Planning: The Treatment

The group are walking towards a treeline with camping equipment on their back. ‘A Slaughterhouse Production’ appears at the bottom of the screen. Adrian is seen talking to his mum on the phone. When there is a close up of him, text will appear on the screen with the actor's name – ‘Ashley Paddick’. The camera will then switch to Zac who is directly next to Adrian. The text of ‘Thomas Mckenna’ will then appear. After their conversation, the camera pans towards the sky. Here ‘A film by Charlie North, Julia Bickle and Leah Mitchell’ will become visible.

Whilst the group are walking through the woods other titles come into shot: ‘Costume design by Charlie North, Julia Bickle and Leah Mitchell’, ‘Edited by Charlie North, Julia Bickle and Leah Mitchell’ and ‘Written by Charlie North, Julia Bickle and Leah Mitchell’.

When the teenagers arrive at the campsite, the camera is focused on Adrian and Zac relaxing in their tent. A jumpscare follows in which the audience gets their first close up view of Alona. The actresses name appears on screen, ‘Neave Coleman’. This is followed by a lot of laughing from Alona which results in Stephanie throwing a slight tantrum. When the camera gets pointed at Stephanie, the actresses name becomes visible, ‘Rachel Keevil’. Eventually Damon gets his first close up on the camera in response to Stephanie’s rant. The actors name appears – ‘Jack Westwood’. The scene fades to black.

Everyone is seated around the campfire. Alona suggests that they do a séance. After some discussion the group finally agree. The scene fades to black and ‘Produced by Charlie North, Julia Bickle and Leah Mitchell’ appears on screen.

The teenagers are holding hands and are huddled together, ready to start the séance. Alona directs the séance. When things aren’t looking hopeful, Stephanie intervenes and begins dismissing the idea of the séance when all of a sudden a twig snaps. This results in the group getting slowly closer to the location of the sound. Here Damon sees something in the woods which triggers a phrase to repeat over and over again in his mind. With this driving him mad, other members of the group begin to get angry as they are frightened and thing that Damon is messing around. All of a sudden Damon loses his temper and begins strangling Zac. There is a sudden black screen. ‘Slaughterhouse Productions present’ fades onto the screen.

Damon is slowly recovering from being knocked out. He is on the ground, attempting to get to his feet. When he finally stands up and regains vision again he is faced with the dead bodies of his friends. He looks down to see blood and scratches all over his body. The scene fades to black and the title, ‘The Woken Woods’ appears.

Planning: Writing A Screenplay For The Film Opening

SCENE 1


3 boys and 2 girls, between the ages of 16-18, are walking up a dirt trail directed towards a forest with multiple bags weighing them down. Adrian is on the phone to his mother, reassuring her that he will be safe and that everything will be fine. The other teenagers are in the background mocking him apart from Stephanie and Damon who are seen hand in hand flirtatiously joking with each other.

ADRIAN: Mum, everything’s gonna be fine, trust me!

 (Faint, high-pitched murmuring can be heard in the background, coming from the phone) 

ADRIAN: Yes – yes, Zac’s here, yes.

 ZAC: Tell Mrs Chester I said hey, and that I’ll return her thong tomorrow. (Smirks and chuckles to himself about his own sexual remark) 

ADRIAN: (Looks at Zac and mouths ‘Piss off’) Yeah, we’re staying as a group…just don’t worry about us – it’s only camping. 


SCENE 2 


The group arrive at the designated campsite and begin to make themselves at home. Stephanie is seen struggling to put up her tent as Damon laughs at her.  

STEPHANIE: Oh my god, I don’t even want to be in this shithole! I’ve already got mud in my nails and we’ve only been here for 5 flipping minutes. And this stupid tent is driving me crazy. For god sake Damon, don’t just stand there and laugh – help me! (Damon continues to laugh) 

ALONA: Peace and love guys, peace and love… 

STEPHANIE: Ugh, shut up and somebody just help me! 

DAMON: (Still slightly laughing) Babe just calm down and let me do it. 


SCENE 3


Close up of the campfire, which then rotates around to reveal the group crowded around the fire. The group are chattering amongst themselves. All of a sudden Alona suggests an idea. 

ALONA: Guys, d’ya fancy doing a… 

STEPHANIE: A what Alona? 

ALONA: A - A séance? 

ADRIAN: What’s a séance… 

ZAC: Oh my god, are you an actual idiot? 

