would identify the person as a killer, this is because they may lead an average normal lifestyle with no other possible reasons to point to the way that they are. 

•       Psychological Horror films will generally rely on the characters beliefs, fears, and any hidden truths about the character or what they have done.

•       Psychological horrors tend to involve ordinary people who tend to be the person subjecting the horror onto the other characters which often makes it difficult to identify who the killer is.  Very often the evil works of this character is not shown until the end or when the story of the horror is fully established.

•       They rely on the audience’s mind to create the horror effect, with less gore noticeable like in Slasher films where the film is heavily dependent on it to create effect.

•       In horror film trailers the audience rarely see the killers face, this helps to create an effect and mystery, but also increases the suspense in the film.

Market Research Interviews

In our market research interviews we interviewed teachers and young adults, our answers ranged from both groups, young adults had the most common answer when asked "What things in films don't scare you?", they said "fake blood". From this information we are not going to include fake blood in our main task. Whereas on the other hand teachers answers differed, this helps us when choosing our target market because young adults had more exciting and creative thoughts. These interviews we have undertook will help us when planning our main task, as we have got an idea of what scares people and what doesn't and we will look into the films people have said and figure out what we can change to make our main task successful in horror genre. The aspect of the interviews we will include in our main task will be codes and conventions of the horror genre in Saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Predator, this is because our target audience found these film most scary. We will also include painful death as this was another answer for "what is your greatest fear", we will do this by including a murder scene of a person getting killed slowly and painfully. 

Abba Mash-Up (Mr Stapley)

Main Task Script

Two girls doing homework (in drama room on the sofas)

Leena Wilkes: not concentrating on work, Maya Stone notices and asks what is wrong.

Leena Wilkes: denies that anything is wrong.

Maya Stone: I know you’re remembering your mum. Its  normal to miss her, I know how you feel etc.

Leena Wilkes: denies it again.

Maya Stone: what is it then, whats wrong?!?!?!?!?!?

Leena Wilkes: you might think im crazy but I feel like someones always watching me.

Maya Stone: are you crazy how can that be true!

Leena Wilkes: says trust me, I even hear him sometimes

Maya Stone: listen you’re going out of ur mind, but I have to go now. If anything does actually happen then call me.

Leena Wilkes: (sighs) I know you wouldn’t believe me.

Maya Stone: (exits the room)

Leena Wilkes: sits back down the tv turns on by itself, she gets scared, and she shouts for her friend.

Maya Stone: (Because her friend has just exited she is still outside the door and hears and immediately,  rushes back in and asks what is wrong)

Leena Wilkes: (nervously) the TV just turned on by itself!! I told u there was someone else here.

Maya Stone: don’t be ridiculous, wheres the remote?

Leena Wilkes: stands up in distress and says I don’t know!!!

Maya Stone: (sees the remote where Jennifer was sitting) "you were sitting on it!! That’s why the TV turned on!"

Leena Wilkes: no! it wasn’t there before?

Maya Stone: Yes Leena it was there, the remote is not magic, I know your mum is gone now but you need to stop acting crazy.. 

I have created a Wordle, which has analysed my key words in my script, as you can see the most important words are the protagonists name which is 'Leena Wilkes' and the protagonists friend 'Maya Stone', there is also 'remote' because the whole idea was a hallucination of seeing someone in the TV screen.

Analysis of the Opeining Sequence of "The Sixth Sense"

Click here to Watch The Sixth Sense Opening Sequence

Shot 1:

The titles in the opening credits of ‘The Sixth Sense’ suggest an ambiguous nature of the film. This is due to the idea that the credits gradually appear and are based upon two extremely prominent and almost ‘ghostly’ colours: black and white. The use of the colour white is what the titles themselves are written in and as the names progressively appear they then fade out again in order to convey a ghostly feeling. As the credits emerge on to the screen, a mysterious and hollow sound begins to play. The music echoes the credit titles as when a name fades away; the music gradually lowers and then becomes higher pitched again when another name appears. This idea is expressed through non-diegetic sounds as it is not a natural sound within the film. The music portrays a creepy nature which suggests that the film will be quite mentally forbidding. When the title of the film itself, ‘The Sixth Sense’, appears on the screen the music quickens and becomes more rapid and is then followed by a repetition of the title. This is a suggestion of either; a double meaning or seeing things on more than one occasion which may not seem clear at first.

Shot 2: 

Within the opening seconds of the film, a light bulb is directly seen through the use of a close up shot, a close up shot shows very little background and concentrates on the light bulb. The light bulb gradually lights up suggesting a possible relation to a specific character’s qualities. The idea that there is only one light bulb and not multiple suggests that one individual may be able to see things that nobody else can. Also the use of black background has connotations of mystery and the unknown. From this shot we can convey that it’s going to be a horror film because this slow motion of the light bulb lighting makes the audience feel uncomfortable.

