Thursday, 22 October 2009
History of High School Horror
Shooting Schedule - Part 2
Day/Date | Scene | Int/Ext Day/Night | Shot Descriptions/Summary | Location | Characters | Art Department / Equip / Special Requirements | ||
SHOOT DAY 4 Tuesday 3rd November 2009 | ||||||||
1340 – 1430 | 3 | Int/ Day | After the lesson Chris tells Mary-Alice how he feels about her, Ben sees this and pushes Chris saying “leave my girlfriend alone!” The group start laughing, make fun of him and walk away. | Corridor outside the classroom from scene 2 | Mary- Alice, Ben, Charlie, Robin, Rose, Chris | School bags | ||
1430 – 1500 | 2 | Int/Day | Inside the classroom, Gene introduces the book and we see how divided Chris is from the rest of the class. | Classroom | Mary- Alice, Ben, Charlie, Robin, Rose, Chris, Gene | Book, school bags, pens and pencils | ||
SHOOT DAY 5 Wednesday 4th November 2009 | ||||||||
0850- 0920 | 2 | Int/ Day | Inside the classroom, Gene introduces the book and we see how divided Chris is from the rest of the class. (any mistakes re-do) | Classroom | Mary- Alice, Ben, Charlie, Robin, Rose, Chris, Gene | Book, school bags, pens and pencils | ||
SHOOT DAY 6 Thursday 5th November 2009 | ||||||||
1040-1130 | 12 | Int/Day | Mary-Alice finds out that the killer is Chris, he threatens to kill her but Gene saves her at the last minute | Dark place | Mary-Alice, Gene and Chris | Knife and gun | ||
Shooting Schedule - Part 1
Day/Date | Scene | Int/Ext Day/Night | Shot Descriptions/Summary | Location | Characters | Art Department / Equip / Special Requirements | |
SHOOT DAY 1 Tuesday 20th October 2009 | |||||||
1340 – 1400 | 1 | Ext/Day | See Mary-Alice and Robin arrive at school and get out of their car and be greeted by a group of their friends. | Car park | Mary-Alice, Robin, group of girls and Chris | Keys, Car, School bag, pink things for the car and girls | |
1405-1430 | 1 | Ext/Day | We are behind Chris who is watching the girls get put of their car and walk into school | School drive | Mary-Alice, Robin, group of girls and Chris | School bag | |
SHOOT DAY 2 Wednesday 21st October 2009 | |||||||
0845-0905 | 7 | Int/ Day | Mary-Alice and Robin are running down a corridor to try and get away from the killer | School corridor | Mary-Alice and Robin | N/A | |
0910-0925 | 6 | Int/Day | A radio report about the murders angers Gene who slams it in anger | Classroom/ Office | Gene Tyler | Radio | |
0930-1000 | 11 | Int/ Day | Mary-Alice and Robin are reading ‘Revenge of a Nobody’ and suddenly realise what will happen to them and the rest of the school | Library | Mary-Alice and Robin | Book (Revenge of a Nobody), pens, pencils, school bags and paper | |
Shoot Day 3 Thursday 22nd October 2009 | |||||||
1040-1100 | 4 | Int/ Day | The group are all sat down in the school Octagon; they are talking and having fun. Charlie then says to Rose ‘ill see you in the bathroom *wink, wink*’ | Octagon | Mary-Alice, Robin, Charlie, Mia, Rose | School bags, books, brush/ make-up, Ipods, table, chairs | |
1100-1200 | 5 | Int/ Day | Rose has gone to meet Charlie in the girl’s bathroom; she goes in and finds him dead. As she screams, Chris jumps out of one of the toilet cubical and kills her. | Girls Bathroom | Chris, Charlie and Rose | Knife, blood | |
1200-1220 | 8 | Int/ Day | See Mia lied on a table dripping blood, she is dead. | Classroom | Mia | Blood | |
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Synoptic Treatment for Revenge
Horror has always been a genre that a director can have some fun with. There are many ways that horror can be interpreted, spooky characters being a ghost or an insane psycho-path that escaped from prison 2 days ago or that school victim who has been rejected by the girl, continuously got bullied at school and now seeks revenge. However no matter what fun the director has with a horror film or what kind of story lines scare the audience the most, there will always be blood involved. The industry is evolving and developing rapidly with technology and social expansion. With technology developing, murders can become more horrendous with the detail that can be applied to the graphical image of blood or the type of attack. Horror can have more graphical images, more terrifying music, making the devil himself look like a harmless kitty cat.
