Entire Script Put Together

Question 1

After viewing a range of different movies in the Horror sub- genre of Supernatural (see few deconstructions) we created a list of Pros and Cons for creating a supernatural horror ( See Pro's and Cons Page).  Our media product conforms and subverts the conventions of a Supernatural horror in many ways:

• In horror movies alone: there is usually a death in the first scene, which we have conformed to in our media product, to immerse the audience into the opening, and clearly state the genre.
• The death is not shown in full, which is common in Supernatural movies, as we didn't want to include a gore element, which is present in other sub genres.
• The costume and make up conformed to that of a supernatural film, due to the alienation of the antagonist, which allowed the audience to pick up on the genre. 
• The location of our media product was chosen (see blog post about location) due to it conforming to the location of a horror, as it was empty and deserted, with a idea of the protagonist feeling trapped within the location, with no way of escape, helped by the parallel lines within the tunnel, that will never meet, indicating he will never meet his way of escape. 
• In supernatural films that I have seen, the victims are mostly picked at random, and have no connection to the supernatural entity, which I thought was a propitious decision, to conform to the conventions of a supernatural horror, but also to show that the threat is imminent and could happen to anyone. 

• Although as it was in modern reality and in a place where people could ordinarily walk through, this showed our subversion, as it was not in a deserted location and was in the center of a city, making the threat seem more realistic.

• Our main subversion was the characters, and the way that they are presented, as usually in supernatural horror's the antagonist is a young child who has been tortured, and has returned for revenge, but within ours we used a clown, which is usually shown as a joyous character, with a female actress, to subvert the expectations that the antagonist is always a strong male, or a young child, as we thought it would be more effective to our targeted audience. 
• The protagonist was also subverted as we had one protagonist, who was a male, who was killed by the supernatural entity, which subverts the expectation of the male protagonist who is strong and always saves the females, as this appeared to be the same in quite a lot of supernatural horror movies that I had watched.

Question 2

• Gender was the main focus in terms of area of representation within our piece as we chose to have a female antagonist and a male victim to subvert audience expectations of victim and killer.(MALE PROTAG BLOG POST)

• To emphasize this gender division, we chose in terms of costume that although the clown should be heavily made up and in costume, she would wear her hair down and long to feminize the threat. (COSTUME POST)
• We also chose to have our costume entirely covering our antagonist's body as not to sexualize her and confuse any specific stereotypical gender identity.

• However, we also chose to select our victim as a teenager, partly due to the availability and ease to find an actor but mainly due the fact that the age relates to our target audience increasing the fear factor.
• In terms of the CCTV filming, the clown is shot during the murder facing the audience allowing a more fearsome reaction due to the clown challenging the camera as it comes closer between shots, again subverting female expectations as it shows her strength and confidence as opposed to the expected weakness and vulnerability.
• The power of the female in comparison to male is also again emphasized within the shots and editing used for the montage sequence as whenever shot together after the killing, the victim is on the floor whereas the clown is upstanding, structuring the power balance with her in control as an unexpected threat. This diminishes any barrier as a weaker female expected to be seen as a possibly caring and nurturing gender as no emotion is displayed apart from the sinister smile on her face throughout.

Question 3:

• When choosing our production company, I researched a number of various companies and finally chose to produce ours as a Ghost House Pictures project. (FILM PRODO BLOG POST)
• Ghost House Pictures have produced widely popular horror films targeted at teenagers and young adult horror fans such as the Possession and The Grudge.
• Originally, I had difficulty making a decision between using Ghost House or another company largely dealing in Horror, Twisted pictures.
• Although their main focus is primarily of our sub-genre, their plots often include possession which although I researched into it as a possibility, we chose not to use. (POSSESSION BLOG POST) Not including this feature within our plot therefore makes the Ghost House Company not entirely suitable.
• Other companies researched have previously deal with high successful supernatural projects, such as Hammer (Woman in Black) and Twisted Pictures (Dead Silence) but do not have a distinctive direction towards the sub-genre
• . I resulted in making my decision due to Ghost House's suitability as an experienced producer of the supernatural horror genre and their superiority in comparison to the other options researched.

