Opening Title Screenplay

Fade In:

EXT. night scene 1

TRUNCO THE CLOWN approaches the house, walking down road, whilst the young woman is washing up. Until she receives a phone call from Trunco the Clown.

 

EXT. street - night scene 1

Trunco the Clown’s feet are walking at a fast pace through puddles on the pavement with a distinct walk. (5 steps)

EXT. House - night scene 1

THE YOUNG WOMAN is washing up in the sink casually with no urgency or fright.

EXT. street - night scene 1

Trunco the Clown’s feet are walking at a fast pace through puddles on the pavement with a distinct walk. (4 steps)

EXT. House - night scene 1

The camera has zoomed out to the woman washing up and putting away dishes, casually and with no knowing of the clown.

EXT. street - night scene 1

Trunco the Clown’s feet are walking at a fast pace through puddles on the pavement with a distinct walk. (3 steps)

EXT. House - night scene 1

The young woman is still washing dishes casually, looking at herself in the window and possibly whistling or singing/humming.

EXT. street - night scene 1

Trunco the Clown’s feet are walking at a fast pace through puddles on the pavement with a distinct walk. (2 steps)

EXT. House - night scene 1

The young woman is putting dishes in the drawer.

EXT. street - night scene 1

Trunco The Clown’s feet are walking at a fast pace through puddles on the pavement with a distinct walk. (1 steps)

EXT. House - night scene 1

The woman’s mobile phone starts ringing.

 

scene 2   

INT. THe womans house. night.          

THE CLOWN rings THE WOMAN and THE WOMAN puts the phone down. The radio then turns on and is playing an old song which is saying ‘send in the clowns’. THE WOMAN is getting more and more on edge, then the doorbell rings.

Voice- THE clown

(Over the phone)

          Do you want a balloon?

 

THE WOMAN

Umm..no?

 

Voice- THE clown

*chuckles*

I know you want a balloon.

 

the woman

No, I do not want a balloon. Leave me alone.

          (puts down the phone)

 

EXT. House - night scene 4

The radio begins to falter and turns to the song ‘Send in the Clowns’. The woman tries to fix the radio, bending down struggling. The clown appears at the window suddenly, yet the woman doesn’t see.

 

SCENE 5  

INT. THE WOMANS HOUSE. NIGHT.

THE CLOWN rings the doorbell and THE WOMAN opens it, but when she looks no one is there. She then goes out of the door to look around to see if she can see anyone.

THE WOMAN

(opens door, looks around to see who knocked)

THE WOMEN

(goes outside to see if she can see anyone)

EXT. OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE. NIGHT.

After doing this she sees a red balloon that THE CLOWN has left outside (but she doesn’t know who it was left by). THE WOMAN goes over to get the balloon, after she has got it the balloon then pops, and it is filled with blood, after the balloon has popped THE CLOWN then pops up suddenly behind THE WOMAN, without her realizing.

THE WOMAN

(picks up balloon, looks mysteriously at it)(the balloon pops)

The Woman

(screams)

VOICE- CLOWN

(laughs)

 

FAde Out:

The End

 

Synopsis of My Idea

My idea for the opening titles of a horror movie is 'Dead Funny'. A film based around a psychopathic clown that terrorises and harasses neighbourhood folk. On first thought, the idea of a clown-based horror seemed risky and hard to pull off but after some elaboration of the idea, me and my group decided that if we were to head in a certain direction with this, then it may work. The two directions in which the film could have gone were, a horror comedy or a very sick and twisted horror that is full frontal terror. We decided to go with the second option, despite the comedic title. The title is a contradiction in itself and the two words juxtapose obviously.

The story

 

Our plot consists of two characters: The victim and Trunco The clown. (Trunco being Latin for mutilate). The victim which will be a female to show more of an dominant personality to the clown as it is stereotypical to people that women are more venerable to men. The male against female
oppression is a good way to show fear in the opening title.

 

The clown will be terrorising the woman in her own house by first calling her in her house and asking her if she 'Wants a balloon'. We took this inspiration from the movie 'SCREAM'. We liked the opening few minutes of that and we thought that it could be cooperated into our opening sequence. So we've taken that as our inspiration and we've also taken inspiration from the  movie 'IT'. We liked the sadistic nature of the clown and we liked how everybody is creeped out by them even if they are supposed to be entertaining and funny.

 

After calling the young woman, the clown will proceed to harass the young woman in the 'comfort' of her own home. This is to basically suggest and imply that there is no safety, even when you're in the haven of your own home, Trunco the Clown will still get you! Whilst in the house, the woman's radio will produce static and change to the song 'Send in the clowns' which we think will produce a tense atmosphere because the song is slow and old fashioned. After the radio scene, the clown will appear at the window of the kitchen where the woman will be standing. This will hopefully scare the viewers and give a short insight of what is to come in the movie in terms of horror. We're trying to get this movie as sadistic as possible to try and freak the audience out as much as possible because after collecting results from our questionnaire, we found that the majority of people that watch horrors, enjoy being scared.  Using this information, we've decided to incorporate this into our film.

