Final Cut - Sycamore Street, 2010

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


As we have chosen to make our film within the slasher genre we have followed the conventions from a wide array of texts. In our film opening we portrayed our scream queen, young attractive teenage girl in casual clothing, however we went against the usual stereotype of the blonde haired scream queen and actually created a counterype by using an actor with red hair.
We tried to use the typical setting of many teenage slasher films by having it set in a nice quiet suburb where we could quite quickly change the equilibrium through the first attack.
Something that may have challenged the conventions of many Slasher films was our use of diegetic jazz music within the opening scene, this was done as our film begins with adults and we were trying to appeal and reach a more mature audience as well as the typical youth audience. However during the attack/frenzy sequence of our film for our non-diegetic soundtrack we tried to use the more common high pitched tones and eerie music associated with the Slasher genre, like in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
We also tried to use the convention of a false scare by creating tension and making our scream queen think she is going to be attacked or feel threatened and then her pet dog runs out, which then puts her and the audience at ease and then suddenly after the real threat is appears.
We also looked at the visual effects in many David Lynch films and how we could enhance small details like the lighting of a cigarette or the pouring of champagne, we tried to develop this by getting an extreme close up of the flame igniting the tip of the cigarette.
We also used a poin-of-view shot to make it look as though the antagonist was looking at our scream queen through the window, like a stalker shot adding to the suspense of the film.
We tried to challenge the convention of many horror films by having our title credits and font in an eerie, gothic font and we went for a more comic style, as a sense of juxtaposition and add some narrative engima, however arguably this is used in many slasher films like in Scream.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opens with a dinner party, and the men in dinner jackets and the ladies in cocktail dresses as we felt these were strong signifiers our characters were middle-class, also they are drinking champagne and listening to jazz music. These are the parents and as our protagonist in the opening of this film is a teenage girl the parents are represented as the "bad guys" and negatively and our protagonist is the rebellious teenager and yet represented in a more positive light. She is from the middle-class family and trying to go against it, whether that makes her a different class is however polysemic.
Our antagonist, the masked killer, is representing criminals and perhaps a lower class of society though clearly the gender, ethnicity, etc. is hidden from the viewer. As the film is set in the North of England our antagonist could be representing the new stereotype of the chav.
All of the characters are caucasian and English, there is no representation of ethnic minority groups, this goes with the idea of us creating the stereotype of an English middle-class suburb without a diverse population.
Also the characters we portray are hetrosexual, there are two married couples, and we try portray that our protagonist is from a typical family, mother and father, pet dog, big house in a suburb and this is what she wanting to rebel against.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As our film tells a story within those two minutes it could perhaps be used as a short, or an advert. As it is showing a young girl being attacked so close to her home, it could be an awareness advert preventing crime especially against children, perhaps too far for childrens charities like Barnados or NSPCC.
Also it is filmed and set locally it may well appeal to the local branches of the BBC or ITV or other local media institutions also the National Media Museum in Bradford may well take an interest or even the UK Film Council as they like to see independent films being made also Film Four may be interested, also we will be entering our film to the co-operative film festival and it is on youtube and facebook so we are trying to widen the appeal of film to see what institutions may be interested in it.


Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think our film would be able to appeal to both a youth and a more mature audience, as the opening revolves around both age groups, as well as both sex's. The idea of our scream queen being a young attractive female links with the male gaze theory and so this may appeal to a male audience more so a youth one, however arguably females may be attracted to the film and those that believe in post-feminism may she her not as the scream queen but a strong, determined young girl putting up a fight against the antagonist.
Likely to be a middle class/ABC1 audience who would be interested in seeing the film as they can relate to the more comfortable lifestyle, aspects of the film like the violence, or the smoking may appeal to a wider audience and those from maybe a C1/C2 background.
Also as the film is filmed and set within the north of England and especially Yorkshire that is likely to appeal to a wide range of people from the area, for example with the success of films like Calender Girls many people local people went to see it purely due to the location it was filmed in.
Also due to our low budget it is likely that we would release the film as straight to video/DVD so this would not be able to an international audience but more likely a UK national or regional audience, and if we were to screen it again it would likely to be within the UK, like at the co-operative film festival, however we are likely to gain recognition through this and it may be viewed by people from other parts of Europe.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We tried to add a sense of narrative enigma to our film and make the start of the film quite different to the usual opening of a slasher film, and also by cutting up the footage with the credits rolling I felt kept some momentum to the film without showing the audience too much and keeping them immersed.
Also the variety of shots used I feel helps keep the audience interested in what they are watching, like the shots of the champagne being poured or the different angles when our scream queen picks up her cigarettes and slams the door to go outside.
Also I felt by cutting between the attack sequence and the excitement of the dinner party would create tension and isolation and help to immerse the audience in the film, as well as creating a nice binary opposition.
Also using a false scare with the pet dog running out we felt gave some relief to the audience as they watched the film and helped them become more immersed within what they say on screen and for them to be following/looking out for the welfare of our protagonist.
Also we had some narrative enigma as we tried to make the audience unsure who our protagonist was, or whether it was ensemble, as we follow both the adult character (parents) and the teenage girl.



We tried to keep our audience immersed within the action of film by having enough narrative enigma so that they were trying to work out what is going on within the story whilst also giving them enough anchorage and signifiers to work out the genre and the basic narrative of our film. We felt the French narration gave a mysterious aspect to the film and attract an audience that enjoys French language films or francophiles, however since we have changed our film to English we still feel that the mystery is in our film but making the narrative a little easier to follow by having it in English as we want to make the audience question the narrative not to confuse them.
Again with our film being quite a unique idea and original idea this again attracts an audience that enjoy independent low budget films that do not necessarily follow all the conventions of big hollywood movies.
The hybrid genre is also a good way of attracting a wide range audience due to the two genres that appeal to two very different groups of people.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We have learnt about how to get certain shots with the video camera's and the effects and signifiers we can add through different angles and framing of shots, also the effects we were able to add to our film with the programme we used to edit our footage. How little things effect the mood of the film like different music, lighting effects, use of angles and frames, contrast, narration, the pace of film, etc.
We learnt about the effect of lighting and how it can drastically change the mood of the film like the red lighting in the alleyway scene worked as a good signifier and made the footage look sinister.
We were able to use nice transitions to move the story along and used link shots for the continuity of the story. We were able to add extra sound in like the footsteps when our central protagonist walks down the alleyway as this was lost due to the wind but when we put it in again it made the footage look much more convincing.



Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


We were able to expand on things we learnt in the preliminary task like the use of the match on action shots which we favoured in our film as it worked well with pace of film and also left much to the imagination rather than having to show too much violence on screen.
We also were able to expand our range of shots, angles and framing, and also lighting as we got a nice effect in our film in the alleyway scenes with the street lamp giving our film a slight red tinge which worked well with our genre and concept of vampires and blood.
As we wanted our film authentic and not too phoney and we tried to make our hints a vampires quite subtle by just having briefs shots of the vampire fangs and red eyes, and also adding plenty of narrative enigma by making the attack scene between the vampire and the girl look more like a rape scene than a vampire attack.
During filming we have of course had some difficulties and things that ideally we would like change about our film, in some of our shots the sound is not good due to the wind and so a boom mike may have been useful at this moment, however due to us putting the soundtrack and voiceover in its place it wasn't too much of a problem. Some of our shots may have looked better if they had better framing, especially in the bar scene, also we really wished we had more close ups and extreme close ups of the cigarette end as this would have made a clearer link shot for the transition to the flashback with the lamppost light.
For the mise-en-scene we took care in making a convincing bar setting, and focussed on details like bar glasses, ash trays, bottles behind the bar, etc. and luckily the framing we used made it look convincing however it could have been improved on.
We tried to use a variety of shots within the film and I think we achieved some fantastic shots in our project however I do wish that we had got some more interesting or exaggerated shots, like extreme close ups or high angles and we did use some nice canted angle shots to signify something sinister was happening on screen.
Perhaps the best thing we have learnt from our preliminary task was the research into genre and cinematography was key to creating a film, through watching film openings and extracting all the key details and conventions of film openings. We had to think about every aspect, how to have a convincing attack scene through match-on-action shots, a scary soundtrack which we used creepy piano music, the lighting which we had a hint of red to signify the genre and that of blood and vampires.

