Horror film poster analysis

Typography

The main focal point of the front cover is the bold masthead. The typography of the masthead (insidious chapter 2) is in white and black. This makes the mast head stand out to the audience as it is really obvious and noticeable especially against the black background for the audience. The colour red connotes blood and danger and the colour white refers with ghosts which signifies with what happens during the movie and the director has done this on purpose because of this exact reason. The colour scheme of the background is black which again connotes danger, darkens and evilness; and again this meets with the genre of the film. The number 2 is the biggest part of the masthead because this is showing this is the chapter 2 of insidious and it is even bigger and better than the first insidious.

Tagline

The tagline “It will take what you love most” delivers a slight chill to the audience as they instantly think something bad is going to happen to that family which is in the photo. The word “it” connotes that the thing that is going to take who they love most in some sort of creature. However other than that the tagline is not giving everything away which makes the audience want to watch the movie to see what happens. The image relates well with the tagline as the mum is holding a hammer which connotes that something is trying to harm them in a bad way and also with them all hugging and close together shows that they are scared of what’s going to happen to them. All of the tagline is one syllable long which adds to the tension because it is fast paced.

Iconography- what we expect

I would expect to see evil take some sort of form by a creature due to where the tagline says “It”. Also I can predict that the creature is very powerful due to the family looking timid and scared with just a hammer for protection. Giving this is a horror film I infer than someone will be harmed by the creature, maybe killing or seriously injured. Also the title of the film helps us as the definition of insidious is “proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects”. This shows that the creature objective is to harm the family but in a very subtle way so no one identifies that there is something wrong.

Typography

The title Friday the 13^th is again in red like insidious which again connotes danger, blood and horror. Also the title “Friday the 13^th” creates a mystery for the reader as they are wondering what will happen on Friday the 13^th. But from the main image and the text of the writing, the audience clearly identifies that something bad is going to happen on that specific date. The dark woods in the background adds suspense and tension and this could infer that the danger happens in the woods as many murders and incidents occur because the woods are a very spooky setting to hold incidents.

Tagline

The tagline which is above the masthead says “from the producers of the Texas chainsaw massacre”. This has been deliberately put on the top of the masthead as the producers want to the audience to see that it is from the same producers as the successful chainsaw massacre and this will make it more appealing for the audience to go and watch the film.

Iconography

The knife/ sword which the man is holding are being used to portray the villain as a serial killer and the knife itself tells the audience that there will be murder in the film. The weapon also is an identification of the sub-genre “slasher”. Also as I have said the woods in the background adds tension and perhaps the main part of the film is in the woods.

Colours

As you can see the masthead is in red and as I have already said stereotypically, the colour red associates with danger. The background is a mixture of light and dark and the idea of Levi-Strauss binary opposite theory of good vs evil and light vs dark is occurring in the front page. The reason why it is light in the centre is because the focal point of the front page is the villain and they are trying to surround the light around the villain. This could come as a juxtaposition because when something is surrounded by light it is usually because of something good or for example a good character but as you can see the villain is the complete opposite to good. 

Changing the setting

From House to Woods 

After continuous thoughts about my overall plot, I have changed the setting of my trailer as I feel it would be more effective than my original idea. The original setting was to have it a rough looking house but I feel I am unable to get the full effect of my trailer. So the setting I have now decided is to do it in woods at night. Before his nightmare starts his brother sports the word “RUN” on the back of his neck, neither know why or how it got on his neck. Without thinking anything of it he rubbed it off and went to bed.

Each nightmare will start with the main character running in dark woods. He is unable to figure out why he is running in every nightmare he sees a man in all black in a mask. Every time he turns to look the unknown man is there (around 50 yards away). The last scene will be running and then looks behind then looks in front and he is standing right there in front of him. The plot of my film is very much the same but I have not included the whispers and changed the setting. The writing on his body whilst asleep has stayed as I feel this builds us the tension of the trailer but instead of a locked up room I am instead having the main character running in the woods and the two characters “unknown” will be appearing in different places to frighten the audience. That is my main aim when recording the trailer, as it is very hard to make trailers that build tension and interests the viewer throughout.

Film Title Planning

I have been struggling to find a title for my trailer so I have created a mind map on different ideas on what I could call my film. 

