Here is research I have made and analysed for the purpose of helping me create the best introduction to my own

Teen Horror to the best of my ability. SCREAM

INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION The film was written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film was developed in the year of 1996 and was finally released on the 2nd May 1997 in the UK. The production companies are Dimension Films and Woods Entertainment. The film was made in California, and scenes such as the Woodsboro town square, where the students sit at the water fountain (a significant scene), is represented by the Healdsburg town square and Santa Rosa High School is used as the student's school in the film. Overall the film made a huge success. The film had a $15,000,000 budget; this was used to afford characters, props, staging drama and special effects. On the opening weekend of the film, it made $6,354,586 (USA, 22nd December 1996, with 1413screens) and finally produced a profit of $161,600,000 worldwide. TARGET AUDIENCE Screams age rating is a 15, therefore it is suitable to those aged 15+. I think this film is best targeted at 1525 year olds; this is because of the characters ages being similar of teens at school. It also can be seen as a comical horror therefore takes the scare away so people may not find it too frightening to watch, which explains why the age rating is as low as 15. Even though 15 is a relatively young age, it is still necessary to have an age range for this film as I think younger children would find the mask scary and the gruesome scenes of someone being murdered, therefore indicating the correct age rating. Like Scream our film is targeted at mid-teens to late twenties due to using characters of similar age which our audience would be able to relate to. CODES AND CONVENTIONS Scream is a psychological horror due to the main character with the mask is a serial killer. It uses conventions such as the final girl as well as the innocent blonde high school cheerleader who is perceived as less intelligent as a victim. In addition, is shows other common conventions of horror such as going outside when there is a knock on the door and no one is there to be seen as well as using a shower scene. Scream is a well-known horror for its use of its conventions. All these things help to recognise the genre as a horror. Like Scream we have chosen our film to be a psychological horror in which we are highlighting someone being possessed and having a motive to murder young people. Similarly in our film we aim to use a convention of horror by showing a death at the beginning of the film, we feel this really draws in the audience. MISE-EN-SCENE Mise en scene is everything in the shot. Screams use of costume is the films recognition as well as part of the main story in which the main character has a scream mask on whom is a serial killer. This therefore makes it scary due not being able to see the characters true face which increases tension and adrenaline of trying to work out who the killer is. The costume is all black with a white abnormal

mask this represents lifelessness. The costumes of the victims are normal typical teenager clothing, which helps to represent them as normal for the audience to relate to. Scream also uses real life settings such as someones home and the local school which the characters attend. We want to use the idea of using common and well-known settings such as a home to create a situation our audience would be able to relate to, this would hopefully create more fear with our audience. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION This film is written and directed by the same person, Oren Peli. It was developed in the year of 2007 and realised on the 25th November 2009in the UK. The production company is Blumhouse Productions. The film is set in San Diego, California where it was also filmed. It was filmed in Oren Peli's house - it was his own home that gave him the idea for Paranormal Activity. The film had a low budget to create the film due to the Oren Peli and his team starting with their own ideas and not being involved with large production companies such as Working Title for example, so there budget was $15,000. But even with a low budget the opening weekend created $77,873 (USA, 27 September 2009 with 12screens) and finally produced a profit of $193,355,800 worldwide. TARGET AUDIENCE The film is rated a 15, therefore it is suitable for those who are 15+. However I think this film is best targeted at 18-30 year olds. This is because of the storyline being quite intense and hard to understand as well as it being quite scary which could be too frightening for a 15 year old. Due to the film being recorded by self-hand recorders within someones home, this adds a higher fear factor with high levels of tension and realism. Like Paranormal activity our film is targeted at mid-teens and up. Being such a successful film, this indicates that it was targeted at the right audience, which is why we aim to do the same. CODES AND CONVENTIONS Paranormal activity is a psychological crossed with demonic horror due to spirits/demons playing tricks on the family and resulting into possession. Paranormal uses music to define when something scary is about to happen which makes the audience tense and then finally jump. During paranormal activity you find out why they are being haunted therefore a storyline for the audience to follow. As well sue to there being more than one paranormal, it also explains a storyline. Paranormal activity shows the convention of someone going Outside to investigate and answering the door. Like paranormal activity our film is about possession therefore this film helps into how we should show and represent the possession. We are not using the same conventions as paranormal due to the scene of our horror being set in a park. However we were discussing whether or not the main character hears a noise from the woods and decides to Investigate therefore paranormal activity helps us to show how they showed it. MISE-EN-SCENE

