Ben’s Blog

“The Final Destination” poster:

The poster features the standard credit block, tagline (“Death saved…the best for last”) & title of the film. Also it features information about the film being available to see in 3D (with a special tagline “Death is closer than ever in digital 3-D”) (and the film is shown in 2D in selected cinemas) which my fictional film “Addicted To Murder” (possible title) will be available to watch in and will so feature this information. It is also missing a release date which is very important information. Something common on film posters are names of actors/actresses in the film (and often directors) and there are none on this poster. This is because the “Final Destination” films feature unknown/new actors in their film and for my film I will stick to the common famous actors/actresses thing in my film, as I think this is usually a big attraction for people to see a film (eg: If a film comes out starring Will Ferrell, he will have some fans that will go and see the film just because he is in it).

As for the partial narrative displayed on the poster, there is a head (half skull) and shattered glass. The half skull and half skin of the head shows that the person is dying as skin represents life and skulls represent death and the glass shattering enforces the destruction/death theme of ‘death’ killing people. And this partial narrative displayed on the poster relates to the film as in the film people die.

I think that the “Final Destination” poster is effective because it shows the theme of death and partial narrative (through skin to skull), as well as showing it is a poster for a horror film by featuring the death convention and mostly dark colours (except for text which is yellow, white and red). I think the dark colour is a common convention of horror and an effective one and I will most likely use this for my poster (for example: If a film poster had mainly yellow and pink, it would not give the effect of a horror film). As for the skull and skin idea, I will not use this idea as this would make my poster too unoriginal/copied and my main character in the film is the killer (not the victims as there are many). As for the negative, I think more colour would make it more interesting but this is fine, as it  fits the horror convention. And the font doesn’t suit horror films in my opinion so I will use differently.

“The Invention Of Lying” poster:

The poster also features the standard credit block, tagline (“In a world where everyone can only tell the truth…this guy can lie”)  & title of the film. Also this film features common features (although not featured on the “The Final Destination” poster, which is common (except the release date) to not be features on horror film posters): Actors in the film, pictures of characters in the film (although some posters, more commonly in horror films do not feature pictures of characters/actors) and the film’s release date (October 2^nd).  Also this poster features 3 quotes from the film (1 of them being “It’s Not Me, It’s You”), a ‘from the…’ (‘from the co-creator of ‘The Office’ and ‘Extras’) which links makers (eg: Director) of other films/TV shows to this film.

I think that the “Invention Of Lying” poster is effective because of its bright colours (mainly white & blue)- its bright colours show well that the film is not a comedy (sky blue whereas most horrors are set at night or in dark places) and it shows generally happy people

1) With which characters is the audience invited to identify? 

 - The audience are invited to identify with Derek Vinyard (the former neo-nazi) & Danny Vinyard (Derek’s brother)

2) What types of audience would visit the cinema to see this film? What would be their reasons for going? What would be their emotional responses?

 - Examples of audiences that would visit the cinema to see this film, would be ones interested in the issue of racism, people interested in Drama, etc…and their reasons for going would be because they enjoy drama films/issues, etc…People’s emotional responses to this film would likely be shock due to the strong violence & racism of characters in the film (especially since the film was released over 10 years ago: 1998) as well as enjoyment and interest if they liked the film. Also, they should care for Derek & Danny (characters) as they are the ones we are designed to identify with.

3) Why might censors, or a government, consider cutting or banning this film? Would their concerns be to do with potentional emotional responses to the film?

- The film “American History X” may have been considered for cutting or banning because of the black and white flashback scenes where the character Derek is a strong neo-nazi and his views could inspire other neo-nazi’s to take further action in their beliefs or could inspire some real people to become neo-nazi’s. Also, the film contains a rape scene (when Derek is in prison and in the showers), full male nudity, 205 uses of the word ‘f*ck’, plus continuous uses of ‘n*gger’, ‘kike’ and ’spic’, and also ’son of a b*tch’ and ‘damn’. As well as the rape, nudity, language and racism, there is also a lot of violence and smoking including a man smoking marijuana. The violence in the film includes Derek making a man open his mouth on a curb and then Derek stomps his head to death. Also there is a scene where a white gang go into a grocery store that employs racial minorities, beating and tormenting them, and destroying the items in the shop. And a scene features a teenager (Danny) being shot multiple times (in slow motion), with blood splattered across the wall.

4) Are there any sections you believe could, or should, have been cut?

- I don’t think the film should have been cut (and I agree with the 18 certificate) as it would make the film less powerful in what it was trying to show, but the language and violence in the film are very strong, and some violence could have been cut out, but would ruin the narrative and make it less effective. The language could not be cut also because there is so much of it and the racist language although offensive is relevant to the film.

5) What certificate is the film given in Britain, and would you agree with this? Justify your response. Find out if the film has been given different classifications in different countries.

 - The film was given an 18 certificate in Britain (UK) and I agree with this. I also think it deserved an 18 certificate because of the strong racism (language & actions) and the strong violence (eg: stamping head of a character to death). The film was banned in Malyasia and given high ratings in nearly all countries (also given an 18 in countries such as Phillipines, Isreal, Ireland, South Korea, etc…) and the lowest rating was PG-12 in Japan.

I will get this questionnaire I made answered so that I can use the information for my film and research and planning.

a2-film-shocking-cinema-essay

In my film’s story, the student becomes addicted to murder, enjoying doing it and looking for new & exciting (to the student) ways to kill people and I thought about possible music (will be filmed before music is added so if it does not work out, the music idea can be changed) for the film trailer… 

For the first bit where the student does not know that he will enjoy killing and is seeing something negative happen to the best friend of the student (the reason he kills for his first time), I will have some street rap music (probably the song “Block Music (Bang)” or another song (as her slower rapping in this song I think will suit the footage of the trailer (emotionally & visually) more than her rapping fast) from Shawnna’s “Block Music” album) to fit the atmosphere. After he has killed and realises he is enjoying murdering, I was thinking of some happy sounding music to reflect that the character is enjoying murdering people. (I was thinking of Jessica Simpson’s “A Public Affair” song, although the song may be too happy and unfitting of the footage, which could confuse people and mean people may  view it as a horror-comedy). Because of this, after the street rap intro, I am now planning to have some rock music for the footage where the character is enjoying killing people. And because the footage is filmed without music, I will be able to experiment with many music ideas to see what works best but my idea at the moment is to have a short bit at the start of Shawnna (rapper) and then some Lazyeye (rock band), but these are just ideas and I will see what will work after I’ve filmed my trailer.