Planing the Deaths Scenes AND Evaluation of Death Scene Trial

After the death scene trial, I realised that I, along with my group, have a few extra things that we need to plan and decide before we make the official shots and clips that might go in our film opening.

First of all, we needed to decide how the the victims would be killed. The aspects that we have taken from the idea of the victim being pregnant, I have put into a list, shown below, of how he could kill his victims:

• while the foetus is being carved out of their torso, leading to them bleeding to death
• by being strangled
• by beheading them
• by strangling them with the umbilical cord

Some of these ideas link to previous research that we have all done. The foetus being taken out of the torso links to the deconstruction of Creep and how the killer carved out the foetus' of the women that he victimised and the beheading idea links to the Shordtch location research where we saw a model head placed on a spike portrayed on top of a wall.

Se7en

Another aspect that we had to decide is when the killer would take these photos of his murders. I decided to look at a film that uses the idea of the killer taking pictures of his victims too, and ended up deconstructing Se7en.
When looking at the Se7en, I saw that the killer took a series of photos of one of his victims that he tied to a bed for just over a year, taking photos after set periods of time to see the victims deterioration through the year. A few screen grabs are shown below:

To the left shows the first photo taken of the man at the beginning of the year looking normal.

To the right shows the photo taken of the man near the end of the year that he was tied up looking as if he is decaying while still alive- a rather grotesque look.

This idea, although a good one, wouldn't really fit with out theme of killing, but taking the idea of the before and after stages of his victims, having a photo of his victims in their day to day lives- "stalker photos"- and a photo of his victims as they have died on his torture table.

Special FX

After taking this into account, I decided that it would be best, for our film opening, if we just got our killer to take photos of his victims after they have been killed, having the idea of the "stalker photos" within the theoretical "rest of the movie" that we will not be making.

When these photographs would be taken is closely linked to where they will be taken. As a group, we decided that the killer would take the photo after his victim is dead- lying on his "torture table".

Taking all of the research and planning that I have completed into account, I decided to do a special effects makeup investigation into the way the victims would be displayed:

First of all, I made an umbilical cord. One that we could use to "strangle" the victims of the killer.

 To make this, I used scrunched up tissue paper, PVA glue, acrylic paint that was watered down and cling film to add the shiny, slim on the cord.

Once I had made this, i then used my neck as a model, and added bruising, with my bruising wheel, to show the special effects makeup that I would use on our victims to symbolise strangulation via the umbilical cord.


I also made a prosthetic stomach out of paper mache, nose and scar wax, the bruise wheel and fake blood.

Step by step, I covered a balloon in paper mache with two layers. This would give enough strength for the stomach to stay rounded.

I then popped the balloon and cut the excess paper mache from the bottom, creating a neat edge.
I turned up the sides of the edges so that it would be easier to apply to the stomach.

After drawing where I would cut the fake stomach so that it looked as if it had been torn open, I made the fake wound, peeling the material back.

 Next, I  added cotton wool to the inside of the peeled back "skin" to show the muscle and tissue that would be there, along with the insides of the stomach. This was to symbolise the organs and tissues within the carved out stomach. I then painted them with red, brown and yellow tones to create a flesh effect.

Adding the fake blood was the last effect. I was originally planning on applying this prosthetic to myself, but I found that it was way too difficult to do it to myself, worrying about all of the dripping blood and getting everything stuck down properly at the angle that I was in.

The finished piece is quite good, and I think that if we use this effect in our film opening, it would be a success.

I then just experimented with cuts and bruises on different parts of my body that we could add to show the struggle before the victim got on the torture table.

To the left shows a graze  using thick "scab" blood and the bruise wheel to add colour and obviously bruising.

This investigation has allowed me to test out my ideas and also get more of a plan together, collating and developing them to get an appropriate representation of the slasher genre within this very important aspect of mise en scene that will play a large part within the film opening.