Vampire Horror Movies.

Shadow Of The Vampire - Steven Katz
Buffy The Vampire Slayer- Joss Whedon
Vampyr- Carl Theodor Dreyer & Christian Jul

What is the layout and what conventions are there?
- The layout of the scripts are mostly of conversations showing what each person is saying and then in brackets stage directions, camera movements and sounds. The conventions that were used in the scripts were mostly conversations which we know is the norm in most scripts.


Synopsis
The vampire movie that i am going to produce is going to be about a teenage couple where only one is a vampire, and the others not. The elder vampires believe that vampires shouldn't date mortals and decide to try and kill the mortal. Vampires follow the mortal home, get vampires to watch her every move, kill her whole family. The vampire tries his hardest to protect his girlfriend by even killing members of his own family and people who are from the same kind. In the end the mortal eventually gets bitten and her whole life turns upside down. The remaining members of her family believe that she is dead and hold her a funeral, later on we realise that she herself has turnt into a vampire and breaks out of the coffin seeking revenge to the elders who did this to her..

Women Representation In Horror Movies.

Usually with horror films the female's are always predominantly the weaker ones out of the two genders, and most males are either evil or heroes. Its a form of representation showing that females are the weaker ones and that it may be the males job to protect the females. Also in most horrors, there is always a young cheerleader/schoolgirl who gets brutally murdered or sexually abused or followed home, and there is always the idea of the 'dumb blonde' who is gullible and ends up getting herself killed.
Women may have been portrayed this way in horror movies due to the fact that women (maybe at the time of creation of some films) didn't have equal rights to men. Nowadays with recent and modern horror movies, a lot of females are characters who are determined to find the serial killer and is usually a 'final character', and females are now seen to fight back more, not seeming so much like victims who seem weak and frail, scared and always the first to be murdered.

Here is a film trailer of 'Black Sabbath' which was released in 1963 about a woman who was terrorized in her apartment by phonecalls from an anonymous caller.

Director Research

Tim Burton
He directed the following films; Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice,
Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Vincent And Me,
Mars Attack!, Sleepy Hollow, Planet Of The Apes, Big Fish,
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory,
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, Alice in
Wonderland and Frankenweenie.

            Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton was born August 25, 1958.
Aswell as directing films, he also wrote and illustrated a
poetry book called 'Melacholy Death Of Oyster Boy
And Other Storie's '. This was published in 1997.
Also a compilation of his drawings, sketches and other artwork titled 'The Art Of Tim Burton' which was
then released in 2009. He was born in California to Jean Burton and Bill Burton, Tim studied at Burbank High School.
In 1979, Tim graduated from CalArts in California, and from his short film ' Stalk Of The Celery Monster', he attracted the attention of Walt Disney Production' Animations studio, who offered him an animators apprenticeship with them.

Tim Burton was married for two years to Lena Gieseke, but then left to go and live with model and actress, Lisa Marie. She acted in all of Tim's films during their relationship from 1992-2001. After leaving her, Burton developed a romantic relationship with English actress Helena Bonham Carter, whom he met while filming Planet of the Apes. Tim  and Helena  have two children: a son, Billy Raymond,  born October 4, 2003; and a daughter, Nell, born December 15, 2007.  
Johnny Depp is a godfather of both of Burton's children. In Depp's introduction to Burton on Burton, he writes, "What more can I say about him? He is a brother, a friend, my godson's father. He is a unique and brave soul, someone that I would go to the ends of the earth for, and I know, full and well, he would do the same for me."

source of information:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton

European Horror Analysis

Martyr is a french film that was directed by Pascal Lauger and it came out in France in 2008. I couldn't find an opening sequence to it, so im going to be analysing the trailer that i found.

Mise En Scene
From the trailer it gives the audience a rough idea of the film but not too much to give the whole entire story away. The first scene that we see is of a young girl, around the age of about 10 or 11, chained to a chair and a shadowy figure enters the room. The next scene is then text, while this bit of text is on the screen there is non-diegetic music that fits in perfectly with the genre to create a scary atmosphere. Throughout the trailer there are a lot of scenes of torture, blood and eerie happenings. For example the scene where we see the girl running out of the building, covered in blood and screaming, we dont know whats happened to her, we can clearly see she has been hurt but we didn't see by who/what or why.
In the next few scenes we see some sort of investigation happening and we then connect it to the scenes that were seen following up. A man talks about a girl and torture and her name is 'Lucie' who it seems is now being looked after. Throught these scenes where its mostly talking (in French with subtitles), we can see that people have been hurt, people are planning to hurt and protect. Lucie seems to go back to the house where she was kept hostage and tortured and try to kill everyone there, the presumed detectives are asking another little girl about Lucie, she tells them that Lucie's scared and in other words wants revenge.
From this point forwards, most of the scenes involve a lot of violence, torture and abuse. We see a lot of blood and naked bodies fighting, for what? the audience don't know until the film is watched. We also see Lucie then killing the people in the house where she was captured and tortured but when she returns it turns out there is another girl in exactly the same position that she was, abused with a metal device attached to the head.

