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1. Context
By Ben Brown

2. Initial
Reaction
1. I plan to make a step-by-step
guide on how to survive in a
slasher movie against a masked
killer. This will be shot as a parody
on typical slasher movie troupes.
2. I have experience in
creating stories, filming and
editing. I also animate and edit
films on photoshop.
3. My opinion about this project is I
am happy to have a second
chance after having to plan and
start again my FMP last year,
although the revised project, The
Paranoia of Edward Stanton
turned out well. I feel
overwhelmed being thrown right
into the middle of this major
project and because this FMP is
the most important work of my
college course but plan to do my
very best work.

3. Mood Board

4. Mood Board Analysis
All the images I have chosen are all to do with the style of
a slasher/horror film. Many of the images are iconic
slasher movies with gruesome deaths. Other pictures also
have the slasher stereotypes like masks, isolated places
and weapons. My slide also has the victims being spared
or killed depending on their demographic characteristics.
The tone/mood is both scary but a parody of the movies
because some pictures there are of horror movies that are
made to be funny and mocking the genre.
My mood board will influence my project by being scary
and displaying all the stereotypes of a horror/slasher
movie with over-the-top kills but awareness of the
recurring patterns and limitations of the genre. Given that
most horror/slasher movies aren’t scary anymore and
they’re becoming more self-aware, the mood board will
influence me to make it a parody on how to survive a
horror movie where I draw on the source material but do
not take it at face value.

5. Influence/Inspiration:
Male Gaze
Male Gaze is one of the four main theories in movie entertainment and this one mainly appears in
slasher/horror movies. The theory is about women only being sex objects for dominant males and
the movies are shot predominately from the male point of view. The belief of male gaze is that
women only exist to please men (so that makes them seen as second-class citizens in society’s eyes)
in sexual ways to show the dominant male patriarchy of society. This message is shown through
movies (mostly slasher because they were popular in the 20th century) portraying women in that
belief as people with no personality and portrayed or killed in sexualised ways. The male gaze
mostly appears in the slasher franchise Friday the 13th, and the movies are produced with most of
the run time with women being sex objects for males. What this theory says about the medium I’m
working in is to mainly focus on dehumanising women and movies being shot from only a male
perspective.

6. Influence/Inspiration:
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13th of
August 1899 in London, he
studied cinema and started working in in
a movie theatre when he was 20 but then
became a director making many cult
classic films. Hitchcock believed that the
horror movies he made were art and the
actors who were in them were ‘cattle to
be used’. Hitchcock always took the
thriller approach to horror movies to
make them both scary but also impactful.
Hitchcock loved the medium of cinema
but he believed that to make an artistic
film that no care had to be given to the
actors well-being.

7. Influence/Inspiration:
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock fundamentally changed cinema and the
horror genre specifically by adding the element of suspense
which he proved could be as effective and powerful as
surprise. Hitchcock would build suspense in films by letting
audiences think they can be the character or think ahead of
characters in his films which created tension and excitement
for the viewers. Hitchcock would also insinuate suspense
before something was realised by the central character
making the audience feel helpless and creating drama.
Hitchcock was quoted as saying, "My suspense work comes
out of creating nightmares for the audience. I play with an
audience to make them gasp and surprise and shock them."
(How Alfred Hitchcock Changed Cinema and Society Mr Pop
Culture 2023). The most powerful example of this creation of
suspense is the 1960 classic film Psycho which shocked
audiences by the hero being brutally killed early in the film
and letting innocent lives be ended by a disturbed murder
which became the foundation of the entire horror film genre
and its tropes.
Hitchcock also was a master at showing ordinary people
caught up in events beyond their control and of creating
tension before the main character is even aware of the
impending danger. His style would include camera
movement that mimics a person's gaze and the strategic
framing of shots to maximise fear and anxiety. Hitchcock was
also described as the father of the slasher genre which
involved a psychopathic killer graphically murdering a group
of people with a slashing weapon. Psycho was one of the
earliest examples of graphic movie violence in film.

8. Influence/Inspiration: Alfred
Hitchcock
Hitchcock also pioneered the use of several film techniques
such as quick cuts which are a series of quick edits such as the
shower scene in Psycho which was over 90 cuts in 45 seconds
which created the illusion of graphic violence but the knife in
reality never touched the flesh. The use of music to create
feelings of tense and suspense was introduced in Hitchcock's
films such as the shrieking violins to accompany murders. The
use of the "MacGuffin" which means the use of an object, a
person or event to keep the plot moving along even if it is not
essential to the story such as the $40,000 stolen in Psycho or
microfilm in North by Northwest. Finally, the use of the dolly
zoom where the camera moves closer or further from the
subject while the zoom simultaneously is adjusted to keep the
subject the same size in the frame. This effect undermines
normal visual perception and it is used in Vertigo and by later
directors like Steven Spielberg in ET and Jaws.
As Hitchcock is the father of the modern slasher, I have been
heavily influenced by his films and modernizing techniques.
Specifically, I will use his methods of creating suspense, his use
of the dolly zoom and other filming techniques, the quick cut,
and his use of music and realism to add impact and depth to my
film.

9. Influence/Inspiration:
Tom Savini
Born on November 3 1946, Tom Savini was a catholic
raised ex-Vietnam soldier from Pittsburgh, all the
horrible things he saw in Vietnam inspired him to make
practical gory effects which eventually got him a lot of
job roles in horror films. He also became a director and
actor and most significantly he is the creator of Jason
Voorhees. His belief is that his profession is a coping
mechanism to forget the PTSD of Vietnam and he seems
to see his work of art as beauty. Savini always takes an
extremely realistic approach to his work to show the
realism of death which he saw first hand in Vietnam. He
says that he likes the medium of film but he always
wants the deaths in a movie to be realistic so the grizzly
events of the Vietnam war won’t be forgotten.

