Props, mise-en-scene, SFX, costume etc

As we are filming teens going on a camping trip, to achieve verisimilitude we will need 1 or possibly 2 tents.

We hope to film the characters arriving, so therefore we need a car.

We will need some alcohol bottles, to signify that the characters are drinking, we may also use some drug substitutes so signify that they're taking drugs also.

This ties in to issues of representation of teenagers, although it will be very believable to our audience as they would be of a similar age to the cast.

We want our final girl to dress modestly, hopefully jeans,

T-shirt and a cardigan/hooded top. This will portray that she isn't sexually acitve like her friends.

Our 'scream queen' and the other female character will wear low cut tops and skirts, to signify that they are sexually active, as more of their bodies will be on show.

The boys will all wear jeans and a hooded top, which will match a stereotypical view of the youth group we are using for our cast.

All of the characters will need to wear wellies because of the conditions at our location, but this will achieve verisimiltude as it is fairly common to wear that kind of outdoor footwear to go camping.

They will also all need bags with them to signify they're staying overnight and have brought food and a change of clothes etc.

As we are setting our film outdoors, we are less able to input mise-en-scene which could work as intertextual references, if we want to suggest to the audience any link between our horror film and other existing horror films it would need to be done through dialogue.

We may use props such as, a magazine, a camera, a mobile or gameboy as these will help to anchor the age of the cast and acheive verisimilitude.

For the death scene, we need our killer to be dressed all in black, or an equally dark colour such as navy, dark grey or dark brown. He will also disguise his face with a balaclava.

Another prop we will need for the killer is a weapon, we have chosen to use a kitchen knife as this is something that would be easily available to a killer, and to us.

For special effects we will need some fake blood. We found a recipe on the internet to make our own realistic blood. 

Podcast 3

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Podcast 2

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Podcast 1

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Casting

Casting Vodcast

We have cast a 'Final Girl' character. This character is portrayed to embody all the moral codes of life, and is also typically a virgin and is therefore able to outsmart the killer. There are examples of this character in almost every horror and slasher film ever made. One of the most famous is Halloween's final girl Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis.

We have cast a 'Scream Queen' character, they're crucial to drawing in male audiences as the male gaze theory applies to their appearance, typically blond, attractive and revealingly dressed. They're also sexually active which gives opportunity for nudity aswell. Our 'Scream Queen' will be the first to be killed off as her sexual activity causes our killer  
pick her.

Drew Barrymore's character Casey is killed off in the opening of hit teen horror movie 'Scream'. Although she doesn't tick all the boxes of a scream queen she does portray the character to the audience. 

 

Another key character we have spoken to in this vodcast is the boyfriend of the scream queen, stereotypically they're a jock type. They will engage in sexual activity which we will signify on camera by having the two of them putting  clothes back on. Their sexual activity will be the reason for her death as this is a common convension of the slasher genre. A famous couple from this genre is in the opening of 'Scream' with Drew Barrymore's character Casey and her boyfriend Steve, who are killed off in the first 15 minutes of the film.

 

Location scouting

Yesterday, Melissa and I went up onto Ilkley moor, because this is where we hope to film our film opening, we filmed a 'vodcast' to get an idea of how it will be possible to film some of the shots that we had in mind.
Overall we think that the location works out quite well.
We will have to shoot at a later time of day, hopefully when it is dusk so there is less light around.
If this isn't possible it is possible to alter how much light is allowed through the camera lens, to give the impression that it is dusk.
Another trick we were taught to do with the camera is; in place of a blue colour filter, we can put the camera onto tungsten setting to give the impression of a colder atmosphere.

Animatic

Audience feedback:
We were adviced to input an explanation as to wht there is a killer there and what their motives are.
We were also adviced to test out the location, possibly using a blue colour filter.
We were adviced to add into our narrative an example of a false scare.
Somebody suggested that our plot may appear silly and comical to an audience, therefore we will be consious of this when producing the opening and make sure that it is portrayed more seriously.
They suggested we watched these films for some inspiration for how to produce our film opening:

• Camp Blood
• Hell Night
• April Fools Day
• Warriors

Revised narrative outline

We went with my pitch, therefore we are filming the opening of the film in which a group of teens go camping.
Most of what i wrote in my original pitch will be filmed in the same way, the plotline remains the same, howeve since doing our research there are certains aspects we have decided to input and some we have removed.

We have altered the my idea from having any actual shots of the killer to just having point of view shots to signify the group is being watched. This will help to achieve narrative enigma which increases the tense atmosphere of the film opening.

We also altered my idea of not showing her being killed and just showing her being followed to actually putting that in in because, as it is a slasher movie they don't typically tend to avoid a killing with in the opening self contained narrative sequence, todays teen audiences crave more blood and gore.

We hope to do it in a similar style to this killing in 'Friday the 13th'. We like how the killer is framed so the action of the knife slashing the girl is seen from behind. This would be an easy way to achieve verisimilitude, and the audience would believe she is actually being killed.



Another idea we gained from a killing in Halloween, is to have the blood splatter across an object close-by, this achieves gore without having to show the actual knife penetrating the female. We would have to use blood splattering on a tree instead as thats more appropriate for our setting.


We also liked the idea of having the killer wiping blood from the knife and walking away from the scene leaving the body lying there, we saw this in Scream. At this point we would do a close-up of the body and fade to black and the titles will come in at this point.


We have decided to signify our 'final girl' to the audience as the one who will survive, by adding some narrative in which she turns down an offer of alcohol or drugs, or both. Many people who have seen horror movies before will pick up on this preffered reading, as it is such a stereotypical character.


We have decided to signify our scream queen by filming her emerging from behind a tree or bush putting clothing back on to signify that she has just had sex. We have put this in because the codes and conventions of horror often have the females who are sexually active killed of first.