Author: Mark Whitehead
According to the book:
1) Top 3 slasher movies of all time: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Friday the 13th
2) Top 9 Tips for a slasher film:
- Phone doesn't work
- Car doesn't start
- Snapping twigs
- Standing next to windows, either fall through, get puled through or something thrown through
- Asking stupid questions
- Vulnerable when naked especially bathrooms, on toilet, in shower
- Saying "I'l be right back"
- sex/drugs/music, allow someone to sneak up on you and then death
- Avoid scary places on significant dates e.g. basements on Halloween
Another book I looked at was The Legacy of Blood
From this i learnt that the slasher genre was born from John Carpenters Halloween which overuses one shot in particular - the first-person-point-of-view-shot which features so heavily in all it's imitators as well. Jim Harper writes that one critic described Halloween as the shower scene from Psycho stretched out for an hour and a half. Mainly because of the overuse of the shot.
The Book also mentions the commoness for horror film to be of a relatively low budget which is one of the reasons we chose to do a horror trailer as we did not have any money to spend on it. Another common convention of horror films is for their to be a final girl.
Final Girl: Brunette, Intelligent, strong willed and a virgin.
From this i learnt that the slasher genre was born from John Carpenters Halloween which overuses one shot in particular - the first-person-point-of-view-shot which features so heavily in all it's imitators as well. Jim Harper writes that one critic described Halloween as the shower scene from Psycho stretched out for an hour and a half. Mainly because of the overuse of the shot.
The Book also mentions the commoness for horror film to be of a relatively low budget which is one of the reasons we chose to do a horror trailer as we did not have any money to spend on it. Another common convention of horror films is for their to be a final girl.
Final Girl: Brunette, Intelligent, strong willed and a virgin.
The girls who die: Slutty, blonde haired, big breasts and stupid.
Many horror films such as Halloween, Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street use a final girl, and it has become a common a factor in Slasher films.
However as part of our research of the horror genre we watched a few horror films.
One of the most inspirational films we watched was Dead Mans Shoes.
However as part of our research of the horror genre we watched a few horror films.
One of the most inspirational films we watched was Dead Mans Shoes.
This involved an ex army member murdering a group of men who abused his little brother who was a simpleton while he was away in the army. For the killings he wore a gas mask making him look extremely menacing. We tried to use this in our film and although we did not have a gas mask available to use we had a hoody which fully zipped up over the face creating the desired effect. There is a picture of the hoody earlier in my blog, the link below takes you to the page.
http://snowden-alexa2.blogspot.com/2010/02/mise-en-scene-props-and-casting.html
We also noticed in this film that a final girl was not used and we decided to adopt this into our film as we really enjoyed Dead Man's Shoes and wanted to make a trailer for a film similar to it. This was useful as it was harder to get hold of the girls to act as they had alot going on.
http://snowden-alexa2.blogspot.com/2010/02/mise-en-scene-props-and-casting.html
We also noticed in this film that a final girl was not used and we decided to adopt this into our film as we really enjoyed Dead Man's Shoes and wanted to make a trailer for a film similar to it. This was useful as it was harder to get hold of the girls to act as they had alot going on.
this is an especially important area as far as marking the Research and Planning, Alex, so make every effort to ensure this reflects extensive reading. the pocket essentials slasher book is a well written, accessible overview of the genre; there are a stack of useful horror/slasher links in various posts on the blog; and then there's the copies of the Legacy of Blood book, which is a bit more detailed than the pocket essential
ReplyDeleteas you identify each convention, remember to go back and make clear how your production reflects or challenges these conventions