Mark Scheme

Marking Criteria

Props and Location shots

PROPS, COSTUME AND MAKE-UP



This is the car I will be using. It is quite ordinary, and shows the social class of the characters.



This is what my main character will be wearing in the woods. Props include the dog lead around his neck. He is wearing a Barbour jacket which has connotations of being expensive and old fashioned as Barbour & Sons was founded in 1894, which almost fits in with my old fashioned feel to the modern century. 
http://clothesonfilm.com/how-to-read-costume-on-film/20146/ is a website that highlights the important meaning of costume.





This is the setting of the inside of the old woman's house. As you can see, it is quite old fashioned. Props in this room include:

Ornaments on the wooden table, located behind the old woman. The weighing scale and kettle are of similar make and era. I really like the old effect of the gold and rusty black; it makes them seem ancient. I used the globe because it has connotations and refers to a crystal ball. I was going to use this instead of the old woman reading the boy's palms but I changed this idea because I thought it would be more realistic and believable if I used palm reading.

Also behind the old woman is this antique shelf. As you can see, there is a black&white photograph on it. This contributed with my old-fashioned theme as it is a photo from when colour ink hadn't been invented. This may also be seen as creepy in certain horrors which is a bonus.

I like the idea of the old woman sitting in a rocking chair. Again, it is old fashioned and here I found the idea of the rocking chair moving fast when no one is in it.. like a ghost/spirit is moving it deliberately to scare. A thrilling film that also uses a rocking chair in this way is Psycho (1960).

This is the grandfather clock that is featured in my trailer. It is old fashioned like the rest of my props and fits in perfectly. I also think the shadow works well because it makes it seem bigger and adds to the mystery. I wanted to fit the top detail in because it reminds me of a cathedral, therefore biblical imagery, fitting in with the fact that it may be the devil that is trying to posses him.

This is the candle that sits on the centre table. Like the other props in the room, it is old fashioned, decorative and gold. The candle gives some sort of light into the dull room, and I have the idea that it will get blown out towards the end of the clip (the audience will not see a person blowing it out, but simply when the old woman's line is finished it will be gone, so it is almost like the spirit has entered the room.

I will be using my gran as the old creepy woman. To make her look even older, I have drawn over her lines and wrinkles in a dark brown make-up pencil so they show more. I have also used black eyeshadow for the effect around the eyes, like she hasn't slept for a long time and her eye sockets are getting worn. I have attempted to put talcum powder on her face to make her look pale (hence the red apron that she will not be wearing when filming) but unfortunately it has not worked. These make-up techniques have been applied to the main character Matthew as this scene (as he is now in distress/danger) and the spirit seen in the mirror reflection scene. The spirit will have extra paleness, blackness around the eyes and blood coming from her eye as she is the most dangerous and extreme of characters. She will also be wearing a white night dress for the feeling that she is a little girl. This innocence contrasts with the true nature of her personality which is obviously portrayed throughout my trailer.

LOCATION

This is the house of which the main character lives. Again, it is pretty average and shows the social class. The black door represents doom because of the dark colour and the fact the son of perdition enters and exits through this door. It is ironic that this is the last time he will be exiting out this door.



This is the forest where the main event(s) will take place. "Trees have traditionally been planted in many cultures in honour of an accomplishment or an important rite of passage such as a graduation, wedding, retirement or the birth of a child. This tradition is also appropriate for honouring the life of a loved one at the loved one's passing." - http://livingartsoriginals.com/infoforests.htm#planting. This is a hidden meaning and connotes why I have chosen a forest. It is not because of a graduation or wedding etc; it indicates the life of a loved one's passing. Forests are usually conventional for horrors because they are dark, mysterious and hidden.

This is the house of the old woman that my main character goes to see for help. I chose this house because it is surrounded in trees and in the middle of nowhere; making it creepy and isolated, just like the character of the old woman. It is quite old fashioned to fit in my theme of the Victorian age of the era in which the old woman lives, also fitting in with props found in the dark house.

 

Typical Convention- Use of the mirror

This is a you-tube clip showing a montage of how many films use the scary, behind-the-mirror technique. It's a convention that is so over-used that films are making parody scenes of it. I am considering using this technique- to follow conventions so that you know something is going to happen, but also to make a twist on the technique.



Why do people enjoy being scared? Joe Bob Briggs, noted "drive in movie" critic, says that "We like to frighten ourselves so that everything else in our lives seems less frightening" Roger Ebert states that good horror movies "can exorcise our demons" ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"). Horror movies affect the watcher in tangible physical ways, as well. Fear stimulates the 'fight or flight' response, which kicks off with a rush of endorphins that make the body more alert, tighten the muscles, and slow down nonessential functions like digestion.