There are many classic school horrors that are well known, whether people have seen the film or not. School horror films such as Scream, directed by Wes Craven and screen played by Kevin Williamson is shown down the path of horror through a phone call. A simple prank phone call would not scare anyone really, but if this mysterious voice was describing what you where doing whilst being on the phone, would not be a comfortable conversation especially if death follows. Yes, Scream is an old classic, but what makes 'Revenge' so much more thrilling and spine tingling horror, is mankind's impact to make this film a reality. It is possible, but lets hope its doesn’t come true.
'Revenge' is an added development, a new grand design project completed for them ever so frightening school horrors. Making fiction a reality. Bringing pictures to life. Taking revenge for every bad thing that has ever happened in your life on thoughts who never knew you existed or simply rejected the idea of you being alive. 'Revenge' gives horror a new meaning of life or death. Confronting the unknown world and what we are exposed to, 'Revenge' offers people the opportunity to act against what they couldn't do, to turn it into something they can do. The new technology is well displayed, showing off what ever it does best. Attacking social issues that any human, at any age can relate to, making the narrative structure up to the audience, giving them what they want with an unexpected twist.
'Revenge' gives us a classic imitation of school horror, however no school horror before has had the advantage of the realisation we have today about school life and bullies. The new addiction that people are getting hooked on for a classic school storyline, the old school bully routine. The new aspects that have been brought into the storyline are drugs, drink or weapons. Although 'Revenge' looks like it says exactly what it does on the tin, why would we give all its secrets away? Maybe there is something that is looking us straight in the face but we don’t see what it really is.
Horror Conventions Changes Over the Years
- In the 70s Horror trailers introduced the actors and directors name before giving a teaser about what the film is about. This can be seen in 'Carrie', they stick to the horror theme by displaying their names in blood, and there is a Voice Over introducing them as their names appear. But the Voice Over would be selling the film, for example saying something like, "one of the most thrilling films of our time", this does not contribute to what the film is about, this is like a review. The characters were introduced first because in the 70s this would have been more important than whatever the film is about. Whereas now people go to the cinema to watch and discover the storyline plot, however sometimes if there is a famous actor in a film this would reflect on the film, people would think if he is in this film, then it must be good, reflecting peoples attitudes in the 70s.
- The popularity of Horror films had declined in the 80s, this is a time era for Sci-fi and action films, such as E.T, Back to the Future and Die Hard. The Horror film 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Prom Night' (1980) is very similar to Horror films in the 70s, but it is toned down a bit, such as less narrative and more dialogue from the film and still using text with Voice Over. The narrative is not used as much to move the trailer along, reflect on the developments of the conventions from the 90s but also using elements of conventions from the 70s. Over these ten year the conventions of High School Horror films were adapted to fit into the mainstream and gain a bigger more popular audience, this is seen rarely in the 80s and in the 90s when High School Horror genre was popular again and even a spoof of these conventions in the 1999 films was created, such as 'Scary Movie'.
- In the 90s Horror trailers contained the convention of a Voice Over, for example this can be seen in 'Scream', it was used to build up the trailer to make it more spooky and thrilling. For any film trailer that was produced in the 1990s would have contained a Voice Over but they also used words on the screen to add extra tension to the build up, to make the film seem more interesting and not giving everything away.
- Conventions in the 21st century change from Voice Over to text and diegetic sounds from the film. High School Horror films become a huge hit in this time era, therefore the have a larger budget to add in more special effects, more realistic and more attention to detail. You can see the change in such films like 'Prom Night' and 'Jennifers body'. Instead of the convention of a High School Horror film being a monster from the black-lagoon, it is based on the killer being an actual student or based in school where someones escaped from a mental institution.
In conclusion, from this research I have gained the knowledge of how conventions in High School Horror trailers have changed over the years, and this contributes to how we would set out our trailer. What techniques we should and should not use to keep up with our audience and their demand of their perfect horror.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Sunday, 4 October 2009
The Script
Visually- everyone is happy and laughing
CUT to a black screen, words appear on the screen:
‘IT WAS JUST AN ORDINARY DAY’
CUT to original image
People greeting each other – conversation mumbles
WIDE ANGLE SHOT
We see a mysterious character in the background behind a bush/tree/gate
CUT to POINT OF VIEW SHOT
See what the character is looking at – the group of people.
