Shots 10 - 26 Scripted - First Draft

[CHARLOTTE is slowly reading a newspaper, and though we cannot hear her speaking we know from her expression that she is concerned. She mumbles something “One Year Ago” and looks off out the window. The camera pans and shows the other group members; MARK, who is sat next to CHARLOTTE driving and SARAH and LEWIS in the back holding hands whilst giggling under their breathes. The camera cuts to a medium shot of the car driving then quickly cuts to a low angle medium shot of the trees and bushes above. It then cuts to a medium shot of SARAH looking over at LEWIS, smiling. There is a slight slow motion to this shot as if to emphases the happiness of the situation. It then cuts to a medium two shot of the couple holding hands and then cuts to a close up of the hands. It quickly cuts to a close up of MARKS driving; his expression is slightly confused, similar to that of CHARLOTTE.

Then Cuts to a Title Sequence.

There is a high angle long shot of the village and car in front of the camera. It then cuts to a medium shot of the car parking. CHARLOTTE is the first to emerge from the car. There is a medium close up on her face, and the camera pans as she looks around.]

 

CHARLOTTE [Point of view shot of the park square]: It’s definitely quiet…

 

[Close up on the swing as it moves back and forth]

 

MARK [Over the shoulder shot of CHARLOTTE looking off at the park, whilst MARK focuses on something in the distance, again MARK looks confused.]: You’re telling me…

 

SARAH [Cuts to a medium shot of her holding hands with LEWIS. Camera pans as she moves with LEWIS, bags in hand.] : I think it looks cute. [It then cuts to a wide shot of the group moving towards the B&B through the park] I’m sure we’ll have fun, besides you never know what’ll happen, you might enjoy yourselves.

 

[Close up of B&B sign, and then cut to Title Sequence. It then cuts to a medium shot of Lewis and Sarah in the bedroom of the B&B, the two are holding hands looking out the window. Cuts to an over the shoulder high angle shot looking at Sarah smiling out the window.]

Target Audience - What's Needed

Target Audience

Consider the traditional target audience for the film genre that you have chosen by finding out who they are (the demographic), what their interests are (the psychographic) and how you can make your product appealing to them. Think about the following aspects of your target audience

You must consider:

·         Age

·         Gender

·         Class

·         Interests

·         Favourite Films

·         Other Interests

·         Other Factors That You Think Are Important

·         Create an audience profile

You will need to complete an initial questionnaire to find out about the target audience for your film trailer

Use internet to research the target audience for similar film trailers to your own.

Complete a second questionnaire and or focus group to get feedback on your storyboard or animatic.

You must complete detailed summaries of each piece of audience research that you do and explain how this information will help you create your product.

All the information that you find out should be posted on your blog. Use a range of different methods to present your findings:

·         Prezi

·         SlideShare

·         Videos

·         Other Internet software

Group Pitch

Prop List

For our trailer we have created a range of 70 shots through the use of storyboards, which we are now using to create our animatic and eventually would aid us in creating our trailer. For the trailer we have had to use a number of different props, to help create a sense of authenticity and refer to the genre of the film to better establish it. The list of these props are:

 

Glasses

Fake Blood

Blue Scrubs

Straight Jacket

Smart/ Casual Clothing for Actors

Old Boots/ Shoes

Makeup Palettes

An Axe

Scalpel

Knife

Face Mask

Syringes/ bottles of liquids

Stitches

A Newspaper

Car

Fake Teeth/ Teeth Staining Kit

 

As well as this the locations of the shots are key to the scenes, as the make-up of the rooms helps to establish the genre and creates story and character development. For the rooms to be effective we will need to recreate a B&B and a cellar.  

Trailer Plot Draft 1

Montage of shots of the asylum and big close ups of some of the patients open the trailer, divided by the company logos. Tension in the soundtrack builds as a lit match falls to the floor, suddenly fire and running is heard.

Tension settles as we are introduced to the group with the first shot of the newspaper article of the fire at the asylum, and brief dialogue between the group on their car journey to the nearby village, whereby the audience discover this is set one year later.

(Title sequence)

They arrive at the village, but it becomes apparent that it is mostly deserted. They check in to a Bed and Breakfast and decide to explore the town.

(Title sequence)

Mark finds an open door in the house leading to a basement, where he sees an imaginary figure of himself in a straitjacket and looking unwell, who informs him that the village is a "lie" and that he should leave as he and his friends are in danger.

