Script for 3 of my key scenes.

Due to not wanting to give too much away in my key scenes I have made sure that there is not a lot of speech therefore my scripts will be just full of stage directions.

Scene 2:

*Sandi is currently sat alone on the floor in her bedroom, she will be very sheepish and also trying to talk quietly as though she is hiding something*
Sandi: We just need to hide all of the evidence, yeah, everything needs to be removed out of the house and whatever happens, Jamie CAN NOT! find out. (Quietly, serious but also very sharp)
Jamie: (Jamie is stood behind the door listening with a face of pure shock)

Scene 4:

*Sandi simply starts to make her way into the bathroom late at night, she soon notices that the security light from the back garden has randomly come, This leads to Sandi to suddenly stop. She then decides to investigate.*
Sandi: (very slowly Sandi walks over to the bathroom window, opens the window and leans out, she speaks in a very shocked yet confused manor.) "J-Jamie, is that you?!"

Scene 8:

Jamie: (She will be located at the top of the stairs grabbing onto Sandi, she speaks in an extremely aggressive manor) "You deserve to die for what you did"
Sandi: (Extremely worried as she is hanging off the edge of the top of the stairs, speaks in a pleading manor) "Please Jamie I beg you"
Jamie: (An aggressive manor) "You're no friend, im friends with the devil now" (Jamie then continues to throw Sandi down the stairs.

Narrative theory research.

                          Paranormal Activity 3

The film I have chosen is Paranormal Activity 3.

Brief Summary:  Paranormal Activity 3 is a follow on from both ‘Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2.’ This film revolves around both sisters Katie and Kristi which you saw as adults in Paranormal Activities and Paranormal Activity 2 but this time we see them from when they were children due to us going back and watching video footage of them when they were younger. The movie tries to show how the demon has been affecting them since childhood and it clears up the curse that the Grandmother has placed on the family. The film continues to go on showing how Katie's sister has an imaginary friend called Toby who in reality is the demon that’s causing all the issues.

How does Todrov’s theory apply to the main narrative of the film?

Todrov had a theory that there are 5 different steps when it comes to a story.

·        Equilibrium

·        Moment Of Disequilibrium

·        Disequilibrium

·        Restored Order

·        New equilibrium

At the beginning of the film everything seems pretty normal. This is because all that’s happening is that old films of when Katie and Kristi were younger are being looked at by Kristi and Daniel. This would be classed as the equilibrium of the film as everything seems to be going perfectly fine and there is a nice balance, everything seems to be going smoothly. Kristi and Daniel and just living a normal every day to day life.

Next as an audience we simply start to look back at life when Katie and Kristi were children. The next thing we witness is that Dennis and Julie (Julie being the mother and Dennis being her boyfriend) make an attempt at making a sex tape and suddenly get interrupted due to an unexpected earthquake. When looking through the camera footage Dennis  soon realises that dust seems to be falling from the ceiling and lands onto an invisible figure within the room that’s standing in front of the camera. This leads to Dennis being in shock and placing cameras around the house to capture footage. This can be seen as the moment of disequilibrium within the film as this is where something bad has occurred but this is only the very start of it.

Next, strange things begin to happen around the house such as Kristi begins to wake up a extremely odd times and talks to someone that can’t be seen. She claims its someone called Toby. Dennis also finds very strange drawings of symbols in a cupboard in the girls room. The symbols that had all been drawn are in a book about ‘demonology.’ Other strange things begin to happen too, Kristi strangely and unexpectedly falls extremely ill so Dennis asks his friend Randy to look after Katie while they take Kristi to the doctors. Randy ends up getting attacked and witness’ a black figures movement, things seem to be messed with and objects get violently thrown across the room, and so on, Things like this happen numerous times. This can be classed as the disequilibrium of the film due to the characters starting to realise that things are going wrong and a lot of mysterious things are happening to the family within the house.

Then due to Dennis and Julie seeing footage and experiencing things they then realise what’s going on so they then decide to go to the grandmothers house (also known as Lois.) This is so that the family can get away from everything that is happening within their home. This can be seen as the restored order as Julie and Dennis are trying to put things right by moving away from the problem and trying to start a fresh life. Although this doesn’t go to plan.

Once the family have moved in with Lois things only get worse. Julie and Dennis all of a sudden seem to get haunted by whatever it is that’s following both them and their family. Again weird things happen within Lois’ home such as strange people appearing, things being flung across the room etc. Julie and Dennis end up being killed supposedly due to Toby, although Lois, Katie and Kristi were all part of the plan. As soon as Julie and Dennis have been killed a new and almost ‘happy family’ has been reformed. Lois, Katie, Kristi and Toby. This can be said to be the new equilibrium as things are not the same but everything has gone back to a normal steady balance. The problem has been defeated and the peace has soon returned even though things have changed an awful lot.

Levi-Strauss: How many example of binary opposites are there?

·        Young VS Old

·        Black VS White

·        Girl VS Boy

·        Good VS Evil

·        Scared VS Fearless

·        Open VS Secretive

·        Strong VS Weak

·        Human VS Demon

Propp: Character types and how many are there?