DAMON: Yeah I’m up for that! 

STEPHANIE: Damon are you being serious? 

DAMON: Ooh is someone a bit scared of the little ghosties, are you scared they’re gonna come and get ya Steph? 

ZAC: (Creeps up behind Stephanie and makes her jump, then falls into a laughing fit) 

ALONA: Lets just do it guys; it’ll be a laugh! 

The other teenagers look at each other, some excited, some sceptical and some frightened. 


SCENE 4


The group are still in a circular formation however their hands are now linked. The fire is larger and the night sky is darker. 

ALONA: What time is it? 

ZAC: Why? 

ALONA: The spirit world is more active at midnight (continues rambling on to Zac) 

(Adrian gets out his phone) 

ADRIAN: Well it’s 12:04 now…

(Phone runs out of battery)

ADRIAN: Crap. 

STEPHANIE: Can we just get this over and done with already? 

(Everyone falls silent and looks at Alona)

ALONA: Spirits, we mean you no harm. 

ZAC: Unless you mess with us (flexes his arm and chuckles) 

(Everyone looks at him in disgust) 

ALONA: As I was saying… Is there anyone here who wishes to speak to us? Or perhaps wants to enter one of our bodies? 

STEPHANIE: (Abruptly) Just not mine though.

ADRIAN: And preferably not mine please. 

ALONA: Shh. 

Everybody falls silent and looks around nervously. There is a sudden clash of thunder. Stephanie screams while some of the others flinch at the sound. Zac laughs loudly at Stephanie. 

ZAC: (Laughing) Wow! You’re such a typical girl. 

DAMON: Mate you jumped too… 

(Zac looks at Damon defensively) 

ADRIAN: Can we just get this over and done with before it starts raining?

Everyone looks at each other cautiously nodding.

ALONA: Is anyone here? 

STEPHANIE: For crying out loud, can we just stop this now? I’ve had enough and no one is here, it’s just us! Can we just stop with these stupid games and spiritual bullshit! None of this crap is real, it’s just –

A twig in the background snaps. Everyone’s heads slowly turn. They get up and head slightly closer to the location of the sound. Damon lights a torch and sees something in the woods. He stumbles backwards and Stephanie rushes forwards to help him. 

STEPHANIE: Damon, omg babe, are you okay? What’s wrong? 

Damon ignores her and begins to stumble forwards whilst trying to get his torch to work again, as if in a trance, fixated by the figure he witnessed in the woods. The phrase ‘Silvis erit excitato in sanguine tuo’ is heard. 

STEPHANIE: Damon? Damon! Seriously Damon, what on hell are you doing? 

Stephanie grabs Damon and turns him around so they are looking at each other. The campfire is seen in the middle of them. 

STEPHANIE: Look at me. 

Damon makes eye contact with Stephanie. As soon as this happens, the campfire distinguishes. The campsite is plunged into darkness and the teenagers in the campsite begin shouting and screaming out in fright. Damon can hear the same phrase repeated in his head. 

DAMON: Can you guys hear that? 

ALONA: Hear what… 

STEPHANIE: (Whispers) Be quite. 

ADRIAN: I can’t hear anything… Silence 

ZAC: Damon quit it. Stop trying to make us all shit ourselves. You’re either bloody mad or just messed up (continues to rant). 

Whilst Zac is ranting, Damon is getting closer to him. The other teenagers try to intervene and tell him to stop but he keeps on getting closer. Stephanie rushes to him to stop him but Damon violently pushes her out of the way. As everyone runs to Damon to sort him out, he grabs Zac by the neck and starts to strangle him. 

Blackout. 


SCENE 5 


Damon awakes. He is lying on the floor. He looks at his hands and see’s scratch marks, blood and a weird symbol on his hand. Damon gets up and scratches, cuts and bruises are seen to be located on the rest of his body too. As he turns around, the dead bodies of his 4 friends come into view.

Planning: Location

Our chosen location for the campsite:

We selected our campsite to be the second option (handmade campsite); the atmosphere is scarier and will cause a greater impact onto the audience. As well as this, the factor of the unknown is much greater when the campsite is within the woods because the audience doesn't know who, or what, is outside.

Here is a video showing all angles of the campsite:

Our chosen location for the field: 

We have chosen the North East field as the location for the characters to walk across as there is an opening that they can enter to get into the woods and the trees look more aesthetically pleasing.

