One of the main influences in my coursework was the Final Destination franchise, particularly the first film.
The narrative for my coursework was heavily influenced by the concepts presented in this film. For example, throughout the film the main character (Alex) has a series of 'visions' or 'premonitions' in which he foresees the death of himself and his friends. In the opening scene, Alex and his friends are boarding a flight to France. He has his first premonition, seeing the plane breaking apart in mid-air, killing everyone on board. Naturally, this freaks him out a little bit, and he demands to get off the plane, with 4 of his classmates following him. From the terminal, they then watch the flight leave without them, and proceed to break apart and burst into flames, just as he pictured.
In my coursework, the presentation of the premonition is similar. The audience assume they're watching the action unfold in real time, but it is later revealed that they've been watching a dream sequence, suspended in a time period just shortly before the time the action is supposed to be taking place. However, in the Final Destination films, the entire concept revolves around the idea that you "can't cheat death". This suggests that, by having the premonitions and avoiding the fatal situation, Alex is merely postponing his dire ending, and that he has now put himself at the top of death's priority list. This part of the concept, I was not so keen to include in my coursework. For one, it would be impossible to get such a complex storyline into such a short product. It would also be illogical to end our coursework with unanswered questions or cliffhangers. (However, if we were planning for a sequel then this is exactly how we would end our coursework). In my product we decided to work around the idea that the premonition was designed to help the character prevent the untimely death of his friend, as opposed to teasing and taunting the possibility of death, like in the Final Destination movies.
We also felt that by creating a different ending, people would be able to see the influences of the FD films within our work, without feeling like they are watching a carbon copy.
Other differences between my coursework and the FD franchise include the way the idea of death is handled. While the FD films like to be extremely graphic and often very creative with their methods of killing off their characters, we decided to take a more subtle approach, merely suggesting to the audience that the female character may have been hit by a car, and letting them fill in the blanks using their imagination. It was felt that this would help to create a more personal feel to the film, meaning the impact of the message would be increased, as the audience would feel a stronger connection to the film and the action occuring.
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