My Media Project Idea

Genre: Horror, the specific area will be Zombie/infected human beings  

Most zombie movies are all aimed towards surviving the outbreak until it has been contained or cured, generally you find that you have one or sometimes two characters at the start of the film and gradually meet other survivors who have supplies for example, in Shaun of the Dead it begins with Shaun and Ed and as they hear about the disease they quickly gather friends and family. In this sub-genre of film you will find that most films will have a tight community of protagonist which all characters differ from each other and all have unexpected reactions to the zombies/close person dying/having to kill another person.

All zombie films have some sort of apocalyptic feel to it such as crashed cars, buildings on fire, very smoky from burning cars or houses; everything is either damaged or destroyed which is effective on the audience as it connotes what normal life could be like if there ever was an outbreak and represents that humans failed to contain it before people were exposed to it.

The first 15 minutes of a similar film to my idea.

A similar film to my idea for a movie as a whole is a movie called War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, 2005)

The first 7 minutes is just establishing the urban city setting and introducing the main characters of the story Ray Ferrier (Dad) Rachael Ferrier (Daughter) and Robbie (Son) to create a broken family life story until a shot of the TV where a reporter is for a better word reporting on a freakish lighting storm that has caused a blackout in the Ukraine.

The report mentions that this sudden storm is catastrophic but the shot gets interrupted as Ray changes channels until another reporter is on TV talking about the science behind the storm and how it is caused. For cinematography the shot is a close up of the TV to encourage the audience to be interested in what's happening. For mise-en-scene the reporter is smartly dressed compared to Ray which shows the class different between the two to show that Ray doesn't earn a lot of money and can't really support his family. For sound the reporter is speak in a very serious tone to show that the storm is very dangerous and should be monitored in case of further actions. The editing is pretty simple with just using straight cuts.  long take is used to focus on the news they are reporting.

Once again Ray interrupts the shot by turning off the TV which shows a lack of interest from the characters, this is a usual plot point in the beginning of the story for many sci-fi films to help create the tension during a giant panic  scene by humanity because they weren't prepared. The shots are pretty much the same as the last shot of the other reporter. This reporter is wearing a coat to convey to the audience that the matter is becoming even more serious with the storm. The reports explains in a serious tone how the storm works and the impact that will be caused from it.

9 minutes into the film there is a mini conflict between Ray and Robbie, this is also another usual part of a generic storyline before a big event because then as the story progresses they rely on each other the most. The shot is a long shot from the inside of the house looking out at Ray. The cracked window could represent the broken relationship between Ray and Robbie.

10 minutes into the film Rachael is flipping through the channels but more and more reporters are talking about the storm on most of the TV channels. The shot is an over the shoulder medium long shot of Rachael watching TV. This shows that the reports are grabbing the attention of other characters to connote the increase alert of the matter.

12 minutes into the film we see the first sign of this storm where everyone is standing out in the open taking pictures of it; this shows ignorance from the crowd taking pictures instead of trying to avoid the storm by finding shelter in this situation. The low angle extreme long shot of the main character and some other characters watching the storm get closer. this show how big the storm is which isn't really mentioned in the news reports but the damage it is causing. The sound in the part of the scene is the ground rumbling noise the storm is create with the sound of forceful winds.

15 minutes into the film as the storm starts to become dangerous Ray and Rachael hide in the house under the table in a panic the moment the story picks up. The shot is a mid shot of Ray and Rachael hiding under the table. The sounds is of an earthquake while lighting strikes down around the neighborhood to connote how powerful the storm is.

My Film Idea ( 666)

The idea that i have come up with about the haunted doll is from different horror films, for example the conjuring and Annabelle have given me the idea about the doll, i think that doll should also been seen as a characters as well the girl who is and the dad who are in the film.
the characters that are involved: Lucy the girl who comes in contact with the doll. Patrick the father who doesn't believe his daughter about her supernatural theories. only believes it until its too late. The beginning of the film would start off with the little girls bedroom (establishing shot.) the lighting used would be a low key lighting to create a suspense feeling. A sudden noise would come from the corner of the room that would awake Lucy, making her questioning if she is alone in her room.As nights go on she starts wondering if she should confide in her dad about whats been happening and how she feels about it. Due to the fact that she is not close to her dad, this makes her question if talking to her dad is the right thing to do. One night, the room felt completely cold and the noises in the corner started getting louder, so Lucy finally build up the courage to get out of her bed without making no noise. She slowly gets down to look under her bed when a sharp noise carried on drawing her near to the left corner. she makes her way to the dark corner of her room. what appeared in front of Lucy was not something ordinary. There seem to be a little doll that she had never seen before in her life, the doll did not look like any ordinary children's doll; as soon as Lucy set eyes on this doll she knew that something supernatural going " where did you come from? is this a joke" she said to herself in a choked up voice. as she went to hold the doll to throw her out of the window, she somehow cut her thumb and she was determined that it was the dolls doing. Lucy threw the doll out of her window and shut her window hoping that she would never see it ever again. The next morning when Lucy got up, she almost feels perfect, she looks over to the left hand side of her to find a picture of her mum and her when she was a little kid. " mum i miss you so much, i still think about you every morning" she cried with tears steaming down her face. Lucy's mum died when she was 4 due to cancer, both Lucy and her father have not got over this tragedy yet. A Lucy went downstairs in a rather calm mood. as she was about to sit at the dinning table her dad Patrick pulled out the doll that she had thrown outside "look what i found Lucy, its your mum's old doll, she got it given to her when she was 6 years old and i have just found it behind the couch" Lucy shouted in fear, telling her dad about the "theories" she had about the doll. Lucy's dad refused to throw the doll away. Weeks went by Lucy started getting bruises when she woke up, she showed her dad however her father still choose to believe that the doll was just innocent, and that it was just Lucy acting out for attention. Lucy started getting really bad nightmares that she sometimes did not wake up from until a few days. Her dad finally believed that there was something going on, however he was too late. As one morning he went to wake up his precious daughter,to find her in a deep sleep that went on for days/weeks/months.

