| Scene | Location | Risk | Solution |
| Car accident | On public road | As we had a child on set, this was a risk as she could have easily run into the busy road therefore resulting to an accident. | In order to prevent this, we accompanied the child at all times to avoid an accident taking place. |
| Holding the knife | Jasleen’s House, bedroom | The child in our trailer had to hold a knife for the poster; the risk was that she could hurt herself or someone else around her. | To prevent this risk from taking place, we made sure we were in a safe environment i.e. surroundings were clear so no one trips over and cause a hazard. |
| Walking up the ladder, leading to the attic | Navneet’s House, attic | The risk of this scene was as that someone could have slipped and hurt themselves as it was high up furthermore this was more risky as we had a child in the scene. In addition equipment could also get damaged if it isn’t secured enough. | To avert this risk, we organised the scene in depth so therefore we could get the scene over and done with quickly. We also accompanied the child at all times so no harm is caused to her. |
| Drawing of the baby scene | Navneet’s house- bedroom | In this scene we had a baby present, the baby was on the bed on its own and this was a risk as he could have rolled off and hurt himself. | To evade this risk, we shot the scene quickly; furthermore we guarded the bed whilst the scene was shot. |
| Bedroom scene | Jasleen’s house - bedroom | We shot this scene in the dark, the risk was that someone could have fallen over in the dark and hurt themselves. | To avoid this risk we made sure everyone was in their correct positions so they knew where to go in the dark additionally we did practise runs before hand so everyone was familiar with their roles and positions. |
| Chandelier scene | Navneet’s house – living room | In this scene it was required to shake the chandelier, the risk was that if we shook it too hard then it could have collapsed and fallen onto someone. | We avoided this risk by gently shaking the chandelier; furthermore we edited the scene to achieve the shaky look. |
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Risk Assessment
Friday, 6 April 2012
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Final Idea and Treatment
Three Pitch Ideas:
1) Combination of the ‘The Ring’ and ‘Dark Water’ meets ‘the Neglected’ in the playground.
Supernatural, mystery, haunts innocent people for revenge.
Common paradigms which are consisted in our scenario are -Death, creepy child and neglect/revenge.
Setting of a playground which is normally seen as a safe environment however will be displayed in an isolated surrounding. This idea follows Todrov’s theory it is structuralised as it follows Todorov’s approach to narrate the film as it moves from equilibrium to disturbance and then back to a new equilibrium.
2) Combination of ‘The Wrong Turn’ and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ meets ‘Trapped.’
Slasher, suspense, revenge, blood, knifes final girl and male gaze.
A group of friends go off on a road trip when they get stranded on an isolated grounds in the woods, soon the group of friends experience weird things taking place around them and shortly one by one start to go missing. This pitch follows the Barthes Enigma coding, as the plot creates an element of mystery to the entire audience therefore intriguing them and leaving them wanting more.
3) Final pitch idea, a combination of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Attack the Block’ meets ‘The Infected Zone’ Zombies, blood and gore, humour/comedy, house and a group of friends.
A group of teenage boys at home soon realise all is not what is seems, as they realise that their neighbourhood is overtaken by ‘infected zombies’ in addition more pressure is put on them when they realise they’re the only ones who are not infected and is up to them to save the rest of mankind. This pitch is a postmodern as it is a mixture of horror and comedy.
Scenario:
Chosen idea is the neglected:
“A 6 year old girl is neglected by her mother and over shadowed by her younger sister who is more loved. She dies in an accident and her spirit comes back for revenge.” This
‘Haunted child’ being the main paradigm.
“The Little creepy girl” being the main paradigm for a character also the trailers antagonist. ‘Teenager’ as the victim – protagonist of the trailer.
‘Playground’, ‘isolated house’ and ‘attic’ as the as the setting.
