STORYBOARD

In order to help us finalise our storyline for our film opening, I sketched out a simple storyboard in order to determine the order and events which occur in each separate frame.
The storyboard was completed with tour ideas in mind, which we have tried our best to include in our final film opening, however we have had to remove aspects which don't work, and have added extra framed to enhance the narrative and cinematography aspects.

EVALUATION- SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK

Once we had finished our film opening, it was published onto YouTube, and became available to the public. Because of this, we were able to gain feedback from the audience of our film opening, and we discovered that it was very well-received online.


YouTube comments:

CODES & CONVENTIONS OF SLASHER HORROR

Slasher movies are one of the most predominant sub-genres within the Horror category, and are highly popular amongst horror fans. Despite many slasher films having vastly different storylines, they all abide to a similar formula and abide to the same conventions.

The Killer

Of course, A killer is one of the main components of a slasher film. Although they are usually male, their identity is commonly hidden through the use of a mask, and is revealed (if at all) at the end of the film. Even if the killer's identity is known by the audience, they still keep their face hidden by the mask. This, combined with the fact that he usually has no or little dialogue, portrays the killer as having a sinister, omnipresent and threatening nature. His back-story is likely to include some sort of childhood trauma that lead him into becoming the homicidal maniac he is today, creating some sort of sympathy in the viewer, despite being aware of the horrific crimes committed by him throughout the film.

The Heroine

Although the slasher genre sometimes causes controversy for being arguably sexist, the 'heroic' role is commonly acquired by a female. It is evident to the audience that the Heroine (or The Final Girl) is conservative; she doesn't drink alcohol or take any drugs, and is most often a virgin. It is notable that a particular skill/ set of skills is possessed by the character, as this is known to help them defeat the killer in the final battle.

The Victims

The victims are one of the most substantial elements of the Slasher sub-genre, and are often teenagers, most commonly in high school, and have morals entirely unparalleled to that of the Heroine. Rarely does the killer pick off these characters specifically because of their immoral behaviour, however the unspoken code of slasher films is that they must be punished for their wrong doings. As sadistic as it may sound, fans of the genre tend to look forward to the deaths of these types of characters because they believe they deserve it.

However it isn’t always bad characters that get killed off, ultimately many characters die who, in any way, have an association with the main character. Sometimes a protagonist is killed off for shock value, for example Randy in Scream 2.

Violence

It is obvious that Slashers differ from other horror sub-genres when looking at the violence depicted throughout the films, and instead of focusing on such themes as character development, concentrate on the macabre gore. The storylines within Slashers hence allow the killer the opportunity to cause mayhem amongst the characters. The deaths are extremely graphic and bloody, and are caused by a particular weapon of the killer’s choice, for example Jason Vorhees’ iconic machete. 

History

John Carpenter's 'Halloween', made in 1978 is considered as being the first "true" slasher in terms of using all of these components within the same project, therefore setting the standard by which all other films within this sub-genre are viewed upon. 'Halloween''s success led to 'Friday the 13th' in 1980, which then opened the door for hundreds of similar during the 1980s, such as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' containing the original and infamous villain, Freddy Krueger.

By the start of the '90s, the slasher concept had worn thin, with fewer and fewer films at the box office relating to the genre. However in 1996, Wes Craven's 'Scream', became the biggest hit the genre had ever seen, featuring all of the main codes and Conventions of the slasher sub-genre with a mildly ironic twist. 

THE FINAL GIRL THEORY

THE FINAL GIRL THEORY

The final girl is a trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). The final girl is referencing the last girl, usually the last character, alive to confront the killer towards the end of the film, and if there is a narrative voice she is the one to tell the story. The term was coined by Carol J Glover in her book "Men, women and chainsaws: gender in the modern horror film". Clover suggested in this book, that the viewer began by sharing the perspective of the killer but encountered a shift in identification to the female protagonist partway through the film.

A common plot line in many horror films is one in which a series of victims is killed off one-by-one by a killer, and the last character left alive (usually female) must either defeat the killer or escape. Usually the final girl is portrayed unlike the other victims and is typically sexually inexperienced or a virgin and avoids the vices of the victims such as consuming alcohol and using illegal drugs. The final girl is the "investigating consciousness" of the film, moving the narrative forward, and as such, displays many qualities such as intelligence, vigilance, and being strong willed.

Examples of final girls

Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley is the main protagonist of the "Alien" franchise and appears in four out of the five movies in the series, minus the prequel "Prometheus". She exhibits many of the traits that Clover associates with the final girl: intelligence,competent in practical matters and strong. She also has several traits that make her stand out from typical horror female victims such as being somewhat of a tom boy, having short hair. She manages to defeat the xenomorph in the first film by using her intelligence to cast the creature into the vacuum of space, uses her strength to kill the alien queen in the second film and even though she dies in the third film, it's only because she takes her own life in order to stop an alien queen from escaping her body and thus preventing further killing sprees.

However, it can be argued that due to being a science fiction film, Ellen Ripley is not a final girl, or at least not the conventional final girl- as the film does not follow the conventions of a slasher film and abides by those of the sci-fi genre. Although Ripley refuses the men's sexual advances in the films there is no foregrounding of the characters abstinence and in alien 3 it is heavily implied that she has sexual intercourse, thus she does not fit the standard conventions of the final girl.