Screenplay for 'Sycamore Street'

Sycamore Street Screenplay

Rough Cut 2 - 'Sycamore Street'

Rough Cut 1 - 'Sycamore Street'

Location Scouting for 'Sycamore Street'

Eternity Final Screenplay

Final Eternity Screenplay

Eternity (2010) Final Cut

Location Scouting- Alleyway "Flashback" Scene

Rough Cut 2- No sound

Revised Narrative Rough Cut

Change to Narrative

For our second rough cut we are going to slightly change our narrative and possibly have two alternative openings.
From looking at the footage from our central protagonist sitting in the bar we felt this looks at bit long winded and doesn't get the audiences attention immediately we considered starting the film with the flashback then fading into the bar afterwards and the voiceover playing over this, we like the idea of the film starting and us hearing footsteps as the first noise we hear.

We feel this is a much more exciting and interesting start to our film and also we felt we may have to squeeze too much into our two minutes if we had inside the bar-flashback-back to the bar. Also this way we can have a nice transition ending the flashback into the bar. We also shot two alternatives of either zooming into our central protagonists eye showing the red or zooming into his mouth showing his fangs and then into darkness and fading back out of his drink.

Also our film is no longer in French, due to the fact that we could not convincingly achieve the voiceover in French or gain feedback from a range of French speakers for our film, we also felt that our film was quite complex without the French language and that it may be too complex when including French.

Rough Cut #1

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As we have chosen a hybrid genre using one very specific genre of Film Noir linked with aspects of Horror, I feel this has followed the conventions from many classic and modern noir films and used we used the stereotype of the central protagonist being a lone detective. Our idea of having a Film Noir/Horror and our central protagonist being a vampire detective linked well to existing media products, like Blade or Angel television series, whilst also being an individual idea. We originally planned to have our film in black and white as a strong signifier of the film noir genre as it can still be used today like in Sin City, however we felt it was not essential to the story as many Neo-Noir films are often done in colour like Chinatown.

Again with us having the film opening beginning with a voice over by our central protagonist followed the convention of many Film Noir films like Dark Passage and we wanted to add mystery and narrative enigma to our film hence why we originally decided to have our film in French however we later decided again this made it too complex and we couldn't convincingly create it either.

Another convention used in our film was having a link shot from the bar scene into the flashback, of the cigarette and the lamppost light, unfortunately the shot was not as close up as we had wished and this is something we would ideally have liked to re shoot but were unable to do so. Also our flashback was done in a different colour to the rest of the film which followed the convention of film flashbacks and rather than being in the usual black and white we had it in a red tint which again was a signifier of our film being about vampires and of the Horror genre.

Our title font was again following the convention of many horror, especially vampire, films by having a serif font that was again a signifier of a vampire film as the serif coming of the letters resembled vampire teeth and whilst small details were quite essential to the genre and mood of the film.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our central protagonist is a detective, middle aged and white which give stereotypical signifiers that he is middle class aswell as his voice being well spoken English accent which is a signifier that he is middle class. As he is our main character it shows that we are glorifying or representing him in a positive light and so it seems that we are representing the middle class within the film.
However these are all stereotypes and it could be argued that our central protagonist is an alcoholic and unemployed, also he is smoking which is often seen today as a negative thing that is stereotyped to lower class people, so for the audience watching our film the meaning could still be polysemic and giving it narrative enigma. There are also aspects to our central protagonist that hint he is maybe the anti-hero of our story a bit like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns like Unforgiven and whilst the story revolves around him that he is not necessarily the good guy, also due to our film having some hand held camera work that connotes a slight element of social realism which works well with representing a more unconventional type of character.

We have our victim girl who represents a young white middle class female and our villain as he is a criminal connotes he is a lower class character, again it is polysemic as these two may be in a relationship rather than it just appearing as a random attack. The girl resembles in many ways the idea of the scream queen, and our vampire is like the male killer as the attack on the girl resembles a rape scene which connotes there may be some sense of sexual gratification or desire that the vampire is feeling, also as the film is set in Yorkshire our vampire may also resemble that of the stereo teen yob.


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

Our film opening could possibly work as just a short film as we tell a story within the opening two minutes and may well appeal to a wide range of media institutions.

As it is filmed and set locally it may well appeal to the local branches of the BBC or ITV Calender
or other local media institutions also the National Media Museum in Bradford may well take an interest or even the UK Film Council as they like to see independent films being made also Film Four may be interested, also we will be entering our film to the co-operative film festival and it is on youtube and facebook so we are trying to widen the appeal of film to see what institutions may be interested in it.

Who would be the audience for your media product?


Our audience could easily cover quite a wide range of people, the Film Noir aspect of our genre may well appeal to a more mature audience and again due to the representation of white middle class characters then our audience are likely to be within the ABC1 category and caucasian, however it may not restrict lower class audiences neccessarily due to the Horror genre within our film too and especially the concept of the Vampire genre which is certainly popular and topical to date mainly with youth audiences due to films like Twilight and Cirque De Freak and also television series like The Vampire Diaries it is likely our film will appeal to a youth audience as well as the mature audience due to the hybrid of genre and therefore appealing to a wide ranging audience.
Also as the film is filmed and set within the north of England and especially Yorkshire that is likely to appeal to a wide range of people from the area, for example with the success of films like Calender Girls many people local people went to see it purely due to the location it was filmed in.
Again due to our low budget it is likely that we would release the film as straight to video/DVD so this would not be able to an international audience but more likely a UK national or regional audience.


How did you attract/address your audience?

We tried to keep our audience immersed within the action of film by having enough narrative enigma so that they were trying to work out what is going on within the story whilst also giving them enough anchorage and signifiers to work out the genre and the basic narrative of our film. We felt the French narration gave a mysterious aspect to the film and attract an audience that enjoys French language films or francophiles, however since we have changed our film to English we still feel that the mystery is in our film but making the narrative a little easier to follow by having it in English as we want to make the audience question the narrative not to confuse them.
Again with our film being quite a unique idea and original idea this again attracts an audience that enjoy independent low budget films that do not necessarily follow all the conventions of big hollywood movies.
The hybrid genre is also a good way of attracting a wide range audience due to the two genres that appeal to two very different groups of people.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We have learnt about how to get certain shots with the video camera's and the effects and signifiers we can add through different angles and framing of shots, also the effects we were able to add to our film with the programme we used to edit our footage. How little things effect the mood of the film like different music, lighting effects, use of angles and frames, contrast, narration, the pace of film, etc.