This is the doll that is in the conjuring and my idea is to create a doll that looks like the doll Anabelle. when i watched this film i felt on edge and scared every time the doll came on and that is one of the reasons why i think it is a good idea to do our film based around the doll.

when the conjuring came out the whole advertising for example posters and trailers got me hooked and determined to watch it because it just looked brilliant.

And that is something i want to create that with our film, i want people to read about our film and get intrigued  and interested to watch it just like i did with the conjuring.

i know that it is very difficult to make our film as good as the conjuring simply due to the fact that the film got really fantastic reviews from both user viewer and critic, the filmed grossed over 300 million all over the world. The film budget that they had was 20 million and our budget is very small so we do not have the resources that this film production has. 

The director (James wan) of the conjuring has also had good experience with directing other horror films, he was widely known for directing the horror film saw  and insidious which both had great reviews  

The Inspiration of My Idea

The inspiration of my idea is from a short film that was entered into a contest to make a Spielberg style short film, this short came in 3rd place but a key part of the scene helped me think of my idea based around this specific image.

 

When the alien appears behind the window and you just see its silhouette I thought it looks really cool when its mixed with the bright lights in the background.

 

My Story (Final Draft)

Adam and Karen are asleep in bed, we see the alarm clock; it's 2:53am. We then see a photo frame of Adam and Karen at area 51. Everything is quiet and peaceful until we hear a strange noise, the noise gets louder as the room begins to shake but Adam and Karen are still sound asleep, the room keeps shaking until the alarm falls off the drawer and hits the floor.

The loud bang from the alarm clock shattering suddenly wakes Adam up and he instantly sits up to observe the room making sure no one else is there. This wakes Karen up too but Adam tells her to go back to sleep while Adam turns on the dimly lit lamp and gets up out of bed. Adam tells Karen that he's just going to check to make sure nothings going on outside and Adam proceeds to leave the room. When Adam gets to the front room he walks over to the window to see what's happening outside.

He sees nothing but darkness until a blinding light suddenly emerges from the darkness and the sound from before returns. Adam shades his eyes with his hand until he sees a weirdly shaped silhouette standing outside the window. The silhouette is making this strange clicking sound as it moves near the window.

Distracted/Entranced Adam moves closer to the window, the silhouette notices Adam inside the house and turns its head towards the window and moves closer as well. Adam reaches out to the window, so does the silhouette until it stops and looks past Adam like something else is there Adam takes this chance to move right up to the window and as he almost sees what it is he hears the sudden bang.

Adam quickly turns round and shouts Karen's, she doesn't reply. Adam runs back to the room to see that Karen is gone and the room is distorted, everything has been knocked over, the photo frame has been cracked. Adam turns round and sees that the front door is wide open, he runs towards the front door while the bright light at the window disappears.
Adam runs outside hoping to find Karen there but she's gone, no where to be seen. He shouts out her name a final time and the screen fades to black.

[Extra scene if we have time] News reporter talking about mysterious crop circles on the farming areas near by and the disappearance of people overnight. Then stops reporting to update the audience on the story by showing a video clip that was taken on one of the missing person's phone minutes before their disappearance. The video shows a mysterious animal in the bushes before it quickly lunges out and attacks the man. The report it shocked and unable to speak.

My Media Project Story Idea (Draft 1)

Genre:

For my idea I have chosen a Sci-fi genre with a sub-genre of alien elements.

My Storyline:
A couple are asleep until they hear a loud strange noise. The man while he's still half asleep gets up and turns on the dimly lit lamp then walks over to the window to see what's happening outside.

He sees nothing but darkness until a blinding light suddenly emerges from the darkness. The man shades his eyes with his hand until he sees a weirdly shaped silhouette standing outside the window.

Distracted/Entranced he moves closer to the window, so does the silhouette and as he almost sees what it is he hears the sudden bang. The man quickly turns round to see that the woman has just left the room, as the man chases her to see where she's going the bright light at the window disappears.

The man runs outside to find the woman but she's nowhere to be seen, he cries out her name and the screen fades to black.
[Extra scene if we have time] News reporter talking about mysterious crop circles on the farming areas near by and the disappearance of people overnight.

Settings:
- House
- Street
- News Room Studio (if it counts)

The genre of our film is sci-fi horror, we want to create suspense and excitement to keep the audience on edge. Excitement is our main element to grab audience's attention.

The genre of horror has ancient origins with roots in folklore and religious traditions, focusing on death, the afterlife, evil, the demonic and the principle of the thing embodied in the person.These were manifested in stories of witches, vampires, werewolves, mummies, and ghosts and now we want to portray a horror film based on aliens on our planet.

Examples of Science Fiction film:

The Matrix - The fight for the future begins when a computer hacker learns the world exists in an alternate reality and he is chosen as “The One” who can save mankind in the war against the computer agents who control it.

2001: A Space Odyssey - An artifact is discovered on the moon and humans set out on a quest, with the help of a sophisticated computer system named HAL. 

Star Wars: Episode VI- Return of the Jedi - Rebels rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt and go on to battle the Empire, while Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker, attempts to bring his father away from the Dark Side.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 
http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/science-fiction#