As our group only has access to Weekley Woods, we walked around there and took photographs to ensure that it was correct for our opening scene. 

Here are a selection of the photographs that we took at the woods:

Our chosen location for the campsite:

Weekley Woods provides us with a vast amount of trees to make locations secluded, paths for the characters to walk down and great scenery, therefore we shall be using this place to record our opening scene in.

Essay: Codes And Conventions In Existing Horror Films Aimed At A Teenage Audience

Codes can be anything that is involved in the technical side of creating TV or Film content (the editing/camera work, lighting and the use of equipment), during filming or post-production that helps the narrative of the story and the symbolic side is anything to do with Mise-en-scene, consisting of everything that is in the camera’s view which is very important as it gives a film its verisimilitude. Conventions, however, are the aspects of a plot or story that frequently occur depending on genre. Both of these things (when they are used correctly) are essential when creating a film especially in an opening as they allow the audience to identify straight away, the genre in which the film is.

The Wrong Turn

In this films' opening, the most prominent convention associated with horror used is the fact that there two people alone in a very secluded location. This is first shown in a crane shot (the first shot) where a vague dirt road in the distance and a large forest can be seen. The camera then tilts at a birds-eye view angle and tracks backwards slowly at first and then faster which accompanied by the non-diegetic  music starting and increasing in volume creates tension in addition to showing the audience the vast scale of the forest in comparison to the area where the two people are rock-climbing - this is can be seen in the second shot which fades into the first one at the same angle to appear as if the camera had tracked backwards all the way to the cliff face they are on. It is then mentioned by the male character when reacting to the female character screaming after she slips, saying "[they are] 50 miles from anybody, who you screamin' for?" which foreshadows that something bad is going to happen and if it does then they will not be able to get help from anyone due to this. 
Before her friend is killed and she sees him being dragged away she asks him to pull her up as she is struggling to climb up to the top, there is no reply (because he is being killed), there is an establishing/extreme long shot of her on the cliff. This shows how extensive her surroundings are in comparison to her, emphasising her vulnerability and isolation due to the separation of characters, which is also another convention used in horror films as it plays on the common fear of being alone or abandonment meaning that the audience can relate to the character's fear in addition to the fact that this makes the female character in this opening quite defenceless against this unknown killer/monster.
Similarly, the female character appears to be the stereotypical blonde girl who  is often one of the first characters to be killed and usually dressed in tight clothing (much like the character in this opening), portrayed as dumb or very jumpy and is usually paired with a stereotypical masculine male character who the female character usually needs to be protected by or is unprotected without them. For example, her skittish behaviour is displayed when she looses her footing and falls as she screams which is the first sense of fear we see in the film and also acts as a fake scare due to the loud volume of the diegetic sound. Stereotypical characters such as this are used to keep the audience on edge as this creates more suspense and tension.
Dead Mary
The main convention used in this opening is that the couple's car broke down so the vehicle won't start. Meanwhile, a girl is waiting for her boyfriend to come back from the only gas station for miles to retrieve gas for the car, all alone in a secluded place which puts her in a position where if anything bad were to happen then she wouldn't be able to get away, with only a small red (has connotations of blood, violence and evil) gun in the glove compartment that she finds, which foreshadows that maybe it will need to be used later on in the film.  This is also a very effective convention as it doesn't damage the film's verisimilitude as it is a very realistic situation that could happen to anyone, so it makes it more believable to the audience.
Out of boredom, the girl tries to turn on the radio but only diegetic sounds of fuzz and small snippets of a song can be heard as there is no signal. Another example of this is when she is trying to call someone, probably her boyfriend, and fails to get phone signal as she reaches it out of the car. This convention is very commonly used as it means that the characters are seen as unsafe because if anything were to happen then they couldn't contact any emergency services if someone got hurt or they wouldn't be able to contact each other if they got separated making them more exposed to danger.

Dead Wood

During the first shot of this opening there is already a fake scare in which as the camera pans downwards from a high angled crane shot of the surroundings of a forest, a small river of a ditch comes into view before someone abruptly splashes into it whilst running away from danger. Similar to the fake scare in 'The Wrong Turn', this is achieved by the use of the diegetic sound of the loud splash of the water in addition to the contrasting non-diegetic music which is quite calm along with the diegetic background noise of birds. This change in atmosphere not only makes the audience jump but it makes them more uneasy and alert so they focus on the action going on in the film - in this case it seems as though the director has used this as an indicator that something is about to happen as a way to get straight into the action.