We learnt about the effect of lighting and how it can drastically change the mood of the film like the red lighting in the alleyway scene worked as a good signifier and made the footage look sinister.
We were able to use nice transitions to move the story along and used link shots for the continuity of the story. We were able to add extra sound in like the footsteps when our central protagonist walks down the alleyway as this was lost due to the wind but when we put it in again it made the footage look much more convincing.


Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

We were able to expand on things we learnt in the preliminary task like the use of the match on action shots which we favoured in our film as it worked well with pace of film and also left much to the imagination rather than having to show too much violence on screen.
We also were able to expand our range of shots, angles and framing, and also lighting as we got a nice effect in our film in the alleyway scenes with the street lamp giving our film a slight red tinge which worked well with our genre and concept of vampires and blood.
As we wanted our film authentic and not too phoney and we tried to make our hints a vampires quite subtle by just having briefs shots of the vampire fangs and red eyes, and also adding plenty of narrative enigma by making the attack scene between the vampire and the girl look more like a rape scene than a vampire attack.

During filming we have of course had some difficulties and things that ideally we would like change about our film, in some of our shots the sound is not good due to the wind and so a boom mike may have been useful at this moment, however due to us putting the soundtrack and voiceover in its place it wasn't too much of a problem. Some of our shots may have looked better if they had better framing, especially in the bar scene, also we really wished we had more close ups and extreme close ups of the cigarette end as this would have made a clearer link shot for the transition to the flashback with the lamppost light.

For the mise-en-scene we took care in making a convincing bar setting, and focussed on details like bar glasses, ash trays, bottles behind the bar, etc. and luckily the framing we used made it look convincing however it could have been improved on.
We tried to use a variety of shots within the film and I think we achieved some fantastic shots in our project however I do wish that we had got some more interesting or exaggerated shots, like extreme close ups or high angles and we did use some nice canted angle shots to signify something sinister was happening on screen.

Perhaps the best thing we have learnt from our preliminary task was the research into genre and cinematography was key to creating a film, through watching film openings and extracting all the key details and conventions of film openings. We had to think about every aspect, how to have a convincing attack scene through match-on-action shots, a scary soundtrack which we used creepy piano music, the lighting which we had a hint of red to signify the genre and that of blood and vampires.

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Distributor, Budget, Exhibition

Our company name was originally to be Smirk Productions due to it being a hybrid of each member of our groups surname and also we though our production logo would link in nicely with the name being a drawing a vampires mouth smirking with two fangs poking out, unfortunately we then found that this name was already taken by a US indie company which made a film called The Gingerbread Man in 2005.
We then decided purely to change our production name to Smirking Productions as this had not been taken and still seem a catchy relevant name for our company.

Our Budget was around £30, and this covered the cost of the red contact lenses worn by our actor Mark Allan and two sets of Vampire teeth as more a precautionary measure.
We were able to hold of some fake blood free of charge and also of a Marlborough cigarette for our central protagonist to smoke, as well as costume this was again all free of charge.
We did not have to pay for our location or any of our actors, nor the equiptment except for the video tape used to take the footage in the film.

Cast/Credits

Jack - Mark Allan
Vampire - Olivier Trouille
Girl Victim - Kiera Benson
Bartender - Joseph Iliff
Man #1 - Tom Shaw
Girl #1 - Jess Owen
Girl #2 - Bethan Herbert

Director - George Scaife
Producer - Alex Burke
Editor - Robbie Miller

French Translation thanks to Olivier Trouille

Filmed on location at Alexandra Crescent, Ilkley and with thanks to Irina Nielsen.

Music by Kevin Macleod.

Re-shoot Schedule

We decided to re-shoot the footage where our central protagonist, Jacques, is bitten and becomes a vampire, we felt that the footage we had was too subtle and we never saw any relevance to the concept of him being a vampire. We have scheduled to re-shoot this scene on the 14th April 2010, again in the alleyway just off Alexandra Crescent in Ilkley. On location will be Alex Burke and myself, and our our central Protagonist played by Mark Allan.


Originally we felt we might like to re-shoot some of the footage in the bar and possibly the earlier alleyway footage but it seemed that the footage we had look much better once we had editied and cut it down as we had filmed at least 20minutes of footage by this point and so had a lot of footage to play around with.

French Version of our screenplay "Éternité"

Éternité redraft SCREENPLAY (French Version)

Redraft of screenplay for Éternité

Éternité redraft SCREENPLAY

Initial Storyboard

Storyboard


Storyboard 2

Screenplay feedback.

It was thought that there was too much dialogue in our film opening and especially that it was a little too blunt. Also it seem our title seemed too obvious, Eternitie (La Vie d'un Vampire) thought gave it away and made it too obvious that our story was about a vampire.
We were advised to have the voice over as the main speech within the film and less emphasis on other dialogue, but making sure there was plenty of narrative enigma in our film to ensure the audience was not quite sure whether or not he was a vampire.
Also we were advised not to swear in our film as there did not seem to be much need to use bad language in our film plus it was likely to restrict our audience and where we could screen our film.

First Draft Screenplay for "Éternité" English version

Éternité First Draft Screenplay

Podcast on Target Audience

Animatic Feedback

Encouraged to make good use of sound and music perhaps a heart beat sound playing with music, possibilty of a voice over by central protagonist.
Signifiers of genre whilst almost trying to keep realism of 21st century and as if our world with a sense of fantasy within it.
Maybe have a newspaper slammed down at the end of our opening with the heading giving anchorage and setting exposition, eg. "Mysterious death thought to be vampire cult attack!"

Convincing action sequences, trying to get as much footage from as many angles as possible to cut from use of match-on-action and maybe not even showing any penetration of the skin like in Psycho.

Also ensuring strong awareness of genre but also keeping narrative enigma- good or bad vampire?

Links with the idea of Clint Eastwood as the anti-hero protagonist and a viscious killer like in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Fist Full of Dollars or Dirty Harry.

Suggested viewing:

Blade Runner

Touch of Evil

30 Days of Night
Angel
Sin City
Blade
Being Human

Notional BBFC Rating

From looking at our target audience and the content of our film I think that its notional BBFC rating would be rated 15, due to me looking at the BBFC's website and their classification guidelines over the issues of:
Discrimination, Drugs, Horror, Imitable Behaviour, Language, Nudity, Sex, Theme, Violence.

The BBFC says that frequent bad language is acceptable and strong/vulgar language can be used if justified, we may have our antagonist character using bad language as signifiers of the hoody wearing youth stereotype like poor education and lack of vocabulary. Also may help to emphasise the aggression and horror of the antagonist attacking our victim and also maybe for our protagonist attacking the antagonist.
We do not have any bad language within our film opening now however, so this will not offend a younger audience in this respect but if we were to create the entire film it is likely that there would be bad language used during dialogue later on.

We will in one scene having our protagonist smoking a cigarette under the BBFC's guidelines this is acceptable as long as it is not promoting the taking of drugs, our protagonist will be smoking it as more of a prop than a promotional tool for the intake of tobacco.

For the issues of sex and nudity the BBFC says that nudity and sex are allowed without strong detail.
We would not be having much of this shown on screen but there will be sexual references and signifiers of sexual abuse/rape when the girl is being attacked by our antagonist but as I say we would prefer to imply this than show it as it is not an overly pleasant or essential part of storyline as long as the theme and basic element is there and more left to the imagination. The reference to sexual abuse and rape on screen would definately be inappropriate for a younger audience to view and so I think that by having this classed as a 15 rating is a good idea as it would protect younger innocent viewers from the more adult content.

