Film Treatment for "Revenge"

Overview:

A psychological murder is killing high school students and basing the attacks on a book written by one of the school's English teachers.

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Detailed treatment:

It’s a normal Thursday morning at Curtaintop High School. In the almost full car park we see a shiny black car pull into a space which people start to gather around. After a second three students get out of the car; from the driver’s seat we see a tall brown haired boy wearing black skinny jeans with a white hoodie, he is called Ben Hobbs. From behind the driver’s seat we see a tall girl with long brown wearing blue jeans a white vest top and blue jumper, she is called Robin Harper. Then from the passenger’s seat we see the main character, she is wearing black boots with skinny black jeans a pink t-shirt with a dark pink hoodie, she is called Mary-Alice Duff. She the prettiest girl at Curtaintop High, the three start talking to everyone who was there, they laugh and are having a really good day.

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We then cut to the other side of the car park that looks onto the walk way up to school. We can see a skinny normal looking boy looking at Mary-Alice get out of the car; it’s obvious that he likes her. The boy is called Chris Marshall the boy that nobody knows about or talks too. As he continues to look at Mary-Alice the bell rings and he walks away, but looks back every now and again.

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The next scene opens and we can see Chris standing alone waiting in the corridor next to his classroom. People start to arrive in small groups of about 2-3, nobody talks to him. The teacher come down the corridor and stands next to the door to open it, he doesn’t look at Chris he just says “mornin’”. The teacher is wearing black trousers with a blue shirt tucked in, with a dark blue tie; he is called Gene Tyler or Mr. T. by his students, and he is about 28 years old. Back when he was 17, he wrote a book called “Revenge of a Nobody” in which the school loser takes revenge on the people at school who bullied him and made his life hell, apart from one girl who he has been in love with love with since primary school who he tries to make fall for him by killing everyone she knows. It ends with him killing her, then raping her, then turning the gun on himself. (This is the book they will be studying in their English class.) Gene opens the door and all the students walk in.

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Inside the classroom, Chris sits alone, and gets his pens and paper out, whilst he does this we can see everyone else is just talking and not ready to start the day. After about 5minutes, Gene starts the lesson just as he is about to say what they will be doing today Ben, Robin and Mary-Alice walk in laughing. Gene tells them in a nice friendly way to hurry up, Ben says they are and makes a Mr T (the man from the A Team joke,) everyone laughs, apart from Chris. They sit down and the lesson starts. Gene then starts to talk about his book that they will be studying for their exam, whilst he goes over why he wrote the book and how much money he made out of it. We see Chris staring at Mary-Alice all the way through the lesson. As Gene walks around handing people his book he gets the Chris’ table and asks him a question. He doesn’t reply. From the other side of the classroom one of Ben’s friends Charlie Brown make a joke of him, everyone laughs, apart from Gene and Mary-Alice. Gene says “don’t worry about it and hands him a book. Chris starts to read it.

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The scene then cuts back to corridor outside the classroom, where we hear the bell ring, Chris is the first to leave the room and he starts to look I his bag Mary-Alice walks out and stands next to him, she smiles. He compliments her and thanks her for not laughing at him; she tells him that they are all jerks anyway. He then starts to ask her if she would like to go out with him, just at that moment Robin, Ben and his friend Charlie Brown walk out of the class, see what is happening and start laughing at Chris. Ben the pulls Mary-Alice away saying” you could never get a girl like that” as he walks away with her laughing, Charlie makes a joke about Chris but get’s his name wrong. Anger bubbles up inside Chris and he angrily shouts ‘MY NAME IS CHRIS MARSHALL!” he then runs away.

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We then cut to the next day; we are back in the English classroom we can see Chris empty chair and table. The class is talking about what happened yesterday with Chris and Mary-Alice; everyone is making jokes and laughing apart from her. After the lesson Charlie goes to the bathroom we see him looking into the mirror and complimenting his appearance. Suddenly the lights go out. Darkness. “What the hell? Hey! Whoever did that put the lights back on!” they come back on. He then washes his hands and starts singing. We don’t see who is there, but he suddenly stops and looks in the mirror, he asks “what the hell are you doing in here?” we then see the back of someone’s leg holding in their right hand a knife with blood on it. Charlie panics and starts’ running for the door, the killer runs in front of him and punches him in the nose. Charlie kicks him, pushes him into a toilet cubical and runs for the door. The door is locked, he starts screaming. He gets brutally murdered. After Charlie is dead the killer drops his lifeless body into the middle of the bathroom floor.

