Final Pitch

The film will be set in Tamworth park, we chose this area because its somewhere associated with young children where they go to with their families and where adolescents may socialise. It will be where the whole of the opening sequence will be set. We chose this particular park because its easily accessible for all of our group to get to and includes all of the aspects of a park that are essential for our film such as only one swing because our protagonist will go up to the antagonist on the swing and ask if he can have a go which wouldn't make sense if there was a swing right next to him. 

We have finally decided as a group to continue with the initial idea of the masked antagonist, the mask will be of a babies face. We chose this idea because it proved one of the most frightening aspects of a horror films, this down to the fact that their emotions are covered by the mask and creates a sense of the unknown, something which many are scared of. It proved very effective in the highly successful horror film 'Saw' and we wanted to create a similar effect. 

To the left is the kind of mask which we are hoping to get, we will buy this off a site such as eBay.
We chose this idea above others because of the pure fear factor that a mask of this kind will produce and it links nicely to the setting of the park.

The protagonist will remain a young eleven year old boy who will be murdered by 'The Child Collector', we chose this because it was most fitting to the setting of the park and a boy of this age comes across more vulnerable. To open our film this character will walk towards the park with his friends but refuse to go in because bad things had happened in the past, where he witnessed the murder of his older sister. The sister will be played by a 17 year old girl with blonde hair,  we chose this character after researching other horror films such as 'Candyman' we found that young girls with blonde hair are often the victims in such horror films.
Josh will then go into the horror convention of a flashback where we will see this event occur before the opening ends leaving a cliff hanger for the rest of the film.
We have also decided to involve a voice over of the 'Child Collector' himself, we will make sure that the person who does the voice over can create a deep frightening tone to his voice to represent the child collector.
The music will also be slow and tension building and fast pace at times of panic, we chose this because its a common convention in many horror films and we thought that it would work better with our film especially at the time of the murder of Lucy, Josh's older sister

The Pitch (ideas)

As a group we discussed some ideas that we may use in our film opening by thinking of horror films we had seen previously, what kind of horror films were successful and popular answers on our questionnaire to help us grasp an idea of what the audience want to see and made it easier for us when it came to mind mapping our ideas.
We then created a mind map putting down every idea we could think of so that we had a wide variety of options to help us come up with an overall idea.
We then ranked our ideas in order of what we thought would make a good horror film and what would not which gave us a clearer idea of what we should do. This allowed us to develop our ideas further such as linking ideas together thinking of suitable locations and suitable costumes. When looking at our ideas we found that some linked together, our ideas for the villain included old women and young children as these were popular on our questionnaire. We found that young children were very popular in being the scariest horror character and so were masked characters which led us to the idea of using a baby mask.

We came up with the conclusion that our film will be set in Tamworth Park as this links to young children and is often the place where teenagers may socialise . We have decided that our horror film will be based around a masked male called the Child Collector. We will buy a mask online, we have looked on sites such as eBay and amazon where we have found the mask that we want that we think meets the disturbing look that we wanted.
The opening itself will be about a boy called Josh who's a teenager, he walks the park with his friends where people of this age group may socialise, but before he walks in he stops in fear of what happened to his sister in the same place three years prior. This is where we see a flash back of what happened to give the audience an insight into Josh's past experience and to set up the plot of the rest of the film.
During the flashback we see a younger Josh and his older sister playing in the park, Josh disobeys his sister when she says that they should go home because of a well known legend that a 'child collector' haunts the park after night fall seeking young children, he does this because of this past experiences that has left him psychologically unstable and to get revenge.
Josh ignores his sister and runs away to a swing out of Lucy's sight where sits the child collector. Josh doesn't actually get killed by the child collector but runs away. Lucy hears his terrified screams and runs to where Josh had run to, again to find the child collector sitting on the swing. Unfortunately Lucy isn't so lucky to escape from the child collector, leaving a haunting memory in Josh's mind for the rest of his life. At the end of the opening we will leave a cliff hanger to keep the audience interested in the rest of the film by leaving with 'It's time for round two Josh' suggesting that the child collector isn't finished with young Josh just yet.


CharactersThe antagonist of the film will be a masked male, the age is not identifiable so it will be played by one of the group, they will wear dark baggy clothing so that it looks more like a male figure rather than female. known as the 'Child Collector' they will murder innocent people out of revenge because of his past.
Our film will involve an eleven year old boy, he will play the role of a boy named Josh who is of the same age and is the protagonist in the film. Josh is one of the victims in the film because he is at a vulnerable age.
The second character will be played by a 17 year old girl, she will be the older sister of Josh who is also a victim after she attempts to save her younger brother.
Other characters involve two of Josh's friends that are shown before the flashback, they make fun of Josh for being scared of going into the park. 