Treatment-
The opening starts with moment of equilibrium, as the first scene is set in a playground creating a peaceful and playful atmosphere. A young girl is sitting on the swings being pushed by her parents, this moment is soon executed when her baby sister start crying this therefore enforces her parents attention to be drawn to the baby rather than her this therefore leaves her feeling ‘neglected’ and ‘alone’. Right before the close up shot is shown of the girl, a tone card is presented on the screen stating ‘The neglected’, therefore close up shot is shown of the girl swinging on the swings alone, clearly showing she is being neglected. The next scene is when a family picture is being taken but the girl is forced into tacking the picture as she is upset and overshadowed by her baby sister. Through a fade we are taken to the next scene where the baby is peacefully sleeping and her sister is beside her drawing a resentful picture of her, another tone card is presented ‘innocence is deadly’ clarifying for the audience that the girl is evil and bitter. The next scene is the girl spying on her mum and baby sister through the door this helps the audience get a better understanding of the girls character as its in her point of view, further to this scene a low angle, long shot is shown of the girl this makes the girl look superior and intimidating in addition the music in the background gets more tensed and amplified pushing the idea of jealousy and suspicion. The next scene play a dominant role in the trailer as we witness the girl feeling neglected which formulates her to run out of the house this is when a blackout is created with additional sound effects such as a car crash, scream, ambulance, a heart monitor and flat line making it clear for the audience she has been run over by a car and died.
Another tone card is shown, stating a time change this is where the girl comes back to haunt her younger sister who is no longer little anymore, the next scene takes placed in the bedroom when the ‘younger sister’ is sleeping peacefully gets attacked by her ‘dead older sister.’ The next seen shows the family picture which was taken at the beginning which also shows the girl no longer in the picture, furthermore more scene are shown of the ‘younger sister’ being haunted by her dead sister which therefore leads her to check the attic this is when the younger sister witnesses her dead older sister. Soon after another tone card is present ‘playtime isn’t over’ this leads to the playground where the dead girl is swinging and spinning on the roundabout with weird things taking place, lastly another tone card is presented stating ‘It’s only just begun’ when the dead girl is shown laughing.
Tone cards:
Title – ‘The Neglected’, names of crew. ‘Play time isn’t over yet..’ ‘Innocence Is Deadly’ and ‘It’s only just begun’
Key Scenes:
Happy family scene
Neglected scene
Girl getting jealous
Blackout – screams heard, Accident heard.
Younger sister getting haunted.
Swing scene
Little girls face. – shocks the audience.
(Changes may be made)
Location:
Playground
House
Attic
Post-Modern essay of Shaun Of The Dead
Shaun of the dead is constructed as a postmodern horror film as it is a combination of two opposing genres- horror and comedy. A postmodernism can be seen as a turning against structuralism and the rigid thinking of the horror genre. Shaun of the dead is a post-modern as it consists of all the elements of a horror film but is in fact is a comedy, Shaun of the dead was written by Edgar Wright and co-written by Simon Pegg, the film is a hybrid romantic, zombie and a comedy, these genre’s contradict each other therefore resulting the film to be seen as a comedy as conventionally these opposing genres are not normally combined with each other.
Shaun of the dead is a contemporary version of a horror film as it still follows codes and conventions of a horror film by consisting blood & gore, zombies and isolation these are all popular iconography of the horror genre. Another way Shaun of the dead contradicts the horror genre and Propp’s character theory is by replacing the lead character of a cool and strong male lead for an average lead who works at an electronic shop with his slacker of a friend which initially adds another element of humour in the film due to not having the characteristics of a typical hero.
At the beginning of the film, we are presented with Shaun which is essentially the ‘lead’ character; he is presented as a zombie which is humorous due to his zombie like behaviour and lifestyle which is also ironic as he is supposed to be the human fighting against the zombies. Another way that Shaun of the dead subverts the horror genre to post-modern is the setting is set in broad day light, this is another way Shaun of the dead challenges the typical codes and conventions of a horror film as most horror films are set during night time as it adds the element of fear of the unknown in the dark and therefore creates a scary ambiance. However the film still follows some conventions of a typical horror film as the main setting is an isolated house; this is a typical setting for a horror film as it is easy for the audience to identify with the victims in the film.
The zombie attack is another comedy factor in the film as the supply of weapons they use are nothing out of the unordinary as they use cutlery and vinyl records, this is uncommon in horror films as the main lead characters in the film normally use more recognised weapons for their defence such as guns and knives which are normally used to show one is in power. Another way Shaun of the dead subverts the structuralism of a horror film is when the zombie attack is taking place, both Shaun and Ed fight against a woman, this is humorous as they are scared of her, this goes against Propp’s character theory as the male lead is recognised as strong both mentally and physically however this is not the case with Shaun and Ed. In addition the seriousness is taken away from the attack against the zombies as both characters start conversating with each other during the attack this is amusing as they are oblivious to their surroundings. Furthermore, after killing the zombies they return inside the house and have tea and cornetto this is another comedy aspect as it shows that the zombies have had no impact on them what so ever whereas if this was a conventional horror film the victims would be more distraught of what has taken place.
The mise-en-scene used for the zombies is not usual for a horror film as the zombies don’t have specific costume, they are dressed in ordinary clothes, this suggest that there isn’t much difference between the life that the humans live in Shaun of the dead and the actual zombies.
Another way this film subverts the structuralist theory is when Shaun’s love interest is introduced, she is not the typical damsel in distress, her characteristic of being blonde, stereotypes her as thick and portrays her as a ‘bimbo’. This shows Propp’s character theory and challenges it as the girl is supposed to be the ‘princess/love interest’ of the hero – Shaun, the theory is challenged as the girl becomes the ‘hero’ this therefore portrays her as the stronger one in the relationship which contradicts Propp’s character theory. This therefore can be classified as Louis Althusser’s theory of interpolation, this is because the average men in society can associate themselves with Shaun and Ed and the strong women can identify themselves with Liz as she adopts more masculine traits. However, towards the end of the film, Shaun adopts the structural role of being the hero as he takes responsibility for once and tries to protect everyone close to him, such as his mother, his best friend Ed and his girlfriend Liz.
On the whole I believe that Shaun of the dead is in fact a postmodern film as it uses traditional characteristics of horror films and challenges them by modernising them by tinting it with humour. Shaun of the dead uses many theories such as Todorov’s narrative theory; this was used to create equilibrium at the start and towards the end disequilibrium, this theory is common in most horror films in order to create a narrative concept. Propp’s character theory was also used, this helped to establish the postmodern ambiance in the film as it challenges the typical character types in horror films overall this added humour in the film as the characters were not adopting their traditional roles. Furthermore, Louis Althusser’s theory of interpolation was also used to help the audience identify with the characters in the film. Overall these theories are all attributes for Shaun of the dead being classified as a postmodern.
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Feminist Horror Essay - Halloween
A feminist horror film goes against the codes and conventions of typical horror films by replacing the typical frail, half-naked victim with a strong psychologically lead female character. In a typical horror film women are portrayed as weak and inferior in comparison to the male leads, always needing physical and mental support by them, the rigid stereotypes is a clear representation of women in society. In most horror films, female characters are promiscuous stating that they asked to be killed, further to this the majority of American horror films seem to have great levels of misogynist and violence, however over the recent years many films such as ‘Halloween’ and ‘Carrie’ have used the concept of the final girl by Carol J. Clover, this concept includes the final girl being level-headed and morally pure. The concept of the final girl is used so that the audience are structurally ‘forced’ into identifying not with the killer but the resourceful surviving female victim. In addition Laura Mulvey’s concept of the male gaze is also used by both films, this theory is also coded as ‘to be looked at-ness’ this demonstrates that the majority of the male audiences watching horror films classify women as sexual objects and are used to fulfil one’s fantasy, furthermore Clover suggests that we identify with the masochistic voyeur which is the victim and not the sadistic voyeur the villain.
