Inital Film Opening Plan/Idea

The first scene will be of the drive up to the layby on the edge of the woods. There will be use of first person shots looking out of the window of the car. These shots will show the viewer the figures that are standing on the side of the road, just to create suspense. These figures will be frequent just to make it more creepy. The character will see the figures but will not think anything of them. The journey towards the cabin will take up most of the opening, only a short amount of time will be spent at the cabin. When the car pulls up on the side of the road, in the layby, the camera will show the car driving into the layby and the characters will be shown exiting the car. The two characters will then set off towards the cabin.

To simulate the fact they are being followed, I wanted to use handheld camerawork to hint to the viewer that they are being watched, due to the shaky camera and the positioning of the camera. I wanted to place the camera in the woods looking out at the characters. Low angles will be used to simulate this as well.

One of the female characters will be afraid of the whole journey and will be wanting to go back, where as the other characters won't be. The female character will be peer pressured to carry on. Strange noises, braking branches will scare the characters making the situation more dramatic and filled with suspense.

When the characters eventually get to the cabin, the confident female character will start a fire, ready to cook over. Not knowing they have been followed, they all settle down inside of this abandoned cabin. Hand held point of view shots will simulate the stalker approaching the cabin.

The fire bursts up into flames, lighting up the whole area. The stalker is then watching them from inside the caravan that is opposite the cabin. The shot then cuts to black, and is left on a cliff hanger.

Key horror directors

There are many famous and iconic directors in the horror industry who each are known as auteurs as they impact the film so much. Here are a few examples over the most well know directors.

Tobe Hopper

Tobe Hopper is arguably the most successful horror director and writer of all time. His career started with the great success of Texas Chainsaw Massarce, a film which changed the horror genre in the 1970's. This was because it originated many commonly used elements in horror/slasher such as using power tools as weapons and the characterization of a killer being large, bulky and faceless. It was also a such a hit as it was one of the first films of its time to have real life events influence the story such as the protagonist, Leatherface, being based on a known killer Ed Gein.  He then went on to create other horror films which weren't as successful until he produced Poltergeist which too was very successful and is now known as a horror classic and too received many rewards.

Alfred Hitchcock

Not exactly known as a pure horror director but he directed many of the first horror films such as Psycho, The Birds and Frenzy which for their time (1960-72) were great successes. Hitchcock was an auteur of horror. He came known as the 'Master of suspense' through his use of editing and framework to maximise anxiety and fear within the audience. He also had a trademark style of his own in which the movement of the camera mimics the gaze of a character which made the audience engage in a form of voyeurism. He also set the stereotype of having a ditzy blonde female character as victim and a thrilling plot twist at the end which now are very well known and recognised in the horror industry.

George Romero

George Romero is most famous for defining the modern day zombie image worldwide. Previously zombies had no consistent image of how they were portrayed and were hardly seen in the film industry until George came up with the cannibalistic corpse like image we all now know. He tried branching out and directed a tonnes of films over career but zombie/apocalyptic films were his greatest success with films such as the Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. For his work in the Zombie subgenre George is known as the 'Godfather of the Dead'.

Wes Craven

Wes Craven has been given the title 'Master of Horror' for his work on the incredibly successful horror series of The Nightmare On Elms Street and Scream. His work was a great influence in the horror genre especially for his characterisation of Freddy Kruger and the scream faces which are both commonly known worldwide for being the signifiers of horror. Wes was a great auteur within his films with his particular film styles which came across in most of his work. These were things such as the Nightmare series exploring the nature of reality like dreams. Scream too has its influences as it is a comedy mixed with a horror which is the first of its time and references other pieces of horror text within it which too was never done before.

Key horror films

A key horror film is Halloween (1978) it was one of the most impactful slasher movie of that time.

A quick synopsis of this movie is Michael Myers kills his sister as a child, then years later he breaks out of a mental hospital and starts to kill babysitters.

