Lost Soul - Script

Lost Soul script

[First two shots of two institutions]

[Mid shot of Ana explaining the story of the haunted grounds]

Ana: Theres a rumour going round that the grounds to Alcott Manor is haunted by a girl. She was supposedley dared to stay a night there. She was with a group of friends that were supposed to stay too, but  they left her during the night leaving her to stay there alone. She never returned home. Some say that they have seen her walking the ground, but you can't believe everything you hear..

[Panning shot until shot 5] [end of dialogue] 

Hannah F: I dare us all to stay one night.

[Silence]

Hannah E: Let's do it.

-they set up the tent whilst talking amoungst themselves-

[They are asleep in the tent]

-they see a dark figure-

[They all scream] - They all run away in different directions.

[Montage of clips] - There is screaming mixed with deep breathing.

[Final Shot]
Hannah holds up torch to her face and shouts "boo!"

Hannah: BOO!

Edited Revised Voice over script

To break our trailer up, we will edit a character's voiceover as another layer over shots of Alcott Manor (Polesden Lacey). By doing this, it shows our knowledge of using Adobe Premiere Elements and adds another filming style to our trailer.
We have tried several different ways of filming this, such as in a conversational tone, but we feel that it would be better simply as a descriptive voiceover, informing both the characters and the viewers.
The main things we need to include in this voiceover are the rumour, the location and what supposedly happened. We have taken inspiration from the thriller film The Woman in Black (2012), in which a young, female voice recites a poem throughout the entire trailer. We aim to do a similar thing, except the voiceover will be said over the shots of the fictional Alcott Manor and will not last the entire duration of our teaser trailer. The script will be in an informative style instead of in a poetic form.

Before the image swtiches to Polesden Lacey, the actor (Ana) asks the thee friends (Hannah, Charlotte and Hannah) "have you heard the rumour about Alcott Manor?" To which they reply they haven't.

The voiceover: Rumour has it, the young girl died in a bathtub, her wrists sliced until she bled out. No one was around for miles and she was found three days later, her skin stained red, neck deep in blood. Now, her soul is vengeful and she haunts the grounds. Every few years, a young girl dies in the exact bathtub left outside.

Following the clip and voiceover, it will cut back to the character played by Ana and she will simply say "I dare you to stay there". 

Props - Research and Planning

 In our trailer we will most likely have small props that are stereotypically found in horror films. The main prop that we will be using is the tent that the characters stay in at the beginning of the teaser railer. It can act as the 'safe' point for the characters and become a meeting place whilst the girls are being hunted and haunted by the ghost. The characters will also have sleeping bags, but these will be irrelevant to the story, they are simply being used to create convincing mise-en-scene.

Other props will be much smaller and more compact, making them easy to carry. These objects will be sweets, phones, water etc. and they will be held in a bag owned by the characters. These will be referred tp by the characters within although they will hold no purpose to the story.
 

The phone, probably a popular iPhone or Blackberry, could be used by the characters to call for help, only to find out there's no signal, rendering it useless. Another object will be a torch which the characters will rely on when they try to run and hide from the ghost. Whilst running from the ghost, the characters will have to rely on the torch to give them light; they will be too scared and panic and in a panic to collect any other items, making them more useful for mise-en-scene.

Animatic - Research and Planning

This is our animatic for our teaser trailer. The shots are described in more detail but are liable to change should a shot prove to difficult to film or not work as well. Shots will also be added in when filming or during editing.
'Lost soul' animatic

Moodboard - Research and Planning

Moodboard - Ghost - Research and Planning

Shot List - Research & Planning

This table shows the shots we intend to use when filming our trailer - it may change if there are any complications or we feel another shot works better.

