Casting, Locations and Settings

The location we have filmed at for the slasher film is Dom Ellis' and at Ben Brearley' houses where we have found a few great spots to shoot what we believe would be a good opening to a slasher film it has all the right credentials such as a long road coming down a hill and a two floor house where it would be ideal to shoot it due to it being a confined space and also a basement area for the brutal killing scenes

Cast
1 main killer dressed up in an iconic set of clothing maybe a uniform of some such
1 Final girl who is a typical final girl with brown hair and is very academic also she does not take part in the sins which lead to the death of the scream queen
1 scream queen who is also a typical scream queen where by she is blonde and sexually active

Killer:
Is a man who is hidden from the audience in the starting scene due to narrative enigma being a key concept to our film opening. We choose a weapon to focus on for example the classic knife however we have gone with the idea of a butchers cleaver due to the killer's occupation being a butcher

Boyfriend:

Scream Queen Sterotype

Big bulky lad who isnt afraid of a lot of things just the typical jock lad who plays or is team captain of the rugby team at collage or high school. Does not show much emotion to his girlfriend however.

Scream Queen:

This would be done as the classic stereotype of a scream queen where as the character is a busty blonde female who is not very intelligent and does a lot of stupid things and shows that she is very vulnerable, the clothing that we coose for the scream queen was a move of a seductive way with revealing clothing and acts in a more sexual manner

Final Girl:

The final girl is the classic final girl for example she is a brunette who if a very intelligent girl and shows that she isnt very sinful by not doing anything in terms of drugs and taking alcohol at the party or gathering that is held at the start of the film. The clothing selected for this character was done so that she looked intelligent and academic where by she is wearing a school uniform or collage uniform. 

Assessing Past Coursework

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The title of this clip or film shows intertextual references to the film Scream by Wes Craven in 1996. Also the music at the start shows slow and long drawn out fast notes which creates and the xylophone shows to be child's to to mess with psychology and effects of the brain. Long drawn out notes at the start of scene.and the opening shot connotes someone hiding in the branches or bushes and it gives you the option to put a hand in to move the branch out of the way as a sort of point of view shot. False scare is nice and early in this slasher film which is good to put in at the start and also intertextuality to the omen with the boys name of Damien. Use of a simple of an ellipsis to fade out and fade back in. Dialogue is key for exposition which provides information to the audience of whats on screen. Female and male gaze audience is key.

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The Title of this is good cause of it over a black background with the now scene. The opening shot shows the first character is going to die due to the bottle of booze in his hand signifying your dead. shaking camera for a point of view shot which suggests he is drunk.in the bushes effect is a nicely framed scene. However the violence is not on the screen. then the music comes in and shows the effects well and the blood effect on the snow works well. And shows a good example of narrative enigma. And the narrative enigma which doesn't suggest what sex the main character is. An editing effect of the CCTV is good to show a different type of scene.

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This film shows good care taken with the titles and how they come across. It lacks the diagetic sound in the opening point of view scenes. Verisimilitude is achieving realism and there is a lack of this in the opening of this film.

Slasher Genre Overview Vodcast

We were asked to create a vodcast explaining and anyalsising the key conventions and concepts in a slasher film and compare conventions with other slasher films.

Psycho Film Opening

Conventions and things that you expect to see in a slasher films opening sequence;

• Opening Credits
• Audio Bridge (sometimes)
• Intertextuality
• False scare
• Post modernism
• Narrative Enigma
• Exposition/Anchorage
• Polysemy
• Idents
• Non Diegetic Music
• Chase Scene
• Scream Queen or King
• Slice and Dice
• Stalk and Slash
• Final Girl ?
• Short Takes

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock,1960)

The film starts of with a white and black theme so that the blood and gore can be tonned down so that the film can be screened because it was too bloody if it had been in colour and the producing company told them that they had to make it less gorey. The film only has one ident which is that of Panorama. The title sequences were done by Saul Bass who was the most famous person for making title sequences at the time in the 1960's. The opening title credits show Hitchcocks name come up at the start of the sequence and at the end of the opening credits showing his power and a scence of authority. Also the main characters such as Janet Leigh were shown in the opening sequence to have their names in big and bold writing and the less important characters to not have such a big credit. The music and audio was done by Bernard Herrmann who was alos the most famous producer of music for films at tha time. The opening shot is an Extreme long shot  and its an Establishing shot aswell. The signified setting is in a city which we later discover by the sub titles its Arizona in the early 1960's. The font of the credits and subtitles are a serif font which is unusual for a slasher or horror film. usually they are a sans serif font which gives it more of an impact or meaning to the film.