‘Halloween’ is considered to be a feminist film due to using the concept of the final girl, the main character is portrayed as strong both mentally and physically due to escaping near death experiences on multiple occasions this therefore classifies her as the final girl. Freud’s psychological theory is also used in this film as voyeurism and sadism is used mainly for the male audiences in order to cause deriving gratification (mainly sexual) from another person’s pain, as it’s in their nature to be more sexually aroused by watching females in pain. Whereas, the female audiences are more passive and prefer films which consist of a physiological concept as it creates meaning to the film.
Halloween still follows some codes and conventions of a structural horror film as it uses common iconography of horror films such as knifes, masks, blood and isolated house, this is done to help the audience identify and establish the genre of the film. The name alone ‘Halloween’ causes one to be quite wary of the film at the beginning , as Halloween is known to be an occasion where the unexpected takes place therefore is fitting for the horror genre as horror can be linked to fears of one and the unexpected taking place. The hand held camera at the beginning of the film creates an uneasy sensation amongst the audience as it is quite disorientating and jarring, in addition it raises the idea of suspicion as it is in a point of view of someone but we are not shown who’s POV is it is. The setting of the film is at night time and a secluded house, the lighting highlights the house and excluded the surroundings by dark lighting this shows that the house highlighted by the light plays a dominant role in the film. The beginning of the film follows the codes and conventions of a typical horror film, as it start with a couple making out, this rejects the aim of a feminist film as the female character is thought to be pure and innocent which the start contradicts. Furthermore, the non-diegetic music in the background creates an edgy atmosphere this is done by the pitch increasing.
When the intruder makes his way into the house, the camera is still in the form of point of view, placing the audience in the antagonist shoes, the intruder then makes his way into the kitchen and takes out a knife from the draw this shows that the intruder is in control as he has the weapon of destruction. The film still follows the concept of a structuralist film as the male gaze is used for the female victim, the female is naked therefore confirming the views of women being seen as sexual objects by men and society, as the female victim is naked this also confirms the thoughts of females being seen as weak and vulnerable as he stab her repeatedly in addition confirming the sub-genre of the film which is slasher.
As the film progresses, a medium shot is shown of a girl, this tells us that the girl is the next subject/victim for the killer emphasizing females are weak and an easy victim compared to males this therefore could be linked the lack of physical strength females have compared to males, which therefore makes them an easy target. In addition a low angle shot is shown of the house where the first victim got killed in, this draws attention to the houses dominance in the film. Furthermore, an over the shoulder shot is used when the killer looks at the girls disappearing figure, this shows that that he has authority and control over her, this also raises the idea that she is being watched. The killer’s identity is veiled throughout the film, creating an element of suspense and mystery; this is another convention of a structuralist film as the identity is kept a secret from the audience and victim to keep everyone wary.
The final girl in the film is morally pure and therefore does not participate in drinking and drug taking or sexual liaison. She is slightly distanced from her peer group because of these qualities. In comparison to her peers the girl is seen to be potentially weak, powerless, virginal and scared of adult nature due to her innocence. However, on the other hand it is her friends in fact who are murdered all around her; the powerlessness of the final girl gives way to powerful.
The structuralist theory is challenged when the final girl confronts the killer this shows the females strength as there is a shift from the weak and passive female to a strong and aggressive ‘male’, the girl is the sole survivor therefore it is her responsibility to kill the killer in order to create equilibrium in the film. In addition we see the exchange of the murder weapon which is knife towards the end of the film; this is a clear demonstration that the female has become empowered in comparison to her peers and the killer which had overshadowed her from the beginning due to being too innocent and naive therefore throughout the film, she has challenged stereotypes of women being weak and vulnerable to strong and intelligent therefore making Halloween a feminist film.
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