AS Media Studies Horror Film: Amelia

Storyboard

Sound

For our horror film, we used sounds from freesounds.com. This website allowed us to use appropriate sounds for our film for free without any copyright issues. The main song we used started out quiet but it was also eery which we thought would be good to set the atmosphere. But as the film goes on, the song gets louder and spookier which creates tension and hints that something is about to happen.

Credits

The credits at the beginning

• Name of production company/companies (always respect people with the money); e.g. "A Big Name Production" - A Sweet Disposition Productions
• Producers - Bella Warren, Laura Brown and Ellie Plummer
• Actors - Ellie Plummer
• Screenplay writer - Bella Warren, Ellie Plummer and Laura Brown
• Film Editor - Ellie Plummer
• Sound Effects - Freesound.com
• Director - Bella Warren

Credits at the end

• The film title - Amelia

Originally we were going to have the film title at the beginning of the two minutes but we decided to change it as we thought it would be more effective having it at the end. The credits at the beginning will appear during the shots of Amelia in the classroom. We decided to place the credits here as those shots are quite long so we thought that the credits would brake it up a bit.

Changes to our film

Originally, our film was going to be set in the 80s and about a girl called Amelia who finds her mother dead. For the opening two minutes, we would have showed too much so we decided to completely change our idea and keep it simple so we didn't go over time. That's when we came up with the idea of Amelia finishing school and walking home through the woods but someone is there watching her. We also decided to leave it on a cliffhanger so the audience will not know if Amelia will survive or die.

Film Title

Our original movie was going to be called 'Amazing Grace' as the main character was going to be called Grace but there is already a horror film by the same name. Because we had to change the name of our film, we decided to change our film idea completely and we came up with our current idea.
Our movie title was originally going to be 'You Can Run But You Can't Hide' but we decided to change it as it was too cliché. Because of this, we changed our title to 'Amelia' which keeps it simple and effective. We aim to have the title come in at the end of the two minutes.

Shooting Schedule

This is our shooting schedule

Location planning

At the beginning of the scene, Amelia is alone in a classroom doing school work. We chose this location because it was isolated so it would go with the horror conventions. A classroom is usually known for being safe and secure as many students see it as a second home which could potentially create more fear for the audience because they know school to be a safe environment and they can relate to this kind of setting. This classroom is quite old which makes it seem eerie.

For the rest of the scene, Amelia is walking home alone through the woods.The woods is also another horror convention but it also creates a sense of the unknown as anything could be hiding in the woods. The woods shows that our film is set in Britain because of the weather and scenery. We decided to have a British setting because then our target audience can relate to it as they can with the classroom.

Our new opening synopsis

Our film is set in Norwich at Ormiston Victory Academy in 2013. The film is focussed on a 16 year old girl called Amelia. She is intelligent and cares about her studies, she wants to gain the best grades possible.
Amelia is first seen studying in an empty classroom. As she is studying she gets a strange call from an unknown number but she decides to ignore it. Shortly afterwards, the bell goes so Amelia walks home through the woods. As Amelia is walking home, she hears strange noises and gets another strange call from an unknown number; she decides to ignore it. Amelia then notices a lot of blood on a tree and gets a bit scared. She starts hearing noises and asks 'Is anyone there?' Amelia keeps walking but someone grabs her by the shoulder.

We changed our synopsis as we included too much. As we are only doing the first two minutes of a horror film we couldn't give away the killer like we originally planned to do.

Costumes

Our main character, Amelia, is 16 years old and currently attending sixth form. Because she is in sixth form, she is likely to have to wear smart clothing but not too formal because it may distance the audience as they are less likely to connect with a character that is similar to an adult. Usually, the final girl is brunette but we are challenging this convention by have a blond final girl. The costume suggests that she is not hypersexual which also suggests that she is innocent and therefore likely to be the final girl. Amelia was inspired by ‘Sidney’ from Scream as she is presented as a smart and respectable character through her costume. The audience are able to connect with Amelia as they can imagine themselves in the same position.