Slasher Overview Notes

Looking at the other overview vodcasts from the class,

• Poppy, Kate and Millie

Looking at Psycho and the archetype of the girl in the opening shot shows an early archetype and earl final girl and scream queen. Slasher name is linked with the killing with the knife.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a massive step ahead for the slasher genre. Showing vast improvements from the older film Psycho. The violence kicks in almost instantly with more gore and nudity despite being an incredibly a low budget movie. Just like us because we do not have much funding for our slasher film
Black Christmas was a good example of the slasher genre being easy to shoot cause you can film it in only 1 house and shrinking the location costs so it makes it better and more of a challenge to shoot due to not giving that away, Black Christmas TCM and Psycho all have been remade showing that they were good films but needed tweaking them. You tend to get some characters that carry over from slasher films others but only killers due to the victims being killed off. Halloween credited for the point of view shots at the start from the killer showing a first in the slasher genre. The audience comes to see violence however the audience is positioned to be the killer and see through the eyes of the killer. Narrative enigma is tended to be used in slasher films at the start to hide the identity of the killer. Slasher genre makes alot of profit for the films made. Jamie Lee Curtis was a key figure in the film prom night and horror train showing her significance as a final girl. Friday The 13th was an instant hit showing huge fame for th franchise, inluding 10 movies from the franchise crossing a nightmare on elm street and friday the 13th. Final girl sometimes shares a history with the killer and has a past with him or her.Classic final girl aspects with unisex names ie laurie strode in halloween. Therefor casting female role as the start character but as the film goes on she gets more physically and mentally tough aswell. Usually the final girl looks old fashioned and not very sexually apealing. Childish attributes for the scream queens and silly behaviour often occurs. Final girls tend to be portrayed as intelligent and academically sane. Music in slasher films with long notes make you want to hold your breath and the shorter notes increase the heart rate and cause you to feel on edge and uneasy. Therefor it messes with your heart beat to cause or create a scare. Conventions all link with one another.

• Tilly and Hannah and James

Looking at Peeping Tom the sub genre of horror and slasher contrasting with one another, directed by Micheal Powell it puts the audience in the killers point of view. proto-slasher is another way you would say what the genre of the film is, Linking in with the film scream and the 'who done it' sort of aspect to the film.  Tropp are used in the film which is a widely recognised thing used to show certain things for the prefered reading. The first sign of sci fi coming into the genre would be from the film halloween where micheal myers isnt dead when he is shot 3 times. Then the more moddern types of sci fi to the leprechaun franchise. First Film to use a mask to hide the killer with use of narrative enigma was Halloween. Post modern slasher first know film started with New Nightmare by wes craven and Scary Movie with the intertextauality is taken to the extreme by putting in key quotes and scenes from other films. Characters in Films like scream talk about being in movies when they are so its a film about a film a slasher about a slasher being referential.

In the 50's the genre was more horror based with the characters as creatures and demons however in the 60's the genre was accosiated witht the upper class adults. The protagonist were working and middle class like TCM and Black Christmas thses used a castle alot in their movies. Hammer Horros are some what theatrical like on a stage or play so hammer was sort of stagey where as the early slasher movies were in the late 70's were on a hand held camera. Peeping Tom and Psycho were the start of the slasher genre however Pepping Tom was horrific and too gory so Psycho was more well known. Hammer was the biggest film company in the world for horror films in the 50's but TCM and other films ruined them and changed their ways. The idea of the scream queen were refered to hammer a being the very busty and very blonde characters. Commutation Test for when you dont know when the convention is used or where it has to be and would dull the fear factor for the audience. Hitchcock was the first idea of an auteur and doing the music for the shower scene. The BBFC rate the film and your movie shows more of the gore and violence and nudity then more people will want to come and watch it. Death of a stranger is a tv movie which is very little of the gore and the exoplicitness. and b y surgesting a primary target audience is key for example 15-24 which is the key stage of a target audience. Core audience is the 15-24 age range with minor intertextual referances. and 18-24 is still classed as a youth age range. Characters are teens to attract a teen audience and the dominant figure such as a sherriff or a Head teacher which is useless. Halloween bacame the most profitable movie ever made when the scream film came out however now it is not and is being massively over taken. Found Footage sub genre was a new unveiled. An exeption the dis equilibrium is mainatined in the halloween movies 1 and 2 which carry on from one another. False scare is demonstrating hybridity in the genre.

