MURDER CLINIC

Murder Clinic: DVD Cover

STATEMENT OF INTENT

Name subgenre and brief synopsis of the film

The genre of the film derives from ‘Horror’,  and is the subgenre ‘Teen Horror’. The narrative has the main protagonist who is featured as the main image of the DVD cover. The protagonist refutes the World Patriarchal Views as she is a young female who is at a conflict with her own mind with hallucinations, paranoia and the external environment, to which is dominated by conflicts amongst her friends. The main antagonist is the protagonist's therapist, where she is counselling vulnerable girls which psychiatric conditions into murdering family members and friends; hence the title ‘Murder Clinic’. The clinic is the disruption in the plot, following Todorov's narrative structure, with it being resolved with the realisation of the protagonist who manages to confront her therapist, after managing to confide in authority (the police).

Pages to be produced

A DVD front and back cover need to be produced with a spine. Main images of the protagonist, close up shot looking directly at the camera to create a personal direct address with the audience. This is important as the connection between the protagonist, with direct address and a distressed facial expression will help entice the audience to purchase and watch the DVD. I will also take images of fire to as a still from the film, reflecting the therapy sessions, this will be placed above an image of a hidden girl (the protagonist) taken at a slightly high angle to increase the sense of vulnerability. According to human psychology, this sense of distress will have the audience feel responsible to help her. There will be a cold colour scheme and a slight greenish gaze overlay to further the narrative theme of jealousy between the protagonist and her friends. I will also use a combination of typographies, including handwritten text.

Target audience

I will be targeting a young female target audience (TA). They will be of a socioeconomic category C2, D, E and aged between 15-24. Therefore I will ensure that a young female protagonist is a feature of the DVD cover to create a personal identity (David Gauntlett), as well as making the film BFCC age rating 15. The target audience will typically enjoy the conventions of the horror genre. There will be an active narrative to engage the audience with typical industry standard DVD features such as Dolby Sound and I will use upgraded 4K video quality as a USP to entice Aspirers and Explores looking for DVDs and trends.

Application of media language

The narrative is essential to the production value. The enigmas (Bathes Codes) within the narratives and the disequilibrium (the Todorov's Equilibrium Narrative structure as outlined in ‘Brief Synopsis’) will be applied to keep the TA actively engaged. There will be many close-ups and extreme close-ups on the DVD cover to show fear and the intimidation that is felt emotionally by the young female protagonist. Visual codes and personal identity will be relevant to sub-genre and will allow an emotional connection with the target audience. Aspects of this will be featured on DVD cover to entice sales. I will also construct binary oppositions of the purity and vulnerability of the protagonist to the blood and psychologically violent and troubling typography to connote a sense of danger. Additionally, the (Einstein's)collision of images with the shadow of a knife next to the image of the fire on the back cover, shows how the therapy could manipulate the actions of the girl. I also want the audience to have another polysemic interpretation where the fire is positioned above her head to represent a casual indexical sign (Semiotics)  for the trauma in her mind.

Representations and how they will be constructed

Primarily a positive representation of a female protagonist who overcomes her battles. However, it could be argued that the vulnerability and the disability of the female cause it to be a negative portrayal of women. bell hooks would argue that this would fall under how the media industry still doesn’t recognise women equality. Additionally, the representation of an attractive white female protagonist furthers the westernised ideology of beauty; thus negatively representing women. Social pressures of young people will be explored and therefore Blumer and Katz could be applied due to the psychological identity and exploration/ education and gratification young people would be able to gain from identifying with the challenges the protagonist faces. This will be reinforced by some of the conventions of teen horror (such as weapons, violence, victims and blood) and the mise-en-scene as outlined in”‘Pages to be produced”.