PODCAST 7: Going over first real draft

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Here we go over the different ideas we have from changing the first rough cut. We will go over certain problems with shooting / acting.

PODCAST 6: New Idea

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We discuss our newest idea which we will be filming.

PODCAST 5: Setbacks and how we fix them

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After a major setback we had to change the idea and came up with this.

PLANNING Analysis on Rough Cut 1

We need to reflect and improve on:

• Clear frame shifts
• Focus on continuity
• Achieve verisimilitude
• Emphasis on scream queen
• Bare shoulders putting clothes on?
• tight, ripped jeans
• tight skirt
• bright red lip-stick
• more make-up in general
• etc.
• Instead of the guy saying "yes" he should say "no" as in slashers the "untruthful" people usually get killed.
• Add horror cliches
• Squeaky door
• False scare
• A dog or cat opening the door.
• The guy goes out of bedroom to check and hears a scream from the bedroom. Runs back to check and then the T.V is flickering.
• Clearer gender roles
• Man protects girl much clearer
• "Wait here!"
• "Stay back!" 
• etc.
• Instead of black socks for the female, use pink.

ROUCH CUT 1

Our first look into the final idea we will have. All the characters are present and the rough outline has been done further. We realise we need to work a lot on costume, mise-en-scene and shot variety.

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SAMPLE SCENE 1

A sample scene we have put together and will reflect on in class. We only had the resources to use one character, hence it will just be a rough outline of the idea. Not our final idea.

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SLASHER CONVENTIONS 5 Setting

Settings in Slasher Films

The setting for a slasher film are either one of the two:

1. An abandoned cabin in the woods, or some isolated place in the forest
2. A house in a remote or rural area away from 'help' such as police

In general the setting is in a isolated place or remote area. It makes the victim seem vulnerable and helpless. There is often pathetic fallacy with either rain or thunder just to further anchor the theme and genre of horror. Slasher films are often also set in the dark as it connotes evil terror. A notorious example of this convention is Friday the 13th (1980) directed by Sean S. Cunningham.

This is a cabin in the woods at 'Camp Crystal Lake' it is not night, However it is quite dark and foggy which also helps connote evil and horror. This is very isolated place far away from help such as the police or other people. There is no place to run or hide. 

SLASHER CONVENTIONS 4 Theory's

Propp's 7 recurring character types:

The villain - struggles against the hero

The donor - prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object

The helper - helps the hero in the quest

The princess/prize - the hero journey is often ended when he marries the princess 

The dispatcher - character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off

The hero - reacts to the donor, saves the day, weds the princess

False hero - takes credit for the heroes actions and tries to marry the princess

Star Wars example:

The villain - Darth vader

The donor - Obi-Wan Kenobi

The helper - Han Solo

The princess - Princess Leia

The dispatcher - R2D2

The hero - Luke Skywalker

False hero - Lando

The Gant rule:

Box office analyst Charles Gant has argued that a typical box office hit (a success in both the UK and US markets) will make ten times as much in the US ($) as in the UK (£). A great example of this is that Maze runner made £4million in the UK and $40 million in the U.S.

Stuart Hall:

Stuart Hall analysed the role of audience positioning in the interpretation of media texts in different social groups, he came up with a model suggesting three ways in which we may read media texts:
Dominant reading (Preferred reading): The reader fully accepts the preferred reading and understands it in the way the creator desired
The negotiated reading: The reader partly believes and accepts the preferred reading
The oppositional reading: The readers social position places them in an oppositional relation to the preferred reading.

Male/Female gaze:

The female gaze is a feminist film theoretical term representing the gaze of the female viewer. It is a response to feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey's term, "the male gaze," Male gaze theory utilises cinematography and editing to objectify and represent the female in a way that would appeal to the male audience, this is done by accentuating parts of the body through camera angles and framing.

Todorov's model of narrative structure:

Traditionally narrative structures follow an order of events:
1. The narrative starts with an equilibrium
2. An action or character disrupts the equilibrium
3. A quest to restore the equilibrium begins
4. The narrative continues to climax
5. Resolution occurs and equilibrium is restored

How we will used this theory:

1. Couple is in bed, relaxed as normal
2. Santa appears on TV, scaring Tiffany and disrupts the equilibrium
3. The couple head to the garage to find santa
4. The couple arrive at the garage and get attacked
5. Michael is killed

Auteur Theory:

Auteur theory is when the director behind the movie is credited as the main creative force behind the movie, this is a more simplistic definition of the theory but can be seen widely in the industry. A stricter definition is when the director has a distinctive style and approaches social realist subjects whilst being credited for it.

