FILM DIRECTOR CASE STUDY

Film director case study (1) from Priscilla Duah

FILM MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

MOVIE from Priscilladuah

NARRATIVE

Our film is set in school. It is about a group of 6 friends along with an outsider. This outsider (G) falls in love with a boy within the group of friends who is utterly obsessed with; however this boy is already in a relationship with a girl in the group.  G decides to set-up a date with her crush and the other girls in the group encourage her to do so knowing very well that the boy will not turn up. The date is by bridge, G waits but her crush does not come; so with her broken she rips a photo that she has of her crush and she commits suicide due to her sorrow. Her spirit the possesses the boy that she was in love, making him behaviour strangely the girls in the group notice that his behaviour has changed. His possession then makes him stalk the girls; he figure out that he has in fact been possessed by the spirit of G. The boy then leads to trapping them in the school and he tortures them which lead to their death.  It comes to the final girl to kill who so happens to be his girlfriend; he has to fight with the spirit within him in order to save his girlfriend and he eventually kills himself leaving the final girl alive but distraught with the following events. 

CASE STUDY (INSPIRED TRUE EVENT)

A 12 year old girl named Rebecca Sedwick committed suicide after over year of online and school bullying by 12 and 14 year old girls. This torment had started due to her relationship with her 13 year old boyfriend John Borgen who in past and Rebecca’s bully. Rebecca jumped off a tower at and abandoned cement plant near her home town in Florida; after posting the following message ‘I’m jumping I can’t take it anymore’ was sent to her friend.

Borgen was reportedly terrorized by 15 girls online in whom she received such messages as “you should die” and “why don’t you kill yourself”.  A numerous amount of girl from her school cooperated with the intimidation and the constant name calling along with threats to beat her up. Rebecca’s parents have said to early report to the principle of the school of the the bullying however nothing was done to solve the issue. Due to this, Rebecca then changed schools but the torment still followed her online.  12 year old Katelyn Roman and 14 year old Guadalupe Shaw were charged with a felony for cyber bullying as well as physical. The mother of the charged claims that her daughter is "a good girl and I'm 100% sure that whatever they're saying about my daughter is not true." After more investigation, it has been found that even after Rebecca’s death there was still extremely offensive comment posted online saying 'Yeah I bullied Rebecca, and yeah she's dead, but I don't give a blank,'

POSTER ANALYSIS

The Devil Inside poster immediately catches the attention of the audience with the main image looking directly into the camera because they will be drawn by the image which will compel them to find out more about the film. The colours that are used in the background allow the image to stand out more because they are dark. The conventions of the horror are being followed in this poster; red and black which are colours that symbolize evil and immortality so it shows that this is a poster of horror film. The colours distinguish with the main image which is of a nun, this gives the idea that the nun came from evil and darkness which completely contrast with what she is suppose to represent. This gives a convention of the sub-genre because supernatural/possession films are frequently linked with religion; this allows the audience to be familiar with the genre of the film, so if they have seen other film of this genre they may feel that they will in addition that they will enjoy this film in comparison to the others. Within the poster, there are scratches all over; this is signifies that ‘The Devil Inside’ the nun is scratches his way through to get to his next victim which is the audience in addition it may have another message; that the nun is not everything that she seems, beyond all the good and pure imagery if you scratch the surface she is in fact an evil spirit.

A medium close up is used for main image to create a dramatic effect with the position of the character’s body it makes it seem as if the camera was pulled into this specific position like it was controlled by the force in the her eyes. This will also have the effect on the audience, allowing the film poster to gain more attention.

