The Pitch

Initial ideas

Kid drinks an energy drink – monster or something and basically where it is made it is next to an experimental company for health problems and they create something called serum 707 and basically the company (same company who produce monster) accidently put serum 707 in the drink and then the kids starts to go insane and start’s to go on a killer rampage.

Opening Sequence

The opening sequence shows an establishing shot of the woods and the guy is just sitting cross legged just looking forward. Then suddenly another person is walking in the woods and his eyes follow them. He then creeps behind them and then the titles will display.

The unique selling point to our film is perhaps that we delve into the mind of someone who is insane.

The main character would be a young adult, around 25 year old male, who works at an old people’s home. He acts in a very secret way and every month goes out into the woods and the first person he sees he kills, as he sees them as trespassers. Then one time on when he goes out to the woods he gets caught and followed.

Desired Actors

We are thinking that Norman Reedus would be a great actor to play the serial killer, as he has played roles in which he has been secretive, like Daryl Dixon in the Walking Dead.

As well as a male actor’s we would like to introduce a female character into the film however we was thinking Jennifer Lawrence as from Hunger Games she could show survival skills if she would be deep in the wood’s / forest she could show skills on how to survive.

Inspiration

A film that has inspired me personally is the silence of the lambs, as the opening sequence is also set in the woods and it uses some great camera angles and music along with it. Also, Anthony Hopkins’ performance as Hannibal Lecter is a great showing of a serial killer and has inspired the character we have created in the way he acts.

 Unique Selling Point

 Another unique selling point to the film is that we wouldn’t give too much of the storyline away at the first 3 minutes, however we would make it so thing’s wouldn’t be expected which would make the audience surprised and might want to watch more.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Representation Feedback - I would like ot see more detailed research into the genre you are studying (horror) What are the stereotypical characters, give examples from each and think in depth about representations in horror.  

Audience Feedback - Some decent secondary research - but I would like you to drill deeper please. Look at the BFI Statistical yearbook 2013 and look at which age group liked your genre, which gender it appeals to etc. screen grab some graphs etc and broaden this research out. We will also be doing some theory to add to this post. This should help you move into a level 3/4.

Genre Feedback - This is excellent targeted feedback Joe. You have tailored your research to find influences that you can incorporate into your own work. This is at a level 3 at the moment - but I would like you to add some history or the genre into this poet to improve further.

Representation

Representation

Representation is how characters and places are depicted. It is usually something that has already been presented in media. Therefore characters are often represented with stereotypes so that the viewer can have initial expectations of how the character will act. There are seven areas of representation:- age, regional identity, sexuality, gender, physical ability/disability, ethnicity and class and status.

In the Silence of the Lambs, gender and age are represented in the opening sequence. We are introduced to a female character in the woods initially, which the viewer will consider vulnerable. This is due to stereotypes in thriller and horror films which normally depict a young female as the victim. However, the viewer will learn to find that rather than be a damsel in distress, she is the protagonist. The writer of the novel, Thomas Harris, and the writer of the screenplay, Ted Tally, may have considered the audience positioning and purposely changed their expectations to unnerve them and build tension.

In contrast, Adventureland shows the representation of age. It begins at a party, which is stereotypical for teenagers. This film stays true to the stereotype, and this may be because it is set in 1987 and because the audience may be unfamiliar to this time, they may have to rely on stereotypes to keep them engaged.

In night of the living dead, gender is used initially, with the voice over in the car showing a female screaming, however we find this to be just teasing from the person she is in the car with. This is representation of the common role of damsel in distress and is used to create tension.

There are also certain stereotypes in terms of characters in different genres. Horrornews.net suggests that the most stereotyped character is the loner. A person always average looking dressed differently. They are always ignored and pushed away and is often very cynical. Also, the redneck is a character that is often the one the audience cheers for. He has a thick southern accent and often has a spectacular death. The non-believer is the one who is non-religious. They are usually the first character to die if there is no black guy.

In our film, we will focus on age. Our character will be quite young to show vulnerability. Most of our dialog will occur inside the head of the protagonist and this is to show how our character is quite oblivious to the outside world and to show a disconnection between him and those around him. This will also be emphasized through his body language.

Audience Research

Audience Research

The target audience for our film is 16 or over. This is because our genre is a horror film, and a convention of horror means that some sort of gore and violence will need to be in it. Our film will be unsuitable for very younger viewers as it deals with themes such as murder. Our film is also targeted more at the older viewers as there is not too much violence that would entice the younger viewers. Instead there is a deep story with a huge twist. 

