Directing  

Melodrama  

• A young man bumps into a girl who is running through a forest, she is knocked over and the man asks if she is okay, she says that she is being perused and she continues to run into the forest. 
• A few seconds after the Girl runs away a man appears and he says that the girl is a Princess and that she ran away in order to escape an arranged marriage, the man asks if he has seen her and the man lies, he says that she went in the opposite direction and the man runs of after her.  a few hours later, the man, who is the Princesses’ betrothed is seen dragging her through the forest and the young man comes up behind him and smothers him. 
• The young man walks up to the Princess and apologizes for scaring her and he tells her that he hates it when people’s free will is forcibly taken from them and he tells the princess that he will take her to safety. 

• An epilogue shows that a few years later, the Princess and the young man get married and live happily ever after.  

Influences  

• The Cabinet of Dr Caligari  
• Victorian melodrama e.g. Maria Marten, or the Murder in the Red barn 
• Silent films. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slapstick comedy  

• Two women are sitting at a coffee table gossiping when a third woman turns up and shows them a gold ring that she found. The other women fawn over it and ask questions about it. 

• A fourth woman turns up and claims that the third woman stole the ring and the second woman denies this and this makes the fourth woman angry so she slaps the second woman and the second woman slaps her in return, the second woman proceeds to pick up a cup of cold tea and throw it in the newcomers face and the fourth woman does the same to her and they continue to throw objects at each other until a man who is a jewel thief turns up and reveals that he was the jewel thief. 

Influences  

• Old comedy films e.g. the work of Charle Chaplin  
• Monty Python  

 

Editor 

Tragic romance  

• A young boy and girl meet in a diner and they start to flirt with each other, their parents hate each other so they are forced to keep their relationship a secret.  
• The boy asks the girl to meet him at the beach and he is devastated to discover that the girl’s parents have arranged for her to marry another man, he asks her to meet him again, later that night  and when she gets home , the girl writes a note and she goes to the beach and the lovers walk into the sea together and it is implied that they have drowned themselves.  
• The girl’s mother discovers the letter and she screams.  

Influences 

• Rome + Juliet (1996 Baz Lhurman)  
• Breathless (1960, Jean Luc Godard 0  

 

 

 

 

Horror comedy 

• In the 19th century, Rose Blythe was always kind to everyone, and she was one of the wealthiest women in the town, but she died in an accident when she fell down the stairs and hit her neck. 
• Rose is buried but the people of the town don’t forget her – they continue to pass down memories of her and, even in death, she encourages people to be good. 
• About a century after Rose’s death, her corpse is brought back to life by a mysterious force   that tells her that she is still needed and she continues to walk the earth, helping people 

Influences  

• Warm Bodies (2013) 
• Shaun of the dead (2004)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing  

• Catharine Johnson is the granddaughter of a wealthy man called Lenard Johnson and she is going to visit him, but when she arrives, she finds that he has died under suspicious circumstances. 
• The police are called, and Catharine is named as a suspect, even though she had arrived after the death of her grandfather, since she was left a lot of money in her grandfather’s will. Catharine loved her grandfather and recalls fond memories from her childhood when he took her in after her parents died. 
• A police detective by the name of Robert Notworthy arrives to interrogate Catharine and he suggests that she hired an assassin to poison her grandfather – Catherine takes offence to this and she reveals that her grandfather gave her an annual stipend of £ 1 million and that she was perfectly content with what she had. 
• Notworthy goes away and discovers that everything that Catharine was saying is true and that none of what she was saying is a lie, but when he presents this information to his superiors, they do not believe him, and they say that Catharine has seduced him. 
• Catharine is arrested for the death of her grandfather and she is told to confess to the murder, and they attempt to coerce her, but Catharine insults them by calling them incompetent fools and they take her away. 

• The police chief, Henry Hornby says that Catharine has been arrested on suspicion of murder and he seems gleeful, and Notworthy discovers that Hornby was involved in a business deal with Lenard Johnson and once Johnson discovered Hornby’s tendency to lie and cheat, he ended his business ties with him, and once Johnson became rich, Hornby swore revenge. 
• Notworthy attends the court and, to his surprise, he is called on to give evidence and he reveals all that he knew. Hornby is arrested and Catharine is immediately released. The pair meet later in the park and it is implied that they start a romantic relationship. 

 

 

Influences  

 

• Film noir  
• Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles) 
• Femme fatale  
• Trope subversion  

 

 

Portfolio Outline