CUT to black. BELL rings and we see the words:
‘IT WAS JUST AN ORDINARY LESSON’
Image- Teacher in front of the board – written on the board is –
Mr. Gene Tyler
English – Room A2
LONG shot
Gene Tyler
Today class, we are going to be looking at the book
(He holds up the book. CLOSE UP)
‘Revenge of a Nobody’
CUT to black, see the words
‘IT WAS JUST A STORY’
CUT back to the lesson
Gene drops the book in front of Chris – SLOW MOTION- thud
POINT OF VIEW SHOT
The book hits the table – FADE OUT to black
BELL
CUT to outside the classroom
MID-SHOT
Chris
You look really pretty today
Mary-Alice
What?
CUT to black
CUT to back to scene, Ben pushing Chris down
HIGH ANGLE SHOT, visual – Chris on floor
Ben
Stay away from her.
FADE to next scene
LONG ANGLE – POINT OF VIEW SHOT from Chris
Group of people walking away
Chris
See you later Kevin!
CUT to black
‘HE WAS A NOBODY’
Hear – “My name is Chris Marshall”
CUT to next scene
Boys Bathroom
Charlie washing his hands and whistling
OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT
CUT to black, hear the thud
Charlie
Hey, put the lights back on!
‘IT’S NOT A STORY ANYMORE’
QUICK CUT Charlie running, towards the door, door locked, pull the door
CLOSE UP of Charlie’s face can see blood from his nose
Charlie
(Gasping)
CUT to black
Scream
Knife sound effect
MATCH ON ACTION heartbeat sound effect
LOTS OF CUTS to black and people being killed, people worried and panic – death
Screams
Knife sounds effects
Anywhere – multiple numbers of locations
CUT to dark room
Background noise – Heartbeat quiet but fast
Mary-Alice crying and begging
Mary-Alice
No, please, no!
Dark place – anywhere
CUT to black
Gunshot
TITLES: “REVENGE”
Quiet music stops after gunshot
FADE OUT to black
Gene Tyler
I write the book, I choose the ending
MUSIC – high pitched – then thud – stop
Ending titles – Our names - company – production – direction – coming soon - website
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Overview:
A psychological murder is killing high school students and basing the attacks on a book written by one of the school's English teachers.
Detailed treatment:
It’s a normal Thursday morning at Curtain Top High School. In the almost full car park we see a shiny black car pull into a space which people start to gather around. After a second three students get out of the car; from the driver’s seat we see a tall brown haired boy wearing black skinny jeans with a white hoodie, he is called Ben Hobbs. From behind the driver’s seat we see a tall girl with long brown wearing blue jeans a white vest top and blue jumper, she is called Robin Harper. Then from the passenger’s seat we see the main character, she is wearing black boots with skinny black jeans a pink t-shirt with a dark pink hoodie, she is called Mary-Alice Duff. She the prettiest girl at Curtain Top High, the three start talking to everyone who was there, they laugh and are having a really good day.
We then cut to the other side of the car park that looks onto the walk way up to school. We can see a skinny normal looking boy looking at Mary-Alice get out of the car; it’s obvious that he likes her. The boy is called Chris Marshall the boy that nobody knows about or talks to. As he continues to look at Mary-Alice the bell rings and he walks away, but looks back every now and again.
The next scene opens and we can see Chris standing alone waiting in the corridor next to his classroom. People start to arrive in small groups of about 2-3, nobody talks to him. The teacher come down the corridor and stands next to the door to open it, he doesn’t look at Chris he just says “mornin’”. The teacher is wearing black trousers with a blue shirt tucked in, with a dark blue tie; he is called Gene Tyler or Mr. T. by his students, and he is about 28 years old. Back when he was 17, he wrote a book called “Revenge of a Nobody” in which the school loser takes revenge on the people at school who bullied him and made his life hell, apart from one girl who he has been in love with love with since primary school who he tries to make fall for him by killing everyone she knows. It ends with him killing her, then raping her, then turning the gun on himself. (This is the book they will be studying in their English class.) Gene opens the door and all the students walk in.