10. Influence/Inspiration:
Tom Savini
Tom Savini's influence on the horror film
genre was the introduction of extremely
graphic and realistic violence without
the use of CGI or other special
technology. Savini's experience in
Vietnam in which he saw horrific killings
was introduced into cinema for the first
time with horrific decapitations and
stabbings and body mutilations filmed
up-close. Savini used pioneering special
effects make up which depicted a level
of realism never before seen in films
such as Friday the 13th. With one
example, the body of Captain Rhodes
getting ripped apart on Day of the Dead
which was incredibly realistic.
I have been heavily influenced by Tom
Savini's work and want to follow his
example and techniques of using
realistic violence with make-up in horror
films and not using CGI or special
effects.

11. Influence/Inspiration:
Wes Craven
Born on August 2 1939, Wes Craven was raised
in Cleveland Ohio and pursued the career of
film making at a young age. Craven tried with
different genres to direct movies but eventually
found success when directing A Nightmare on
Elm Street. He was mocked about how he
made horror movies in the early 1990s so he
decided to make a self-aware horror movie,
Scream, which changed the horror genre
forever. His belief was that the horror genre
was what he found most success in but he
made Scream to improve on the problems of
the horror genre. The approach to his work
early on was standard horror but then he
began to make his horror movies more
intelligent and questioning to fix the faults of
the horror genre. Craven likes the medium of
film but wants movies to be more self-aware
and to be truly scary to study fear in the human
mind.

12. Influence/Inspiration:
Wes Craven

13. Why are you
making this
project?
I’m making this project for two reasons; I want a second chance to
make a creative FMP of my choice and I’ve had the idea of making
‘How to survive a Slasher Movie’ for a long time so I want to bring it to
life. As you well know by now, my FMP last year was too ambitious
and ended with me having to make a simpler idea that was a success
but not what I wanted to originally make. I’m going to make this
project to have a second chance at bringing an idea to life that I have
had for long time to fully fulfil my artistic vision. I’ve been wanting to
make ‘How to survive a Slasher Movie’ since June and making the
project out of a second FMP with so much time to make it perfect can
make my project of a high standard.

14. Strengths and
Limitations
1. Strengths: One strength is filming my project entirely at home compared to my other projects filmed entirely in college. This will
impact my production by giving me a lot more time and a higher budget.
2. Limitations: One limitation is the lack of actors I’ll have because its just me and my parents (that means there are only three
actors). This will limit my production by having less actors to portray characters which will slow down production given that my
only actors also have to do other things for the film.
3. Strengths: One strength is the gory practical effects I plan to use for my kills for the stereotypical teens in my FMP. This will
impact my production by feeling like a real slasher/horror movie because they always have over the top kills and the goriness of
my kills will be eye catching to anyone which will gather an audience.
4. Limitations: One limitation is I don’t have the knowledge or resources to make practical gore effects and I don’t know where to
get them so I’ll have to do my best with limited resources. This will effect my production by making the project seem cheaper
than what I was hoping for and it may not feel like a horror movie with low-budget practical effects that try too hard to be
proper gore.
5. Strengths: One strength is I have full creative freedom over the project to make the horror film however I like. This will
impact my production by making the project more imaginative and unique to stand out and get the attention of people.
6. Limitations: One limitation is I may come up with too ambitious ideas that aren’t possible with the time and budget I have. This
will impact my production by causing the quality of the production to drop massively and everything will look like a low budget B
movie because it lacks the proper resources and time.

15. Potential Research Activities
I will use both the internet and books to research four things; slasher movies, self-aware horror
films, gory practical effects and humour in horror. I can research horror by looking at all the
iconic slasher franchises on Amazon Prime to fully understand how slasher work. Self-awareness
and humour in horror can be easily researched by watching more modern horror movies or
watching the Scream series. I can also research movie books and articles about how horror films
have developed and changed over time. I can research gory effects by taking lessons on practical
effects in the make-up department and looking at all the movies Tom Savini has made gory
effects for.

16. Context Statement
This FMP will require the construction of a detailed and original
parody of widely known horror movie stereotypes and troupes
through filming at a variety of interesting locations, excellent
editing of the film, high quality acting and intelligent writing to
bring to life the self-awareness of the modern slasher genre in a
fun and compelling way. I am a huge fan of horror films as these
films are like an amusement ride with fun characters, humour,
creative kills, and compelling antihero. I see horror films as a
form of art in terms of the manipulation of the audience
response and use of psychological techniques. It will also require
the inclusion of gory special effects and the use of mood and
atmospheric lighting and settings to add suspense and horror.
The Paranoia of Edward Stanton which I produced last year was
an example of building tension and successfully using gore
special effects on a limited budget. Wraith House was an example
of intelligent writing and using pictures and dialogue to build
horror and tension. Also, my Forgotten Heros factual project
about John Snow gave me non-fiction film making skills that I
hope to incorporate as I intend to use a spoof public service
announcement as a narrative device. I plan to improve on these
two examples in my FMP to make this project truly outstanding. I
feel that the public service announcements of the 1970s with
their use of horror film techniques which are now unintentionally
funny are a perfect match with the modern trend of parodying
horror film troupes. My feeling is that this project can explore the
little-known connection between horror films and public service
announcements.