Action Horror script

Before we start filming we have created a script which goes into detail about all of the shots in the trailer including settings, dialogue and camera angles.

Riot Squad

Written by

  

Ashley Beggs

During production logo start of some radio music is playing.

INT. MILITARY OFFICE

Sound of typing on a keyboard. Close up of hand typing on keyboard. The song is suddenly interrupted by static then a voice.

Military officer

Stay in your homes this is not a drill. I repeat stay in your homes. Stay away from the windows and doors.

Close-up of the back of the military officer’s head with a pair of headphones on. The same man carry’s on.

Military Officer

Turn the lights off and arm yourselves. You’ll know if and when you need to use your weapons.

Static long shot of the antagonist from behind as he walks down the hallway. The same military officer is still talking.

Military Officer

This is a dangerous individual. He doesn’t know mercy. He doesn’t respect status. If he approaches you run like hell. Don’t go back for ANYBODY or ANYTHING.

The static returns and then fades out.

Shot from behind of a military official as the radio host returns.

Radio Host

Sorry, for the interruption listeners. Right back to the show for one of my favourites… Iron man, by Black Sabbath.

The first cords of ‘Ironman’ play.

The Camera pans around as the military officer as he takes off his headphones as the camera settles into a low angle shot showing the military officers chest upwards.

Military Officer

The world’s most deadly man has just escaped.

‘Ironman’ is still playing in the background meanwhile the screen is black with white writing. “Directed by…”

Mid shot of army guys sitting on board an air plane. ‘Ironman’ starts to fade out. Cuts to a slight low angle of a military officer. The camera is handheld and shaking slightly because they’re on an air plane. Same military officer as the one who was warning people gives a talk to the plane.

Military Officer

This is the most dangerous man in history. More dangerous than Jack the Ripper, The BTK Killer or The Zodiac.

Camera cuts to a mid-shot of a squad member who makes a joke. The music suddenly stops.

Squad member

I like our odds

The camera pulls away as everybody stares at him.

Camera cuts to a black screen with white writing that shows the release dates.

Medium long shot of the antagonist walking towards steps with a guard at the top of the stairs with his back to the stairs

EXT. OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING

Spotlight is shining down flashing across the antagonist like the person operating the spotlight can’t find him.

Guard

Where the hell is he?

Shot of antagonist walking down path with metal fences on either side and he is dragging the guard from the previous scene. Tracking shot.

Mid-shot of another guard through some bars talking to somebody over the radio.

Guard

Are they here yet? Nah, Jerry go fuck yourself. I don’t want them here in two minutes we need them here NOW!!! You’re not the one standing out

Antagonist appears from behind him and smashes his head into the bars this is when a Sting can be heard.

Cuts to a black screen with white writing. “What happens when the world’s most dangerous man escapes?”

Medium long shot of person being chased and they trip over an object.

POV shot through the mask with a red haze over the top as he moves towards the person and a scuffle ensues with the antagonist winning.

INT. INSIDE BUILDING

Squad member kicks down the door and a loud bang as the guy kicks through the door.

Cuts to a black background with white writing. “Who can stop him?”

Medium close up antagonist grabs Squad member in a front headlock. Squad member try’s to push antagonist but the antagonist doesn’t move showing his strength. The antagonist punches the Squad member in the back with the bottom of his fist displaying a more animalistic fighting style. Horror score starts.

Black screen with white writing. “Can he be stopped?”.

Protagonist runs at antagonist but gets grabbed and thrown into a wall. Music begins to build to a climax.

High angle shot over the antagonist shoulder with the protagonist on the floor and then the antagonist stomps on him. Sting.

Two beat up Squad members begin to talk.

Squad member 1

He can’t be stopped

Squad member 2

We need help… we need back up

Protagonist grabs one of the Squad members by the jacket and shouts at him.

Protagonist

WE ARE THE BACK-UP!!!!!

The Squad member that was grabbed tries to run away, but the protagonist catches up to him and slaps him. (shot reverse shot)

Protagonist

You run away a coward now Jenkins or you can die a hero.

Squad member still tries to run away and darts into a room and the Wilhelm scream can be heard. Then goes flying out the room like he’s been thrown.

Cuts to a black background with white writing. “Will he be stopped?”

Protagonist is dragging his leg/limping. Looking really beaten up. Villains mask is broken, and his eye can be seen.

The protagonist and antagonist run at each other and are about to punch but the camera cuts just before they do. Camera cuts to black as the radio music come back in.

Cuts to title Riot Squad with the slam of a jail door as the sting.

Cuts to black background with white writing. “Coming soon”

Credits, website and social media.

The End

The conventions of a Film Magazine

Alongside creating a film poster we are also going to be creating a film magazine cover to advertise our film on. This will be very different from the poster as magazines have there own set of conventions that are used. And because of this I'm going to analyse four different magazine covers each from different companies to see how they are different and what conventions are similar.

Magazine Cover 1: Empire

The first magazine cover that I'll be analysing is created by Empire magazines. As you can see the main focus of the magazine is advertising the film Captain America The Winter Soldier (2014) which the readers can easily tell as an image of Captain America covers the entire cover even covering the title of the magazine. However, what is interesting is that all other text is in front of him which shows that important information will always appear in front of everything on the cover so the readers can easily view it. 

Another thing that I noticed is that a lot of the information on the cover directly talks about what is on the inside of the magazine for example the bottom right corner advertises that this issue is there Scarface special which will then make potential readers want to see whats inside leading to them buying the magazine. This can also be seen on the left side of the magazine as it shows a preview of all the upcoming films of the year which will further compel people to want to buy the magazine.

What I can also see on the cover is that they have used the word exclusive to advertise one of the magazines feature articles. This is beneficial to them because it will attract a larger audience of people who will want to read the magazine as it contains an article that can only be found in there magazines which will make the readers feel they are getting something special out of buying it.

Magazine Cover 2: Total Film

The next magazine is created by Total Film. Looking at the magazine you can see many similarities to the empire magazine as they both have the characters from the film appearing over the title of the magazine but still have other important information appear in front of them so that the readers can easily see what content is inside the magazine. Both magazines also advertise exclusives inside them which will make more people want to buy them more so they can learn facts about the film that no one else would be showing. 

However, what is different about this magazine is that they use descriptive words to make its content sound more interesting. For example, instead of exclusive Total Films use world exclusive which will attract more people as they will want to read about something that cant be found anywhere else in the world. Also when they describe the film they use alliteration to make the description more interesting with them saying that The Martian (2015) is 'GRITTY, GRIPPING... GARDENING?' now the first two words are to describe the film saying its a thrilling, intense film nut then they use are word that stands out among the others which will confuse people who read it which will lead to them wondering what they mean by gardening and will then purchase the magazine to read the article. Another thing that I noticed about this magazine cover is that the colours of the text conforms with the colours on the characters costume which makes them all blend in well together. 

Magazine Cover 3: Sight & Sound

This is a magazine cover created by Sight & Sound. Now comparing this poster to the previous two this one looks very different. What stands out to me the most is the lack of information compared to the other magazines all it shows is the films title (The Revenant, 2015), the main actor and director and some of other articles. Now I believe this was done as while its simple it also makes it easy to see the information as it can all be found in the same place making it easy to view which is convenient for the readers.

I can also see that they also advertise the best films of 2015 on the front cover which is in a bright red circle. I believe this was done because the red contrasts from the dark blues and whites from the film screen shot so that people will immediately see it when they view the cover and this could then compel them to buy the magazine. Speaking of buying the magazine, what I like about this magazine is that the bar code is visible on the front cover which also shows the price of the magazine which is also convenient for readers as they can immediately see how much the magazine will cost. 

Magazine Cover 4: Entertainment Weekly 

The final magazine cover I'll be analysing is from Entertainment Weekly. By looking at the magazine you can quickly tell that it is very similar to the first two covers with the information spread all over the cover using colours which blend in well with the film screen shot. However, one thing that I noticed that is different compared to those two is that it is using a variety of different fonts to display the information. This may of been done to point out important information to the readers with big bold text showing the main article in the magazine which in this case is about The Last Jedi (2017) whereas all other articles in the magazine are described using smaller text as it is less important, In contrast this could of also been done to save space on the cover so that the text doesn't cover up the entire picture.