Mise en scene is everything in the shot. Paranormal activity uses very sharp and quick movement of the camera due to being self-hold cameras. This helps to make the film to seem for real and if it was actually happening because if someone was filming it themselves without any camera skills, shots wouldnt be very accurate. It makes the audience more involved with the film therefore would find it more frightening as you would be able to sense the characters feelings and relate to the situation. Within our film we want to involve the audience as much as possible therefore learning from paranormal activity we aim to first person perspective. Paranormal activity has been our main source of inspiration as we also aim to use someones home as our main location to hopefully create more fear for the audience as they would be able to image the events happening within their own home. FINAL DESTINATION This film was written by Jeffrey Reddick and directed by James Wong. Final destination was released on the19th May 2000 in the UK. The screenplay was by Glen Morgan, Wong and Jeffrey Reddick, based on a story by Reddick. The film was based on a spec script intended for The X-files, written by Reddick. X-Files writing partners Wong and Morgan were interested and agreed to re-write and direct a feature film of it, marking Wong's film directing debut. Filming took place in Alabama and Vancouver. Final Destination was released on March 17th, 2000 and was a financial success, making $10 milling on its opening weekend. TARGET AUDIENCE Final destination has an age rating of 15; therefore 15+ would be there target audience. Final destination also has characters around the age of the target audience, which would further attract their target audience of teenagers. However I feel Final Destination would be better suited targeted at an audience of 18+ due to the events the characters are situated in, for example being on a plane with a group of friends. Someone of 15 years old may find this hard to relate to as it is unlikely they would be in a situation like this at a young age. Therefore for our film, we aim to create situations that are easy for our target audience to relate to. SAW

INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION This film was written by Leigh Whannell and James Wan whom it was also directed by. Saw was released on the 1st October 2004 in the UK. It was filmed at Lacy Street Production Centre in Los Angeles, California in the USA and by the production company Evolution Entertainment. They had a budget of $1,200,000 and made 1,239,813 on their opening weekend in the UK with 301 screens. They made a financial success of $102,898,683 worldwide. TARGET AUDIENCE Saw's age rating is an 18 therefore it is targeted and is suitable to those aged 18+. However I think this film is best targeted at 17 - 35 year olds, this is because of the characters ages being similar as well as a gruesome story of people having to play a game for their life. I dont think it is targeted at

