4 film ideas

A middle aged man who's mother walked out on him as a child. He is very unsociable and has no friends due to his strange nature. He was always picked on at school and became a very angry and lonely boy. Now in his 30's he keeps having dreams of when his mother walked out on him as a child and waking up crying and in a panic. It all becomes too much for him and he goes out on the attack brutally murdering women that look similar to his mom. He stalks women that look like his mother and puts up pictures of them in his basement, and one by one he murders the women, crossing them off his list as he goes along.

2. A group of six friends win a free cruise trip online. They were six excited but vulnerable people and when their ship stops off at an island for the day it all went horribly wrong for them. They got off expecting to explore the island and spend a hot day drinking and sunbathing, but this didn't occur. The ship took off leaving them stranded and without food or drink. This was not the end of their worries though as evil tribe folk that rule the island come out hunting them to slay them and eat them. They are in a race against time trying to stay alive avoiding being murdered and being the tribe folks dinner long enough till they can get off the island.

Haunted Island

A group of mates decide to go on a holiday to explore a Caribbean island. They have some people that tour them around the island. While they were exploring the island, they come across a part of the island that has a barrier around it with signs on it saying 'DO NOT ENTER, DANGER!'. They all become very curious and want to go and see what is behind these barriers, because it is pretty unusual to have barriers in a abandoned island. The tour guider tells them they can't go across and forces them to go back to the camp site. At midnight the group decide to sneak out so they can see what the barriers are blocking. When they cross the barriers and explore the place, they realise that there is nothing interesting there. But when they turn back they don't know which way they came. Therefore they are lost and look around to try and get back to the camp. When they make a move back, they will hear a someone screaming and chanting behind the brushes and trees and when this happens, one of the people in the group would mysteriously go missing. This happens continuously till the girl is left. Then later on the journey back, they would see that the group member that went missing would be either hanged up on trees, brutally slaughtered or body parts scattered around the area with chunks missing from them as if someone was eating the person. The girl who is the last one remaining fights her way out and finally meets back at the camp but then she sees that the camp has been destroyed and there is no one there. Then right at the end a spear is thrown at her which goes through her stomach which just leaves her dead on the floor.

When Ouija Board Goes Bad

Some youths aged 18 to 20 throw a party and towards the night one person pulls out a Ouija Board and persuades everyone to play it. Some people freak out and decide to leave the party, others want to play it to prove that its a fake and nothing spiritual will happen. When they begin to play the game, nothing happens so the leave the game and carry on with the party. Then all of a sudden the glass on the Ouija Board starts to move on its own. Someone sees this and tells everyone, they all begin to put there hands back on the glass to see what happens. The spirit talking through the Ouija Board begins to play games with the people such as giving them dares to do and telling embarrassing secrets. At the start its all jokes and fun, but then when a girl told the spirit that she isn't going to do the dare that was given to her, this upsets the spirit and makes him angry. All of a sudden they all are trapped in the room and all the doors are jammed. The people try to open them but it was impossible. Then the spirit gives orders to the people to torture the girl who denied the dare in order to get out the house. Then different sorts of tools beggingto appear on the Ouija Board. Everyone gets freaked out and the girl grabs a knife and runs to the corner threatening anyone that came near her. Then the glass moves on its on and gives another order telling the people to kill each other and the last person standing can leave the house. One person tries to phone someone for help but then his reception goes up and down as if the spirit was messing around with it. Then the group pick up a weapon each with some people left out with no weapons. But no one has tried to kill anyone yet. The spirit then tells them that they got 30 minutes left till they are locked in for ever. Then they all panic and start screaming at each other then the girl who denied the dare at the start gets the knife and cuts he throat which leaves her dead on the floor.