What I also noticed about this cover is that while Luke Skywalker's face still covers the title like all the other covers it takes up a lot more space compared to the others which covered up a single letters or parts of them but you could still make out what the title was. However, with this cover a large part of the title is covered blocking several letters and while we can still make out the title if it was a smaller word it would of been blocked out entirely. One thing what I like about the title is how they have the word weekly inside the word entertainment as that part can be clearly seen so readers will still be able to make out the title of the magazine.

Similarities

These magazine covers share many similarities with each other which is good as it means that they are all very conventional and I will be able to use them when my group creates our magazine cover. Here is the list of the main conventions that I could find:

• All the magazine cover have a screen shot of the main character from the film there main article is about and they have the characters face cover the magazines title but make sure that important information about the content of the magazine is in front of the character so it can be seen.
• The magazine title is in big bold text so that it can easily be seen and recognised even with a character covering part of it. They also use strong bold colours to attract audiences as it makes them stand out among other magazines making people want to read them.
• Magazines also advertise exclusive articles that only they have inside of them to make people want to buy them so that they can read them as they will not be able to the read the article any where else.
• Another convention that is shared between all the posters is the colour rule of 3 where the magazine uses 3 main colours that conform with the image on the magazine for example the Total Film magazine uses oranges, whites and greys as they fit well with Matt Damon's costume. Many of the posters also go against this rule as they will then use colours that deliberately stand out as it makes more people notice the colours making them want to read the magazine more.

Film soundtrack update

Since we began planning for the production of our film trailer we have been looking for a soundtrack that we could use in our film to help set the move of an action horror. To do this we searched online for soundtracks for films that would fit with our film trailer. Eventually we decided that we found that many of the soundtracks created by Hans Zimmer as he had created a variety of different film sound tracks from over the years so we thought if we got his permission we would easily have a good mix of music for our trailer.

So after some searching we found an his email address and we messaged him asking for permission to use his soundtrack for our trailer.

We then waited for a response and after a couple weeks of waiting we got this response

So it turns out that despite having his music on the website they were not linked to him whatsoever meaning they were unable to give us permission to use his music. Now this left us in a tight position as we could not find Hans actual email address so we had to look else where. However, we then found a person who takes music from TV shows and creates instrumentals for them removing the lyrics making them perfect for us to use in our film so we found out he had a youtube channel which had his email address on it so we sent him an email much like the previous one.

The email we sent them (Dragon Ball is the name of one of the TV show he recreates music from).

And we then got a quick response back from them telling us that we could use his music for our film trailer.

This is great as we now have a soundtrack to use for our film which will be beneficial to our trailer as it we will be able to make many action packed scenes to go alongside the intense music. 

In addition to finding a soundtrack to use in our trailer we have also been looking for sound effects that can be used in our trailer to go along with the soundtrack. One benefit of finding sound effects over sound tracks is that many of them are royalty free so we can use them without having to ask for permission which is really good for us as we would be able to use them right away.

After searching we sound a youtube channel called SoundsEffectsFactory which had a variety of sound effects we could use a few examples can be seen below.

 

The conventions of a Action Horror poster

The next task for our group is to design a poster to go alongside our the trailer for our film so to get an idea of the conventions that appear in the poster I'm gonna take a look at some horror, action and horror action posters and analyse what can be seen in them and what we could possibly used for the creation of our film poster.

Horror Poster 1: Unfriended (2014)

The first poster that I'm going to analyse is for the film Unfriended (2014). Immediately after looking at the poster you can tell that it is a horror film with several conventions standing out. The first is that the films tag line is the only coloured text on the poster which makes it stand out and the colour red is also associated with with the horror genre as it can have connotations with blood, violence, death, etc. What I can also see is the main part of the poster is the screaming face which has been edited to look like its glitching out making it impossible to tell who it is which prevents it from spoiling the story to the audience.

A close-up on the search bar

Another, notable thing that appears on the poster is the search bar appearing under the face as by looking closely at the search results we can see some very sinister results revolving around a person called Laura Barns with results such as suicide and possession. However, on closer inspection it is possible to piece together what the plot could be about which would be that a video/photos of Laura appears on the Internet (Party photos and passed out video results) which lead to her being bullied this ultimately ended with her committing suicide and the film is about her returning as a spirit (possession result) and taking revenge on whoever uploaded the video/photos which from the results is possibly her boyfriend. Now while this is done to peak audiences interests in the film it could possibly limit audiences as they could feel that the film has been spoiled for them as it removes the sense of mystery on the killers motives in the film where it would be more entertaining for the audience to find out as the film goes on.