Organising Actors

I emailed my actors in a week advance just to confirm if they will be available on the dates when I will be filming. Thankfully, each of them are available on these dates and all seem to be looking forward to be taking part. Transport to getting the destination I will be filming is no problem as two of the actors have cars so they will be able to drive to and from the venue easily.  These are the 4 actors I chose because I feel that these are the most reliable actors I could get and I can ensure that they will turn up to each day of filming. 

Purpose of a Movie Trailer

Purpose Of a movie Trailer

The purpose of a film trailer is to make the audience want to watch the movie and to intrigue the individual who is watching the trailer. They use a variety of techniques that are employed in order to tantalize to viewer. The trailers only last around two and a half minutes which they need to sell off their movie to excite the viewer. Trailers are advertisements directed at the audience. Due to only being around two and a half minutes they usually consist of selected shots from the featured film and are usually taken from the most excting parts of the film. 

The purposes of film trailers are;

- To create interest in the film

- Inform the audience of the film i.e. the genre, the date of release and the production studio

- To persuade the audience that the film is worth seeing

- To ‘show off’ some of the main actors and stars in the film

- To ‘tease’ the audience by creating excitement and intrigue with the use of conventions such               as    narrative enigmas

- To showcase some of the best features in the film

 Whether in the cinema or on TV, the distributors think carefully about who will be watching at this time and try to show a trailer which will be interesting to this type of audience. For example, a trailer for Thomas and the Magic Railroad would not be shown before an 18 certificate horror film at the cinema or in the break of Coronation Street because the distributors want as many children as possible to see it.

Storyboard of my Movie Trailer

This is the storyboard that i created on the website storyboard that. This has helped me develop my ideas of my trailer and come up with good ideas to produce my film trailer. Hopefully, I can now start recording my trailer as I have now got characters to be in my trailer that I believe will be reliable and trustworthy. My trailer, is specifically based on one character where he will be involved throughout. Camera angles in my trailer will add to the tension and make my trailer look much more professional.

A use of variety of camera angles is vital for a trailer. The camera shot I will use for the when he is trapped is a birds eye view because these kinds of shots are used in many horror trailers to make the person that is being looked down on and seem completely powerless and vulnerable. Also, when he is scared and looks vulnerable, I will use many close ups to see his reactions and his expressions. This is a shot that shows the most emotion from the characters. It also is used to capture detail in a important scene. A panning shot will be used in the last shot to show that someone is looking at him and 

Distribution research

I have researched different distributors of films and have come up with positives and negatives on what distributor would be good to produce my film trailer. I have done this presentation on a new website I found called Emaze. This shows that I use different technologies to produce my work.

First film idea

After gathering my results from my questionnaire, listening back to my focus group and take all the research and analysis I have done so far, I have finally came up with an idea for my horror trailer. However, I know I will need to accommodate and change any of my ideas if they do not work or I come up with anything thing better so the storyline may change slightly but my whole idea will stay the same as I feel what I am going to tell you is a good idea and is intriguing for the viewers.

The trailers’ setting is in a nice local village where nothing bad happens to any of the residents. However, a family with a 16 year old boy keeps on having a nightmare on a regular basis but the same nightmare every time. Ross keeps this from his family as he feels that they would not believe that it is actually happening. Every day or every evening he dreams of himself trapped in a very small space. He cannot move nor do anything, all he can hear is whispers. 

His Mum start to notice that there is something wrong with him and see’s the word “Death” on the back of his neck. From then on it gets worse and Ross’s behaviour gets more severe. The pace of the movie increases every time he is in the nightmare with tense music playing to build tension for the viewer. After the final title giving the name of the film, i will show a clip of the man that has been haunting Ross in his dreams but no one knows exactly who this man actually is…

As this is my first idea of my trailer it is more than likely to change to make in an improved trailer. However, this is my idea for now but hopefully I am able to think of better ideas. Also I am still yet decided on what to call my film but hopefully I will come up with an exciting name soon!

Focus Group

I carried out a focus group to help me make my final decision and asked 5 broad question to my potential target audience. This has helped decide on my final idea on what I will be doing for my movie trailer. My 5 questions were all about psychological films as I had already decided to do a psychological film. The four participants in the video are all aged between 16-18 and as my film is a 15, this was the right age to ask questions about. From doing this it gave me an understanding on what you should have in a horror movie trailer for it to be a successful trailer. 

