6. Production Schedule

Date/ Time	Action	Personnel	Location	Equipment/ Props	Contingency
July 15th 1 ½ hours	Complete concept, treatment, research etc…	Me	School	Computer (blog)	Complete at home
July 16th-17th 3.00 to 5.00 pm	Organise crew/talent and equipment/ props	Me My sister My mum	Home	Camera Tripod
July 20th 4.30 to 6.30pm	Test shots and shooting	Me My sister My mum	Home, Streets of Christchurch, Lookout.	Camera, Tripod, Costume, Car, Car keys.
July 25th 5.00 to 5.30pm	Re-shoot some scenes	Me My sister My mum	Home, Streets of Christchurch, Lookout.	Camera, Tripod, Costume, Car, Car keys.
September 1st -24th Several hours	Editing	Me	School Home	Computer, Editing software.	Complete at home (download free trial software)
September 25th-27th 2+ hours	Evaluation	Me	School Home	Computer (blog)

5. Crew/Talent

Girl 1 - My sister, Annabelle.
Girl 2 - Me.
Driver of stalker's car - My mum, Nichola.

Camera - Me.
Equipment (tripod) - Me.
Assistant - Nichola.
Transport/props - Annabelle.
Editing - Me.

4. Scene Breakdown

A. Car parked in driveway - girls walk out to car, one girl throws keys to the other across bonnet of car.
B. Driving car - the girls reverse out of the driveway and drive to the hills.
C. Car following - the 'stalker's' black car is following the girls to the hills.
D. Carpark at Summit - the girls park up at the summit carpark and watch the sunset.
E. Stalker - the stalker suddenly jumps on the back of the girls car, the opening ends.

Storyboard - see attached sample.

3. Treatment: Action, Style

Action
Two girls walk out towards the car, one throws the keys to other. They back out of the drive and head off down the street. One girl turns the radio up. Easy listening music is playing. The girls look at the road ahead. The girl on the passenger side gazes out the window, looking at the wing mirror she notices a black car following them. She turns to look at the cars behind her. She returns her vision towards the traffic lights ahead without a second thought. They approach the Cashmere Hills and head for Summit Road. When they get to the top they park up, and watch the sunset, happily chatting away. Suddenly there is a loud bang as a crazy stalker/killer makes its presence known. The opening ends.

Style
A range of camera angles/positions/close ups to make the drive interesting.
Tight framing during driving scenes, so audience doesn't become uninterested.
Shots of the black car with horror-like music playing to create tension/foreshadowing.
Sound effect to exaggerate the suddenness of the stalker/killer appearing.
Laid back music and costume to show the casualness of the situation (driving to the hills to watch the sunset).
Darker lighting at the end to increase scariness, and make the situation (killer in the carpark at night) more credible.

2. Research

Found some good music to go in scenes.
Talked to my actors to see if they were willing to be apart of my film.
Went for a drive up the Port Hills to find a good location for the lookout scene.
Talked to the driver about different ways of shooting car scenes and which route to take to the hills.

1. Concept

To the Summit

I plan to make the opening of a horror film about two vulnerable teenage girls, who are going on a "mini" road trip to the top of the Cashmere Hills. Here they will overlook the city as the sun sets and the street lights come on. The majority of the filming will be made in the car on the way to the hills. I will incorporate footage of the 'stalker's' car following them as foreshadowing. Finally at the top of the hills while overlooking the city, out of no where there is a loud bang as the "stalker" makes its presence known to the girls, and this is when the opening ends. The horror element is at the end to add an element of surprise and to introduce the genre of the whole film. The emotions that I am intending to evoke are happiness and freedom, then a sudden rush of danger, fear and fright. My main ambition is to foreshadow the potential horrific events that would occur at the "Summit" if the whole film were to be made. My sister and I will act as the "vulnerable teenage girls", however the only sound there will be is the music playing until the sudden bang. The main idea I wish to explore is having the typical female victim, like in the previous horror films I have studied such as Halloween, Psycho and Scream.

Female Victims in Horror Films

 

















1. Describe
The convention female victim is used in the horror films Psycho and Halloween. In Psycho the focus is placed on the vulnerability of women and how easily they can be persuaded. Main female character, Marion becomes extremely vulnerable while on her own, high camera angles emphasize this. The scene where Marion again makes herself vulnerable is when she is persuaded to go into motel manager, Norman's lair. Whereas in Halloween the female victim is vulnerable because of the circumstances she is in, and the focus is instead placed on the heroic qualities of women. Main female character, Laurie is placed in vulnerable circumstances where she is left on her own looking after children, where there is a killer on the loose, in a neighborhood that does not suspect any suspicious activity as it is the night of Halloween. Laurie is a victim of being terrorized by a  psychotic killer, and has near-death experiences several times during the film. What saves her from death is her heroic qualities, which is subsequently the focus in this film. Dominant music emphasizes the scariness of the circumstances she is placed in. Low camera angles are used as Laurie stands over the killer to highlight her bravery.


2.Explain
The female victim convention was used in these films to portray females as defenseless, bimbos. While Laurie proves otherwise by fighting back, other female characters in Halloween were victimized, hence both films still have the focus of having a female victim. The directors are therefore suggesting that all females are vulnerable and/or easily persuaded. In response to this attitude of directors, John Carpenter of Halloween and Alfred Hitchcock of Psycho, the audience were against women as victims. Some feminist critics claim that these movies are "debasing women in as decisive a manner as hard-core pornography." Other critics such as John Kenneth Muir argue that Laurie in Halloween was not a hero and that she only survived because of "sheer luck." Perhaps the audience watching Halloween did not expect women to be framed in such a way where they are so involved in sex and drugs and appear to be useless for anything else, and critic Tony Williams argues that Michael Myers the killer in Halloween and other slashers (such as Norman in Psycho) "slaughtered the youthful children" who at the time, found watching these films traumatizing due to the explicit unexpected content.


3. Analyse
Having a female victim enabled the directors to capitalise on scaring the audience. The female victims were portrayed as incredibly vulnerable and naieve, to the degree that they found themselves in the most ridculous circumstances where the average person would not allow themselves to be. This meant that the killers had more ways of terrorising their victims due to the unusual circumstances (an empty motel on an old highway in Psycho and a normal neighbourhood that did not suspect any unusual happenings as it was Halloween night in Halloween), and subsequently the impact on the audience was greater. Due to the success of this convention, it is still used to this day in horror films. Commercially having a female victim in Pschyo was potentially expected by the audience and may have let the film down, in terms of shock factor. The audience did however, enjoy having a female victim who is later the hero in Halloween, and subsequently the film was a sucess commercially. In terms of budgetting, by only having one female victim in Psycho, costs were cut down, Halloween on the other hand had 3 female victims, making casting more expensive. Even so, costs were still relatively low as the cast in Halloween was not very famous. Halloween's use of the convention; female victim was definitely a controversial success and kicked started careers such as Jamie Lee Curtis'. Psycho began the use of the convention; female victim before Halloween and perhaps contributed to the later success of horror films.