Shot 3:

Olivia Williams appears in a medium shot with her husband, this gives us information about the costume, surrounding and body language. We can also see a ring in her finger, this tell us that she is married to Bruce Willis. The lighting in this shot is dark with minimal light; this shows us that the time of the day is at night, this again is a code of the horror genre because the dark has connotations of mystery and spookiness. There's also a shadow next to Olivia Williams which looks like there's some light coming from the point of view. From the broken window we can see that the house looks very isolated because there's trees surrounding it, this has connotations of being locked into the house with no escape. From their body language we can see that they are trying to run away from someone because they look tense and worried, also Olivia Williams is holding her hand in front of her mouth denoting she wants to scream but she can’t because she’s shocked of someone standing in front of her.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of "Halloween" .

Shot 1

In the beginning of the credits the audience is introduced to an image of a pumpkin, the camera movement slowly comes closer and closer to the viewer. In this frame the pumpkin has an equal size to the lettering, this is done to portray to the audience that the pumpkin is going to be a important part of the film. Further on it progressively takes over the whole screen and grabs the viewer’s attention automatically. The sound that is accompanying this frame is a non-diegetic sound of a piano playing creepy notes to create and build up tension furthermore into the opening Sequence.

The black background is contrasted with the use of orange on the writing and the pumpkin; from these codes and conventions the audience can tell it’s going to be a film about Halloween. The colour orange is a typical colour for Halloween as it has connotations of fright, terror and evil. The black background denotes mystery and emptiness. The the left side of the pumpkin seems to fade into the black background, making it seem secretive and unknown, the pumpkin has a smile carved into it which has connotations of spookiness. Pumpkins are made to be scary but it has a smile making it feel like a mixed emotion.

Throughout the opening sequence the candlelight in between the pumpkin is flickering, representing a ghostly flicker of lights turning on and off. It makes the audience focus on the features of the pumpkin and gives a glow to the lettering as there isn't any other lighting involved in this frame. 

Shot 2

This is a close-up shot of a young lady on a Halloween night, as you can see this close-up is used to emphasise her emotional state. The camera also zoom's in on her face to see specific detail, as you can see her face is covered in blood and there's hockey puck in her mouth, these signs could suggest that she's in a painful situation. We can also see that the girl is blonde and in stereo typical code and conventions this sign could suggest that she is vulnerable which could be the reason that she is portrayed in this way. Her facial expressions are mixed on one side from her eyes and eyebrow she looks like she need's help and she's trying to tell the viewer something, but because of the hockey puck she is not able to. On the other hand her dis portioned mouth suggests she is trying to scare everyone on purpose.

The colour scheme used in this frame are mainly different shades of oranges and reds, these colours have an overall meaning of horror fro example orange is the typical colour of Halloween which again links back to the name of the film Halloween, whereas red has connotations of blood, fear and death. Also there is quite ghostly effect with a glow from the lights highlighting the blood on her face, it fits in with the typical effect of telling a horror story at night.

The music in the background is non-diegetic orchestra music, it gives an intense beat and feel to the audience, it also helps builds up tension as we zoom in on the girls face. There are typical horror genre sounds used they consist of screechy-ness violins, these types of sounds are good to create a spooky atmosphere and to also build up tension as to what might happen in the next frame

Shot 3:

The opening of Halloween starts with a long shot, which establishes the building and the setting of this part of the film. Within this establishing shot we see that the time of day is night and everything is dark, this has connotations to the generic themes of a horror film, the darkness symbolises horror, mystery and fear. This works together with the non-diegetic music to create fearful tension within the audience. The sound switches from non-diegetic music, to diegetic sound which is dialogue. This use of diegetic sound over the establishing shot draws the audience into the film.

Analysis of the Opening Sequence of "Scream".

Shot 1

The first phase in the opening sequence is the title of the film 'SCREAM' in block capital white letters. These letters start stretched from the top and the bottom of the screen then gradually compress into the centre of the screen. When the title closes down it happens at a very fast pace and is joined with a non diegetic sound of a loud bang. This portrays a noise of a prison door slamming shut to make the audience fell enclosed and locked in, unable to get out, as if they are one of the victims in the film.

The colour of the title "SCREAM" is white at first, white has connotations of fear and innocence. Next the letters move into phase two where there is multiple non diegetic sound effect which includes; ringing of a telephone, a slow and normal heartbeat and screaming. This is another sign to show that the film is going to be scary. After this the sound effects carry on but the letters of 'SCREAM' become red. Red has connotations of death and danger. The change of colour occurs at the very start of the heartbeat sound effect, this is representing the heart beating in and out with the speed of the sound effect, as this is still going on there is also a very loud bang and screaming and also a slicing of what sounds like a large kitchen knife. The scream is used for when the girl (Cacey) has seen the knife that the killer is holding and the slicing is for when Casey is penetrated with the knife and its plunged into her chest. The beat of the heart reflects on the idea of the girl (Cacey) being murdered.