Overall, the feedback I received has shown me that from existing movie trailers, I should not show too much of the movie footage because this will give away too much of the plot. The fact that some trailers say that it was based on a true story allowed the movie to seem more realistic, which is something that I are considering adding into out trailer for effectiveness. 
Furthermore, I gathered that three out of the four said they much preferred a twist. You’re trying to create an ending that’s so unforeseen that if a million people watch your trailer, not one of them would guess how it ends. The more impossible the climax is for your protagonist to overcome, the more believable and inevitable the escape or solution needs to be.

Analysing my Horror Questionnaire

A few weeks ago I created an online survey to find out what viewers of my target audience liked to see in a horror trailer. I received many people's results and I then analysed the results to give me extra information on what to include to make my horror trailer exciting and appealing. Below is a link of my analysis which I completed on slideshare.

Analysing my Horror Questionnaire 

Horror Movie Questionnaire

To find out on what people like to see in a horror trailer, i decided to make a questionnaire using the website www.surveymonkey.com. From doing this, It will allow me to determine the right target audience and this will help me to figure out what is best to use in my trailer. The reason why I used the survey to put together my questionnaire is because the website is so much easier than if I was to do it by hand or email. All you need to do is click on the link below and this will allow you to complete my questionnaire. 

Horror trailer questionnaire

Mood-board

This is my moodboard of front covers of horror movies. My theme of the moodboard are all black. This is because I see black as spooky and scary as seen in all the front covers. I have created my moodboard on http://www.gomoodboard.com/ which gave me an easy template to complete my moodboard. 

In the mood board that I have chosen, I have noticed that the covers are very dark and very menacing. Some of the front covers have focused on one character mainly children which make the front cover scarier as it is played on the conventions of the children being vulnerable and scared. The colour schemes of each front cover are all very similar consisting of red, white and black. They have empathised the villain on each front cover to make it more gory and appealing for the viewer. 

Initial ideas + Research into the horror genre

Horror genre research- Key Sub-genres:

 Comedy-Horror

Comedy-Horror combines comedy with traditional horror movie themes and characters. Because of the subject matter, Comedy-Horror films can cross over into the Black Comedy sub-genre. Comedy-Horror films aim to scare the audience, but also provide comical outlets that let the audience laugh at their fear.

Supernatural-Horror

Supernatural-Horror film is a sub-genre that includes ghosts, demons, or other depictions of supernatural occurrences. Often, Supernatural-Horror films combine elements of religion into the plot. Common themes in Supernatural-Horror films include the afterlife, the devil, and demonic possession. Unlike Religious Thrillers, Supernatural-Horror films are not limited to specific religious elements and can contain more vivid and gruesome violence.

Psychological Horror

Relies on characters fears, guilt and belief, emotional instability and at times the supernatural to build the tension and further the plot. The horror comes from the reality of this particular sub-genre.

Slasher horror

This subgenre deals with a lot of violence which usually revolves around a psychopathic serial killer stalking and killing a numerous amount of victims. The killer usually uses a specific weapon of choice to kill his victim. Slasher films are also built up on a lot of mystery and suspense and may sometimes overlap with crime.

Insidious film trailer analysis

Camera

-          First shot of main protagonist is a mid-shot and shows his emotion which seems to be anxious. The next clip shows his cuts to a medium close up similar to the first shot of the trailer, however this time the protagonist is closing his eyes, and the camera is zooming in. This zooming movement connotes that we are looking at his thoughts.

-          The next shot is a shot cut of what is assumed to be their house. The camera is tracking left, and the movement feels slightly unnatural, which connotes that someone is watching the house. The shot is also low angle, connoting the house is powerful, and giving it a menacing look.

-          The previous shot then fades out, and a close up of a metronome then fades in. This also sets the scene as people usually have metronomes in the 20^th century.

-           Smooth but shaky camera movement when showing characters views in corridors, builds tension and shows fears of the character, so the audience can imagine if they were in the characters position.

-          Smooth camera movements reflect feelings of main protagonists as the story plans out. For example in the hospital setting, s which zooms in on the characters faces shows emotion and feelings of anxiety and sadness.    

    

Mise en scene

-          In terms of the Mise en scene, this covers many aspects that a conventional horror film will include such as the props, costume, location, people etc.

-          The trailer consists of a typical location, a middle class house in a nice, respectable, quiet neighborhood occupied by a regular loving family. This is juxtaposed by the house being inhabited by a demon

-          Lighting is very soft in daytime and calm scenes of the trailer, such as the hospital scene, which creates a reassuring nature. In the tenser and darker scenes, the lighting is harsher, with lots of shadows This creates a darker atmosphere and harsher tone so creates horror. This is a typical convention of a horror film

Sinister Film Trailer Analsyis

Film trailers follow numerous conventions. In this trailer there is the dramatic voice-over, which doesn’t feature so often in modern film trailers, but was widely used in films of the 1980s and 90s. The way that the film trailer is edited is another convention. The pace of the “cuts” are quick and snappy to generate a fast pace. The sound effects of gun fire and explosions feature heavily and clips of explosions and gun-fire is at the forefront of film trailers for action movies.