According to Val Morgan Cinema Network, 37% of horror movie audiences are between 18-24. Naturally, as a result of this figure, many horror movies will target this age range, as it is the one that will bring them the most money in the box office, and our film is no different.

There are some cases that films get a higher age rating than requested by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). BBFC director David Cooke said that around 10% of films each year which come in with a particular category request end up with a higher one that they asked for. This means that in order to get a high audience, some horror films still have to monitor the amount of gore they involve in the film.

The BFI statistical yearbook has some interesting statistics in terms of audience. It shows that 42% of people in the UK who went to see The Woman in Black, a horror/thriller hybrid starring Daniel Radcliffe, were between 15-24 years of age. This shows that the common audiences for horror films are adolescence and young adults. In terms of gender significance, there was a fairly even split for The Woman in Black, with 44% male and 56% female. In terms of the Top 20 Films of 2012, The Woman in Black was the most popular horror film, at 14th place, which grossed £21.3 million in the Box Office. It was however 4th in Top UK qualifying Films. It is also worth pointing out that this was an independent film, and therefore perhaps had less resources than most other movies in the box office.In the UK and Ireland in 2012, there were 45 Horror films accounting for £62 million of the box office. 45/647 shows that there is less demand for horror films than perhaps action films or comedies, however still acquiring £62 million at the box office shows that there is still a demand for horror films. 5.8% of the gross box office comes from Horror films.

Herbert Blumer, a sociologist, came up with the idea of mass audience. This is where people could use media to gain popularity with a mass audience. Hitler and Stalin were said to use mass audience by using the media to persuade people to follow their policies. Herbert Blumer said that mass audiences were dangerous. He said that mass audiences come from all walks of life, are an anonymous group of anonymous individuals and are loosely organised and cannot act within the unity of a crowd. There is little interaction between members of a mass. However, he is wrong, as mass audiences act in specific segments in a crowd. Demographics can be used to identify mass audiences in film. Demography is the study of human population. The five demographics in media are class, age, gender, interests and race. An example of how age could be split by demographics is:
- under 16
- 16-19
- 19-30
- 30-45
- 45-60
- over 60
Also, there is often a split in terms of the behaviour of the audience. Mainstreamers are 40% of the population who like belonging to a group, aspirers want esteem of others, succeeders already have status and control and reformers define themselves by their self-fulfilment.

We are thinking that the key media demographic that we are using is age. We believe our film will be best suited to the 16-19 and 19-30 age groups, as these are the ages most similar to our characters and therefore the audience can relate to them. 

Task 2.3 Genre Research

Task 2.3 Genre Research

Our film is a Thriller-Horror hybrid in terms of genre. The conventions we have researched include adding a blue hue to the scenes. This is a convention of horror and really gives a cold feel to the film, however, to coincide with the setting of the forest we were thinking of making it a green hue, which is equally as cold, but is also in touch with nature. We also plan to use music that builds up tension and gets faster as it goes along. Another convention of horror we are going to use is the non-diegetic sound of voices inside the killers head. This will make the viewer scared and feel that there is more to the killer that meets the eye.

The setting of the woods is also a convention of horror. There are a number of horror films that use the woods as a setting, such as Cabin in the Woods (2012) and The Evil Dead (1981). It is an isolated location with little chance of rescue, meaning the audience will fear for the safety of characters involved.

A film that inspired us was The Silence of the Lambs, which is also set in the woods and uses some great shots that make it seem isolated and eerie. It does this with the use of music, as well as some unsteady camera work. The unsteady camera work is a convention of horror, as shaky cam is often a feature to represent fear and a race against time.  They make the shot dark despite it being daytime, which increases the fear of the viewer.

With the horror genre, costume choices should be considered, as they can symbolise certain emotions of the characters. For example, black usually represents mystery and red represents danger. A film that uses costumes to represent ideas in the film is The Dark Knight, a thriller-action hybrid, as the protagonist, Batman, wears black to show a hidden identity and also so he blends into the night sky.  In contrast, the antagonist, The Joker, wears purple, white, green and red, representing a clown to emphasize joking and irony. We can use this as inspiration when deciding what colors our characters can wear. Black represents mystery so that is something we are considering using in the film.

