Costume ideas

In my group, we decided to create ideas / mood boards for our future costumes. We mainly wanted our cast to wear very casual clothing, because we didn't want their costumes to be the main focus. We also looked at some existing films when making our decisions.

'The Forest'

'The Descent 2'

Our Ideas:

Eve Horror Film Trailer Storyboard

My group and I created this storyboard together

Risk Assessment

Feedback Questions and Answers

What are your transitions like?

They will be very fast and occasionally fade into each other

How do you suggest it’s a flashback?

In editing, I will colour grade the scene by adjusting the saturation 

How are you going to create a sense of fear?

we're going to try and add some jump scares and very fast and loud scenes

Remember this is a horror film - how will you use and subvert tropes of horror

In most horror films, the main characters are usually in a hetronormative sphere, whereas the main character in our film is not straight

Horror Film Trailer Treatment

The movie starts off with Eve who is the main character. She has an attraction towards her best friend Madison, which she cannot explain. One day she decides to go out with her and confess her true feelings. Once they find themselves in the woods, Eve stops and tells Madison everything she has been feeling for the past few months.

However Eve is shocked by the response which is mainly rejection and fear. Madison tries to get away from her and rejects the idea that they could ever be more than just friends. Eve does not understand why Maddie is suddenly so cold hearted and tries to come closer to her. Eventually without any intention, Eve grabs the hands of her best friend and then forces and pushes her against a tree repeatedly, hurting her head and causing for her to collapse on the floor. Her friend is unconscious or dead but neither Eve nor the audience know what the real circumstance of the friend’s condition is at this point.

Eve goes home and is almost unsure whether what just happened was real or not. Her outrageous behaviour is quite unusual for such a nice and quiet girl, however Eve shocked herself with what she is capable of.  That night Eve tries to get some sleep and forget all about the incident, through sweating and paranoia, she finally manages to fall asleep and forget for a while

Months later, Eve finds herself almost glued to her bed and her house. She is afraid to go out because she feels like she doesn’t deserve to be in the real world anymore. She goes to work and returns. No outdoors routines like jogging or walking in the park. Especially not the woods. Eve has not been in the woods in months and after her friend was reported missing, she didn’t dare to hang out with any old friends that her and Maddie hanged out with before. This however, does not become suspicious to anyone, Eve is a quiet girl who has always had quite an antisocial nature, and she could never hurt a fly.

Eve is paranoid with nightmares every night and she cannot take away the guilt which overwhelms her. When she is awake, her visions become so vivid and Madison is everywhere she turns. One moment Maddie tells Eve that everything is ok and the other, her figure crumbles into pieces and dust. Or one moment Eve is embracing Maddie and the other, she is slitting her throat gruesomely. Bold red blood covering her hands like they covered the tree in the woods. Maddie is dead, she must be dead,  Eve tells herself and brushes off the horrid visions.

A year later, and Eve is still stuck in time with the same old visions. Her art is not the same anymore. She, is not the same anymore. The sleepless nights and morning coffees are monotonous and dry routines for her. Until one night. When there is a knock at the door. Eve hasn’t invited anyone over and no one thinks of making unwanted surprise visits anymore, they haven’t in months anyway. Eve walks slowly, cat like towards the door. The hallway seems long and the floor ice cold. The knock repeats itself in steady beats. One two, One two, One Two Three.

Eve gets to the door and looks through the door Viewer. A blurred figure becomes clear as she blinks. Maddie. Her heart stops and her body freezes. Her palms cry with sweat and she rubs her eyes and looks through the door viewer once again. Maddie looks impatient, she looks scared and her hair is wet and messy. She is wearing the exact same clothes she was wearing when they went to the woods.

Eve pulls away the chains from the door and unlocks it slowly, and Madison smiles at her and starts hugging her. Eve is obviously surprised and freezes in shock, she tells Madison the nature of her supposed disappearance and questions her. Madison calmly reassures her that she has not been missing and suggests that Eve may have been imagining the whole incident. Eve does not question this and Madison figures that Eve does not remember her murder. Eve starts seriously questioning her sanity; she now increasingly stays inside, very rarely goes out. Her dreams disappear and nightmare is now reality. Madison now frequently visits her, phones her and is constantly in Eve’s life. This aspect drives the protagonist into further madness.

