The Team

Name: Samia Ahmed
Bio: The director of 'REDEMPTION' and she eats a lot, besides that, she has been the foundations of our group by getting the cast together and got us rolling.









 
Name: Louise Gadd
Bio: The producer, also known as the final girl, Louise's ability in art helped us gain a broader creative direction such as the post production process.

Name: Me :D
Bio: Camera operator, my job was to initialise the narrative structure, which we followed and choose the camera shots and justify why I used them.

Final Day of Filming

Yesterday, we met with our Villain, Blathazar (Rhys) and our male victim Simon. Our Final Girl was unable to make it to Clapham Junction, so we improvised and used Louise who played the part Dylan. We were able to film establishing shots of the upper level of the station with Balthazar into the shot and towards the camera and tracking shots of commuters to add to the realism of our teaser trailer. I was also able to do a panning shot towards Louise and film her reacting to missing a train, this introduces the audience to her. Due to National Secturity 1 we were instructed to leave the premises and because our whole trailer was meant to be set inside a train station.

We had to improvise again and film directly outside the station, instead of using the tripod this time I held the camera to give it a shaky effect when Blathazar attacked our male victim and injected him with his contaminated blood. We used a baby's medicine syringe and because of the close up shot, it looked as though the needle had gone through our victims neck, although there was nothing attached to the end of the syringe. We were about to do the follow up to the train station scene when we were again told to leave the area as it belonged to the station and we were still not allowed to film there.

Instead of moving off to a new area, we decided to stay in Clapham and found a dark bridge on the main road which we decided to use to film a long shot of Louise walking towards the camera through pedestrians as though she had just been attacked by Balthazar and escaped. I chose this kind of shot so that it looked like the final girl was walking towards the audience for help which makes the trailer a more persoanl experience. The second to last shot I filmed was a close up of our final girl with Balthazar entering/intruding within the shot making it a over the shoulder shot of Louise being cornered by him and the the final shot was a extreme close up of Louise dialling for the police and Balthazar jumping from behind her to grab her around the neck. We ended on this to show the main motivation of our Villain - there is no escaping from your past.

Inspiration

After watching this, we decided we would definately film in the train station as it is an isolated area out of anyones comfort zone and missing the last train meant that the protagonist in this movie was seemingly all alone, for the whole night.

Shooting Schedule

This is our updated shooting schedule, however there were minor changes to it on the 8th. We realised that we didn't actually need the final girl in the shots we took because they were of Balthazar's 'Victim Wall'. The second shooting was cancelled because of conflicting timetables and has yet to be rescheduled. As far as props are concerned, we have had to make our own syringe and the rest are not as difficult to get a hold of. As the cameraman :) i've been ringing actors up and arranging times, which also conflict. So, for the Male Gaze shots which have been arranged for Sunday the 12th, one of the actors are available today and one is available tomorrow, on the tomorrow.

Locations

Locations decided:

- Train Station
- Bridge
- Alley way
- Somewhere with plants/roots/deserted

These are all isolated or can be made to look like dark places if I can film mostly close ups and extreme close ups.

Potential Actors

We advertised an ad on Gumtree to find our cast.
The following males and females are our possible choices.

Rhys

Cheyenne

Hugh

Nathalie

Kevin

Elizabeth

Deborah

Storyboard

Our Teaser Trailer Narrative - TBA

On New Year’s Eve 2006, 66 individuals went missing in London. These 66 have been immoral in the past and committed a crime that has gone un-noticed by the authority. Balthazar, a hidden villain who is psychologically affected by his haunting childhood, believes the only way to save these hedonistic people is to purify them with his own personal chemical (his blood). Balthazar’s only weapon is his syringe, he uses this to extract his own blood and inject it in to his criminal and immoral victims. Why does he think his blood is so replenishing?

The 66 corrupted return two years later, from captivity, they showed no signs of physical or psychological harm. They had no recollection of their kidnapping; however, the group of 66 keep one crucial secret. The infection is spreading through their blood, which has now become tainted, literally. Because of this they keep their arms covered and are hiding an expanding rash.

Now (2010), news of a pandemic is spreading, with many not taking much notice, assuming it’s 'just another disease' like the Swine and Bird flu. 65 of these previously captured have fallen ill; they have all reported a recollection from four years ago, where they saw a hooded figure approaching them before they blanked out. They then begin collapsing and having a fit that results in death. The one individual that managed to escape the infection by running away from the killers grasp four years ago (the one that managed to get away) is now exempt from the disease (but she knows far too much). She (Dylan Granger) is now 24 and unable to live a normal life because Balthazar is after her, wanting to finish what he started.

Dylan is a beautiful young female, she is strong and investigative; the immoral crime that she committed 4 years ago still haunts her. She was the driver at a 'hit and run' incident, being young (only 20), she paniced and drove away after hitting a mother and a child late one Winter evening. Later that year, after the death of her fellow 65 ex-criminals. She searches for the killer and visits the place of her attack. The underground station of London’s Charing Cross.

After much investigation, Dylan confronts the villain at a secluded station at Victoria in the late evening, Balthazar’s intension is to attack and purify Dylan from her sins. and they battle as she struggles to escape his grasp yet again. She removes the syringe from his hand, resulting in him being weapon less and seemingly harmless. However he bites her wrist releasing the infection within her, Dylan then slits his throat.