Horror research

The horror film genre aims the create a sense of fear for the audience. They rely on scaring the audience often done by using particular conventions that we now see in a lot of horror films
Horror films usually focus  on an evil character or event and include mythical creatures such as ghosts, serial killers, masked individuals, stalkers, or individuals such as Candyman with a hook for a hand and they are usually men. Traditionally, Horror films incorporate a large amount of violence and gore into the plot.

Music
The music in horror films are used to increase the tension and fear, such as immediate drum type beats that increase in frequency and tempo and we often hear high pitched sounds too. A lot of horror films have a distinct piece of music that the audience recognises from the film For example, in ‘Halloween’ John Carpenter’s three note tense music is associated with the killer Michael Myers and in ‘One Missed Call’ the ringtone when the phones ring is recognisable to that film.

Setting
Settings are very important in the horror genre as it It sets the scene, giving of a certain mood and atmosphere which allows the audience to identify the genre. Common settings in the genre of horror include isolated areas, residential areas, urban areas, haunted buildings and historic locations.

Horror is a very successful and popular genre. I have researched the horror genre by using the box office mojo website and found that a lot of horror films have high grossing figures even from  lower budgeted films.

Sub-genre	Most successful film	Worldwide grossing figures	Budget
Horror slasher	Scream	$103,046,663	$14 million
Horror - Terror in the water	Jaws	$260,000,000	$7 million
Horror torture	Saw 2	$87,039,965	$4 million
Horror remake	The Ring	$129,128,133	$48 million
Horror supernatural	Sixth Sense	$293,506,292	$40 million

Paranormal activity 2 ranked 3^rd in the top 10 rated 15 films in 2010
Saw 3 was ranked 1^st in the top 10 rated 18 films of 2010 and Nightmare on Elm Street was 4^th .http://statisticalyearbook11.ry.com/?d=82792

Top-US-Grossing Horror Titles – IMDB

1.Jaws $260M

2.What Lies Beneath $155M

3.Gremlins $148M

4.The Blair Witch Project $141M

5. The Ring $129m

Questionnaire results

1.I tried to give my questionnaire to a relatively even number of ages, however I seem to have more 12-18 year olds who completed the questionnaire, this may be biased towards teenage views. 

2.I made sure that I gave the questionnaire to an even number of males and females so that I get unbiased results.

3. More people selected young children as the age group that would scare them the most and middle aged people were selected the as the age group that would scare them the least. From these results young children are likely to be included in my horror film opening.

4. More participants selected the character in ‘The Ring’ as the scariest character, this character is a young girl which correlates with the previous question of young children being the scariest age group. We are likely to include a young child as the villain.

5. Being psychologically terrified was the most common answer for this question, from this we will aim our film to be a psychological horror as that’s what most people expect

6.The results from this question were quite similar; the unknown was the most popular answer and ghosts the second. However from the previous results we are likely to include a young child as the villain and ghosts would be too much to include as well, but we will take into consideration using the unknown.

7.From the pie chart we can see that historic locations and urban areas were not chosen by any participants as their favourite setting, so we will not use these for our film because they are not popular. Haunted buildings and isolated areas were the most popular and chosen by an even number of participants so we will take both into consideration when planning our film.

8.From the pie chart we can see that the past of villains was not chosen as an expected opening to a horror film. The other three answers came back with very similar results but switch from action to flashback came back most popular. We like this idea of an opening and as more participants chose it we may use it in our opening.

9.The majority of the participants selected ‘sometimes’ for how much they enjoy watching horror films and all participants either selected rarely or occasionally for how often the watch horror films. This implies that participants probably aren’t that knowledgeable in horror conventions

10. From the chart we can see an even split between the options occasionally and rarely, suggesting that our participants are perhaps not too keen on horror films and probably don’t know that much about them and there typical conventions. If we gave our questionnaires to people that regularly watched horror we may have more reliable results in terms of what is popular/scary and what is not.  

11. The options masks, possessed objects and torture equipment were all evenly chosen. We will decide between these three as to what prop we should use. From previous questions it has become evident the masks are quite popular and therefore we may use this in our opening.

From these results we have decided that we are going to definitely do a horror film, it will be based on a masked male, because it was the most popular in question 11, who is perhaps mentally ill because of a past event and therefore this results in him being a brutal murderer killing innocent people, hopefully leaving the audience psychologically terrified. There will also be a young child in the film, they will probably be the victim of the masked murderer.

Notting Hill analysis

Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical codes, narrative and characterisation.

Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a 1999 British romantic comedy, set in Notting Hill, London. The film was released on 21^st may 1999 and was well received; it became the highest grossing British film released that year, grossing $363,889,700 at the box office. The films screenplay was by Richard Curtis  who known primarily for other romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. The film stars Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts who have huge fan bases.
The film begins with a montage of the main female character, Anna Scott, she’s clearly of high importance and lives a very glamorous lifestyle. Close ups are used to emphasise her desired beauty.

As she’s famous and photographed all of the time throughout the montage only artificial light is used from the flash of the cameras to highlight her face, this could imply that she perhaps doesn’t live in the real world or know what its like due to her high class luxurious lifestyle.
We are then introduced to William who is smitten over Anna whom he has never met but dreams about meeting. He lives in small London town with the streets filled with markets and stereotypical British people.  He appears to be a very ordinary character you would consider to be way out of Anna Scotts league.
William lives in small untidy cluttered house which shows that he is not perfect unlike Anna, we learn that his wife had left him who he had bought this house with which probably had a huge impact on his life. He now lives with his friend and his small business is failing.
 During the scene at home with William and his friend they talk about romance, however his friend is clearly eager to embrace his sex life through his t-shirts and appears somewhat disrespectful towards women but William is not. 

Williams’s character is portrayed as very romantic, romance is a clear element to the film from the very beginning through the use of soundtrack, it’s very slow violin type music that we associate with romance, and there is also the use of narration to begin the film which is what we often see in fairy-tale films that are focused around love.
As the film is a romantic-comedy Williams’s friend adds that humour element to the film through the way he dresses, his mannerisms and his strong accent that’s very different from Williams well-spoken English accent and is therefore humorous.
To Williams shock whilst he is at work in his book shop Anna Scott walks in, there is a focus pull, focused on William and she is blurred so we actually don’t yet know who it is yet and she is then blocked out of our view from the bookcase that acts as a barrier, this creates a sense of anticipation because we grasp that its someone of significance to the film so we are keen to know who it is.
When she is revealed we see her in dark clothing with glasses and a hat as though she’s trying to keep a low profile so no one notices the big star. At the same time a customer tries to steal a book. William threatens to call the Police then lets off the thief which shows William’s character as somewhat weak. The thief even has the courage to ask Anna for a date unlike William but is turned down by her in a humorous sarcastic tone. 
Later, William leaves the shop to buy some orange juice and bumps into Anna spilling the it  on her; this could signify that William is going to have an impact on her life, the soup was yellow and her top was white showing a clash between the two, William and Anna are a very unlikely couple due to their lifestyles.  They are then forced to spend more time together when he asks her if she wants to get cleaned up at his house.

After she has got changed and is about to leave there is a two shot of William and Anna showing the close proximity between the two and their emotions, by the way she looks at him and then kisses him we learn that she is interested in William even though he shows his clumsy ways with women because of his past.  His friend enters showing no interest by the fact that a huge star is in their house.Overall, Notting Hill manages to portray many of the codes and conventions of a typical romantic comedy. There is evidently both a romantic and humor element to the film with the character of spike being the most humorous and the unlikely meeting of the two protagonists with the stereotypical and cliche story of them falling in love. We often hear in a rom-com a voice over at the beginning which was used in this film and the sound track is often romantic everyday music. 

Analysis of Candyman Opening

Candyman is a 1992 American  horror film directed by Bernard Rose. Its focused around  Helen Lyle who is a graduate student conducting research for her thesis on urban legends. The legend claims that Candyman can be summoned by looking into a mirror and saying his name five times where he will appear and brutally murder them using the hook that is jammed in his bloody stump, similar to the old Bloody Mary myth, this film was just waiting to happen. The film had a budget of $8,000,000 and was a box office success grossing $25,792,310 globally. The film opens with an ariel shot looking down an average city road tracking the cities cars as people commute as though it’s a normal day. This sets the scene of the film and suggests that the events that occur in ‘Candyman’ can happen to normal people in normal places. It’s a typical horror opening convention where the introduction usually shows the

