After feedback from sharing our idea with our media class, we realised that our initial idea, with Sarah visiting a doctor about her abnormal behaviour, revealed too much of the plot that should be disclosed in the opening.
Therefore, we changed our opening almost completely, except the foundation of Sarah having paranormal tendencies and the keeping the genre of paranormal.
The idea we concluded with, is Sarah looking at a photo of her and Hannah and as she puts it back on the shelf, it falls off by itself. After this, Sarah begins to act strangely, implying that this is due to the possession by her twin sister, who unexpectedly died. Her mother begins to become worried and texts her husband to confide in him. As she looks up from her phone, Sarah has gone from the garden that she was in and as Mrs Hobbs walks towards the window to search for Sarah, she realises, she is no longer in the garden.
Whilst presenting our pitch the rest of the class uses a Google app feature which allowed them to ask questions virtually as we was presenting. The interactive responses we got were as followed:
In response to Mia's questions, we will display the twins by taking a photo of the original actor and in Adobe Photoshop, duplicate the image and manipulate it to look as though they are twins and put it in a photo frame. Due to one of the twins death, a year prior to the time this opening is set, we will only show the original actor, therefore not needing to have actors that are twins. The only scene which the twins will be featured together in, is at the very beginning when Sarah is looking at the photograph of her and her twin before it falls of the mantelpiece after she puts it back. Due to Hannah, the other twins' death, we will not show the twins together on screen acting, only in the photograph.
In acknowledgement to EOR Media's comment, our opening scene reveals a lot, the whole plot is not revealed as the story will continue to show the odd behaviour of Sarah and also how the mother goes about trying to stop this and her child's possession. Furthermore, to improve from this comment, we will make our opening less revealing and remove the part with the investigator and just show the strange behaviour of Sarah instead. However, we will still keep the scene of Sarah and the photograph where it falls off the mantle piece and smashes.
To respond to Owen's comment, we will show the significance of the photo being being knocked over by Sarah walking away and the photograph falling off the mantle piece without assistance. This foreshadows how the photograph is haunted and how it is going to affect Sarah. To show that it isn't an accident that the photograph fell off, we will show Sarah walking away from it, to show how she did not push it, but it fell off itself.
We are not going to show the twins before as we feel as this will not have any more significance as the photograph that Sarah looks at will show how she is a twin, without needing to show her interacting with the twin. Having to much reverse chronology will be confusing so we intend to only show small amounts when it is relevant.
Sarah Hobbs – Emily
Nightingale. Young girl with long brown hair and around the height of 4ft
8”.
Mrs Hobbs – Bethan
White. Female who is playing a woman in her 30s with ash blonde hair in a
bun and casual clothing.
Hannah Hobbs (not showed in opening) – Emily Nightingale. She is the deceased
twin of Sarah. Slightly taller than Sarah (achieved using Photoshop), long
dark hair, the same as Sarah’s.
Mr Hobbs (not shown in the opening) – Dark haired, middle
aged man who works in an office and married to Mrs Hobbs.
PROBLEM AND GOAL
The problem
is that Sarah’s twin has died and she is experiencing paranormal events that
could be due to her dead twin Hannah as the reason for her death is unclear.
Her mother, Mrs Hobbs is worried about the wellbeing of her child.
The goal
is to restore normality in the Hobbs’ household and remove any bad spirits
from the house for the safety of the family.
IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE
OPENING:
It is revealed to the audience that a
twin has died
Mrs Hobbs is in the kitchen and
watching her daughter Sarah in the garden
Sarah is acting abnormally, but
talking to the swing
Mrs Hobbs begins to become concerned
and goes over to look
The potatoes she put in the boiling
begin to boil over and she takes her eyes off her daughter to look back
at the pan
As she looks back, to the garden, her
daughter is gone from the swing, and is now stood by the chopping board
RESOLUTION:
As this is
an opening, there is no resolution as the narrative is climaxing.
In order to make our opening more realistic, we decided to use real home footage videos in 'Telepathy'.
The research into 'Paranormal Activity', showed how home footage used in horror films is effective, as it can create realism for the audience as home videos are generally unedited, making anything that does happen, seem realistic and unplanned.
In order to incorporate home videos into our narrative, we needed to have footage with two young girls. Therefore, I asked a friend who had a sister, whether she had any footage of them as children, which she did. She, her sister and the person filming, granted us permission to use this video in our opening.
YouGov was used to research the types of people that were watching the horror films that I believe are similar to my opening and their interests.
Here is what was found when Paranormal Activity was searched:
I used YouGov to research the types of people that were watching the horror films that I believe are similar to my opening and their interests.
From this, I learnt that the age demographics is 25-39, which is significant as the certification of this film is a 15. However, when targeting their audience, they may have attracted an older generation, hence why this age range was more dominant.
The common person who watches is male, I researched if men are more likely to watch horror films over women and this is what I found from an article from The Telegraph:
"For example, when watching disturbing scenes in films there are often cues before anything 'bad' happens, such as emotive music. This research suggests that the brain activity in women between the cue and the disturbing scene influences how that scene will be remembered. What matters for memory in men instead is mostly the brain activity while watching the scene.'
Therefore if women had a negative experience with horror films, they are less likely to go and experience that again. Also, in the trailer to this film, it is very climactic with foreshadowing of paranormal experiences, and this could deter women to watch horror films, linking to the extract from the Telegraph.
