Research - Analysis of the first 15 minutes of a similar film.

 I chose to review the first fifteen minutes of "The Girl Next Door", a psychological horror/thriller from 2007. It focuses of two teenage girls who are forced to live with their hostile aunt where they are physically abused by her and the other children in their neighborhood. It has some similar themes to our film, as both feature a sort of hostage situation and physical abuse. Here is my annotation with some screen shots.

The film starts not so differently from ours. We met a character called David who is dressed in a formal suit exiting an official looking building.  He is clearly a wealthy business man. This is the kind of image we want to recreate with Steve, but with a completely different attitude. David's expression and posture make him immediately seem depressed, whereas with Steve, we want him to seem proud and happy. In a medium shot he walks and uses his cell phone. A colleague has left him an answer phone message wishing him a happy birthday. His face doesn't change expression and he continues walking. Moments later, a homeless man is knocked over in a hit and run. David isn't panicked, but he begins to attempts to resuscitate him. There are several close ups of their mouth pressed together, and David doesn't seem to care that the homeless man could have any germs or diseases he could catch, he simply wants to save his life. Close up shots are also used to show the homeless mans eyes flickering, followed by shots from his perspective of David with a foggy, glassed over fish eye effect. They show his hand clasping onto David to show signs of life and an unspoken thank you. The contrast between the two men is shown with the image of their hands. One has dark, dirty and roughed-up hands and the other clean, with a gold wedding band and chuff-lings on his suit sleeve. David then starts a voice over which sounds like an inner monologue. He doesn't sound heroic or happy with himself for saving someones life. He sounds bitter and self-loathing. He talks about pain, and how people think they know pain, but they really have no idea. He expresses how he wishes he could have taken the place of the homeless man and taken his pain, as it would be a distraction from his own. 

                

It cuts to a medium shot of David in his study at home. Close up shots show his eyes tear up as he reminisces. His face has side lighting showing he has something to hide, which we plan to do with Steve in the car scene. His eyes don't seem to have a colour, they look black with age and regret. He lists people we don't yet know, and says his childhood was "a period of strange resession, secrets. A time when even the guilty displayed a rare innocence." He is obviously troubled by his pasted. He say's "Remember what happened. Remembering what we did." The audience know that something terrible has happened in his past and that it has followed his into his present. It cuts from a close up of his eyes in the present to his eyes of a child, as he looks down at a painting and remembers the first time he saw it. We will also have a voice over in our opening scene, but unlike David, Steve should have no element of regret or remorse in his voice.

The next scene is a flashback were David, as a young boy, meets Meg, his new next door neighbor. They interact with one another in a series of shot reverse shots, as they crouch in the riverbed catching crayfish. They both have an element of innocence and seem carefree. Meg, even though clearly older than David, is very friendly with him, and you could even say slightly flirtatious. We can see straight away that David likes her. Meg rolls up her sleeve and David notices a purple scar. As children tend to, he doesn't feel shy to ask how she got them, and she explains that it's because she had recently been in a car accident, where her parents died and her sister Susan was seriously injured. I would say she is the stereotype of 'the girl next door', as she giggles girlishly, and has a natural grace and beauty to her. In a way, this is the kind of image we would like to portray in Jane, that 'almost too perfect' personality, so it comes as a shock when we find out what she's really like. Following this scene, is the title sequence which is short, simple and abrupt. A black background with white text, that fades into the image of the street David and Meg live on. It looks like any normal 1950's american suburb street. Likewise, we want to create a sense of normality with the location we use.

David is now back at home, and we see Ruth, Meg's aunt for the first time. She is shown in a long shot watering the flowers in her garden, looking totally coy. It isn't until later her true character is shown. David goes to his back garden and we meet his brother. He is playing in the garden with some ants, dropping worms into there nest and watching the worm try to squirm away. This plays on the stereotype of children who torture small animals eventually turn onto bigger projects of mutilation, which he later does. David then goes to Ruth's house to find the rest of the neighborhood children, who are hiding in the cellar. I made sure to take extra attention on this scene as we plan to use a cellar. I particularly liked the use of light in the scene, as we see David at low angle, standing at the top of the stairs and looking down into darkness. The only light is coming from behind him through the open door. The camera pans to the left until behind him when he reaches the bottom of the stairs and follows him through the cellar. The further in he get, the dark it becomes, and he pushes aside bed sheets hanging to dry. Donnie, one of Ruth's sons, jumps out on him and they go outside to play with the rest of the gang Ruth's other sons Ralphie, Willie Jr. and the neighbors Eddie and Denise. He tell David all the things Ruth has told them about Meg, and how she "got off lucky" in the accident. You later see the importance of this because it's as if Meg is being punished by Ruth and her cousins, when actually she isn't lucky at all. We too need to make hints that everything isn't what it seems in our narration by Steve at the beginning of the film, although they need to be subtle for first time viewers.  

Several tracking shots are used as the children play a game called "Confession", which is a requiring theme through-out although not in the same context. It at first appears to be innocent fun, but after they capture Denise, they tie her up next to a tree and blindfold her and tell her to confess where she has ever "kissed a boy" or "sucked a massive dick". The boys then threaten her with a snake, although David seems unsettled by it. This gives us an idea of the menacing character of the older boys and the way they treat women. Steve has some similarities to them, in a sense he doesn't think about his violent actions either, or the way he treats women. His only worry is his wife's happiness. As Denise screams, there is an immediate jump cut to a roller coaster signifying the passing of time. It is now night time and the gang have gone to the carnival. David and Meg share another close moment on the ferris wheel and they clearly have a bond of friendship. If we were to continue filming we would be able to use the relationship between Meg and David as inspiration for the relationships between Lola, Kate and Ben, as it shows how friendships can bloom even in times of suffering as Meg later endures. 

Back at Ruth's, the boys are drinking beer and some smoking, while Ruth tells them inappropriate stories about her childhood. She see's herself as a teacher, and it makes her happy to preach at the young boys and tease them, even at one point, lifting her skirt and imitating a stripper. She uses words like "whores" and "skanks" without thought, not caring how it will make her sons and the other boys think of women which in a way is strange as she's a women herself. She even allows them to drink beer even though some of them are only ten. She warns Meg not to eat any ice cream because "We don't want you getting fat now do we?" In many ways, even though Ruth is a female character, we can take note on her attitude and moral and use them for Steve. They both have little thought for others. Ruth also insinuates that Meg is a slut, saying she doesn't want to get fat if she's going to do the "hootch-cou".

What can we learn from "The Girl Next Door"
The Girl Next Door shows us one example of a manipulative women with a mental illness. She is a sadistic psychopath who doesn't care about how she corrupts the minds of her children. She has similarities to both of the adult characters in our film. From studying this extract I now have idea's about lighting techniques for our cellar reveal scene, and also for costume design. It doesn't give us much in terms of representing characters, simply became Ruth is a more extreme character than Steve or Jane, and in this extract she is with children who are willing to be around her rather than forced. She only interacts with Meg for the last 10 seconds of the extract and nothing really happens there than can assist us. The music in the extract when David enters the cellar could be useful. Single notes are played followed by two quick notes, that almost sound like creeping footsteps. There is also a very subtle sound of string instrument that sound stressed in the background, which might be inspirational as we compose our own pieces.