Scream 4

Scream 4:

The film Scream 4 is known as a ‘slasher’ film and is a stereotypical horror movie in which a masked figure named ‘Ghost face’ goes around tormenting, stalking and finally killing high school teenagers for fun. This film links to my group’s storyline as we will have three teenage girls being chased and stabbed to death by a man in a mask who has a van.

As the movie starts it firstly shows the title sequence of the main production company that produced the film, and it then straight away starts with the film, as the ‘Dimension films’ comes onto the screen so does the diegetic sound of a phone ringing.

 It then starts with the girl answering the phone to Ghost face; it uses a close up of this shot as it wants the audience to see the girl’s reaction to what the man is saying to her.

It then uses a shot-reverse shot to the other girl using an over the shoulder shot to show irony as the girl is playing with a prop knife whilst also talking about killers in popular horror films.

An eye line match is then used as the two girls both look at a phone's screen and is a close up shot to see the girl’s reactions.

 When the girls go towards the door it is clear that one of them doesn’t want to open it as it uses a medium shot to show how far away she is standing from the other character and she also has her back to the camera. The shot includes the door as it wants the audience to focus on that, as the tension builds to see what is behind the door.

The next shot that is used is an extreme long shot to show the girl’s house as it establishes the scene and also makes it clear that there is no one outside the house that the girl and the audience can see, this makes the tension unbearable as the audience should know that something is about to happen.

As predicted the two girls are killed as one is stabbed and the other’s throat has been cut, to show her perspective as she is spinning round, the camera seems as if it is on a slope, or is tilting like a canted angle to try and include the audience with how the character is feeling as she bleeds out with the fake blood.

However, it then quickly cuts to a title ‘Stab 6’, this title has been juxtaposed with a knife going through the ‘T’ and also uses the colour red to represent blood, also in the background of it you can hear the diegetic sounds of a scream. This is done to baffle the audience as to what has just happened but then makes it clear as we realise that the last scene wasn’t real but instead a movie that others were watching.

As it then changes to an establishing medium close up shot of two different girls that are both looking at the TV, this makes it look like they are in fact looking directly into the camera, this is an eye line match, and it also uses a faded background so that the audience focuses on the two characters. This makes the audience wonder if this is in fact the real start of the film, and to confuse them further.

As it continues, there is a long shot of the surroundings and shows the back of one of the girls sat on the sofa looking like she is reaching for something, this creates suspense as the audience suspects that something is going to happen next.

As the girl comes back onto the sofa they discuss horror movies and just as suspected something does happen. The other girl pulls out a knife and next shows a close up of the knife that has just been plunged into her stomach, this is to shock the audience as they weren’t expecting that to happen and it is also made to look real with the blood and the knife lodged into her stomach.

Although, the next shot is of another title sequence, this time it is for ‘Stab 7’ it uses the diegetic scream in the background again and the same style as it is from the same series of films, the audience is again made to be confused and is again asking themselves if this time it will in fact be the real movie.

The next shot is of another two different girls that have just been watching the film, when the eldest sister hears a noise, as she is going up the stairs it shows her from a low angle shot as she has the power rather than her little sister.

The next shot is of a phone; this implies that something bad has happened to the other girl, then as the phone rings it makes the audience jump and the close up of her face is to see her reaction.

An over the shoulder shot has been used so you can see the dead girl’s body and to see that she is already dead as this helps to create an eerie atmosphere as it is obvious that something is going to happen to the other girl.

As the girl runs for her life screaming, a long shot is used so that the audience can see that she is being chased through the house by ghost face.

Finally high/low angle shots of the girl and ghost face is to show the power change as she is left crawling on the floor, he is walking towards her, about to kill her as she is weak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It finally ends with her being killed and cuts to the proper title sequence of ‘SCRE4M’, as the establishing scenes are over. The title has been juxtaposed with ghost face’s mask in the background and the title on top, this also represents that time will have passed as when it comes back on it is a new day.

Madison County Film similar to ours first 15 minutes analysed

Madison County

A group of college kid’s travel to a small, mountain town called Madison County to interview the author of a tell-all book on the accounts of several grisly murders that happened there. But when the kids get to Madison County, the author is nowhere to be found and the towns people act like they haven't seen him in years. They also say that the killer never existed and the murders never happened. However, when the kids start digging around to get their own answers, they find out that the stories may be more real than the townspeople are letting on.

Wide shot of girl as she wakes up in the back of a van that is moving, panics, camera shakes to resemble her panicking, there is non-diegetic music, which is like screeching, it becomes louder and louder as she gradually raises her body and look around. The pace of the shot is fast, and she stays on the screen throughout the whole scene, it moves fast to resemble the girl, she is panicking and scared, her heart will be moving fast just like the scene. The lighting is natural, outdoor lighting, to create a real life situation and feel to relate it to the audience. The woman’s performance is as if shows her to look scared and frightened as she does not know where she is going. The costume on the girl is just underwear, which is dirty and ragged and her makeup is dirt and blood effects as if she has been put in danger, it makes the audience wonder what kind of situation she is in and what has happened to her.  The setting is a road and a vehicle moving on it, the audience are made to be curious as to where the vehicle will be taking her and wonder who his driving it.

Two shot of the man as he goes towards the girl to hit her with the shovel, the camera shakes and moves backwards as she runs away from the man. The screeching music gets faster and carries on to get louder, which connotates the man’s movements as he moves towards her, himself getting faster. Building up to a crescendo as the man hits her. The girl is heard crying and whimpering as she tries to run away it resembles her struggle and there is a sound effect as the spade hits the girl. The pace of the shot is fast as she runs away to resemble the speed of her running; the lighting is once again daylight to resemble the real world. The performance of the man is anger, rage and power as he tries to get the girl; this makes him seem more powerful against the weak girl who tries to escape. The prop used by the man is a shovel which the man next uses to hit the girl over the head with.

