My Group's Treatment

Hush Hush.

By Jenade, Nathan, Hannah and Rachelle

A widower, Alexander and hisdaughter Rebecca recently relocated to the outskirts of suburbia for a new start. After the death of his wife, Rebecca starts acting out, attacking hisnew love interest and blames her imaginary friend Lexi. He begins to questionher new solace in her imaginary friend. Alexander uncovers that Lexi is not so imaginary after all. 

Key Characters

• Alexander Johnson 
• Rebecca Johnson 
• Lexi
• Laura Charles 

  

Key Locations

•      Their new house
•    Their field
•    balcony
•    Their park
•    Hallways
•    Bedrooms
•    Kitchen 

The Story 

Act 1.

Alexander and his daughter relocated to an isolated house on the outskirts of town.  Recently widowed they both believed this would be the new they had both hoped for. Her mother Kathleen and Alexander had their own marital problems but Kathleen always made sure that Rebecca was never in the middle of their issues to maintain her happy childhood. At 10 years old, Rebecca started to notice some of her father’s habits. On one occasion she head them fighting and her father slaps her mum, other times she heard her mother crying at night when her father was out drinking. This was the only time she had witnessed such distress in the house. Times passes and everything seems to be perfect until one night Rebecca wakes up to find her mum’s body at the bottom of the staircase with blood all over her clothes. She calls for her dad but no answer so she cradled her mother while awaiting her father’s return. When he finally did they called for the police and ambulance together. Alexander a change of scenery would be good for Rebecca without the constant reminder of her mum passing away.

Act 2. 

Alexander has constant trouble sleeping and believes he can see his wife’s ghost sometimes. He starts dating a woman on his street Laura, who is repeatedly attacked by Rebecca, but because it was never in Alexander’s presence he figured it was just jealously and that Rebecca thought she was replacing her mother. Rebecca starts blaming things on her imaginary friend Lexi but her father’s suspects she is frightened to admit to it. He starts to get worried that she might be traumatised from the death of her mother. Alexander goes to check on his daughter in her bedroom one night to find her talking to herself about how she going to “tackle the devil” her voice sounded different, demonic even yet it was familiar but he couldn’t recognise it. Her eyes possessed, wide open compared to her naturally lazy eyes.

Alexanderinvites Laura over for dinner, and whilst watching TV and Alexander ispreparing dinner for the both of them. Laura comments on how she would haveliked to meet Rebecca’s mum as she’s heard a lot of nice things about her.Rebecca jumps out of her seat and pounces on Laura, scratching her face,pulling her hair and biting her all over her arms. Alexander had to physically pealRebecca off Laura, locks her in the kitchen and calls the ambulance. He doesn’ttell the paramedics that it’s Rebecca who has done this, as she doesn’t recallanything that’s happened when Alexander asks her, she also claims it wasn’t herbut Lexi who did it. Alexander is worried about his daughter and this made hisrelationship with Laura difficult, as she didn’t want to come between Rebecca. Shewas also scared of her. Nonetheless Alexander takes Rebecca with him to visit Laurain hospital. She is covered in bandages. Rebecca breaks and apologises for whathappened but still says it wasn’t her who did it

Act 3. 

Alexandersends his daughter in the kitchen to get something to drink; she takes a longtime in the kitchen so he goes to check on her, only to find her holding a bigmachete with blood dripping all over it with Laura limbs scattered everywhereon the floor. Speaking in her unrecognisable voice again saying she’s going tokill him for what he’s done. They get into a physical fight and Rebecca slashesher father’s arm. When he starts to bleed nonstop, Rebecca suddenly gets offher dad and sits with a blank facial expression on her face. Alexander callsthe police and they come round the house. It is found that it was actually theghost of Rebecca’s mum Kathleen that was the imaginary friend. As he nowremembers that was his wife’s voice he heard that night in Rebecca’s room.Kathleen’s ghost had taken over Rebecca’s body and soul in order to get revengeshe believed her husband deserved for murdering her that night. He came backhome drunk and demanded for Kathleen to run him a bath and when she didn’t doit immediately he strangled her and threw her down the stairs and went back tothe pub. He confesses to everything to the police and apologises Rebecca forall that he had put her through. He is arrested and Rebecca is taken into care.  

My Film Treatment

HUSH HUSH

Jenade Webster-Watson

A widower, Alexander and his daughter Rebecca recently relocated to the outskirts of suburbia for a new start. After the death of his wife, Rebecca starts acting out, attacking his new love interest and blames her imaginary friend Lexi. He begins to question her new solace in her imaginary friend. Alexander uncovers that Lexi is not so imaginary after all. 

Key Characters

Alexander Hopkins- Middle aged widower and father

Rebecca Hopkins- Ten-year-old daughter

Lexi- Imaginary friend

Laura Charles- Love interest and Rebecca’s teacher

Key Locations

The Old House in Ann Arbor, Michigan

School

New House in Harbor Springs

Hallway

Rebecca’s bedroom

Garden, which leads to a forest open space

The Story

Act 1.

Alexander and his wife daughter Rebecca are re-locating to the outskirts of Harbor Springs, Michigan. Recently losing his wife, Alexander, just Alexander, never Alex, found himself and Rebecca's relationship to be stretched and strained. He put this down to the lost of their idol and tried not to dwell on it too much. He tried everything in his power to re-store normality to their lives. He figured a new start could be the beginning they both needed. A shadow of her former self, she began to express her feeling through an imaginary friend called Lexi. At 10 years old this was strange to say the least. Alexander attempted not to dwell on this allowed her to express her grief through Lexi. 

Act 2.

The introduction to Lexi was intriguing until Alexander began to show interest in a new female, Laura. Now Laura was a substitute teacher at Rebecca's new elementary school. As their relationship become more than what it should Rebecca's behaviour took a turn for the worst. She stopped speaking in class, playing up and distanced herself from all her classmates. She  began to blame her behaviour on Lexi. She drew demonic and evil pictures of Laura getting injured in class instead of her usual happy pictures. "It's your future" she tells Laura. Shocked by this Laura stopped by to talk to Alexander personally. 

Laura stayed over for dinner and all was well until the subject of Rebecca's mother was brought up. Rebecca glared over at Laura with evil in her eyes and excused herself from the table. Later, Laura went up to clear the air, as she reached the top step landing, she was pushed all the way back down to the ground. Alexander rushed out to find Laura sprawled across the floor, bleeding from her forehead, as he looked up to the stairs he witnesses Rebecca standing there. He screams his punishments and for and explanations while panicking looking for the house phone to call for the ambulance. As he hurriedly drive behind the ambulance, Rebecca continues to answer his questions with "It wasn't me, Lexi did it". Fed up and angry, he  gets to the hospital to find Laura is awake and unwilling to have him or his daughter anywhere near her. He trembles at just the sight of them both. 

Act 3. 

Weeks pasted and Rebecca has not improved and Lexi's involvement become more unbearable. He finds pictures of his wife scattered around the house with red paint all over it. One night he discovers messages written all over the bathroom wall in red paint "You did this, and Lexi knows it too". He goes to confront his daughter, yet she is nowhere to be found. He searches the house to find she is outside on the swing. He approaches he cautiously. "You know who Lexi is don't you Daddy" she says in a calm, cold voice, with a detached look in her eyes she turns to him. Alexander begins to have flash backs of the past. How he use to beat her mother, the alcohol abuse and drunken nights. He blinks furiously as he tries to shake the images from his head. The flashbacks become more furious now, of parts of his life he doesn't remember. He sees himself putting red paint on all the pictures, the red writing on the wall. He gets more flashbacks  of beating her mother and seeing her mother hung from their old rope tree swing. He re-reads the messages from his memory, the suicide note she left him which read "You did this". The bridges began to build and he began to piece together who  this Lexi was. All the things which seemed to be Rebecca acting up was really a reflection of his own mental turmoil. His own expression of the guilt he felt for his wife, in which he used Lexi to explore it. He relived flashbacks of pushing Laura down the stairs which explained why she cowered at the sight of him. Lexi was really him. Just then he heard a knock at the door. He opened it to discover the police waiting there. "Mr Hopkins we need you to come down to the station with us one of the officers proclaimed."I'm not Mr Hopkins, my name is Lexi" he replied. 

Films and Trailers Part 4.

Moon Trailer (2009)

The Moon trailer completely does the opposite of the Zombieland trailer. It gives the audience snippets  of information at leaves them to decipher it on there own. 

• Long, slow paced establishing shots of the moon.
• Mid-shot of the main character running on a treadmill and then close ups of his face and reactions- connection with the audience allowing them to "read" him.
• Non-diegetic orchestral music pondering and building. 
• Close ups of dominant element talking to the robot and depends on it to cut his hair.
• The pace of the trailer builds with the parallel music and at the point of the crescendo  it pause to allow the robot to speak "Perhaps you're imagining things". 
• Duration of shots decrease and cuts increase mirroring the soundtrack.
• The mise-en-scene in the close ups of the main character illustrate his isolations and allow the audience to empathise with him.
• Establish long shot of the Earth from the moon emphasising the distance and isolation.

Expectations 

• Sci-fi drama set on the moon- creating isolations.
• Dependant on technology especially the robot- masculine.
• The robot having a secret agenda conforming to the "technology turning against humans" stereotype. 
• Illusion- Been there for a long while and going insane due to the lack of socialisation

Moon Film 

This film is a sci-fi drama, it is compact and holds a lot of information for such a film. It is set in one  fixed location contains many settings as we journey through one man's discovery. 

• The isolated setting immediately allows the audience to sympathises with the main character Sam. He craves human attention through the use of the robot Gerti.
• We are given countless close ups and mid-shots of Sam and Gerti's progressive relationship- Gerti's use of emoji icons as facial expressions reinforces unsettling nature.
• No only does he talk to himself he also names his plants and different bases by human names, Moreover he transmits his findings to Earth through a video log suggesting his absolutely loneliness.

• The long establishing shot denotes a moon mining base,illustrated by the text inserted titles for each new locations, base. 
• Immediately the audience is lured away from the false sense of security as it is set on the unknown. The fixed stations in a closed facility constantly feels claustrophobic  surrounded by white wall which connote madness.
• The majority of shots within the base are level however when there is danger, off-centred high angle shots are used to distort the audience.  

•  Gerti's reactions and sneaky behaviour create suspicion of an ulterior motive,not only for the audience but Sam also and reinforces not only society's dependency on technology but only the power in which they would gain if ever were to turn against humans. 
• Gerti is omnipotent behaviour and calm monotone voice which at times talks down to Sam again reinforces the atmosphere and connote he has a secret agenda.  
• As Sam discovers move, he unfold more of the base- in which high angle shots are used in order to highlight his vulnerability. 
• Blackouts and transitions are used illustrate a new phase and scene. 

• The discovery of the second Sam leaves them both bewildered and searching for answers./ Her we see more close up of the characters reactions to illustrate his turmoil and allow the audience to empathise with the character. 
• Quick cuts and blackouts are used to connote danger and suspense in mysterious discovering scenes- here the lighting is darker compared to the bright white on the base. 
• The younger Sam seems more stern and agile and there for only his purpose. In contrast to the older Sam who seems less sane but accepting of his surroundings and the way in which things are.
• They only begin to explore the rest of their bases when the older Sam begins to deteriorate.

• As his world begins to crumble, we have more distressing scenes such as him being buried alive and we fear for the characters mental and physical state as the more he learns the more ill he becomes. 
• Longer durations of shots including many internal cuts to close ups make the scene longer creating an emotional atmosphere when there is news.  
• The way in which the trailer create disorientation is fully explained in the film, and offers the answers to the confusion created. 

