Movie opening notes

Group: Lucy Savage, Megan Mcguiness, Hannah James
Task: Create a 2 minute film opening to a horror movie, including credits to the film.

The film
Film Name: The Cradle
Story Line: A teenage girl is babysitting a baby girl. She goes upstairs to check that the baby is alseep, however she is gone. The phone then starts to ring so she answers, she hears a voice on the other end telling her that if she wants the baby back then she has to go outside into the garden. So she follows the voice on the phone's orders. When she walks outside into the garden, the garden lights come on and she sees the baby in a cradle hanging from a tree in the garden. Underneath the tree is somebody dressed all in black bar the clown mask that they are wearing on their face. This person then tells her that she must do everything he says in order to get the baby back. If she fails to do so then the baby will be dropped from the tree. These tasks will relate to the nursey rhyme rock-a-bye-baby. However, she fails to complete the last task and both her and the baby die. The audience never find out who the villian is.
Opening 2 minutes: The film will start with a long shot of a cot with a mobile above it. The camera then zooms in to the mobile which is slowly spinning around. The nursey rhyme rock-a-bye-baby is playing quietly in the background. The screen then goes black and we hear a scream. This lasts for a few seconds before the audience then sees a close up of a girl's face (she is the babysitter). The phone then starts to ring and she answers it. There is an anonymous mans voice that tells her that if she wants to see the baby again then she'll have to go out into the garden. She hangs up and rushes out into the garden. As she gets out there, the garden lights turn on. The baby is in a cradle hanging from a tree in the garden. Underneath the tree is somebody dressed all in black bar the clown mask that they are wearing on their face. The credits will then begin here.
Credits: The credits will include the institution, the main girl's name, producer, director, scripter and the film name - in that order. The credits will appear on a black background and will be in red text. Rock-a-bye-baby will then start to play again over these credits.

Why did we decide to call our film 'The Cradle'? We decided to call our film The Cradle as we thought it was quite a simple name, however the main reason we choose it was because it links in with the theme of rock-a-bye-baby which will be played at the start of the film and then through the credits after the opening sequence. It will suggest to the audience that the film will have something to do with children or babies.
Choices for the opening sequence: We wanted the opening sequence to open up the storyline and capture the audience, therefore we decided to have a lot of action happening in the first minute and a haf before the credits. The film starts with a long shot of a crib with a mobile hanging above it. We wanted this to be the first shot because it immediately tells the audience that the film is going to be based around a child. Over this we will have the nursey rhyme 'Rock-a-bye-baby' playing. Nursey rhyme's are often used in a creepy way in horror films as they can be quite haunting and eerie. This is the effect that we hope it has.
The screen will then go dark and there will be a piercing scream. We chose to have this in the opening as it will straight away get the audience's interest as they will want to know who is screaming and why are they screaming.
After this we will see a close-up of a young girl's face. However it will be unclear to the audience as to who she is, for now they will just be left to make up their own assumption. The young girl shows vulnerability which is a key convention in horror films. It makes the audience fear for the characters which is one of the main aims of the film - to entice fear.
The house phone will then ring and their will be an anonymous mans voice that tells her that if she wants to see the baby again then she'll have to go out into the garden. This will help to keep the audiences interests as they will want to know who the voice on the other end of the phone is.
After this she will rush out into the garden. When she gets there the lights in the garden will turn on. There will be a long shot of somebody dressed all in black with a clown mask on. Next to them will be a tree where the baby will be hanging from it in a cradle. This will be the last shot before the credits.
The credits will then start. They will include the institution, the main girl's name, producer, director, scripter and the film name - in that order. The credits will appear on a black background as this will symbolise the dark element of the film and the text will be in red as this will be symbolic for the blood and danger included in the film. Rock-a-bye-baby will then start to play again over these credits so that it links in with the very first shot that we see.