Shot 2

The main character of the opening scene in 'SCREAM' is  Casey (Drew Barrymore). A close-up shot is used of her chest and upwards giving us information about costume, mis en scene and facial expression. She is set to look like an innocent victim. She has short, bobbed blonde hair. She is always neatening her hair up which she does a lot of the time when she is flirting over the phone with the mysterious man. These codes and conventions are set so the audience know what sort of character she is and how to feel for her. Casey's typical features make her the perfect character for being a murder victim. Big broad blue eyes, small and slim with a sound of a soft, flirty voice which we hear and see when she answers the phone to the mysterious man. She is wearing a cosy long sleeved beige jumper with cuffs hanging over her hands, she is also wearing pale make-up. Her pale clothes combined with the colour of the house create a good contrast for a murder scene.

The colours that have been used to decorate the house are very pale and light. This makes it seem like there are not any young children that currently live in the house. The pale colours on the wall contrast with the large bookcase behind Cacey which is packed with loads of birght coloured books, mostly red. This could be an early sign that she is going to get murdered. 

Shot 3

The genre of this film is a horror film. The genre is introduced first of all, with a establishing shot used of the house, we can see from this shot that the house is located in a deserted. The effect of this is to set the scene and give an impression that someone outside the house is looking in. The house is also shown as being big, with large windows and no curtains, which tells us that anyone can look into the isolated house, especially at night and that's the time of day the film is starting.

In this shot there's not much lighting because its dark outside, darkness creates a sense of foreboding for the audience and makes them feel that there something too look forward to in the next shot. Sound is also effectively used in this brief scene with normal nightmare noises  but then suddenly a creaking sound cuts in. The camera pans downwards so the audience can see a partially moving swing hanging from the tree is causing this creaking sound by the rope rubbing against the branch. This shot alone begins to create more tension  as among the normal nighttime noises is this unusual creaking sound. It provokes thought in the viewer as to whether perhaps someone is hiding in the tree, or just has recently come away from the swing and is on route to the house. Wes Craven uses these small. but very effective elements to gradually scare the audience and build a sense of tension and suspense.

Shot 4

This is a mid-shot of Cacey, from this shot gives we gain information about the subject (Casey) for example her surroundings  costume and body language. This frame is also on a Eye Level angle so it seems to the audience that there actually observing the scene. In this frame Casey has a jokey expression on her face, as if she is not talking to the caller seriously. Also we hear a diegetic sound of her pulling out the knife which is another sign its a horror genre film.  

Preliminary Task- Evaluation Questions.

1. In what way does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products? 

In our preliminary task we use shot reverse shot. The camera views the action from the opposite side of the previous shot, during a conversation between Amna (Prisoner) and Sophia (Visitor), it gives the effect of looking from one face to the other so you can see body language and emotion. You also get a sense of whats going on within each shot. This Shot is used instead of using a long shot or close up  because with these shots you don't feel the same effect meaning its not very interesting for the audience. Real Media products also use shot reverse shot for the same effects and develop on the shots in more detail.

     2.  How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film represents people who have been bought up without biological parents and are put into prison for doing bad things because of how society has taught them to live.

     3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A media institution that may be interested in distributing our short film may be broadcasters advertising on teenagers in care or magazines to give an example of what its like to be in this type of situation. In an advertisement a company could use our short film and develop on it relating to the topic. In a magazine it would re-tell the film in text and pictures, making it clear for the audience to understand.

     4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The targeted audience for our media product are people who have the same situation or know someone that does. A young audience can benefit from this because they will get to know what its like to be in this situation and how to improve on these types of situations. An more older audience could also gain knowledge on how to help these poor teenagers and give them a better understanding of society and how to live life in a good way.

     5.  How did you attract/ address your audience?

We used our space very effectively to gain a knowledge of whats going on within the film, for example we used a lift for the prison cell were the prisoner (Amna) sat in the corner upset, the audience could tell by the next shot that it was a prisoner because the guard (Zahra) aressted her. Also in every single shot of our film your always wanting to know whats going to happen in the next shot, by the time we reach the conversation (Shot reverse Shot) the audience can clearly address the situation.

     6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt that producing a media product isn't as easy as i thought it would be, and especially for a 2 minute film it took us quite a lot of time to put it all together. There are many things you have to be aware of, for example: continuity errors, checking that the camera is fully charged, making sure your not shooting from the wrong angle. All sorts of technologies have to carefully construct their media product in order for film/advertisements to look realistic and effective. By the experience of producing this preliminary task our group have learnt to be aware of how much time we are given to produce our film and use our time effectively, and not leave everything at the last minute. When we construct our main task we will encounter all that we have learned and apply it to develop our skills and knowledge.

Preliminary Task

Nicki Minaj - Starships - Camera Movement

Shot Composition

Sebastian's Voodoo Doll- Camera Angles