The BBFC says that strong violence may be shown but not dwelling on infliction of pain, for example sadism, which is not something we would show on screen and much of our violence is more likely to be left to the imagination like in the famous Psycho we may not actually show penetration of the skin but more so lots of angles and match-on-action shots and showing the blood running without being too graphic.

We toned down the violence within our film and made it a lot more psychological than physically on screen, however it is likley that if we were to create the entire film that there would be more graphic violence later on in the film.

Also the BBFC allows strong menace and threat without glorifying the horror on screen so whilst we would have our protagonist killing the antagonist it would not be portraying it in a positive light. The horror is quite crucial to our storyline and so this would not really be appropriate for any younger viewers due to what could be seen as quite horrific and scary content to viewers under fifteen years old.

Target Audience

I think that our film's target audience will be of a youth audience 15-34, as we are comprising two genres horror and especially vampires which is a very popular theme at the moment especially amongst teenage audiences with films like Twilight or Daybreakers and even the BBC TV series Being Human has elements of the vampire genre as well as timeless teen drama's like Angel and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. As we're also incorprating the film-noir or more so neo-noir genre into our film then this will appeal to a more mature audience, modern neo-noir films like Sin City appeal to a youth audience also but classic film-noir will appeal to much more mature audiences who will think of films like Chinatown.

*In doing a slasher film our target audience is a youth audience, 15-34, as our central protagonist and antagonist are both teenagers, like in Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer. However we also have adult actors in our film, so it may also appeal to a more mature audience, also due to the opening of the film beginning with Jazz music may help our film appeal to a more mature audience.

Likely that our cast will all be Caucasian characters and so this will not appeal as greately to a multiethnic audience, also the representation of gender will be stereotypical as our central protagonist is a strong heroic man and our antagonist in the opening scene is a viscious criminal man whilst the victim is an attractive female this will link in with the male gaze theory and so may make our target audience more likely to be male than female.

*Caucasian characters, North of England/Scottish accents, however not displaying an extremely diverse group of people. More anchoring the stereotype of a white middle-class part of England. 

We will be representing our central protagonist and the victim as middle class characters and our antagonist will be represented as lower class so this may effect our target audience being less for the C2DE audience and more for C1's/C2, with it being a neo-noir then the ABC1 audience may be attracted to it also.

*Our Scream Queen is represented as though she is from a middle class family, signifiers given in the opening scene with the bottle of champagne, tuxedo, dinner party setting, jazz music, big house.
She does go out for a cigarette, arguably seen as lower class custom, though that is a minor point.
Our antagonist is arguably representing the lower class, as he is wearing a hood, typical signifier of the "chav" and again this is set in the north of England, also slight hint of humour here as he is wearing the Halloween mask. 

As our film is in French this will give our audience a strong signifier it is set in France and so this may mean it will appeal to a more international audience and be seen as maybe an Art House film for perhaps a high culture audience again appealing perhaps more to the ABC1 audience of the more middle/Upper class.
As our central protagonist is well spoken this is likely to be a stereotype of the French, certainly by the British, as well spoken and quite posh.

*It is likely to appeal mainly to a ABC1 audience, as generally the characters depicted are middle class, however as it is revolving around teenage characters then it may appeal to teenagers from all backgrounds rather than just middle class as the Scream Queen is rebellious and going against what her parents want. Maybe some C1/C2?

Our victim will be a young brunette female which seems a stereotype of the scream queen bimbo often seen in American slashers not as likely in a noir film like ours which is a countertype to the usual Femme Fatale female character which is a strong female lead seen in Film-Noir.
Our antagonist will be violent and not seen to be very educated whilst not being a comical character, again a countertype of villains in Film-Noir as they are often quite cunning and more mentally than physically strong.

No representation of homosexuality in our opening which may restrict that audience however we feel it would change the mood of our film to have perhaps an attractive male being attacked by another male in a sexual way, this would be hinting homosexual rape which would be much more controversial to see or imply on screen than hetrosexual rape. Or if it was a female trying to sexually abuse a male character again this would push boundaries of both gender and sexuality.

*As the antagonist is masked we cannot tell if they are male or female, and clearly in the slasher genre there is a sense of some form of sexual attraction in the killing, even if it is very subtle, whilst likely to be a male attacking a female, it could be connoted as a female attacking a female and a slight aspect of homosexuality.

Casting

At the moment our story has just three characters, our central protagonist and then a teenage girl and her attacker.
Our main character I imagine to be late thirties/early forties, tall and lean not particulary bucth. I have a few people in mind of who could play this part and they all take part in dramatics which is a huge bonus.
For the teenage girl, I imagine to be an attractive young female which helps with the male gaze, brunette and nice dark features and slim figure and not particulary tall, again I have a few people in mind.
For the attacker I imagine reasonably tall but not taller than our main character, short spikey hair however may be wearing a hood so this may not be seen, reasonably strong shape and physique.

Props, Mise-en-scene, SFX, Costume, etc

I imagine that for the mise-en-scene within the house would be quite a gothic style, dark furniture as good signifiers that this a vampire setting also the idea of perhaps him drinking a glass of blood, *this would be an intertexual link to Daybreakers when blood is drunk like coffee and also like wine.
The outfit that our central protagonist would wear would be a grey or black suit with a dark trench coat and trilby hat. He would have slicked back hair and we would use make-up to give him a pale white skin pigment. Also we as group will try to get some red tinted contact lenses, you can purchase for about £20 I think, as again another signifier that he is a vampire and also we want to get some good quality vampire fangs which could be attached to our main character's canine teeth.

Location Scouting

Our film opening begins in a cellar bar which is actually in the basement of a friends house, we had to use this location due to our character needing to smoke indoors and legally this was a problem for us.
The setting will be right as it looks like a city bar as it is in a cellar which is unusual to find in an urban setting also its a signifier of the vampire aspect of our film, underground and darkness.
The Flashbacks took place in an urban setting, beginning with our central protagonist coming across the antagonist attacking the victim in a deserted alley ways and streets. Ilkley is a rather good place to be able film this and also I know a lot people who live in town/terrace houses, also Addingham could be a good place to film it.
Certain specific areas in Ilkley that could be used are near the Spooners sight behind the railway station and Tesco. Also around the Grove or even Parish Ghyll road, and perhaps even the alley way on Alexandra Crescent near the Peugeot garrage.

Intertextual Links

Our film has a few links to a range of existing films of both genres. The dull colouring rather than black and white is similar to the effect in the film Daybreakers as this gave the impression it was black and white but actually certain colours were predominant especially red when it showed blood this is something we want to show. Also our idea is similar to show films and programmes like Angel and even Blade so there are again similar aspects of the synopsis and plot in our film, Also we want to make our central protagonist a very much stereotypical film-noir detective so this will be similar to Humphrey Bogart with a trench coat, trilby hat and smoking cigarettes like done in films like The Maltese Falcon or The Dark Passage.
However our plot is different to many of the films named as it is a British film-noir which is not as common compared to the amount of American and French film-noir movies. Howevercertain examples of British film-noir's are Brighton Rock starring Richard Attenborough or The October Man starring John Mills.

