Detailed Treatment

Starting with the Establishing shot we can see the location of where the rest of the film will be taking place, which is a slanted angle of a college with a huge old tree in front of the building. The slanted angle is used because it is a point-a-view shot of someone staring at the college. We wanted to show that the person had been staring at the college for a while, showing that they were deep in thought. Normally when people are deep in thought their head would tilt to one side, which is why we used the slanted angle. Then a Tilt angle is used to look up at the tree in front of the college. The tree has no leaves, dark and appears to be quiet old. A horror convention which is currently used in horror trailers or films is a huge, old tree used in the establishing shot, this is used in such films as “The Unborn” and “Mirrors”. As the camera starts to tilt upwards we can hear the diegetic sound of birds.

Cut to black and all we can hear is a diegetic car engine turning off. As soon as the car engine turns off an image of the car appears on the screen. Then there is a link of close up car parts showing the back of the car, the car wheels, the characters getting out of the car, where there is a long shot of the females feet. The affect of this is they are being watched from every angle, this gives us the feeling that they will not be able to escape; this is also used as a slow introduction to our main characters and we know they are female because of their type of footwear. There is non-diegetic music playing at the same time as the car images, the music consists of sinister and atmospheric movement in the sound. A quick cut to a long/wide angle shot of the front of the car to see the characters getting out. Then a close up of one of the characters spinning the car keys round her finger, this represents a stereotype which is often seen in male characters, but in this case the character is female. The movement of the keys shows superior of power, something as simple as being able to drive gives this character the self-satisfied feeling, therefore giving the audience the impression of her popular status which gives us our main character. As they get out the car there are diegetic car door noises and key clattering noises.

Cut to our first set of titles, “It Was Just An Ordinary Day”. The use of the word ordinary as a horror convention raises suspicion that it was not ordinary and something unordinary is going to happen. The titles lettering is white which represents a calm and peaceful meaning, with a black background, which is another horror convention, making the letters stand out more. Then into a fade out which makes the scenes flow together.

There is a diegetic bell sound, matching the setting of the location, the college; the audiences can assume that the bell is a school bell, meaning that the characters now have a lesson to attend. After we see the girls walk away, we see someone hiding behind a tree. This image flashes between a boy walking down the school drive in inverted colours, there is also a match on action with non-diegetic music as there is a swooping noise with matches the flashing images. The flashing images between two pieces of footage is another horror convention, the use of inverted colours are also frequently used.

Fade in text on screen with black background. The titles letters colours are between a white and a pink colour, which compared to the first one is supposed to show the colouring of the words are leading somewhere, further into the danger and the blood bath. “It Was Just An Ordinary Lesson”, followed by an image of a classroom. There is a clear divide between a group of people and a boy sat on his own at the front. This shows the social divide which is usually found in schools and the audience could relate to which social group they belonged to. Cut to a teacher at the front of the classroom using a wide angle/mid shot which hides the face of the teacher. The teachers face is hidden because her identity must remain a secret because her character plays a significant part throughout the film, but like most horror the most obvious characters are not recognised by the audience. The teacher mentions that they will be studying the book that she has written called “Revenge of a Nobody”. The music is still cynical but quietly building up. Then there is our next title page with a black background but the lettering has developed into a pink/red colour. The colours of the titles continue to develop as the story is building up. “It was just a story” the titles here are relating to the book cover, the titles instead of fading there is a cut in and out.

As the titles scene cuts back into the images the first one we see after is the inverted colours of the book “Revenge of a Nobody” on a table. The match on action of the music matches the flash of the book image. The music raises and goes back to quiet after the image of the book is gone. Then we cut to a scene outside the classroom, there is a long shot of a group of girls outside the classroom, following a boy leaving the same classroom and trying to talk to one of the girls. Interrupting the scene enters the titles reading “He Was A Nobody”, in a darker pink/red colour; this labels the importance of the boy’s role. The girl repelled his friendly offer of conversation and another boy leaves the classroom, pushes the boy over and getting his name wrong and leaves with the group of girls. Here there is crescendo in the music, hinting that there has been a change in the emotion of the story.

Fade to black screen and titles of “It’s Not A Story Anymore”; these titles are in blood red. This is important because the next scene is when the murders begin, making the increase in the colour of red in the titles significant because it relates to the amount of blood build up throughout the trailer and the film. Music is still building up, however since this scene is the first murder the audience is shown, we have added a heartbeat. The scene opens with a handheld camera displaying a point of view shot of the killer. The image present where the killer is stood it is dark but on the other side of the window everything is light. The image is of the person looking through a door window as a girl walks by and as the girl passes the person walks through the door using a panning shot, as the door close the girl hears this and turns around. She screams and starts to run up the stairs, in her panic to escape she trips and falls on the steps where the killer catches up to her. The screen turns to black and we hear the girls scream, which leaves the impression to the audience that she has been murdered where the non-diegetic heartbeat stops.

Quick cut to a wide angle shot of a radio with a diegetic male broadcaster reporting on the crimes that are currently being investigated at the college. Music changes to a disturbing atmosphere sound and during the voice over there are cuts to scenes of a dead girl on a school desk surrounded by blood. This image cuts to different coloured versions of the original, first red, then black, original, black and back to original. The colour red is a typical convention of horror representing blood. Black represents evil or the unknown and the original version is shown to represent that this is reality. The voice over says “local college” as the image of the girl murdered in the classroom is shown, which is match on action because this defines the girls murder local. Quick cut to a girl falling from a height, trying to escape but we can’t see who she is escaping from. The music creates a match on action, for as she falls the music makes an exhaling breathe sound, representing the girl’s last breath. The image fades out before we see her land from her fall and into another murder where a lad is discovered dead in a classroom. The boy is leaning against a wall and a girl taps him on the shoulder. He falls to the floor revealing all the blood that he has left on the wall he was leaning on. Mise-en-scene is used in this scene, on the windows above the wall the boy was leaning on there is black paper stuck to them. The black paper represents the students being blocked in, they cannot escape from evil and black is the colour that represents darkness and evil. However the last window out of the three above the wall is open, this represents that chance of freedom and they can escape. This shows that the boy was so close to escaping but it was too late. Then we cut back to the radio and it gets hit by a male hand, which is meant to mislead who the killer is and breaks the radio. The hit is edited to be in slow motion that goes up to a close up shot of the radio.

Cut to black, the heartbeat begins again and this time it is louder giving a warning of danger out. The non-diegetic music continues where there are quick cuts inverted images of dead people and the same image in its original state after the inverted image. The heartbeat creates a match on action because when the image changes the heartbeat beats. The heartbeat is a horror convention because it can represent the heartbeat of the victim or the killer; this is used in “Prom Night” trailer. Because ever image shown is flashed from one to the other from inverted colours to normal, this is interpreted into an investigation scene, where it would be the police taking photos of the victims.

Cut to fast running down a corridor, but we do not know if it a victim or the murderer because the camera is handheld demonstrating a point of view shot. At the end of the corridor, where the doors are, next to them is a caution sign on the floor. This is foreboding as it is only a caution wet floor sign, but the only word that is readable is caution, giving a clue that something bad is going to happen. There is also an exit sign above the door. The corridor is dark but through the windows on the doors at the end of the corridor is light shining through. When the camera reaches the doors the light expands as the screen goes into a white flash, which is known as polarisation. There is a non-diegetic whoosh sound as the camera hits the doors this is match on action as music matches the movement on screen.

Cut to a wide angle, long shot of a dark room and windows with light shining through. A boy dressed in dark clothing, which gives an impression of mystery about him. He walks towards and down the stairs, as he reaches the bottom of the stairs it walks in slow motion as he disappears off screen. Music makes a bang as the boy steps on the last step. There is a slow motion technique that is used every time there is a boy on screen that is used, when there is a suggestion that this person is the killer, but we never see who the person is. This slow motion is used to make the killers get away as a cynical movement of escape. No one can catch him, he can go as slow and take as much time as he needs and no one knows who it is.

Cut to a black room with the window on the door where light is shining through. Close up of the door, cut to mid-shot of the door, then a long shot of the door and every time the camera cuts away from the door, two girls are walking through the door and asking is Kevin is there. Kevin is not his name, they got it wrong again. The two girls are suddenly worried about this boy who they call ‘Kevin’ trying to solve the murder but not getting anywhere and the cuts backwards shows their not getting anywhere. Quick cut of an eye, inverted to red, this is a conventional reference to blood and an eye sticks to the theme of being watched or stalked.

Cut to library of the two female characters that were in the dark classroom earlier. One of them is reading the English assignment book and the other is on her IPod. Music fades away as the two characters realises that the plot of the book is the same method as the school killer is murdering in. Non-diegetic music changes to continuous build up until the end, causing tension. Voice over is used for match on action such as “killing on the stairs” and there is an image of people that have been pushed down the stairs. “Slaughter in the classroom” and an image of several people dead in a classroom. Voice over finishes. Quick cut to someone being pushed into a wall and as she hit the wall, she falls in slow motion, the killer’s trade mark again of a slow motion technique. The investigation is slow; no one can find the killer, fade out no one is coming to help.

Cut to class of the teacher reading the book she introduced at the beginning and bangs it on the table, match on action sound of a non-diegetic bang as the book hits the table. Then there’s an echo of realisation of the plot, a dramatic form of regret and responsibility. Cut to running down a hall with the room dark and the light only coming from the windows again, this can represent that they are trapped inside and the only chance of survival is to get out the school. Cuts to different levels of a white flash until the screen is completely white. This show that as people are realising the plot of the killer’s actions, the mystery becomes known but they still can’t escape. Cut to black and white image of a girl crouched in a corner and then runs away. Non-diegetic music becomes faster. Cut to close up and a zoom towards someone’s legs and feet. Following the killer slowly as the second half of the scene of the legs is in slow motion. Cut to black eye, black representing evil. High angle shot, a stalking shot of a girl in a classroom, this is our next victim. Flash of black eye, stalking, being watched again.

Cut to a girl in the corridor of bang using a long shot, tracking handheld point a view shot. A girl screams and then there’s another chase before the next victim is killed again but we never see anyone get killed. Cut to girl running upstairs shouting for help using a still, long shot, light and dark room again. Mise-en-scene is used were the corridor walls cut the view available of the audience, which matches that no one ever sees the killer. Cuts to two girls running down a corridor. Their dress code is black and red, red representing blood as she is the next victim. They don’t really care about their appearance any more, they care about survival. The girl wearing red falls and shouts “Alice!” which is her friend who the killer is after and she starts crawling for her survival but does not. We then see the other girl who was running, screaming and running backwards into a dark corner for her life. Music is at its loudest point, which adds to the drama. Cut to black screen. Voice over of “I write the book, I choose the ending”, then a non-diegetic gunshot, that cuts to black screen. The titles ‘Revenge’ in a calm blue colour, which is important because everyone is dead. Music is crescendo with the gunshot and titles bang on screen.