Annotated Plot

Annotated Plot

• 1.
  ANNOTATED PLOT ALICE SOPHIE TURRELL
• 2.
  WHAT I AM INCLUDING INMY TRAILER
• 3.
  It is lateone night and some girls have been lost in the country for a few hours, and they are getting tired and it is getting dark. They come across an old abandoned farm building that they decide would be the best place to sleep for the night due to the shelter it gives from the rain. One girl is unsure whether it is safe and does not want to go through with it, but seeing as they others want to and decided there is not better option, she has no choice but to go with them. She keeps saying she feels someone watching them and wants to go and look, but everyone is telling her she is a wimp, and then feels pressured into just going along with the plan no questions asked. I will be including this scene near the beginning of my trailer as it is important for the audience to be given some background information rather than just the action as it will help them get more of a sense of what is happening. Although I am including this, it will not be dominating the trailer as I do not want to give all of the story away, just enough for people to get a grasp on the genera plot. Another reason I would not add too much of the beginning section of the film is because I am making a teaser trailer so the content needs to mainly be fast action clips to get the audience hooked in a short time period.
• 4.
  After finding thebest place to sleep, they get comfortable and share a bottle of vodka one of the girls had brought with them. The girl who felt uncomfortable starts to fall asleep quickly due to the alcohol and tiredness. The others stay awake a bit longer but soon are all asleep. I think this is an important scene that cannot be missed. This is because it shows that the girls will be intoxicated which in itself will lead to a series of events, such as sleeping faster, acting a bit drunk and not being in much control of their actions making them easier targets and not fully understand what is going on or the severity of the situation.
• 5.
  While they aresleeping, a masked male figure comes in quietly and watched them for a while holding a knife and cloth. While he starts to make his way towards one of the girls, another starts to stir in their sleep and get up. In panic of getting seen, he hides behind a wall. He notices that she has gone outside to go to the toilet, he goes a different way to her and sneaks up behind her, gagging her and carrying her away to an outbuilding. This is another important part of the plot that needs to be seen as it introduces the audience to the antagonist. While I want to show the antagonist to create a sense of fear and anticipation in the audience, I do not want to give to much away straight away so will show this with a over the shoulder shot. This will not only keep a sense of anonymity, but show the girls from his point of view. This is a good scene to show really fast in the trailer, without seeing the girl get caught, just the lead up to show how vulnerable and unaware she is. However, if I also showed the girl getting caught it would show more panic and emotion.
• 6.
  As they enterthe outbuilding, you can see it is already set up with torture instruments, and a dead body is tied to a chair in the corner, next to a pile of body bags. He the throws the girl onto a table and restrains her. He then starts to torture her. Deciding to take a break and choose another girl, he goes back to room, and drags one of the girls back to the room. She wakes up and notices her friend in pain and tries to help with her hands and feet tied and gagged, which angers him and decided to just kill the first girl, bagging her up and pushing her into a pond. While he is on his way back, the other girl who did not want to stay wakes up to find herself alone. Scared, she walks around trying to find her friends. She notices the bag half out of the water, and goes to look. She opens it to see her dead friend and lets out a scream. It is important to show the torture area, even not in this way, to set the scene and show where everything is taking place. This will not only help the audience to identify the genre as horror but to create fear and make them want to see the film more. This is good to show as it will give away some action and conform to typical existing horror films which include lots of short action clips to get the audience hooked. This is important as it is the point that the girl knows something bad is happening and is therefore a turning point that drives the plot on. The scream is also important as it lets the antagonist know that she is there, which starts a new chain of events.
• 7.
  As the maskedmurderer is tidying up, he hears the scream and grabs his chainsaw. The girl hears this and runs to the path. He sees her, drops the chainsaw and runs, grabbing her which makes her fall down, and the throws her over his shoulder thrashing around. He then ties her to a chair while he continues to torture them both. This should be shown as it gives a bit more away about the antagonist, showing him to be on guard and shows his choice of weapon which is typical to existing horror films (Friday the 13th etc.). This as in previous parts of the plot should be included as it shows strong examples of action and genre. This will also make the audience wonder what is going to happen, making them want to watch the film.
• 8.
  It comes tomorning and the second girl is dead and he is sleeping. The third girl managed to get out of the hand restraints and free herself. Grabbing the first thing she could, she attacks the murderer, but not strong enough to kill, just enough to walk him, throw him off guard and give her time to run. She takes the weapon with her, running back down the path. She keeps on running and screaming but no one is around. She trips over, hurting her leg and slowing down. This allows the murderer to catch up with her, she fights him off and keeps running. She soon finds help, but they think she is insane when they could not find any murderer, weapons in the abandoned house, or dead bodies. This I think would look good included towards the end of the trailer as it shows that the film mainly centres around her and shows her to be the final girl. Although I would not show all of this, just her with the weapon so you don’t find out what happens to the antagonist in the trailer. I have decided t leave out the entire main section almost as the whole point of the trailer is to make people want to watch the film and find out what happens in the end, not show people the ending which would not create a cliffhanger.
• 9.
  PROAIRETIC CODE – ROLANDBARTHES Everything highlighted in orange is an proairetic code, that changes the course of the film or means a certain action has to follow. Some examples are; “bagging her up and pushing her into a pond” If this did not happen, then the last girl would not have seen it and screamed, leading to the antagonist going after her. If she woke up and looked around and the bag was not there then she could have either escaped or walked into the torture area perhaps. “decide would be the best place to sleep for the night” This is a crucial move in the plot, as if they kept on walking they would not have been in the building, therefore not getting killed. However, the plot could have turned out similarly also, with the antagonist following them if he noticed them walking and killing the that way.
• 10.
  IN RELATION TO5 STAGE NARRATIVE THEORY – EXPANSION OF TVZETAN TODAROV’S THEORY EXPOSITION The three girls are seen walking around in the country lost after trying to find their way back and it is dark. DEVELOPMENT They find an abandoned house and decided to sleep in as it is getting dark. One girl feels unsure and feels like she is being watched. COMPLICATION The girl that felt unsure wakes up to find one of her friends dead, gets captured and finds another being tortured. CLIMAX The girl tries to save her friend, get tortured herself, and fights for her survival. RESOLUTION The girl gets away after being chased by the murderer, finds help but is seen as mentally unstable after no evidence at all has been found of any of the events that happened that night.
• 11.
  SYD FIELD’S 3ACTS THEORY Act 1 The girls coming across the abandoned buliding and deciding to stay the night. The third girl is unsure but pressured while the antagonist is watching them. The first girl gets taken. Act 2 This is the part where the the third girl screams and the antagonist goes after her, thus setting of a dangerous chain of events. However she grabs a weapon and manages to free herself. Act 3 The girl knocks out the antagonist and manages to get out, however when she gets help there is no evidence of anything ever happening.
• 12.
  SYD FIELD’S THEORY CHALLENGED Accordingto the theory, in the third act the victim/hero will win by overcoming their binary opposite (in this case the victims – final girl – binary opposite is the antagonist. Then, there will be resolution with the hero coming out victorious. Although the hero seemingly overcomes the antagonist, when she finds help they think she is crazy because they go back to the building, and there is no evidence of anything happening – no blood, weapons, bodies etc. This therefore does not lead to a resolution for the girl as she has to deal with the consequences of appearing crazy rather than being a victim and hero.