The interests of a typical viewer of 'Paranormal Activity' says that they 'like to experiment with new genres of music and new artists'. This is significant as Paranormal Activity was experimental in the way that the film is shot as if its on a home video camera, by the people who are living in the house. This statement could show how this person is likely to watch Paranormal Activity as it was nothing like any horror had been released before.
In our opening, we are going to include VHS footage as this was successful for Paranormal Activity as it made it seem more realistic.
'How is genre constructed in the opening of Blade'
The mis-en-scene in the opening scene of 1998 'Blade' relates to the genre of this film, horror. This is due to how the main female in this scene, has extremely pale skin. This is iconography that her pale skin stereo-typically relates to vampires; in Transylvania, where vampires are stereo-typically from, there is no sun. Moreover, she does not conform to the usual female in horror films as she is wearing quite a lot of makeup. Generally in horror films, females wear little to no makeup, however, she has a bright lipstick on proving her rebellious nature. This portrays to the audience how her character is rebellious, relating to the horror genre and foreshadowing that this characteristic may be significant. Furthermore, her costume also proves this kind of nature as it is low cut, but Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze can be applied here as the camera has a focus on her body and the outfit she is wearing. Furthermore, her relationship with the blond American is promiscuous and this relates to the vampire stereotype, that they can't marry (till death do us part) so they break the rules and are rebellious.
Moreover, the mis-en-scene also conforms to the genre, through the repertoire of elements as blood pours from the ceiling of the club. This is iconography to a horror film as blood has connotations to danger and gore, relating to how this film conforms to the horror genre. This also creates a sense of fear and a sinister effect on the audience. Also, the film foreshadows the spraying of blood as the costumes of the people in the club are white and one man even has a white annorac on.
The sound in this opening scene relates to the genre of this film, this is due to the animalistic foley coming from the people in the club when the blood is pouring. This proves the odd behaviour of the people there and provokes the audience expectation of the people to behave in a peculiar manner. Moreover, as this foley begins to fade out, Blade's feet appears, drawing the attention to him. A faint non diegetic sound of the organ is played, making the audience sense his importance and conforming to the horror genre with this kind instrument.
Diegetic sound, however, also shows how genre is constructed in this opening scene. This is when the American man and the female are walking through the meat house and what appears to be a body in a bag is shown on screen. The American man asks: 'what the hell is that?', this keeps the audience wondering what it is that could be causing this mans response. Due to the mis-en-scene that it could be a body, the mans line is provoking how the item is unknown to him, yet so familiar to her and keeps the audience intrigued.
In the first few seconds of the opening scene, a shot-reverse-shot is used between the woman and male are in the car. The shot shows him to be naive in the way that he is allowing her to do and take him wherever she wishes, conforming to the stereotype that often American men like him, are portrayed as in horror films which is that they have a focus on woman and are dense. She however, is portrayed to be the opposite, she has a look of menace.
A jump cut is used in the opening scene of 'Blade' to convey the abnormality of this situation and the people. This is exemplified with a woman with blonde hair and dressed in white clothes is dancing, a jump cut is then used to show her all of a sudden quickly move and change place with a 'swish' foley, adding to the effect. This shows the genre of this film as strange happenings take place in horror films such as changing positions on the screen in a split second, that would be impossible to do in real life. The opening credits in this opening are bold and red. This is a connotation to danger and fear, conforming to the horror genre. The editing of subtitles also shows the genre as there is an exchange of dialogue between the woman, who is leading the American to the club, and the man at the door of the club. She speaks in a foreign language to him but there are no subtitles on the screen like films usually use when the audience is unlikely to translate what they are saying. This creates a sense of fear within the audience as they don't know what they are talking about and they do not want you to know.
The camera work and movements in the beginning of 'Blade' connote realism. The camera in the opening shot is handheld, provoking curiosity and tension for the audience. The audience are aware of the genre and are awaiting the action as horror films generally begin the action very early on and the hand held camera is building up to this and again, portraying the genre. As the two characters enter the club, a panning shot is used above the crowd to establish the setting and the people, the camera then however, goes past a hook. This is iconography to the horror genre as they include weapons and props that provoke and cause violence. This hook is a representation of the genre and also prepares the audience to witness something that may be unpleasant, all of which is a convention of the horror genre, to provoke fear.
Also, the camera angle conveys the confused reaction of the American man, as the people of the club raise their hands in preparation for the 'blood bath'. The camera begins to zoom into the man's face, creating suspense and tension for the audience as they know the generic reason for zoom is to show a reaction of an event that is just about to happen. The camera then tilts up, to show the people in the clubs hands go up. This creates a common ground between the audience and the American man as they both don't yet know what is going on. It is then revealed that he is about to partake in a 'blood bath'.
Overall, there are numerous elements that contribute to the genre of the opening sequence of 'Blade', which is horror. These elements provoke the desired reaction of the audience as the action unfolds to be not as they expected and creating tension. Moreover, the genre is portrayed through the editing, camera movements, sound and mis-en-scene.
This research helped us understand that the different elements that piece together an opening scene, all relate to the genre. I now know that certain camera shots manipulate the audiences view on the character and how the editing can show the abnormality of a character (the jump cut with the blonde girl in the 'blood club'). Also, that the mis en scene greatly affects how the genre is conveyed so it is important that our mis en scene is relevant.