The British Board of Film Classification

The British Board of Film Classification states the guidelines for a 15 rated film are:

• ·         No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.
• ·         There may be frequent use of strong language – the strongest terms are rarely accepted. Also continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.
• ·         There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
• ·         Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handles responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references t sexual behaviour
• ·         Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain and of injuries.
• ·         Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief
• ·         Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable.
• ·         There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons especially knives
• ·         Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable.
• ·         The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use

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The British Board of Film Classification states the guidelines for a 18 rated film are:

• ·         There are no constraints in theme, language, nudity or horror. However the board can cut or reject content such as detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts that is likely to promote the activity
• ·         When sexual material genuinely seeks to inform and educate in matters such as human sexuality, safe sex and health, exceptions to the normal contraints on explicit images may be made in the public interest.
• ·         Such explicit detail must be kept to the minimum necessary to illustrate the educational or instructional points being made
• ·         Material which appears to be stimulated is generally passed at 18. While images of real sex are confines to the R18 category.

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http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592497/index.html

We are aiming our film at 15+ so we need to avoid creating our film to be an 18 because that would stop a lot of our target audience from watching our fillm. We decided to not include any sexual activity or visible violence as we would run the risk of our film being certifies an 18, which would stop 15-17 year old from watch our film.

Opening synopsis

The original synopsis

The film opening is set on the outskirts of Norwich, Costessey in the 1980’s era. The opening focuses on Amelia. Amelia is a 16 year old, brunette. She dresses appropriately and she is very intelligent, she is also naive and adventurous. Amelia lives in a semi-detached single-family house with her 45 year old father David and her 43 year old mother Karen.

Amelia is first seen running out of her house and down the road in with her dad following her early afternoon for an unknown reason. This reason is found out soon.

Amelia is upstairs in her room playing a (80’s artist) record on the 25^th November 1987 then she hears a strange noise so she warily walks down the stairs. The camera sharply cuts to a hand holding a knife covered in blood. When Amelia reaches the bottom of the stairs she finds her mother dead on the floor. Amelia begins to overwhelm with emotions as she screams at first then kneels beside her mother and begins to cry. Watching her cry beside her mother is David standing on the other side of the room with a sinister look in his eyes.

Amelia is looking around and her breathing gets heavier as David is getting closer to her.
The new opening synopsis
 

The film opening is set in Norwich at the school Ormiston Victory Academy, in 2012. The opening focuses on Amelia.  Amelia is 16 years old and brunette.  She is intelligent and cares about her studies, she wants to gain the best grades. 
Amelia is first seen studying in an empty room. As she’s studying she is getting calls and text’s from an unknown number, she ignores the unknown number, but not so long after she hears strange noises and she doesn't know where it is coming from.  Amelia decides to leave the empty room and walk home.  As she’s walking home she gets another call from the unknown number and is still hearing the strange noises. Amelia  is looking around and her breathing gets heavier  and you see the villain in the darkness .

We changed our opening synopsis because it was difficult for it to be set in the 80’s due to the setting such as buildings, cars and other surroundings out of our control being to modern and we also struggled to get an accurate representation of people in the 80's so we didn't know how to clearly signify that our characters are in the 80's.

Rough copy of the script

1) EXT. ROAD - Early afternoon 
          
           There are different camera angles of her running away from the house. - Long shot of Amelia running past the camera
           In the BG you can hear a piano instrumental
          
Dip to black:
            
 2) EXT. AMELIA'S BEDROOM - Midday
                                 Comes up with date: 25th November 1987
                                 The style font should be typewriter (with the noise of typing when date is shown)

           Amelia is in her room listening to records and she hears a strange noise
           Extreme close up of Davids (her father) hand holding a knife covered in blood and in slow motion, the knife is shown being dropped on the floor
        
        
 3) Low angle shot of Amelia slowly walking down the stairs.
 Amelia walks into the living room to find her mother dead on the floor.
Amelia: Screams
 4) An over the shoulder shot of Amelia's father.
 As Amelia is looking at her mother, crying, you can see David behind her.
 Camera is focused on Ameila screaming
        Camera is later focused on David smiling with a sinister look within his eyes

 5)As David is walking slowly behind Amelia
 Two shot of them
        Ameila looking around and breathing heavily