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Questionnaire

Treatment Analysis

Treatment

After having nothing to do a group of teenage friends decide to take a trip round to a local lake. The group of friends consists of a promiscuous blonde with her jock boyfriend, the geek chic girl and the bullied boy. When walking to the lake we see the constant banter between the group and the bullied boy by tripping him up and making virginal references towards him.

 They find a spot facing the lake and decide to play a game of truth or dare. Here we see the bullied boy as an outsider of the group as he is positioned slightly away from the others. As the dares commence the bullied boy gets pressured to spend five minutes in the dark woods alone. However, after the time has passed the rest of the group panic, 
as he doesn’t come back, leaving the jock to go in search of him. Whilst the jock is searching for him, the bullied boy grabs him from behind the bush, stabs him
and hides the body in the lake, leaving only the remains of the blood. As the rest of the group wait anxiously for their arrival, only the bullied boy comes back alone, acting clueless to the jock’s whereabouts.

 As they all settle down, the blonde girl notices something on the boys hand and begins to stare to which the bullied boy looks down to his hands and realises the blood stains, so he slyly pulls his sleeve down. The game continues and this time the truth lands 
with the promiscuous girl, the question being, ‘have you had sex?’ to which she replies, ‘yes, unlike ugly boy over there’ pointing at the bullied boy. Slowly, the boy starts to get angrier and claims ‘you’ll be next’, and disappears into the dark. As the rest of the group query what he means the jock's dead body washes up from the lake.

With only two remaining in the group, the geek chic and the blonde start to panic and protect each other. The blonde sets out to find the bullied boy, leaving the geek chic girl to wait by her friend’s dead body. As she walks nervously through the woods, slight noises worry her making her scream and panic. She decides to run to find the exit, however tripping on a branch and banging her head on a rock, knocking herself unconscious. As she begins to wake she tries to move her arms but is suddenly shocked that she is unable to, looking up to find her hands tied with rope to a tree. Inspecting her body she has come to the realisation that she has been attacked, covered in bruises and blood head to toe. As she struggles to escape, her screams are heard by the bullied boy drawing his attention to find his victim has awaked.

Running to her side, he hears her screaming her boyfriend’s name to which he replies, “He can’t help you now.” She attempts to haul herself up but fails, shouting at him, “what have you done to my boyfriend?!” Smirking to himself, he asks, “would you like to join him?” He walks slowly towards her still smirking pulling a knife from his back pocket. Before she has time to react he brutally stabs her straight through the heart, killing her instantly.

Unknowingly to the geek chic girl, she is completely alone at the lake with the bullied boy, her secret crush, not understanding where her blonde friend had got to. When suddenly bumping into him, he confesses his love to her. Seeing the knife in his back pocket, she realises he is the killer, and deciding the best thing to do is go along with his affections and embraces him tightly. She steadily takes the knife from his back pocket and strokes his hair with her free hand, distracting him from the hand that holds the weapon. Believing all is well and in the moment, she whispers in his ear, “Would you die for me?” he unconsciously replies, “yes.” With this she brings the knife to his jugular vein and quickly slits his throat causing him to fall to the floor gripping his throat.

Knowing that she could be framed for all the murders, she wraps the knife in the bullied boy’s hat and in a state of shock walks to the lake where she disposes of the weapon.

Final Idea

At first we all agreed that we liked the idea of the babysitter who is intruded on the night of Halloween, however, we thought this idea would be hard to portray well as we would have to incorporate a real child which would cause problems when filming. Due to this complication, we decided it would be best to go with the idea set around the lake, as this involves people of our own age and the setting automatically represents horror.
Once we had chosen the idea, we had to refine it by checking each scene would work and portray meaning within context to our idea. One of the decisions we made was to make the gang a conventional mixed sex group with definable stereotypes within it. For example; a promiscuous blonde and a geek.

Three Horror Trailer Ideas

1)     One idea we came up with as a group for a horror trailer is about a group of teenage friends who take a visit to a quiet lake. However, what may seem like a harmless day out soon turns to disaster when one, so called friend takes revenge on the others after having enough of their torments. Slowly, the group decreases in numbers but no one can understand why, and who may be behind it all. The lake is a typical setting for a horror trailer as it can be a weapon in itself by using it to drown victims, and also creates a sense of fear, as no one knows what lies beneath.