Horror Film Trailer Script

Script

Two young girls playing in the woods, holding hands.

Eve: (voiceover) We did everything together

Girls playing; ‘ring around the roses’

Eve: (Voiceover) The wood was our place… our secret place.

 A scene of the two girls in the present time

Eve tries to chase Madison

Madison: (faintly smiling) Eve, stop we are not kids anymore.

Eve: (voiceover) We were inseparable.

Eve: (voiceover) Until that day…

Close up of Eve with a distorted and angry face, and then cuts to a scene to which Eve slams Madison into the tree.

Eve wakes up from her bed. Looking very distressed- bad dream.

Next scene

Eve is making a cup of tea, close up on tea.

Eve (Voiceover): I haven’t been sleeping well for a long time. And I didn’t know why…

Shot of Eve and her friend sitting on the couch, speaking.

Eve: I feel like I’m going crazy, I keep seeing her in my dreams

Friend: It’s been a year; she’s not here anymore.  Please get over her Eve.

Next scene

Eve is in her bed, contemplating.

*Knock Knock Knock

Close up of Eve’s anxious face

Shot of the door, and the knocking continues, only continuously and louder.

Eve looks scared

Knocking continues in a thunderous rage. Eve gets up from her bed and opens the door.

Madison: (smiling, and tilting her head) Hey Eve.

Eve gasps and there is a close up of her shutting her eyes. She opens her eyes again. There is no one in the doorway, Eve closes the door and sighs in relief. She turns around and finds Eve right up close to her, side view shot.

Madison: (Smiling and says quietly) Boo.

Close up of Eve looking scared.

Next scene

Madison: What’s up Eve, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.

Eve starts having distorted visions.

Next scene

Eve is walking in an isolated pathway with a park nearby. She looks behind her and vaguely sees Madison in the bush.

Eve is on the phone.

Eve: I think I’m going mad…

Eve is speaking to her friend through the telephone. And we can see her holding the receiver.

Eve’s Friend: What really happened that night?

*the phone line dies*

Madison’s voice on the phone: Yeah Eve. Tell her what happened. Tell her how you killed me.

 *Eve is breathing heavily and then she drops her phone*

New Scene.

*Madison hums childhood song in the woods*

Eve is behind a tree and makes a frightened noise. Maddie hears this and heads in Eve’s direction.

Cut to the scene in which Madison slices the tree behind which Eve was hiding with a knife.

There is a close up shot of running feet and then a quick shot from the back of Eve running and she blurs out into the distance as Maddie’s back comes into focus.

A close up of Madison’s face.

Madison: I’m going to get you Eve.

Quick Shots of the main characters, Eve and Madison.

Scenes of Eve punching a wall. Of her closing her eyes, holding a knife and a scene of her slamming Maddie’s head onto the tree.

Quick shot of Eve in the cemetery visiting Madison’s grave. A shot of the grave from behind captures Eve looking at the grave and young Madison appearing behind her.

 * Eve turns around*

*Young Maddison is running away*

Eve: Come back!

*Young Maddison is laughing as she is running away from Eve.*

*Scene of Eve punching the wall*

*Scene of Eve on her knees, exhausted*

* close up of Eve breathing heavily*

*far away shot of Eve on the ground on her knees and young Maddison is coming near her*

·      Close up of Maddie whispering in Eve’s ear*

Madison: We can be together again Eve

*Scene of Eve gasping in shock*

*Tone card presenting movie title*

THE END

Audience Research Video

Pitch

You think the past is in the past, think again

Another Me Trailer Analysis/Theories

Another Me Trailer Theory Analysis

 

Barthes Enigma code:

The enigma in the trailer, is the mysterious figure always following the main character. The father of the girl says ‘She’s here, she’s always been here, in the shadows’ and as the audience we want to know who she is.