Films and Trailers Part 3.

Zombieland Trailer (2009)

The Zombieland trailer highlights the main aspects of the movie, the concept, narrative and what it involves, another spoiler type trailer. It immediately heightens the audience to the genre of the film and emphasises the humour with the sound score. The red band trailer shows elements of horror, violence and scenes of a sexual nature. 

• Orchestral music builds whilst an establishing mid shot of the two main characters one nerdy and the other a southerner with a cowboy hat- in a supermarket with a banjo.
• It stops as comedic contrapuntal diegetic banjo song is played it the cuts to an overweight scary looking zombie man running towards them, and eyeline shot back to the southerner as he  races towards and goes to smash the zombie across the face with the banjo sets the scene for the narrative alone.
• The music builds as it quickly cuts to an establishing shot of the world from space with the text "Welcome To Zombieland".
• Non-diegetic voice over narration from the main character as various locations are shown descending into turmoil- car crashes, blood splatters and people running from zombies.
• Various locations in America are used suggest a nationwide effect adding realism. It also mimics the narrative of constantly having to move and be unsettled due to the circumstances. 
• The use of slow motion close ups  and mid-shots, paired with non-diegetic contrapuntal soundtrack emphasises the humour in the scenes. For example the mid-shot of a half naked female zombie stripper with money in her underwear, running after a tubby Chinese businessman in slow motion still clutching dollar bills in his hand. 
• The country and western type music reinforces the comedy in the scenes and pauses allowing for epic diegetic comic relief moment to be highlighted, which is a convention of this hybrid genre.
• High angle shot of brutal murder of zombies however with the different soundtrack makes it humorous. The music also changes when the atmosphere shifts. 
• A contrast of bright Orange titles are used against a black screen to make important information stand out.

Expectations 

• As this is similar to many spoiler trailers, it tells us  everything we need to know about it.
• It highlights the hybrid combination of comedy and horror by using the conventions from both to conform to the expectations of the narrative. 

Zombieland Film 

The Zombieland trailer revealed fast paced scenes varying form all of the film. The  trailer also gave  background and all you need to know of the narrative of the  film. However leaving the audience wanting  to see for themselves how it ends. 

• The mise-en-scene focuses on realism in America, patriotic as we firstly see the flag, everyone , person or zombie in everyday clothing to add to the potential of it could happen any day in any place. 
• The long shots of locations vary from the White House to street corners suggesting a widespread effect on the population and although there are many people around it is an isolating situation
• Establishing long shots of long winding roads connoting life on the road during this circumstances, keeping moving to survive. 
• Close ups of mid-shots of chaos and mayhem descending highlights the horror element to the film however the soundtrack subverts the atmosphere. 

•  Close ups of the main character- Columbus- nerd and vulnerable looking compared to the arrogance from the Texas cowboy makes the juxtaposition of these two characters and unlikely pair.
• The contrast between the two connotes isolation but also subtly portrays the genre of the film- combination of two very different conventions to make one hybrid genre. 
• Setting- in a supermarket makes it seem realistic once more yet their composition in the scene humorous this is added to using the soundtrack to illustrate the comic relief. 

• The use of voice over explains from the beginning to set the scene. The audience  instantly build a connection to this main character and sympathise and abide by what he is telling us- the voice of authority.
• The text inserts- the rules are an extension of his personality and reflection of his character.
• The rules are shown to be lifelike and real through their 3D and movement which mimics their purpose- such as the word "seat belts" click together and "cardio" beats like a heart.

• The animated text inserts also become a part of the scenery and blend to illustrate that they have become a way of life. It connotes that the rules have a mind of their own as they actively carry out their purpose. 
• Violence in places of sanctuary and solitude such as bathrooms or toilets and also in unexpected "normal" situations which have become unusual and nervy due to the circumstances. 
• Over the shoulder shots denote zombies move differently to humans denoting the change conform to the stereotype throughout the film.