Genres and Openings Research [Film Noir/French Cinema] * David Lynch's Films Inspiration

 *We are working within both the Horror and Film-Noir genre and so we are able to view a vast range of films to get a real sense of the films.

Film-Noir movies are generally done, mostly due to the 1940's era that the genre was created, in black and white and even some modern day film noir movies now called "Neo-Noir " are still done in black and white to create atmosphere like Sin City or Raging Bull however there are also many successful film noir films done in colour like Chinatown or Basic Instinct.

Often the openings of Film-Noir/Neo-Noir genre movies begin with a voice-over by the central protagonist, often a lone detective or bad cop, and they explain their story, this is something we would like to use in our film.

Also some film-noir movies would use a news report or radio voice over to set up the exposition like the beginning of Casablanca or Citizen Kane. In Casablanca the news report in the opening scene sets up the synopsis and talks about why many people are traveling to Casablanca on their journey to travel to the USA to escape the Nazi's.

The Crow directed by Alex Proyas, 1994.
Good aspects of neo-noir and also gothic theme and the anti-hero protagonist character, played by Brandon Lee in this film.

Titles start the film, plain black background and white sans-serif font, non-diegetic soundtrack plays over distantly can hear police and ambulance sirens.

Extreme establishing/helicopter shot to show a city on fire, anchorage given by subtitles naming the setting and date.

We can hear diegetic sounds like a car radio, sirens, fire burning.

Then we have a voice over giving us exposition, voice is of a young child not yet clear as to boy or girl no anchorage given at this moment.

First character we see is a black police officer, we can connote he is an American officer due to the signifiers like his uniform and accent.

Gothic style buildings and the lighting is quite dark, in parts of the film later on almost black and white like the typical noir look.
One interesting part of the film is when our central protagonist has come back to life and is almost reliving his death and has flashbacks, the modern time he is in is done in almost black and white colour and all the flashbacks are done in red hinted lighting, a good signifier of the horror and violence of what happened.

Dark Passage directed by Delmer Daves, 1947.

Black and White film, Warner Bros. logo appears on screen.

Loud non-diegetic plays over extreme long shot of a scenic setting, a bay and mountains looks like San Francisco, title credits play over this sans serif font.

We see a man in uniform and this connotes that he is a security guard, he has a gun another signifier and also signifiers the plot and theme of the film. There is a large building which looks like a prison however no anchorage yet given so it is still polysemic.

Then we hear a loud siren which again we can use as a signifier that this is a prison siren.

We see a man rolling down a hill in a garbage can, then we see a long shot of him come out of the bin but the edges of the are in the frame almost like a point of view shot of the bin.

Why cannot see the protagonists face which adds narrative enigma, we only see everything as a point of view shot. There is a voice over adding exposition, it seems this character is our central protagonist, he waves down a car and gets in, as he speaks to the driver it provides anchorage that it was his voice as the voice over. We then hear diegetic sound from radio playing which also helps to give anchorage and exposition as it says that a convict has just escaped from a prison and is on the run.

Casino Royale directed by Martin Campbell, 2006.

Has a very strong sense of neo-noir in the opening.

The production logo's of MGM and Columbia, are purposefully done in Black and White signifiers of the noir genre.

Establishing shot is done from a low angle looking up at a tall building, then a dark car pulls up outside.

Anchorage added by subtitle saying "Prague, Czech Republic". Soft eerie music, sligh heart beat sound.

Cut to a shot of a man getting out the car, low angle mid-close up could connote he is our antagonist, then cuts to him going up in a lift from a low angle and there is use of elliptical editing here to speed up so the scene doesn't lose suspense.

He walks into a room, and we see an over the shoulder shot of someone sitting in a chair looking at the man, then we have a mid-close up on the antagonist and we can see the man sitting in the chair behind. Narrative enigma as we cannot tell if the man in the chair is our protagonist or antagonist, still polysemic.

The man we think to be the antagonist sits down and opens a drawer and we see a gun, a signifier and slight anchorage he is our antagonist.

We then have a flashback which is still done in black and white but the lighting is much brighter, change in the music more fast paced action and also the use of fast paced editing and shaky camera work.

Then back to our antagonist talking to the other man, the use of shot-reverse-shot during their conversation, the man in the chair then shoots him which signifies he is perhaps our protagonist or hero, or even our anti-hero.

We then go to the flashback and have our protagonist shoot the screen as though at someone like a point of view shot through a gun barrell in the frame, this then has red blood dripping down the screen, this being the only colour so far. Music changes to "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell, and the title sequence begins.

Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, 1942.

• Credits plays over a map of Africa, soundtrack is rousing includes of a few bars of La Marseillaise, signifier of the films connection with France and a contexual reference to a famous scene later on in the film
• Film begins with a spinning globe and zooms into Europe and gradually shows the journey to Casablanca, dramatic orchestral music playing with a voice-over/narrator speaking over, setting up the exposition. Shows moving pictures over the map and then has a fade transition into an establishing shot of Casablanca skyline, pans down to show a market.
• Market setting, shows middle eastern/african characters then transition to office setting, change in music and then shows man at radio station talking into a micro-phone.
• Again then fades back to the market and has a mid-close up of what we can denote as a French police officer due to the signifiers of his uniform, he blows a whistle, the music becomes louder and there is a chase sequence.

French Cinema

We also decided to have our film done in French language as we felt this would add a sense of mystery to our story so we have decided to also look into French cinema, especially that revolving around crime and mystery.
Man Bites Dog
La Vie d'un Chien a short french film with english subtitles that has no moving picture just many still frames complete with sound and narration and music and creates a real atmosphere. Real sense of mystery portrayed.
I am also looking at films by the director Louis Malle, films like Milou en mai and Lacombe Lucien.

I had a look at the book Horror Films by Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc, in the Horror in Europe section on French Cinema Horror.

I found that cinema itself originates from France, and that many early film horror's were created in France, by such directors like the Lumière brothers and Georges Méliès.

One of the earliest French film horrors was La Manoir du diable, 1896 which revolved around horror characters like witches, bats, etc.

Many French films like to have aspects of surrealism, creating the phrase Creàteur du spectacle cinématographiquè.

Also French films focus on certain controversial issues like drugs, crime and can be seen to glorify violence and crime like the film Les Vampires by Louis Feuillade which made the law look like the antagonist and the criminals the protagonist. Again films like, non French director Carl Dreyer's, Vampyr, 1932 show this.

Le Frisson des Vampires, 1971, used rock music and nudity and was seen as being controversial in France at the time, and a more contemporary french vampire film was La Fiancée de Dracula, 2002.

French horror has never stretched as far as British horror like Hammer Horror, but French cinema has specialised in more crime and mystery films like French Film-Noir, an example being Les Diaboliques, 1955. A more contemporary example would be Tell No One or the French title Ne Le dis à personne by Guillaume Canet, 2006 a thriller not just popular in France but appealed more to the world stage.

Jean Rollin was a bery successful French director who seemed to create the idea of the auteur theory, one of his films Le Viol du Vampire caused student riots in Paris due to being very controversial.



Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001.
This film was able to appeal not just to a French audience but also international audience especially in the USA and UK, despite being entirely in French language, perhaps not in original screenings but certainly in DVD sales.
Good use of colour helped to give the film the light hearted feel and innocent element to the film also the use of animation too, like when Amelie is talking to her friend the crocodile in her imagination.
The use of the narrator I also thought worked incredibly well using a very much traditional french cinema aspect into a much more contemporary type of French film.