Shot #	Shot Description	Audio and Dialogue
1	Graphic shot of Institution #1 (Alliance)
2	Graphic shot of Institution #2 (IM Global)
3	Mid-Shot (MS) of the female character explaining the story of the haunted house.	Character tells the story – the shot shows her start but it becomes a voiceover in the next few shots.
4	Zoom in to a High Shot (HS) of the gate/wall.	Quiet, eerie music as the shot is shown and the character voiceover is heard.
5	There is an Establishing Shot (ES) of the house, which then becomes a Panning Shot (PS) of the house, possibly at a low angle to show its superiority. It then leads on to a PS of the grounds – showing isolation.	These shots have a voice over of the female character’s voiceover explaining the story and the history of the house/grounds in depth.
6	There is then a MS of one of the characters, who has just heard the story, who looks around at the others and dares them to spend the night in the grounds.	One character dares them all to stay the night there. There is a silence except for diegetic breathing.
7	Then a Close-Up (CU) of another character who accepts the dare.	Another character accepts the challenge.
8	A MS of the characters standing by the entrance with their sleeping things and a tent.
9	A Long Shot (LS) shows the characters settling in to their tent.	There is general conversation (diegetic) and are taking their situation in a light-hearted way.
10	The same LS, but a short while later when the characters are asleep.	No non-diegetic sound until the shadow of a ghost girl is reflected on side of the tent – there is a loud bang. A Few characters stir.
11	There is then a MS of the characters running from the tent, their faces then becoming CUs as they run towards the camera.	Diegetic sound – screaming.
12	A female character runs through the grounds, a MS shows this and she keeps looking back. She stops running and hides in a bush (CU), behind her the ghost girl appears and she is dragged in.	Non-diegetic sound: fast paced, suspense-filled music as she runs. Diegetic sound: heavy breathing as she hides away, then a scream as she is dragged into the wilderness by the ghost girl.
13	One character runs across the bridge and the camera zooms onto the opposite over-path to show the ghost girl.	Non-Diegetic sound: low and slow as she scans her surroundings.
14 - 20	There is then a montage of shots – merged together from the different locations at Polesden.	Non-Diegetic sound: continuing on from the previous shot – the music gets faster and higher in pitch. Diegetic: screams, few words, breathing
21	The shots fade out and the screen turns black.
22	Title card quickly fades into the screen	‘Lost Soul’
23	Vague titles fade in.	‘Coming Soon’
24	One final shot; one character holds the torch to their face, scares the group then laughs.	“Boo!”

Storyboarding - Research and Planning

Location Photos - Research and Planning

The setting of Polesden Lacey will fit the horror genre well because it's very isolated. In our teaser trailer will make this clear by panning the surroundings of empty fields and cast amount of farmland. On another side there is a woodland and foresty areas, which will also go really well with the horror conventions; such as the Blair Whitch Project. The photo on the left shows the road which represents the one way out for the group. The hillside will simply echo their calls for help, rendering them alone; another typical horror convention.

Location Photos - Research and Planning

The grounds of Polsden Lacey will provide us with several different scenes and sets to film on because of the variety of the houses' grounds. As we are producing a teaser trailer, from earlier analysis we can see that they often incorporate montages of short and quick-edited shots from a variety of points throughout the film; using the many places in Polesden we will be able to achive the montage that we aim to prouduce.

Location Photos - Research and Planning

There are several different objects, such as houses, shelters, bridges etc, within the grounds for us to be able to incorporate into the teaser trailer or maybe even into the story. Filming these will add depth and diversity into our teaser trailer and will make it seem like many scenes from tge 'finished' film have been used. Also, the road seen in the left and right top photos are easily accessible which will make it very useful when we're filming. 

These location photos were taken on 19th November 2011.

Location Photos - Research and Planning

A common loaction in a horror film is a graveyard. There is a graveyard at Polsden but it's fenced off, therefore not useable to be able to film in. We will film these scenes seperately at St. Mary's Church graveyard in Leatherhead. The old gravestones and stone angels make it a perfect location for a horror film as they are creepy. These surroundings will look perfect in the dark because dark and misty graveyards are often feared by people. If we are unable to film here, or the surrounding area's don't work as well as we want them too, then our second graceyard choice will be bookham.

These location photos were taken on the 21st November 2011.

Location Photos - Research and Planning

The church will serve as a good backdrop when we film; which will add another typical horror convention to our trailer.

These location photos were taken on the 21st November 2011.