Todorov’s theory of narrative:

The equilibrium at the beginning of the trailer is the main girl going about her everyday life in her town with her friends. It is also being told in the form of snapshots. The moment of disequilibrium is when the girl takes a photograph of herself, and sees a figure who looks very similar to her in the background. The period of disequilibrium is the girl slowly going mad (cutting off her hair in a mad frenzy) because she feels like someone is following her. We then start to see shots of the figure behind the girl constantly, and the very last shot is of the figure right in front of the girl.

Levi Strauss Binary opposites:

The most striking contrast within this trailer, is between the girl and the figure. The figure is almost like a evil reflection of the girl, so they both almost represent light/dark (visually because of the figures dark eyes) and good/evil (the way they act)

Propp’s eight character types:

In this trailer, there isn’t any main character types. But from the visuals I can tell that the main girl would be the hero, her love interest would be the helper and the figure would be the villain.

Horns Trailer Analysis

Compare and contrast 28 days later with Shaun of the dead, commenting on the Structuralist theory

Structuralism theory in film emphasises the fact that certain genres follow certain codes and conventions. 28 Days Later is a post-apocalyptic horror film, whereas Shaun of the Dead is a comedic horror film, this already establishes that the tone of the two films will be very different.

The portrayal of the zombies in each film is quite different. 28 Days Later (28DL) challenges the idea of the typical zombie, when Shaun Of the dead (SOTD) plays on the idea and makes fun of it. Zombies are usually shown to be mindless, rotten and slow. However in 28DL takes what usually makes a zombie scary and compares what takes away from the fear they cause the audience. So they remove the slow pace in which they walk at and make them run and also jerk. This breaks the convention of zombies not being able to catch up with their pray due to their slow speed, and this in turn scares the audience because there is now no hindrance for the zombies as they can kill any character they wish.

However, SOTD sticks with the classic codes and conventions tied with zombies and plays around with them, For example; the main characters are able to get past most of the zombies and attack them as they wish. In addition, the society that the characters live in is initially portrayed as dull and lifeless, so when the zombie infection spreads, Shaun does not realise the sudden change. This also makes fun of British culture and people. In contrast, 28DL follows the normal paradigm of a zombie film being set in a post-apocalyptic society (in this case, London) and the events have taken place over a few months, even though we only see it through Jim’s eyes, who has only recently woke up from a coma.

The weapons used in both films are very different. 28DL has conventional weaponry, such as guns and bombs, however the zombies themselves are even used as weapons towards the end, which challenges the paradigm. Zombies are usually shown as the threat, and they are to be killed at all costs. But throughout the film, we see Jim feeling sympathy for them and trying to understand their way of thinking, and he also uses them to his advantage as a weapon against the army, as I mentioned previously. SOTD uses normal house hold items and objects e.g. baseball bats, shovels and snooker cues and one quote completely contrasts with the paradigm of dangerous weapons which is ‘Get any blunt objects’. The use of the house hold objects also tries to make the film more relatable to the ordinary viewer.

Zombie films usually include characters who have a sense of urgency and purpose. In 28DL, the character Selena, has a very strong urge to kill and survive, one scene where this is extremely apparent is when her friend Mark is supposedly bitten, but she doesn’t take a chance and decides to hack him to death just to be sure. This could be contrasted with the character of Jim, who at the beginning was very kind and almost like a pacifist, but as the film goes on, he kills an infected little boy and stabs the eyes of a soldier. In SOTD, the characters seem to have no sense of urgency and try to brush off the situation. Two characters who display this is Ed and Barbara. Ed throughout the film doesn’t really focus on the matter at hand and is either texting, or wanting to drive the car of his dreams and act like he is in an action film. Barbara is a typical British mother who wants to fix everything with a cup of tea or some sandwiches. This could also be a reflection on our current society and how the majority of us are quite ignorant to the truth.

The hideaways for the characters were very different also. In SOTD, a pub was used because Ed wanted a place with exits he was familiar with, and a ‘place to smoke’. Whereas, in 28DL, the settings are very run down, and the streets are abandoned, which is very typical for a zombie film. In addition, locations are used which are familiar to British audiences e.g. black wall tunnel, oxford circus, tube stations etc.