Levi-Strauss

Strauss believed the way we interpret words depends not so much on the meaning but our understanding of the different/opposite of the word, such as protagonist and antagonist or hero and villain. Possibly the most common example of this in a slasher movie is the final girl vs scream queen roles.

Barthes:

Narrative enigma is the use of withholding information from the viewer whilst giving just enough to make the audience watch on to find out what is happening, this can be done through many ways:

• Suspenseful Music
• Creates suspense as the viewer doesn't know what is going to happen next but knows something will happen
• Camera angles that don't show faces
• CU of body parts
• Shots from behind
• Over the shoulder shots
• Witholding enough information to stop anchorage

How we will used this theory:

1. Extreme long shots of house 
2. Close ups of couple getting dressed that don't show the face
3. Suspenseful music that builds up as the attack approaches

SLASHER CONVENTIONS: 3 Opening shots

Halloween

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0220-0242 (22 seconds)
An extreme long shot that tracks  into the house to the front door where the next scene starts

Friday 13th

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0000-0026 (26 seconds)
An extreme long shot aimed at the moon, the camera pans to the left to perfect darkness and then down too an extreme long shot of the campsite

Pyscho

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0013 - 0105 (52 seconds)
Multiple extreme long shots over the city which pan and then crossfade between each other, each crossfade the camera gets closer and closer to the window. It has a total of 5 shots until it reaches the window and zooms in then pans around the room setting the scene to what is about to follow.

All of these opening sequences share similar features, for example they all open with extreme long shots that establish and set the scene, they show the location, most opening shots in slasher movies span about 20-25 seconds with the obvious exception of Psycho(Alfred Hitchcock)(1960) which is 52 seconds.

SLASHER CONVENTIONS 1 Idents

Look at our previous blogpost about  GENERAL CONVENTIONS Movie Idents for the whole outline of the conventions for idents and an example of the variants used in Friday 13th II

Generally

In general the company Idents for slasher movies are as a basis, like any other ident. However some companies focussing more on horror will have signifiers and other sorts of tweaks to anchor that they are doing a horror movie. For example, Blumhouse Productions is a production company who have made countless horror movies such as  Insidious(James Wan)(2011), Paranormal Activity(Oren Peli)(2009) and Split(M. Night Shyamalan)(2017). Their ident is filled with horror signifiers, intertextuality, creepy colour schemes, some dutch angles (connoting something is odd), shaky cam (common in low budget horrors). Here is a full clip of their ident below

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Apart from this very different example the idents for the most part are the same as any other ident.

Variants

Another way that idents for slashers can be altered to connote and anchor the horror genre is through variants. There is already an example in another blogpost(mentioned above).  The ident with Lionsgate Twisted Pictures for Jigsaw(Spirit Brothers)(2017) has a high amount of intertextuality with the SAW franchise. The cable wrapping around the metallic cables and then being tightened gives a very torturous feeling. The cables then release at an extremely high rate and leaving "blood scrapes" on the letters. It is such a gruesome and SAW like way to kill a person, therefore very fitting for the movie. 

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The New Line Cinema variant for the Friday 13th franchise is a very famous example. (see previous blogpost) The audio is what strikes me the most after the obvious colour scheme change. With the creepy, ominous, slow soundtrack and the sound of knives being sharpened. This approach to an ident has made it overall very effective and fitting to the franchise. 

Our Idents

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For LugNut Productions we chose not to have any music as to follow the ambient sound approac. It is also more effective this way as we hear the sound of the lug nut being put onto the floor and the wrench turning back. This can somewhat give a hint of horror as there is often tools being used to kill off characters in slasher movies.

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For Gingerbread Films we chose to have an animation again with ambient sound as we wanted to emphasise the chewing effect on the gingerbread man. It is a bit of an inside joke our group had as there are two members with ginger hair. We made it so the gingerbread man would slowly become more dead and it links in more with the zombie horror genre we were originally planning, however it also fits well with our new idea.

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Our most horror based ident is definitely Clinnick Media. We are simulating opening a bag of guts and pulling out the company name. It is a play on the words Clinic as Clinnick is the last name of one of our members. Therefore we gave the ident the feeling that a  surgery is happening, with the white latex gloves and absurd amount of blood everywhere. It also has eerie music over it as the sequence plays out. With the red colour scheme of the ident it anchors the horror genre very well

SLASHER CONVENTIONS 2 Duration

Slasher Film Opening Durations 

The duration of film openings can vary largely being from 2 minutes long all the way to 15 minutes. An example of a very long film opening is "Scream" made by Wes Craven in 1996 which is 13 minutes long. A Nightmare on Elm Street which is also created by Wes Craven in 1984 is 4 minutes long which is significantly shorter than Scream even though it is directed by the same director.