Horror Poster 2: Jaws (1975)

The next poster that I'm going to analyse is from the classic Spielberg film Jaws (1975) and with its iconic film poster is easy to see what made this film terrifying. So the most notable thing about the poster is the giant shark taking up most of poster this was done to terrify the audiences as back then the cause of it being the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean no one really knew how truly monstrous a shark could be, so when seeing the sharp knife like teeth and emotionless black eyes it truly scared of how realistic the shark looks in the poster with he art done by Roger Kastel who also created the artwork for poster of The Empire Strikes Back (1980). 

The other thing that the audience would also notice is the big, bold, red text that the titles name is in as it contrasts from the rest of the poster because everything else is a either dark blue or white so the 

red title stands out and attracts more audiences as they will want to go and see the film. Another, feature of the poster that I like is that the scale of size between the shark and the swimmer is the shark could literally swallow her in one go which makes the shark much more menacing.

Action Poster 1: The Expendables 2 (2012)

My first action poster that I will be looking at is for the film The Expendables 2 (2012). Now what I like about this poster is that you can clearly tell that it is part of the action genre without having to deeply analyse it which is good as this tells me that the mass audience will also be able to recognise the genre as well attracting more people to it. Looking in depth at the poster, I can see many conventions of the action genre with the most notable being that every character is holding a gun which is a very conventional weapon of the action genre which will also help audiences recognise the genre.

The next thing that I see in the poster is the clear contrast between the top and bottom halves of the poster. The top half is a icy blue colour and with the moon and the helicopters in the background I believe that its implying part of the film could be about infiltration as many films that involve this are set during the night as it would be more stealthy than trying to infiltrate some where in broad daylight. Another thin that I noticed in the top half of the poster is the positioning of the characters as Sylvester Stallone's character is in the centre with the moon shining behind him and then under him our Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger's characters which could suggest the hierarchy of the characters in the film. Now the bottom half of the poster gives off a completely different effect using fiery red colours to connote with the explosion and action that is happening this is to show the audience a glimpse of the action that will appear in the film. What I also like about the bottom half of the poster is that we also see stronger artillery such as a tank and a plane to show us tat the action is at its peak.

Action Poster 2: Rambo First Blood (1982)

The next action poster that I will be analysing is from Rambo First Blood (1982). On first glance this poster may look extremely basic to the audience as the only real thing they will notice is Sylvester Stallone in his army attire which is still very conventional to the action genre as many action films usually are about or have solders in them with them commonly being portrayed as brave fearless heroes. However, there are other things that the audience may not notice at first.

For example, looking at the background of the poster we can see that it is set in a forest which could suggest that the film is going to be set in an isolated area with Rambo being all by himself which will mean he will have no help and need to survive on his own. This would fit with the stereotypical 80's action hero as they were always portrayed as being one man armies who can fight 100's of men at a time and still prevail. Another thing that I noticed about the background is the colour of the sky as from the looks of it, it could either be showing the night sky or a storm. I am more inclined to believe that it is showing a storm as it could be a symbolic way of saying the phrase 'a storm is coming' with he storm actually referring to Rambo who is in front of the storm who could be the harbinger for the storm. 

Action Horror Poster 1: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (2012)

Now, I'll be analysing the posters for action horror films to see what conventions they share from both genres. My first poster is from the film Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter at first glance the poster is much more horror than action with Lincoln sitting in a chair with his top hat covering his face which makes him look much more sinister and menacing and I believe this was done so that audiences do not associate him with the real world Lincoln as we also see that the moon is out and b looking at the tag line we can see that this is not Abraham Lincoln the president it is Abraham Lincoln the hunter which makes it sound like they are two entirely different people. Another thing that I notice is the unusual setting of the poster as we have Lincoln sitting on a chair that is in the middle of a forest clearing this may of been done to bewilder people as they will be given no context in why the setting making them interest in the film making them want to go see it. However, the bizarre setting may just be because the film directed by Tim Burton who creates many films with strange, unique imagery such as Edward Scissorhands (1990) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). 

