RESEARCHING SIMILAR PRODUCTSBy Kristian

Characters• The characters in “The Woman in Black”

and “The Butterfly Effect” are completely different. In The Woman in Black the main character is a lonely man who is trying desperately to live a nice life with his son. He lives in London but isn’t super wealthy like his friend Sam Daily, you can see this by the way Daily’s clothes are a bit neater and he wears a silk blue suit. The Woman in black is the same throughout the whole movie and her description says it all, she wears all black to show her suffering and is trying to destroy others’ lives by doing what she thinks they did to her.

• Unlike in “The Butterfly Effect” where the characters are more realistic for example Tommy who is portrayed as a typical bully telling the Lenny what to do and punishing them if they don’t do as he says. Even the main character Evan is unsure of himself because so much of his life is a mystery and he dresses like a normal person would throughout the years in t-shirts and jeans. There are more stereotypes in “The Butterfly Effect” aside from Tommy there is Thumper who is portrayed as a typical Goth with the dark music he listens to and the way his side of the room is dark and Goth like (death metal playing black angle posters, etc.). The think that defiantly gives him away is his unique Goth look (black spiky hair and dark make up) and his hate for judging frat boys.

Narrative• The Woman in Black starts of by giving the audience an

enigma. They show a clip of three small girls jumping out a window. So the second the audience sits down to watch the movie they are given a question. Killing of the girls with the women in black watch is also an enigma. When Arthur is in the house and we see the woman in black in the room with him we wonder why is she here and also why does the town’s folk not like Arthur and why do they keep their children inside when he walks past.

• In The Butterfly effect it also starts off with and enigma which is why does Evan have these blackouts and why doesn’t he remember anything. When the audience keep watching they see these black outs keep happening until he moves away from his home town where he grew up and where his friends lived which is also an enigma. These enigmas are partially resolved about halfway through the movie when we see that Evan can go back in time and change his life, but that gives us more enigmas like what happened to his friends? All the enigmas are answered in the end giving no opening for a sequel with the same characters also known as a full resolution.

Location• The location for The Woman in Black is very typical for a

horror movie, an old big house with gothic features. What makes it scarier is that it’s on an island with a long way to the village meaning you can’t run and ask for help. The location is very good because without that you wouldn’t get the same fright. When we see an old house we expect to see someone standing in the window giving use chills and the location for this movie did just that. The fact that’s it’s also in the countryside many years ago also give it’s a horror fell like there is nothing to protect you, and you have to go through with it.

• The location for The Butterfly Effect also fit the with the genre for example Evans house when he was young is what you would expect, it’s nothing to fancy but at the same time they are not poor and as he grows up he lives at the University campus, when he is himself he live in a small dorm with his roommate Thumper but in his other life when he is a frat boy his dorm is big and luxurious saying he’s the boss.

Summarise• Both the movies where very good executed and wouldn’t

be the same if the workers had chosen different sets. The actors are very important in movies because without them the roles wouldn’t be the same. Although the actors for these two movies where very unusual they fit the scene for example the use of Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur in a horror movie is unusual because we associate him with Harry Potter, I think there where better suited roles for the movies but they executed it well any way.

• The props, costumes, make up where also very good although you don’t think they make such a big difference when you watch the movie if you analyse the movies they can make a big difference an example of this is how in “The Butterfly Effect” Thumper is portrayed as this typical Goth which is being shown through his make-up and costume. I think the most memorable of both the movies is the way the woman in black is shown. If she was portrayed differently you wouldn’t get the same effect.

• When I analysed both these movies it tells me that everything on screen was placed there on purpose, nothing is there without a reason. This tells me that when I get on to make my movie I need to make shore the location and set fits my character and the genre of the movie.

How will this benefit me• To create my movie I have a taken some ideas from “The

Butterfly Effect” and some other movies, because my movie isn’t a horror movie I’ve left out most ideas from “The Woman in Black”. From my research I’ve learnt what is needed to create a horror movie, because of that I know what to stay clear of in my movie. My movie is a mind bending thriller and that’s why “The Butterfly Effect” would be better to take some ideas from.

• My main character is a 16 year old male. In some ways he could be thought of as a saner Evan because Aaron (my main character) grew up with both his parents and his friends unlike Evan who’s friends where a bully. The location I’ve chosen starts of from outside of town like “The Butter fly” does, but instead of going on to campus my movie goes on to the city.