Question 4+5 

After we finished editing the film opening, we decided that the appropriate age rating would be a 12 because the violence is there but not dwelled upon. This means that our audience would be teenagers from 13+

The ways in which we attracted and addressed the audience are as follows;

Firstly, when we were deciding upon important decisions, for example the name of the film, we created surveys on survey monkey that other’s could fill out. (Show survey blog post) We promoted the links ourselves, asking friends and younger family members to complete them for us. This would have helped to attract the right audience because all of the people that we asked to complete the survey were within the age for our target audience. We received a lot of feedback, which we took into consideration. This would have helped to attract the audience because the people that filled out the survey would have been eager to see what the finished product looked like and whether their suggestions had been taken into consideration.

We decided that the protagonist should be around the age of 16 so that the audience feels that they are more able to connect with the actor, attracting the audience because they would feel as if the film is of a level that they will be able to understand and relate to.

Part of the film opening was set in a college so the audience would be able to relate to the surroundings and all of the events that come with it.

This links to the location that we chose. (show location blog post) By using the tunnel in Greenwich, we are bringing the storyline into an area that many people would be familiar with. This would attract the audience because the area around the tunnel is where a lot of teenagers spend their weekends. So they would be attracted to the film by wanting to see what we have done in terms of the storyline.

Finally, we decided to use a clown as the antagonist. (Show clown blog post) When researching, I found that clowns are a phobia that is mostly found in children aged 4-16. This, obviously, fits into our age group. By playing on a fear that the target audience have would attract them because they would be anxious to find out how scary our film opening is. This can also be linked to the extreme close up shot of the clown after the death of the protagonist. 

Question 6

In terms of how we have developed in our use of technology, we have learnt a lot about different aspects not only of filming but also of the editing process, plus music creation. When filming we came across a few problems and therefore before fully setting into filming we decided to practice a few times before we set about doing it properly. We decided to make filming equipment such as using a household broom in order to get the camera into the top of the tunnel and therefore get the right angle into filming. (CCTV Footage Blog Post) We wanted to use a high angle in filming in the tunnel in order to conform with the conventions of CCTV cameras which usually films at higher angles in order to capture a wide area. We attached the camera to the broom through using the gorilla pod, which proved extremely useful in keeping the camera steady also when we were filming outside as well. In terms of filming in the dark we had to research the camera because it wasn’t picking up on any detail for example when we where filming the skyline of London.(Blog Post 3rd Location Visit) Therefore through researching the technology of the camera we discovered that there was an IA button which dealt with the problem as it would manually set the camera to the correct setting of filming in the dark. We wanted to film at a POV shot for the outside scenes as we wanted to see the journey from the protagonists point of view before it jump cuts to static. The point of using the POV shot is to put the audience in his shoes before taking them out of them and removing them from the death scene. Finally for the montage scene we used a series of different shots from close ups, to high angles, to extreme close ups, panning and wide angles. We have learnt a lot about using iMovie in the editing process from when we first used it in our Prelim.(Lily's Editing Blog Post) We have used a lot more of the transitional devices and also the editing techniques which you can use on the clip itself such as speeding the clip up or down, the effects, removing sound and adjusting the stabilization. This is most prominent in the montage scene where we cut the shots extremely short (mainly under a second) and then integrated short parts of the neck breaking throughout to show it as a death scene. We added the SCI-FI effect to each shot apart from the last as the colour green connotes the ideas of consumption and illness. The last shot has the clowns face half dark indicating that the protagonists eyes are closing and therefore death has struck.(Montage Scene Editing) The montage scene has a lot of the iMovie effects added to it through each having the sound removed and sped up along with a suitable effect attached in order to conform with the genre we have.  Through the editing process we where able to put in our terminology and therefore include a lot of jump cuts and cross cutting in order to make it flow but with a twist. Linear narrative and continuity editing run throughout as all events are carried out in the correct time and order.(Editing Sound to Film Post) Through editing we wanted to bring the element of fear and therefore paired it with the sound which was collected from different sources such as YouTube, own made and Sound Cloud which was then edited on a piece of software called Audacity. We spread the job of music out amongst each other in order to get more mixed views on what each part should sound like.(Final Music Choices Post) For example at the beginning we wanted more fast, paced and bass like music and therefore went for the drums however at the end we opted for a more silent atmosphere in order to emphasize on the death scene rather than have musical distractions. All Diegetic sound has been eradicated from the scenes because of the location sound being inadequate and therefore we decided that Non diegetic sound would have more of a effect. Each piece of editing which we did was consulted among all of us and therefore this meant that we all had a say in what we where doing in the entire process. Our knowledge of the technology has definitely improved by miles and therefore this means that by the end we felt much more confident in what we were doing and what parts of the editing software we wanted to use in order to create the correct effect. 

