Task 6 - Possible Characters

Major Character Profile: Female Vampire

Name: Aura Compton

Age: 246 - Disguised as a teenager of the age 18
Characteristics: Moody, confident, promiscuous, hard to get along with, beautiful
Preys on young attractive males by seducing them to lure them in, only to kill them and drink their blood in order to remain young and beautiful. She is clever, and knows how to cover up her tracks so ensure that she will never be found out. She makes sure that she is not the last known person to have been seen with a particular guy, so that someone else will be framed, and she is left to carry on without being caught.

Main Character Profile: High School Student

Name: Jim

Age: 18

Characteristics: Friendly, attractive, caring, easy to get along with

People can sometimes take advantage of his kind nature. Easily lured in by Aura without realising the danger he is in,

Name: G

Age: 16

Characteristics: Innocent, pretty, talkative, fun, shy

Jealous of Aura, always assumed that she had feelings for Jim. She is not particularly confident, especially with guys.

Task 6 - Our Film Storyboard

Task 5 - Script

Script will not be a major element of our film opening, the audience will be captivated more so by the on screen images. However, we have concluded that a small script is necessary in order to set the scene. This script will be fairly flexible, and improvisation will happen while on set, where the actor/actresses and producers will be able to make suggestions if and when necessary. We have built a frame for the type of dialogue that we are looking for:

Part 1

Jim: (looks at G for a while, hesitating) Shall we go upstairs?

G: oh..erm..well- (lights turn off)

Jim: (whispers) oh for god sake (turns on lights and returns to room) -so what do you say-

G: (receives phone call of mother) sorry my mom is calling me. okay mom, I'm really sorry, ill be home soon. (to Jim) sorry i've got to go.

Part 2

Jim: (finds G's purse that she left, he picks it up and goes outside to return it to her) Aura! aaaarrghhhhhh!

G: (sees Jim dead, screams) aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!

Task 4 - Certificates

A 'U' rating  means that the film is  suitable for anyone of any age, including small children. it ensures that there is nothing unsuitable for children in the film, for example, the absence of bad language, violence/gore, anything of a sexualised nature and drug use etc.

A 'PG' rating means: parental guidance which differs to universal in the sense that some elements of the film way touch upon subjects which would be found more strongly in films with a higher ing. However, many children would not understand these references, making the film suitable for them to watch, at the discression of their parents. This type of film should not upset its audiences, and my be enjoyed by parent/guardian if there are a few elements to the film that they understand, but know that their child will not..

A '12A' rating states that you must be 12 years or over in order to watch this film alone, but the film is suitable for a younger audience, as long as they are accompanied by an adult aged 18 or over. This certificate is only apparrent in movie theatres. The film will usually turn into a 12 rating when it is released onto DVD.

A '15' ratied film will have a great deal of difference in terms of content than a 12 rated film. Adult themes will be apparrent; such as sexual references, bad language, violence/ gore and mild drug use are present and therefore are not suitable for slightly younger audiences due to their lack of knowledge and may cause them to feel disturbed by what they see. It is illegal for anybody under the age of 15 to view films with this rating. it is hoped that 15 year olds and over will not wish to engage in activities such as ones shown as they should be mature enough not to let it influence their decisions.

An '18' rating means that nobody under the age of 18 can legally purchase or view the film. Strong sex/sexual references, extreme violence, drug abuse etc may occur graphicly and frequently therefore making the content unacceptable for younger audiences. Gore and verisimilitude within this age group are more believable as boundaries can be pushed due to the mature mindset of the audience.

Our film 'Aura of Evil' will be rated '15' because it will not necesarily show scenes of graphic violence or gore, but it will imply a violent death of a character, although this is not actually shown. There is one account of strong language, although this is whispered and may not be noticed by the audience. A sexual situation is implied, but does not manifest, therefore meaning that the film is suitable for audiences of the maturity of 15 years and older.

Task 4 - New Plotline

The concluded final idea for our owning sequence is a combination of 2 of our previous ideas. Ideas 2 + 3 have been combined together in order to create an original idea.

Our film will be called 'Aura of Evil' and opens with a young couple (Jim & G) within a cosy, house location semingly on a date and are sitting by a romantic fire, while enjoying watching a horror film. The body language of G suggests that she feels a little uncomfortable, as she anticipates Jim's intentions for things to progress from sitting and watching a film. When he suggests that they go upstairs, the lights suddenly turn off. The calm atmosphere is replaced by a sense of uneasiness. The boy goes across thef the room to turn on the lights, and upon his return appears a freaky-looking girl peering through the window, into the room where the young couple are sitting. This leaves the audience feeling uneasy and anticipating what will happen next, and what the significance of the girl is.