It is possible that the screen acts as a mirror to the audience, who is, after all, deceived as it believes the narrative it sees on the screen to be true when in fact it is merely another well constructed deception. The camera is able to go everywhere, see everything, and ultimately has no limits. The audience's feeling of power is enhanced further by the fact that they are sitting in a darkened, relatively unexposed, 'safe-feeling' auditorium, passively watching the lives of others.

So, what effect does it have to use mirrors within the film itself? Well, some would argue that through the use of mirror in film, the spectator itself is exposed and thrown into the action, no longer just a passive viewer of the action, but an active part of the action, rudely revealed or harshly thrown into the light and action. The safety and comfort of the auditorium is shattered as they become aware of their own vulnerability. Therefore, the cinematic screen becomes the 'mirror of childhood' described in Lacan's mirror stage. This awareness consequently produces an anxiety in the subject who is unsure whose point of view is being depicted, the on-screen characters or their own. This is made worse as the audience relates this experience to its childhood, where they may well have felt even more exposed and vulnerable. This could be the cause of making mirrors scary in film, and why it has been used so often.

Scariest film scenes:

http://www.filmsite.org/scariestscenes3.html

Focus Group

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product. My focus group will include roughly 3-4 people, ranging from 18-45, some fitting into my target audience, and one that isn't- to determine their attitudes towards my trailer and whether they would pay to watch it or not. I will be examining their responses and asking them their thoughts about my storyline, techniques used in my trailer, poster and webpage. I have recorded an question and answer session in my focus group, where the focus group will ask me whatever they need/want to know.

Synopsis

'Son Of Perdition' is a thrilling horror, jam-packed with drama and theatrical psychology. We follow an 18-year-old male, Matthew Jones, as his life is intruded by a mysterious spirit when in the forbidden forest. It begins to possess him and his haunting obsession is revealed shockingly towards the end. With the help of an old, creepy medium, will his life ever be the same? And Is this spirit even real or the act of imagination? 

Representation of women

"The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision: a sight" - John Berger in 'Ways of Seeing'. I think what he is saying that men objectify women when they look at them, and women watch themselves being looked at. The pleasure of looking is called Scopophilia. In my media product, I have unknowingly decided to use moderately attractive women through a fault of lack of choice. However, this may attract more males as a audience. I may also relate my trailer product with the Oedipus complex because it involves a brief connection between mother and son. Laura Mulvey (1975) states that psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud associates Scopophilia with "taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze... at the extreme, it can become fixated into a perversion, producing obsessive voyeurs and Peeping Tom's whose only sexual satisfaction can come from watching, in an active controlling sense, an objectified other".
She argues that the environment of the cinema a "hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically" with its lack of light and inability to interact with other spectators produces the ideal environment for voyeurism where spectators can look in on a "private world". She also argues that the gaze of the male spectator is united with that of the male protagonist. They become one man, looking at women. As I am using a male protagonist, this may happen but hopefully the main content of horror will distract and take-away from this.
'Rear Window' by Alfred Hitchcock has influenced my product of representations. Although I have a male protagonist, he is also the victim which deliberately goes against the traditional representations. Similarly to this film, I previously decided I could of added an extra female to the trailer to represent how the camera will not embody the males 'gaze'. If I add in the main characters partner, there will not only be intertextual romance but similar to Rear Window, the man will be more occupied/disturbed by his observations than that of the girlfriend. I would use this if I was making an extension trailer or the whole film.

How the character changes

'1408' is about a man who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.

In films like these (another example is Phonebooth) the main male character is introduced as selfish and arrogant. Freytag's pyramid diagrammed every story's plot. However, In my opinion, I think one can similarly do this for a character and how what they've been through has changed them from start to finish. Perhaps the character deserves the incident they are placed in, and this is the purpose of the stories; to change morals. For example, the protagonist's mother told him not to go in the woods, yet he lied and he did enter the woods. Thus, he perhaps caused the 'problem' himself, like walking into a fire or the boy who cried wolf.

Freytag's pyramid consists of:

1. Exposition: introduces the characters and setting, providing description and background. (setting the scene).

2. Inciting Incident: something happens to begin the action. A single event usually signals the beginning of the main conflict. The inciting incident is often referred to as the complication.

3. Rising Action: the story builds and gets more exciting.

4. Climax: the moment of greatest tension in a story. This is often the most exciting event and the rising action builds up to this, and that of which the falling action follows.

5. Falling Action: events happen as a result of the climax and we know that the story will soon end.

6. Resolution: the character solves the main problem/conflict or someone solves it for him or her.

7. Denouement: the ending. At this point, any remaining secrets, questions or mysteries which remain after the resolution are solved by the characters or explained by the author. Sometimes the author leaves us to think about the theme or future possibilities for the characters which could result in another film.

The highlighted points are ones I will use in my trailer. As it is only a teaser trailer, these points will be brief and I will not reveal the ending or how to solve the problem.


Source: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/freytag.html