The main actress in the movie was Jamie Lee Curtis, and this was her first horror movie leading onto all the others she stared in.

Another key horror film is The Wicker man (1973), this movie is really impactful because it is a cult horror.

A brief synopsis of this movie Neil Howe arrives on an Island looking for a missing girl. The Island belongs to a Lord Summerise (a key character) The island is famous for its harvest but Howe soon realises that the locals are pagans.

Some famous actors in this movie include Christopher Lee.

The Blair Witch Project (1999), is a movie that was different because of the way it was filmed, it was filmed in a way that the audience thought it was filmed through a camcorder.

A short synopsis, three film students travel to Maryland to make a film of an urban legend - The Blair Witch. The students went into the woods but never came back. A year later the footage was found and made into a movie.

Conventions my idea follows

Setting
I think that my idea follows lots of horror conventions, that exist in previous horror films. Just the fact the setting is a typical horror setting, in the dark woods. The woods are a typical horror setting, due to the fact that the unknown can happen. Also most horror films have the setting in the middle of know where therefore a woods is appropriate.

Camera
A lot of horror scenes have this dark blue filter as light, therefore I am going to recreate these dark blue colours in my film. Talking about camera and cinematography, I will also simulate a first person shot or point of view shot to help the viewer feel like the audience is there and they can then empathise for the vulnerable characters in that situation. Using first person shots can also help to simulate the fact that they are being followed. This shows dramatic irony in other words, it can let the viewer know more than the characters. This then makes the audience feel bad for the characters.

Character
My idea also follows the convention of the vulnerable character that is usually female, or in other words the sex appeal. One of the female characters in my film idea is nervous, and regretting the whole situation. Where as the other character is confident, not worried. Therefore contrasting the two characters behaviour.

Other characters such as the villain, in my idea the stalker, will follow the same conventions as other horror films. The iconography of the character will make the audience make connotations of fear, therefore the audience can relate to the vulnerable characters.

Signifiers
Lots of horror films contain signifiers or signals that the protagonist my dismiss but the viewer will pick up on. This then foreshadows and hints to the viewer that something bad is going to happen. Therefore in my idea I added figures that will be standing on the side of the road on the way up to the cabin. This will then add these hints for the viewer to make then think, and encourage them to figure out what will happen within the next few scenes. But also on the other hand not making it too obvious for the viewer.

Horror Budgets, Box office, Distribution

Depending on the horror film depends of the budget of it. Quite a lot of older horror films had a very low budget. Around $250,000. Where as some newer horror films (in the past 5 years) have very high budgets (in the millions). This could be due to special effects improving, which creates high expectations of the viewers for the genre, therefore costing a lot of money. Also things like actors and sets can cost a lot of money to make them look realistic.

There are lots of horror production company's some of the big ones are: Blumhouse Productions, Circle of Confusion, Dark Castle Entertainment, Ghost House Pictures, and so on. They produce and make the films.

Some of the famous horror distributors actually distribute a whole wide range of different film genres. An example is Universal. But there are some smaller distributors that mainly distribute, or in some cases only distribute horror films. Some examples of this are: Brain damage films, terror films, and so on. These companies market and distribute the film for the audiences to see.

The production company's that are small independent company's that accepts horror movie submissions. They then market and produce the film ready for it to be released to the cinema and then eventually on to DVD. Not many DVD's are being sold any more therefore the production companies don't produce as many as they used to. They tend to get the film into an online streaming company like Netflix or Amazon Prime. This is probably now the most popular way of watching films therefore these companies will want their films to be on these online streaming sites, so they can be watched. The production company then gets a cut of the money from the film each time it is watched online.

Film Pitch Idea Overview

Generally, I thought the pitch went ok, I thought the presentation and images helped the audience visualize the idea better, making the pitch stronger. I thought the location was strong, but feedback from the pitch said it would be difficult to get to when filming.

Some improvements or feedback given on the idea:

• Location would be difficult to get to
• Shooting in low light would be difficult