Cut to Charlotte looking at the local newspaper which matches the date after the fire

Cut to the group looking for Sarah, Lewis breaks off from them and searches for her, jump cut to their room in the B&B where he sees her looking out the window and goes behind her to hug her, she turns to reveal her newly scarred face and a menacing smile and cut to black.

Lewis awakes, with pen marker on his face, strapped to a table and looks either side to see people in the same restraints. He screams for help.

(Title sequence)

Montage of shots, again divided by title sequences, showing the danger scenes throughout the plot including the cornfield running, the interlocked weapons with Mark and Lewis and very briefly and dimly, a shot of Lily with little facial tissue.

Insidious

Insidious is a 2011 American supernatural horror film. Written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension. The film was released in theaters on April 1, 2011, and is FilmDistrict's first theatrical release. A sequel, Insidious: Chapter 2, was released on September 13, 2013, with Wan returning as director and Whannell returning as screenwriter.

The word "Insidious" means "Proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects: "the insidious effects of stress"." this adds to the genre type and describes the plot of the film well. The name of the film also creates a dark atmosphere around the film, leading an audience to believe that what they’re about to see something that will scare them.

As well as this, the film was created by the same people who made “Saw” and “Paranormal Activity”, which makes the audience assume the film will consist of either bloody violence or demonic possession, due to the genre and plots of these two films.

The film is effective as it uses scenes which build suspense, which adds to the climaxes in the film. The visual imagery used in the film to portray the ghosts and the demons is also effective as it creates monstrous and realistic characters which scare the audience.

The plot of the film follows typical conventions of a horror film, where the main protagonist and his family are haunted by some sort of entity. However differing from certain conventions the main focus of the film is when the young son of the protagonist ends up in a coma, which they describe as his soul leaving his body due to astral projection; something which hasn’t been done before. The events in the film deal with the theme of the supernatural, however the way in which they go about doing so is original and adds to the atmosphere and tension of the film.

The use of props is key to the film, as the “ghost equipment” normally triggers some sort of supernatural event, which is used to create fear and suspense in the film. This is effective as it deals with the supernatural in a different way from other horror/supernatural films, as most films stick to conventional methods, such as Ouija boards. The ideas behind the film are somewhat original, whereas certain scenes seem similar to that of Paranormal Activity.

The contrast between the two films is what makes Insidious such a good film and many critics also agree. Insidious has received generally positive reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 66% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 162 reviews, with an average score of 6.0. The critical consensus is: "Aside from a shaky final act, Insidious is a very scary and very fun haunted house thrill ride." Roger Ebert gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4 saying, "It depends on characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and mounting dread. This one is not terrifically good, but moviegoers will get what they're expecting." Steve O' Brien from WCBS-FM says “Most Terrifying Film since The Exorcist".

A number of negative reviews reported that the second half of the film did not match the development of the first. Mike Hale of The New York Times wrote that "the strongest analogue for the second half of Insidious is one that the filmmakers probably weren’t trying for: it feels like a less poetic version of an M. Night Shyamalan fairy tale." Similarly, James Berardinelli commented, "If there's a complaint to be made about Insidious, it's that the film's second half is unable to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the first half” Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe wrote that "The film begins with promise" but "the crazy train of Insidious runs fully off the rails when the filmmakers go logical and some of the strange gets explained away as a double shot of demonic possession and astral projection."

Positive reviews have focused on the filmmakers' ability to build suspense. John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal explains "what makes a movie scary isn't what jumps out of the closet. It's what might jump out of the closet. The blood, the gore and the noise of so many fright films miss the horrifying point: Movie watchers are far more convinced, instinctively, that what we don't know will most assuredly hurt us... Insidious establishes that these folks can make a film that operates on an entirely different level, sans gore, or obvious gimmicks. And make flesh crawl." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell admire all sorts of fright, from the blatant to the insidiously subtle. This one lies at an effective halfway point between those extremes." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented: "Here's a better-than-average spook house movie, mostly because Insidious decides it can haunt an audience without spraying it with blood.” Christy Lemire of the Associated Press stated: "Insidious is the kind of movie you could watch with your eyes closed and still feel engrossed by it. It's a haunted-house thriller filled with all the usual creaking doors, groaning floors and things that go bump in the night, but it'll also grab you with some disturbing, raspy whispers on a baby monitor, a few melancholy piano plunking’s and the panicky bleating of an alarm as a front door is mysteriously flung open in the middle of the night."