Developing Your Horror Film Ideas – Film Studies (2020-22)

Review your video essay about the nature and ‘rules’ of German Expressionism.

Identify 5 Golden Rules of German Expressionism in terms of representation, themes and visual style.

Your task is to develop a visual / cinematic idea for your sequence and write the screenplay for it.

We will be working in groups later and deciding which screenplays will go forward into production. For now this is a solo exercise.

Here is the first page of a good example from a student screenplay.

Use of the screenplay format
Include descriptions of the locations in your screenplay (The Mirus Battery)
- Include element of the setting / important props within the scene.
Create an atmosphere which belongs in the horror genre.
Use descriptive language (simile’s and metaphors).
Give a sense of how the camera might move or the edit cut.
Give a sense of the diegetic sounds in your sequence.
Give a clear description of character (motivations and feelings)

The first step is developing some ideas for a scene. Here is a slideshow on ideas:

Take a copy of this document and replace the following:
- A location
- A sound – Freesound.Org
- An item of clothing
- A character
In pairs share your documents.
Allow you partner time to think about your items
Discuss the film / sequence ideas that spring from those items

Sketch out the scene for your film use this document: