Malevolent Phantom
Titles
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
Planning - Script
Malevolent Phantom
Script
Script
[road noise, cars passing by - contradicted by silence of location the characters are now in, only the sound of tweeting birds and their feet walking]
L: Yeah so that was really good fun wasn't it
R: [overlapping] Yeah that was really good
L: Yeah so we're doing cinema tomorrow night aren't we
A: [overlapping] Yeah
L: Yeah right, see you then,then
[hugging goodbye]
R: Bye
A: Bye
L: Right See you
[sound of footsteps walking away - distant sound of traffic and civilisation]
L: [heavy breathing as music tempo rises, cut off by sound of phone ringing]
Oh hi mum
[pause to hear response from caller]
Oh what you want me home now?! uuh [looking around, unsure what to do and annoyed by the information given to them] Okay [looks around, chooses woodlands path instead of road] Right well I'll be home in a minute, Okay [angered/anxious tone in her voice] See you
[sound of footsteps as Lucy walks away, sound of piece of paper hitting the ground]
L: uuh
[sound of creatures footsteps as he turns to walk and follow Lucy]
L: [heavy breathing as MV appears to be following her]
[footsteps, rustling of leaves, as MV gets closer footsteps increase in pace until she's running at full pace, pauses for breath as she believes she has out run him]
L: [loud scream as MV grabs her]
L: [heavy breathing as MV appears to be following her]
[footsteps, rustling of leaves, as MV gets closer footsteps increase in pace until she's running at full pace, pauses for breath as she believes she has out run him]
L: [loud scream as MV grabs her]
This is a rough outline of what our script will be, as production continues we may choose to add or remove certain bits of dialogue or add more sound effects depending on whether we feel it creates enough suspense and is scary enough.
Planning - Mood Board
Malevolent Phantom
Mood Board
Here we complied a collection of images to do with our opening two minutes, the main image is of a woodlands - our setting, looking dark and mysterious and conforming to horror stereotypes. There's two separate images of a man lurking in the woods creating suspicion and tension as we don't know who he is - this represents our malevolent phantom. He is mysterious and creepy, hiding in the back of shots and stalking our innocent main character - Lucy.
Our main character will wear a colourful coat to connote interest and show the main character to be more vibrant than the other characters who are of less importance. The malevolent phantom on the other hand will wear a big, dark, black coat to hide under and to almost blend into the background of the woods so he is not as noticeable. He could also possibly be wearing a balaclava to cover his face and hide his identity even further.
A long shot of a person in the woods, all alone shows that our character will end up alone in the woods, surrounded by only darkness and lurking somewhere is the malevolent phantom - this builds suspense and links to the other picture 'suspense'. One of the main parts of horror we hope to achieve is suspense, making the audience scarred, feeling like this is actually happening to them.
A low battery picture shows that as Lucy's phone dies she is left alone and isolated in the woods (a key factor of horror) with no way of contacting people and is therefore truly alone in the woods. This makes the audience nervous and scared for her as they worry whether she will be killed by the malevolent phantom.
Planning - Diary Of Filming/Editing
Malevolent Phantom
Film Diary
Monday 24th November: (Arrived at 3.15pm Left at 4.30pm)
The first day we went to the woods was straight after
school. We looked around the woods getting a feel for what parts were darker
than others, what parts were secluded and what areas were close to safety. We
started off with a few trial shots to see what angles are most effective. Our
first scene was two friends walking up the roads then saying our goodbyes.
Although we had to repeat this scene a few times as we couldn’t decide the best
shots for when we entered the woods. We included shot reverse shot during our
conversation which also took a few attempts as we were cautious of the 30
Degree Rule. We were able to film up to point where our main character Lucy had
received a phone call from her Mother which was the trigger for her to take the
unsafe route through the woods and the uncertainty that come along with it. We
stopped filming at 4.30pm due to the drastic lighting change which causes the
shots to look out of place.
Friday 28th November: (Arrived 2.35pm Left at 4.00pm)
After looking at what we had produced for Monday 24th
November we discovered that filming by the side of the road was inefficient as
the noise was too much, we also added another character into the story; we
decided to include another friend. We did this because we wanted the audience
to concentrate mainly on the friend who was on her own for them to sympathise
and relate to her. Therefore we started our film again with us beginning more
in the woods to eliminate any unwanted sound; this also gave us a wider range
of options on to how we could expand the story. We filmed a variety of low
angle and high angle shots by using trees to climb up; we were able to film up
until the point where our main character Lucy starts feeling paranoid which
also included the audience seeing the malevolent phantom for the first time. We
could have carried on although the lighting became too dark for the camera to
pick up useful footage.
Monday 1st December: (Arrived at 4.00pm left at 4.30pm)
Due to other factors we could not get to the woods as early
as we hoped, therefore our lighting was too dark than what we had initially
planned, resulting in no filming being done. Although we used this opportunity
to talk through what we would do at our next filming session and realised that
we had to come earlier therefore we all came to the decision of filming on a
weekend so the lighting would be better.
Sunday 14th December (Arrived at
9.30am Left at 11.00am)
We decided to arrive at our setting early on Sunday morning
because the lighting would then be appropriate; we started filming from where
we left off on Friday 28th November carrying on from our main
character being nervous while the malevolent phantom was in her presence. We
were unsure whether we should include a shot where we film for the protagonist
point of view as some from our group felt that we should leave him as a
complete mystery but we came to the decision in which we thought that following
him would make the audience more empathetic towards the innocent girl. We included
diegetic sounds to create suspense which was the trigger of a running scene
which resulting in our main character stumbling to her knees where her preying
predator dragged her off scene which ended our opening with the noise of her
desperately screaming. We were able to complete the 2nd half of our
film. We planned to stay till 12pm but we had finished early. All we need to do
now is add some non-diegetic music over the top for emphasis as well as titles.
