Sound

We will have a variety of diegetic and non diegetic sound throughout our opening sequence. In the first half of our opening sequence, we will mainly use non diegetic sound. We will have a sound track of a lone piano. We plan to use this in order to build tension and suspense in the audience. This soundtrack will be repeated throughout the film in order to remind viewers of what they could expect to come. This is a convention used throughout numerous horror films such as Halloween and i know what you did last summer. During the lone piano more instruments will be introduced in order to build tension further. We will also use diegetic sound to compliment the non diegetic sound such as the banging closed of the church door which will add to the tension as it will be un suspecting on the audience. This is used in such horror films as Halloween when the clock chimes 12 during the boys journey up the stairs breaking the non diegetic music.

In the second half of our opening sequence, the majority of sound used will be diegetic. This is to construct the domestic setting and lull the audience into a false sense of security. We will be using sound from the television as well as sound from human beings such as clattering of bowls and opening of DVD cases. This is used in such films as i know what you did last summer. The use of this allows the viewers to succumb to being absorbed by the film forgetting the tension and suspense they felt before, this means that when the tension begins once more the viewers will be more on edge.

Throughout our opening sequence we will be using dialogue. This is in order to establish narrative as well as genre. In the first half of our opening sequence we will use much screaming and Victor will shout about witchcraft which will help to establish narrative. In the second half of our opening sequence the dialogue will be used firstly to calm audiences from the previous tension and subsequently to induce fear about the disappearance of Thommi Thomson.

Loud footsteps will mark Abigail's arrival behind Rikki River and will lead to the idea that the audience knows something the characters do not enduce in more fear, this is known as dramatic irony.

Costumes

We have had several ideas for costumes and have tried to keep them traditional in order to keep with the period the opening is set in and conventional in order to match the modern day horror film costume.

For Abigail (the Thing) we are thinking about a simple outfit, fitting in with a puritan faith. This type of costume can be seen in many

gothic horrors such as Dracular and Nosferatu because it connotes a more innocent time plagued with suspision and fear, throughout societies worldwide. This fits in with our opening scene as Abigail lived an innocent life, yet was punished by her father under a false accusation.

Rev. Victor Harris will have a traditional, simple black and white outfit to be in keeping with the traditional theme. This can be seen in films such as The Crucible, of which our film is largely based on. The costume immediately connotes religion and authority so can straight away tell audiences Victor's role as a reverand and how he will be dominant over his daughter, Abigail.

Thommi Thomson will have a stereotypical, teenage girls outfit (short skirt and low cut top). This can be linked to teenage horror films such as Scream, which often portray their female leads as provocative, "plastic", sluts. This fits with the fetishistic scopophillia theory where the female is the victim capturing the male's gaze.

$ammi $unshine will be wearing jeans and a nice shirt with a pretty tie. This relates to clashing personalities, which will become more evident throughout the film. $ammi $unshine has a business type view on how to deal with things, ordering events and sorting out and going through procedures, such as her friends deaths, with the tie and smart top. The jeans connote her more human side, that grieves for the loss of her friends and doesn't know what to immediately do to sort out events.

Rikki River will wear a similar outfit to Thommi Thomson, only less provocative. This fits in with Thommi Thomson who will be wearing something similar. This will fit in with theories about victims in teenage horror films, and would be stereotypical of what a teenage audience would come to expect from a horror film.

Examples of Similar Films

Dracula

Dracula is an example of a film that has parts set in a previous era to that of most the film time and location. This is something we intend to do with our film, by setting the opening sequence during the time of the Salem witch trials, where many people were wrongly put to death under the wrong acusation that they are witches. We intend to play with the idea that the people who were wrongly acused seek revenge. We aim to set the death of a girl in 1692 then the rest of the film in modern day times when the girl who was killed wants other people dead to pay for her own death.

The Grudge

The Grudge focuses on how the spirit of someone who was wrongly killed by someone they love seeks revenge on people who enter the house he was killed in. In our film the girl, Abigail, was killed by her vicor father under the false pretence that she was a witch and would blacken his name if it was to come out. This is similar to the Grudge as any person passing the place where Abigail was hanged, at night, would also be hanged, by Abigail.

