2. Unexplained silhouettes Hidden identities General codes and conventions: Blurry lights, heavy breathing, mirrors, emergency services, blood, skulls, china dolls, darkness, red + black colours, cob webs, surprising appearing faces, victim, confined spaces, contrasting events, gore, fighting, running, flashbacks and focussing on eyes What makes a horror film? Sounds: Screams Creaks Unexplained noises Music: Pulsing music Erie music leading into a crescendo Images: Shadows
3. Original ideas: Idea one: A group of adventurous teenagers were on a school adventure trip, which leads into trouble. Mysterious happenings start to occur. One ends up alone, three end up missing and one dies. We decided not to use this idea, as it is too common and is not innovative enough. Idea Two: Two teenage girls goo on a shopping trip and visit a psychic, which places a curse on the spoilt, selfish girl. The girl then has to go through horrible experiences to drop the curse. We decided not to use this idea, as it would take to long to buld up tension.
4. Original ideas: Idea Three: A little girl receives a china doll as a present in the post and soon discovers that the doll is cursed and brings death to people around her. She finally manages to get rid of it in teenage life and comes back to haunt her as an elderly woman. We have decided to use this plot because it is a unique storyline and has different codes and conventions of a horror film; ie a china doll.
5. About Scars: Why “Scars”? : we decided to call our film Scars as we the plot is about past experiences which have left mental scars: we believe using one word as the title is more effective. Characters: In our horror film opening, there will only be one main character, Florence, who is shown through different age ranges: a young girl, a teenager and an old woman, there will also be: The nurse and Florence’s parents . Settings: During the opening there will be 4 places of shooting: Florence’s house as a child, Florence’s house as an elderly woman, a graveyard and a train track.
6. The Horror Codes and Conventions used in Scars: Curses Mirrors Screaming Running Contrasting events Panicky breathing Eerie Music Death Flashbacks Close ups of horrified faces China Dolls
7. TARGET AUDIENCE: Drawing upon our own experiences, we have decided to aim our film towards the teenage audience.By certifying our film a 15, we believe we will attract as many consumers as possibeand there are many reasons for this: 1.) Teenagers tend to bow down to peer pressure, one instance of this, is watching horror films; if a teenager backs out of watching a horror they would end up being called a “wimp”. 2.) The cahracters in horror films are often relatable to teenagers, making the, want to see what happens to these recognisable characters According to http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/media3.html, a whole 3.2%(77 out of 136) teenagers watch horror movies compared to the 2.3%(57 out of 136 ) 26-49 year olds and 0.2%(2 out of 136) 50+ year olds.
8. Similar products: Chuckie- Childs play: This film is similar to our idea- “Scars” as it also uses a doll in order to create fear and enhance the horror genre. This film was produced20 years ago in 1989, meaning more people will be attratced to watch the film, as they will want to know how a doll can be used ina horror in the modern day. During research we found out that the certification of this film in different counrtries ranged from 12-18 years old.From “The Internet Movie Data Base” we also discovered that Childs Play is rated 4 out of 5 stars, showing us that this type of story line is percepted well by the public.
9. Paranormal Activity: This film is also similar to “Scars” as the storyline is based on a girl being possessed. Where in “Scars” it is very similar as a girl is cursed and can’t do anything about it. The target audience for “Paranormal activity” is teenagers, as the characters in the film are about the same age as the target audience, which means they can relate to it. Also it has only recently been released at the cinema, which means that our film could be a trailer before it is shown, as the target audience will be attracted by it.