 

After the window scenario, we have decided to use a balloon and add that into our sequence because they are stereotypically a clown's prop. We also took inspiration from the film 'IT' as when the balloons pooped with blood. We liked the sick and twisted idea of the loud bang, followed by a splatter of blood. We thought this was very dark and therefor used it in our film. After the balloon had exploded blood all over the woman, we decided we should have one more scare before we cut the titles off, so Trunco will be standing behind the woman in the dark, staring over shoulder with an evil grin.

The Mise en Scene

 

For our movie, there will only really be 2 settings for the most part: the street and the house. The street will have little lighting, only street lights and the moon as actual forms of light (possible some house lights as well). We are hoping to get it as dark as possible to put across the idea that Trunco the Clown only comes out at night, and to really emphasise his horror. In the house, the light will be much brighter, as we're going to use normal lights to make it seem more safe for the woman when actually, no where is safe. We're really trying to put across that NO ONE is safe from this clown. The kitchen will be lit up brightly, and the outside will be dark, we're hoping to get this contrast right so that when the face appears at the window, it will be coming out of pure darkness. As a kind of symbol of evil.

The sounds used in the film will be used to create tension and presence emitted by Trunco. Sounds like the song 'Send in the Clowns' and the sound of the balloon popping will produce a scary atmosphere inside the film, however outside the filming and while we edit, we're going to be using loud noises when the face pops up and also static when the radio cuts off. We hope that these edited noises will project tension into the film.

 

Authenticity

 

Hopefully, we're going to make this movie as sadistic and scarring as possible because we strongly believe that with a horror movie, the viewer needs to have that 'hide behind a cushion' feeling all the time. That feeling is what i believe to be the key to horror movies. This movie will not be so different from others but we hope to en corporate every other great horror theme into this film so that if we get the mixture and recipe of themes spot on the it will provide a sickening yet entertaining atmosphere that will not be forgotten.



Costume in Horror Movies

The costume in horror movies is very important because the antagonist (villain) in a horror movie is essentially the main character of the movie. This means that it is important to get the costume right because the antagonist is the person that inflicts fear and entertainment into the audience. There are certain items of clothing and make-up film makers purposefully use to cause more fear and tension.

The character which our group is using is a clown, so that similar of 'Pennywise' from the movie IT. There are certain parts of the costume that are purposefully placed to give extra effect. However, as the clown is in itself already a character, we have to obide certain stereotypes, for example, the red nose and big hair. We have to try and maintain a 'clown look'.

If we were to look at Pennywise the clown, we could see why the film makers have decided to give him certain characteristics. The red hair and red nose could be implied to signify danger or blood within the film. The red nose and red hair on the pale white face shows extreme contrast between colours. The white could show that the clown is not human, as there is no sign of 'pink' skin. We often say that skin can look 'full' or 'fresh' when it has colour and healthy skin is often tanned. So this lack of colour make Pennywise seem as if he isn't human but a ghost or monster.

The actual costume of Pennywise is brightly coloured and personally, i think that this is to do the opposite of what bright colours are supposed to do. If you were to think of bright colours like orange/yellow/green then you would think of mainly pleasant things, however, in this scenario Pennywise's colours are somewhat ver the top and creepy. They look out of place, like any clown does. That is what i think the main message of the costume is. They're trying to make Pennywise seem out of place and abnormal just like all horror characters should be. This is common because the audience are aroused by abnormality, because it surprises us and enetertains us.

Props in Horror Movies

The use of blood on props in horror films imply danger and fear and is one of the main themes which people immediately link with horror. In our movie we will be using a lot of blood to make the props more scary, or even if it's not blood, we still want to use as much red based objects as possible to signify blood and danger. For example on our weapon (knife) and as well as on our costume. Also, when the woman is washing up, we will use ketchup on the dishes to portray blood and maybe red wine. This use of red really places danger into our opening titles.

The props in horror movies are made out to be more terrifying than what they actually are. Objects that would not usually be seen as particularly scary are somehow made to portray fear. Items and objects such as knives and hammers are not scary in realy life but when in a horror movie we instantly think "weapon". So what makes these connotations pop into our heads? Well there's numerous things that directors and movie makers do to props to propose such horror.

Another way in which film makers make props scary is the material that the object is made of. For example, if there was to be a chair in the  middle of a room, it would seem ideal to use a wooden chair as they are more old fashioned and maybe more spooky than if we were to use a plastic chair. Also, to make something a little scarier in a horror film could be to mise en scene (the lighting or sound). By this i mean that if you were to have a vase in the middle of the room that has light, it won't be as chilling if it was dark. This is to do with our connotations of darkness. If something is in the dark it instantly gives it a mysterious atmosphere or aroma. Again, with the sound, if you were to play a spooky soundtrack over the sight of the vase then this would cause more tension than if there was no music.

Opening Titles Storyboard

This is our storyboard of each scene we will film in our opening titles. Drawing by me and jemma, writing by me and kayleigh. It's just a rough draft really. Our main guide to our film list will be our screenplay.

 

 

 

This was our pitch in which we showed our ideas and thoughts and presented them to the rest of the class. We may have some faults however we were given feedback from the class and we aim to take on board the feedback and focus that criticism on our final recording. Making it as good and as accurate to the specification as possible.

This is my questionnaire i've used for research for the opening titles of my horror project. Feel free to fill it in!

My Idea Prezi

This is the prezi my group created to present in our pitch. It includes our inspiration, setting, sound, theme etc ideas for our opening movie title.