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Ben finds the body in the bathroom and tells everyone. The police arrive to clean up the mess, they bring Gene into the bathroom, and all that can be seen is a lot of blood on the sink and floor. But written in light pink lipstick on the mirror is the word ‘REVENGE’. This is the same as what happens in Gene’s book.

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Over the next couple of weeks more students die and at everyone, there is the word 'Revenge' written in pink lipstick either on the body or in a mirror, just like in the book. Furthermore, Chris never comes back to school. At school, 3 weeks after Charlie's murder, Mary-Alice is sat alone at lunch when she receives a phone call from an unknown caller. She answers the call and there is no answer. The phone call cuts out. Ben comes over and tells her he has to go home for a while, he leaves and she is left all alone.

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The scene cuts and we see Robin walking to school, she looks at her watch and it read 12:30pm, she starts to quicken her pace. From nowhere someone throws a empty can of pop at her. It misses her, she turns, there's no one there. She quickens her pace even more; we can hear some heavy breathing coming from behind her. Another can is thrown; she turns and looks at an empty street. She turns back and starts to run, the heavy breathing gets heavy and more intense until another can is thrown it hits her on the head and we cut to black.

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We cut back to the school and see Mary-Alice who is still sat alone looking at her watch; she walks over to a table full of people and asks if anyone has seen Robin, they say no. The bell rings and she walks to 5th lesson. After the lesson, Mary-Alice decides to call Robin, she doesn't pick up. She walks off to her 6th lesson.

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The scene cuts and we can see Robin lied on a dirty floor, we don't know where she is. We can see blood trickling down her face from where the can hit her. She suddenly wakes up and screams for help. The killer walks over and says 'don't bother; no one can hear you scream.' The killer then pulls out a knife and starts to cut up her body.

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We cut as we hear the school bell ring and see Mary-Alice walking out of school to her car. There is a group of people stood around the front of her car, as she gets closer she pushes people out of the way and sees Robin's dead body lied right in front of her car. Written on Robin's face is 'To: Mary-Alice, Love: Revenge' She screams and more people arrive, including Gene and Ben. Ben runs over to her and puts his arm around her and pulls her away from the car. Whilst this happens Gene calls for an ambulance. Ben tries to consolidate her, she starts to punch him away from her, she asks where he has been all day. He can't tell her. She accuses him of being the murder, after a long fight they break up. Mary-Alice walks back to her car sees all the blood and faints.

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The next scene opens with Mary-Alice sat in her English classroom wrapped in a blanket, as she slowly regains consciousness, we can see Gene sat opposite her looking on his computer. Mary-Alice asks where she is and what has happened. Gene tells her and then says if she has any idea who the killer might be, she says it might be Ben. Gene then tells her that she can tell him if anything else happens over the next couple of days.

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The next day at school, Mary-Alice and Ben do not talk to each other; it is obvious that both are very upset and not happy about the break up. It's just a normal day at school.

We then see Ben getting changed in the boy's locker room, he is all alone. Suddenly, we hear some long heavy footsteps coming from behind him. He turns and shouts 'is anybody there?' no answer and the footsteps stop. He continues to get changed, we then see somebody run across the locker room, he turns sees nothing, turns back to his locker and starts to panic. We then hear some heavy breathing coming from directly behind him. He turns around, screams, we see a lot of blood. End scene.

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The next scene opens, back in the locker room we can see lots of boys getting changed as one boy opens his locker he sees the Ben's dead body stuffed inside his locker. It falls on to him and covers the boys around him in blood. Lots of screams.

We then cut to see Mary-Alice sat alone in her English lesson, a teacher comes into the room to talk to Gene, he asks Mary-Alice to come outside. He then tells her about Ben's murder and that written on the body was the same as what was written on Robin's body ('To:Mary-Alice, Love:Revenge.)

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Over the next couple of weeks more students who are close friends of Mary-Alice die all with the word 'Revenge' written in pink lipstick on their faces. Gene tells Mary-Alice that the killer must be someone else she's knows, but she can't think of anybody else who would want to hurt her. At lunch she receives another phone call from an unknown caller, this time there is somebody on the other end. In a creepy style voice the person says that he is coming for her next, she asks who the person is, and he says ' you already know my name!' and cuts the call off. Mary-Alice tells Gene.

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It's the night of the school Prom, and everyone (who's left) is attending, including Mary-Alice. She arrives alone, and we can see about 20 people dancing around the gymnasium which has been decorated in blue and gold banners reading 'Welcome class of '09' etc. She doesn't dance with anyone; Gene comes over to her and asks if she has any ideas why the killer might be targeting her. She doesn't but would like to kill him for revenge. Just at that moment Gene suddenly realises who the killer is, in a panic her tells her not to go anywhere, he runs out of the gymnasium. Whilst he is gone, an announcement is made that everyone is going to die, the lights go out, someone screams, the lights come back on we see a dead body hung from one of the banners dripping blood. This happens a few more times, but this time when the lights come back on Mary-Alice runs to the bathroom, to try and hide. After about a minute of being in there the killer jumps out of one of the toilet cubicles, hits her over the head and we see a screen of red, then nothing.

