The film opening of Cherry falls(Geoffrey Wright)(2000) is of a couple who are being intimate and showing obvious sexual attraction between the two. The cuts are mostly close up and are short. The editing is fast paced with sinister music in the background which makes the audience hold their breath. The couple have a small argument and the shot goes from inside the car to the outside from a stalkers POV. There is non- diegetic sound in the background to achieve verisimilitude. This is created using crickets and wind. There is another car that pulls up and the male gets out of the car to play the role of the strong hero, while the girl stays and watis for him to return. The actress holds her fright and sadness throughout the film opening and never 'recovers'.
To sum it up
Fast paced editing.
Large variety of different shots.
Use of close ups (with hand placement, to show more emotion).
The characters are frightened throughout.
Use of diegetic and non - diegetic sound achieve verisimlitude.
How will we apply this to our film opening?
We will use a variety of shots and shorten our takes from our previous rough cut.
There wil be close ups of hand placements to signify more emotion.
To achieve verisimilitude the actor/actress will need to seem frightened even after the scare.
Have fast paced editing to keep the audience engaged.
The term scream queen is used when referring to a young, attractive, sexually active and rebellious women. The convention is that the scream queen will be the first character to be killed. A scream queen is usually blonde, busty and seen as 'dumb'.
A brilliant example of a scream queen is Drew Decker in the film Scary Movie(Keenen Ivory Wayans)(2000). This film has really taken every single convention of a scream queen and put it into one character. This convention relates largely to the male gaze theory as it is a women who is being objectified.
Sometimes the films also challenge the conventions and create a 'Scream King' which is basically a male version of a scream queen. We have done this in our own film opening.
Here are some few examples of scream queens in slasher movies.
Scream (Wes Craven)(1996) - Casey Becker ...
... In this clip Casey Becker is at home on the phone and the killer is on the other side telling her what to do and asking her questions. The killer then appears and she is chased throughout the house. To her parents shocks she is killed at the end and hung from a tree.
Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans)(2000) - Drew Decker ...
... This is one of the first scenes in the film. It is a recreation of Casey Becker getting killed in Scream. With the same scenario of her being chased throughout the house. Drew Decker is a great example of a scream queen, there are shots where it shows how 'dumb' she is. For example, a sign saying saftey pointing to the left and a sign saying death posting to the right. Drew decided to go right where the sign says death. All this links into the fact that Scary Movie is a post-modern deconstruction of the slasher genre.
Black X/Cmas - Barbra Cord Psycho - Marion Crane Cherry Falls - Jody Marken NoES - Tina Grey Cry_Wolf - Becky All the Boys Love Mandy Lane - (Scream King) Dylan Babysitter Wanted - Rebecca Miller TCM - Pam
