Film ideas for the opening of our film (Planning)

Film ideas

Malevolent Phantom

Opening - Beginning: Two friends together walking home down the street after an evening out, as one leaves for her house in one direction the other decides whether or not to go a quicker route through the woods, her mother contacts her telling her to get home, she feels rushed and enters the woods feeling on edge. The girl drops her phone and as she goes to pick it up we see the monster lurking in the background, she carries on walking through the woods and hears rustle of leaves, as her phone dies she becomes more scared and anxious for what's going to happen. A final close up shot of her as we see the monster approaching her in the background before she cries out with terror and the screen switches to black.

Mise-en-scene

Setting - We will use woods as the location for our film and shoot there to give us the stereotypical spooky setting we need for our opening to a horror film, the dark lighting, rustling of leaves and isolation from civilisation are perfect ingredients for creating an eerie setting to put out characters into. This will make the audience feel on edge and tense for the characters as they fear that something could attack them at any moment. We will also shoot late in the evening to make sure the setting is dark and hostile rather than light and inviting - the opposite of what we're trying to achieve as it would make the audience relaxed and possibly bored as when seeing a horror film people like to be on the edge of their seats, they like to be scared.

Costumes - they are also key, subliminal messaging on how the audience should feel are perfect to use in a horror film as without them even realising the audience begin to imagine all the gruesome things that could happen. Settings are predominantly used to create this feeling but costumes can be too. The girls friend will wear plain, neutral colours as nothing happens to her, she is unimportant in the narrative and so her clothes reflect this. It could also suggest why the other girl gets attacked instead of her as because her clothes are dull her life may be too and that isn't interesting narrative and wouldn't interest a serial killer - especially in our story it's key to show that they want something interesting, they're not just murdering people randomly, there's something about her. This is an enigma that draws the audience in and leaves them wondering what's so special about this girl, why did she get attacked. The main character will have a red scarf to connote danger but also to connote the fact she has a more vibrant, interesting, maybe controversial life that would attract a serial killer far more that the other girl would. The malevolent phantom will wear dark clothing so he can blend into the spooky surroundings, he will also wear large items of clothing that cover him completely so there's a sense of eeriness around him - the clothes represent the fact his character is well hidden and we don't know much about him.

Camera
Shot types - the first scene of our opening two minutes is a medium shot of a busy road showing the hectic side of the city that's contradicted by a high angle shot of the two girls walking down the street showing their vulnerability and isolation. A low angle shot of their feet walking and coming to a stop shows them to be of higher power as, as long as they're together than they're relatively safe despite the environment they're in, as they're not alone. As soon as the friend leaves and the girl is now alone the camera pans up and around from a low to high angle to show her vulnerability has now increased as she's alone, this pans to an over the shoulder shot of the phone as her mum is calling her. A point of view shot shows the hard decision she faces in whether to go the long way round on the roads or the shortcut through the woods, this shot places the audience in her shoes and makes then empathise with the main character. High angle shots of her in the woods show her to be vulnerable and at risk as the malevolent phantom could be lurking in the background and could attack her at any point. The final shots of her are close up and create suspense as we can't see what's behind her or what's hiding in the background, the final shot of Lucy being grabbed by the malevolent phantom should make people jump (a key convention of horror) and climax the scene well to draw a close to this high tension scene before we flashback to 48 hours earlier.

Editing - The editing of our opening will be fast paced and build suspense, a few longer shots at the beginning will show the safe surrounding Lucy and her friends were in before and will leave room for opening titles. Especially as she enters the woods the editing speed will increase to create a sense of tension and show how on edge Lucy has become, we as the audience will feel what she is feeling and be constantly scared for her safety.