Empire magazine analysis

Anonymous outline script

Anonymous Trailer Script

[Whilst pictures of families are on the screen]

Voice-over Actor: He’s real…No-one knows his name...no-one knows where he has come from…he’s anonymous...

[at dinner with friends]

Friend #1: i cant believe you have finally moved in1
Annabelle: Yeah i know, it is such a nice house, theres just... something not right about it.

[Voice mail from friend]

Friend 1: Annabelle, theres someone there, in the house, please call me back!

[On the phone to her mum]

Mum: Annabelle stop being so worried, you’re just scaring yourself. You’re in a big house on your own of course if you listen to all of these stories you’re going to get worried.
Annabelle: Please mum I couldn’t make this up, I keep seeing a man outside my window and I’m starting to wonder whether he is real or it’s in my imagination.
Mum: Look, I will do some research on the area as best as I can but I can’t promise that I will find anything.

[End scene of man on bike]


Voiceover Actor: [over the top of the end scene] ...once you see him you can’t get rid of him, he will hunt you down and you will never see your family again.

Story Board

A

Early Footage

Here is the first version of our trailer. There are many ways in which we had decided to expand and improve our trailer. We knew that certain editing had to be done to insure that it was as effective as possible. This is an early version to show the extent to which we have changed and grown as a group to prove how different the trailer has got and how the audience feedback we received changed the final result.
I found it interesting to understand the different opinions we got after showing this trailer to our peers. Many of them enjoy horror films and therefore could compare this footage to other trailers they have seen from the same genre. Although it is difficult and time consuming to edit a film trailer, we decided that it was best to keep on changing and adding features in order for it be as successful as possible. Comments from peers within our class allowed us to expand on ideas and gave us a boost in taking the trailer up to the next standard. We took on their advice and believed it helped out trailer a lot to evolve.

Here are three quotes given by our peers as to how this early version of our trailer may be improved:

Peer no.1: "I really enjoyed watching the trailer because it was different to what i expected and compared to your previous idea of a British social realism i can see a lot more work has gone into the idea. However, i still think there may be improvements. First of all if i were making the film i would not have put music at the beginning. even though it is effective i feel like a more slow beat might help build up initial tension without giving much away. I would also maybe add more dialogue, but otherwise, a really good trailer well done!"

Peer no.2: "i think the trailer is good but i don't think i was as scared as i could have been if there were more clips of the anonymous man. Even though the film is named after him i'm still not sure if he is human or not. Maybe add a couple more scenes so we really get to know who he is? Otherwise, i enjoyed it!"

Peer no.3: " i really liked the way you had different scenes from places all over the house, i think this will make the audience intrigued to know more. I still don't really understand the middle part of the trailer because theres not really any tension like i saw in the beginning and end. If you wanted to improve it id definitely focus on changing the middle and including something that will make the audience gripped on what will happen next. Some non diegetic sound will also help with building unease for the audience! try that!"

Location of filming

Location of the film

For the location of the film, we needed to initially look into the conventions of where Horror films are usually filmed.

As a group we realised that deciding the location and time of filming is just as important as choosing the actors. Due to our film being low budget and being funded by micro wave, we decided that filming in one house is the best way to keep cost down. Filming on location is cheaper, rather than filming on a constructed set or in a studio. However, a downfall of shooting in a real life environment is that the light and camera angles may suffer. The natural lighting on streets and inside buildings will be of a lower quality and standard, however, it is the best way to make the scenes realistic and believable for the audience.

It would be more difficult for us to film in an outdoor public environment as it could be unpredictable, noises of traffic or members of the public could alter the scene and how it looks.

Outdoor scenes

Throughout the film and the trailer there will be scenes showing an outdoor area. For example, Annabelle will have to move into her new house. This will be difficult to control as the weather and environment will be unpredictable on a daily basis.

There are areas in the garden and I the house where we will film which will give off eerie feeling. When Annabelle is walking into her home after moving in and trying to speak to the paper boy, it is likely that she will be feeling on edge, we want the location to portray this and therefore the location of where she walks is important.

Indoor scenes

Depending on the size of the scene, it may be more expensive to shoot a film on location, however in a house where Annabelle will be living, it will be very low budget as props will already be there and available for us to create the scene. There are always great benefits to filming on location; for example, the audience will get to see an inset into the characters lives and how they spend their daily lives in their home environment.

The kitchen is usually the hub of a home and where scenes will be filmed. The character of Annabelle will be spending time in the kitchen and watching outside her windows to the garden.

Character profile

There are certain aspects of classic horror characters that will be eminent in our trailer. We have looked into conventions of different characters in order to see what personality traits we can portray onto our victims.
Firstly, our character Annabelle will be of the age range of our target audience, this is because we want them to feel engaged throughout and keep the attention of them. Also, by having a young girl as the main character it will be appealing for both males and females to watch the film in the cinema. Another reason for having a female victim is that it is a convention of a horror film. They can easily be portrayed as vulnerable which means her personality will be conveyed as on edge. This is an important personality trait as it means when she jumps the audience in then will also be scared. This can build on the suspense in the trailer.
Within our film trailer, we decided that Annabelle would be a protagonist which means she herself will experience the horror of the anonymous figure at first hand. She has been terrifiably caught up in events that's are beyond her control, which then lead on to show her personality as anxious and scared.
As our film plot is victim narrated, the female character is at the heart of the entire plot, we get to see her change from a relatively happy and content person to a petrified and unsettled victim of an unknown figure lurking in her new home. This is a modern twise we have added to our plot in order to see it defy the usual conventions. Annabelle faces the horror character by herself which isn't usually seen in most horrors. A convention would be a female character being saved, however, we are glad to add a different twist and challenge usual conventions of a male hero. Annabelle manages to locate the source of horror being inflicted on her home without the aid of a male making this a strong statement of her character.

Change of film idea

We decided as a group that we needed to listen to our audience feedback. It's difficult for us to decide on a new direction from the work we've put into the first plot,  however, we decided in order to get the best result and make the best trailer we can,  we are now doing to switch to a horror genre and a different storyline.
By doing this, we are maximising our audiences feedback and we can incorporate a more thrilling plot to engage them.
We decided to look into horror films and use different conventions that can in turn create a more thrilling experience. If we did not listen to our audiences feedback we'd struggle to find a good place in the market of film. When we compared feedback for both plot lines we saw that the second plot line was a lot more popular for those in the age group of 15-25. Also, if the target audience is more drawn to the horror genre then immediately we are likely to sell more tickets and create a more creative film.
We noticed that by doing a horror film we could use different lighting and camera angles. We can shoot parts of the trailer in different natural lightings whilst also using a spotlight to highlight certain parts of the scene. Also, the acting can be more dynamic and we can adapt the way the acting is done to create an eerie and unknowing feel.
I am excited and apprehensive to start filming the new idea as I feel the direction of this plot is a lot more clear and precise to what we want the film to be.

Pitch for original Anonymous

We have created a pitch to show our original idea for our film anonymous. It includes important information about our pitch.

Pitch for #Anonymous

For a new start, in A2 I will be building on the work I did at AS Level and look more fully at the contexts of media production and consumption. The focus will be on why as well as how texts are created. I will be approaching texts more critically and looking in more detail at the work of key media.