Our film is a French langauge film which will also include English subtitles, we could have taken inspiration from Quentin Tarantino like in the film Inglorious Basterds, 2009 and played around with our subtitles but instead we wanted to keep the subtitles plain and simple to create the impression our film is a French film with the English added in rather than the other way around.

David Lynch Films - Inspiration of enhancing subtle movements.

The two films that I looked at are interesting in the respect that there is no real concept of the time setting in some respects they both could easily be the 1950's whereas there are certain scenes where it appears more like the 1980's, very much polysemic no real use of exposition but a nice verisimilitude set up in the film. Some aspects of post-modernism used as well mixings time periods and stereotypes of dress codes, language/dialect, social groups - like Detective. Williams in Blue Velvet is very much the stereotype of the American "cop". Also in Wild at Heart Bobby Peru is a stereotype of the southern states "hillbilly" also with aspects of gangster.

Blue Velvet, 1986 - David Lynch

Blue Velvet opens on a very much stereotypical American suburb, white middle-class, green grass, white picket fences, verandas on the front of the houses. A nice sense of irony here, almost a binary opposition to the rest of the film, which is darker and a more hostile setting centering around sex, drugs, intoxication, etc.

Old man mowing his lawn collapses onto the grass. There is then a point-of-view shot of a dog sniffing through the grass, enhacing the tiny details of each piece of grass and the little creatures on them, like looking at a jungle. There is then an extreme close up on a severed ear which the camera then zooms into.

There is a nice use of a motif, which is also used in Lynch's other film Wild at Heart, where a candle flame keeps on burning and a good use of extreme close-up, maybe it connotes wild passion, flame burning inside people.

Another good use of a close up is on Isabella Rosellini's face where we see a chipped tooth, puffed up lips, a binary opposite to how we see her earlier on in the film as this attractive almost femme fatale character, perhaps we can connote a bitter reality here, and this shows what she feels like on the inside rather than the usual seductive, mysterious woman we saw before.

Another wonderful use of cinematography is in the joy ride sequence with Dennis Hopper, where there are extreme close-ups on the car headlights, like the motif with the burning candle flame. As well as the spinning wheel of the car, connoting a fast pace story and a long journey ahead, not a calm environment and a binary opposite the opening of the film.


Wild at Heart, 1990 - David Lynch

Opening shot of the film begins with a long shot of beautifully painted ceiling, chandelier hanging from it, anchorage is provided immediately through the subtitle - "Cape Fear- somewhere near the border between North and South Carolina".
There is, diegetic, Jazz music playing, connotes a casino setting, the idea of the American casino culture glamorous settings, wild party, funky jazz playing.
Shot pans down to show a grand staircase, a 1930's Art Deco design, more anchorage of the setting.
Cuts to a mid-shot of the top of the staircase, some shaky camera work - connotes social realism?
Two-shot of Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, there is a tracking shot an afro-caribbean male walking behind them, racial stereotype of south United States, however no real time setting.
Laura Dern glamourous female, bright blonde hair - male gaze concept?

The character of Marietta Fortune appears peering past a column in the casino, use of low angle to connote she is a dominant figure and she is the antagonist of the film.
The diegetic jazz music fades out as there is a close up on the afro-caribbean man pulling out a flick knife - click noise as he does so, helps signify this a shocking moment, sense of fear stricken into Sailor - Nicolas Cage.
Close up on Lula - Laura Dern as she screams to warn Sailor, the music now turns to non-diegetic heavy metal/rock guitar as the fight scene begins, fast paced editing used to keep the pace of the film full of energy and momentum.
Close up on a step of the staircase, blood splatter onto it. Tracking shot as the afro-caribbean man falls down the stairs cuts to a ground level shot as he falls down.
Over the shoulder shot as Sailor hits the mans head against the floor, also a high from Sailor showing the man's vulnerablity and that he has lost the fight. Long shot as Sailor is surrounded by a pool of blood. Close up on Sailor when fight is finished as he pants for breath and then lits up a cigarette.

The lighting of cigarettes is used as a form of motif throughout the entire film, and also in many parts as a good linking shot, as a cigarette may be light and there will be an extreme close up on the flame which will merge into a shot of car headlights or a sunset. The use of the burning flame could connote a wild burning spirit inside our protagonists, relating to the name of the film being that they are wild at heart, like a wild flame.

Assessment Criteria

G321 - Simplified Marking Criteria as 1 Sheet

The 7 Evaluation Questions

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

• Who would be the audience for your media product? 

• How did you attract/address your audience? 

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Genres and Openings Research [Horror/Vampire] *Slasher

Given that our film is a hybrid of two rather specific genre's I thought we needed to do some research into both and how they tend to be made and stereotypes you will find in both, like Propp's seven archetypes.

I looked for any films, books, comics that had the horror/ noir genre and didn't find many but I did find a novel entitled "Already Dead" by Charlie Huston which is about a vampire detective, also the television series "Angel" and films like "Blade" but we don't want to make our film too much like a comic book series and so we want to emphasise the film noir genre too from films like "L.A. Confidential" or even the original film noir films like "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Invisble Man" which is often classed as the closest thing to a film noir-horror film.

I also thought that since our film is about a vampire that research into the mythology and legends of this topic were essential, it so happens my dad works in Transylvania and so I may try and get information through him and I have also tried to view as many vampire films recently as possible and have just purchased the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula starring Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins. Also looking at vampire films through the ages like Dracula (1931) and the Hammer Horror films nad their Dracula franchise starring Sir Christopher Lee.

Good sources that I looked at included:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Dracula

Also I have the novel Dracula which is a good source of the classic vampire story, as are watching the films such as:

Dracula (1931)
Blade
John Carpenter's Vampires
Daybreakers

Interview with a Vampire

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Near Dark

Which are a good mix of traditional and modern takes on vampires.

Dracula directed by Tom Browning, 1931.

Entirely Black and White, not for effect but the time the film was created.

Credits and titles play at the beginning of the film with a cartoon bat in the background.

Establishing shot shows giant mountains and a horse and coach traveling along the rocky road, we can hear diegetic sound of the coach traveling along the road.

Then a transition into a mid shot of the inside of the coach, from this shot it had the coach bouncing  about and shaking to signify that they are traveling on a rough road.

Transition to the inside of a room, with a baby's cot and two women inside speaking in a foreign language.

Not a huge variety in use of angles and shots, quite basic but effective, mostly mid shots and angles no use of canted angles or shaky camera work.

Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, 2008.

Soft ererie non-diegetic music plays over the production logos, the film begins with a plain black screen and over the music we have a voice over by what I denote as a young female, american accent. There is then a transition to an establishing shot of a forest, we also here diegetic sounds and signifiers of the forest like birds chirping.

There is a deer on screen, seems to be significance of the deer due to lots of shots of it from different angles. Then it seems there is a point of view shot of someone stalking the deer, due to the skaky camera work as this is not a social realist film but a blockbuster.

There is then a change in music as it becomes fast paced, and there is also the use of fast paced editing, we see a few split second shots of a person running and one where they run straight in front of the camera, where this is still a point of view shot we're seeing through is poly-semic.

We then see a person grab the deer and the screen goes white and there is a transition to a shot of the sky and there is a change in music. The voice over begins again and we have a mid-close up of a young girls face, signifying that she is the voice we hear and our central protagonist.

