As I am focusing on the representations of victims in horror films using the timeline style article, I want the main image and main focus of the article to be about a new film coming out with a completely different representation of both the victims and hero's rather than have the stereotypical 'weak' female or child victim and 'strong' male hero.
I have come up with a few ideas but one which I think would make an interesting article is a new film involving child villains. Through researching child victims, they are often portrayed to be innocent in films yet more and more 'evil' children are coming out in the media for example Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. Investigations into crimes committed by children has shown that the lack of control on underage children and their access to violent films, TV programmes and video games has a massive influence on them.
This research has given me the idea a new horror film which involves child villains who commit horrific crimes based on ones that they have seen in violent horror films and video games. I am considering either a child on their own or a group of children mimicking actions which they see in violent video games for example shooting from 'Call of Duty' or torturing others in horror films such as 'Saw'.
I think this idea will make an interesting news article as from most of the horror films I have personally seen and also researched, I have not yet seen one which has uses this idea. I also think it will interest not only horror film fanatics, but also parents of young children who perhaps play violent video games as there has been things in the news about the impact violent video games can have on you.
Also this is something different from the everyday horror and perhaps slightly more representative of today's society. I would like to have the mother of the violent children at work in the film leaving the children home alone and portraying a more accurate image of women compared to other horror's who are still showing them as 'housewives'. I have not yet decided where I want to have a male role, if at all as most horror films portray the male as the 'hero' due to their strength however I do not think this is representative of society.
Looking through my chosen magazine; Empire, there was one particular layout of an article that stood out to me. The timeline page is one which I think would fit with the type of article I am wanting to write as I am looking at horror films over the years and how the representations of victims have changed. Using the timeline layout I can include the dates of the different horror films and compare the different representations between them all.
Below is an analysis of the timeline page in the Empire magazine.
When choosing what magazine I wanted my article to be in, the main two that stood out were Empire and Total film. Both of these film magazines are fairly similar as they include film reviews, cast interviews, 'exclusive information, product promotion and detailed descriptions of many locations which films are made.
Here are the deconstructed front covers of an issue of both total film and empire magazine. On first glance they both look very similar, the main image dominating the whole page and the image is the main focus which is anchored by the title of the film; Will Smith being the main actor in 'I am legend' and Keanu Reeves representing 'Constantine'.
On both the front covers they promise to provide you with unseen information as the words 'revealed' and 'exclusives' appear when talking about 'Hollywood secret weapons' suggesting Hollywood film stars and producers are to be exposed in Total Film and 'on set with every movie that matters this season' in Empire perhaps suggesting we are to get a 'behind the scenes' view of the films.