EditingMost of the scenes on the trailer are jump shots, at first there are scenes for a period of around 10-20 seconds long giving the audience an idea of the story, with these there are also scenes with text giving us some information towards the film. As the trailer carries on the jump cuts become to a faster and quicker pace to create a scary atmosphere and feel to the film.

Camera
Most of the shots are close ups, of people fighting, the gun pointing, the girl running and of people walking and talking. There was also extreme closeups such as when there was injuries that were made a point of focus, like the girl with the eye patch, there was an extreme closeup of her face focusing on the injury and her facial expressions. There was alos another close up of the girls face when she was running and we saw the blood coming from her face and also how scared she was.

SoundThere was non-diegetic music over the text scenes which gave the trailer the scary atmosphere to fit in with the genre, There was screaming from the girl and other people forward into the trailer, the sound of gunshots that was fired several times, the sound of metal being clanked and people talking in french.

Essay On Opening Sequence Of 'City Of God'

In the opening sequence of the film "City Of God" there is a busy enviroment within the jump shots of a knife being sharpened, a woman making drinks, drums being played, chickens being skinned and also a lot of other people preparing food and drinks.
A dominant icon in the opening sequence was the chicken, it was seen as an object to the actors in the film. What we see visually within the jump shots leads up to and influences and we percieve the chicken and how we feel towards the scenario. When the opening sequence starts the first thing that we see is an extreme close up shot of a knife being sharpened, this signifies that something is going to be cut or an animal/human is going to be killed. The idea of this is also exxagerated by the size of the knife, as its a big meat knife that could easily cut through anything. The use of the extreme close up shot intensifies the scenario and makes the audience wonder what is going to happen next.
The next scene which is a jump shot from the first shot is where a dead chicken is being skinned, this also is another visual element of the film that signifies that the chickens are killed and used to feed the people. This also explains how the chicken is seen and treated throughout the opening sequence as an object.
The following focus of the scene is where there is medium close up of a single live chicken tied up to something, this automatically makes the audience see what the chicken will be used for. We see the chicken watching everything that is happening and witnessing all the other chickens be killed and skinned. There is diegetic and non diegetic music with the drums being played. With the scene and the audio it makes it seem like it should be something that should be celebrated but even with all the celebrations, the chicken is the most dominant and focused icon of the scene. The audience will not be focused on the celebrations but the chicken as we witness how frantic and anxious the chicken is too escape from the rope which it is tied up with.
In the scene, when the chicken finally does escape. The actors seem to be very frantic over the loss of that one chicken, this could signify the fact that there is alot of poverty and lack of financial materials to support the population. This is shown as when the chicken runs, almost thirty people chase after the chicken trying to catch it, it seems that the chicken is very precious to the people as we see when they are running they do not let anything get in thier way, for example when they were all running after the chicken and a man with alot of pots got in the way. The people running did not stop for him but instead pushed him aside out of the way so that the chicken was visible at all times. While the people and the chicken were running, two different camera shots were used. Firstly the tracking shot was used where it makes the audience feel as if they are running with the people to catch the chicken, along with this camera shot, a high angle view from the people runnings perspective looking down to the chicken running ahead of them, this angle gives the people the sense of authority and power over the chicken. When the camera is focused on to the chicken, a point of view shot was used, it was behind the chicken and we saw the back of the chicken and also what the chicken saw. We saw that the chicken was running quite fast away from the people and also the chicken had to avoid alot of obstacles. We mostly saw peoples frantic reactions with thier feet that signifies that the chicken really is nothing in this big world. Another camera shot that was used was a low angle which pointed up towards the people. It was as if the chicken was looking behind and seeing where they were. With this shot and the chicken being the point of view that it is coming from, this also shows that the people have power and authority over the chicken, which clearly shows that the chicken is literally fearing for its life.
With the two focused scenes of the chicken and people running, when they are intergrated together to make the scene fit in together, it effectively increases the atmosphere and audiences perception of what is happening. The chicken is used as a metaphor as to the people all it was seen as was food and financial prospects, and not the actual fact that it was an animal. The people in the film did so much to catch the chicken that escaped which shows that the chicken is very important to them. the angles and shots that were used also helped the audience to see both points of view between the people and the chicken.

TARGETS.

I have set a target for myself too:

- Use varied terms of media terminology.
- Make clear links with the connotations and denotations.
- To complete my work to the standard i think i am capable of.

Short Script - Continuity Editing & The 180 Degree Rule

*Anonymous hand opening a door, close up of hand and door handle*

*Jump cut to behind man in seats right shoulder, seeinng the anonymous figure walk into the room and close the door behind him*

Dave: Thanks for seeing me at such short notice Sir.

*Camera goes behind Daves left shoulder to see the man in the chair*

Bob: Your lucky! What is it? I dont like wasting time.

*Camera behind Bobs right shoulder*

Dave: Well... (faces floor), my wife is pregnant and at the moment we are really struggling with the mortgage and bills, its hard. Theres no chance i could, maybe, er, um get an advance on my wages? Just to see me by?

*Camera behind Daves left shoulder*

Bob: No chance! Does this company look like a charity for wastes and strays to be helped financially just because they cannot keep on top of all their bills. Now goodbye. Close the door on your way out.

*Camera behind Bobs right shoulder, see Dave walking out the room, looking at the floor. Opening the door and closing it behind him*