‘Summer Scars’ is a low-budget British teen thriller directed by Julian Richard in 2007. The plot is based on a true story and revolves around six young Welsh friends who meet a mysterious man in the woods who easily manages to gain their trust, until he unexpectedly turns on them and holds them hostage. The film title ‘Summer Scars’ is an oxymoron and hints that occurrences during the summertime have traumatic consequences which physically and emotionally ‘scar’ the characters. This short feature film captures the essence of what we are hoping to obtain when filming our own opening sequence based on the thriller genre. Focusing on a variety of low-budget British thrillers is an effective research strategy as we can spot the key conventions of a thriller in terms of narrative, setting, characters and camerawork.
The setting of the film is situated in the leafy, desolate woods and the teenagers view this as their escape from society. This makes them seem isolated from the world and the audience recognise that they are immediately placed in a vulnerable position as they can be seen as easy targets, with potential danger lurking all around. In addition, the woods is portrayed as a place of secrecy where no-one will ever find out what the youths are up to and more tragically, about the frightening hostage situation. The typical connotations of the woods are somewhere dark, gloomy and bleak. However, ‘Summer Scars’ challenges these key conventions and sets the scene in broad daylight and in the film there are close-ups of nature such as, woodland creatures and sunlight emerging in between plants which gives the impression that the woods is a very welcoming, pleasant and serene environment. This is juxtaposed with the violence and horrific events within the film and makes the audience feel a sense helplessness and danger, since such things can appear to occur in the day rather than under a blanket of darkness at mid-night, which is the usual expectation. This inspired us to set our thriller sequence in the day and in a deserted woodland area but when it is cloudy, damp and grey to create a spooky mise-en-scene and to convey the vulnerability of our characters whilst still challenging the conventions. Furthermore, our sequence involves burying a dead body in the woods which emphasises the idea of it being a secretive place.
The teenage characters portrayed in ‘Summer Scars’ share a fatal flaw; their innocence and naivety towards the mysterious man, which adds to their vulnerability. This influenced our ideas for character development and we thought that in our opening sequence it is important to establish each character’s social status to foreshadow that some are more susceptible than others. In ‘Summer Scars’ there is only one female character who is seen as the most vulnerable due to typical gender representation in thriller films. This inspired us to challenge this so that a male character is viewed as weak and possesses a lower status than the leader of the dysfunctional group of teenage friends presented in our sequence, who is in fact female and holds the most power and authority over everyone.
A variety of camera angles, shots and movements are shown in this film that all add to the narrative and low-budget feel it exudes, which is what we aim to achieve. High angle shots are used in the film to signify the young girl’s innocence and vulnerable position, for example, when she is sexually approached by the psychotic man and the camera slowly tracks towards the girl and the audience feel her terror and violation of space. This influenced us to use a high angle shot in our own sequence to highlight the position of a timid and frightened character against a stronger and more powerful character. An effective shot like this will capture one character’s low status whilst emphasising another character’s dominant presence. Additionally, this particular scene in ‘Summer Scars’ contains a point of view shot from the girl’s perspective where the stranger is slowly approaching her, which allows the audience to empathise with her and feel her fear.
Moreover, the editing of the film constructs representation. For instance, there is use of cross-cutting juxtaposition where there is a close-up shown of sunlight shining on trees which symbolises hope and happiness and this is contrasted with a shot of the strange man holding the teens hostage, which represents danger. This exaggerates impact of each by highlighting a point of difference and has influenced our ideas in developing our sequence as we can perhaps juxtapose nature or signs of true friendship with the dead body and dark situation. What’s more, the pace of editing is shown in Julian Richard’s film when a young boy runs to try escape from the deadly man and the fast pace suggests panic and also builds tension within the audience. In our opening sequence, the group of friends flee as they hear someone coming and we became inspired to maybe use a point of view shot from one of the character’s whilst running and the speedy pace represents the terror he/she feels.
To conclude, ‘Summer Scars’ received a lot of praise from film critics and made it to the British cinemas in 2009. ‘Little White Lies’ magazine reviewed the film: ‘A chilling allegory about the fragile innocence of youth with a climax as brutal as any Hollywood slasher.’ This is inspiring to us as it proves that a low-budget British thriller film can be successful and has motivated us even more to create a chilling and unique opening sequence.
Sophiya Ali
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