Evaluation

To begin my creative project I decided that I would be working individually as opposed to working in a group. I thought this would be easier as last year I struggled with organisation when working with a partner. This meant that I decided to write a screenplay instead of filming something as it would be a lot of work to do on my own. I then began thinking about my initial ideas. To do this I looked at lots of trailers and clips on Youtube to give me some general ideas. My first idea was set in a train station and involved the characters becoming trapped in an abandoned station. I looked at the film ‘Creep’ to get inspiration for this as they are set in the same location. For my second creative idea I decided I could write a screenplay for a grindhouse style film. This is one of my favourite styles of films and there are many interesting conventions to it. I looked at a trailer that was made in the grindhouse style called ‘Don’t. This helped me identify the conventions of the genre. The storyline would be based on a typical slasher film. I discarded this idea because it would be difficult to get across the grindhouse style when only writing a screenplay. For my third idea I wanted to create a screenplay for a found footage style horror film set in the aftermath of a disaster. When researching for this idea I looked at the trailer for ‘The Road’. This film is set in the aftermath of a disaster so is very similar to my idea. I discarded this idea because I thought it would be difficult to make it a unique film that was different to other films in this style.

After asking my peers and my tutor to suggest which idea I should go forward with, I decided to develop my first idea. This is because it was already the most developed idea and it was also the most original of the three. After choosing this idea I decided it would be useful to write out a more detailed story to make it easier when I wrote the script so I wasn’t coming up with everything as I went along. This definitely helped when it came to writing the script as I had some references to work from. At this stage I also wrote a treatment which helped me develop my idea. When writing this I thought about my film as if I was actually making it as opposed to just writing the script. I therefore thought about things such as the equipment I would need to make the film, the budget I would need to have and the target audience that I would be aiming my film at. I decided that my target audience would be teenagers who are interested in horror films. It would not be for children because of the unsuitable content but it could also be for adults who have an interest in horror films.

Once my idea was developed this far I started writing my script. I made sure to set it out in the correct script format. As well as writing all the speech I also included descriptions of what the characters were doing and any instructions on how they said their speech.

When my script was finished I showed it to my tutor who advised me on how to set it out more appropriately so it looked like a script. Overall I was pleased with my script. I think the storyline was well developed and made it clear for the reader what was happening. I think it builds tension from the start and leads to a suspenseful climax. I did this by making the characters seem very confused about what is going on around them which makes the reader worried to find out. I do however think that I should have included less characters as I think it may be confusing for the reader to keep up with all of the characters and who they are. The characters were also not as fully developed as I would have liked. I think they could have each had more of an individual personality so that the audience could really feel like they were getting to know them. I also think I could have added more detail about the surroundings to create an even clearer image for the audience.

I think I have succeeded in creating the screenplay for a film that would fit well into the horror genre with a unique storyline. The storyline is the unique selling point of my film as I have never seen a film that is set in an abandoned train station. Whilst it is similar to films such as ‘Creep’, I think the storyline is different enough to make it individual. After completing my screenplay I decided to research into classification of films to decide what rating my film would be given. I looked on the BBFC website at the different categories which give a breakdown of each of the ratings and the reasons a film would be given them. I knew my film would not be anything lower than a 15 because of the target audience and the unsuitable content for younger children. However I don’t think my film would have an excessive amount of gore in it so instead of rating it an 18 I think it would be a 15.