Pictures of Spitfire for Horror Poster

Storyboards

 These are our shot lists which were used to aid us in the pre-production planning for our main product.

Original Photos For Ancillary Texts

Group Idea For A Horror Film

Our group idea was completely different from any of our inital individual ideas, we went off on a slight tangent for our trailer.We decided that it would have to be realistic for two reasons, 1 Because we needed to be actually able to film it and still have it look professional. 2. We felt as if we could make a connection with the audience through the fact that it could happen to anyone we would have a better chance to tell our story.We then went on to think about our monster and what it could be, we decided on a "monster" in a gas mask which meant we could link to freuds theory of "return of the repressed" as gas masks were mostly around during the world wars which obviously was a stretching time for and something we don't want again.


This then set up the title for our film nicely "Crash Site" and it's about 2 students who are interested in discovering artifacts and they decide to go to a swamp where they have heard there are some rare World War 2 artifacts at the location. They vist the crash site regardless of bad stories "rumours" they've heard about in the hope of a big discovery. Once they're there they are confronted by a gas masked villan. We are then left to wonder what happens to our two protagonists.

Moodboard for our trailer

This is my moodboard for horror. There isn't a particular horror genre I'm more scared of than others so I thought about what in particular was scary about all these films, and for me it was the faces, whether they be deformed, demoic or just deeply horrific. This is because they stick in my mind after I watch a horror film, they are always lodged in my memory for a decent few hours. This is why my moodboard contains scary faces from previous horror films.

Planning - Initial Meetings, Prop and Location Talks.

All of our planning (shoots, pre-production etc) occured in our media studies lessons this is because we all lived far away from each other and this was the most convenient place for us to organise our trailer.
Our starter meetings included us coming up with the idea for what we wanted our trailer to "say" and the premise behind it. We decided on a slight tangent genre as we wanted to differentiate ourselves from our fellow class mates. We eventually decided on a paranormal/documentary style horror film with the antagonist being a gas masked mystery. After this was confirmed we thought about shots, locations and a vague storyline so we could plan out how it was going to come together.


We decided on a location, a swampy/forest type area would be the main location for the trailer, and also Doms' house for the pre-event scenes. We also gathered together props, tent, metal detector, bags, map and ordered a gas mask as our icon of the trailer.

The Return of The Repressed

The Return of The Repressed. 

Is a theory by Sigmund Freud which stated that human beings who have been subject to mistreatment and torment at a young age can bottle up in the unconscious mind and then spill out at a later point in life. This is often seen in horror films where antagonists can seem relatively normal up until their feelings that have been repressed are unleashed turning them into a monster.

Evaluation Question 2

Main Product - Trailer

Evaluation Question 4

Youtube - I used youtube which is the largest online video service on the web. It is an example of web 2.0. The reason I used youtube is because of the huge range of content uploaded to it, this meant I was easily able to research previous horror trailers so that I can could an idea of what I wanted our trailer to contain and the conventions we would show. It then felt only right to upload our final product to youtube as it has such a high traffic count meaning it was the best place to "show off" our trailer. It was also easy to link to fellow classmates and friends for audience feedback.

Blogger - This is another example of user edited web 2.0 platform, blogger is a great way to show off my a2 coursework in such a way that was unavailable even just a few years ago although I think this is a great medium to display my coursework I don't agree that it is easy to use or that I enjoyed using it I found it particularly frustrating when trying to organise pictures in a location that complemented the text, also in the free way in which we were left to organise and add to our blog I found that I fell behind during the Christmas period when I had little completed of what was expected this was because I prefer to have deadlines to hand in pieces of work rather than wait until the end and find everything wasn't completed. I spoke with my teacher about this and we agreed that in the future I would prefer a closer monitored process of producing the work.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 - I used photoshop to create my ancillary texts as it is the industry standard in producing such pieces of work. As I used it extensively in my AS coursework to produce my magazine cover, contents and feature pages it was fairly easy to pick up where I'd left off since last using it and producing my content at a speed previously not attainable by myself for example to produce my front cover in my AS coursework it took 3-4 weeks to get it to a standard I was happy with whereas this time around I was able to create my film magazine and poster in less than a week at a similar standard something of which I'm proud of.