2)     Our second idea involves a group of girls who have been left alone in a house for the weekend, who decide to experiment with a ouija board. Everything seems well at first, until the supernatural take over. With the curse unleashed and tormenting the group, they have to figure out how to break the curse. But is it really a ghost creating the torment, or has someone gone a step too far?

3)     Our final idea is based on a girl left alone to baby-sit a toddler on the night of Halloween. All is well when the baby falls asleep until an unexpected knock happens during witching hour. The babysitter opens the door to a mysterious character, but whilst getting the treats, the trick or treater sneaks into the house. When she realises the mysterious character has disappeared, panic strikes. But who is it?

Evaluation of Premlinary Task - Bussing Sequence

 We created a bussing sequence that consisted of a victim located in isolated toilets, who has no idea she is being stalked by a murderer. The killer in this sequence tricks the victim by banging and opening toilet doors making her believe that she is not alone. We chose the location of the toilets as they were quiet and the concept of an isolated toilet is not only creepy but also typical of a horror film. Once in the toilets, we realised that we were able to create a range of diegetic sounds from bangs, creaking doors and running water. The lights in the toilets alone created a background noise for our sequence; the sound of a generator helped to build tension. The bright lightning in the toilet also juxtaposed with the black suit worn by the killer.

Whist filming our sequence, we came across a few problems, some which were unavoidable. One of the main problems was the location as it was a toilet in a school; people kept coming in which disrupted our filming which could have caused problems with continuity, as the positioning for each shot would be different. We overcame this by editing the shots together in correct timing so that there were no continuity mistakes throughout. During our planning for the sequence, we did not incorporate enough close up shots within our storyboard so that when watching our sequence back we saw that there were not enough reactions from the victim. When filming our establishing shot, we were faced with the unavoidable noise of local traffic which took away from the effect of the shot and gave an overall industrial feel rather than horror. The fact that we had to film during the day was unavoidable but this made us realise that a night time setting is essential when filming a horror trailer or scene as it helps to create a sense of unease and tension as the audience is unaware of exactly what is happening. One final problem we faced was the issue of dialogue. We couldn’t incorporate any dialogue into our scene as we did not have a boom microphone. The use of dialogue would of helped to connect with the audience and build tension, especially during the cubicle scenes.

There were a number of elements of the bussing sequence that were good. Minus the background noise and daytime setting the overall establishing shot was good; the building itself and the mise-en-scene of the gates created an overall gothic feel to the building which is spot on for a horror film. The camera work during the tracking scene down the corridor was excellent, as the over shoulder shot made it seem as if someone was following the girl; the use of the handheld camera helped to make it look more realistic as it actually looked as if someone was walking behind her. During the scenes within the actual toilet, the use of diegetic sound was perfect. The door bang was right on cue, and the use of the canted angle made everything seem unsettled. Throughout the toilet scenes, there were a few good sections which conveyed a hidden meaning. For example, when I went back to the sink and washed my hands again I was cleansing away the shock of the bang. There was also a link with the film ‘Psycho’ when we cut to the water washing away down the plug hole. Throughout the whole sequence we used a range of shot types and kept the continuity during each individual scene so that the sequence as a whole made sense for the audience.

When other members of our class watched our sequence for the first time they thought it was an overall good first attempt at a bussing sequence. However, they picked up on some minor details that our group didn’t pick up on. Firstly, the non-diegetic sound at the beginning creates a melancholy feel and then the mood goes from sad to horror which is unconventional as it is normally the other way round in a horror movie. They also again picked up on the missing close up shots to show the actor’s reactions to the bangs. They also suggested that, during the scene where the actor inspects each cubicle we should slow that whole scene down; then add point of view shots of what’s inside each cubicle to help build up tension to that final cubicle. Finally, they picked up on the fact that when the camera pans around the head, we as an audience are made to believe that it is the killer (Martin) who is behind her; this then is proven wrong when we are shown the reflection of martin standing in the corner. This could be edited or shot better to create a better continuity.