Camera shots

The sinister trailer uses the typical conventions you would see in a horror movie. From the start of the trailer, it begins with the image of a dark, “smooky” house. The trailer starts off with a dolly shot, moving towards the dark house, this helps build tension right from the start of the clip and starts the scary setting.  Throughout the trailer, the use of short shorts have been used, this makes the trailer seem unexpected and makes the audience feel on edge. Close up’s in these types of genres are used to see reactions on the actor/actresses face. This is the shot that shows the most emotion from the characters. It is also used to capture detail in an important scene. From this trailer there was continuous close ups and medium shots of faces mainly the main character, this shows the emotion and portrays his fear when watching the video and other parts of the trailer.

Mise en-scene

The film sinister is set in a suburban, and any other ordinary house which helps with the suspense as the audience is thinking this could happen at any house.  In the kitchen scene there is one light that produces a shadow, which keeps the background in darkness. This gives the audience a feeling that something dangerous could happen.

The props which are used in the trailer such as, the vintage projector tapes create a sense an old fashioned scenario which seems creepy and generates fear within the audience,

Sound

As the trailer progresses there are more images of different families on the different tapes, all the tapes are of the family’s murders. We are shown a car being lit on fire and a child going underwater, these images just give the audience a taste to expect absolute disgust and repulsion. Screams and high pitch noises are used during this, it is used to keep the audiences pulse racing and makes them more ‘on edge’ We are then shown a same symbol and an explanation and we now know that this symbol represents a child murderer. The non- diegetic sound in the trailer is a simple slow music which builds the tension throughout the trailer and the audience is thinking something bad is going to happen.

Editing

Many of the clips in the trailer, there are lots of fade transitions to black, which creates the feeling of unease that something may be wrong; this technique is used In many horror trailers. In the last 30 seconds of the trailer, the trailer uses very quick cuts which show the fast pace building and the tension increasing. At the end of the trailer where it says “coming soon” follows the theme from an old projector. 

Narrative Theory

Codes and Conventions

Codes and Conventions of Action Genre

·         12/15 certificate, maximising youth audiences

·         Often hybridised with Sci Fi/Adventure/Romance

·         Major Hollywood studio produced and distributed

·         High production values including CGI FX. Fast paced editing

·         Classic Hollywood 3 act narrative structure

·         Predictable chain of events – cause and effect

·         Single stranded, linear, closed narrative

·         Dramatic non-diegetic sound

·         More narrative action codes than enigma codes

·         Clear binary opposition

·         Romantic sub-plot, Humorous dialogue

·         Relationships with new technology (youth audiences)

·         Use of close up/Insert shots/High Key Lighting

·      Dominant representation of gender: male/female action hero. Mulvey’s male gaze and contemporary female gaze can apply

·         Propp’s theories applicable

·   Uses and Gratifications theory can be mapped onto Action Films

Expendables Movie Trailer analysis

In this blog I shall carrying out a critical analysis of a film trailer for the movie ‘The Expendables’.

The intended audience for this film trailer are predominantly males over the age of eighteen that like the thrill of an action movie. Despite this, there is potential that this film may appeal to women on some level. I believe that a film trailer is more likely to entice a female audience to an action movie than a poster for the same movie.

The intended audience being male would want to see this movie primarily due to the cast members. The line up of past action movie “hero’s” with those of today would give the intended audience the “wow” factor. This is because the audience will remember the older cast members for the destruction in their previous movies and the audience will have the familiarity of the younger cast members for technological advancements in weaponry and faster and extended hand-fight elements. The amalgamation of these two attributes would make the audience think about what carnage could be created. For the intended audience for an action movie this is what they would like to see as part of the story within the film. Also, in the film trailer there was an “attractive” woman that would appeal to men, mainly for psychological sexual gratification.

Partly due to the female character this film trailer would appeal to a female audience. The woman in the film has a dual role that women will be able to relate to. On the one hand she comes across as a “heroine” and then soon after as the “damsel in distress”. There is also a hint within the trailer that there maybe a potential “love” element to it depicted by a short clip of her hugging one of the male characters. This plays on the fact that women, despite modern social conventions, want their men to be “manly”.  

