Genre conventions and our production

How our film relates to standard horror conventions

Camera shots:

Our film has multiple camera shots that relate to the horror genre. An example is the high angle shots which will be present throughout the piece, especially in the first few shots in the interview room at the beginning of the piece. We also utilise depth of field in the corridor scenes to create suspense as people move a lot more slowly in these scenes. All of these shots are widely utilised to create tension and increase immersion within horror films and we plan to use them to the best of our abilities.

Cinematography:

Lighting is by far one of our most important factors we need to incorporate into our theme. We plan to film in the dark, to create an atmosphere of fear and tension much like camera shots are used for. Every horror film ALWAYS incorporates dark lighting so not having it would be hugely detrimental to our final piece.

Characters:

We will have two characters present in the opening scene, and these adhere to modern horror conventions. We will try to utilise “the blonde” who inevitably dies first (who is Emma in this case) and also the heroine (who is Charlie-Ann) who represents purity and being a saviour. We will also briefly incorporate the iconic villain which is present in a lot of horror films, but only very briefly as we do not want to devalue the enigma code in the opening scene.

Location:

We plan to film at school, but at night when the school is empty and rather dark. This sense of subverted familiarity is a very scary concept as it changes the audience’s perception of a place.

Sound:

Our film will include exaggerated diegetic sound in order build up tension within the film and scare the audience right off the bat, and will also include short and brief non-diegetic sounds in order to shock the audience, both of these and standard conventions.

The Prop List

Prop List

Knife- We need a knife to act as a murder weapon.

Blood- The blood will be put on the knife so it looks like a murder has taken place, the blood will drip off.

School Books- The school books will be needed for charlie ann and emma when they are doing their work.

Synopsis of our film

This was done before our trip to the BFI, so it an out of date synopsis.

The opening scene will start off with Charlie-Ann being interviewed by the police after the death Emma. (This will make sence during the end of the opening scene, when Emma dies.) We then see short clips of the school, the playground, and the corridor. This will give the indication that the school is deserted, and the lights will flicker in the coridor to give a sense of eerieness. It will also be silent, and the lights will be dim. We then see Charlie-Ann and Emma walking into the school to finish off some work that is due in the next day. They then enter the classroom, get there books out, and begin working. You will then see a close up of the clock showing 4 O'clock, and it will slowly fade out and back, and the time will have changed to 6 O'clock. Emma and Charlie-Ann are just finishing there work, when the door suddenly creeks open.

Charlie-Ann then goes up to shut the door. As she is standing by the door, she hears voices, and sees a dark shaddow go past. She goes out the classroom and down the corridor to see what is going on. She gets towards the end of the corrider to see that there is nothing there, and makes her way back up. As she begins to walk back, all the doors in the corrider slam one by one. The lockers begin to shake, and she hears more voices. She goes to one of the doors that slammed to see if anyone is in the room.

As she opens the door, we see a match on action shot of her opening the door and looking in the room. Behind her is a dark figure with a knife covered in blood dripping on the floor. (Charlie-Ann is unaware of this). She sees that nothing is there, so runs back to the classroom to tell Emma. She comes back to the room to find Emma dead, laying on the table covered in blood. Charlie-Ann screams, and the opening scene ends.

Group work photos

This shows me drawing the storyboard.










This shows Nick filling in the timeline of he opening scene.









This shows Kieran and Charlie-Ann looking for examples of horror titles for other horror films.

The final film pitch - "Presence"

 "Presence"

 

This is our film pitch which presents the plan for the film we decided to make. It was decided on by the group, and we incorporated the title of my initial pitch ("Presence") aswell as the genre I proposed.

Initial presentation - "Presence"

Geezah from fudgev2

 

This was my initial pitch that I presented to my group. The film wasn't chosen in its entirity but elements from it were definitely included, such as the genre and the name. I felt it was a good influence towards our final presentation without a doubt.