PRODUCTION IDEA

Emma Collins. COWA

Plot of the film:The main girl is at home babysitting her little brother, when her friend (teen 2) comes over stating they need to go out. When she refuses, her friend tells her that she will just say at home with her and doesn’t give her a choice. Once her brother is asleep, she suggest they watch a film, but her friend says they should do the new midnight ritual which she heard about online. The main girl refuses, however eventually agrees to it after being taunted. They look up the ritual online and start it. A part of it requires turning off the lights, now in complete darkness the girls walk around the house alone, trying to avoid the ‘midnight man’ entity. The second teen scares the main girl, causing her to turn on the lights, thus breaking the ritual. The girls argue and eventually go to sleep, with the lights on. The main girl wakes up as she thinks she hears someone whisper her name. She gets up, shouting at her friend for scaring her again, her friend wakes up confused as she was asleep. The lights then turn off. The girls re-light the candles and run upstairs to her brother’s room, they find him in bed crying saying that he heard a man whisper his name. They continue round the house looking for more candles and the fuse box, they find it completely destroyed and all of the other candles refuse to light. Her friend suggest that they should still do the ritual as the midnight man is not happy. They argue again , and the main girl tells her friend to go home as she is scaring her brother. They cannot open the door and are left alone in the house with a entity. They have to try survive the night without encountering the midnight man. One gets possessed, and tries to hunt down the other two. Will they survive past midnight?

Characters:• Main teen girl:

Caring, nice, easily influenced, easily scared.

• Girls friend: Outgoing, rude, risk taker.

• Little Boy: Innocent, childish, scared easily.

Mise-en-scene:

Setting-Suburban house, normal street. The family house is a realistic setting for a horror. It is also very conventional for the genre. The fact that it is a realistic setting makes the plot seem more ‘real’ to the audience, making the horror seem scarier. Although family homes aren’t always associated with being frightening, they often are associated with supernatural horrors because of the theme of possession and an evil entity taking over. That itself makes the setting scary as it shows to audiences that characters are not even safe in their own ‘normal’ home. Lighting-The lighting in this film would be low-key, due to the fact most of it is set in the dark. The only source of lighting is candle light and only on occasions high-key lighting, to represent the normality. This is also very conventional for the horror genre as audiences don’t associate bad things happening in a lit up area, or in day-time . It also plays on the fear of the dark, and ‘your minding tricking yourself. Overall the use of the low-key lighting creates a ominous atmosphere, which helps to put the audience on edge, preparing them for jump scares. It also tells the audience that the characters are in a dangerous situation, and is not ‘normal’.

Props-I will use props which help make the plot authentic, for example salt to keep the ‘entity’ away, and a lighter to light the candle etc. The most important props used in my trailer will be a candle, which is a source of light, and it also is apart of the midnight game the characters play. I will also use conventional props such as a knife (weapon) and children's toys, this is because it is what my audience expect to see in a horror. It helps create tension, such as when a toy starts moving/playing on its own, or creates action when a character pulls out a knife to defend themselves.

Make-up-Similar to the costume I will keep the make-up realistic and natural, to create the sense of realism in the trailer. I will only use over the top makeup for when one of the characters become possessed, it wont be too over the top but they will have a rugged and pale appearance, including cuts and blood on their body. This helps to shock the audience. Some characters will also have cuts and bruises on them to show their struggle with the antagonist, it also helps show their vulnerability as they are weak.

Costume-I will only use realistic costumes, such as using clothing conventional for teenagers, and young boys. This helps to keep the sense of realism making the story believable. I will also dress the characters in different colours which will be a connotation of their personality, and to foreshadow what will happen to them, for example: The younger brother will wear blue and whites to connotate his innocence. The antagonist (possessed character) will wear dark colours as a connotation of their danger and evil. The other characters will wear neutral colours, as a connotation of their vulnerability and innocence.

Mise-en-scene:

Cinematography:I will use various types of shots when creating the horror trailer . Close up shots will be used to show emotion and reactions of the characters , it also allows to show detail on gore and when a character gets possessed. I will also use wide shots to show the setting and to help create tension, tracking shots will also be incorporated into these wide shots to follow the character, to create a ‘stalking’ feel and creates tension for the audience. I will also use the conventional over the shoulder shot to show what a character see’s, this also helps create tension, but it also helps to create jump scares. Low angle shots will also be used to show a powerful or dominating character, and high angle shots will be used to show vulnerability , these would mainly be used on the little boy to emphasise his innocence.

Sound:The sounds I will be using in this film trailer would be a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic. The non-diegetic sounds will consist of ominous background music such as a low droning sound, which is conventional for the genre. It is usually incorporated with a high pitched noise which gets louder and louder as it leads to a jump scare. I will use this technique in my trailer to create tension, I will incorporate the high pitched noise when action is occurring or a jump scare is about to happen . I will also use non-diegetic ‘stabs’ and ‘stings’ in the music when a jump scare occurs. The diegetic sounds I will use will consist of dialogue and amplified sounds like heart beating, a clock ticking and whispering, this helps to put the audience on edge creating tension. I will also have stages in my trailer when I will have no non-diegetic sound, this helps to put the audience on edge as they will wonder what is happening as it will be different to the rest of the trailer, this is also conventional in horrors, I will use this to present a jump scare as it catches the audience off guard.

Editing:I will start the trailer at a slow pace, only using normal speed cutting techniques between establishing scenes to introduce the audience to the story, cross cutting will also be used to show what is happening with the sister, and the brother to introduce characters. However I want to get into the action and suspense of the trailer quickly, I will use fast pace cuts from different scenes of action to draw the audience in. I will also include a few fades to black to introduce the film title and other relevant information. I will use black as it connotates fear, it also plays with the idea that the film is set mainly in the dark. I will finish off with a quick scene which includes a jump scare. Overall the editing will be mainly fast paced editing, which from my research into the genre and audience has proven to be conventional for my genre and it is what the audience want to see.