JC SLASHER CONVENTIONS Final Girl

"The final girl is a trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). It refers to the last woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Alien, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream." - Wiki

Here are some examples of Final Girls in Slasher movies:

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Scream - Sidney Prescott
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In this clip we see Sidney Prescott fighting back, she is clearly a Final Girl and follows many of the key conventions, for example, she is tough, resourceful, intelligent and survives till the end due to her fighting back.

Halloween H20: 20 years later- Laurie Strode
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Laurie Strode is another very clear final girl example and is a key archetype to the final girl conventions, she is a brunette, not sexually active, an introvert, tough, resourceful and uses her intelligence to survive.

Scary Movie (deconstruction = postmodernism) - Cindy Campbell
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Scary Movie is a great example of a final girl character as it is a post-modern deconstruction of many movies, in the clip it is a deconstruction of Scream. In scary movie, the characters roles are amplified and shown more intensely, this means that Cindy Campbell's role as a final girl is amplified and shows her to be extra resourceful, tough and a fighter all key parts of a final girl role

Carole J Clover:

The Final Girl Theory was first made famous by Carol J Clover in the essay "her body, Himself: Gender in the slasher film" (1987), in this essay she stated that Slasher movies presented woman in a way that gives a very clear picture of the sexual attitudes of men towards woman at the time. Clovers theory lay in the reversal of the male role and scream queen role in which the final girl defeats the killer instead of being the first to die.

The Archetype:

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Laurie strode is the key archetype for a final girl, as can be seen here (girl on the left with books) she is nerdy, intelligent and in this scene it is made clear she does not have a boyfriend and is not sexually active. In this scene she she also says that she forgot her book at school to which her friends mock her for. Her friends are also smoking and talking about plans with their boyfriends, Laurie does not smoke or say she has plans which enforces her role as a Final Girl.
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The costume of Laurie Strode wears helps to signify her role, this is because it is very conservative, unrevealing and stereotypically worn by someone that is nerdy.

Other Examples of Final Girls:

Here are some other examples of Final girls in a variety of slasher movies, all of these reflect parts of the Final Girl convention.

Friday 13th - Alice hardy

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Psycho - Lila Loomis

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Nightmare on Elm street - Nancy Thompson

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Sally Hardesty

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Many of these characters reflect the same conventions of the final girl, they all dress conservatively, they are intelligent and tough and they either die lateen the movie or survive, juxtaposing the traditional scream queen role.

CS SLASHER CONVENTIONS Scream Queen Conventions

The term scream queen is used when referring to a young, attractive, sexually active and rebellious women. The convention is that the scream queen will be the first character to be killed. A scream queen is usually blonde, busty and seen as 'dumb'.

A brilliant example of a scream queen is Drew Decker in the film Scary Movie(Keenen Ivory Wayans)(2000). This film has really taken every single convention of a scream queen and put it into one character. This convention relates largely to the male gaze theory as it is a women who is being objectified.

Sometimes the films also challenge the conventions and create a 'Scream King' which is basically a male version of a scream queen. We have done this in our own film opening.

Here are some few examples of scream queens in slasher movies.                                                                                                                                

Scream (Wes Craven)(1996) - Casey Becker
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In this clip Casey Becker is at home on the phone and the killer is on the other side telling her what to do and asking her questions. The killer then appears and she is chased throughout the house.  To her parents shocks she is killed at the end and hung from a tree.

Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans)(2000) - Drew Decker
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This is one of the first scenes in the film. It is a recreation of Casey Becker getting killed in Scream. With the same scenario of her being chased throughout the house. Drew Decker is a great example of a scream queen, there are shots where it shows how 'dumb' she is. For example, a sign saying saftey pointing to the left and a sign saying death posting to the right. Drew decided to go right where the sign says death. All this links into the fact that Scary Movie is a post-modern deconstruction of the slasher genre.