Question 7 

Chloe: Looking back at our prelim we have improved a lot in terms of planning, filming and consideration into our editing. One example of how we moved forward was through the initial design of the Storyboard. We have put in a lot more detail and terminology so that for each shot, which we filmed, it meant we knew what we were doing and how we were going to achieve it. By including more detail this meant that we went into filming feeling much more confidant when approaching the filming dates. We including shot by shot action of what was going to happen and therefore this meant that the planning was much more intricate and helpful. 

Lily: Again another element which we really improved on was the planning of what location we where going to use and what we where going to use in terms of props and costumes. For the location we decided to look a many different diverse areas such as Tunnel. Basement and a derelict area but finally settled on the tunnel due to the practicality. This shows that we have improved because for the Prelim we only had the use of the school facilities and therefore had to act quickly in order to find somewhere appropriate. This is also shown again in props and costume because for the Prelim we only had the choice of school uniform and any bags or props in which we could find in the short period of time. Whereas for the Film opening we could research different costumes and find the right one which was much more elaborate. We also had the balloons, which conformed appropriately to what we were doing due to the colour connotations and plot context.                                                         

Becky: Music also has been extremely improved on since our Prelim. For the Prelim we used the simple sounds, which come with the package of iMovie, and therefore we were not that creative in what we where doing because of the short time space we had; however the music still conformed and the heartbeat has been used in our film opening as well. For our film opening on the other hand I made original music and also of us took turns in order to edits and manipulate music showing that we stepped out of the box in order to create more along with the help of iMovie sounds as well. 

Lauren: Lastly we improved in the area of planning who would be suitable for our film opening in looking at who would be more appropriate in terms of age and gender. For our prelim we had to choose from who was available within the school at really short notice and it did work. However when planning for our film opening we wanted to have a female antagonist and a male protagonist to therefore subvert conventions and therefore this meant that again with the others a lot more planning and consideration was taken into the planning due to the amount of time which we had in order to bring the entire film opening together. 

Montage

Source of Inspiration: Montage Sequences

We came across some trouble when originally planning our death scene and chose to leave the murder vague within our storyboard as to refer back and add in detail as we began to produce the piece.

We found it would be difficult to incorporate supernatural elements into our death without any expertise in special effects or skilled acting so we therefore decided it would be best for the killing to occur off screen, adding an air of mystery to our plot as an unnatural inhuman event, allowing our audience to themselves envision what they believe to have happened.

To accompany this idea, I looked into montage sequences used in other horror films to disorientate the viewer. We decided that by compiling a number of shots related to the plot context and of gruesome images would allow us to maintain an uncomfortable experience for the audience and to enforce fear due to their lack of understanding and the fast pace of the transition between shots.

After having storyboarded ideas we chose to include shots of:

• The clown (at different proximities, moving farther away from the camera and then appearing at an awkward and incredibly intimate distance to finish)
• Various violent weapons (a crowbar, the blade of a saw and a hammer struck towards the camera)
• Victim (having his neck snapped shot at different angles and lying dead upon the floor)
• Disgusting images (maggots, rotten apples)
• Point of view shots to mimic a victim running to escape (through the tunnel and up the stairs)
• Repetition of previously used skyline shots to refer back to the isolation anonymous London location (edited to appear with a newly green trint to represent the supernaturtal elements of the city now apparent)

Question 7

Chloe: Looking back at our prelim we have improved a lot in terms of planning, filming and consideration into our editing. One example of how we moved forward was through the initial design of the Storyboard. We have put in a lot more detail and terminology so that for each shot, which we filmed, it meant we knew what we were doing and how we were going to achieve it. By including more detail this meant that we went into filming feeling much more confidant when approaching the filming dates. We including shot by shot action of what was going to happen and therefore this meant that the planning was much more intricate and helpful.

