Halloween - Narrative Representations

Halloween (John Carpenter,1978)

Budget
$320,000 (estimated)

Gross

$47,000,000 (USA)
$60,000,000 (Worldwide) ( 1978)


First we fade straight in to simple white text on a black background. The font used is sans serif, basic and plain white. Exposition is provided, with the date and location appearing on screen. After the next scenes do not involve dialogue. Then we start with a long camera shot and a low angle which signifies the house has dominance and is some what important, also the house is lit up compared to its surroundings so it stands out and the viewers are drawn to it.

The shaky hand-held camera  signifies a point-of-view shot that we are looking through the eyes of a character.

The carved pumpkin has more obvious connotations with Halloween itself.  Until now the film has been in a state of equilibrium, the change in the score coupled with the slight dutch angle here suggests this is about to change. The light being switched out in the bedroom marks the first appearance of non-diegetic sound in the opening, and acts as a signifier to the audience. The camera still moves through the house as a point-of-view shot, and we are given hints as to the identity of the character whose we are seeing. We look at the sofa where the couple were earlier, suggesting that they are the target.

Our character is cautious to approach the boyfriend, who leaves the house as if he knows who he is. The character then puts a mask on, this then blocks out the rest of the shot through editing. It gives the sense of unease to the audience as they can't see the whole picture. We then get a look at the half-naked girl, suggesting vulnerability and weakness as she is covered in blood and on the floor. The camera through the killers then looks at the messy bed signifying to the audience something sexual has happened.

The murder itself is shown by using diegetic sound rather than shown on screen, we get screams from the girl. Also non-diegetic audio is used, sound effects and the score reaching a crescendo provide most of the scenes tension and horror.

Then we finally have the killer revealed and is a shock for the audience. Through out the opening scene we are given a high angle from the killers eyes, then suddenly the camera goes to a high angle of the killer showing how now he is vulnerable to the world around him as he is revealed to his parents.

Slasher Film Opening Pitch TBC

Working Title

Tapp

Idea

My Idea is that the film is set in a house in a rural town in England.First we get a establishing shot of the house. It is showing a scene back in time from 1992 which will relate to the film later. I starts of with a girl lying down in bed by herself. We have a time place and date come up on screen over the video. She is sleeping however the bed quilt starts floating up as if there is a supernatural presence entering her bed. To do this i will edit the video using composeting, this means having to versions of the clip (one original/background and the other where you are making the affect happen). By doing this you can then mask out where you are on the video by masking it and put the original in the background. After the quilt sheets move, she wakes up looking at the camera in shock as if she is having a night mare. The camera angle with be looking down at her while shes asleep in her bed. Suddenly she hears tapping and gets out of bed to find out what it is. As she walks down the hallway with a torch with her she hears her shower on so she goes into the bathroom. She opens the door and finds the shower is turned on with the shower curtain open across so the person in the bath is hidden. She then drags the curtain to the side and the shower stops instantly, there is no one in the shower (this is the false scare). Suddenly she hears another loud tap so she walks around the top floor to find out what is it. When she gets back into her room she finds the sound coming from there l. Then while she's just in the middle of the room, the light turns off, so she turns her torch on and it lightens up her face. As she stands there in fear, suddenly in the background the face of a person appears as if a torch has been turned on underneath their face. While both faces are on screen the light switch suddenly turns back on and they both appear. The women turns around and then the "killer" slashes her neck and blood spurts over the camera. It then fades out to the titles.

Its X Meets Y

I am comparing it to two other existing films of which is the Grudge and ---. First the film Grudge (Shamizu Takashi, 2004) of which influences my idea. This is because right at the beginning of the film a women hears noises in coming from another room. This leads her to go searching for the sound's of which then appears to be a child hidden in the wardrobe. We are given a false scare thinking the noises are from a cat. However then straight away shows the child. This is what i'm doing in mine. 

The second film i compared it too is Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2009) this is a "found footage" film which was a huge succeess. It relates to this film because there is a lot of false scares in the film which i plan to use. This creates more tension between the characters and the audience. Also in the film they use a lot of bangs and taps to create a scare. This makes the feel more of a horror and will scare the audience.



Narrative Synopsis
The opening of the film is flashback in time of what the killer has done. He is in jail at the moment, and he can't remember any thing he has done. He has killed several people and is a serial killer.