Film trailers follow numerous conventions. In this trailer there is the dramatic voice-over, which doesn’t feature so often in modern film trailers, but was widely used in films of the 1980s and 90s. The way that the film trailer is edited is another convention. The pace of the “cuts” are quick and snappy to generate a fast pace. The sound effects of gun fire and explosions feature heavily and clips of explosions and gun-fire is at the forefront of film trailers for action movies.

History Of Film Trailers

Intertextuality Presentation

This is my presentation of Intertextuality and I have posted it in slide share as I believe this is a much more proactive way to see my presentation. Below is the link to my presentation!

http://www.slideshare.net/WillRussell6/intertextuality-53539073

Jaws opening clip

The first clip of Jaws start of with teenagers surrounding a fire on the beach. instantly the audience can detect something straight away is going to happen because you can see that they are the majority are drunk and unstable. This is helped when two teenagers, a male and female run off down the beach near the see. 

When the girl is swimming out by herself the audience can see the buoys in the background which denotes that she is far out. The girl is wearing no clothes when swimming which could connote that she is vulnerable as she has nothing covering her. On the other hand, the boy is wearing his clothes and he is on the beach safe. 

More broadly, the violent slaying  of the girl sets the tone of Jaws in that both protagonists and antagonists are identified to the audience (humans vs sharks) very early in the film, again following the common nature of a standard narrative. Whilst the shark is attacking the the girl, the boy has no ideas what is going on and kind of passes out on the beach not sure what is currently happening 

Camera Shots 

At the beginning, the camera pans along the characters. This creates a great establishing scene amongst the youngsters. The director is trying to create an atmosphere one of a predator picking its prey.
The shots consist of various close ups, great for the audience to analyse and establish the surroundings and characters.
The film contains a shot reverse shot, which engages the audience into the film as they feel that they are involved through the use of psychological camera positioning.

Timeline Log

Before I start my coursework I have created myself a timeline which I need to stick to so I will be able to complete my coursework by the deadline. I know that some task dates will change so I need to try to keep up to date with my tasks which I will need to complete. Furthermore, I will need to give myself more time to complete my trailer as I will need to learn the skills from the software I will use from scratch. 

Conventions commonly found in horror films

-         

     Key terms

-              Typography- Typography refers to the visual design of language through the selection of type font, size, line, and spacing.

-              Tag line- a phrase or catchword that becomes identified or associated with a person, group, product, etc., through repetition-  Entertainers often develop tag lines.

-              Technical codes- All to do with the way a text is technically constructed – camera angles, framing, typography, lighting etc.

-              Iconography- which is concerned with the use of visual images and how they trigger the audience’s expectations of a particular genre, such as a knife in slasher horror films

-              Levi-Strauss – theory of binary opposites- A binary opposition is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning

-              Roland Barthe-  describes a text as: "a galaxy of signifies, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible.

-              Theory of good v evil

-              Narrative theory of enigma- Enigma code Refers to any element in a story that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma for the audience, raising questions that demand an explanation. 

key terms

Key Terms

Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. This may include technical codes, written codes and symbolic codes

Technical Codes is the use of; Camera techniques, framing, depth of field, lighting, exposure and   juxtaposition

Written Codes is the use of; Headlines, captions, speech bubbles, language style

SS     Symbolic Codes is the use of; Objects, setting, body language, clothing and colour

Conventions are habits or long accepted ways of doing things through repeated experiences. There are two types of conventions which consist of:

Technical convention- Technical Conventions - A convention in a technical area. These conventions, apply to the majority of music videos for e.g. the video being the same length as the song and fast cuts

Genre Conventions - this is where conventions are associated with a particular genre. An example of this would be a horror film. There are many scenes in dark rooms with loud non-diegetic sound 

Aims to do to achieve my target grade

1.     

      Key words such as plan, technical and research are the three terms that I need to know to complete my tasks.

To get a grade C/B I need to:

-          Plan and research need to be evident and complete and presentation of the research need to be clear

-          Time management needs to be wise and good in most aspects

-           The layout and drafting needs to be clear to understand

This will be done through independent learning, so things that are unable to be done at school need to be completed at home, such as putting up videos onto my blog. Also I need to cons

http://issuu.com/millieiron/docs/micro-elements_of_the_horror_film7._53489c0572383d