Slasher Franchises

Franchises
There are many different franchises in the slasher genre from the far ends of space in the leprechaun franchise to the thrilling horror of the Halloween franchise also another example of a massive franchise would be the Chucky franchise due to its vastly know main character of a demon doll. All of these franchises have key concepts to link one another for example a key weapon of the killer and a final girl, They also have a following sequel to one another where by the films have another part to them ie another one after or a two part film which shows two different side. The audience for the slasher genre go to see these types of film franchises to see the killer killing. For example in halloween each time they go they go to see mike myers.

SlasherEg5 Mad House

MadHouse (William Butler 2004)

Budget:$3,000,000 (estimated)


Key Points

• 2 idents at the start
• No opening titles or credits
• Non diagetic sounds of laughing
• White wall with writing on it which looks to be blood (signifier)
• Panning shot to a hall way with curtains blowing
• lighting shows lightning outside to give a scary tone
• Flash backs to another shot
• Cuts show a chacter to advance down hall way

SlasherEg4 Psycho

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

Budget:$806,947

Gross:$50,000,000

Key Points

• has 14 credits at the start which is unusual for an older film
• non diagetic music
• audio bridge from credits to the opening shot
• opening shot of a large city
• hand of fate into a window of the unknown
• classic scream queen with a butch guy
• sexual intercourse outside of marriage is seen as a sin
• Classsic hotel was used to surgest hiding the affair
• woman is quite intelegant maybe the final girl
• only has 1 ident
• man leaves in a hurry to go back to work

SlasherEg3 Scream Film

Scream (Wes Craven )

Budget:

 $15,000,000

Opening Weekend:

 $6,354,586 (USA) 

Gross:

 $161,600,000 

Key Points

• Only 2 idents
• No opeing credits
• No music over the title
• White Title over black background
• Diagetic sound over the title
• Opening shot close up on a vital prop
• False scare at the start with the phone ringing
• typical scream queen in first shot 
• Boyfriend on the phone at start adds mystery to the girl
• Close ups of facial expressions when phone rings again 

SlasherEg2 Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ( Tobe Hooper 1974)

Budget: $83,532 (estimated)
Gross: $30,859,000 (USA)

Key Points:

• Noise of the camera at the start is very distinctive
• Flash of camera on the opening credits
• Radio cover of what happens on screen
• Zooming out shot of the deformed bodies
• Grim shots of dead bodies
• Non diagetic music from the radio
• Opening shot zoom out from bodies
• Snap shots of the crime scene during start
• No opening credits
• No music at the start

SlasherEg1 Nightmare on Elm Street 2010

Nightmare on Elm Street (2010, Samuel Bayer)

Budget:

35,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $32,902,299 (USA) 

Gross: $113,400,000 

Key Points:

• Distinctive non diegetic music over titles
• cutting back and forth from two characters rapidly
• 27 opening titles
• starts with an extreme long shot in the rain
• goes into a clasic american diner
• deserted scene with just one character in it
• signifier of the rain storm indicating something isnt right
• audio bridge goes into rain
• Thunder and lightning

Idents in Slasher Films

Idents

In slasher films, idents are commonly used at the start of the film and also at the end, common examples to idents that appear at the start of slasher films are; Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, Paramount and Newline Cinema these are all massive and hugely famous ident companies, this gives us an indication that the slasher genre is a very successful and massive business to do. Another very common ident for slasher films is Tristar, this ident is usually seen on every slasher film due to it being a massive business

    

My Pitch for a Slasher Opening

Idea
Working Title
Alone Together

X meets Y
Its Task meets A Nightmare on Elm Street

Narrative Synopsis
My idea is to start with the audience getting a brief audio bridge sound of a woman panting and screaming help and crying then it fades from black to a panning shot of a dark room with the main hanging light smashed but still on and glass all over the floor. Then Blood would be smeared all over the wall and a knife on a shelf or chest of draws also a pipe or crowbar of come sort accompanying it on the shelf. This would all be filmed with a dutch angle shot showing that the scene on screen is an unusual one.

Franchise Vodcast Analysis

Leprechaun (Mark Jones 1993)
$900K budget
Made $2.5m in US

The Storyline is about a man who steals a Leprechan's pot of gold and manages to lock the little guy in his basement however 10 years later he unmistakably lets him out which then makes the life of the robber
(Dan O'Grady) a living hell. Comments were mostly bad and some were good but most were bad, 27% were good and the rest were bad, 6 Films in the franchise. Remake coming in 2013 yet another one ! The 4th one was hybridity due to the syfi and horror combined, and 5 and 6 are also hybrid due to the "gangster" look. Scream Queen in this is not the typical scream, a counter-type is used as used in this film. Pogo Stick used as a weapon which is unusual weapon. The film shows that a large production company such as Trimark can make films which can be whats called as a 'Massive Flop' which doesn't turn around the money it cost to make the film or anywhere near the profit it should have got.