Adobe Premiere Pro/After Effects CS5 - Having previously used premiere pro in my own time for outside projects our group (including another person more experienced than I, with PP) we took the executive decision with permission from our teacher to use this program rather than learn final cut pro like the rest of our class, this allowed us to teach the other two members in our group to be taught about the program while we edited it which they soon picked up. As a result of this we were able to produce our trailer much quicker than the rest of our class as while they learnt the basics of FCP we got editing immediately this resulted in us having more time to change aspects of our trailer we weren't entirely happy with. Using after effects in sync with PP meant we were able to interchange compositions with no problems rather than having to render them out and then import meanig we saved on time and produced high quality title effects.

Royalty-Free Music Websites - We used these websites which have a wide selection of music that we could use in our trailer meaning we could get a highly professional sound without the huge costs of producing or paying to use someone else's copyrighted music.
Sony Handycam - Our group used a sony handycam which meant we could record our trailer in HD giving a professional look of production. With digital video production becoming more and more accessible to everyone due to the fact it's now a lot cheaper as film which was expensive is now obsolete and the equipment itself has dropped in price over the years meaning that anyone can now go out and produce a video of some sort which is why youtube has become so popular as it's so easy to share your creation with potentially millions of people.

iPhone 4s - This is widely considered to be the best phone on the market, I used my one to organise filming times/locations and to shoot one of the shots in our trailer (one in the tent at the end) this was because it was dark and the phone conveniently has a flash so we could illuminate our location to produce our shock moment.

Flickr - I used flickr for many things, but mostly for analysis of previous horror posters and film magazine covers, it's a particularly good way to annotate said products and allows whoever is viewing it easily relate it to the question or task.

Slideshare - Is something I'm familiar with from last years coursework and I thought to include the service again this year, slideshare is a useful way of sharing powerpoint presentations and I was able to embed my slideshow into my blog using slideshare this meant I could display my target audience research in an effective yet aesthetically pleasing way.

SurveyMonkey - This was the first time I'd used this website and was pleased with the results in which I got. It's a free service to create a questionnaire and is easily shared across many mediums, we got in total around 35 respondents to our survey due to the fact in which we shared it through our own personal social media outlets which was directly linked to what our target audience was meaning we got useful information to create a great trailer.

Social Media (Facebook & Twitter) - These services also link to what I've previously said about organising our group and also to the creation of our feedback and getting our target audience directly involved.

Film Magazine

Crashsite Poster

Evaluation Question 3

Once we had finished our main product (the trailer) and other groups in the class had aswell, we had a screening of our finished trailer this was so we could exchange audience feedback (as we are part of the target audience for horror films) This was an enjoyable process as it was exciting to see others reactions to something our group was very happy with when we had finalised it.

As a result of receiving our informative audience feedback we were glad to see the positives outweighed the negatives of more than 2:1 but we were also without meaning to sound arrogant not hugely surprised as we had invested a lot of time on the planning and post production stages of developing our trailer.

Here is a selection/generalised view of the positivities of our trailer:
- Isolating sections of the intertitles e.g vanishes
- Final title "Crash Site" worked well, looked professional
- Smoke and Font on end title was very fitting
- Good static effects on shots
- Wide range of shots
- Conventional setting
- Monster from the past (plane crash and mask)
- Music works well and picked up during horrific scenes
- Pov shots distorted and almost black and white

These comments echo the effort we put into our planning for our trailer, we had stuck to a decent amount of horror conventions, for example the low light shots and the degrading of quality as so it matched our idea of a documentary style horror film similar to that of the Paranormal Activity series we further enforced this with the static effect and fuzzing of certain shots adding to the construction of the tension we wanted. We also kept to a conventional setting that being the woodland/swamp area.

One thing that was focused on which I didn't entirely expect was that the music seemingly was well received, although I thought it was "ok" considering we didn't have an orchestra like real horror films where they produce their own score for the film. We were left to a difficult task of scouring through royalty free music sites trying to match our trailers pace to that of the music, I still feel as though we did well all things considered but it would have been nice to use copyrighted music as I feel it could have added a tad more "spark" to our trailer.

