The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Narrative (Todorov's Theory)

Scream Trailor - Characters (Propp's Theory)

Chase scene storyboard

Structuralist film theory emphasizes how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions. I started my scene with an establishing shot of an isolated white house surrounded by a forest as well as it being misty. This automatically sets the scene and shows that there is know where for a potential victim to run, and the mist surrounding the house and forest create a sense of mystery and makes the atmosphere chilling. I then chose to go straight to an extreme close up of the killer from the waist down with the camera focusing on his hand on the door handle trying to get in, with sinister music playing which is gradually getting faster and building up pace as the killer succeeds in his task of opening the front door. I decided on not giving away the killers identity as this is a feature of structuralist theory; as in structuralist horror films, the killers identities are not revealed until the end of the film.

In the third box it shows a point of view shot of a young blonde woman sitting alone watching the T.V. She then pauses the T.V as she can hear someone fumbling with the front door and as a result she starts panicking, eerie music is then introduced in the scene to help build up momentum. This is typical iconography of the horror genre; a blonde female alone.  Still in a point of view shot it shows the young girl getting up from her seat and running towards the back door, upon getting there she realizes it is locked, this is also another typical paradigm of this genre, and shows that there is no escape for her. A little while after her tampering with the door handle to try and get out, she turns around to find the masked killer holding a knife, not too far from her. For this shot I chose to do a close up of only some of his silhouette, which helps with the sense of mystery. Another paradigm of the horror genre. It then jumps to a close up of the young girl screaming, before she starts running, this represents how she is feeling at this moment in time.  All the while sinister music continues to be played, to help build up the pace of the actual chase.

In the seventh scene it starts off as a long shot so that we can see the killer chasing his victim, however it does switch several time to point of view shot, with a hand held camera. I chose to use a hand held camera for this particular part of the scene as it makes it seem more realistic and all the different angles make it dynamic.  A she is running, she trips and falls to the ground, where she thinks she has got away from him, as a result of this the fast paced music stops, and all you can hear is her heavy breathing. This is a typical juxtaposition used in horror films to make the audience believe the character is safe but little do they know, something bad is about to happen just moments later.  Subsequently the killer has by this time got her and has stabbed her several times in the chest, killing her. And an extreme close up of the knife the killer used is shown dripping with blood. A knife is typical iconography used in this genre as it is a very personal way of killing someone, and there is also an air of mystery surrounding it because a knife can be found in anybody’s house, meaning the killer could be anyone, and creates mystery and suspense for the audience  as to whether the victim knows him.