AS Media - Stabbing Evaluation

The Brief:

- To create an effective way of portraying someone being stabbed

List of ideas;

- show the stab into a pillow or other object beneath the same clothing as in the film
- don't show the actual stab, show a reaction shot
- show the aftermath of the stab

Evaluations:

- 1. The use of a pillow would make the whole thing much safer and more ergonomically sound, also everyone would be happy by being safer and more precautious as no one would get hurt and we would still be able to do the scene. The down side is the it may not be as gory or as explicit as we want it to be as there will be less realism to the piece which is what we are trying to replicate. The pillow will also not look as life like as a persons actual body making it loose its effect whilst also making it look unprofessional and bland. This does somewhat conform to the conventions of a slasher film because the stabbing is actually happening in frame however using a pillow as a body replacement is something that isn't usually seen as there is normally a fake body which we unfortunately do not have access to.



- 2. Not showing the actual stab would be much easier to film as there wouldn't have to be a shot of the knife going into the victim leaving it much easier for us to make the wound look better. Therefore we would be able to make the two shots look better and more seamless to the storyline and to the conventions of horror. However the slasher genre heavily includes seeing the death happen as you would if you were in front of the action. This poses a problem as we don't have the resources to show the knife entering the victim as we would require movie grade props which unfortunately we do not have access to. This is quite conventional as there are many films that just show the reaction of the stabbing and possibly the aftermath of it and I feel that this would be the most suitable to the film as it would be more aesthetically pleasing.



- 3. The aftermath of the stab would be the easiest of the three and enable the most focus to be centred on the wound incurred by the victim. Although this would not be as interesting and creative it would effectively portray the victims death and enable for the wound to be perfected and the blood that gushes out of the wound to be perfected. The problem with this is that we would have to work a lot to perfect one shot that could potentially go wrong and make the whole preparation of the scene and camera shot a complete waste of time which is something that we will be limited to due to our shooting script. This would be less conventional yet very effective if pulled off correctly and perfected so that it is seamless.



Conclusion;



To conclude I found that the second option would be the preferred method to approach the film with as it makes the stabbing part easier yet still maintains its effect, the pillow idea I have fond to be a good back up plan as it is still easy to pull off and look good.