Lily: Again another element which we really improved on was the planning of what location we where going to use and what we where going to use in terms of props and costumes. For the location we decided to look a many different diverse areas such as Tunnel. Basement and a derelict area but finally settled on the tunnel due to the practicality. This shows that we have improved because for the Prelim we only had the use of the school facilities and therefore had to act quickly in order to find somewhere appropriate. This is also shown again in props and costume because for the Prelim we only had the choice of school uniform and any bags or props in which we could find in the short period of time. Whereas for the Film opening we could research different costumes and find the right one which was much more elaborate. We also had the balloons, which conformed appropriately to what we were doing.

Becky: Music also has been extremely improved on since our Prelim. For the Prelim we used the simple sounds, which come with the package of iMovie, and therefore we were not that creative in what we where doing because of the short time space we had; however the music still conformed and the heartbeat has been used in our film opening as well. For our film opening on the other hand I made original music and also of us took turns in order to edits and manipulate music showing that we stepped out of the box in order to create more along with the help of iMovie sounds as well.

Lauren: Lastly we improved in the area of planning who would be suitable for our film opening in looking at who would be more appropriate in terms of age and gender. For our prelim we had to choose from who was available within the school at really short notice and it did work. However when planning for our film opening we wanted to have a female antagonist and a male protagonist to therefore subvert conventions and therefore this meant that again with the others a lot more planning and consideration was taken into the planning due to the amount of time which we had in order to bring the entire film opening together.

Final Costume

During the filming process, our original costume plan was altered due to issues with filming and availability.

• Originally we had planned to include a dark suit for the antagonist of red and black to connote both danger and the spilling of blood but due to filming difficulties we chose to opt for a white and black outfit with red elements. This worked better for us due to it's visibility, enabling the clown to be seen more easily in the dark due to the lack of lighting available on location.
• We also planned to spray the clown's hair green but due to the dark lighting of our location and the use of black and white CCTV filter in the tunnel, the colouring would have been barely visible and so therefore we chose not to include this colouring. 
• The original face paint chosen was also altered for filming purposes, blood was added dripping from the eyes and the black around them was made larger, drawing attention towards the darkness and the unnatural features of the clowns face as to make it appear more sinister.
• Also, we originally intended to use red contact lenses to convey supernatural inhuman elements but found again, like the hair colouring, it would have very little impact on overall shots. We also made this decision as the large quantity of red already intended in each of our shots would have caused the majority of the mise en scene to suggest bloodshed, which isn't used within this particular scene. The contrast of the pale blue eyes against the dark black and red features of the face paint also created a more startling affect, as they seem far more prominent and chilling as they stare into the camera in close up shots.

Question 2 and 3

Question 2:
Gender was the main focus in terms of area of representation within our piece as we chose to have a female antagonist and a male victim to subvert audience expectations of victim and killer.
(MALE PROTAG BLOG POST)

To emphasise this gender division, we chose in terms of costume that although the clown should be heavily made up and in costume, she would wear her hair down and long to feminise the threat.
(COSTUME POST)
We also chose to have our costume entirely covering our antagonist's body as not to sexualise her and confuse any specific stereotypical gender identity.

However, we also chose to select our victim as a teenager, partly due to the availability and ease to find an actor but mainly due the the fact that the age relates to our target audience increasing the fear factor.

In terms of the CCTV filming, the clown is shot during the murder facing the audience allowing a more fearsome reaction due to the clown challenging the camera as it comes closer between shots, again subverting female expectations as it shows her strength and confidence as opposed to the expected weakness and vulnerability.

The power of the female in comparison to male is also again emphasised within the shots and editing used for the montage sequence as whenever shot together after the killing, the victim is on the floor whereas the clown is upstanding, structuring the power balance with her in control as an unexpected threat. This diminishes any barrier as a weaker female expected to be seen as a possibly caring and nurturing gender as no emotion is displayed apart from the sinister smile on her face throughout.

Question 3:
When choosing our production company, I researched a number of various companies and finally chose to produce ours as a Ghost House Pictures project.
(FILM PRODO BLOG POST)

Ghost House Pictures have produced widely popular horror films targetted at teenagers and young adult horror fans such as the Possession and The Grudge.