G shortly after then receives a phone call from her mother requesting her to go home. She gets up and leaves rather abruptly after saying goodbye to the Jim, however being unaware that she has left her purse behind at Jim's house. A few moments after she leaves, Jim realises that she has left her burse, and picks it up witht the intention  of catching her up and returning it to her. However, he meets his fate as he is approached by the freaky girl who had been peering through the window. We assume that Jim knows this girl, as he calls her by her name 'Aura'. She pushes him up the wall and proceeds to biting his neck. He screams for help, but he is not heard. Aura freakily stares into the camera with a blood covered mouth and leaves Jim on the floor in a heap. The name of the film 'Aura of Evil' is shown here. We then see Jim lying on the floor with blood surrounding him. we get the impression of time having passed. G returns to his house to collect her purse, but finds Jim lying, dead. She screams.

Task 4 - Plotline of Film

The concluded final idea for our owning sequence is a combination of 2 of our previous ideas. Ideas 2 + 3 have been combined together in order to create an original idea.


Our film will be called 'Living Dead Girl' and opens with a young couple within a cosy, house location on a date and sitting by a romantic fire. The calm atmosphere is however,disrupted by the flickering, and turning off of the lights. The boy goes out of the room to turn on the lights, and upon his return appears a freaky-looking girl peering through the window, into the room where the young couple are sitting. This leaves the audience feeling uneasy and anticipating what will happen next, and what the significance of the girl is.

The girl shortly after then receives a phone call from her mother requesting her to go home. She gets up and leaves after saying goodbye to the boy, however being unaware that she has left her purse behind at the boy's house. When she exits and her departure is shortly followed by a knock at a door - the boy presumes the girl is returning to collect her purse after realising that she had forgotten it.

However, it is a mysterious girl, who is a friend of the boy's who is seemingly uspet and seeking comfort after a supposed recent break up. 

In a turn of events, she seduces the boy in the kitchen, but instead, bites his neck and there are mild images of blood and gore. She leaves him to die. The girl leaves the scene of the crime to ensure she will not be held responsible. The girl comes back to collect her purse and is extremely distressed to see the boy lying dead on the floor. The audience then witnesses the girl arranging to meet another boy so we are aware of her intentions. The audience after this assume that this mysterious girl is perhaps a vampire.

As the girl was the last person known to have arranged to see the boy, and was the last person seen with him, will she be suspected of his murder? How long will the mysterious girl get away with murdering innocent attractive young men?

Task 4 - Ideas For Film

Idea 1 : A mysterious person with painted nails is looking through a women's magazine and visciously scribbling out the faces of attractive women. The camera slowly edges towards the persons face, but not quite revealing the true identity of the person. Spooky music starts as the opening titles appear. With fast cuts to the persons face showing them putting on make up and harming themselves with a knife. The audience feel a sense of mystery and dread, as it is not until the end of the sequence that it is revealed that this seemingly woman-obsessed person is in fact a man, not an insecure and jealous woman, as the audience would have assumed. The audience is left wondering what the strange mans intentions are and whether he is a transsexual/homosexual/possessed etc.

Idea 2: A young attractive couple are home alone, perhaps boyfriend & girlfriend. They are drinking wine, in a house with dim lighting. The atmosphere appears to be warm and cosy, with a slightly haunting feel. A mysterious, freaky-looking masked person watches from outside the house, perhaps a possessive ex boyfriend of the girl. Their intentions are clearly to hurt them. Wine gets spilled to which foreshadows coming events of blood being spilled. The masked person eventually makes their way into the house and murders the boy, and captures the girl.

Idea 3: Female vampire who is 200 years old who stays young by feeding on young attractive males. She appears to be a 'normal' lonely woman who seems like she wants to share the company of men, little do they know that she needs to eat them to stay alive. She seduces them first, leurs them in before killing them, and leaving them to die. But hiding all evidence at the same time. The audience is left wondering how long she will get away with this for.

Idea 4: Group of teenagers take a road trip into the woods, while they are there, their car breaks down, but luckily they have tents and camping equipment with them. As it gets darker, they hear strange noises, and want to go home. In the distance they see a strange-looking group of people, with some people lying of the floor. They get in the car, and pray that it starts, someone forgets their phone so they get out of the car. The strange people were actually zombies, who notice the person getting out of the car. The zombies sprint over and attack the people, there are elements of gore/blood etc. 

Task 3 - Statistics from The British Film Council Website

This shows that comedy was the most popular in terms of releases and had the highest gross box office figure. The most popular film for this genre was Sex and the City 2, the most popular for the thriller genre was Shutter Island and the top performing for horror was Paranormal Activity 2.