Nancy Thompson

Nancy Thompson is the protagonist of the film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors". She is regarded as one of the most influential horror heroines and has lead the way for later female characters in horror movies. She is intelligent and investigates the Freddy Krueger killings and uncovers the mystery of why all the teenagers are dying in their dreams. She is strong willed and capable of defeating Freddy at the end of the film by actively getting him to chase her and louring him into a series of traps. In the third film she is portrayed as the same insightful young woman and helps teens troubled by Freddy by working with them to uncover their powers inside the dreams and is integral to the survival of the remaining characters.

Sidney Prescott

Sidney is the protagonist of the "Scream" franchise. She displays the general conventions associated with the final girl character archetype. However, towards the end of the first film she loses her virginity, to the killer nonetheless, but she defies the horror trope of the characters who engage in sexual activity die. She manages to defeat both killers; first by using her strength to over power Stu Macher and then pushing a television onto his face. Then using her smarts and turning the tables on Billy and stabbing him through the chest and the shooting a bullet into his head. In the second film she manages to defeat the two further killers, in Scream 3 she overcomes her half brother who attempts to kill her and in Scream 4 she overcomes her niece and her friend. She shows great strength in overcoming the death of her mother and facing her killers and shows much character development throughout the series.

TODOROV'S THEORY

Todorov's narrative theory suggests that all narratives have a three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something occurs that disrupts this equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution- when equilibrium is restored. 

There are general steps that the narrative must follow in order to conform to this formula:

Step 1:The narrative starts with an equilibrium
Step 2:An action or character disrupts the equilibrium
Step 3:A quest to restore the equilibrium begins
Step 4:The narrative continues to a climax
Step 5:Resolution occurs and equilibrium is restored.

Unconventioanl narratives
Non-linear narratives and circular narratives have a structure that is not so straight forward. A non-linear narrative can move backwards and forwards in time usually using a flashback technique. For example in the film "500 days(of summer" the film follows a relationship but the audience sees flashforwards and flashbacks as the story progresses. 

A circular narrative may begin at the end of the story and work its way back to the origins of the story. The resolution and understanding of the narrative is generally only comprehended by the audience towards the end of the story.

Flashbacks
Flashbacks are used to give the audience additional information, most commonly in regards to the past of a character, which helps drive the narrative. Flashbacks also manipulate space and time.

Point of view shots
These give the audience the same view of the situation and action occurring as a character. An example of this would be a point of view shot of the shark from the Jaws movies. These shots are particularly effective in horror films from the point of the killer usually stalking the victim. Following them until they meet their fate.

Impossible posistions
These are camera shots that are designed to give unusual perspectives of the action unfolding on screen, this can be achieved through the likes of an aerial shot 

Priviledged spectator positions
This is where the camera places the audience in the position where the viewer sees certain aspects of the narrative that other characters cannot see. This is commonly used in murder and detective dramas where the audience know particular information that some of the characters may not know - making it clear who the villain is.

Enigma codes
This is an editing technique in which the camera shows only some of the narrative, leaving the audience with a sense of mystery as to where the narrative will go next.

Murder mystery and detective dramas use enigma codes to slowly reveal the narrative, with key information needed to solve the case saved until near the end of the narrative to create a thrilling conclusion.

Action codes
These are actions within the narrative that reveal to the audience what to expect as the narrative progresses, it relies on the idea of cause and effect.

POST PRODUCTION EDITING

After filming all of our footage, the most important element of our coursework came into play. Using the Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) software on the Macs, we edited both visual and audio effects, and finalised our film opening over a long period of weeks.

These are the main areas and tools of FCPX:

Of course, the first thing we had to do was choose our final clips and put them in order  across the editing time line. Soon after this, I added the film production company logo (Hammer) at the start of the clips, as it is best to add this before extra editing such as text and sound overlays, as the positioning in relation to the clips could be shifted after adding extra footage at the start.

The next thing we focused on was sound. As our film opening features no dialogue, sound is a highly important element for our final opening and we needed to work our way through various tracks which would be genre-appropriate as a generally overlay. We decided on these main sound clips, which we accompanied by sounds which would act as an effective jump scare sound, as we felt it was parallel to the urban drama aspects of the film opening, as well as building suspense as the opening draws out:

We also began to gather other sound effects such as footsteps and panicked breathing as the original audio from the footage was not as high quality as we had hoped it to be (-on the main day of filming, the atmosphere was quite windy so there was an excess of extra disruptive sound & white noise.)

I added sound clips at their relevant points, using the correction tool to speed up and slow down footage and/or sound so that they fitted realistically. Additionally, extra sounds and small music clips were placed in order to create extra suspense where necessary:

We then added transitions between various video clips to differentiate the separate time framed within the film opening. Instead of having ordinary jump cuts like the central sections of the opening, we used a fade-to-black transition, allowing the audience to infer that the time between the first section with the killer takes place before the sequence featuring the first victim.

PRODUCTION- MISE EN SCENE

Of course, a main element to include within our final film opening was mise en scene. We feel as though we have managed to accomplish this in many ways, including the mask, missing poster and other more implicit items throughout the sequence.

This video assists our explanation on how the use of small props and setting has an influence on how the audience views the character.

This video explains how the poster has a large influence on the rest of the film opening, and how the smallest added prop could change the entire plot.