The Crucible

Our film will be similar to The Crucible as both deal woth wrong acusations of witchcraft by people who are meant to love them. We also use names of characters so audiences are able to draw comparisons easily between them.

Conventions of a Horror Film

• "Preliminary introduction into ordinary lifestyle"

We plan to introduce our 3 first modern characters in a home setting, whilst watching a film, which is an ordinary occurance for teenagers.

• "Type of bizarre murder/death – killer maybe known or unknown"

The murders will be committed through hangings, which is unusual for modern deaths. They will be carried out by what audiences will know as a 300 year old character.

• "Credits follow horror theme – creepy font, title movement, image eg pumpkin, weapon, etc"

We plan to make sure that our credits are conventional for a horror genre.

• "Main characters introduced – young/ youthful"

Our main character, $ammi $unshine, will be teenage as will the Thing/ Abigail. Thommi Thomson and Rikki River, who are killed in the opening scene will also be of a teenage age.

• "Teenage kids – easy target also vulnerable – home alone"

The three teenagers will be home alone watching a film, so do fit this convention.

• "Teenagers usually a couple – football jock boyfriend and cheerleader blonde bimbo girlfriend."

This is not a convention our film will follow because our film is more based on historical elements and so will refer more to that than modern times and in 1692 they did not have bimbos, cheerleaders or football jocks. Instead of this, we will have a farely unconventional main character of $ammi $unshine. She will have a unique dress sense representative of her clashing personalities.

• "Mysterious phone calls – dubbed sinister voice “Who’s There…?"

Our film will not include this convention because of the historical elements of the film. Therefore our perpertrator will have a more hidden role, and still following traditions of the year she died, doing things such as, dressing in full length clothing and punishing those who do not.

• "Family ties broken"

Abigail's father, Rev. Victor Harris will be the one who kills her, so would fit this convention.

• "Sisters killed by brothers e.g: Halloween"

This is not an issue in our film. Instead Abigail will kill the people who do not fit in with her times and who would have been punished. She is trying to keep to rules, norms and values of back then and kills those who do not. This is because she was killed for being acused of breaking these norms.

• "Sometimes unsuccessful acts of heroism"

Rikki River plans to save Thommi Thomson's life when she is hanging, but this results in her death as well.

• "Victim unprotected"

The victims will be in and dark, woodland areas when Abigail/ the Thing kills them, therefore following this convention.

• "Superhuman killer – doesn’t die successfully = sequels"

Abigail is already dead, so cannot be killed, making it possible to have a sequel.

taken from http://smay-fuller-suttonmediaas.blogspot.com/2008/12/codes-and-conventions-of-horror-film.html

Film Name

When deciding on a name we chose the word vengeance, then decided to see what other words were similar, which may sound better. but after seeing the definition as "especially in the after life" we thought vegeance would be the most appropriate name.

Themes

the theme of our film will revolve around the Salem Witch Trials that took place in 1692. The film will follow a child who wants revenge for being wrongfully convicted, killed by her father, the vicar, who believed her to be a witch.

Evaluation

Strengths

We think our prelimenary task was a success because we were able to include a variety of camera shots and angles. This enabled us to establish perspective and superiority and inferiority. We also used movements, mainly panning, that showed that we were able to use the camera to its full potential. We also followed the 180 degree rule accurately and the 30 degree rule and so we feel that the preliminary task went well.

Weaknesses

Whilst filming Nick Davey was in the background making a lot of noise and generally distracting the filming process. The meant that the end result has shouting in the background from Nick Davey and we think that this has ruined the effect and emotion of our script and filming. Another problem was location. While filming our priminary task we've had a few problems with the filming and location. With the location we kept having people walking through whilst we were filming. Also the location that we had chosen we had problems with the time that we filmed because that room was used sometimes the same time that we wanted to film. Another problem that we had was sometimes we weren't all here, through no fault of our own so it was difficult to film. The other major problem we had was when for some reason all the footage we had shot was lost. So we had to re-shoot everything.

Overall we think our preliminary task went considerably well. The only times it went wrong was when other people interferred and through technology faults. We feel that we did the best we could have done and that the technical aspect of the task went well.