The negative comments were as follows:
- Could be more jumpy sections
- Was only a couple of jumpy parts
- Inter titles could have been longer
- Narrative lost with all the different build up shots
- Music was fitting but could have differed at some points
- Not enough close ups
- Too much running shots, not a lot happens
- Pov was over used
- Intertitle effect was maybe overused became tedious
- The home video look made some areas unclear

"Could be more jumpy sections
Was only a couple of jumpy parts"
This is what I feel our main weakness of our trailer was that there wasn't enough shock/"hide behind hands" moments. When planning we had a few shock moments which we envisioned as being incredibly professional (As you would) the problem with some of our shock moments was that they were not easily viable and therefore ended up being "watered down" this meant we only had one truly shock moment. This is something I'd certainly want to rectify if we were to re-make it.

"Inter titles could have been longer"
I thought that the inter titles were of a satisfactory length as they were only a sentence or so of information I thought it helped the overall flow of the trailer by keeping them at a reasonably short length, obviously it's easy for me to say this as I was one of the people editing/deciding on the text to include on the titles so it was reading what I expected, rather than it be for the first time like the audience. I'd agree that the film/production company titles were maybe a bit too quickly flashed up on the screen but I'd say this fits in with almost every horror genre film trailer as it's a highly exploited genre you have to sell your film on the basis of the story you tell in the short amount of time in the trailer so I'm glad we focused on that rather than the length of the titles.

"Narrative lost with all the different build up shots"
I can see where this persons comment comes from as I was involved in the whole process of this trailer it's easy to fill in any gaps that the trailer might not explain, I understand we did not show enough of the monster to show what the audience should be scared of and also explain more on what is happening. I feel as though it's difficult to find the line of where to tell enough of the story to entice the viewer but to hold enough back to make them want to see it, I think we may have got the balance slightly off. The way in which our story was told (flashbacks, the past etc) did attribute to the fact it was slightly hard to follow although we did receive comments that suggested we told the story interestingly and well.

"Not enough close ups
Too much running shots, not a lot happens
Pov was over used"

First comment I'd agree with, we included a fair amount too many medium-long shots. Second comment I agree with elements of it I think there are too many running shots this was mostly due to us not wanting to run out of shots, I'd like to go back and cut out some of the build up as I feel like we dragged it out too much. Third comment the reason we used pov shots as much as we did is because it is a low budget documentary style horror film, there are many great horror films that are shot only on a "handy" cam for example The Blair Witch Project highly regarded as being one of the best horror films ever made.

"Intertitle effect was maybe overused became tedious
The home video look made some areas unclear"

Reasons why we used the inter title effect as often as we did is to create a sense of house-style throughout the trailer. The home video shots were deliberately altered to make them look like a lower quality camera to tie in with the whole effect we went with for the film.

All in all I feel as though we created a very good trailer with someone we came up with from scratch, but with the audience feedback I think I would want to certainly change some of the elements of our trailer I'd want to cut out some of the less interesting parts and replace them with some fast paced shock moments to help with the overall cinematic feel we clearly desire.

Evaluation Question 1

1. This screenshot of our trailer is a piece of narrative that features throughout, giving an overall back story and a sense of setting. This way we can give little snippets about the story without giving too much away, we are able to spread our narrative including bits about how the crash site occurred, previous events and a hint of our story over the duration of the trailer so we can lead it up to our "fast pace quick shots" segment where we almost overload the audience with close ups and expressionistic camera angles.

2. In this shot from our trailer it is the first shot from our camera footage, it's our establishing shot for the whole trailer, the mystery of where our protagonists are, the sombre colour design and also the fact they have a metal detector (just after this still) as they are out to discover something. I think the worms eye view of this shot helps to use the unnatural shots of the horror genre.

3. This is the first shot where we have a close up of our protagonists, here they are holding their camera which they use to document their events. This shot is important as it gives the audience a chance to form a connection and sense of empathy with them. We decided to use our friends of a similar age because it is more believable that teenagers will go camping/search for some adventure, also it helps as they are of the same age as our target audience further enforcing the connection and bond they hopefully have while watching the trailer.

4. Even though we used a 1080p HD quality camera to record this we added effects during the editing process so that it seemed like it was a low quality budget camera this enforces the convention that horror genre films typically have a small budget. This helps with the overall feel that it is amateur and because it's such a "normal" situation and relatable. The static effects mixed with the drop in sound during the trailer make you think is it possibly "something" or "someone" interfering with the camera which links to the fear of the unknown.

