Planning - 4 Film Ideas

1)      A group of raunchy teenagers decide to steal some alcohol and explore deep into the mysterious forest with no more than a bottle of vodka, pack of condoms and a four man tent. However, they are not aware of the fact that there have been various reports of missing people in the area and it’s believed by the locals that there is a link between the missing people and the unexplained strange events taking place in the woods. There dodgy night out in the woods turns a whole lot dodgier, and two of the teenagers are tragically killed by the disturbed villain, but the remaining boy left saves his girlfriend from the villain and kills him. Closed narrative.

2)       When Danny’s parents decide to stay away with some friends for the weekend, Danny takes advantage of this and holds a party, however the party mood is killed when guests are found murdered one by one. The killer is one of the party guests and eventually the killer is exposed, the audience is led to believe the killer is arrested and everything goes back to normal but the killer escapes the grasp of the police officers and ends with a point of view shot of the villain holding a knife hiding in Danny’s garden. Open narrative, room for a sequel.

3)      After two lads pass their driving tests they round up there mates and decide to celebrate by venturing on a road trip across the country side. As night falls the two drivers begin to egg each other on for a race, as they’re excited teenagers behind the wheel of brand new cars they don’t think twice about the consequences, suddenly a huge intimidating armoured vehicle approaches them head on, and the two cars swerve out of the way and spin out and crash. When the teens regain consciousness they realise their friend Emma is missing and believe it’s linked with the mysterious armoured vehicle. They decide to split up and search for her but two of the characters are killed off, its left to heroic Steve to save Emma from the demented farmer brandishing a double barrel shot gun. He sets his barn on fire, burning the farmer alive and saving Emma in time. Closed narrative.

4)      A teenage boy with psychological issues is dropped from his beloved football team, he doesn’t take the managers decision lightly and his anger is deepened when his old team mates bully him. He takes vengeance and his horrific actions are fuled by pure jealously as he kills the players one by one as he thinks the manager will have no choice to play him if everyone else is dead. The boy is caught and thrown in solitary confinement. Closed narrative.

Target Audience

4 Golden rules when considering the concept of audience within media studies:

1)      Who is the target audience of this text?

2)      What does the audience expect from the text?

3)      How does the text appeal to or cater for the target audience?

4)      To what extent does the target audience feel the text is successful in targeting them?

I carried out a servey to establish who i am suppose to be targeting and how i can cater for their needs and expectations...

For media studies we have to produce a two Minute opening to a film genre of our choice. As you can see I have chosen to produce a teen horror film opening, I have to research into the target audience and their expectations of the film genre. If you could please fill out the questionnaire so I can use the information to help make an effective opening including conventions which are expected.

1) What gender are you?

Male               Female

2) What age are you?

14-19

20-25

26-31

32-37

38-43

44-49

50+

3) What do you expect from a teen horror film in general?

4) What sort of characters do you expect to see in a teen horror?

5) Who do you expect to be the protagonist of the film? Male of female? (Main character)

6) What sort of location do you expect from a teen horror film?

7) What do you expect from the opening sequence to the film (first two minutes?)

I specifically targeted teenagers (14-19) to complete my questionnaire, as my film is a teen a horror obviously targeted at teenagers it seemed pointless to ask a 50 year old about a teen horror. I asked 35 teenagers in upper school and sixth form, therefore I have a slight range in age, and the general feedback was similar. I will briefly summarise the responses; most people concluded that they expect a teen horror film to grip them straight from the start to ensure they stay interested, also another frequent response was that they expect to relate to the film and obviously they anticipate being scared. In pretty much every response it stated that they expect to see a victim, hero and villain; the victim usually being female and the hero usually being male, in relation to this most people who answered expect to see a male protagonist. Lots of locations popped up in the questionnaires consisting of: remote villages, abandoned houses, but the most frequent location people listed was a forest. In EVERY response people all agreed that the first two minutes should entice the audience and contain some sort of exciting action.

This questionnaire proved valuable to me in my research as I can now plan my film and opening two minutes with this feed back in mind as it will be aimed at the same age group who completed my questionnaire, therefore I am going to give them what they want.

Narrative theory

One of the only ways of creating a successful opening to a film is to be clear about where the rest of the film is going. Although I will not make anything beyond the fist two minutes, for these two minutes to be coherent and effective, I must have an understanding in my own mind of how the story is going to change, develop and finish.

