Final Girl Theory

The Final Girl Theory refers to the last girl that is alive in a typically slasher/horror film that confronts the killer. This theory has been used in many films such as:
- Halloween
- Friday the 13th
- Scream
- The Strangers
- A Nightmare on Elm Street

The term was founded by Carol J. Clover in 1992 in the book she wrote 'Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film' and suggests that the audience take the perspective of the killer at the start of the film and then towards the end they begin to move towards the 'final girl'.
The concept is usually that the characters are killed one by one with the last remaining character being the woman who either vanquishes the killer or manages to escape. According to Clover the 'final girl' shares many characteristics, a few of which is that she is 'sexually unavailable' and does not participate in the use of drugs and alcohol. 
This theory focuses on the gender representations of the characters in a typical slasher/thriller film and argues that when the girl faces the killer she becomes 'masculinized' by taking a weapon to confront the killer. Also because it is generally a male orientated genre of film, this makes it easier for the audience to identify with a female character. Clover states that in order for a film like this to be successful, it is necessary for the surviving character to be female otherwise the mostly male audience will reject it.

We felt that because our main inspirations were Halloween, Scream and The Strangers, it would make sense to portray this theory in our trailer. This, along with Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory, we decided on our main characters being female. Also we suggested there was a 'Final Girl' at the end of our trailer where she is backing away from the clown into a corner holding a bat as a weapon. 

Intertextuality

An intertextual reference is a recognisable feature from one media text that can be used in another. 

 

Because our film was based around a Halloween Party we needed the 'guests' to be dressed as Halloween characters. One that we felt was very typical of a Halloween character was the Scream grim reaper. We felt that we should use an intertextual reference of the mask so that the audience know what sort of film Coulrophobia is going to be and will help them decide on whether they would want to go and see it at the cinema, because fans of the Scream films will also most likely be interested in going to see Coulrophobia as it contains the same concept of a masked killer. We decided on just using the mask so that you can still see the the body of the person wearing the mask. This was so that it does not take away from the fear that the actual killer, the clown, has on the audience. It also helps the storyline to continue featuring an anonymous killer as it leaves options open for the audience to decide who the killer may be as you cannot see all the male's faces in the trailer. This will keep the audience guessing throughout which is vital in order to make sure they remain interested in the film.

Conventions of a Film Website

Typical Conventions of A Horror Film Website

An example we looked at was the Saw website. We found that a very typical convention of a horror film website was an intro at the beginning to show what the film is about. This is accompanied by sound which sets the mood and scene for the film and links it together. The website will also contain the key images that you are likely to see throughout the film. Saw for example uses the chainsaw image to show that this will play a particular role in the killing of characters. This allows the audience to associate certain aspects of the film with the website to help it to become more authentic. 

A film website also usually contains the main character as an iconic figure on the website. For example the Saw films have Jigsaw which is the 'bad guy' and appears throughout all of the films therefore the audience will associate this with the films as it is important to link the film with the ancillary products such as the poster and website so that it becomes a whole promotional package. 

Also they will keep the Typography the same throughout the film, poster and website which is obviously important as it helps convey the same message across to the audience. 

What's more is that the Saw website also has a 'House of Jigsaw' tab where it gives some background information about the killer in the films. This creates realism for the audience as it talks about the killer as if it were real. It also includes 'The Traps' and 'The Victims' where browsers can look through these tabs and see what traps were used on which victims in the films. This contains a concept that is related to our film and we thought we might be able to do a similar idea where we focus on the background of the clown so that viewers can really get involved with the story of our film.

Lighting

Strobe

For our party scenes during the film we wanted to create a nightclub effect as we had decided to base our film around a typical teenage party. We took influence from Skins as there is a lot of strobe lighting used in the parties that take place there. 

We therefore found a strobe light that we could use and decided upon using it as our only source of light when filming as we thought this would be more effective than if the light was on. 

Problems we faced:

Because we had to film our actors dancing in the strobe light we found that because it flashed on and off so quickly, the camera sometimes would not focus on the people. We found that when we held the strobe light up nearer the camera it was more effective because it lit up people's faces therefore focusing on the victims that the clown will try and murder. This was important because of the use of Facebook profile pictures featuring in our trailer along with the people actually in the party to be linked together by the audience. 

We took a lot of footage for the party scenes to make sure we had enough good quality footage for the final cut of our trailer. This gave us much more variation of shots to choose from and helped when editing them together because the strobe created a smooth effect when editing different shots together as it was not as obvious that we had taken two different cuts and put them together.

Other Lighting

Because the lighting was fairly dark anyway as we were in a cellar at night time, this meant that we didn't have to alter the lighting for the scenes outside the main party room that much because it already had quite a 'creepy' affect to it without much alteration. We ensured that for the scene which contained the mirror, we had quite high key lighting so that the shot of the clown behind the girl in the mirror was more effective, otherwise audiences may not notice the clown and it wouldn't have the same effect.

Influences from films and other media

Influences from other films

Prom Night - This film is an influence on our trailer, as the film is set at a prom and involves murders. This was an influence to us as the prom would be similar to a Halloween party and we could take some inspiration from how the party scenes were shot. It is also played a part in influencing us as the murders take part at the prom which we thought would be a good idea for our trailer. [Deconstruction]

Halloween - Halloween was an influence on us as it uses a masked killer. We thought this would be a good idea for our trailer as many people are scared of the unknown as so having a masked killer plays on the fact that they do not know who they are or whether they know them.[Deconstruction 1 2]

Sorority Row - This film is an influence to us as it is set an American college, which would contain similar aged characters, and involves a murderer killing all the young characters. The killer is also cloaked so their face cannot be seen, therefore making them anonymous. [Deconstruction]

Project X - Project X was an influence to us as it focuses on a party that has become out of control. Although the film is not a horror, it still gives us some knowledge on how to film party scenes, and helps us think of ways in which the party can go wrong.

Scream - Scream is an inspiration to us as it contains a masked killer. This is an influence as we liked the idea that people do not know how the murderer is and so we think that a new element of fear of the unknown is introduced. We also liked that the killer in Scream knew the characters and so although the killer is masked there is the fear that they could be someone you know. 

The Strangers - This was an influence as it involves three masked killers. We liked the idea that they could get into the house uninvited and it could happen to anyone ('Why are you doing this to us?' 'Because you were home'). We liked the fact that the characters were uninvited and used this in our trailer as the clown is not invited to the party but still manages to get in. [Deconstruction]





Influences from other media
Skins - This show is an influence to us as contains lots of party scenes, which gave us lots of inspiration for our trailer. It also gave us lots of inspiration on what some teenagers get up to during parties and their lives that we could use. 

The Simpsons - Lisa's First Word - in this episode Bart is scared by a homemade Krusty the Clown bed that Homer makes for him, which has a sinister looking clown painted onto the headboard. Bart imagines the clown coming to life and cannot sleep. He spends the night curled in the fetal position saying "can't sleep, clown will eat me". This has provided inspiration to us as it focuses on the fear of clowns which we wanted to incorporate into our trailer.

Slipknot - all the members of Slipknot wear masks and jumpsuits which makes them all look uniform. However, this look can make them look scary and threatening. The bands songs have also been linked to several violent and criminal incidents, for example in 2003 a man was stabbed to death but two people. The killers claimed to listen to Slipknot before and after the murder and according to detectives sang the lyrics to 'Disasterpiece' as they committed the murder.