BACK TO PROJECTS
By January I was eager to try and make a fictional film, so I could practice real filmmaking and editing. I scripted a short serial killer �skit� and planned several shots I wished to use for the final piece. However, though fully scripted, I am still trying to get my housemates to help me out and be on camera, of course, the second semester of our second year at University proved even more hectic than the previous year, so there was little time to film much besides whatever the camera was around for, for �Uni Video 4�. I am determined to get this short made however, and I may yet find the time to get my housemates involved come the post-exam period in late May 2004.
To try and get a little taster of what would come (should Slasher Sluts get made), I constructed a short trailer of sorts, influenced somewhat by the classic horror trailers of the 1980�s. In the trailer I used a series of sky shots which get progressively darker and higher in contrast as the heartbeat soundtrack begins to quicken. The shots cut with and against the flow of the heartbeat, giving it a sort of jarring and low budget 1980�s feel to the trailer. Everything goes black and then suddenly a chainsaw can be heard being started on the soundtrack as a masked maniac heads towards the camera and proceeds to �kill� the viewer in a succession of increasingly quick shots. We then jump sharply in video and audio to the screams of a dying woman and the title �Slasher Sluts� followed by a short list of credits noting the film is Rated �X� (just like in the good old 1980�s) and then with another sudden scream, a slow, blood-red image of the killer lingers for a second or two before we cut back to black and end. For the footage of the killer, I used some old footage I found of myself being a serial killer (complete with mask and ultra-realistic plastic meat cleaver!). It was in night vision, but I filtered that out by changing the footage to black and white (black and white night vision gives a nice effect, almost like over-exposed 8mm in a way). I then increased the contrast making the images drenched in darkness, pierced with shafts of light illuminated the killer doing what he does best. Just a little thing I wanted to try out � making a trailer in the style of good old 1980�s Italian slashers such as Lucio Fulci�s �The New York Ripper�.