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The next scene opens and we can see Mary-Alice unconscious lied on the floor, being sprayed with water. She suddenly wakes up and jumps to her feet. We can also see the killer wearing all black with a black hat covering his face, holding a knife covered in blood. She pleads with him not to kill her, he says nothing, he just stands there staring at her. She then asks why her, she starts to cry. The killer then says 'but you know why, don't you Mary-Alice,' he then takes off his hat and for the first time we see the killer, it's Chris Marshall. He tells her why he killed everyone and that it was all because he loved her, he then says that they can finally be together now, Mary-Alice tells him "Get lost, I could never love somebody like you!" He pulls a gun out on her, and commands her to say she loves him, she can't after all the people he's killed and because she never loved him. This makes him very angry, he then says 'Big mistake!' and starts to walk closer to her until he is pointing it right at her heart, 'I guess it's going to end to just like the book, goodby--' Just at that moment he is shot in the head by Gene who says 'I wrote the book, I make the endings.' Gene hugs Mary-Alice and says 'it's all over now.'

Technical Analysis

For the technical analysis, I decided to compare two film trailers that are 33 years apart to see how much change there has been over a short period in film history. The trailers I analysed were the 1976 trailer for the film Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJe0iVo8y3A ) and the 2009 trailer for the film Jennifer's Body directed by Karyn Kusama. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beINapRLbFc )

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In Carrie there are a total of about 29 scenes, however the opening scene which is set during the school's 'Prom Night' is re-used and repeated throughout the trailer showing the audience that the main action of the film is going to happen at the prom. The other scenes that are used are quite long, lasting for about 5-6 seconds which considering the trailer lasts for 2 minutes and 14 seconds, builds up the suspense. The trailer uses the convention of a voice over, the audience is told something about either the setting or Carrie herself and then we get a match on action between the narrative and scene. An example of this is, when the voice over says: "the girl who lives in that creepy house," the camera than cuts to a wide angle shot of a big and "creepy" house. After that the camera then jump cuts to a window where we can see Carrie looking out from.

Also, when Carrie is doing something paranormal or evil, we hear the non-diegetic sound of a high pitched violin which mimics the beat of a heart. It sounds almost like someone is running their fingers down a chalkboard, showing the audience that Carrie must be the villain in the film. Furthermore, whilst that happens we hear some non-diegetic music being played, along with that we also see a red coloured screen with a image of Carrie looking straight at the camera; there is then a match on action as the music quickens up to a heart beat pace and we dramatically jump cut to an extreme close up of her eye.

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Unlike the trailer for Carrie, the trailer for Jennifer’s Body uses very different conventions. It has around 52 scenes, which are not repeated once throughout the trailer unlike the trailer for Carrie. The main reason for this is that there is more money put into trailers then there was in 1976. This trailer also uses sex as a selling point. An example of this is that the main character is played by Megan Fox who is seen as a sex symbol and the makers of the trailer know this and use it to draw in the male audience. It explains why the trailer opens with her swimming what looks like naked in a big river. This is not used in Carrie because back in the 1970s this would have made the audience think this was some kind of adult movie instead of a horror movie, times have changed and we as a audience and society have become more accustom to sex in the media.

.....Another difference is the scene length in Jennifer’s Body the scenes do not last longer than about 10 seconds making the build up more tense and drawing the audience in by creating the enigma of what actually happens in the film. Moreover, the convention of using a voice over which is used in the Carrie trailer is not used in the Jennifer's Body trailer. This is because the conventions that are drawing audiences in are different from what they were 30 years ago. However, both trailers use the red screen effect when a character is bleeding or evil, in Jennifer's Body this is used when Jennifer is eating a boy and is part of a sequence of quick cuts. In Carrie, this is used for a good half of the trailer and it symbolises Carrie's turning evil and killing her class mates.