The typography that is used for The Devil Inside poster is Serif, which gives more of a mature appeal. This will be more appealing to the older audience. It is bold and the colour allows it to stand out from the main image. The title ‘The Devil Inside’ matches the main image because if looked at carefully it looks like her eyes are blurred out as she is hiding something and because it is believed that nuns are the holy people and it seems that she is possessed by an evil spirit inside her, corresponding to the title. The tagline reads ‘No soul is safe’ there is in fact a direct address to the audience without using the word ‘you’ for the reason with stating that ‘no soul’ this is saying that there is no one in particular but there could anyone that will be effected by the devil within the film. The strap line is placed in the upper centre of the poster which will catch the attention of the audience because that is where their eyes will be intent because the fact that it’s based on a true story will make the film more terrifying since it could happen to anyone

The Insidious 2 film poster has clear iconography of its genre. With the use of dark colours, it gives the idea that it is a horror film because it is a convention for specific colours like red, black and grey; since those colours are associated with death and anything that is negative. The image on the Insidious 2 poster is a baby in a baby walker moving towards dark lighting, this could be foreshadowing the evil that will come off the baby; perhaps he will get possessed by the evil spirit in the dark. This image is very effective because babies are viewed as the most innocent people and the perception that the main image gives makes it very terrifying as the natural instinct is to protect a young child and you cannot save this baby who is attracted by the darkness. Also the colours give more of an impression to the main image because black and grey are the colours that represent the past when you see in films when a characters is remising; so for the reason of this is that the baby can no longer be saved as whatever it is that is in the dark has manipulated their target already and you cannot go back in the past, furthermore the main image is a long shot which exposes the darkness that surrounds it. The long shot represents the distance between the good and evil, the baby is a far away distance that is closer to the evil than the light that is coming from the other side which has a brighter lighting and so once again he can no longer be saved.

Insidious 2 uses Sans Serif typography, which gives more of modern look and easy to read. It does not distract you from the title of the film which should be the main focus, also why they used uppercase font whereas if the font was too bold it would sidetrack the audience. There are two colours used for the title, red and white. This reflects the deaths that will come off the characters in the film; the colour red represents blood and evil whereas white represents innocence, who are the family and the baby. Also the title is placed in the middle bottom below the main image, allowing the audience o scan the poster from top to bottom. So when they start at the top looking at the main image, it will intrigue them which will then follow on to looking at the title leaving them more curious about the film and therefore inducing them to watch the film.

The tagline reads ‘It will take what you love most’. The direct address makes the audience feel a connection which leaves fear in them however it also bizarrely catches their attention even more because they sense that the film will be terrifying. It also gives the impression that when the watch Insidious they will be affected by the evil spirit that haunts the family in the film will follow them into reality placing the fear factor onto them


THE CONJURING 

The conjuring poster is very distressful. There is a long shot of the main image, allowing the audience to process what type of film this will be and also it allows the audience to get closer to the poster in order to fully see the image, which then catches their attention in addition the main image is of a young woman sitting on a rocking chair with a doll placed on her lap, which is facing the camera with the woman facing the opposite direction. This puts the audience an uncomfortable position because it is almost as if the doll is looking straight at its next victim which is the viewer who is looking at the poster. This gives the impression that the woman is being controlled by a possessive force in the doll. Having said that, the audience will be able to recognise that this is a supernatural/possession horror film. The costume of the character is of a ragged white cloth like dress; this is an old fashioned piece of clothing so there could possible theme of the film being set in the past. But it also looks like the clothing of a hospital patient, giving the connotation she could be a mental health patient. Also her hair is in a disordered state so she has already been consumed by the doll. There are dark stains soaking down the walls, but also coming from the ground meanwhile the middle frame is of a lighter colour, its almost like the darkness is a creeping up on the girl this, the evil knows its next victim and this symbolizes that the evil that will possess the woman.  

The typography used on the poster is Serif with bold white. this allows the title to stand out and attract the audience. The title 'The Conjuring' which means performing a trick using hands therefore linking in with the main image of the doll that it is being controlled by an unknown force. This will put fear into the audience because they are unaware of what is happening, though  it may persuaded them to watch the film so they will discover evil takes over the woman and the force. 

The tagline reads 'Based on the true case files of the Warrens' this gives the audience an insight into the narrative of the film. The fact it says 'true case files' suggest that this is actually based a true story so it is not completely fiction. This is a convention of many supernatural/possession films to tell their audience that their narrative is based on a real story. In addition the fear in the audience will be heightened because they know that the evil force is not just in the fiction world of the film but in fact in reality.