"Detention"
Synopsis
The film's premise is that a teacher, driven to the edge by unruly students is the killer in a London school. He strikes during after school (or Saturday) detention, allowing him to not be caught and exact his revenge on the tormenting teens. The main targets are six students, one of whom will be the protagonist/hero who survives.
Protagonist and Stock Characters
We have chosen to follow the convention other films use of having an adult male as the antagonist. However we will employ variation by having him be in a role of authority (a teacher) and not on the fringe of society which will express the fear of abuse of power within society. The stock characters will be teenagers (six in total, adhering to the convention of having a higher ratio of male to female characters)who exemplify youth subcultures in London and will fit in with the established roles such as the Wanderer, the Popular Girl, the Final Girl etc. Our stock situation of a school detention allowed us to make use of different stereotypes among school students which will help foster a sense of Personal Identity (as identified in Blumler and Brown's uses and gratifications theory) within our target audience. The characters we have developed exhibit some of the same aspects with those identified Goffman's character theory as opposed to Propp's theory which characters of the horror genre rarely fit in with. The following is a list of the characters that will feature in the trailer:
- The teacher/serial killer. We could hint at some sort of instability within his life by ascribing him certain characteristics (he might be quite eccentric, for instance). The catalyst for his drastic change in behaviour (i.e. what makes him suddenly start killing) is his students' constant tormenting which borders on abuse.
- The 'leader' of the students, a character that might fit in with the Jock stereotype seen in American horror movies.
Location
We will film within the grounds of Acland Burghley school and we have identified a particular location (shown in the above photos) underneath the school building in which we would like to film as it will lend an eerie, spooky atmosphere to our film trailer. This location is ideal in terms of logistics as the equipment we will borrow from the school can be easily transported within the school building as opposed to outside it. However this requires us to consider Health & Safety as we will be using young actors and do not want to endanger them. Furthermore, this closed setting will highlight the theme of entrapment suggested by the title 'Detention'.
Iconography and settings will be repeated and varied in the trailer to convey the genre of the film. These could include:
- a 'disfiguring' mask worn by the killer
- a murder weapon such as a knife, stake or chainsaw
- the darkened, forbidden chamber where the killer lurks
- the school building (in the establishing shot) which is incongruous with the themes of horror, further unsettling our audience
These potent symbols will also emphasise the key themes of the film which are alienation, abuse of power and distrust of authority in society (depicting them on a microcosmic scale).