.....Even thought there has been 30 years of changes to conventions and trailers over this period the main plot and classic conventions have stayed the same. For example, they both use female problems as the main plot line, in Carrie she is bullied, in Jennifer's Body the two main characters are fighting over a boy and deals with the issue of self-esteem. Moreover, the convention of building up to the big finish is used in both trailers as it is the classic horror trailer convention and is guaranteed to appeal to the films target audience.
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After analysing the two trailers I can see that the main difference is the fact that technology and audiences have changed. There has been over 30 years of improvement to technology, making the special effects more lifelike and greater in size. As well as that, greater special effects and bigger budgets have made horror films one of Hollywood's top grossing products as well as raising the audience's expectations as what conventions should be used in these films. Furthermore, we as an audience have changed. In our society we expect to go to the cinema and see a very bloody, violent and sexy horror film. Back in the 1970's however, people would have just wanted to be frightened, our expectations have been raised so high that films are classed a flop before the audience have had a chance to view or make any decisions about them.
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This research has shown me how I can shape my trailer to draw in and appeal to a bigger audience. By using some of the conventions which have been used in recent trailers of this genre, combined with some of the classic conventions which will give the audience the knowledge of what genre our trailer is. This will allow us to appeal to our target audience which we focusing around the young adults/ older teenagers demographic. By using these conventions, I think it will make our film look original and create interest from our target audience and make them want to watch the feature film.

Typical Conventions, Changes to the Horror Trailer Convention and how they are Advertised

Over the years there have been many convention changes to the High School Horror film trailer. With some of the conventions that were used in the 1970s becoming completely removed from the horror trailers of recent years. However, the classic conventions stand the test of time and reappear in many trailers, many decades after they were first introduced to this genre. Furthermore, they are used because it is how film distributors attract and appeal to their target audience. Along with the changes to the conventions seen in horror trailers, there is also a drastic change in the way films are marketed.
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Firstly, in the 1970s the main trailer convention was the use of a non-diegetic voice-over, accompanied with text on the screen. This convention was used to introduce the actors of the film and also the film’s director, before revelling to the audience the main premise and title of the film. This can be seen in the 1976 film trailer for the film 'Carrie' directed by Brian De Palma. It was used as a way of appealing to an audience that were fans of the actors or director; also, it appears as if the film promoters are not confident with their final product. So before they give the audience a chance to get a make a decision on whether or not they like the film they are enticed and influenced of the prospect of seeing a certain actors. This convention has faded away over the decades as many of the actors in recent High School Horror films are generally unknown, meaning that an audience cannot be influenced by certain actors like audiences were in the 1970s. In terms of the way the films were advertised, it can be seen as following the traditional marketing campaign. Consisting of movie posters, and previews/ trailers at cinemas played before the movie you wanted to see.

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During the 1980s the popularity of the genre High School Horror decreased, as film industries were more focused on developing films that were set in a high school but around different genres, not just horror. This can be seen with teen films such as The Breakfast Club (1985) directed by John Hughes, high school drama, and Sixteen Candles (1984) also directed by John Hughes which was a high school romance/ comedy. Moreover, due to the influence that the “Brat Pact” had on cinema of the 1980s we also start to see films emerge that involve teenagers but is not specifically linked to the high school genre. This can be seen in films such as Back to the Future (1985) directed by Robert Zemeckis and the 1984 film Gremlins directed by Joe Dante.

.....However, out of the films of this specific genre that were made during the 1980s, we are able to see that they use similar techniques to what was used in the 1970s. Trailers for the 1984 film 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' directed by Wes Craven and the 1980 film ‘Prom Night’ directed by Paul Lynch show us the slit convention changes. We still have the use of the non-diegetic voice-over (narration) guiding us through and telling us about the film. Although, the change is that actors/ director of the film are only mentioned right at the end of the trailer, just before or just after the title of the film appears. Moreover, they still use close-up shots and also shots that are very dark and eerie. In the 1970s, they used the close-ups to show the emotion on the character’s face, but they did not have any forbidding shots.

.....In terms of marketing, these films were still advertised in the traditional way; however, they now included television adverts and also more than one feature trailer. This is used to appeal to a certain aspect of the films target audience that watch certain films at the cinema.
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In the 1990s, High School horror trailers still in some ways use the convention of a non-diegetic voice-over to move the trailer along and inform the audience about the characters and settings. However, we do see a new convention being added, voice-over reading text that is on the screen. Examples of this can be seen in the Scream (1996) directed by Wes Craven and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) directed by Jim Gillespie trailers. Furthermore, trailers of the 1990s began to have more mystery about them, there was not a significant change to the amount of information the voice-over gave just in the way the trailer was organised and the scenes that were used it created more enigmas for the audience. Furthermore, over this decade the conventions of High School Horror trailers where adapted to fit into the mainstream market. As this genre became more popular over this decade they also gained a spoof of these typical conventions in the 1999 film Scary Movie.
.....Furthermore, there was a significant change in the way these films were marketed. Films with low-budgets used the Internet to advertise and create interest in their film; this can be seen in the 1999 film 'Blair Witch Project’ directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It took on a viral Internet campaign instead of the traditional campaign consisting of posters and trailers. This way of advertising was to change the way audiences becomes aware of new films and also the amount of money a film could earn its opening weekend. A good example of this can be seen in 2008 on the opening weekend of the Sci-Fi horror film Cloverfield (2008) directed by Matt Reeves and the romantic comedy 27 Dresses (2008) directed by Anne Fletcher. Cloverfield's weekend gross was $46,146,546 whereas 27 Dresses which came in second and followed the traditional advertising campaign only grossed $27,442,040. (Weekend gross taken from the 18th -21st January 2008, figures from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/) kkkkkkkkkkkk

