Research and Planning

Media Studies Film Opening

Genre and Target audience

Our chosen genre is HORRORAnd our target audience we are going to aim

our film at is late teens and young adults.

We chose to do horror because we thought it would be the best genre that we could excel in. We also thought we could show all that we have learnt so far in our video by using a wide variety of camera

angles, shots and different shot types

A brief outline of the plot…

• Walking out of gates (away from school).• Coming home from college/work on the bus.• Hints that they are being followed/watched.• Walks over bridge, even more suspense.• Walks up to house still being followed.• Goes into the house.• Turns on computer and a message appears

(email or internet warning).• Person following looks in from outside through

the window.

The PlotWe have chosen to start the opening scene with Paul Smith (the main character), a school/college pupil leaving school. We will film him walking out of the gates. Now we switch to a P.O.V shot of Paul sitting on a bus looking out of the window. Our next scene is Paul walking home from the bus stop, over a bridge to the other side of the road to commence his walk home. We chose to add the P.O.V shot of Paul sitting on the bus in because it would have looked odd if we switched from school straight to the walk home from the bus stop. Now we see Paul walking up to his house, he is scared as he thinks he is still being followed so we will add some eerie music to add suspense. He enters his house, goes straight in and turns on the computer. A ‘warning’ message appears, he reads it. Now there is even more suspense and he is even more scared. The camera flashes up at the window – a tilt shot, we see a dark figure, this turns out to be the person that has been following him.

Conventions of our chosen genreSound is very important in Horror because it helps create tension and suspense and adds to the effects. The use of music and silence is important in creating effects. We are going to try and re-create this in our opening

The last genre we watched was the Horror genre. These included Saw2, Scream and The Village.

• Saw's opening scene was very good at creating atmosphere and uses lighting, camera shot/angles and sound to make the audience feel scared.The light was very dark and only showed a light bulb on its own showing that the person in the scene is on his own by the way that the camera looks around and the breathing that is coming from behind the camera.

• Scream's titles are very good showing the title of the film in white then a scream and a knife slash can be heard. The title then goes red representing blood. There were many close ups on things that didn't appear very special in the film. The camera keeps following the girl showing that something might happen to her later on in the scene.

• The titles in 'The Village' were in a very Gothic font showing that the film may be set in the past or in a distant place. High pitched music is used a lot and the only thing seen in the beginning of the film is the dark trees of a wood.

Using the things we have seen in the three horror films we can try and apply these techniques in our short film to try and make it better.

Setting for our opening scenes

From the mind map above you can see where we want to set out film.

It shows where we want to set each scene of our film in.

Setting for our opening scenesTHE AREA WE ARE SETTING THE FILM IN

BUS STOP

HOUSE THAT CHARACTER WALKS INTO

THE BRIDGE

THERFIELD SCHOOL

Special Effects

Rain (would be preferred)

Car noises (next to a busy A road)

Clothing/Props• Costume (main character – normal

clothes, follower – long dark jacket and a covered face)

• Laptop/computer (to show the message)

• College/work bag

• Keys (to open the door)

Sound

These are the sound we want to use:Non-diagetic• Creepy/mysterious sounds (violin stroke – high

pitched)• Owl’s hooting

Diagetic• Rain hitting the floor

Credits

• The title of film – big and bold (red/white – this is to represent blood and skin)

• The rest of the credits – smaller font in corner of screen while film is beginning (white/red)