Saw 1 Trailer Analysis

Narrative Structure:
As the trailer begins, we are taken straight into a state of disequilibrium which is unconventional for a film trailer as Todorov’s narrative theory states that there are four main stages to a trailer; equilibrium, moment of disequilibrium, disequilibrium, and then a new equilibrium. The Saw trailer does not include a new equilibrium as this would give the whole plot of the film away. Instead, as an audience we gather a range of questions and predictions about various ways of how the film could end. From this we gain pleasure by seeing our predictions revealed when we see the film; this relates to Barthes’ pleasure of text and enigma code theories. Unconventionally, there is no direct state of equilibrium or moment of disequilibrium within the trailer; this creates uncertainty for the audience and adds to the fear factor. However, 4 seconds into the trailer a series of newspaper articles is shown giving the audience both a brief insight into Jigsaw’s background and a previous equilibrium.

Characters:
In the trailer we are shown a range of different character types. At 10 seconds, a medium shot of a man is used to show the first victim. He is dressed in a blue shirt and trousers which is seen as smart/casual and looks to be a well-kept man; because of his attire, we assume he works in a high standard profession and can therefore connote that he is wealthy. However, because he is   shown wearing no shoes it presents him as vulnerable which allows the audience to assume he is one of the killer’s victims. The next victim is shown in a close up shot at 39 seconds and is of a pretty blonde girl leaning against a staircase for comfort and support. Due to our prior knowledge of film trailers and Carol Clover’s final girl theory we can make an assumption that she could be a possible final girl in the film. The main villain in ‘Saw’ is named ‘Jigsaw’ and is always shown through to his victims through a screen; this helps to conceal his identity as no one knows who Jigsaw really is. Jigsaw is presented as a ventriloquist doll with clown like features; this is scary as many people have a fear of clowns which adds to the initial fear factor. The use of a mask is a common prop paradigm as it again helps to conceal the killer’s identity.

Setting:
As soon as the trailer starts, we are shown an old fashioned television placed on a broken chair; this shows the audience that the location is run down, isolated and old. The next location is shown at 10 seconds and is seen to be a hidden location because it hasn’t been in use for many years due to the grime and dirt. A hidden location is typical in a structuralist horror film as it allows the victims no escape, enhancing the idea of imprisonment. The use of smoke within the different settings creates mystery as the view is distorted for both the audience and the victims; this is also reinforced by the constant low lighting throughout the trailer. Parts of the trailer are shown on a CCTV camera which makes the audience voyeuristic as they are watching the victims suffering through a video camera recording. At 40 seconds there is a quick cut of a cellar door closing. From this we assume that the location is underground so all the victims are trapped in complete darkness; the darkness in horror films also connotes with fear as this is where the horror takes place. The cellar door closing also relates to a sense of burial which is a primal fear for a lot of people which adds to the fear factor when watching ‘Saw.’

Sound:
The trailer uses a range of sounds both diegetic and non-diegetic. Throughout the trailer various industrial instruments are used as both diegetic and non-diegetic sound; this includes the sounds of saws, jangling metal and some sounds which are unidentifiable which creates a sense of unease. The industrial sounds also relate to the film’s title of ‘Saw.’ A rumbling non-diegetic sound is used occasionally throughout the trailer which also creates agitation. At 34 seconds there is a diegetic sound of a clock ticking down, this not only represents the victims challenge during the scene, but metaphorically connotes with the time they have left to survive. Right at the end of the trailer, we hear a non-diegetic sound of an evil clown laughing which slowly starts to fade and crackle as if the evil clown or doll is breaking. This could also relate to the victims slowly dying one by one.

Editing:
The trailer is of a fast pace with quick jump cuts throughout; this is used to disorientate the audience as there is no clear idea of the plot of the film. At 20 seconds there are series of different shot types of a saw which is a typical prop paradigm because of the personal killing between the victim and the killer; because the killer, in this case Jigsaw has ownership of the victims it changes ‘Saw’ from a slasher film to just a horror. The quick shot types also represent the unstable mental state of the victims because of the disorientation. During the reverse bear trap scene, the camera is constantly spinning to represent a hand on a clock spinning; this breaks the 180 degree rule and is again use to disorientate the audience. All the tone cards within the trailer are of the same design and use the traditional ‘times new roman’ font. This gives a sense of age and maturity to the killer making him seem intelligent. The colour of the tone cards connotes with darkness and the blurred writing is disorientating which acts as continuity with the setting.