Further Research Development

I was doing some extra research into our film and the type of shots and ideas we could look into. I came across the trailer for an upcoming film called “The Room-mate” It is a story based upon a stalker and someone who has formed an obsession with someone. It is an idea we could develop. Obsessions can be very dangerous and have been the theme of some very effective and very good films, such as “Fatal Attraction” and has also been an underlining theme in many horrors. It is something we could think about incorporating. Also looking at this trailer in detail, I noticed the way you actually can’t automatically tell the genre from the first few scenes and I think this is very effective, due to the fact that it settles you into a relaxed mood and then rapidly changes the tone of the film, making you unsettled and lured into a false sense of security. I paid close attention to some of the scenes and thought about some scenes that we could potentially shoot ourselves. In this trailer the scene at the end where she appears from the dark could be really good for our trailer and not really difficult to shoot, so I will look into doing this scene and possibly do some test shots of it. another scene in the trailer which is of significance is when she enters the room and the girl sits up screaming. I also think we could do this as it would be good for our trailer. We discussed scenes such as being dragged from underneath the bed which I originally saw whilst watching an episode of one tree hill (link of scene below)

http://youtu.be/pOXrMC8-dbQ



I also remembered one of the first horrors I ever watched called “Drive thru”. It was thee first horror I watched with a clown and it tells the story of a boy who comes back from the dead and comes in the form of clown. He seeks some revenge on some orange county teenagers. It has the typical character types that you would expect to find from a horror within the victims, (the jock, cheerleader etc). He kills them off one by one with his meat cleaver and leaves only a few to fight for their life. It has many similarities to our theme and story. The trailer has some simple scenes in which we could develop for our trailer. There is one particular scene in the school in which the clown walks quickly behind the girl, this is something that is not technically difficult to do but is very effective and something that would look professional and make the suspense within the trailer even better. Also there are some scenes including the prop of a clowns head with a simple voice over used.

This is also the film poster for "Drivethru" which is also something that resembles something we might attempt to produce. Looking at this poster we notice that it also has a large emphasis on the eyes of the clown. This is the case with the other posters for horrors so i think that eye contact and strong eyes is something that i will try to include in the film poster. This poster also has the location in the background as did the poster for insidious. I think the thing about using a clown in a horror is effective due to the fact you cant read the expression of the clown so no matter what the clown is doing, you cant tell how he is feeling, he just constantly has a smile on his face- which can be very unsettling. The letter spacing in the sell line also is larger for the third line, giving a definate pause. It then also has a credit block placed at the bottom of the image. These small details will make my poster development look more professional. Like many films it also released a second movie poster;

This has many similarities to the first poster like the location in the background. But this one includes more detail about the film. This one includes the meat cleaver in which he murders people but instead of the clown looking straight on, his reflection is showing which makes the idea of him hiding everywhere. This poster has a different tag line to the last, unlike the insidious poster i saw, whivh had the same line at the bottom on both posters. The use of the burger is very useful and the way the tomato ketchup splashes gives the connotation of blood.

Both of these posters, the trailer for "Drivethru" and the trailer for "The Room mate" have given me a better idea on what to develop for our products, due to the fact that they both involve different themes and characters to the previous films i have researched. They challenge the issues of stalking, obsession, revenge and a clown character.

The final girl theory 

"The final girl theory occurs in thriller and horror films (particularly slasher films). It specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in dozens of films, including Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its remake, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Hellraiser, Alien, The Strangers, and Terror Train. The term was coined by Carol J. Clover in her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Clover suggests that in these films, the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film."


I looked at this theory in response to our media tutors suggestion in our pitch and after looking into it, it reflects the forms and conventions that we want to create and mirror in our film.


by charlotte alderson