The Layout of all scripts are the same. descriptions are aligned left and are written with space between lines stating an action or description or dialogue. Any dialogue is aligned in the centre, separating it from the rest. The font is also very simplistic and spaced out to make it clear enough to be read quickly.
Any location, time or character names are written in capitals to make it more noticeable.
If a description or dialogue has not finished it is continued onto the next page; writing "(CONTINUED)" at the bottom of the page.
Conventions
The names of the characters who have newly entered the scene are in capitals after that there's no need.
Location is expanded on using "INT." for indoor shooting or "EXT." for outdoor filming, followed by the specific location; E.g. "HUTTER'S HOUSE" in Shadow of the Vampire then ending with whether it is "DAY" or "NIGHT" to specify the time of day. E.g. "INT. ANTHONY'S HOUSE - NIGHT"
Any camera movements or transitions are stated in capitals; E.g. "FADE IN:" in Interview with the Vampire.
Directions for the actors are always written in present tense, this tells the actor what they should be doing or feeling in that scene. E.g. "Reed laughs self consciously as he turns the shower off." in Sucker: The Vampire.
Dialogue is the most important part of the script, the dialogue is typed in the centre of the page with spacing before and after to make it clear.
A group of friends are sponsored to do a camping event. Once
there, one by one they start to disappear, leaving Angel behind alone with the
ghostly figure lurking in the distance.
Synopsis: A group of young adults go camping in a jungle park just outside
the city. During their 4 nights there, they start to disappear one by one
during the first 2 nights.
This starts when Angel and Lori play fight and Angel accidently
hits Lori in the face causing her nose to bleed. Angry, Lori goes away from the
camp site to clean up but does not return.
The rest of the
group go to find her leaving Caroline and Jamie behind to take care of
everyone's belongings. While looking for Lori, Angel spots a dark shadowy
figure in the distance; she looks away when Connor calls her to tell her they
found the Lori's water bottle and tissue roll covered in blood on the floor. When Angel
comes to look back the distorted figure, it had disappeared.
Returning to the camp site, worried, Caroline tells the group that
Jamie went to find a spot that has signal. After an hour, he does not return.
Convincing themselves that this is a joke, the group continue with what they were
doing.
Realising that it’s been 4 hours since the disappearance of both
Jamie and Lori, the group becomes scared and paranoid and start to accuse each other
of being psychopaths. All hope for return to the city is also impossible as
there is no signal to call the coach or anyone else to pick them up.
Meanwhile, Angels continues seeing the ghostly figure between the
trees but doesn't mention anything to the group, in case they accuse her of
being the ‘mysterious killer’.
However, as time goes on, they disappear one by one until Angel is
the only one left. She zips herself into her tent, when she’s comes to pop head
out to have a look around, her head hits a hard object, she looks up and see’s
what appears to be a vampire looking back at her.
The
stereotype entails that woman are spineless and more delicate than men, so when
presented in horror movies they are put in the role of the emotionally and
physically weaker character who surrender to the darker force, also known as
the victims. Horror movies have become famous for representing woman as damsels
in distress who are eventually murdered as a punishment for their mistakes
witnessed by the audience within the beginning of the film. This relates
to how the media, in general, interprets females as sex objects; showing them
wearing revealing clothes and being completely incompetent. The same level of
respect for women is shown in horror movies.
The
age of female characters in horror movies are always likely to be within a
close range. We either normally see young females who are good looking and of
the white race. An example of these is of ‘Sorority Row’ where the entire main cast
are beautiful young adults or we see preteens, whereas we see male characters
of different ages, different state of minds and physical strengths; for example:
Ryan Reynolds in ‘The Amityville Horror’ and Patrick Wilson in ‘Insidious’.
However,
in more recent horror films, there tends to be that one final girl who manages
to ‘take down’ the killer/antagonist. But it appears as though this one girl needs
at least a small amount of masculinity such as a unisex name, masculine
clothing or even may be less attractive than the other female characters. A
character example of this is Wendy Christensen from ‘Final Destination 3’.
Wendy tries to save everyone from their death and even though the film ends
with a cliff hanger, she is one of the people who survive.
On
the other hand, some horrors present the antagonist to be a female. This is due
to the development in feminism; woman can be portrayed as strong and powerful
characters. Jennifer in ‘Jennifer’s Body’ breaks the convention completely as
she is a young, pretty and popular girl who is possessed and strong enough to
kill her male classmates. The typical storyline of a horror movie is that the
killer goes after the victim, however in Jennifer’s Body; Jennifer uses her
looks to manipulate the male’s sexual neediness and then feeds on them.
Although,
when a female is used as the villain, it seems as if the female has to be a
supernatural being or has to be possessed to be able to put aside emotions and
gain physical power to kill; suggesting that a ‘normal’ female being cannot
commit such deeds. For example: Little
Regan from ‘The Exorcist’, Samara from ‘The Ring' or again Jennifer from ‘Jennifer’s
body’.
Comparing horror movies from 1970’s to horror
movies created in 2000+, the idea that females can also be the heroes who try
to figure out what to do to stop or physically do stop the killer or they can
be the villain is completely valid, yet not widely used as males are still
thought to have natural masculine characteristics.
Mise en scene + Camera + Editing
After the last titling at the beginning of the opening, all writing is wiped, leaving a blank black screen. The screen fades to reveal a cloudy sky. As the camera pans down to ground level, the brightness slightly increases. When the camera reaches ground level, a white mansion, a tree and a young girl is facing and knocking on the tree trunk singing something in Spanish and then turning around to look the opposite way, can be seen.The idea that young girl is the first person seen in the movie makes her important to narrative. The camera is placed under the shadow of the tree, making everything that is placed under it darker than the rest of the shot, meaning the girls face, features or the colour of her clothes can hardly be seen. However, in the background of the same shot, the white mansion is clear and exposed using high key lighting; natural lighting coming from the sun, also making it an important part to the narrative.