Inside the classroom, Chris sits alone, and gets his pens and paper out, whilst he does this we can see everyone else is just talking and not ready to start the day. After about 5minutes, Gene starts the lesson just as he is about to say what they will be doing today Ben, Robin and Mary-Alice walk in laughing. Gene tells them in a nice friendly way to hurry up, Ben says they are and makes a Mr T (the man from the A Team joke,) everyone laughs, apart from Chris. They sit down and the lesson starts. Gene then starts to talk about his book that they will be studying for their exam, whilst he goes over why he wrote the book and how much money he made out of it. We see Chris staring at Mary-Alice all the way through the lesson. As Gene walks around handing people his book he gets the Chris’ table and asks him a question. He doesn’t reply. From the other side of the classroom one of Ben’s friends Charlie Brown make a joke of him, everyone laughs, apart from Gene and Mary-Alice. Gene says “don’t worry about it" and hands him a book. Chris starts to read it.
The scene then cuts back to corridor outside the classroom, where we hear the bell ring, Chris is the first to leave the room and he starts to look in his bag. Mary-Alice walks out and stands next to him, she smiles. He compliments her and thanks her for not laughing at him; she tells him that they are all jerks anyway. He then starts to ask her if she would like to go out with him, just at that moment Robin, Ben and his friend Charlie Brown walk out of the class, see what is happening and start laughing at Chris. Ben then pulls Mary-Alice away saying "you could never get a girl like that” as he walks away with her laughing, Charlie makes a joke about Chris but gets his name wrong. Anger bubbles up inside Chris and he angrily shouts ‘MY NAME IS CHRIS MARSHALL!” he then runs away.
We then cut to the next day; we are back in the English classroom, we can see Chris's empty chair and table. The class is talking about what happened yesterday with Chris and Mary-Alice; everyone is making jokes and laughing apart from her. After the lesson Charlie goes to the bathroom we see him looking into the mirror and complimenting his appearance. Suddenly the lights go out. Darkness. “What the hell? Hey! Whoever did that put the lights back on!” they come back on. He then washes his hands and starts singing. We don’t see who is there, but he suddenly stops and looks in the mirror, he asks “what the hell are you doing in here?” we then see the back of someone’s leg holding in their right hand a knife with blood on it. Charlie panics and starts running for the door, the killer runs in front of him and punches him in the nose. Charlie kicks him, pushes him into a toilet cubical and runs for the door. The door is locked, he starts screaming. He gets brutally murdered. After Charlie is dead the killer drops his lifeless body into the middle of the bathroom floor.
Ben finds the body in the bathroom and tells everyone. The police arrive to clean up the mess, they bring Gene into the bathroom, and all that can be seen is a lot of blood on the sink and floor. But written in light pink lipstick on the mirror is the word ‘REVENGE’. This is the same as what happens in Gene’s book.
Over the next couple of weeks more students die and at everyone, there is the word 'Revenge' written in pink lipstick either on the body or in a mirror, just like in the book. Furthermore, Chris never comes back to school. At school, 3 weeks after Charlie's murder, Mary-Alice is sat alone at lunch when she receives a phone call from an unknown caller. She answers the call and there is no answer. The phone call cuts out. Ben comes over and tells her he has to go home for a while, he leaves and she is left all alone.
The scene cuts and we see Robin walking to school, she looks at her watch and it read 12:30pm, she starts to quicken her pace. From no where someone throws an empty can of pop at her. It misses her, she turns, there's no one there. She quickens her pace even more; we can hear some heavy breathing coming from behind her. Another can is thrown; she turns and looks at an empty street. She turns back and starts to run, the heavy breathing gets heavy and more intense until another can is thrown it hits her on the head and we cut to black.
We cut back to the school and see Mary-Alice who is still sat alone looking at her watch; she walks over to a table full of people and asks if anyone has seen Robin, they say no. The bell rings and she walks to 5th lesson. After the lesson, Mary-Alice decides to call Robin, she doesn't pick up. She walks off to her 6th lesson.
The scene cuts and we can see Robin lying on a dirty floor, we don't know where she is. We can see blood trickling down her face from where the can hit her. She suddenly wakes up and screams for help. The killer walks over and says 'don't bother; no one can hear you scream.' The killer then pulls out a knife and starts to cut up her body.
