Final Story Ideas

Audience Feedback 

In my chosen work group (Me, Isaac and Josh), each of us presented what we considered to be our best opening idea to the class with the intention of gaining some audience feedback. When we did this we went though the general idea and direction of the overall plot, followed by a rough overview of what our opening would look like. The idea that i chose to present was Idea 1 on the above presentation. After explaining, the audience took a vote on what they considered to be the best idea for our group's film opening. Isaacs idea was voted in first place, with my story coming in 2nd. When i asked the audience for ways that i could improve my idea, the general consensus was that the idea would be too complex to film to a good standard, and Isaac's was chose on the basis that it was a much simpler approach. From here we discussed the best thing to do as a group, taking this feedback into consideration. Finally, we decided that Isaac's idea would not be practical for us to use, as firstly, thinking ahead, we felt that we may struggle to find an appropriate location and collection of actors. Not only this, but we felt that we wanted to challenge ourselves more, and incorporate more of the codes and conventions of the horror genre that we had previously studied, and this idea didn't allow us to do this. We then decided that the best approach would be to take my initial idea (the one that was voted in 2nd place) and then alter it slightly, taking the audiences opinions into consideration. From here we developed, Idea 2 on the above presentation. We felt that using this idea as a base to film and work around would be entirely appropriate and that it was a better basis to get more involved in the film and generate new ideas, making for an overall better opening.

Audience Research

Conventions of Horror/ What They Mean for my Opening

Potential Story Opening Plan

Story Opening

The opening shot will be used to establish the setting as well as the protagonist. The main character (mental patient - 40 year old man) will be sat on a seat in a busy corridor in the mental hospital. The shot will be time lapsed whilst the man is sat dormant, and will show the busy atmosphere of the hospital - with patients (old, with walking frames and drips, looking slightly deranged) and nurses/guards (wearing green uniform/protective clothing) or rushing round around him . There will be a dingy, dark yellow filter over the whole shot which will create a negative tone - following conventions of the horror genre.

History of Film and Horror Homework

History of Film and Horror from KieranPanchal

Story Idea 2

Crisis:

Suppose a patient in a mental hospital is getting abused by a possessed patient that only he can see. It's trying to take over him, which means he cannot get better. 

Story Goal:

The goal of the story is to figure out what it is thats controlling the man and for the workers to convince the man that it is all psychological. The main character wants to gain peace and stop him being possessed Overall, he just wants to be 'normal'. If the goal is not reached then the patient will end up being killed by the people who cannot deem him safe anymore. The main character can relate to the audience as we can see that he cannot help what he does and that he wouldn't be in this state if he wasn't in the hospital to begin with. 

Story Idea:

The film is to be set in the a mental hospital and feature the life of the people who live within. It is based around the main character in the film, who is possessed by a devil and cannot control what he is doing. However, as he is in the hospital, the workers and fellow patients simply think this is just his mental state. 

Audience Feedback:

When presenting to the class, we received feedback from the audience about altering the goal of the story and what will happen should the man not succeed in removing the devil. The feedback included using some background information and introducing why the man is in the hospital, making him more relatable to the audience. Also, it includes changing the plot as to what happens if he does not succeed, from him being killed to over taken by the devil. It could also include multiple possessions among the patients in the hospital. 

Horror Film Titles/Ideas

Existing Titles

Nightmare on Elm Street
Alien
The Exorcist
The Blair Witch Project
The Cabin in the Woods
Night of the Living Dead
Halloween
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Silence of the Lambs
The Evil Dead
Psycho
Insidious
The Conjuring
Paranormal Activity
Screen
Sinister
Annabelle
Creep
SAW
The Ring
The Woman in Black
The Devil Inside
Mama
I Spit on Your Grave

Title Ideas

Axe
Incubus
Shank
Silence
Entity
Ebola
Dead End
Stranded
Paranoia
Arithmophobia
Lucid
Krokodil

Possible Story Idea

Story Idea

Suppose that there are a disappearance of people taking place in a village, resulting in a mass murder. Throughout the story, the inhabitants of the town are working together with the local detective in order to find the killer. It turns out that the murderer was the detective, who has been using his power, knowledge and authority to cover up the crimes that he has committed, making it seem to the villagers that he's innocent. Eventually, they discover that he's the murderer and they seek revenge on him.

Crisis

The main crisis of the film is that the murderer must be found before more people are killed in the village, so the people are working together to find who it is as they realise that they are all at risk of being a victim.

Story Goal

The ultimate goal of the story is for the protagonist to realise that it's the detective that has committed the crime, and for him to seek revenge on him for the lives that he has ruined.

The Protagonist

The lead character of the film is the younger sister of one of the victims. She is around 25 and is very vulnerable as she is of a similar age as the majority of the other victims - making it more important for her to achieve the goal so that she is safe.

Genre ideas

Horror




Evil dead is an ideal example of the type of horror film that i would like to create. Here we can see the opening scene. I like the way that this is a flashback, and it is set in the past (although we cannot tell yet). I would possibly like to follow a similar structure to this, as this way I can create an intense scene without it being overly significant to the plot but providing the necessary background information.

Crime Fiction




A good example of a Crime Fiction film is The Business, starring Danny Dyer. I feel that this would be an appropriate choice of film genre for me because it can be a good way of showing culture and social class in a film, which interests me greatly as a viewer. I also like the way that this opening scene starts with action straight away, as it hooks the viewer in to the story immediately.

Action

The final genre that i would consider creating a film of would be action. I have a huge interest in action films and I love the way that suspense and excitement is created in a one,  however I feel that producing an effective one requires a huge amount of film making experience as well as a large budget - which are things that i do not yet have. Creating a film like this on a small budget is still possible however if thought about and planned well enough, but i feel that other genres would be suited better to this project.

Dead Cat Film Title Sequence