After a few lines of the girl singing, other young children start to enter the shot, walking towards the girl. The girl by the tree continues singing and knocking on the tree which makes it clear to the audience that the children are playing a game. As the other children get closer, the camera cuts to a medium close up of the girl and an arm of another child reaching out for her. This could be foreshadowing an event that may happen later on in the film. When they reach the tree, the girl who was originally standing by the tree starts to run after then.The camera follows them running round and making faces at the girl cutting between long shots, medium long shots and medium close ups and tracking from behind various other trees, creating a sense of being followed. Before cutting to what seems to be inside of the mansion, the camera tracks from behind the trees to show a medium close up of a scare crow with an enigmatic facial expression.
Sound
While panning from the sky downwards, the young girls voice is heard saying "Un, dos, Tres, Toca la pared" which translates to "One, Two, Three, Knock on the wall!" As the genre is Horror, the audience can associate this with physical conventions of a scary scene. For example, random knocking on doors/walls, smashing together of objects or glass breaking.
As the scene is set outside chirping and singing of birds can also be heard creating a naturalistic setting.
The faded footsteps of the other children are heard as soon as the enter the shot.
When the camera cuts to a medium close up of the girl, her voice becomes slightly louder. This makes the audience feel as though they are the camera. After the girl starts to run after them, the children start to laugh and squeal, indicating that they are happy and having fun.
The sound of the telephone ringing from the next scene is overlapped into the previous which is the shot of the scare crow.
28 Days Later
Mise en scene + Editing + Camera
The opening of 28 days later shows different clips which are associated with the theme; zombies and narrative of the film. It starts of with titling saying 'Fox searchlight pictures presents' then cuts the back of the head of a monkey with wires attached to its head surrounded by TV boxes each showing different CCTV footage of areas around London. The camera then pans from the side of the tied down monkey to a TV showing footage of several man with blacks masks covering the security cameras at "Cam 3 - - - Cambridge Primate Research Centre" when the screen goes blank. This was to give the audience an insight of the causation to the zombie apocalypse narrative. The movie title '28 days later' appears in the middle of the black background in white and within it red fluid is released. This connotes the theme of evil, murder and blood that appear in the movie. The title than fades with a burning effect expressing the idea of destruction and massacre. From the black screen it cuts to fast cuts of several scene of riots and anarchy and the police who are wearing British police uniforms to add to the fact that the film is set in England. The camera then cuts to and stops on a long shot of a man wearing a blue cliche hospital patient uniform, holding a white plastic bag, walking over a bridge towards the camera. It is obvious to the audience that the scene is part of the film as the background and the actions of the man are different to the scenes of riot. This scene and the next are separated by a black screen and titling saying 'Produced by Andrew MacDonald'. This is meaningful as the producer is important to the creation there put in between scenes that need to be most payed attention to.
The opening continues to show scenes where the man, who now clearly is the main character, walking passed the empty streets and areas in central London.
Sound
All though out the opening title sequence the song 'East Hastings' by GYBE is played.
However, during the scenes shown on TV, the sounds of screams, crashing, radio and distortions play over the music and when the montage ends, the music becomes even louder.
How do they establish genre, narrative, character, ideology
through technical and symbolic codes?
8 Mile.
Genre-Technical & Symbolic
The facial expressions show seriousness, anger or sadness - giving an idea of the Drama genre.
The rap music throughout the opening sequence - giving an idea of the Music genre.
The hip-hop hand gestures and the imitation of holding a microphone to the mouth show that the film is within the Music genre.
The low key lighting of the set a serious mood to show a dark side emphasising the Drama genre.
Narrative-Technical & Symbolic
The setting of the scene is a unclean and vandalised and the character has no reactions towards it therefore it tells the audience the type of lifestyle the character has. Also relating to the Drama genre.
The fact that the main character has locked himself into an entire restroom could mean that the character keeps any feelings or emotions to himself and locks out the world during the movie.
The cross-cutting used in the opening shows nearly all the actors action, the idea that he is doing some many things/movements at one time, gives the audience an idea of the multiple things the character has to go through or experience within the narrative.
Character-Technical & Symbolic
The character and his reflection can be seen with the shot, meaning that there is another side of life/personality as opposed to his potential rap/music life.
The character is wearing a hoodie, beanie hat, tracksuit bottoms and trainers, making him appear like a stereotypical thug.
Eminem being used as the main character is a powerful iconic representation as it emphasises the goals and dreams of the character in relation to Eminem.
Ideology-Technical & Symbolic
Eminem being used as the main character is such a powerful iconic representation of someone who goes through a lot in life but doesn't give up what the really want to do because of anything.
-British-American -Film Director -Producer -Screen writer Movies include:The Dark Knight Trilogy
Inception
Insomnia
The Prestige Style: Psychological, With non-linear narratives and Neo-noir. Tactics: Uses multi-camera for stunt and single-camera for
dramatic scenes. Uses rapid cutting. He likes to hide truth
behind scenes,e.g. Makeup, costumes.
Chris Weitz
-Film Director -Producer -Screen writer -Actor Films: Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Golden Compass
American Pie
About a Boy Style: ?
George A Romero -Film Director -Editor -Screen Writer -'Godfather of Zombies' Movies: Dawn Of The Dead
Land Of The Dead
The Crazies
Night Of The Living Dead Style: Horror, Zombie, Gruesome, Dark