In addition, there are still parts of this poster that conform to the action genre. This can be seen with the axe he is wielding as while not as conventional as a firearm many films use weapons like these to make them more realistic as its unlikely that ever person has several guns on them at all times like we see in action films.

Action Horror Poster 2: Army of Darkness (1992)

The next action horror poster that I will be looking at is for The Evil Dead 3 more commonly known as Army of Darkness (1992). What I like about this poster is how many conventions from both the horror and action genres are present. First off, the horror conventions I can see are that a red tint is being used on the lower half of the poster which is also showing the Deadites (antagonists of The Evil Dead franchise) rising out of the ground. This has been done to make them look more evil as the colour red in the horror genre is almost always associated with meanings such as death and suffering. Another convention I can see is the low key lighting used in the poster which makes the red tint much more stronger as it isolates it from the rest of the poster. Now if we take a closer look at the Deadites I can see that they appear to be skeletons which classic horror movie monsters and are used in many movies as about the dead returning to life as alternatives to zombies.

Onto the action conventions, most of them revolve around Ash Williams the protagonist of The Evil Dead films which can be seen in this poster through his posture as he standing tall looking down at his enemies with a smile on his face suggesting that he knows he can defeat them which is a common convention of many action heroes as they always come out of fights as the victor. Another convention I see is that his costume is torn and battered but this also shows off his muscular body which is done to show how powerful he is and could be a reference to action heroes from the 80's which were almost always portrayed by large, manly men such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Similarities between the posters

After I finished analysing all of the different film posters I compared them against each other and found several similar conventions in all of them. I will try to implement as many of these conventions as possible when I create our film poster to make it it look like part of the action horror genre. The conventions can be seen in the below list:

• Almost all of the posters use big bold red text in some way either having it show the films title or tag line. I believe this was done because the colour red is commonly associated with connotations such as blood. And this may could suggest that the text is in that colour to make peoples blood start pumping as this is commonly done in both action and horror films as it gives the audience a adrenaline rush hyping them up for the rest of the film which in action films is so the action scenes are more enjoyable and to make scares in horror films more intense.
• Low key lighting is used in many of them to make colours in the poster more vibrant so that they stand out more and attract audiences in making them want to go see the film. Low key lighting can also be used to give the photo a ominous vibe as it can be used to make colours look dull and faded and can also make the photo entirely black and white.
• Many of the posters also show the characters wielding firearms and other weapons usually as a sign of power as it makes them look more strong and dominant than the characters without weapons. The only issue with this convention is that it would be difficult for my group to be able to get a hold of props that look realistic enough especially firearm props so this may be the most unlikely convention to get onto the poster.

The Final Prelim

My group has now finished editing the entirety of our prelim task and it has been uploaded to youtube it can be viewed below.

After we made the prelim we should it to people in our target audiences and got them to give us feedback on it so we could take it to account when we make our final film trailer. And here are the results: 

Callum P:  I really like the editing that has been used. The transitions from the cuts were really professional. I would say… shorten it a bit maybe makes the transition of you going up the stairs quicker to save time

Tamzin: I don’t know if there is anything to improve… there’s a lot of good shots and angles in the film. To improve you could shorten some scenes

Amber: I really liked the editing and the transitions were really good as well it was conventional to the horror genre. To improve you could improve the way some characters react to make them or realistic.

Deli: I think that the bit where ash is running I think it could have been more fast paced to fit with the built in tension other than that I think it’s really good all the other editing and camerawork is really well done.

Overall I believe that the filming and editing went very well. Our intentions were to create a short but terrifying film which we did through the use of mise-en-scene as we made the room where the antagonist is first encountered pitch black to make him more sinister. And to go alongside the only light source that we used cam from a phone light so when the villain was encountered the light would make them look more menacing. 

One of the better techniques that we experimented with during the prelim is the idea of the villain being able to teleport similar to famous Slasher villain like Freddy Krueger and Pennywise. So to do this we filmed several shots of the villain walking up the stairs with each shot having him be at different parts of the stairs slowly making his way up. We then put these scenes together and applied several video filters to hide the shots cutting together as we made it look like the video was glitching out similar to what is seen in The Ring (2002).