In most horror films the antagonist is never seen and this film also uses the same convention. From the very beginning of the opening we see a man running away from something unknown to the audience, however we know it is there because of the use of camera shots such as crabbing and tracking which seem like POV shots due to shaky movements and leaves and branches being in front of the scene taking place out of focus giving the impression that the man running is being chased/watched by someone or something. At one point, he looks around frantically and behind him we see branches shaking indicating that the murderer/monster is close by him which keeps the audience in suspense.
Not only is the protagonist in danger from whatever is chasing him, in a secluded place, by himself, he inexplicably falls over while jumping over a huge ditch to get to the other side which he probably could have found an easier route to get to without falling over. As he clings to the edge of the drop this shows that the audience that he is in an extremely vulnerable state as he can't run or defend himself which builds up the tension as the audience knows that he now has no chance at survival and is going to be killed. Additionally, we learn that his camp and tent is right by where he was killed after seeing blood pour from his mouth and his body landing down the drop, giving him a false sense of security as he may have been able o get help from the other character who was in the tent by shouting but it was too late to get to safety. This also gives the audience false hope of the characters survival.

Planning: Target Audience Feedback

In order to ensure that our film opening appealed to our target audience, we decided to create a group discussion (with people within our target audience age) and ask them questions; it allowed us to discover their preferences, opinions and ideas on what they expect from a film of the horror genre. As well as this, it supplied us with suggestions which we can use within the first 2 minutes of our film.






The group discussion enabled my group and I to solidify ideas for the opening of our horror film, such as:

• The scene will be filmed at dusk in order to make the visuals scarier.
• The personality of each individual character.
• To incorporate scenes from the past and present for example, flashbacks and newspaper articles.
• To include jump scares, maybe a few fake jump scares.
• Perhaps keep the killer unseen to add hints of mystery.
• The scenes should be staggered instead of flowing to create an element of confusion.
• To have a type of branding on Damon's hand to show that he's been possessed.
• 'The Woken Woods' will be our movie title.

Research: The Importance Of Opening Titles

Within the lesson we learnt the importance of opening title by using the website: Art Of The Title. This provided us with useful information which we would benefit from when we are continuing to create our Main Task: an opening of a teenage horror film, during post-production.

We then further improved our understanding of opening titles, their purpose, and how they are used to effect the audience and draw them into the film by evaluating the opening credits to the psychological horror 'Se7en'. 

Titles

After familiarising myself with the opening credits, I wrote the times that all the wording appeared. This enabled me to learn the structure in which different titles of roles and jobs that were responsible for creating the film. First of all the names of the most top billed cast, then supporting actors appear on screen in order of relevance to the film. Next, you have the smaller job titles such as casting directors, costume design, music directors and their names ect. The credits then lead up to the film title (which appears several time during this opening but more noticeably towards the end) followed by the name of the producer and directer. 

Typography

In order to identify the effects of different styles and aspects of typography including the colour, font, and size I created mind maps and noted down what typography this opening consisted of an how they helped reflect the genre and style of the film. For  example, the double layered, messy front looks like it was written violently by hand which could be referring to this theme of the film and also matches the visual aspects of the opening which featured similar scrawly looking handwriting on paper in several of the shots. 

Visual Elements

I then took notes on everything I could see on screen without the sound, meaning I could focus on the visual aspects which not only helps set the scene for the film, it also gives the audience a glimpse of what they can expect to see in the content of the film. For example, every now and then you will see bright flashes between shots and still images what seems like the resemblance of the photography of evidence which implies to the audience that this film has the theme of crime and detectives. Additionally, during this opening you can see various close ups and extreme close ups of what seems like an obsessive killer researching and planning, and scrap booking mementos of previous victims. Visual aspects such as this are very intense for the audience which prepares them for the scary and disturbing atmosphere of the film. 

Elements Of Sound

I did the same thing but in reverse with just the sound and without watching the opening to take notes on the elements of sound, focussing on what affects the diagetic and non-diagetic sound would have on the audience. Overall there wasn't much diagetic sound, however there were noises similar to some sort of machinery that was very distorted which related to some of the images and shots shown in the opening. There were lots of different non-diagetic sound that were sometimes hard to decipher which were very loud, creating an eerie atmosphere and making the audience feel on edge even before the film starts. 