day-to-day life of normal people.
This shot is accompanied with the typically horror soundtrack of orchestral music, mostly organs. The use of organs links in with the church, we commonly hear organs during a funeral which implies that death is going to be a common element to the film which fits in with the horror genre, it makes us feel uncomfortable.
We see a slow zoom in shot of a swarm of bees accompanied by the deep and dark voice of Candyman himself explaining how he kills his victims with his hook ‘with my hook for a hand I will split you from your groin to your gut’. This suggests that there is a link between candyman and the bees and leaves us intrigued to know what the link is.
This shot then cuts to an establishing shot of the cityscape which fades into a close up of the main character Helen Lyle smoking a cigarette as candyman says ‘I came for you ‘implying that Helen may be one of candymans victims.
We are introduced to one of the other victims of the film, an attractive blonde woman babysitting for a friend, when ‘Billy’ turns up at her house, she’s attracted to Billy because of his ‘bad boy’ reputation which is shown through his costume including a leather jacket, he’s a bad influence on the young girl as she is about to cheat on her boyfriend with him.  She tells Billy about the urban legend of Candyman, they fail to say his name five times in the mirror but when he leaves she says his name for a fifth time shown with an over the shoulder shot.
At this point she is holding her cross necklace, again this links back to the church like the organs in the sound track implying that the characters are religious but does not protect her from her from her brutal death.
 She turns the lights off and a strange figure appears behind her. We hear a high pitched sound and see a fast cut away from the scene. We then hear the diegetic sound of her horrified screams as she is murdered, the camera follows Billy’s actions as he looks up to see the blood coming through the ceiling from a low angle shot. Fast cuts are very common in horror films and the high pitched sound is commonly used to imply danger and death.
We learn through the voice over that the baby was also murdered by Candyman which makes the murders even more sickening. We often see young attractive women being the victims in such horror films because of their vulnerability.
The last part of the opening scene of Candyman introduced Helens friend when there both discussing the urban legend that Helen is researching. Helen removed a mirror from the wall to reveal a hole leading into an empty room shown by the slow motion zoom in. They go to say his name 5 times in the mirror and then there is a zoom out down the corridor away from the bathroom without the sight of Helen and her friend so that we are focused on the mirror and what it holds behind it and the death caused by saying Candymans name into it.
The film portrays many conventions of a horror film such as the victim is a young vulnerable female, dark lighting and supernatural characters that are unrealistic but create a sense of escapism to a world where they do exist. The soundtrack was effective in opening the film because we instantly knew that this was a horror film by the sound of the organs.

Analysis of The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight rises is an American action/adventure superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and is the third installment of the batman trilogy. The film starred Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway and grossed over £1 billion at the worldwide box office becoming the second highest grossing superhero film of all time after Marvels Avengers. 
The film is focused around Bruce Wayne (Batman) rediscovering himself after hiding when he took the blame for the murder of Harvey Dent and rises to stop terrorist leader Bane from destroying the city of Gotham. 

The film begins with the sound of heavy threatening drum beat, the opening credits of the subsidiaries involved in the making of the film all relate to the dark theme with the colour scheme of black and metallic colours, most metals are hard so this could symbolise that its indestructible. We also see the batman logo which cracks on the screen letting in streams of light almost like its ‘rising’ through the logo.

We are introduced to 3 masked men which connotes that they are wanted and have been kidnapped because they could be criminals and they are interrogated by the CIA whilst they are on a plane. We see an ariel shot of the plane flying over the mountains During this scene we hear gun shots which signify that this will be a high action film which attracts a widely male audience. We learn that Bane, the villain of the film, is one of the 3 masked men. we see a reversal of roles as the CIA agent crouches lower than Bane as he been interrogates him so that he is shown to be looking up to Bane from a low angle shot, this presents Bane as a dominant figure and has control even though he is tied up. We know that Bane is going to be a villain through this control and his emotionless tone. The agent asks “if I pull that off would you die?” Bane replies “it would be very painful” and finishes “…for you” almost like a threat to the CIA agent. 
Everything begins to speed up as hysteria begins to build and we see a lot of handheld camera shots to portray the unstableness of the situation, the music turns fast pace which implies that this is going to be an high action scene. We then see a cut to an ariel shot of  much larger plane flying over the agents plane and the hijackers shooting something to attaches the planes together. It then cuts to another extreme long shot of the agent’s plane being dragged vertically down and the back of the plane being blown off. The fast pace music and cuts coincide with the panic as the plane falls vertical, this fast pace music also implies that this is an action film, it gets our hearts racing because their lives are dangerously at risk.
 Banes dominance is also apparent when the fast paced music completely stops when he speaks; this suggests that he’s a powerful figure and is important to the film and what he has to say is significant.
After this high action scene we see an establishing shot over the city of Gotham which sets the scene where most of the action will take place, the shot is of the city at night where it looks more spectacular but darkness is also widely significant to the film because of the negativity that comes from villain, Bane. Darkness also makes the film much more dramatic.
We then see the scene of Harvey Dents memorial service, this links to the previous film ‘The Dark Knight’. In the scene we see a medium close up of Jim Gordon giving a speech, during the speech we see a flashback taking us back to the previous film where Jim killed Harvey Dent. 
Also during this scene we are introduced to cat woman, however we are introduced to her from behind so we don’t actually know who it is yet but we know that this character will be of significance because the camera is focused on her for a fair amount of time. They want us to be in anticipation to see cat woman because there was huge hype around her appearance as she wasn't in the previous film.
After this scene we see a cut to the silhouette of what looks to be Bruce Wayne almost as though he is still hiding in the darkness.