Narrative Exposition, Enigma , Propp, Todorov etc
The narrative exposition in this film is that we are given the time, date and location. This gives the audience information of what the film is about. We are told that it is in the past as it is set in 1992. The narrative enigma used is that we hear the sounds, and also see the quilt float up signifiying that their is something there. However when sarah gets murdered we are given the face of the killer.

Genre Signifiers

The genre signifiers in this are that the setting is at night time, she is in her house alone by herself which shows she is vunerable to anything. Also their is a knife which shows that this is a horror/slasher. Another thing is that the build up of tension with the sound effects and tap's show that it is a horror and somehting scary is going to happen.

Locations
The location is set in a rural town in England. It is in winter and the first scene is set at night. The rooms used will be her room, the bathroom, the hallway and spare room.

Other Mise-en-scene e.g. Props 

The setting of the bedroom is that it will be a small room however the room will be spread out so there is a lot of space. The small room helps because it will make it a small confined room where she can't escape. The probs needed will be two torches, one for each character. A big butchers knife for the killer.

Cast + Characteristics 

Sarah Myers - the women who dies

Killer

The Killer
The killer is a middle aged man, who is a serial killer. To date now he is in jail and the opening scene is a flashback.

Media Language
There will be a varitety of shots used in this film, inlcuding shot reverve shot, the 180 degree rule and also panning shots. I will use quick pace editing to give the film more tension and a sense of horror. The editing in the film will be that i will edit the quilt moving up and floating. Also the face of the kill will be edited so they look even scarier.

Target Audience: Primary + Secondary

The target audience will be aimed at 18-30 year olds because it will be too violent for under 18's and also not really appropriate for 50+.

The secondary target audience is from 30-45.

Summary: Why Yours

We should use my film idea because it has a lot of shot variety. It is very easy to record as it is set in a house, and we hardly need any props. Also we can use our editing techniqes to do quick pace editing on the scenes, aswell as editing the quilt effect.

13 Films Analysed In Class

Slashers (2001)

Budget - £165,000 

Box Office - Unknown

No opening indents and credits shown at the beginning. The opening starts as the beginning of a TV show.

Urban Legends (Jamie Blanks, 1998)

Budget 14m

Box Office USA 38m

Uk 1.1m

Idents

Phoenix pictures 

Titles

Pheonix prictures presents

URBAN LEGEND

Names of actors 

Scary Movie (WAYANS, 2000)

Budget 19m

Box Office 157m USA

9m UK

Idents

Dimension Films

Titles

Scary Movie - black background with red title.

Mad House (William Butler, 2004)

Idents

Lions Gate Films

Titles

There is no place like home - written on wall like blood dripping.

Lions Gate Film Presents

A Madhouse Production

Names of Actors appear

Directed by William Butler - last title (very important) begins and ends with this title.

Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974)

Opening shot of an establishing shot of house.

Titles

Black Christmas

Staring... (actor names)

Cry Wolf (Jess Wadlow, 2005)

Idents

Rogue Pictures

Rogue pictures presents 

Hypnotic pictures

Titles

Cry Wolf (Serif, half of letters missing, carrier font which signifies typewriting, decay and death.)

Donkey Punch (Olivier Blackburn, 2008)

Idents

Warp Films

The Uk Film Council  

Film 4

In acosiation with Screen Yorkshire and EM Media presents

A Warp X production

 

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (Jonathan Levine, 2006)

Idents

Occupant Films

Titles

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (Blood, sharp edge font on words)

April Fools Day (Fred Walton, 1986)

Ident

Paramount 

A Gulf Western Company

Titles

April Fools Day (Film starts in Background, colour of title signifies comedy)

Baby Sitter Wanted (Jonas Barnes and Michael Manaserri, 2008)

Idents

The Independent Film Company

Big Screen Entertainment company group

Titles

Babysitter Wanted (blood splat on background)

5ive Girls (Lauren Sonoda, 2006)

Idents

Alliance Atlantis

Archetype Films 

Titles

Names of Actors (don't appear until 5 minute in, decayed background of forest, trees and blood splatter)

A Film By Warren P Sonoda

Leprechaun (Mark Jones, 1993)

Budget $900,000

Opening Weekend $8.5m

6 films in the franchise, another been made in 2013

Franchise 

Leprechuan 1

Leprechaun 2

Leprechaun 3

Leprechaun In space

Leprechaun In the hood

Leprechaun back 2 hood

No Final Girl

Scream Queen - Jennifer Anniston (Brunette, Not busty or sexually active. Not like your typical stereotype scream queen)

Weapon used is a Pogo stick

Lots of merchandise to buy to keep money rolling in to keep the franchise going.