Location Photos - Research and Planning

Our first location to shoot footage would be the National Trust Park of Polesden Lacey. This place makes a great horror film location because there is an unlimited amout of space. They would be in the middle of no where which stops the characters from running for help and the grand, old house can be the base and centre of the horror story, to which first attracted the teenagers to stay overnight in the first place.

From a filming perspective, the grounds of Polsden offer a lot of visual oppertunity because around the grounds there are several different areas that we could incorporate into our teaser trailer and because of the space being unlimited - the only thing we would have to watch would be framing, making sure we don't get any other people or unwanted things that would ruin the effect of the teaser trailer.

 

This is the house which we could incorporate into the trailer. However, we will not be able to film inside it so the shots of the house will used as establishing shots. It is the centre of the story but not the film synopsis, which claims the grounds are haunted rather than the usual horror conventions of the house being the source.
These location photos were taken on November 13th 2011



Audience profiling - Research and Planning

For our film we have been looking at similar horror films that we have got inspiration from such as The Ring and Scream 4.

From looking at these two tables my group have decided that the age for our film will be 18+ This is because there will be a limited violence and bad language. This age seems to be the best age range for this genre. The gender for our film is a mixture. With the research and our own knowledge we know that horror films can be for males just as much as females, it'sjust stereotypically  directed towards males.

Costume - Research and Planning

The group of friends will be wearing similar clothes. These clothes are the typical stereotypical clothes that teenagers are currently wearing.

The actors that star as the teenagers will either be wearing a hoody or a cardigan. They will be wearing one of these because they are a quite popular clothing items. We get inspiration for this because as seen in The Blair Whitch Project the female protagonsit is seen to be wearing a hoody because they film overnight.

They will also be wearing either jeans or leggins.

The shoes that the actors will be wearing will either be boots or converse shoes. This is because these types of shoes are worn a lot in horro films.







My character is a ghost. So I will be the only one that has a seperate costume. Because the character is a dead girl that haunts the grounds, she will be wearing school clothes such as a white blouse and black trousers/leggins. So when you see her shes a typical horror character. We will add dirt and blood onto the white shirt so it looks as if shes been dead a long time. We will also make my face really white/pale so it looks like im dead aswell as adding scars and blood on my face so it looks like i was once attacked.

Actors - Research and Planning

The actors in our teaser trailer will be Hannah Ford, Hannah Evans, Krystal Sayers, Ana de Jesus and myself.

Hannah, Hannah, Krystal and Ana will play school friends and I will be playing a ghost.

This is Hannah Ford and she will play Caroline

 This is Hannah Evans and she will play Elena

This is a picture of me and I will play the 'ghost girl' 

 This is Ana de Jesus and she will play Vickie

This is Krystal Sayers and she will play Bonnie

Moodboard - Research and Planning

Plot

For our teaser trailer we are going to have a group of teenagers that go to a place (polsden lacey) which they belive to be haunted. They will spend the night on the grounds. Events then unfold. The teaser trailer will contain one of the teenagers speaking of the haunted grounds which will be put as a voiceover. We will then have a shot of the house and grounds so the audience know where the story is going to be set. There will also be a montage of the teenagers and things that are key to the story, and that wont give much information away.

Characters represented in horror films - Research and Planning

The typical character that you will find in a horror film is a blonde twenty year old. These characters are represented looking inoccent and vulnerable. For example in the film Scream, the first character that we are introduced to is Casey played by Drew Barrymore.
These characters are known not to last long in horror films.

Certificate - Research and Planning

Horror films are mainly aimed at15+ It's more common for a horror to be an 18.

15- No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

18- No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video work.

A 15 film would contain mild violence whereas with an 18 it would contain more violent graphic scenes.

Institution - Research and Planning

We have been looking at several institutions that are associated with horror films. We have been looking at more recent horror films that are currently popular at the moment and have come across Alliance Films which produced Insidious. We will also be using IM Global.

Audience research - Research and Planning

Horror is a genre that can be aimed at a male and female audience, yet men are more common to go and see a horror movie with women, more skewed to seeing romantic comedys. Horror is a popular genre with teenagers. Figures from the Grudge show that audiences are mainly males, who take up 55% with females slightly less at 45%.