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Finally, in the 2000s (from around 2003 onwards,) trailers of this genre do not use the convention of a voice over anymore; instead they use the convention of written text on the screen to move the trailer along. This drastic change in the high school horror trailer can be attributed to the popularity of these typical and predictable conventions over the period of the 90s. It led to film promoters almost reinventing and reviving the way audiences see this genre of film, creating more of a mystery and interest in a once predictable and unoriginal way. Examples of this can be seen in the film Prom Night (2008 remake) directed by Nelson McCormick and the 2009 film Jennifer's Body directed by Karyn Kusama trailers. Moreover, recent trailers use more special effect and more gore as the budgets for these films are much higher and technology has become more advanced to make things seem more realistic. Also the way they are marketed is quite different from previous decades. Many of the trailers from this genre have incorporated elements of their advertising campaigns that make them become a viral campaign. They have websites and blogs dedicated to their movies, along with follow the traditional advertising campaign by using posters and television adverts.
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Overall, from this research I have gained a lot of knowledge about the typical conventions of the High School Horror trailer genre. Also, I have become aware of the small amount of convention changes over the past 30 years. This has influenced me to use the convention of text on the screen as it is a popular convention at the moment and it will enable audiences to recognise what genre the film is. Furthermore, the drastic changes that have occurred to the way the horror genre is marketed, has made me realise that to in order to achieve greater box office opening weekend earnings, we need to mix our advertising campaign with the traditional and also the viral campaigns to gain maximum exposure and generate more interest in the film.

Genre research for High School Horror Films

Horror is a classic genre, which has been around since the 17^th Century. Its influence is so great that it has branched out into many sub genres, over the years which in themselves, have become almost as big as the classic straight horror genre film. The genre ‘High School Horror’ is one of these sub-genres; which can be seen to be very popular with the younger horror audiences, however, at the same time includes all the elements that older horror audiences love. Making this genre one of Hollywood's most noteworthy and popular, in today's film industry. To show this, I did some research into the success of the High School Horror genre. Here is a handful of films with their worldwide box office earnings, along with their distribution companies:
Scream (1996): $173,046,663 - Dimension films, directed by Wes Craven
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997): $125,586,134 - Sony Columbia, directed by Jim Gillespie
Prom Night (2008 remake): $57,197,876 - Sony/ Screen Gems, directed by Nelson McCormick
The Faculty (1998): $40,283,321 - Miramax (Domestic gross only available,) directed by Robert Rodriguez
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984): $25,504,513 - New Line (Domestic gross only available,) directed by Wes Craven .
(Figures taken from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/)

To further my research, I went into advanced detail and considered the following elements that make this genre appeal to its target audience:.
The typical narratives:
One girl being harassed by the killer
A group of teenagers do something criminal and then are harassed by someone who "knows the truth"

School is haunted by a ghost/ school taken over by one student who has been bullied (wants revenge!)

Murder is on the loose in a small town and is killing High School students

A group of students try to save each other and attempt to kill the bad people

Settings:
High Schools
Parents houses
Pubs/clubs
Cars
Old abandoned houses/ desolate building

Middle of nowhere/ middle of a forest
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Stock Characters:
Blond haired popular girl with big boobs
A jock/ popular male lead who thinks that he can save everyone
The geeky one who gets killed first
The Goths who are mistaken for the killer
The girls who are home alone get killed
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Iconography:
The school bell
Telephones/ Mobile phones
Sex/ Relationships
Booze
Lots of Blood

Knives/Guns/ other kinds of weapons

Screaming/ shouting for help

Going to College/University
Computers/TV/Video games
Books
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Audience:
Can be anyone who likes the horror genre but this specific sub-genre of horror, is stereotypically aimed at teenagers. This due to the fact that they can connection and relate to the emotions characters and the teenage themes that occur during these films. However, because some of the High school horror films are rated 18, this shows us that maybe the target audience is actually a more mature audience who are more interested in the amount horror that is included in the film rather than the plot or the character’s stories within it.