Sets up the exposition of our story, then we have a long shot of a car driving away, then a transition to a plane taking off, and then a point of view shot of the plane done done by a helicopter shot, soundtrack playing some sort of folk song.
We then have a transition to a scene of woodland and snow, a binary opposition to the scene before of hot desert and cactus'. The titles then appears on the screen, in serif font "Twilight".

We looked at the opening to the film The Lost Boys directed by Joel Schumacher in 1987.
This film started by having the non-diegetic soundtrack playing whilst the production logos came on screen and so started the film straight away. The titles and credits then played over a moving helicopter shot over the sea to which blue filter had been applied for colouring and then also a theme park. The titles showed the auteur theory as they started with the producer and director instead of the actors appearing in the film, also signifier of the genre and theme as the title text is serif font and gothic and little bits coming off the letters look like vampire teeth.

There was then a cut transition and stagged progression disolving from the helicopter shot to a mid shot of the carousel. First character to appear is seen from a low angle, signifying that he is the antagonist. also signifiers like him wearing black. One character then appears on screen and for a second touches his teeth, a very subtle signifier of the him being a vampire. Soundtrack then changes to a more sinister sound, playing over the diegetic sound of the roller coaster in the background.

Then the security guard appears, authoritative figure, as teen audience and youngsters are the heroes makes security guard look incompetent and useless. Use of sound motif almost like an intertexual reference to Friday the 13th or Halloween. Point of view shots used when security guard attacked, violence is off screen, adds narrative enigma as well as sound off frame.
Clever in the respect this film almost has two alternative openings, second one beginning with extreme long shot and then cut transition to car. Diegetic sound from the radio but this is not seen straight away. This is an audio bridge as it plays over the transition. Then we have a mid-close up of the characters in the car.
Set dressing includes things like graffiti on billboards, etc.
Only know do we see the central protagonist of the film.

The Satanic Rites of Dracula, directed by Alan Gibson, 1974.

Title sequence begins with panning shots of London with a very seventies soundtrack and a small shadow cut out of dracula in the bottom right hand corner gradually getting bigger. Sans Serif font, gothic- vampire.

• Establishing shot, a white house at night, bat screaching in the background, signifier vampire film.
• Cuts to almost vertical high angle looking down on a group of people sat round some religious item, lighting is slighlty red tinted, signifies blood. Spooky organ music
• People wearing hoods, candles, a skull. Naked woman lying down, signifies a sexual them to the story.
• Audio bridge a womans voice speaking then cuts to a scene of a man sitting by an intercom or radio, diegetic sound
• Cuts to another scene of a man lying on a bed, tied up trying to break free. Man comes to look at him, low angle shows the man in bed vunerable. He then attacks him slight slow motion, music speeds up.
• Man walks around slowly slightly limping, music adds suspense, he has blood shot eyes and pale skin signifies he may be a vampire. He runs to get into a car and it speeds off. Long shot to show it go off into the distance. 

Dracula, directed by John Badman, 1979.

I thought this was a great adaptation of the Dracula story with many intertexual links to the Dracula, 1931 directed by Tom Browning, not strictly a remake but certain scenes were purposefully recreated.

The use of non-diegetic music help anchor the genre and signify the horror of the story.

A strong cast helped the appeal for the film in the US and Britain, with the likes of Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier and Donald Pleasance.

Cirque du Freak, directed by Paul Weitz, 2009.

Soft lighthearted country music playing, first shot shows a close up of a man eating popcorn. Establishing shot shows a graveyard and people walking with a bunch of flowers, voice over begins young male character American accent.
People standing around a grave, some crying signifies that this a funeral also we see a hearse car in the background, voiceover helps exposition and anchorage by saying who is in the grave and it says "This is my story".

Slasher Genre Research

Scream,  directed by Wes Craven, 1996.

Dimension films.
Title card, serif font appears - "Scream".
Diegetic sound - door slamming, telephone ring, heart beat, female scream.
Title turns from white to red, with slicing/kife blade sound effect.
Zoom into title, opening shot is a mid close up of a landline phone ringing, young teenager blonde girl picks up, stereotype of "scream queen" and possibly the male gaze concept here too.
Tracking shot as she goes to pick up the phone, we hear the voice of the other person on the phone, she hangs up "wrong number".
Second time phone rings, canted angle used connoting all is not well, slow track zoom to close up shot.
When she puts the phone down she is out of frame. We see a shot of the outside, connotes isolation. diegetic sound of crickets chirping. Possible point-of-view shot from the outside looking at house, flase scare, connotation the girl is being watched. Extreme close up on the flames from the cooking surface, pop corn crackling diegetic sound adding to the suspense, gradually getting louder - tension.

Tracking shot as she picks up knife, connotation of a countertype? blonde haired final girl? - polysemic
talks about the character Michael Myers from John Carpenter's Halloween - intertextual link.
Eerie piano music plays, dog barking outside.
Use of fast paced editing as she locks doors, match-on-action shots. She looks outside, Point-of-view shot. Then mid-close up of her, she walks out of frame.
Intercuts back to popcorn - tension building...
High pitch tones, non-diegetic sound, when the voice on the phone threatens girl.
Extreme close-up on girls face, then use of low deep tones.
She runs through house, tracking shots, non-diegetic sounds of heartbeat thudding.
Frame of shot shows her look through the top of the window on front door. Door bell rings, close up to handle.

She looks outside to see boyfriend tied up, close up showing his mouth taped over. Reverse shot to her, then a long shot as she crouches down in tears to hide behind the television, a slow track zoom.
Energetic shots, tracking shots and variety, keeps momentum going.
Goes pitch black, we hear a groan and a cutting noise, when the lights come back the boyfriends throat has been slit.

Black clothed figure runs past the window, the girl goes outside - use of shaky camera work.
Extreme long shot of headlights on the horizon behind a field, the music becomes more fast paced with a beat. The car pulls into the driveway, cuts to the girl looking through house window - point-of-view shot, and killer turns around (Scream Mask), shot reverse shot and point-of-view from the killer/antagonist, girl screams. Antagonist jumps through window as girl clutches knife (close up) he then grabs her. Low angle/over the shoulder of the girl looking up at the killer, connotes vunerablity and she has no power or strength. Slow motion footage as the antagonist goes to stab the girl, high angle shot of her on the ground and as antagonist stabs her, use of dutch angle as she bleeds, then a canted/shaky camera work point-of-view shot as she looks at her parents getting out of the car.
Girl manages to pull of the antagonists scream mask, quickly cuts to close up of his hand holding knife, reverse shot to her reaction, could connote she knows who it is.

As knife comes down to stab her, intercuts to girls father on phone - canted angle/close up.
Mother looks out the front door, close up of her screaming. Long shot of the girl, covered in blood, hanging from a tree. Fast paced zoom shot right up to her, then quick shot of a lightning bolt.
Black screen with diegetic sound of crashing sounds.

[12 minute film opening - almost a mini movie within itself]


A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984 - Wes Craven

The opens with non-diegetic eerie, dark music playing. Ground level shot - diegetic footsteps, with the credits "New Line Cine" playing over the scene.

A nice aerial shot of rusty tool set on a workshop desk, possible point-of-view shot?

Music becomes almost screechy, high pitched tones. There is a close-up shot of a hand picking up blades and a glove, there is then thudding beat to the music, and we hear diegetic sound of what sounds like hammering metal.