Structuralism- was a movement in the arts that set about trying to find the unifying features of texts by identifying their common elements; this was done by breaking down texts such as: paintings, stories, and pieces of music into their component parts and trying to discover what “building blocks” they shared.

Essentially the idea in terms of narrative was that there were common features of threads to all successful stories, and that once these threads, features or structures were recognised and understood, we would have a greater understanding of how to recognise and create great art.

Simplistic way of describing a films narrative structure through a three step model:

                                           Beginning - Middle – End

The narrative model is also described in terms of:

                                 Equilibrium – Disequilibrium – Equilibrium

Beginning

At the beginning there is a state of equilibrium. Things are at peace, or in balance, the state of equilibrium represents normality for the main characters.

Middle

Something happens to disrupt this equilibrium, this disturbance and its after effects form the middle of the story.

End

At the end of the story there is a return to normality. A new equilibrium is achieved, this ending of the story is known as closure or resolution.

         

                                                        Narrative codes

Another way of thinking about narrative is through the use of narrative codes, specifically action codes and enigma codes.

Action code – An event or a movement in a films narrative that then motivates the action in a certain direction.

Enigma code – A question that is posed by the actions/events/ character which is then answered in the narrative.

"Silence of the lambs" - how the opening sequence uses narrative codes to set up aydience expectations of the plot and of charcters.....

The opening sequence of “silence of the lambs” uses lots of narrative codes, specifically action codes and enigma codes; these two codes are extremely effective and are closely linked. The sequence starts with a young women running into some woods, this action code creates an enigma code and leaves the audience asking questions such as: who is she? Why is she running into the woods? Is she being chased? Is she in danger? This action code keeps the audience interested because they’re eager to find out the answers to their own questions, and it is further action codes which take place later that answers the enigma codes. The character then climbs a rope and jumps over a net, and our minds are gradually put at rest as we assume she’s taking part in an assault course, maybe training for something specific? This is another enigma code. Suddenly a man appears from the eerie scenery and commands the women to report to Crawford in his office, at this stage we find ourselves asking questions such as: who is the random man? Who is Crawford and why does he want to see her, maybe his superior, Is she in trouble? When the man turns around and reveals himself, we have a greater understanding of the situation and many of the enigma codes are answered, the story makes sense so far, because on the front of the mans hat reads the letters ‘FBI.’ Therefore we now acknowledge that she’s either training to join the FBI or is already a member. So far audience expectations will have been satisfied as it attracted the audiences attention from the very start by using narrative codes which worked together to create red herrings. Red herrings are a typical convention of horror films as they draw the audience into a false sense of security and make them believe a certain action is going to take place but something extremely different does, for example; when the women was running into the gloomy woods the audience suspect to believe she is in danger, but she wasn’t. The camera then cuts to a shot of her running towards the headquarters and on her way she passes a group of young people all in uniform, so we have now established its training. Through a clever action code of her walking down a corridor and high fiving another woman we learn a little bit about her personality, we discover she’s an established sociable character. Also we now know her name through the use of dialogue, her identity is slowly being fed to us and we can assume she is the protagonist. However, we face another enigma code: who is the other women? A question which is likely to be questioned later on in the film, this character will probably play a significant role in the film. The next action code is simple but incredibly meaningful; it conveys meaning without the use of dialogue. The women enters a lift and is over whelmed by a crowded lift occupied by a group of towering men dressed in a different uniform to the women. This shows the audience the separation between genders and creates an enigma code; is she likely to face sexism? After leaving the lift she walks down a corridor and the camera pays close attention to a sign which reads “behavioural science” This is a significant action code as it tells the audience what line of work she is in, and that she might have to face some psychotic characters which could cause danger to her? These are enigma codes which are formed. This is followed by an action code of someone telling her to wait in Crawford’s office; this tells the audience that Crawford is a highly respected character as he isn’t there waiting for her and has people below him ordering her to see him, he didn’t personally go outside and talk to her, she has to come to him. She walks into Crawford’s office (who we now know is her superior) and is drawn towards something on the opposite side of the room, the close up of her agitated face leaves us wondering what she is looking at, must be something sinister?

To conclude, the opening sequence of “silence of the lambs” uses narrative codes to set up audience expectations of the plot and characters very effectively. As the film goes on we gradually learn more and more about the plot and characters, the opening sequence is clever because it controls the release of information to the audience, giving us enough to follow the action but at the same time not giving away all of the twists and turns, so we have a reason to carry on watching.