Jasper L's Senior Project Blog
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Project Title: Patterns in Serial Killer Biopics BASIS Advisor: Mrs. Hagerman Internship Location: Remote Onsite Mentor: N/A |
Project Abstract
Serial killers have a powerful impact on our society. A lot of people love the thrill of this area in true crime. Others fear it. One of the ways people learn about serial killers is through film. Hundreds of movies around the world have been created about serial killers. There are fictional ones like Silence of the Lamb and non-fictional ones like Zodiac. What people consume while watching these movies depends on how the films portray the characters. Some movies will make people feel disgusted by the killers while others will make the people feel like they misunderstood the killers. There are groups of people that are part of the serial killer celebrity culture. This is when people treat serial killers like celebrities. They will follow them around the media or in some cases romanticize them. Examples of romanticization include becoming killers or cosplaying as the killer and their victims. Understanding what people consume in a serial killer film is important to see the cultural impact the films have. It helps show how the public perceives serial killers. My research will be conducted on whether or not serial killers have been portrayed differently nowadays. I had made a list of patterns in serial killer films from previous research. I also found a list of serial killer films. I will be watching the list of films and noting if the patterns exist in these films. Then I will draw a conclusion based on the number of films with the patterns.
Concluding Post
My research project is coming to an end. I am conducting my final presentation this week for AP Research. Everything is basically in place. I just need to practice my oral defense and tweak the last bit of my research paper. I went in person for my mock presentation, and the part I am lacking... Read More
My Last formal Update
I finished my presentation slides within the last week. There are 23 slides plus a work cited page. While creating my slides, the biggest thing that worried me was if there were enough topics to mention for my presentation to be long enough. Some slides will take twenty seconds while others take a minute or... Read More
The Last film review
The last two movies I will review are The Good Nurse (2022) and Boston Strangler (2023). The Good Nurse (2022) is based on the serial killer Charles Cullen. The Good Nurse (2023) is my favorite movie out of the eight I watched. The film follows Charles Cullen’s coworker Amy Loughren and her experience with Charles.... Read More
Another film review
I will be reviewing the following two movies: No Man of God (2021) and Woman of the Hour (2023). No Man of God (2021) is based on Ted Bundy’s interviews with profiler Bill Hagmaier. The film is extremely different from previous Ted Bundy films as it doesn’t cover his killing spree. Instead, it covers the... Read More
Film Review No.2
Quick update: I finished my research paper within the last week. I just need to edit it and create a presentation. I will also be reviewing two more movies in this blog post. More specifically, I will be reviewing Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman (2021) and Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021). These two movies are by... Read More
Blog no.7
I have begun my discussion and conclusion section for my research paper. Because of this, there haven’t been and won’t be any new developments in my paper. Therefore, I have decided to talk about each movie throughout the next few weeks. This week, I will be talking about Lost Girls (2020) and He Went That... Read More
Format of my analysis
Last week, I finished watching the final two movies on my list: He Went That Way and Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman. The first movie is based on the serial killer Larry Lee Ranes. In my last blog post, I decided whether to write my synthesis movie-by-movie or pattern-by-pattern. Both have their pros and cons. However,... Read More
Appendices
Since the beginning of my research paper, there has been one thing that bugged me, the length of my research paper. I have been trying to cut it down but the word count decreased by around 100. Within the last week, I remember that I could use the appendix to contain more information. So far... Read More
Update on my project
Since the beginning of my research, I have watched six of the eight movies. The other two will be watched as soon as I get a Hulu account. Throughout the six movies, I have noted whether or not each of the six movies has the traits. I have six traits that I am tracking. I... Read More
How has this experience impacted your thinking about future education/career choices?
One of the reasons I decided to conduct a research project on past films is my future in filmmaking. Compared to others, I wanted to go into filmmaking pretty late. While some had discovered their passion while they were in middle school, I realized it was mine during high school. I had always felt behind.... Read More
Method
I take AP Research, so my research project becomes my senior project by default. As mentioned in my previous post, my topic is patterns in serial killer films. To answer my question, I have to conduct a content analysis. “Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or... Read More
Serial Killers🔪🔴☠️
Hi, my name is Jasper Lin. I am a Basis Peoria student and I will be studying film next year. One of the reasons I fell in love with motion pictures is the characters. Films and television have always been telling stories about different characters. As the character’s tale progresses, many characteristics and changes are... Read More