Soundtrack - (non-copyright music) Research and Planning

In a media lesson my group went onto a software called Cubase. Which is a software that let's you create your own music. Because our group is doing horror, we used a lot of high pitched sounds. We will end up using this software for our final piece because the instruments that are avaliable to us will fit in perfectly with creating our own horror themed piece. The music that we will compose might not be continous because in most trailers the music is either quiet at then it's get louder towards the end, or the music is only played at the beginning of a clip or at a certain point in the trailer. This create's tension.

Trailer Treatment and Ideas (Research & Planning)

Chosen genre- Horror. Horror teaser trailer analysis

Paranormal activity 3 teaser trailer anaylsis.

The genre for Paranormal Activity 3 is horror. There is no voiceover in this trailer but the voice of a man using a hand held camera. Paranormal Activity 3's narrative is all about home footage thats been filmed and then played out as a story. Its following a family that arae being haunted by a poltergeist.  The music that has been used only starts half way through the teaser trailer and its laughter from the children that were in the previous shots. The only other music that has been used in this is a deep sound after each clip is shown to add tension. The special effects that have been used in this trailer is the shadow like figure behind the girls after they have said "bloody mary" three times. The information that this teaser trailer has given in very limited, which is the typical teaser trailer. It has the month 'October' and the name of the film at the end.

Teaser Trailer Analysis - Kill List



The genre of Kill List is horror/thriller. The narrative is shown via not knowing the storyline just a symbol. At the end of this teaser you hear what seems to be a name being said in an eerie voice. They have stuck to the typical way of teaser trailers. Limited storyline keeping you wanting to know more about the film. The music that has been used is loud and played over the appearance of the symbol then stopped when the screen goes black for a second. Once the title comes back up music is played again but its simple yet played slower and isn't as loud. There is mostly text that has been used in this teaser trailer. Which says 'Kill List', 'The best british genre film in years'  and information on when the film is going to be in the cinema.

Trailer Treatment/Synopsis

 

The Inbetweeners - powerpoint

The inbetweeners movie

Trailer Analysis - Insidious

The genre of the film Insidious is a horror. The narrative is clearly shown in this trailer with the typical cliche horror storyline. Towards the end of the trailer theres a women that says "It's not the house thats haunted, its your son". You also see a quick shot of the monster, which doesnt give too much away. Theres not much information about what and why somethings happening in horror trailers. This one has clearly shown that. This is because horrors are more to the point and more focused on the scare factor, not the storyline. The unique selling point for this film is the director. We are shown at the beginning

"From the makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw". This would immediatly draw you in becuase of those two films being so popular. The targer audience for this film would be teenagers and up, both male and female. This is because horror is a popular genre with both sexes.

There is limited amount of music in this trailer, as its mainly filled with screams and sudden loud noises. But they've started the trailer 6 seconds in with a metronome. This builds tension throughout the trailer as it's stopped and played in different parts of it. The sudden stop of it then confronted with a loud noise or dialogue. The pace of the clips are very quick and minimal. They speed up just after the women says "i dont think that the wire is the problem here".

There is no voiceover during this trailer. It is either dialogue between characters or bangs and screams that are typical to a horror to make people jump and on edge. The credits that have been used are simple, and have been kept white. This doesnt draw attention to itself and keeps you focused on the dark red/black background.