An establishing shot of the title of the film; it is in red which connotates danger and resembles blood which relates to the genre of the film which is horror.

The shot then changes to the start of the film where the story begins, the cast are shown setting off on their road trip. It is a wide shot from far away and it seems to be in the perspective of somebody who is watching them as it is blurry too. The sound is just muffled voices talking as if somebody is trying to hear what they are saying.

The shot is a wide shot of the girl as she brushes her teeth, she is seen turning as she hears somebody in the trees, and the audience see that the person is watching her.  The sound is non-diegetic and is low and quiet, there is also the sound effect of rustling which is mean to sound like the person in the woods walking as they watch her, it puts the audience on edge, and they wonder what will happen to the girl next. The shot focuses mostly on the girl and there is an eye line match as she watches for someone in the woods.  

Audience Profile

Our chosen film storyline is aimed at the age range of 15-35 year olds, this would mean that the certificate of our film would be a 15 because of the violence, gore and the mask that the killer wears, as it may be too frightening for anyone younger than this as it is a horror, however, it doesn't involve much swearing so this is why it is rated a 15. Because the storyline is based around three teenage girls, it may be mainly aimed at females, however some males may want to also watch it. The target audience should be interested in horror films, thrillers, and action movies as it involves someone being stabbed as well as girls being chased. The audience should be interested in films such as the Scream franchise, The Blair Witch Project, Madison County, The Lovely Bones and The Friday the 13th franchise, as they all involve people being killed and in most of these horrors/thrillers they feature a masked killer, who's identity is unknown. As the film's location is in an empty field with some houses around it, it will appeal to anyone as it won't feature anything that only people from South Yorkshire will be able to understand. Therefore, our film will be an independent film for small audiences, as it isn't being produced by big hollywood producers or distributors. So, our movie, is more likely to be played in cinemas such as; Parkway, Odeons and other local cinemas in small towns.

The Lovely Bones

We have decided that our genre/subgenre is psychological thriller/horror. I think that our target audience would like the film The Lovely Bones because it has a similar storyline to our film (the main character is a teenage girl who is taken and murdered by a strange man). This film is also a 12 which suggests that any thing within it is appropriate for our audience. As our 2 minute film will mostly feature Amy's death scene i have decided to analyse the death scene from this film.

In the first shot of her death scene she is sat across from the man who at this point has taken her to a strange underground house. She is only shown from high angle shots (also he is only shown from high angle shots) which suggests to the audience that she is in a vulnerable position. There are only many close ups on her face which show her worried expression. This also suggests to the audience that she is the protagonist of the scene. The only lighting of the scene is from candles or small lamps which gives the scene an eyrie feel.

The long shot of the room sets the scene for the audience. It shows how small and cramped the room is. Also at this point of the scene the pace of the shots speeds up whilst the heartbeat of the girl also speeds up as she is getting increasingly scared/worried. (The audience know this because the sound effect of a heartbeat is added to the scene.)

The deep focus shot has only the girl and her murderer in focus. However her face is shown, and is also close to the centre of the frame, whereas his is not. This suggests that she is who the audience are supposed to be watching and is therefore the protagonist of the scene.

As she tries to escape (in the critical moment of the scene) she is centred in the frame and is also more in focus. These devices, once again, suggest to the audience that she is the protagonist and also forces the audience to watch her rather than the man.

The scene ends with an outside shot which is above the murder scene. As no one is around it suggests that no one has heard the girl's screams which adds tension to the atmosphere. It also ends the scene with an eyrie atmosphere because it shows how dark and cold the setting is.

Final Storyline Proposal

Horror:
Pick Me Up- 2 minute version

At the beginning three girls will be shown walking through a derelict field. Girl A suggests that they should play a game of hide and seek and Girl Ais "on". Girls B and C wander towards the trees, to hide, whilst girl A counts. Unbeknown to the girls they are being watched by a man in a mask. As Girls B and C are walking away (to hide), Girl A screams and cries. This is because the masked man is grasping Girl and throwing her into a van. After a few seconds the man in the mask climbs out of the van holding a bloody knife.

The other girl's heard her calling/screaming but ignored her just believing the screams were a way of cheating, and therefore carry on with their game.

The van is seen driving away. The two girls realise and start to find each other in panic (screaming and starting to cry).

 

Full film version
Start: The girls are shown on the phone to one another planning a sleepover, whilst there is a cut to a separate scene of an over the shoulder shot where the man is looking on Facebook at the girls profile's.
Middle: The next day the girls are shown playing there game of hide and seek, where Amy is taken away and stabbed.
The two friends are shown running and trying to ring her, with a shot afterwards of the girls bloody hand and mobile next to her limp and lifeless body. The girls go back to her house to see if she has gone home but no one answers the door, as they begin to become frantic with worry and start to walk back to the field.
End: A van slowly pulls up and follows the girls down the hill, they start to walk faster, realising that the van is following them. The van then comes to a standstill and the masked man gets out of the van, the girls slowly turn around as the man withdraws a knife and begins to chase them, they scream but no one acknowledges them, and are left running for their lives down the steep hill to one of the girls houses, however she has no key and no one is in. As they are chased they split up and hide and as one of them is killed, the other girl hears her piercing screams and quietly runs away as fast as she can, but to no avail as she is heard and is hunted down like a deer she is ripped open by the knife and is left lying in the dark alley alone with her insides on the outside. The man stalks away and blends with the shadows, happy with his work.