Narrative

During AS media we created an opening for a film. For this task we were asked to get into groups and think of a genre and a general target audience that we wanted to appeal to. Our group chose to take influences from such films as Scott Pilgrim Vs the world and Shaun of the dead Due to how we wanted to create a comedy horror film that appealed to mid to older teens.

The film opens with what the audience doesn't know to be Dory's legs. She appears to be  limping and staggering down the driveway of pennies house which is covered in pizza boxes and toilet paper. Due to the fact we do not see the upper half of dory and there is no explanation for the extreme mess in the front yard which instantly creates a lot of enigma codes for the audience. We chose to open with this scene in order to make the audience question as to why there was a large mess on the drive?, why is she limping?, who is she?,  is she drunk or is she a zombie?.

often you would think that "zombie" is quite a farfetched thing to think however as a result of the dark and creepy atmosphere we are able to create, thanks to editing along with the time of the day it was filmed we successfully created  the atmosphere we wanted while making the best of the mise en scene. Due to the tracking shot we had in the beginning it managed to bring some disorientation to the audience making them further confused while also making them question the enigma codes.

As we reach pennies room we get a massive tension build up to the point where you need to know whats going to happen but your too sacred to watch only to have it broken as she enters the room. At this point we reveal the "mystery limper" to be Pennies best friend Dory, tricking and manipulating the audiences feelings with a build up of false tension or misdirection. This is often done in horror movies and even more so in comedy horror films however this is done for separate reasons. Misdirection in serious horror movies is created in order to build you up for the real jump scare. Misdirection in comedy horror is generally put there for comedic purposes.This catches the audience off guard but also makes them laugh because they feel a little foolish for being tricked.

As Penny and Dory get ready for their sleep over, the equilibrium finally reveals itself. Todorovs theory states that every story faces the same conventions. The story starts with an equilibrium, then an obstacle gets in the way, then we get back to equilibrium to have an even bigger obstacle in the way concluded by equilibrium and the hero of the story coming out as a different person. In our video the enigma codes make the audience believe there is instantly an obstacle making them unaware of the equilibrium at hand and instead this is simply foreshadowing the events that were to unfold later in the story.

As we are introduced to our characters it is clear that these two girls are going to be presented as the heroes of our story. Propps theory suggests that every story has the basic character types, hero, princess, villain , sidekick etc. Due to how we are instantly introduced to these two characters and the fact they project a positive relatable image casts them better as the hero type as we become attached to them in the first 2 minuits.