Camera angles are another convention of horror, with lots of high and low angle shots being used to increase tension and to show where control and power is in the scene. Low angle shots are usually used to show little power, but high angle shots show lots of power.

In terms of editing, we believe that our film should have few cuts and very long scenes. This will be used to build up to a reveal at the end. This is another technique used in The Silence of the Lambs, as the first shot is a massive 1 minute and 6 seconds. Our shots will be considerably less than this, but there will be infrequent cuts initially, building up to more cuts when the dead body is revealed.

In terms of sound, Horror films conventionally use volume changes from quiet to loud. This is done to provoke an emotional reaction from the viewer, to get them to ‘jump out of their seats’. We think we will initially start with silence, and then build up to very dramatic music at the end.  This is generally used in all horror films, as it provides the scare factor that they wish the audience to feel to really entice them into the film.

Horror films usually have a recognizable pattern in that it tries to terrify viewers. In many horror films, the antagonist will be the cause of the horror. This benefits the filmmakers as they can make a sequel with the same antagonist and it is likely to be just as popular. Examples of horror films with sequels are the Saw films and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. It's believed that the roots of filmed Horror began in the late 1700's with Gothic Horror, which saw settings such as dark castles, dungeons and forests being used. The term 'Horror'; however did not come into play until the 1930's. The post-war period to the 1950's was perhaps the most difficult time for horror films, with them all having a strict B-list in Hollywood, as opposed to A-list. In the modern era, horror films include various unique features due to the introduction of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI).The scale of horror films is a lot greater, with films such as World War Z dealing with themes such as post-apocalypse and pandemics.

Feedback - Miss Spencer

Well done Joe, you have produced some excellent analysis here. You have thought about the DISTINCT model of analysis and I really like the way you give a little synopsis of the film and director etc at the beginning.
This is a solid level 3 at the moment.

Now you need to move on and complete your Genre research.

Task 2.1 Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Task 2.1 Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Night of the Living Dead is a horror film made in 1990 and is a remake of the famous Night of the Living Dead film from 1968. It is directed by Tom Savini and stars Tony Todd and Patricia Tallman. It is about unburied dead coming to life and targeting human victims.

Like most films, Night of the Living Dead begins with the logos of the film companies that where involved in the production of the film. It starts with a fade from black. This editing could be used to represent the night time. The fade is suspenseful as we are waiting for what is revealed. The still camera shot shows the moon rising from the leaves. The fact that it is concealed by the leaves shows that it is hidden and then revealed, which could be representative of the dead, who come to life after being hidden.

The title is then revealed to the left of the screen, as opposed to the centre of the screen. This is to keep the moon clear, as there is nothing standing in its way, and if it represents the zombies, it could show the weakness of the humans trying to prevent the danger. The title is conflicting as it says night, but the text is light. This is irony that is also in the plot of the film, as only danger are the people already dead. The title is capitalised, which emphasizes the danger that is proposed in this film, as it is almost 'shouting' the title to the audience. There is then a fade back to black. This fade could show the change in time scale from this shot to the next, which is set in the day.

The post title shot is an establishing shot of a road. The foreground is a very plain field with freshly cut grass, which shows little danger. In contrast, the background shows a dark forest that the viewer will subconsciously link with danger, with it being a setting that is a convention of horror. The sound is diegetic at this point with the sound of people talking. It was initially non-diegetic as it began before the shot. We know these are people in the car as the sound gets quieter as the car is further away from the camera.The car is white, which also contradicts the title of being night and it means we no longer associate the people with the dark. 

The next shot is a low angle shot and this time the car comes closer to the camera. The low angle shot increases the importance of the people in the car as the viewer looks up to them. The shot after this, however, is a high angle shot of the car entering a graveyard. This immediately changes the viewers perception as the people in the car now seem vulnerable.  The camera initially showed the gates but then tracked to follow the car and subsequently, the graveyard. There are dark trees in the foreground now which links with both the titles and also the forest in the background and the viewer expects danger. The background looks misty on the alternative route to the one the car is taking which could show that they have narrowly avoided the dangerous situation. The graveyard is another convention of horror films, as it is a commonly used setting in horror films.

Throughout the whole of the opening scene, there is eerie and mysterious non-diegetic music playing. This is used to keep tension with the viewer and to make them not feel entirely calm even though there is nothing dangerous shown in the opening scene.