Blog #63 Flawless Critical Reflection
Going back as early as I can on this project, I remember as I finished my AICE level project I looked forward to A level, and I was already brainstorming ideas. My ideas had two constants; horror, and gore. My main thought was “how could I up the gore from this year?”. The ideas came naturally to me, I love movies, and horror is my favorite genre. One of the earliest things that stuck through the whole project is the cults, and the boyfriend and girlfriend dynamic. I had thoughts of this way before we started our blogs or anything revolving around the project. The idea I was set on the most before I settled on my current projects story, was a boyfriend and girlfriend investigating a ghost town, where the girlfriend gets captured by a cult for sacrifice, and the boyfriend follows and tries to save her; only to find out she was a part of the cult, and eventually this would lead to a climax where the boyfriend character is in a ritual and being forced to rip the skin and flesh off his body. I was really trying to up the gore.. And to my surprise upping the gore isn't necessarily something that stuck when I got into creating this final project. While that idea I said sounds awesome to me, and I would still love to make that film, I realized I was doing it all wrong - I was planning it all wrong. Looking at my favorite movies, my favorite horror movies; whether it be Alien, Predator, Hellraiser, The Evil Dead, The Thing, I could name them all day, but all these movies, they aren't classics or remembered just because of cool gorey kills and monster design, its easy to focus in on those; like I had, but these movies are remembered because of their stories and their deep messages, like thinking of Hellrasier the first thing that comes to mind is Pinhead’s monologues, in a movie with some of the coolest gore ever. I needed to follow in these shoes, I'm not trying to capture the magic of films that will honestly never be challenged, I’m now just trying to make an impactful story and messaging, I want to challenge the repertoire of the horror movies I see every week, I want to make something new and inventive, and challenge and push myself to actually write a strong story and characters, and make those non action focused scenes just as interesting and immersive as every other shot. I already made a slasher movie last year - this is my attempt to push my skills to the next level.
Poster for my film Flawless
Now that I had found out what my true goal was in this project, to up the skills, not(just) the gore(because it wouldn’t be my film without any). I had to create a good story, a new story, that most of all truly resonated with myself. The strongest meanings behind films are always rooted in the directors own life experiences - in my case I don't have too much to go off of as a highschooler, so I decided, why not use that. A horror short revolving around the ‘horrors’ of a student’s life - I know a good handful of people who can relate to that story. So I chose 2 main messages to melt into one about self image, identity, and social standards; first being love- toxic relationships, and body dysmorphia. Love being something I want to use to make the audience care about the characters, as love is a universally relatable topic, expanding my audience from just students. And body dysmorphia being less relatable, but more and more each day in our social media focused world - especially for teenagers. I will use these messages and themes to create genre hybridity, tying directly into Steve Neale’s theory, which is pretty much exactly what I'm attempting to do, create a unique and original horror story by using new messages and themes which would not traditionally be used to challenge and diversify the horror genre.
POV shot of Dillon looking at instagram stories - represents his body dysmorphia and social pressure
A detailed story/ script is not the full extent of the creation of meaning and the communication of messaging and tones in a film, not at all. Like I said in my goal; I wanted to challenge myself this time around, and with my genre hybridity, I'm pretty much filming about 1/4th of a full on romance short. And a film of this type requires well thought out shots, costumes, sets, sound design, lighting, and acting - which means for my 2 leads I cannot just cast my friends without a second thought, so, I cast my close friend Gavin. Which was a much more calculated decision then it may sound, Gavin is in media studies, starred in his own film last year, and has been in a strong relationship with his girlfriend Lauren, who has also acted in some of his own projects - I found a couple with real chemistry and acting experience. My film has to be very well thought out when shot, as a majority of the story will just be told through the camera - my film has maybe 20 words, I cannot bank off of the dialogue. So I have to dig deeper into my messages; self image, toxic relationships, and body dysmorphia, how can I represent these dynamics without dialogue; costume design - in this case the more subtle the better, and with my personal experiences in the messaging I can think of some ideas pretty quick, my lead is a weightlifter with body dysmorphia, I know many people with body dysmorphia like to wear baggy clothes or specifically hoodies to hide their physique, so that's how I decided to make a hoodie represent my main character; Dillon’s personality. But I can still expand on this, I decided the color white would also represent Dillon’s personality, meaning his true self would be seen in a white hoodie. Going into my other characters it's pretty simple to come up with their wardrobes now; something that contrasts with Dillons; black, non-baggy T shirts. So when you watch my film, you will see the silent story and progression of Dillon trying to fit in, wearing black, wearing t-shirts, pretending to be someone he's not, leading up to his metaphorical death; the death of his true self, as he continues to pretend.
Dillons costumes/ wardrobe throughout Flawless
Costuming/ wardrobes of Anna, Cultmember 1 & Cultmember 2
True form (super imposed) Eye deity the cult worshipped
For marketing we used Instagram, so I wanted to use it to its fullest extent to market my film, in ways I have noticed from other movies, and enjoyed. I didn't just want to leave pictures or this # of days left count downs, I wanted to create an interactive campaign for my audience, investing them and engaging them into my film - tying directly into Stuart Hall’s Active Audience Theory. I support the theory, because it applies to me, modern audiences don't just want to wait for a movie, they want to engage with it. So for my marketing I used a combination of media to encourage audience interaction, for example I made the Spotify playlist I created for myself to listen to when script writing or drawing scene plans or story boards public, allowing people to get a gist of my film’s tones before even viewing it. And my very favorite piece of marketing I did, the Flawless popcorn bucket. The strangest and funniest current trend in cinema - nearly every big blockbuster gets a bucket, and they always go viral for the crazy gimmicks or sizes of them. So I decided to go the comedic route; the main character’s mangled face(post being hit by a hammer), something so crazy and unappetizing to surely make a buzz. And finally, all my marketing is tied neatly together with my choice of colors; black, red, and white; I used all three colors in every single one of my posts, and I used the same consistent letter font, throughout my entire campaign, including my post card, associating those colors and font directly with my film, creating a brand, honed in with a hashtag #flawlessshort in the descriptions of each post.
All my social media posts, showcasing how I created a brand by using the same color palette and font throughout every post.
Spotify playlist I created for my film to engage with my audience
Popcorn bucket I created for my film to engage with my audience
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