Blog 4 - Analysis of Opening Sequences.

Jennifer’s Body

This film is about a Nerdy bookworm, nicknamed Needy who is best friends with a arrogant popular woman called Jennifer, although they have hardly anything in common, they are like sisters.

In the opening sequence we see Needy in a mental institute, she then tells us, the viewers, why she has been interned there, narrating it. The setting has a dull, grey feel to it, creating suspense and building up to the violent kick in the face of a nurse.

When the story begins we see a shy quieter Needy which is in stark contrast to the violent kicker we see at the very start, this encourages the audience to keep watching to find out what happened to Needy that made her so loud and violent.

At this part of the movie the audience is also introduced to Jennifer Check, one of the most popular girls in the high school that the two main characters attend. At this point we see them as both Protagonists.

First impressions of Jennifer portray her as promiscuous and arrogant, The fact that she wants to go see a band at a greasey bar because the lead singer his attractive, further supports this and also makes the audience wonder why she would pay attention to a nerdy bookworm.

Sorority Row

We see a group of sister-like friends play a prank on Garrett, who has cheated on one of them, for revenge. It soon goes wrong when Garrett stick a tire –iron in Megan’s chest killing her.

The common mix of alcohol and a party has always been a build up moment for something going wrong.

However , at first the audience doesn’t realise that the Sorority Row (After which the film is called) Sisters are playing a prank on Garrett, but we think they are playing a prank on Megan, that is until Megan simulates that she is having an overdose. It was all part of a plan to get revenge on Garrett for cheating on fellow their Theta-pi sister.

The party had a bright theme to it, well lit and thumping music, the contrast compared to the next scene was to help building up the suspense.

The unexpected murder of Megan was done to make the audience be surprised, making them watch the movie to see what happens next.

The discussion of what they would do next made the audience think of what they would do in this situation.

Blog 3 - Institutional Contexts

Sorority Row

With a estimated budget of $16,000,000 the film makers of Sorority Row didn’t have a lot to work with, however with a $11,915,856 gross income after 3 weeks of screenings in the UK, and another 7 weeks of showings in the USA. It was obviously more popular in the USA as it made $10,090,805, however it only made £1,825,051 in the UK.

Made by Karz Entertainment and Summit Entertainment. Karz Entertainment has never really had a history of making horror films, or films for that matter, they have a long run of TV shows up to Good Luck Chuck.

Summit Entertainment, like Karz Entertainment, has had a history of making comedy films such as American Pie, and Around the World in 80 Days; however they are now more famous for making the new Twilight saga.

Jennifer’s Body

With the same estimated budget as Sorority Row, Jennifer’s Body made a gross income of $16,195,529 (USA), this was substantially more than what Sorority Row, even though they were aimed at the same target audience. This may have been, in my opinion, that it had a better storyline than Sorority Row. It also featured actors that were popular at the time, such as Amanda Seyfried, who was famous for starring in Mamma Mia, and Megan Fox, who was in Transformers.

Made by Fox Atomic, branch off from the FOX media company, it already had some good reputation from the public as  being a prominent horror film maker, having already made 28 Days Later, and The Hills Have Eyes. So they already had experience in the horror film industry.

Fox Atomic and Dune Entertainment haven’t just come together to produce this film, they have also, have also produced the Hills Have Eyes II, sequel to Dune Entertainment’s The Hills Have Eyes I,  another horror film that has been successful.

Blog 1 - Introduction - Pre-Production

My task is to devise a shooting script for the own teen horror film. As well as producing the script I have to choose who I want to aim this teen horror film at, this will be our target audience. The target audience will effect what the personality of the characters in the film are, what the location is like, this will ensure I reach out to our target audience. However I have to ensure that I keep the film in the genre of teenage horror movies, so research into this genre will be imminent.

I will also look into companies that also create teen horror films as then I would be able to see what are their budgets like, and how my work will reflect the impact of these factors.