Halloween (John Carpenter)(1978) - Annie Brackett
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Black X/Cmas - Barbra Cord
Psycho - Marion Crane
Cherry Falls - Jody Marken
NoES - Tina Grey
Cry_Wolf - Becky
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane - (Scream King) Dylan
Babysitter Wanted - Rebecca Miller
TCM - Pam

JC Production Schedule

Friday 15th:

• Finish call sheets and story board

Sunday Morning 17th:

• Setup garage and sets
• Test gagging and tie up of the boy

Sunday Afternoon 17th:

• Film all establishing shot
• Living room scene
• Hallway scene
• Garage scene
• Reaction to death scene

Tuesday 19th:

• Shots of Santa on the TV
• Slashing scene

Wednesday 20th:

• Sound FX recording

JC Brainstorming new idea, location casting etc.

Ideas for Miss-En-Scene:

• Baseball bat 
• Santa costume

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• Scream queen stereotype costume
• tight torn jeans
• low cut shirt (possibly)
• pink socks
• Curled hair
• Christmas lights + gag (cloth)
• Work light 

Music:

• Violin
• long stretched out notes 
• increases in tempo and pitch 
• slow and fast 

Titles:

• Red font, will appear/ fade to dark scenery slowly
• Serif font 

Idents:

• Lugnut Productions

• Gingerbread films

• CLINNICKmedia

Locations:

• House
• Bedroom
• Living room
• Hallway
• Garage

Cast:

• 4 characters
• Micheal Loomis (christian)
• Jamie Strode (Inge)
• Tiffany (Aisla)
• Killer Santa (Aiden)

PLANNING Call Sheets + Story Board

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These are the call sheets we used for planning certain scenes in the film opening. We needed to plan how to film our shoot in order to be as effecient and make sure we didn't miss anything out.

Here are bits of our story board which we used to make sure we had a clear and detailed idea of what the film opening would be about.

MOODBOARD Scream King

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Here is the moodboard created for the Scream King which we will feature in our film opening

MOODBOARD Scream Queen

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Here is the moodboard for the scream queen which will be featured in our film opening.

MOODBOARD Male Audience

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Here is the moodboard created for our expected primary male audience for the film opening

MOODBOARD Female Audience

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Here is the moodboard created for our expected primary female audience for the film opening

GENERAL CONVENTIONS Movie Idents

Company Idents on their own:

General

Idents alone have to be over with within 5 to 10 seconds, maximum 20 seconds otherwise they become drawn out and lose the attention of the audience. As an ident is essentially a miniature ad for the company. Advertisements on TV are usually between 30 - 40 seconds and they have to try and sell a product. Idents don't so there  is no need for more than 10 seconds of exposure, 20 seconds at a max. They have to be very simple as the only thing they are showing is the company names and these names need to be highly recognisable and remembered.

Examples

For example, everyone knows the iconic 20th Century Fox ident, the Pixar ident and the THX ident. They are so well known that there have been memes created around them. (One example below). A reason for their recognition is because of the idents. Yes, a large part of their success is due to the amount of times these companies have been a part of big movies. However, if I told you to describe the Bad Robot (Co-production SW Force Awakens amongst many other) or Dimension Films would you be able to recap it completely? If all these company idents were made differently, with a way longer duration and a lot more complexity I highly doubt that they would be as recognisable at a seconds glance, as these idents.

Audio

Music and ambient sound also plays a big part in a movie ident. Would you be able to identify the ident for each of these companies; 20th Century Fox  THX  Universal, Pixar and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer? The answer is most probably yes as they have again, very simple but highly recognisable music and or ambient sound playing. It is usually a certain sound (the lion in MGM and lamp in Pixar) , or a simple soundtrack which you could recognise in a heartbeat. 

Meme about the THX music:

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Idents in a film opening:

Variants

In a film opening you will usually see about 2, 3 or 4 movie idents, they can either have their original audio or be an audio bridge into the movie. They can also either be their own complete standard one or have a slightly altered colour scheme or way of presenting themselves in a way which relates to the movie. For example in Friday 13th part II(Steve Miner)(1981)  the idents all have a sharp red colour scheme and there is an audio bridge which continues into the main opening scene. This is seen below. These signifiers help anchor the horror genre due to the blood red and the sound of knives being sharpened during the sequence, where stars are flying in  the Paramount Pictures ident. 

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This also happens for the 20th Century Fox in The Simpsons Movie( David Silverman)(2007) where Ralph sings the music for the ident. This action alone has managed to anchor the unserious, comedy aspect of the movie as it is so unexpected and absurd. 

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Generally

Apart from these quite common variants the idents are usually just slotted into the absolute beginning of the movie and come, one by one. There will be shown idents from both the production companies and distribution companies. For lower budget movies they will also sometimes include the financing companies. For example there is an ident for FILM4 in the movie Four Lions(Chris Morris)(2010). FILM4 being the financing company for this very low budget Warp movie.