Final storyline Synopsis

Our film opening is about a young blogger experiencing the problems of technology going wrong. As a very successful youtuber she has gained the attention of many admirers. A supposed visit from her boyfriend turns out to be one of the last times she could blog happily. As she goes to open the door the power in her house is turned off by an Unknown character. What happens next    

The plot for our story is as follows:

• A young teen is 'blogging' her day and it is implied that the girl is a successful youtuber
• since she is an internet sensation - it is clear that she relies heavily on technology
• she talks about her boyfriend coming over and the planned day
• door bell rings, she makes it to the middle of the stairs
• power cuts off
• audience see blackness & hear panting
• young teen is forced to 'blog' her own death
• scenes of struggling by the young teen
• killer is seen, and has also killed her boyfriend
• montage of bf death and fast cuts of killer with glitches will be shown
• killer walks out of killing location (garage) 
• turns head and you can see the killer 
• (film title inserted after this)

What's the craziest video you would upload to youtube? What if others don't enjoy what you do? How do you think they should tell you they dont like what they do? There are probably so many answers the proper response will remain... UNKNOWN

Diegetic sounds

Majority of our sounds that were diegetic did not need to be recorded post production as we wanted to keep the sounds a realistic as possible, this was all of Rachels  blogging amongst other things.
However sounds like the doorbell, the house power switch and the killers voice were all recorded or downloaded to add post production.
The voice of the killer had to be synchronous with the movement as it was not clear in the first recordings, but the accent and tone was not recorded to fully fit into the conventions of a slasher killer as we believed it would be nice to see how unconventional we could make the voice of the killer.
Although we didn't copy it we asked the voice actor to see if they could put a spin on the sarcastic tone of the killer from Scream 1996.

Colour & Symbolism

Colours play a big part in making horror movies as they connote specific things. There are suitable colours for every situation and it is very important that we get it right in our horror movie to make it look professional and realistic.

The antagonists in most horror films are usually wearing black no matter what genre of horror this is. The colour of black gives connotations of death, danger and gives an eerie atmosphere as it's a dull colour. Villains usually wear black to portray themselves as someone dark and un trusting. It is usually easy to spot the antagonists in movies just by the colours they wear and their actions. For this reason, our antagonist will be wearing black just so we can stick to typical conventions of antagonist.

Protagonists in films are usually wearing light colours to connote their innocents in the situation. The colour white is used connote purity and the colour blue connotes new life or something fresh. Red is sometimes also used to connote blood or danger which is used to foreshadow the unfortunate dilemma to come. In our film, the protagonist will use light colours to achieve the portrayal of innocence and cause the audience to feel sympathy for them.

                                            

Ropes are used for hanging in horror movies. They are effective as it can make characters look as if they hanged themselves when that might not be the case. The cyclical structure portrays to the audience that the event occurring is ongoing and can't be stopped.

Knives are one of the most common objects used in horror movies. Household items are effective as they're easy to get hold of in emergency situations. Using knives in horror films even just for cooking can foreshadow bad things to come where the knife has to be used again. The sharp edge on them connote something painful and sudden.

Diegetic and Non Diegetic sound

Sounds

As we are creating a horror sequence we have to pick the correct non diegetic and diegetic sounds to help build a typical horror atmosphere and add to the mise en scene. As a lot of the best horror music is already used on movies we may have to ask for copyright or compose our own music for our sequence. To ensure we have the ability to make the right choice I have done a little research into horror music sound designs.

these are a few ingredients

• very high pitched strings
• there is often no repeating melody
• if there is a melody there are a lot of tension keys/notes in them
• often very slow moving in pace (not exactly slow tempo)
• the begin of the composition is often very low pitched.

The tutorials are not exactly what we are looking to use, but the idea behind many sound designs employed can be used for what we want to do. Technological horror is fairly new genre of horror making more room experiment with various conventions of sound.
Diegetic sounds such as doors closing, glitches etc may have to be recorded post production, this may be a hard task to do as majority of the diegetic sounds are parallel and synchronous.

The main character of our opening sequence is not the final girl, the music she is listening to may have to portray her in a way that the audience are able to identify her as that. Also as there will be glitches added post production during editing the non diegetic music will have to accompany that with drum rolls and melodic white noise.
Our final decision was too find a non copyright music and sound effects. We needed relaxing music to create contrast between the high tension of the soundtrack used when the killer enters the scene.

General Horror Story conventions

General Horror Story conventions

There are a few general pointers when constructing a horror storyline of any subgenre. They are not the all in all foundation but it will be easy to build around the recipe.

Camera Angles/Movement

The Camera angles are often unnatural but helps the with expression of the nature of the film.

1. Handheld
   Makes it difficult for the audience to understand what is going on during the scene(especially when it is a fast paced shaking)
2. POV
   Gives the audience the opportunity to see how the monster or the hunted see. Does not always occur at the start of the film but can occur towards the end as we have started to understand more about the monster by that time.

Camera Framing

Different types of camera framing can be applied to give a more dramatic effect to the film at different parts of the storyline. It also ensures that the part of the films are more unnatural than others.

1. Extreme Close up
   Using this camera framing makes it harder to recognise an object and it is often used on the monster which makes it very sinister especially when mixed with high key lighting from the bottom.
2. Plays on the depth of the Field
   By manipulating the position of objects in the field(frame) it often decreases our ability as an audience to perceive the movement of the monster as it creeps up on its prey.

Sounds

The use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in horror films is of extreme importance as it sets the ambience for horrific occurrences. It also helps to form a contrast between the often normal life the victim was living before.

1. Diegetic
   Sounds such as footsteps, breathing screams and extremely gory, flesh ripping for example sounds.
2. Non Diegetic
   High Tension Strings, Piano, Little or no percussive instruments until an attack is about to occur.

Mise-en-scene

Certain icons/props/settings are easily identifiable with horror, dark coloured castle with bats flying around in the moonlight. This is the same for characters, Victor Frankenstein's Monster is a very common one as it is extremely iconic. The use of dark colours and various post production techniques also add to the mise en scene of horror depending on the type of horror.

Editing

As horror films are often plays on supernatural occurrences the editing can be very fast as it makes sequences and scenes extremely unreal.