Originally, I had difficulty making a decision between using Ghost House or another company largely dealing in Horror, Twisted pictures.

Although their main focus is primarily of our sub-genre, their plots often include possession which although I researched into it as a possibility, we chose not to use. (POSSESSION BLOG POST) Not including this feature within our plot therefore makes the Ghost House company not entirely suitable.

Other companies researched have previously deal with high successful supernatural projects, such as Hammer (Woman in Black) and Twisted Pictures (Dead Silence) but do not have a distinctive direction towards the sub-genre.

I resulted in making my decision due to Ghost House's suitability as an experienced producer of the supernatural horror genre and their superiority in comparison to the other options researched.

Production Companies

1. Hammer Films
'Smart Horror'
Let Me In, Woman in Black, The Resident, Wakewood.

2.Big Talk Productions
Largely Comedy-Horror
In Fear, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Attack the Block

3. Lionsgate Entertainment
All Genres
The Last Exorcism, Cabin in the Woods, Haunting in Connecticut, Saw

4.BBC Films
Tormented, Fish Tank, The Awakening

5.Twisted Pictures
Saw, Dead Silence, Texas Chainsaw 3D

6. Ghosthouse Pictures
Drag Me To Hell, The Possession, The Grudge

Produces horror thrillers, largely in the supernatural genre (usually focusing on possessions).

Changes to Filming

On location, we discovered that there were problems with some of the original decided features of our scene:

• When filming our test shots, it became apparent that the path we had originally chosen for the victim to follow around the Royal Naval College into the foot-tunnel would cause difficulties. We had to block out a separate route through the grounds ensuring that no restaurants, passing visitors, sign posts for the gift shop or shots in which the glass casing of the Cutty Sark were visible. This proved difficult due to the lack of lighting upon the foot-paths in the area and the obvious commercialisation of the location.
• On our original storyboard, no filming was included from the individual view of the victim as we decided to film the majority in CCTV format due to no intended empathy being felt towards the victim as an emotional bond between them and the audience as their character is insignificant as part of the plot.
• The skyline shots we are using within our scene originally were not planned and were added as a decision during filming. We had planned to include establishing shots to determine the importance of our location as an anonymous city (London) but originally of the college and Cutty Sark itself but on location, we found the brighter and more definitive example of London as a location would have been better represented using the skyline shot of the City buildings across the Thames as a universal symbol.
• Our first plan depicted the entirity of the scene filmed in the tunnel to be produced in black and white as CCTV footage but due to the supernaturality of our plot and our intention to emphasise this, we can now chosen to switch between colour during these shots to distort the image.

Name Choices

 The Naming Process

 To begin progress within deciding on a name for our film, I began with making a list of the main components of our scene, a technique that would allow names to be thought up due to what is included within our piece. 
However, it is difficult to decide upon a definitive name due to certain features of our opening (such as location) due to the following plot not to have been decided in depth. For example, as we are only producing the opening scene in which a murder takes part in a tunnel we could in theory title it around this feature but if the film were to continue and be produced following on from this scene, it is not initially intended for the majority of the setting to be placed in that tunnel.

Whilst brainstorming choices, I included all possible titles I came up with despite a number of them being useless due to sounding terrible and having other issues so that when shown to the rest of the group presenting the ideas, it can allow us to critique different choices and possibly come up with more ideas related to them.

At the current stage of process, the three most effective choice (in my opinion) would be; 'Grin.', 'Whiteface' and 'Smile, Please.' as having as few syllables as possible allows the name to be short and memorable .

• Grin refers to the clown's face itself and also towards the lipstick mark they leave upon their victim acting as a calling card.
• Whiteface is the name of the type of clown we are using within our scene as the antagonist, a comedy grotesque whiteface. (Allows us to enforce to the audience that the clown itself is the focus, not the victim or location.)
• 'Smile, please' also refers to the calling card mark left upon the victim's body after the murder has taken place. (Conveys a sinister tone, typically a possible title choice for a comedy film.) 