Propp has a theory that within a story there are 7 main characters, there are:

·        The Princess

·        The Hero

·        The Villain

·        The False Hero

·        The Dispatcher

·        The Donor

·        The Helper

In Paranormal Activity 3 we are able to witness several different character types.

First of all we have the ‘demon’ of the film named Toby which would be classed as the ‘Villain’ due to him being the one in the film to cause trouble to the people and environment around him. We can tell that ‘Toby’ is the villain of the film due to the mayhem that has been caused. For example, things being thrown across the room, terrorising the family, attacking people etc.

The princess of the film would be both Dennis Julie and Katie due to them being the helpless ones as they are frightened and unaware of what’s going on. Therefore they’d be classed as weak. The princess is the one who stereotypically needs saving and these three genuinely do as Toby is thriving off of their fear.

You could also probably say that Kristi is also a princess of the film as its almost as though she wants to get away from Toby but the whole time she’s actually on his side the whole time. Therefore we could say that Kristi is the donor of the film as she tries to help Toby along his way to complete certain things. Normally Propp would say that the donor of the film is someone that helps the hero but her we can see the roles have been changed and the donor has become someone who ends up helping the villain.

The helper of the film could be both Julie and Dennis due to them being the helper to each other. They can also be classed as the heroes as they are trying to be strong and brave about everything that is happening and they also try to protect the family by acting like the problem isn’t there until things get worse. If anything Julie becomes more of a helper to Dennis later on into the film as she starts to believe what’s going on due to her witnessing paranormal events. Therefore she sticks by ‘The heroes’ side, Dennis, so she can help him on his mission to find out what’s actually going on.

In Paranormal Activity 3 we could say that there are two false heroes. This is because when Dennis, Julie and the two girls move out to live with the grandmother, Lois we witness her being a very welcoming and trustworthy women. Katie, the sister of Kristi is also seen to be really innocent, weak and helpless as she is pretty much oblivious as to why all of this is going on. We then soon find out that Lois and Katie are just as evil as Toby and Kristi and was all a part of their scheme from the start. We know this due to the way that they turn on Julie and Dennis and end up killing them. Therefore they were all on Toby’s side all along.

Id personally say that the dispatcher of the film is people like Dennis’ friend, Randy and the baby sitter for Katie and Kristi. This is because they’re the ones that know something is going on within the house due to them witnessing things. They then let Dennis know that there is ‘evil’ within their home or react in a weird way because they’re too scared to tell him what’s actually going on. This then leads to ‘The hero’ Dennis, investigating what’s going on and trying to solve the problem.

Barthes Theory

Barthes has a theory that within every story you have 4 different codes.

·        Action Codes

·        Key Enigma Codes

·        Semantic and Symbolic Codes

·        Culture references

Action Code: One action code within the film is when Julie is standing in the kitchen and staring into space. Us as an audience wonder what she’s doing and what’s going to happen next. Is she staring at something? Is somebody there?. We soon realise that the table, chairs and everything else has been lifted up and thrown back to the floor. Again us as an audience didn’t expect this.

Key Enigma Codes: An enigma code of this film is all the things that are getting thrown about within the house. As an audience this leaves us questioning why this is happening, who is doing it etc.

Semantic and Symbolic Codes: I personally didn’t come across and symbolic codes but an example of a semantic code was the drawings on the wall within the girls cupboard. The things that had been drawn were all demonology related and us as an audience have a vague idea about the drawings therefore we know they almost insinuate something to do with danger.

Culture References: Again I didn’t not come across any culture references.

How is time manipulated?

Due to there being sequels to this film we can see that the films are all actually going in chronological order, Although we do witness video tapes from when Katie and Kristi were younger are being watched. Therefore it’s almost as though they are flashbacks/ going back in time to witness old memories.

Key Scenes & Shot Types

Key Scenes


Key points to show in trailer:

Scene 1: The first key scene will simply be of the two girls simply walking down the road just having a normal conversation and laughing. This will first of all be a long shot which will end up going to a mid-shot and then a close up. This will simply be because the two girls will be walking towards the camera. This will give the audience a quick glimpse at what there friendship is like. Also due to this starting off as a long shot we get to see how the girls are dressed which will give us an idea of there personalities.

Scene 2: Another scene will be of Sandi sitting in a room on the phone. We will then witness an over the shoulder shot of Jamie over hearing her on the phone but Jamie seems to be in a lot of shock from what shes over heard. This leaves the audience wanting to know whats happened.

Scene 3: The next shot will simply be of the two girls in the woods running around, this will consist of a long shot. We will then see how the girls discover a box via close ups and that they struggle to open it, they then decide to get rid of it due to not being able to open it, this then leads to Jamie passing out which will again be a long shot and will possibly be in slow motion. This will help the audience question what's happened to Jamie and will intrigued them to want to watch more.

Scene 4:

Next we will have an over the shoulder shot of Sandi looking out the window into the garden and sees a strange figure she simply says 'Jamie?.' This can also be done in a point of view shot. This will also help to create tension and build an atmosphere and get the audience to want to find out who this figure is.