5. This is an example of one of the "monster pov" shots. What we decided is that we wanted a shot to occur from an unknown source we felt as though it would make the audience feel uncomfortable as a precedent people don't like/enjoy the fact that someone is watching their every move. This shot also directly follows after when our protagonists find their mysterious artifact which could mean that they have "woken" the monster and that they should consider leaving.

6. This is one of the few shots we have where the camera is not in the possession of the protagonists, the audience aren't entirely sure of how the camera is on the floor maybe it is due to a struggle or a confrontation with the "monster". It has the main characters running past the camera this entwined with the music creates a dramatic sequence.

7. Here we have our protagonists running in the night. We used the night mode on the camera and decided to include it on this shot because it is quite often in horror films that it's only at night when the supernatural events occur which is something we liked as the day time scenes almost give the audience a sense of safety where as it starts to turn to dark all things change. The character holding the camera at this point shouts out "what is this place?!" this provokes a response from the audience to themselves challenge what it is and what's happening.

8. I found this shot to be my favourite of the whole trailer I enjoyed how you get a sense of the adrenaline that protagonists are no doubt feeling and then all of a sudden the camera drops and you see them run off into the distance. I felt it was a good shot combined with the effects and music during editing it was a good platform to then jump into the last shot..

9. Here we have the close up of the monster after one of the protagonists has explored the outside looking for his compatriot as he then turns back into the tent his confronted with this masked monster. You then hear a blood curdling scream as the camera spins out of focus and cuts to the end titles. This was a shot that used the conventions of something always being behind you and to question the supernatural ability of the monster for managing to get into that position.

Results of Target Audience Research

Survey results

View more presentations from sflower2k12.

The Role Of The Distributor

According to Lord Puttnam CBE (President of film distributors' association) a key role of many for the distributor is to identify and deliver the largest possible audience for every film, by targeting the core audience to get them to see the film but also to expand the films appeal to those that may not be directly part of the targeted audience. He goes on to say that this is no small task especially with the wide variety of entertainment options now available to the consumer both inside and outside of the home. There are on average 500+ titles released in UK cinemas every year meaning that there is bound to be fierce competition to capture the largest audience, this combined with the fact that most cinema goers know in advance what they going to see this is due to the "behind the scenes" job done by the distributor their sole objective is to promote interest in the title they are in charge of. They will come up with a stream lined, audience focused, tailor made distribution plan in order to exploit the rapidly changing elements of the entertainment industry.

The distributor will work on items for example, who shows the film, how long for and the release date (how many films are being released at the same time and can how big of an impact will this have on the revenue our film makes) Distributors have to work extremely hard to get their film into the spotlight and talked about this doesn't just happen by accident. They have to create plans and partnerships to build this interest and awareness, they aim to then convert this interest into cinema visits. The distributor takes delivery of the master print of the finished film this is then presented to exhibitors and they negotiate a bilateral agreement to have it shown.

This is when the distributor's marketing campaign comes into effect as it creates a "want to see" attitude amongst the target audience.

Ways to effectively market a film is via:

- Word of Mouth - Social recommendation is key as people are more likely to see a film if there friends want to see it or has said it is good.

- Film Posters - A well created and interesting poster is able to show off the stars/directors/star reviews to further whet the appetite of the audience.

- Trailers (Teasers and Theatrical) One of the most effective way to market a film is a well made trailer these are shown in a variety of media texts on TV, before other films in the cinema and also online.
- Online & Mobile - Nearly every film company has a website to highlight and show off their films

- Social Media - One way in which social media is used in marketing is by competitions or on twitter in particular they can buy a promoted "trend" something which is widely spread to a large amount of people.

- Print Media (Magazine interviews, Reviews etc) Stars can be featured in magazines with a fresh interview and photoshoot.
- Publicity - This is to do with the fact that people are more likely to accept independently written pieces rather than paid for advertising.
- Promotional Partnerships - Tie-in with other films of a similar audience e.g win a voiceover role in another movie.

- Merchandising - Special burgers with fast food restaurants, special edition lego etc.