Questionnaire Results

Prediction:As a group, we predicted that people aged between 18-21 would prefer the genre horror and the sub genre comedy horror. Where as the age above 21 would prefer Romantic comedy or Thriller. We also found that more people would prefer watching movies at the cinemas rather than at home, maybe this is beacuse they prefer the experience of being at the cinemas with friends, especially at a young age. At the cinemas you would find the quality of the film is better and that the sound can add to the overal scary appeal to the film. Alot of people are unsure of why horror films actually appeal to people, from our questionnaire we found that the majority of people like the horrofic scenes and the thrill of being scared knowing that actually, they are in no danger at all.
Results:
1. How old are you?Here it shows that the majority of people that answered our questionnaire was between the ages of 18-21 where as 30+ was the lowest.
2. What gender are you?The most common gender we asked to do our questionnaire was female.
3. What is your favourite genre of film?
The genre Horror was most preffered and Thriller was the least popular from the people who filled in out questionnaire.
4. What do you enjoy about this genre?
For this questions people replied:
Romantic Comedy - They enjoyed the romance, the funny jokes, nice romantic scenes and jolly music. It also puts them in a happy energietic mood.
Horror - Most mentions that they enjoyed the scary and horrific scence which had proved one of our predictions. They also said it gives them a good scare and especially like it when it makes them jump out of their seats.
Thriller - They enjoyed the storylines, plots and the characters used in the film. But they specially liked the action, weapons and cars in the film.
5. Do you watch horror movies?As you can see, there is a huge mojority of people who answered yes for this questions. This shows us that many people would want to watch a horror movie.
6. What do you enjoy about horror movies?
For this question most people answered the same as they said in question 4 for the horror part. But the people who didn't answer 'horror' for question 4 but also watch horror movies was going along the same lines saying they like the horriffic scenes and the fact that some parts makes them jump out their seats and literally gives them butterflies in their belly.
7. Do you go to the cinema to watch horror movies or watch them at home?
The pie chart shows us that the mojority of people watch their movies at a cinema. Even though the results for cinema and home were very close, it still proves another of our predictions which was most people prefer to watch their movies at the cinemas.
8. What is your favourite horror sub genre?
9. What type of characters to you expect to see in a horror movie?

Pie Charts wont publish, ill try later on.

Summary of Pitch

On friday me and Ismail had to pitch four film ideas to the class, jake had turned up late to the lesson so me and Ismail had to present with only three of our ideas. The pitch ran fairly smoothly although the main point of our chosen story didnt cross over to the class well. Maybe this was because we were slightly unprepared and i'd left my notes on the blog. We were pleased that the class had some useful feedback on the ending to our story because we were debating whether our killer would be caught or remain on the loose for a cliff hanger type finish. They suggested that the murdered remained on the loose to for a climax to the story rather than simply getting caught. In all the pitch didnt go so well, but the knowledege we gained from the classes opinions could prove to be a huge help to our storyline, so in one way it could be deemed a success.

Fim Ideas (Horror)

Our first, and so far most developed idea is a horror film based around a masked serial killer, the film follows a psychopathic male in his mid 30's who's condition was brought on after his mother walked out on him as a child. The character suffered mental scarring throughout his teenage years which was added to by school bullies picking on him for his weird nature, he often has nightmares taking him back to the point of his life when his mother walked out on him and wakes up left in a rage which he struggles to control. The first sign of his illness was picked up by a teacher worried about his sudden lack of progression in his school work, he had also noticed that he was an unpopular student and was very much a lone wolf. The teacher advised him psychiatric treatment to build on his social life which he rejected without thought. The character kept a diary throughout school and regularly updated it with hateful messages aimed at fellow classmates. Although deemed weird he had an outward appearance of a calm and harmless nature which is why he was considered an 'easy' target for bullies. As a teenager he picked up an unhealthy obsession with serial killer Ted Bundy who killed what was believed to be around 100 victims. Bundy strangled his victims and later used various hospital tools to bludgeon them, our character imitated these techniques (copycat killer). Ted Bundy was almost a role model to him. His (character) victims were usually in their 20's with long blonde hair and a slim build, these targets resembled his mothers appearance at the time he last saw her. The murders occurred in depressive episodes following the nightmares of being abandoned as a child.The film will end with one of the killers victims managing to escape from his grasp and calling the police. When the police arrive the killer is left hiding in a barn surrounded by police but whether he is captured is left out in the open. We decided to end it on a cliffhanger so the audience are left feeling tense and answering questions themselves. This also leaves it open to a sequel film which can be decided depending on the success of this film.