Scene 5:

Next shot will be a longshot of this strange figured holding a knife over Sandi. Sandi soon wakes in shock, gasps, backs away and screams 'Jamie what's gotten into you!' This will lead to the audience asking the same question. 

Scene 6:

We will then have a close up of Jamie's face as she lifts her head and says 'I wish I knew' 

Scene 7:

The next shots will be several ones merged together, Sandi will be walking down the alley way in the dark when she notices the figure at the end with a knife, we will then have point of view  shot of Sandi looking in the mirror and Jamie appearing behind her, we will then have a close up of Jamie pulling the knife out of her jacket, we will then have a mid shot of Jamie knocking on the porch door in the dark to help set the mood and tension, all over this there will be a voice over of Sandi, she will  Be simply saying "I don't know what's gotten into her, does she know what I've done? it's something to do with the day she found that box definitely, it's up to me to find that box and find out what's happened to her" this will then cut to a midshot of Sandi walking back to the woods on the phone as she is having this conversation narration, this will then end up to a close up. This will intrigued the whole audience as they will want to know what's going on with Jamie and what the link with the box is.

Scene 8:

The next shot will be a close up slow motion shot of Sandi grabbing the box with a voice over of Jamie saying 'you deserve to die for what you did' (these two clips will merge together using a fade) we will then witness them both at the top of the stairs in a two shot and Jamie saying "your no friend, I'm friends with the devil now" then she will push Sandi down the stairs, Sandi will be holding a knife, this will lead to a high angle shot of Sandi lying injured on the floor. Shots like this is where the tension is built and excite the audience.

The last shot will be in slow motion and start as a long shot. Jamie will begin to walk towards the camera, lift her head and scream at the camera. This will make the audience jump as it's very unexpected.


Levi-Strauss’ Binary Opposites
Good/Evil    Worried/Curious   Strong/Weak   Happiness/Sadness

Roland Barthes 
Open threads & Enigma code: What has happened to Jamie and what has the box got to do with whats happened to her.
Action Code: When Jamie pulls out a knife to Sandi.

Propp’s Character Roles
Princess: Sandi
Hero: Sandi
Villain: Jamie
False Hero: Jamie??
Dispatcher: 
Donor:
The Helper:

As we can see there are a few theories that link in with my trailer but only a few elements from each of these theories fit into place, not all of them.

Trailer Props & Locations

Write a list of props you will need for your trailer.

• Fake blood and cuts will be needed to exaggerate scenes for when Sandi gets hurt but also for Jamie as it will be part of the outfit.
• A murder weapon that Jamie carries around to threaten Sandi with, preferably a knife.
• A strange looking box for the girls to find for when they're on a walk in the woods.
• Things such as phones are going to be needed so the girls can make phone calls and receive texts.
• A set of clothes, Jamie is going to need 2 different sets of clothes due to her personality change. Sandi is going to need one set.
• Makeup is also going to be needed to show the first of all the personalities to do with Jamie but also with Sandi.

All the props that are being used will be linked to the character is some way as it will help due to the sort of person that they are but will also help with the story line. They will also fit in with the events within the film.

Write a list of locations for your trailer.

• One location that will be used is the woods within the park. This will be where the main event of Jamie being possessed will happen.
• Another location will simply be at home which well be seen as the home that both Sandi and Jamie share.
• The back garden/ alley way will be somewhere else to film as these will be places Jamie will randomly appear, this will help build the tension.
• The road sides will as be another location for it to look as though the girls are just within a normal location.

Here is the woods within Sutton Park I will be filming in.

This is an example of the bedroom that filming will be taken place.

I have taken a picture from outside my bedroom window to show both the alley way and the garden as this is also where filming will be taken place.

I have taken 2 pictures here outside of my window again as this will be the road side I will also be filming on outside of my house.

Character Profiles

Here I have simply drawn out a rough idea of what I picture my characters to be like. I have simply added a lot of of labels for you to picture and have more of an idea what my characters would look like.

Audience Feedback

Here I simply asked 5 different people 6 different questions about my synposis so that I knew what to improve next time and know what people liked and disliked.

I couldn't get this one person to record there interview therefore I wrote down everything they said and I have typed it up onto here:

What do you like about my film pitch?
I really enjoyed how you used both a voice over and music.
What do you dislike about my film pitch?
The fact that I didn't really know much about the actual story line.
What do you think about the voice over?
The voice over was really god it made everything a lot more intense and intrigued me.
How could I improve my film pitch?
Next time I personally think you should wait until its a little bit darker outside and then decide to film as it was a little bit light when you had filmed.
What is your favourite part of my pitch?
My favourite part was the part where there was a figure standing in the alley way, it was very mysterious.
What do you think towards the effect that have been used such as the black and white effect and slow motion?
I think they worked really well as it helped build the atmosphere.

Outline Ideas

This is where I have brainstormed all of my ideas that I have for my movie trailer.

Treatment For Movie Trailer Production

Synopsis.