Sunday 18th January (Arrived at 9.30 left at 11am)
After doing some editing and putting the footage together we
found a extremely noticeable lighting change therefore we decided to redo the
scene in more appropriate lighting. While we were revisiting the woods we
decided to touch up other bit that we were not 100% happy with, these mainly
included the transitions between two shots.
Planning - Questionnaire
Malevolent Phantom
Questionnaire
Age: _ 0-10 _ 11-15 _
16-20 _ 21-30 _ 31+
Gender: _ Male _Female
How often do you watch horror films?
What aspects of horror do you like?
Chase _
Suspense _
Darkness _
Jumpy bits _
Blood _
Clowns _
Other _________
What other genres do you like?
-
-
-
Why do you or do you not like horror?
-
-
How much fear do you like from horror
Hiding behind the sofa - 1 - 2 - 3 -
4 - 5 - No fear at all
Horror is the best genre
_ Strongly agree
_ Agree
_ Not sure
_ Disagree
_ Strongly disagree
What's the best setting for horror?
_ City
_ Woodlands
_ Abandoned house
Whats your favorite horror film + Why?
-
Results
0-10 = 9%
16-20 = 72% 30+ = 19%
Male = 28%
Female = 72%
45% of
people said they never watch horror films which is interesting as that's almost
half, but it's what I expected as personally I don't see the appeal of horror
and so never watch them but I was stunned to see almost half of the people
questioned felt the same.
Interestingly
it wasn't just the males who said they watched horror the most which subverts
from the stereotypes that horror has a mainly male audience as a quarter of
females also said they watch lots of horror films. An anomalous result was one
male saying he never watched horror films (subverting from stereotypes) but another
independent factor that influenced this was his age as he was only 8 and
therefore the horror films were probably not age appropriate for him, unlike
comedy or children's films.
The two most
popular features people look for in horror films were chase and suspense, this
is what i expected as they are the cliché parts of a film that make it a horror
film. Blood was only said 19% of the time which surprised me as I
thought more people would look for that in horror, also tension was only said
9% of the time when I thought it would be more, but it is similar to suspense,
which was said 36% of the time, so maybe these two aspects were too similar -
therefore for next time I would make the choices more distinguished. Chase
was the most common aspect with 63% of people saying they looked for it in a
horror film, this is something that we can use to our advantage and include in
our film to appeal to a larger audience and make more people want to see our
film.
When asked
what other genres people liked, so we could include the aspects of other genres
people like to create a more appealing film to a larger audience, Comedy was
third most popular with 36% of people saying that was another genre they liked
- this doesn't really help us as we feel it would be quite hard
to incorporate a comedy aspect into our horror film, this is
something we will have to consider at a later date but I feel it's something we
won't end up incorporating in our film. Action was the most popular
with 65% of people saying that was the other genre they liked, interestingly
this was most popular with people who also liked horror
suggesting they like the physical side of horror, the chase, the murders etc.
This will help us when making our film as we now know to attract a larger
audience we should include a physical side of things, as
previously established people do like a chase scene so to optimise our
films attraction to people. Romance was also a common favourite genre with 62%
of people saying they also liked this genre, but this may not be relevant to us
as people who said they liked romance didn't like horror so it
wouldn't actually be combining the two things people love. On the other hand
though we could maybe attract an audience of people who are not usually the
sort who go see horror by incorporating a romance side - something
they like.
Most people
like either a 4/5 or 1/5 scare factor - the 1/5 was suggested by people who
don't like horror and don't like being scared so probably wouldn't come see our
film anyway so their results should be disregarded as we should focus on horror
enthusiasts (people who will actually come to watch our film). Therefore we
should maybe go for a high scare factor (4/5) to please the horror enthusiasts
as although it would be good to attract a larger audience by appealing to
people who don't like horror as much and want a 1/5 scare factor, in doing so
we would isolate and exclude our pre-built horror enthusiast audience so I
think we should entice them in other ways that don't exclude
the main part of our audience.
60% said
woodlands was the best setting for horror with 40% which is interesting as we
had anticipate to use woodlands as we thought it was most mysterious and, for
production purposes, most accessible and easy to achieve a tense
atmosphere in. As I thought 0% of people thought a City was the best setting
for horror - this is probably because it’s far too open and too many people so
it's hard to be isolated. Also, it's quite bright and open and if you film at
night it may be more eerie but you'd have to find a suitable camera and you
wouldn't be able to see the beauty of the city you’re in - therefore making it
almost pointless to film there.
Planning - Representation Of Stereotyping
Malevolent Phantom
Representation of Stereotypes
In majority of horror female character are seen as the
damsel in distress and usually are attacked by a killer within the opening of
the movie. The common stereotypes in horror movies are dumb blondes; they are represented
as an innocent, vulnerable and naïve character. The character Lucy subverts the
looks of the dumb blonde however she conforms the representation as she’s easily
manipulated. This character helps build suspense especially because of her behavior.
The antagonist is represented stereotypical malevolent
phantom that lurks near the main character. It preys on the protagonist until
it finds the right time to attack and kill her. The appearance is unknown in
the beginning of the film as it is wearing a big black coat which covers its
face so they audience can’t make a connection with them. This character has a
huge impact in the horror film because it strikes a fear into the audience.
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