Trailer Analysis - Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

The narrative in this trailer is shown at the beginning by dialogue. It starts of with "Theres a mole. Right at the top of the circus." You see a veterian at the beginning then you see shots of other agents. You then know that these characters must be a big part of the plot because they have been introduced early on in the trailer. The unique selling point for this film is the actors. Such as Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Tom Hardy. The target audience for this film would be 25 skewed towards 30 year old men and women. More men, because of the genre being a thriller. And women because of the actors that have been cast. This film is a typical thriller. A cliche thriller having levels of antisipation, suspence and anxiety. Thrillers are best known for having investigationsand danger. This film has all these. You also see a dead body bleeding in the trailer, which would immediatly draw a thriller fan in. The film has done this by depicting all these. Having to uncover a spy, the tension of how and if they do it. In the first shot you see someone switch the music on, which works really well with the trailer. The fact that the music is slow but has a very sudden beat. This creates tension in itself. The pace of  the music stays the same speed up until the last minute of the trailer which then speeds up because of the clips that are being shown, revealing more of the storyline. The dialogue thats been used is to the point. The dialogue focuses strongly on the plot of the film. For example at the beginning of the trailer the first dialogue is " Theres a mole" this shows us that the storyline will focus around this bit of information. Theres a small amount of voiceover in this trailer. It's mainly focusing on the dialogue between two or more characters. There are severeal intertitles in this trailer. This helps you to understand what's going to happen in the film. Because it being a thriller there is a lot going on. The first one says "how do you find an enemy". and "who is hidden" these have been shown in block capitals with the last word in bold. The words "hidden" and "enemy" are in bold. This adds to the suspence of wanting to know why those particular words are in bold and what they have to do with the plot. This film trailer editing is shown in choronological order. This is also cliche to a thriller, so you know from the trailer what will happen when and things leading up to that point.

Analysing a Trailer - Johnny English Reborn

The genre for Johnny English Reborn is a comedy. There is a voiceover at the beginning of the trailer that is telling us the story of what is going on in the clips that are currently being shown. This voiceover is on for a one minute and is being voiced by 'the master'. The master say's "M17 wants you on the first flight back to London only then can you be reborn" This informs us of the beginning of the storyline which is about to unfold. We also find out that his master wants to train him so that he can be 'reborn' as a spy and move back to London. Rowan Atkinsons character also has a voiceover, but it's only one liners and theres only a few.

The unique selling point to this film is Rowan Atkinson. He plays the main character, Johnny English. Rowan Atkinson is a well known actor. He is probably most well known for playing Mr. Bean. This can help to reach a wider audience because "Mr. Bean" was something the whole family could watch so Rowan Atkinson is known to many ages. The target audience for this film i would say is teenagers upwards. This is because it's about a spy that goes on a mission and makes mistakes along the way for a comedic value.

The music that has been used is very fast at parts and slow at parts. This has been done for comedic timing. Such as when Johnny English brakes the chair and we see it slowly getting smaller and him getting smaller then when just before the chair stops the music stops playing before we hear him say "give me 24 hours".  The music is slow to start of with but then it gets louder in certain parts to create tension. A few seconds before the end the music changes to 'Eye of The Tiger". Which gets louder as it plays.  The music is mostly stopped before dialogue. For a trailer there is quite a lot of dialogue that's been used. The dialogue is between two people. The dialogue contains one liners. Which is when dialogue is used, its always one liners in trailers. At the beginning of the trailer the voiceover says "I will make you warrior again" To which Johnny English replys, just one word "how?" The character replying to the voiceover is unusual.

There is a lot of special effects that have been used in this trailer. At the beginning of the trailer we see shots of what looks like Johnny English, have a rock attached by rope to his privates that hes supposedly pulling along. We then see a stunt double of Rowan Atkinson as Johnny English jump from one building to another. We also see a karate scene in which Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is involved in a fight with another man. We see him get smacked in the face with a broom. We see Johnny English swing is club and from a distance we see a reaction from a person that he's supposed to have hit fall to the ground. There is also graphics that are placed when captions come up that say one liners such as "The Worlds Greatest Spy". We see this written in block capitals that are plain, but with a flame spark background.

There has been a variety of shots that have been used in this trailer. At the beginning there is a shot of where the spy is located at that current time. This sets the scene for the opening minute. We see a close up of  Johnny English at the beginning which hides his identity because we hear that hes been hidden away for 5 winters so we havent actually been introduced to him until we see a medium shot of him, to which we then see he has long hair and a beard. This works really well because it builds a lot of attention. The rest of the trailer consists of long and short shots. The long shots lasting up to 6 seconds and the short shots lasting up to two to three seconds. You know that this film is a comedy because of the way that the trailer has been put together. Each clip involves one liners, which makes every clip they show funny. This is what draws you into the film.