younger people due to having some quite scary and graphic scenes involving violence and gore which would be inappropriate for young children or early teens. The film involves people having to play games in order to survive, saw has many other movies in which follow the same syllabus therefore showing it has been successful in order to making more. It also shows that people are only playing the games if they have done something wrong or involves them hurting or damaging themselves in anyway therefore sends a message to appreciate everything you have and not to abuse it. Saw is targeted at a higher age than our film, however we still want this age category to watch our film in addition to the younger teens. I think saw using the idea of a game is a good idea to add tension to the audience of whether the person will survive. We aim for our film to have high levels of tension therefore saw helps us to see how they had portrayed it. CODES AND CONVENTIONS Saw is a psychological horror due to tricks being played in order to let the people fight for their life. It explains why the person is in the situation and what will happen to them if they do not complete the task. This therefore tells the audience what may happen which will increase their adrenaline to finding out if the person survives. It uses things such as the final girl in which survives as she beats the game, this girl then goes on to the other episodes of Saw. Like Saw, we have chosen our film to be a psychological horror in which we are highlighting someone being possessed and playing with minds. MISE-EN-SCENE Mise en scene is everything in the shot and in terms of horror what makes in scary. Saw's lighting is very dark especially in the rooms in which the people a playing the game, this helps to build scariness and fear. Like the ring it also uses a green lens to add the tension that something is wrong and abnormal. Saw also uses everyday life before the victim gets captured in which the lighting is much lighter and more normal. Saw also uses a puppet and like Scream is a well known prop. It adds scariness from the unusual face and the way it is talking to the victims. This photo shows the dark usage of colour as well as the green lens. It explains abnormality as these are not usual colours you would expect to see. We plan to use the idea of a different colour to create fear when we use a point of view shot from our unknown being. CABIN FEVER Director- The director of this film was Eli Roth, of which he helped write the storyline too. Eli shooting Super 8 films at a very young age of only eight years old, he decided after watching Ridley Scott's film that he wanted to be a producer/director. Release Year- 10 October 2003 (UK) Production Company- Black Sky Entertainment, Deer Path Films, Down Home Entertainment Tonic Films and Cabin Pictures. Where the company made the film - North Carolina - cabin fever was filmed over a period of 24 days in October 2001 at Camp Raven, a Boy Scout camp in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. Box office return/ success- surprisingly this film had a rather large budget able to spend on anything in the film from, characters, props, to stage drama like special effects, the budget was roughly estimated at $1,500,000, however it created 352,962 (Italy) (7 September 2003) (109 Screens) and made an overall gross profit of $30,553,394 (Worldwide). This films contains a lot of swearing even within the first couple of minutes of the film starting, it also contains sexual references, of which would be too explicit for anyone under the age of 15 and parents would definitely not want their child to be watching this film due to these two matters in the film. The main characters in this film are a group of teenagers who are going on a short break, therefore teenagers and university students could relate to this, going on their first holiday which

would be cheap, rather than going abroad because they either have little money or are in debt with study feeds. Its also doubtful that people over the age of 40 would want to watch this film, due to the explicit language, this generation of people would not agree with the language, as they were not brought up with a society that understood swearing.

COMPARING THE FILMS The Final Girl is represented in many horror films, to make the audience feel that this character is now hopeless and alone with all their friends/ family killed, however they are also seen as brave for being the last character standing throughout all the drama. In Paranormal activity, the woman Kate is the one who doesnt want to encourage anything into the house making her seems very innocent and harmless, when actually the twist in the detail is that she is possessed by the demon. Again in Scream 2, Gale Riley appeared to be the final girl, she was going to be killed however Gale fled for her life, and escaped the killer, then mysteriously disappeared. The setting of the film is a major part of horror; typical scary atmospheres like graveyards, woods are still used today, however by using a setting of a house, this can become even scarier, as the audience will enter their house every day, the same type of setting someone in the film could have been killed in. Paranormal activity and Scream opening setting is at a house, whereas Scream 2, is in a cinema, of which the audience could be watching this movie at the cinema, making them feel even more tense, as this could be happening around them. Cabin Fever and Final Destination on the other hand, is in a holiday cabin and an airport, therefore you wouldnt visit these settings very often, but when you did these films would become very distinctive, it could even change some peoples attitude towards flying! Many of the films created an aspect of Mise en scene (Paranormal Activity and Scream) they both implied by using the same object, a knife. In both of these films, the character takes out an extremely large knife (for no apparent reason) this knife could signify stabbing (especially in scream) as the killers main weapon is a knife. Scream and Scream 2are very similar for both using a knife as the main weapon to kill, it shows that whenever someone is wearing the mask they are likely to be carrying a knife. Even in Scream 2, when the characters go to see Stab the movie many people are dressed up in the killers outfit, with foam play knives making it a lot easier for the real killer to make his movie, being camouflaged within everyone.