Initial Ideas: AUDIO
| Initial ideas for a storyline for an entire film |
Our Final Film Idea
As a group we have decided to create a thriller/horror style based film. It revolves around a boy in his late teens who is celebrating his birthday at home with his family. Upon receiving and opening a gift from his father who, we understand, is not usually present in his life, a downfall of death and destruction occurs. When he reads the attached letter we can see that his father is possibly connected with some kind of cult, and that the boy has finally come of age to participate in the group also. The trinket in the box, when touched, we come to understand is the catalyst of the disequilibrium.
The film itself isn’t at all linear, we wanted it fragmented so the audience can slowly piece together what’s happening in the short time we have. It’s also so that the audience can learn to like the boy but always have this knowledge that he will become a monster.
We wanted the grand majority to be filmed as if it were a handheld camcorder, like that of ‘The Blair Witch Project’. We wanted this because it would feel much more personal, and hopefully, thrills our audience. We feel that the camcorder effect will make the family and the location feel more remote and far away from saving, and that the audience is trapped there with them. Towards the end when we hear the audio of a therapist we wanted to have the audience imagine whatever ending or scenario they want that resulted in the boy being hospitalised, that we don’t outright tell them and leave them guessing, and questioning the link with the father.
By Issy Knopfler
Research into 'OUTLAST':
'Outlast' is a survival-horror single-player video game developed by Red Barrels Studio released for the PS4 and Xbox one in 2014 and Microsoft Windows in 2013. This game focuses around a main character, the player, who is a journalist documenting the strange activities at Mount Massive, a psychiatric hospital overrun by homocidal patients. It is all seen from a first person perspective, our character is equiped with only a video camera, notebook and the ability to run which is much more realistic as there is no ability to fight. The camcorder effect is something that we want to encorporate into our film. Within the game there are chapters done in total darkness, and the only way to see is to use your camcorder on night vision with limited batery power. The night vision is an aspect we are interested in looking into. Another link to our film is the religious connotations of the game. There is a part in which a priest performs an act in the hospital's chapel. This directly links to the Santanist undertones of our idea.
By Issy Knopfler
Lone Scherfig
Lone Scherfig graduated from the Danish Film School in 1984. In her native Denmark, Lone Scherfig began her career directing award-winning commercials and television dramas. Her first feature as director, The Birthday Trip, premiered at the 1991 Berlin Festival and won several awards at festivals worldwide. Her second feature, On Our Own, won the Grand Prize at the Montreal Film Festival.
In 2010 she directed An Education. The film won Sundance's audience award followed by three Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (Nick Hornby), and Best Actress (Carey Mulligan).
Lone Scherfig also directed 'The Riot Club' which is a drama/thriller. The main things I could take from Scherfig's direction in this film is the intensity of the actors performance. Also the colour- grading and general mood and setting of the film, which makes the beginning of the film seem harmless in mood but it gradually gets more tense and scary as the film progresses. This is the same structure used in our screenplay. The majority of shots used tend to be establishing and long shots so we can see as much detail as possible in one shot. It engages the audience by being able to allow them to connect with the plot and location by allowing them to get an extremely broad sense of the location and atmosphere.
By Courtney Hammond
Yasmin Ahmad
Ahmad was part of a new generation of film-makers who reflected the wide ethnic and cultural diversity of her country and the lives and dreams of its young people. Stylistically, her principal influences were Yasujiro Ozu and Douglas Sirk, although she created her own western and oriental mixture. Her films challenged ethnic stereotypes, and she was openly against any type of fundamentalism and racism, making it her life's work to support minority rights. Unsurprisingly, her feature films were disliked by the regime in Malaysia, a conservative, mostly Muslim country, for tackling taboo subjects such as inter-racial relations and teenage angst. In fact, the second, and perhaps most renowned of her six features, Sepet (2004), was banned in Malaysia, until Ahmad agreed to make eight cuts.
Yasmin Ahmad was born on January 7, 1958 in Bukit Treh, Muar, Johor, Malaysia. She was a director and writer, known for Chinese Eye (2004), Mukhsin (2006) and Talentime(2009). She died on July 25, 2009 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
By Courtney Hammond
Codes and conventions of a Horror/Thriller:
Horror Genre- Code and Conventions
Types of Horror films:
- Slasher
- Saw
- Torture
- Gore
- Physiological
- Monster
- Religious
What are horror films designed to do
- Frighten, make viewer panic
-Invoke hidden or even new fears
- Captivate and entertain the audience in a fearful and gruesome manner
- Conclude by shocking the audience (twist)
Themes, fears represented:
- Nightmares
- Vulnerability
- Alienation
- Fear of the unknown
- Death
- Loss of identity
Location/ Setting
-Isolated places
- woods
- Cave
- Countryside
- Isolated town/ village
- Abandoned House
Villain/ Killer
- Psychopath
- Ghost/ Demon
- Mental Patient
- Monster
- Outcast
- Masked murders
By Courtney Hammond
Audience Research
Dark hair with blue eyes was the most popular choice, however, we chose to use an actor with dark hair and brown eyes because we wanted him to appear as dark as possible, it also meant that when he used the contact lenses they had a better effect.
Preternatural was the most popular. As the title is the first thing people see/read about a film we wanted to use the most popular.
A suburban modern house was the most popular. As the film is predominantly set indoors we wanted to use the most popular. Also, in terms of lighting and availability it was the easiest location to obtain.
Female was the most popular.
0-17 was the most popular. This is correlates with our target audience, thus we took into account the feedback from this page very seriously.
Blacked out eyes was the most popular. We used black out contact lenses.
Desaturated was the most popular. We plan to edit in this style.