Overall, 28DL mainly stuck to the structuralist style of zombie films, whereas Shaun of the dead challenged them and strayed away from them.

Carrie (2013) Horror Film Feminist Analysis

The 2013 retelling of the film Carrie (originally made in 1976) has many underlying feminist themes.

One of the main female characters in this film is Carrie’s mother, Margaret White. She is single mother and a deeply religious woman. She has raised Carrie on her own and hasn’t needed a male to help, even during the birth which was shown at the beginning of the film. However, her dedication to god which is extremely evident throughout the film, in her dialogue and within her home could suggest that her life is still revolving around a man even though she has specifically taught Carrie not to ‘give in’ to a man.

The male gaze is a very big factor when it comes to the young females in this film. The main/popular girls were typically beautiful and conventionally attractive (white, tall, skinny and there was a huge lack of diversity) and typically ‘girly’ e.g. wears an excessive amount of pink. The lingering shots of the female’s legs in the pool and Carrie washing herself almost sexually, I felt were extremely unnecessary and were purposefully there for the male gaze. In contrast, I also feel that the female body was shamed in one specific scene of this film, and was when Carrie experienced her period for the first time. Her period was extremely over exaggerated, due to the fact it was inaccurately represented. The amount of blood used, I feel was there to highlight the fact that most people think that periods are a ‘taboo’ subject. To add to this, the male teacher in the office looked at her skirt with a blood stain on it with shock. This also highlights the fact that men are very uncomfortable and insensitive when it comes to women’s periods.

One character in the film, Tommy Ross, is a typical American jock, who is adored by everyone in the school because he is in a position of power, he is also a compassionate and funny person. However, when it comes to a character like Chris Hargensen, who is also within the popular crowd. She is automatically made to be a horrible and judgemental person, and a typically ‘bitchy’ girl. To me this says that if a woman is in a position of power, she has to be a sadist. Furthermore, the majority of the girls in this film were made to hate each other or ‘other’ her for no specific reason. This is one major theme that runs through a lot of films. The main example of this, is Chris’s burning hate for Carrie. I felt this was extremely confusing, because not once had Carrie been horrible to Chris, yet she seemed to hate her more than anyone on the planet.  The unnecessary hatred and ‘othering’ between females in films, I believe is an exaggerated display of what males think woman are like in real life, since the screenwriters of this film are both male, and they have been chosen to write a film that is based on a female and has a 90% female cast.

All of the females in this film seemed to have a similar goal, going to prom. This was extremely apparent, because teachers would threaten the girls to be ‘well behaved’ or they would be banned from prom. This was also apparent when Carrie was asked to prom by Tommy, because the camera focused in on her face and she looked happier than she had ever done in the film up to this point. This suggests that all females are waiting for a guy to ask them out, this isn’t only incorrect but extremely heteronormative. In addition, the contrast between the males and the female’s feelings towards prom was blatantly shown during the scene of them getting ready for prom. It cut back and forth to each group and it purposefully distanced the two genders. For the males, it was a fun experience and they were messing around trying on different suits. Whereas the female’s had already picked out their dresses weeks before and they took it very seriously. The dress was also a huge part of the prom for the females. The character Sue’s dress foreshadowed a lot of the oncoming events for the film since it was a vibrant shade of red, which connotes danger. This could also suggest that a woman’s body is dangerous, risky and full of mystery, which automatically dehumanises women.

The motherly instinct was prominent throughout the film. Even though Margaret mistreated Carrie throughout her life, she showed small signs of overly protective motherly instinct and love, but in the end it did lead to religion, and the fact that a man (God) was ruling the decisions in her life. The gym teacher was very supportive towards Carrie and she was the only proper mother figure to her while she was at school. Furthermore, ‘the final girl’ Sue ended up being pregnant by the end of the film, which almost gave the film a cyclical ending because the film started with a birth and ended with a pregnancy.