Locations: For the opening sequence to our film we need a location that has a creepy, dark mysterious feel to it and have considered numerous possbilities in order to find the best one. At the moment the most appealing seems to be a basement owned by Ismails former employer. We are planning on going down to the location to have a mooch round and see if the location is right for us.

UNFINISHED

Questionnaire

1. How old are you?

18-21 21-25 25-30 30+

2. Are you Male? or Female?

3. What is your favourite genre of film from the following?

Romantic Comedy Horror Thriller

4. What makes you enjoy your chosen genre?

5. Do you enjoy horror movies?

6. What do you enjoy about horror movies?

7. What is your favourite sub genre of horror?

Cannibal Horror Zombie Horror Comedy Horror

8. Where do you watch horror films from?

Home Cinema

9. What type of characters do you expect to see in a horror movie?

Textual Analysis: Scream

My final textual analysis is on Scream a horror movie made in 1996

scream begins with a black background and Scream written in bold white lettering, we then hear a sound which appears to be the drawing of a knife shortly followed by a scream, as we hear the scream which belongs to a female, the title which was previously white turns red in a flashing affect. From the screaming we gather that the movie is a horror so instantly associate the red we see as blood, the flashing of the title could symbolize blood spill in a stabbing motion which eventually spreads across the whole screen. Before the film even begins we predict the killing is linked to a stabbing. The film opens with an initially calm woman answering the phone, after a brief conversation she puts the phone down to what was believed to be a wrong number. Shortly after, to her surprise she receives another call, the use of a medium shot portrays her confusion as she turns to answer it. When she answers the call she seems pretty eager to get off the phone and the conversation is again cut short, we then cut to a medium long shot of the house from outside, possibly the view of the mysterious caller. The shot has a creepy feel to it created through the swaying of the swing, the location is very quite which is exaggerated by the sound of crickets, from this we presume that the house is secluded from the city and that it is in the middle of nowhere, meaning the girl is practically doomed.

filming of opening sequence

On the 11th of November me Jake and Ismail set out to film our short opening sequence showing we understand the basic conventions of filming... the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. Me and Jake have no previous experience in using a camera so decided to be the actors, Ismail however had used cameras before at GCSE level media so we chose him to film the sequence. When we set out to film we presumed it would be very easy, a couple of practice runs and then the final cut, however we stumbled across a few problems in health and safety and recording. We set up the camera to shoot the opening scene of the film in a corridor, the problem with that was lots of people were using them so we had to position the camera so we could film and people can get by. Once we found a suitable angle we began filming, we recorded a few practice shots which would later be the downfall of the day. We began filming the final take and realised we had not erased the practice runs which were spread over the clip, we had to erase the WHOLE thing and didn't have enough time in the lesson to film again, we must now film in tomorrows lesson. Hopefully we will have learned from our mistakes and use the previous attempt as a learning experience.

Filming of opening sequence attempt 2

The second attempt at filming was a success, we managed to film the sequence fairly easily and had it finished within half an hour. After talking to Paula on what had gone wrong we learnt that playing back footage confused the camera and left it recording in random places across the clip, with this in mind we got straight to work. Had we known this in the previous session we would have had the clip filmed easily. After one practice run we set out to film, without reviewing the footage back we had to match the sequences as accurate as we could. All in all there was no problems other than my bad acting to comment on, we kept it short and simple and were happy with the final result although if we had the chance to do it again we would include more complex camera angles and a better story line.