Cyberbully (2011) film inspiration

We have looked at lots of different films for to inspire our trailer in the past, and this is one of them. Cyberbully (2011) is a TV film that follows the ordeal of a teenage girl who falls victim to bullying online through a social networking site. The main character, Taylor, is given a laptop for her 17th birthday and is excited for the freedom that this would bring her. However, she finds herself the victim of a cyber bully attack which pushes her into attempting suicide.

Cyberbully (2011)

Because we have decided that we want our film to show the idea of body shaming and body image through social media, this film had been very helpful to us in thinking about how we could portray things, and giving us ideas how to show a attempt on suicide scene. However, we later thought that this type of ending for a teaser trailer was too final and went with the idea of showing our character, Jane, at a clinic instead. 

attempting suicide scene in Cyberbully (2011)

• From the scene starting at 3:29-4:58, the scene begins with her friend running to Taylor's house as she has just seen a video that Taylor had posted suggesting that she is going to commit suicide. 
• She finds her room empty, and searches the house until she find Taylor in the bathroom.
• (EDITING TECHNIQUE) shows Taylor's family running up to the bathroom to find them both
• Close up shots of their arms show Taylor and her friend fighting each other to take the pills away.
• Close up shot shows that the pills have fallen on the floor
• A two shot/ reaction shot shows Taylor screaming that they have fallen to the floor as now, she cannot take them, and her plan has failed. 
• A shot reverse shot is used to show Taylor crying in her mother's arms and to show a reaction shot of her brother looking panicked and helpless.

There was quite a lot of time given in the film for the whole scene of Taylor's suicide attempt, to portray it in the right way. Because of this, along with the scene being too resolved, we decided that in a teaser trailer we would not have enough time to portray this scene in the most sensitive way, and so changed the idea of our trailer ending to that of in a clinic. However, the whole film has been helpful to our trailer as it has helped us with the theme of social networking a cyberbullying.