Week 2: Research and Planning

Planning:     

    Olivia and I had to do a lot more planning for week two than we initially thought, so we both decided to sit down and plan out everything. We came up with the camera angles we are going to use, different positions the camera will be facing and where the cast will be standing which is detailed in our storyboard. This took a while since we had to really talk and explain to each other how we are envisioning this film. We both had the same overall idea but there were many things we disagreed on, and we worked those things out by either combining our ideas together or one of us decide to use the other persons idea. We both have so much more to do before we start actually filming but this project has taken so much planning and we have both equally done so much of it. Down below is everything that we decided to change and things we added to this film.  

 

Plot: 

    Black screen with our production name, etc. It starts with a tear-stained girl, drenched in blood walking down the street (camera angle is very low pointing up at her from the waist up). Hair clumped together from the blood while fatly limping down the street. She doesn’t try to scream for help or run, showing that she has slowly lost everything and/or gave up. It's gloomy and dark but not too dark you can't see her face expressions. Lamps are illuminating her face and her background settings. The camera slowly goes into an over the shoulder shot for the audience to see a truck slowly turns the corner with its headlights on and just starts coming at her. The camera then transitions into a close-up of the girl to see her breathing heavily as she hears the roars coming from the truck. After a few seconds the camera goes back into an over the shoulder shot because she faces her back towards the camera and stares at the headlights just coming straight at her. While this is happening, the monologue is a sad quote from a different author/movie or by the main character. After the quote ends the movie just slowly starts going in reverse (she walks backwards, car disappears, etc.) to the “beginning” of the movie and it's the main characters 16th or 17th birthday. (second idea- hear the truck horn really loud right as its about to hit her but the screen goes completely back and you hear a thud and the opening credits play on the black screen while you can hear the noises of what is happening (bone cracking, gushing sounds, her getting hit, the truck, door opens or closes)). The credits start playing here (casted by, directed by, cast is, etc.). Get a camera shot from outside her house and zoom in through a window or we can have a tracking shot that follows a girl from outside to inside her house. We can follow her from the waist up and follow her to the table where the camera goes into an overhead shot to view the whole cake since they are singing happy birthday and about to blow out candles. It's the main characters birthday (16 or 17) and she has all her close friends over and she blows out the candles(from an overhead shot to a close up while she blows out the candles or after)(If we keep the reverse than we can do a close up of her blowing out the candles and as soon as she blows then it will go to a black screen where it plays the opening credits (it doesn't have to be a black screen)). She is either wearing a red or black dress while her friends are wearing all white or they can all be matching. When she blows out the candles that could quickly transition to a different scene where she is having a good time with everyone and laughing (I want the camera to just move around the house, maybe throw the walls or just throughout the room while there playing on the floor and then while this is happening the other credits can be given here around the screen) (maybe get shots of them playing a board game or something). At the end of the night, she says good night to her friends as they all leave (close-ups of them hugging or something). From a close-up it quickly transitions into a cut away where it shoots to a clock to show time to make the movie seem like it has an order to it. She immediately goes to the bathroom (camera is tracking from waist up from behind her) and loudly closes the door in the cameras face. The camera then goes through the door to see her puking with a shallow focus, focusing on the counter but we can still see her in the corner puking. It is blurry so the audience doesn't see the puke but still knows what is going on) While the camera focuses on the counter it shows a bloody razor blade and that gives the audience knowledge of herself harming and having an eating disorder (since she is puking up all the food, she ate that night)(She can also be doing drugs or drinking). After she is done puking intense music starts playing and her little sister knocks on the door loudly (Brie can play this role) and says “Hurry up! It's almost time to go. We have to get ready” The main character will then lift her head up from the toilet bowl and shoots to a close-up and she will just stare into the camera. The intense music has a big finish and as the main character and little sister are walking out of the house. The camera shot for that scene will be a tracking shot going into a camera stop and into a fixed position long shot. They drive off and the camera will be in the backseat, or it will just cut off and go into the next scene.  The catch here is that all the girls from the birthday party meet up at this abandoned building and they start going into it looking around with their flashlights. Once the girls walk down the hallway the camera just stays there until it focuses on the man creepily standing in the back of the hallway which is a fixed long shoot into shallow focus. He is smiling and has an axe in his hands while you can hear the girls giggling and talking in the background while the camera slowly zooms into his face. Then BOM! Goes to black screen with dramatic music and shows movie title.  Everything happens fast, and the man comes out of nowhere and starts stabbing the little sister. They all scream and run out of the room awhile the killer is very calm and slowly follows them. He slowly kills everyone and then he chases the main character down the hallway (whip pan shot over the corner and in front of the main character but to the side a bit so we can see the killer running after her with a smile). We want the killer to be laughing while chasing the girl and have very dramatic music playing. 

 

Research- 

    Olivia and I choose to do horror as our genre because we can find our target audience easy, and we love scary movies. I did some research on how different types of other horror movies are structured, such as the scream movies, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. I chose these, because these movies are going to be the closest, we can get to our movie idea. I observed how the victims were dressed, which is mainly casual, and I tried to see how the characters were stereotypes, so we could relate our characters correctly. In different horror movies there are also different social groups, and in our film, we chose the social group of high school girls who seem normal with maybe a few issues they have had to overcome, but mainly they are just trying to get through the stage of life that they are in, until something dramatic happens to them. Also in our film, we decided to have the main characters friends all have some social issue like drugs and alcohol, along with the main character.