Slight canted angle as the hand is sawing into pieces of metal, blunt instruments - connotes dark unpleasant, harsh visuals and sounds. Shots of blow torching. Heavy Breathing sounds.

Close up as hand goes into this metalic glove *Iconic Freddy Krueger glove*

As this happens the music gets intense and loud and very high pitched. The gloved hand opens up the palm- point of view shot, and there is a growl/evil sounding cackle.

Music is distorted and unpleasant - title card plays. Ironic as it is a blood red and yet a cartoony serif font.

Knifed glove tears through a sheet of cloth, emphasis on the sound effects the glove makes through the opening, scratching, slicing, cutting.

A young female appears on screen, wearing white - connotes purity - angelic? Juxtaposition/binary opposition to the dark setting. Establishing shot shows the girl walking down a long dark tunnel, we see light behind her, connotes she is leaving hope behind her? entering somewhere evil?

Non-diegetic music sounds like a keyboard/techno. Girls runs towards the camera .

Mise-en-scene is gradually set up - we see steam vents, wet floor, dirty work surfaces. Industrial setting, factory? Mine?

High angles used to show the vulnerablity of the girl, anchorage of what the girl is called as we hear a ominous mumbled voice calling "Tina". Close up to show fear on her face.

Diegetic crashing noise, Tina screams. Then we have a shot of a sheep running, and he hear an evil laugh in the background.

Very quick extreme close-up of a male face, only showing half, burnt skin, moves out of frame as the music changes.

She runs through the machinery, we hear clambering footsteps. We see a shadow of a figure following her - laughter and footsteps follow her.

Tracking shot behind her - Point of view of the antagonist?

The lighting fades in and out, connotes a threat, instills fear.

Close up of the glove scratching the wall as it moves along, she quickly turns around the music has a loud thudding sound - sound motif?, and again we see the glove tear through a sheet - possible motif?

We see the figure of the antagonist, dirty red and green jumper with a fedora hat.

Girls runs infront a furnace, connotes the idea this is hell? or to her this is hell?

non-diegetic sound of babies crying, connotes that the antagonist is the "boogeyman" archetype in American horror.

The figure appears from behind her and grabs her and there is a match on action shot to an intercut as it then shows her walking up in bed, panting for breath covered in sweat... It was all a dream, or was it?

General Notes on Slasher

Many slasher films concentrate on framing, to get a real concept of frenzy and panic in their films, like in I Know What You Did Last Summer or in some of the dream sequences in A Nightmare on Elm Street where there is good use of lighting to create shadows, and make things look sinister whether it be the tops of fences or tree branches, symbolising the knife glove that Freddy Krueger wears. Also for most of the film his face is covered by the dark and we not really make out his features, which is scary psychologically for the viewers as we feel for the "scream queen" character and we cannot tell what the antagonist looks like and this creates a great deal of fear, and anxiety.

Also in many slasher there is good use of reflections, blurry/out of focus shots to show figures like where Sarah Michelle Gellar is attacked in the basement in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Good use of low angle shots in the film Night of the Living Dead to show that the zombies are "in charge" and cannot be stopped, showing vulnerability in the human beings trying to escape/destroy but they can't when they resemble their family members, the shots and angles used are effective in being scary than the effects/make-up.

Dawn of the Dead makes good use of high/helicopter angle shots showing crowds of zombies running around and yet as it was successfully filmed early in the morning, they created the feeling of isolation as there is no other life seen in the background, no moving cars, people walking down the street. Juxtaposition and a new equilibrium for the characters in the film.

The Wes Craven film The Last House on the Left it is successful in being scary more psychologically than what we actually see on screen, like in the scene where they carve into Mari's chest, we hear her screams in pain but never actually see the cut's or the blood. Also the use of quite jolly, seventies, bohemian music is a juxtaposition of the dark, even disturbing, theme of the film.

Also the ending to film does not show any piercing/cutting of skin and we know it is happening despite it being off-frame. When John is attacking Krug with the chainshaw we only hear Krug screaming and the chainsaw running and all we see is a close-up/low angle of John's face looking as though he is in a struggle, and then an after shot with the Sheriff looking at Krugg's dead body with blood splattered on his face, and quick long shot of half of Krugg's body in frame covered in blood, almost the less we see the more we believe/convincing.

Also there is a clever shot when Estelle kills Sadie in the pool, we see Estelle run towards the pool with a knife reading to slash Sadie's throat, a long shot as Estelle brings the knife back towards Sadie's neck and just as it is about to make contact the shot cuts to a close up where Estelles head and the knife are out of shot and then her dead body covered in blood falls into the shot, so we do not actually see the cutting of her throat but we think we do.

My Bloody Valentine, 1981. Directed by George Mihalka.

Films open with an establishing shot of a mine shaft, a canted angle on ground level. We here non-diegetic sound like a thudding sound, and over that we hear the diegetic sound of tools clanking. Two Miners, with torches on their helmets, in the distance walk towards the camera we denote they are wearing some form of mask and as they approach we here the diegetic sound of them breathing through them. As the two miners reach the camera it becomes a low angle shot and the camera tilts upwards and the two miners walk out of frame. Variety of canted angle shots used, also gives a sense of real time, not ellipsis, everytime the two miners walk out of frame the shot stays on screen for a few more seconds and we hear the atmospheric noises of the tools and the heavy breathing as well as the sounds of them dragging their feet. Very effective in setting and an eerie tone to the film.

The music then suddenly lowers in tone, one of the miners looks around and the camera stays in a two shot mid-angle, it almost looks as though this miner is breaking the fourth wall and looking straight into the lense, however as he is wearing a mask we cannot see his eyes. As this goes on the other miner takes over their overalls, and we denote a female body wearing a bra and we also denote a love heart tattoo on the left breast. In a close up shot we see this miner take off their helmet and  mask and we see a blonde head of hair and a females face, male gaze theory? scream queen?

The music softens, almost romantic piano, love affair?

Over the shoulder two-shot as the other miner goes in almost as though to embrace despite him still wearing his overalls and mask, the miner lifts up his pickaxe as though he is about to impale the female, the shot cuts away and there is a mid shot showing him slamming it down onto the wall. The female gasps and then looks relieved, use of the false scare?

The female begins to unzip the miners overalls and the non-diegetic music is overlayed with eerie low tones, connoting a threat, a disturbance?

The female puts her hands to the miners face as though to take off his mask, as she does this he shakes his head and replies "No". There is then a faded transition to a close shot of the females lower back, which then tracks up to her head slowly and there is a two-shot close up/over the shoulder shot of the two.

High angle/Over the shoulder shot of the female, connoting vulnerablity, and we see the torch from the miners helmet shining on her face.

There is a close up of the females hands stroking the cord attached to the mouth piece of the mask, almost a sexual encounter, anchored by deep breathing by both in shot. There is then a close up of the miner gropping the females breast with the tattoo on it. Then an extreme close up on the tattoo and we denote the fingers of the miner shaking/twitching.

The non-diegetic music gradually builds up with tension and the miner suddenly throws the female back and she is impaled on the pickaxe in the wall, making a groaning noise as he does so and she screams.

We have a close up on his mask and we hear her screaming and the diegetic sounds of piercing skin/arteries.

We then have a close up on the face of the female screaming which goes into a zoom into her mouth and then a black screen and the title card plays. Serif font, all white but in the word Bloody, instead of two "oo" it has two red love hearts, almost quite comical, a sort of irony, juxtaposition.