We cut as we hear the school bell ring and see Mary-Alice walking out of school to her car. There is a group of people stood around the front of her car, as she gets closer she pushes people out of the way and sees Robin's dead body lying right in front of her car. Written on Robin's top is 'To: Mary-Alice, Love: Revenge' She screams and more people arrive, including Gene and Ben. Ben runs over to her and puts his arm around her and pulls her away from the car. Whilst this happens Gene calls for an ambulance. Ben tries to consolidate her, she starts to punch him away from her, she asks where he has been all day. He can't tell her. She accuses him of being the murderer, after a long fight they break up. Mary-Alice walks back to her car see all the blood and faints.
The next scene opens with Mary-Alice sat in her English department classroom wrapped in a blanket, as she slowly regains consciousness, we can see Gene sat opposite her looking on his computer. Mary-Alice asks where she is and what has happened. Gene tells her and then says if she has any idea who the killer might be, she says it might be Ben. Gene then tells her that she can tell him if anything else happens over the next couple of days.
The next day at school, Mary-Alice and Ben do not talk to each other; it is obvious that both are very upset and not happy about the break up. It's just a normal day at school.
We then see Ben getting changed in the boy’s locker room, he is all alone. Suddenly, we hear some long heavy foot steps coming from behind him. He turns and shouts 'is anybody there?' no answer and the foot steps stop. He continues to get changed, we then see somebody run across the locker room, he turns sees nothing, turns back to his locker and starts to panic. We then hear some heavy breathing coming from directly behind him. He turns around, screams, we see a lot of blood. End scene.
The next scene opens, back in the locker room we can see lots of boys getting changed as one boy opens his locker he sees the Ben's dead body stuffed inside his locker. It falls on to him and covers the boys around him in blood. Lots of screams.
We then cut to see Mary-Alice sat alone in her English lesson, a teacher comes into the room to talk to Gene, and he asks Mary-Alice to come outside. He then tells her about Ben's murder and that written on the body was the same as what was written on Robin's body ('To: Mary-Alice, Love: Revenge.)
Over the next couple of weeks more students who are close friends of Mary-Alice die all with the word 'Revenge' written in pink lipstick on their faces. Gene tells Mary-Alice that the killer must be someone else she's knows, but she can't think of anybody else who would want to hurt her. At lunch she receives another phone call from an unknown caller, this time there is somebody on the other end. In a creepy style voice the person says that he is coming for her next, she asks who the person is, and he says ' you already know my name!' and cuts the call off. Mary-Alice tells Gene.
It's the night of the school Prom, and everyone (who's left) is attending, including Mary-Alice. She arrives alone, and we can see about 20 people dancing around the gymnasium which has been decorated in blue and gold banners reading 'Welcome class of '09' etc. She doesn't dance with anyone; Gene comes over to her and asks if she has any ideas why the killer might be targeting her. She doesn't but would like to kill him for revenge. Just at that moment Gene suddenly realises who the killer is, in a panic her tells her not to go anywhere, he runs out of the gymnasium. Whilst he is gone, an announcement is made that everyone is going to die, the lights go out, someone screams, the lights come back on we see a dead body hung from one of the banners dripping blood. This happens a few more times, but this time when the lights come back on Mary-Alice runs to the bathroom, to try and hide. After about a minute of being in there the killer jumps out of one of the toilet cubicles, hits her over the head and we see a screen of red, then nothing.
The next scene opens and we can see Mary-Alice unconscious lied on the floor, being sprayed with water. She suddenly wakes up and jumps to her feet. We can also see the killer wearing all black with a black hat covering his face, holding a knife covered in blood. She pleads with him not to kill her, he says nothing, and he just stands there staring at her. She then asks why her, she starts to cry. The killer then says 'but you know why, don't you Mary-Alice,' he then takes off his hat and for the first time we see the killer, it's Chris Marshall. He tells her why he killed everyone and that it was all because he loved her, he then says that they can finally be together now, Mary-Alice tells him "Get lost, I could never love somebody like you!" He pulls a gun out on her, and commands her to say she loves him, she can't after all the people he's killed and because she never loved him. This makes him very angry, he then says 'Big mistake!' and starts to walk closer to her until he is pointing it right at her heart, 'I guess it's going to end to just like the book, goodbye--' Just at that moment he is shot in the head by Gene who says 'I wrote the book, I make the endings.' Gene hugs Mary-Alice and says 'it’s all over now.'
