Innocence Imagination Obsession - Heavenly Creatures

Sample A

Student's Explanation (incorporated into their presentation)

In my static image based on the film Heavenly Creatures, I have focused my central idea on the two main characters Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker.  In my image I have tried to show the planning of the murder and why they felt they had to kill Pauline's mother. 

I have used two books as the base of the image; these are the two girls' diaries.  Both pages are open to the 8th of June which is approximately two weeks before the moider (as they called it).  This is when they decide for definite that they are going to do it. 

The red blood splattered over the books is to represent that they went through with it also that past this day there was no turning back as they had already basically done it and they couldn't change it.  It also shows how messy the murder was, a lot more than they expected.  

The writing on June 8th shows each girl's reaction to her decision.  It has been written in an older style of writing to reflect the time/era in which they lived.  Also it was the same styles as the girls had. 

The butterfly on the pages represents the fantasy world that they had made up.  There were a lot of fictional animals in the world and giant butterflies were one.  The yellow and blue of the butterfly shows the brightness of their world and how it stood out for them.  The black stocking around the butterfly shows not only that it was used in the murder but how the two girls were trapped in their world.  

They did not know that the one thing that they thought would bring them together would eventually drive them apart. 

NB. Subsequent to the generation of this exemplar, the assessment activity was modified to reflect the notion of a target audience. 

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)