The knowledge in which I gained through researching the opening titles in horror films will help me in future when we make and apply the titles for our main task opening for a teenage horror movie in addition to what type of musical score would be best suited along side the titles. 

Planning From Initial Ideas To A 60 Second Pitch

In order to gather our initial ideas, we created mind-maps exploring various themes that we could base our horror film on.

We decided to focus on the theme of possession; the fear of the unknown and ghosts/demons are quite common, therefore our horror film would be appealing to our target audience as it would be scary.

Various ideas regarding the theme of possession were discussed, but eventually we settled on an idea that we all liked. Next, we thought about the story line more in depth and named our characters, thought of their ages and what their personality is like.

• Damon (unpossessed)- 17 - Considers himself as the masculine one of the group and was quite protective of his friends. 
• Damon (possessed) - Is extremely controlling, aggressive and manipulative. We named him Damon as it is very close to the word Demon.
• Stephanie - 16 - Is in a relationship with Damon. She is stereotypically girly and squeamish. Can be irritating and slightly stuck up.
• Alona - 16 - Seems to be the odd one out. Is very obsessed with the "dark arts" and is brave.
• Zac - 17 - Bravest of the group but is quite obnoxious. He is humorous but can sometimes take things too far.
• Adrian - 16 - He is the 'nice guy' of the group and is usually quite laid back and sometimes shy. 

We then created a summary of our film and eventually presented it as a 60 second pitch.

Below you can find our 60 second pitch at 6:10.

Research: Codes And Conventions Of A Horror Film

Researching Codes And Conventions Within Existing Media Products

In order to help us when developing ideas for the opening of our horror film we analysed other film openings from several different horror movies that are aimed at a teenage audience. We mind mapped the different ways in which codes such as the use of sound, camera, editing and miss-en-scene are used to effect the atmosphere of the film and help form conventions of horror films that were used in the opening.
Through doing this we gained a much better understanding of what representations of characters(stereotypes and counter counterstereotypes) and conventions were appropriate to use for a  horror film and how to use the different codes to portray these conventions successfully to ensure that our own film opening has verisimilitude.

Dead Wood

Dead Mary

The History Of Horror Films

Introduction To Main Task

Preliminary Task: Filming Schedule

Learning To Edit With Premiere Pro

Over the course of 2 lessons I started to learn the basics of editing using the software, Adobe Premiere Pro to produce a short piece of film that features Match-on-action, the 180 Degree Rule, and Shot/Reverse Shot. I then used footage from the previous sixth form group to practise what I had learnt during lesson and what I managed to figure out my self while using the software.


I learnt how to:
. Edit and cut/separate video using the razor tool
. Import and apply audio
. Import clips
. Export project from Premiere Pro as media
. Change the volume and adjusting the audio
. Add transitions and other effects to the video or audio
. Moving and shortening clips
. Render video
. Upload it to YouTube and embed it to my blog

Music: Intro - by Dud

Planing-Mise En Scene: Planning

The Characters for our Preliminary Task

Planning-Mise En Scene: Locations

Preliminary Task: Creating A Storyboard Of Our Initial Ideas

12 Shot Challenge 

In todays lesson, we were tasked with the '12 Shot Challenge' - This is where we have only 12 shots to complete our Preliminary Task. To begin with, we created a list of our ideas for camera shots, camera angles and camera movements:

1. An establishing shot of the field and the base in the background.
2. Long shot of un-named figure from behind walking towards the base.
3. Crabbing shot (close-up) of the figures feet.
4. Birds eye view of figure climbing through a window.
5. Mid-shot of figure (from the inside) climbing through the window, pan slowly towards the door as the figure walks towards it.
6. Close-up of hand on the door.
7. Girls Point-of-View of door opening and the figure walking towards her.
8. Mid-shot of duct tape getting ripped off the girl.
9. Over the shoulder shot facing towards the figure.
10. Close-up of girls face.
11. Extreme close-up of girls teary eyes.
12. Over the shoulder shot facing the figure who then proceeds to take off the mask.

We then created storyboards, created dialogue for the characters and imagined what the shots would look like whilst filming.

Here are the storyboards:





By creating story boards, it allowed me to understand the significance of planning so that we can visualise the outcome of the shots before hand.