The information that the film has provided it's audience with is focusing on the story of the film. They have done this by every so often by putting captions inbetween different clips. They've put things such as "The worlds greatest spy" "new man, new mission". And ends on "At cinemas soon" Which leaves you to keep yourself updated with when it's going to be at cinemas. The captions have been displayed in white block capitals with the word 'reborn' in red. This keeps it simple and doesnt distract you from the other graphics that are involved in the trailer. The name of the film is shown just before the the last clip of the trailer is shown.

Similarities and differences between a trailer and a teaser trailer

Similarities and differences between Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 1 teaser trailer and trailer.

Teaser trailer -->

Trailer -->

Similarities and differences between Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 1 trailer and the teaser trailer are;

Similarities between the trailer and teaser trailer

• both have narration over parts of the clips
• end titles of where the film can be seen
• plot giveaways
• storyline

Having narration over both trailer and teaser trailer helps you identify the story of what will be happening in the film. But with limited detail, as to not give the whole plot away.
Differences

Trailer

• faster music - having faster music creates more tention as the film is even closer to being viewed
• more clips - builds more tension
• longer clips
• louder music
• more plot giveaways
• writing in shots 'Presented in 2 parts"
• narration gives clues as to what will happen in film

Teaser trailer

• slower music
• shorter clips
• less storyline
• faster editing
• 'coming soon'
• minimal information on the film

AS Coursework Reflection

Using conventions from real media texts- In what way does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions or real media products?


Our media product included severeal aspects of media products such as the conventions of a typical horror character and storyline. A young girl, alone walking in a woods. A rural area but you see that she is alone. You know from this something bad is going to happen. The location being a woods is a typical horror loaction. The costume of the protagonsists were inspired from the Blair Whitch Project. We have kept the whole stereotypical conventions of a horror and applied them in our own way but you can tell immidiatly that it is of the horror genre.

AS Coursework Reflection

Post-Production- What have you learned form your auidence feedback?

From our auidence feedback I have learned that it is better to use a range of locations when filming, and to not limit yourself with a few camera angles. We also limited ourselves to two locations. I have also learnt that it is best to use a tripod. Although all the shots are handheld, some shots could have benefited with using a tripod, as this made the shots blury. The auidence feedback was also useful because they noticed things that we failed to see, such as the volume of sounds in the background. Although we meant for you to hear the leaves cracking, it was too loud and ruined the effect. Another thing was the location. For A2 I have learnt to include a diverse range of camera shots and to definatly use a tripod.

AS Coursework Reflection

Research and Planning- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We were inspiration by many different films, but mainly looked at the film The Blair Witch Project, as creating something original was helped by a variety of media forms. One of many was the computer programme Adobe Elements, which allowed us to experiment with many different effects and add our own to it. We also used YouTube to watch other scenes that were created by AS students from different schools. This gave us an idea of what kind of level that we were at and what we were also also able to achieve. Other programmes such as photoshop and paint allowed us to recreate images and we used the internet to browse for images and information relating to our genre, horror; we searched for things like costume, setting and camera shots and angles.

AS Coursework Reflection

Creativity- How did you use other media forms to come up with something new and original?

We started watching horror opening's on Youtube of films such as, The Exorcist, IT and The Shining. We then started looking at cliche horror storylines and working our way around what basic storyline we wanted to have our own take on. We also looked at what things people would associate with being typically scary and would associate with horror films.' Woods and alley-ways were quite common. So we decided to have our main location as a woods. We then looked on the internet at horror pictures, so we would get the right atmosphere at a location. We then started looking at costumes that the actors are wearing. We looked at the film, The Blair Whitch Project. Because we decided to also use hand-held camera, we thought that The Blair Whitch Project is the closest film that is so similar to what we wanted to do, it was best to take ideas from what they're wearing. Because we had seen many horror films before we used our own knowledge of what the typical storyline was in horror films. Such as a young innocent girl walking through a deserted area alone with no one around. So to keep it original, this is what our storyline was all about.