Editing Choices

Shot One- Rolling Credits

Applying a bleach bypass effect

Increased speed up to four times it's original pace

Shot Two- London skyline

Applied bleach bypass effect

Speed increased by half

Shot Three- London Skyline

Speed increased four times

Reduced Motion Distortion

Increased zoom by 7%

Smoothed stability

 Shot Five- London Skyline

Increased zoom by 16%

Smoothed stability

Reduced motion distortion

We wanted to increase the speed at the beginning to shock the audience and set the a fast pace for our opening. We sped up the clip duration to enable us to fit in more shots and we liked the resulting effect. By speeding up the start, the audience have no idea what is going on, which is our intention, as we wanted the audience to be confused and disorientated. By using the tunnel shots, it allowed a smooth movement going through the tunnel and established the location.


When we applied the bleach bypass, we wanted an effect that darkened the tunnel and created a dirtier more sinister horror effect, as it complemented the surroundings and created shadows on the walls, in which would interest the audience to what unusual events are occuring within the tunnel.


When editing the skyline, we decided to stabilise the establishing shot, as we did not want it to jolt. Our intention was for the establishing shot to be a serene shot, in contrast to the tunnel opening it follows. The shot included London lit-up at night and we increased the contrast to enable the audience to be able to establish the buildings in the shot, and connect it with London. The motion distortion was needed to enable the smooth movement, as when it was first shot, it was taken through shaken hands, which post-filming we decided wasn't an effect we felt appropriate for this shot.

Firestarter

Source of Inspiration: Firestarter Music Video

• During our location selection process as we began to consider the use of a tunnel, we decided for sources of inspiration to look outside of only the horror genre and began looking at projects outside of film.

• The concept of a music video introduced the possibility of using sound overlay to mimic diegetic sound whilst removing all other extraneous background sound. 

• We have chosen to adapt this and use it within our scenes outside of the tunnel, with our victim listening to music, allowing us to dismiss any interrupting background sounds and to place the audience in a empathic position over the victim, understanding how oblivious they are to danger around them. 

• Another advantage the video made apparent to us was lighting within a tunnel, the prominent circles of light within the tunnel causing different parts of the tunnel to be far more brightly lit than others. 

• For our scene, the darker sections can be used to show the antagonist as they approach the victim in stop motion, as the victim disappears from light into dark, their lack of hope becoming apparent.

Evaluation of Practical Progress So Far

Our Visit to Location

• When we took our first visit as a group to visit our location and started test shooting to ensure when it came to post-production, we would not be faced with having to refilm sections due to lighting and other issues that may occur.
• We established in which order and when we would film certain shots, scheduling them in sections and in order of importance.
• Also, we blocked out where and how the camera/actors would move, altering our original decisions due to what was more easily achievable and effective within our choice of location.
• One of our changes made was to attach our camera onto the top of a bicycle to enable smooth, steady movement when the camera follows the actor's path.
• We were also able to establish where we would chose to film our opening shots to establish the region and background to our plot.
• In terms of costume, our visits also confirmed to us that the antagonist being dressed in white and red would be far more affective in terms of visibility due to the lighting available to us (allowing us to choose a final costume).
• By the finish of our first visit, we'd made effecient progress in determining exactly how we would film and also it enabled us to discover what we would need to negotiate and compromise in future, therefore allowing us to plan our next visit.

Male Protagonists

Male Protagonists

Hero

• Stereotypically brave and courageous male, often either completely selfish or selfless.
• Strong and physically able to protect themselves and others.
• Handsome and sexually attractive to both other characters and the audience.
• Protective father/son/boyfriend figure in dominance over female vulnerability.

Geek

• Socially awkward, few friends/small social group.
• Physically incapable of defending themselves or others.
• Usually young, teenage and unable to cope with growing up/being in high school.
• Easily scared, phobic of violence or any minor harmful activity. 

   Subversion

• Masculine male, physically fit and attractive.
• Able to defend themselves against other humans and protect others.
• Defeated by evil despite their powerful dominance.
• Overpowered by a threat originally thought to be far smaller than them.  

 (This would be most suitable for our chosen theme as we want to introduce an immediate sense of danger to our audience within our opening scene and we feel by choosing a victim to unexpectedly be defeated it can demonstrate how large a threat our killer is, establishing it as the plot would continue for the duration of the film.)