The three film genres that we have been looking at are 'rom-com', 'horror' and 'thriller'. in comparison to thriller and rom-com, horror produced the largest amount of films. However, it was rom-coms which managed to gross more, despite the fact that this genre had the lowest amount of releases. Thrillers have shown to be the least captivating for audiences, this is shown by the lowest amount of gross income in comparison to the other two genres. Danielle and I were initially unsure whether to create a horror film opening due to the fact that most of the films released were of the horror genre, yet this genre was unable to produce the higest amount of gross income in order to justify the amount of films that had been released.

Despite being unsure at the begininning, we warmed to the idea of creating a horror film, but thought it to be a good idea to produce a questionnaire which would be given to a number of people who fall into the target audience for our film (15-30) to ensure that we woud be catering for the desires of our audience when making the film.

Task 3 - Results from Questionnaire

Task 3 - Concluded Findings from Film Questionnaire

    As part of our AS media coursework we have been asked to create a two minute opening sequence for a new horror film. In order to find out what audiences would like to see within a new horror film, we were required to conduct a questionnaire which was then handed out and completed by a number or participants. The overall findings are as follows:


What is your personal favourite horror film:

  Final Destination (3), Halloween (1), Insidious (1), Saw (3), [Rec] (1), The Grudge (1)


  The films stated above vary in the type of horror film that they are. The most popular films were 'Final Destination' and 'Saw'. Both of these films differ in the type of horror film that the are. 'Final Destination' is an American horror/thriller which follows the lives of young people in persuit of cheating death. The film has a distinct story line and is primarily aimed at teenagers. 'Saw' however, is aimed at an older audience due to its rating being an 18, contrasted with 'Final Destination' being a 15 therefore containing a lot less gore than 'Saw' does. Neither films contain particularly famous actors and actresses, but enthrall the audience with its compelling story.


  What is your favourite type of music to be included the opening of a horror film:

   Orchestral (3), 'Dark Music' (4), Increasing Tempo Piano (2), Atmospheric (1)


   The most favoured type of music which audiences would like to hear within a horror film is 'Dark Music' which can be a combination of atmospheric, and increasing tempo music (perhaps orchestrial) which creates an eerie feeling for the audience and implies darkness and fear.


   Preferred gender of:

       Protagonist: Male (6) Female (4)
       Antagonist: Male (8) Female (2)

The majoity of the participants asked have concluded that they would rather see a male gendered protagonist and antagonist. 


Most expected colour of opening titles:

   Red and Black (8)

   Red (1)

   Red, Orange and Yellow (1)


   All of the participants asked decided they would like to see the colour red in the opening titles. However, the most favoured option was red comined with black as this was favoured at the most 'spooky' looking colour combination and is a common convention found in the opening of horror films. A red coloured font against a black background is particularly creepy-looking and is somewhat conventional for horror films.


   Favourite type of killer:

   Zombie: (5)

Vampire: (0)

Ghost: (2)

Child: (1)

Axe murderer: (0)

Cannibal: (1)

Normal person possessed: (0)

Attractive Female Villain: (1)


Our participants comcluded that they most favour horror films which revolve around the ideas of 'zombies'.


Preferred type of Film:

    Linear (7)

    Non-Linear (3)
  
  When asked whether the participants would rather watch a linear (chronological from start to finish) or non-linear (jumps back and forwards, perhaps to suggest a character's flash backs) they concluded that they would prefer to see a linear film. This film type is generally easier to follow, therefore since horror films are usually based on gore, anticipation and threat, a non-linear film is not always necessary as the audience is interested by the effects within the film, more so than a complicated storyline which invokes flash backs in a non-linear style. 


   Preferred location of Film

   Woods: (5)

House party: (3)

Suburban Street: (2)


Prefer to see a twist?

    Yes: (8)

 No: (2)


Ideal rating?

   12: (1)

15: (5)

18: (4)

Overall, people would like to have parallel sounds that compliment what we see on screen during the opening sequence. For example, a scary image will be complemented with the sound of eerie music which makes the audience feel uneasy and unnerved. The title colour most dominantly wanted by the asked participants was red and black, and a linear narrative was more favoured. This type of narrative is generally the easiest to understand, as it goes in a chronological order. The horror genre is not one for captivating its audience with a thought-provoking analytical storyline, but uses gore and brutality to shock and frighten audiences. The favoured type of killer is zombies and more people wanted a twist at the end of the film, as well as an element of black comedy.  The majority of people would like to see the film being located within the woods. The overall rating would be expected my participants to be a '15'.
Although our participants concluded that they would prefer to see a male antagonist, we have challenged the conventions which are followed by many horror films by allocating the role of antagonist to a young attractive female.