Trick or Treat
Michael Dougherty,2007
SUMMARY/IDEAS I MIGHT USE:
I liked the idea of using an innanimate object on screen before the ident, which then evolves into an animation and the ident itself. We could use representations of the main character through clothing, hairstyle, bedroom setting etc to signify this is vunerable character or victim.
SYNOPSIS:
A young boy who is bullied at school, idolises a dark, mysterious character which may lead to horrific events.
IDENTS/TITLES:
One ident was used for this film, however before the idents, there is an image of a scary wooden statue figure straight away appearing on screen, presenting the genre of the horror film. This image of the statue then emerges from an object into animation and evolves into the first and only ident. This is a unique way of presenting the ident which i may use in my film opening.
The ident lasts 5 seconds before then going straight into titles. The titles first run with white font lettering on a black backround when introducing the film title and producers, however this then changes as the titles continue running over video background, a montage of shots and panning around someone's bedroom.
There are 19 titles altogether, set out in the normal layout of titles; director, producer, cast, crew, director.
MISE-EN-SCENE:
The opening scene is a long shot of the main character on his bed.
The character is writing in a journal and narrating what he is writing, this then turns into a montage of events with different scenes in various locations around the school, such as the lunchroom, the sports hall, the changing rooms and under the stairs. Throughout this montage the main character, the young boy, is seen being bullied and hurt in various ways, signifying this vunerable, weak character which usually links in perfectly with the horror genre. We get the idea that this character is going to either be the antagonist to save the day from the "evil" occurences later on in the film, or infact the victim in the situation. In the main character's bedroom we see a poster of some sort of dark character that he seems to idolise. This eery character he chooses to idolise creates enigma on what kind of lifestyle the boy leads.
REPRESENTATIONS:
From the representation of the character's bedroom during the running titles, also with the style of non-diegetic rock music that runs with it, we get the idea that this character leads a dark, mysterious lifestyle, perhaps suggesting that he is infact going to be the antagonist.The representation of the main character's haircut in contrast to the other character's emphasises how different he is, and vunerable, making us almost certain that this will lead up to a dis-equillibrium involving this character.
SOUNDTRACK:
From the very beginning before the idents there is a non-diegetic soundtrack playing. This plays throughout the idents, and first titles, (lasting 42 seconds in total) overlapping with anon-diegetic narrative from a mysterious character the audience is not familiar with, creating enigma before the titles have even finished. The titles then continue and the soundtrack changes to different non-diegetic music which then goes onto play throughout the rest of the titles and over the first diegetic sound. This soundtrack is played for 3 minutes 32 over a montage of events happening.
The first soundtrack (over ident and first titles);
Denotation; Long, drawn out synthesised music and violins- with slow tempoed, deep man voice-over reciting a dark poem.
Conotation; Eery, creates enigma, mysterious, keeps audience on edge, creates tension. Man's voice and words may create confusion the audience on what this poem means,signifies the genre of the film.
Budget;
rottentomatoes.com ;IMDB;6.7;Roger Ebert
I liked the idea of using an innanimate object on screen before the ident, which then evolves into an animation and the ident itself. We could use representations of the main character through clothing, hairstyle, bedroom setting etc to signify this is vunerable character or victim.
SYNOPSIS:
A young boy who is bullied at school, idolises a dark, mysterious character which may lead to horrific events.
IDENTS/TITLES:
One ident was used for this film, however before the idents, there is an image of a scary wooden statue figure straight away appearing on screen, presenting the genre of the horror film. This image of the statue then emerges from an object into animation and evolves into the first and only ident. This is a unique way of presenting the ident which i may use in my film opening.
 |
| wooden statue figure |
 |
| statue becomes animated |
 |
| forms into ident (lion's tail) |
The ident lasts 5 seconds before then going straight into titles. The titles first run with white font lettering on a black backround when introducing the film title and producers, however this then changes as the titles continue running over video background, a montage of shots and panning around someone's bedroom.
There are 19 titles altogether, set out in the normal layout of titles; director, producer, cast, crew, director.
MISE-EN-SCENE:
The opening scene is a long shot of the main character on his bed.
The character is writing in a journal and narrating what he is writing, this then turns into a montage of events with different scenes in various locations around the school, such as the lunchroom, the sports hall, the changing rooms and under the stairs. Throughout this montage the main character, the young boy, is seen being bullied and hurt in various ways, signifying this vunerable, weak character which usually links in perfectly with the horror genre. We get the idea that this character is going to either be the antagonist to save the day from the "evil" occurences later on in the film, or infact the victim in the situation. In the main character's bedroom we see a poster of some sort of dark character that he seems to idolise. This eery character he chooses to idolise creates enigma on what kind of lifestyle the boy leads.
REPRESENTATIONS:
From the representation of the character's bedroom during the running titles, also with the style of non-diegetic rock music that runs with it, we get the idea that this character leads a dark, mysterious lifestyle, perhaps suggesting that he is infact going to be the antagonist.The representation of the main character's haircut in contrast to the other character's emphasises how different he is, and vunerable, making us almost certain that this will lead up to a dis-equillibrium involving this character.
SOUNDTRACK:
From the very beginning before the idents there is a non-diegetic soundtrack playing. This plays throughout the idents, and first titles, (lasting 42 seconds in total) overlapping with anon-diegetic narrative from a mysterious character the audience is not familiar with, creating enigma before the titles have even finished. The titles then continue and the soundtrack changes to different non-diegetic music which then goes onto play throughout the rest of the titles and over the first diegetic sound. This soundtrack is played for 3 minutes 32 over a montage of events happening.
The first soundtrack (over ident and first titles);
Denotation; Long, drawn out synthesised music and violins- with slow tempoed, deep man voice-over reciting a dark poem.
Conotation; Eery, creates enigma, mysterious, keeps audience on edge, creates tension. Man's voice and words may create confusion the audience on what this poem means,signifies the genre of the film.
