Whilst developing our narrative we discussed various different themes we could present in our trailer, ranging from religion, mental health and fearing the unknown. We then decided to use all these themes, however the main theme I will be talking about today is mental health.
In films like Psycho (1960) societies general perspective of mentally ill people was limited which explains the representation of Norman but also the insensitivity through the name choice. As it is now the contemporary age being "encoders" of our own media texts and the effects it can have requires us to have detailed knowledge of Schizophrenia. Having an understanding of Schizophrenia will also allow us as directors to guide our potential Flora's in acting auditions on Friday how to portrayal her character. I will update my blog about this process in the near future.
Whilst researching we was able to find what age people generally developed mental illnesses. Previously Flora was 8 years old however when given feedback from our teacher, we realised it was unrealistic as mental illness mainly starts at age 14 in youth but also 8 year olds are less likely to take medication of the same level as a teenager or adult.
Here's the hyperlink below:
Initially we were exploring split personality disorders in terms of behaviour and symptoms, however we thought it would be more interesting if we could portray a different mental illness as throughout Horror the villains often have split personalities which arguably won't be as exciting for the audience if we recreate that convention.
Here's the hyperlink below:
I also did further research on my own on Horror movies which portrayed Schizophrenia. Here are a few of the Horror movies I found the most effective. I could refer back to these trailers/clips for inspiration throughout the production period of our final trailer.
Identity (2003) was a particularly interesting trailer as it appeared to be paying homage to Psycho with the use of a motel and an unexpected killer. The man being questioned by a form of social order, was cleverly done as there wasn't alot said by the him but it was just enough for the audience to know he is the killer but also there was still a sense of enigma surrounding his personality as not too much of the story was displayed. I also liked the use of text to build tension between each clip, e.g "Identity is a Mystery"
Shutter Island (2010) stood out to me as it subverted the use of dialogue which reflected the hybrid of the genre being a Horror/Action film. The trailer included a lot of dialogue, however it highlighted the idea that if dialogue is used well it can inform the audience straight away what the film is about. Dialogue is often used more in the action genre of trailers.
Doing research on Schizophrenia enabled me to gain a sense of what the illness involved in terms of behaviour, but also learnt about some of the dominant portrayals of the mental illness which exist in the current Horror film industry of today. In our trailer we need to consider how we could subvert or gain inspiration from trailers and research.
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