Background on Balthazar

From a young age Balthazar has witnessed and been brought up around drug abuse, his parents were users and also injected him. His family became homeless in his early life and he is forced in to a world of poverty. He sells and uses drugs – this is the only thing he knows and means he has to survive (copies parents). His abusive childhood, leads to him murdering his father; thus, believing that his mother will be safer.

Now older, he uses syringes to infect immoral humans. He believes that his blood cleanses people; especially the immoral people, in order to make them through the body. On the anniversary of his mother’s death; he goes on an injecting spree, to purify people. However, he starts a pandemic, purifying with impure blood (in more ways than one).

Key:

Exposition

Development

Complication

Climax

Resolution

Influence #1 - Nosferatu (1922)

One of the first vampire movies, this movie is effective in creating suspense and horror even without the use of dialogue and diegetic sound. At times it seemed as though the black screen with writing on would take a lot away from the tension that had slowly been built, in addition, this movie has taught me how music has a major effect on the audience in a horror genre. What also stands out for me in Nosferatu is the 'otherness' of Count Orlok, from where he lives, to the abnormal sexual tension felt between him and Hutter.

From this, it can be assumed that to grab an audience, it is vital to have gripping non diegetic music/sound; so that instead of having information passed to the audience through both dialogue and non diegetic sound, there is only one source of information available to a viewer to find out what is happening. Nosferatu also has an innovative use of shadow and challenges religion, furthermore, the themes of female isolation and abandonment and loneliness are the ones I wish to explore, and Nosferatu is one of my major influences.

Influence # 2 - Quarantine (2008)

The use of night vision is a editing technique I am looking to use in my trailer and also the quick cuts and use of silence. This is why I chose to go down the infection route as it can blur the line between reality and fiction, to make my trailer more believable and ultimately more horrific.

Rating

Since the 1920's directors have been making and remkaing classic horror movies, from 'Nosferatu' to 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. In class we watched the two horror movie classics along with:

'Psycho' (1960),
'Carrie' (1976),
'Halloween' (1978),

'Scream' (1996),
'The Faculty' (1998)

 We have also been watching trailers and teaser trailers and gaining an understanding of: how long our trailer should be and what editing techniques are most effective for the horror genre. Over the past few weeks I have begun to really appreciate the conventions of horror and have enjoyed watching them being subverted or challenged whilst still keeping the movie interesting. This, I think, is the hardest part of creating our teaser trailer, pre production, I have seen that having a story behind the images is important.

 I would like my trailer to be an 18. Our target audience is therefore 18-25. Taken from the BBFC, this is what is allowed in an 18 rated piece of media.

-Nudity
- Sex scenes are allowed however they musn't be too graphic i.e. pornography
- Violence is allowed
- Crude language is permitted
- Use/abuse of drugs

Parody

Audience Theories

Vladimir Propp [1969]


Propp analysed fairytales and placed emphasis on looking at the role of characters, not as representing people as a whole, but as functions whose role is to move the narrative forward. He conclude that there are 8 broad character types, which can be applied to other genre's of film such as Horror:

• The Hero
• The Villain
• The Donor
• The Helper
• The Princess
• The Princess' Father
• The Dispatcher
• The False Hero

Todorov's Basic Narrative Theory

• Equilibrium
• Disruption
• Resolution
• New equilibrium

Todorov's Extended Narrative Theory

• Exposition
• Development
• Complication
• Climax
• Resolution

Hypodermic Model


This theory suggests that audiences are passive and that movies 'inject' thier ideas into the target market. This model is also called the Hypodermic Needle which implies that the media is an addiction for hungry audiences. Although this model explains the strong impact of media on consumers, the research is only applied to women and children, so as well as being biased, the theory came about when mass media was emerging and the only evidence we have of audiences being passive in the 21st Century is outdated.


Desensitisation


This thoery suggest that action on-screen can influence the behaviour of the viewer i.e. they may replicate a violent act seen in a movie. The theory implies that by constantly being exposed to violence results in audiences becoming immune to it's effects. Desensitisation may have occured due to the amount of violence shown in media and to descrease this amount, which is significant; however, the thoery fails to take into account that everyone is affected by varying factors. Because of this disadvantage, desensitisation cannot be applied to everyone.


Copycat Theory


This theory implies that if someone sees a violent murder or suicide in a movie, they will imitate it. An example of this is the kidnapping and murder of 2 year old Jamie Bulger, it is said that the way in which Jamie was murdered was infulenced by 'Child's Play 3'. A major disadvantage to the theory is that is ignores that other psychological factors could have/do influence this kind of copycat behaviour.


Uses & Gratifications Theory


This is the oppoiste of the Hypodermic Thoery, it states that audiences pick and choose forms of media to gain the most enjoyment/information out of them, therefore saying that forms of media compete with eachother to satisfy us and that we are not passive. The advantage this thoery has over the Hypodermic Theory is that the audience are perceived as intelligent and are able to distinguish between fact and fiction and that life experiences are stronger than media experience. However, some thoerists have used this model to add that the media has no affect on individuals at all. Here is a short powerpoint on this theory.

Final Girl Theory

This thoery supports the idea of a female character who survives and defeats the villain in a horror movie. The survivor usually is brunette, is intelligent, and sexually inactive, nevertheless, a final girl's name is usually masculine e.g. Laurie in Halloween and Sidney in Scream. The final girl is depicted as vulnerable and there is some sort of link between the killer and the final girl.