- Premieres - Creates hype about the film.
- Festivals (Cannes, Venice) - Picking up/nominated for prestigious awards.
All of these combined (if used correctly) can greatly improve a films successes

Once the films run has come to an end at the cinemas it is not the end for the distributor as they then go into DVD sales, pay per view/subscription based media, and finally free to view on televisions programming all this is enabled by the distributor.

Every film has a specialised distribution plan where the distributor, producers and the studio meet and decide on the objectives of the plan like any business plan it is normally to cover the large costs of production and then to make a profit. As so that every film has a successful launch it's release date is chosen carefully so that it doesn't clash with other films that may hurt its chances at going big, and also so that there is enough time to create enough hype and buzz.

Something that goes hand in hand with the distribution plan is the marketing plan. This is the element of the distribution to create hype/interest surrounding the film, consumers awareness of the film and how many different ways it can be consumed.

A detailed target audience profile is created for each film, their age, gender, hobbies, interests,lifestyles, job, use of social media and consumption patterns. It's important to include a large percentage of your target audience to see the film but also as the distributor it's important to attract as wide spread audience as possible.

Inital Horror Trailer

Paranormal acitivty 3


The setting in this trailer is conservative to the horror genre its set in a house located in a rural suburban area. The whole trailer gives off an eerie feel to the scenes in the daylight and has the effect of making you skin crawl. It then starts to fuzz, crackle and fade in with flashbacks (flashforwards) and inter titles. This gives the trailer a good pace to lead it up to the fright points. I really think the video interruption gives the effect that there is something “messing” this is common in the horror setting for you to question the obvious and look for a paranormal explanation, whereas in a normal setting you’d question what’s wrong with the equipment as it’s clearly what the problem is.
Iconography for this trailer would be the two girls of which one clearly has something possessing her/influencing her when she doesn’t want to interact with the guy holding the camera this links to Barthes theory of binary oppositions in the horror genre. Little girls are conceived to be innocent, playful and jolly all of which are challenged by this girl.
Other things I enjoyed about this trailer was the way it cut to people screaming and giving you reason to jump this really sticks to the horror genre of giving a quick unexpected burst of fear.

Inital idea for a new horror movie

A normal boy Tom was travelling to college on the bus as always. Then one day he sees through the windscreen coming towards them a lorry on the wrong side of the carriage way which they inevitably crash into (or we assume) as the next thing that happens is Tom wakes up on the now deserted smashed bus in an unknown location. As he gathers his bearings on what has happened a hooded figure enters the bus and starts walking towards Tom, Tom then looks for a way to escape and as he is about to try something drastic to escape the hooded figure speaks to him (not revealing his face) in a crisp cold chilling voice and explains that he is in limbo and that to save his friends on the bus he must complete various challenges testing his morals and integrity. He then completes gruelling task by gruelling task as he believes he has completed the final task the hooded figure then appears, to gives him one final challenge he must either sacrifice himself here and now to guarantee the safety of everyone who would be involved in the crash or enter back in his reality and chance whether the crash will happen by being decided with the flip of a coin. He chooses after much turmoil and anger towards the hooded figure to sacrifice himself. The hooded figure recognises this as true proof of his morals and sends him back but with a warning that one day he will return to claim him back to his world of manipulation and games.

Carol clover in men, women and chainsaws argues that many horror films are interesting in their representation of gender because they provide a female point of identification for a male core target audience. To what extent do you think horror represents gender progressively?

Carol clover in men, women and chainsaws argues that many horror films are interesting in their representation of gender because they provide a female point of identification for a male core target audience. To what extent do you think horror represents gender progressively?

It’s suggested that horrors are becoming or have become a progressive genre, while others say that is it merely conservative like other genres. During the course of this essay I will be trying to uncover whether or not the genre is a clear choice or if it is a mix between the two. To help illustrate the points I wish to make I will be using the films “The Shining”, “Eden Lake” and “Halloween”.
A way in which I can understand is by looking at the visibility of female characters. First I’ll look at Halloween, In Halloween there are less main male characters than women (approximately 5) you’ve got the main protagonist Laurie, her friends Linda and Annie, Judith Myers, the nurse and the babysitter. This is strange for this time as it was made in 1978 where you’d expect it to be quite in tune with the rest of the time period and have males dominating the numbers compared to females. In The Shining (1982) there are around 8 men which in contrast to the number of women are much more. There is only Wendy, Woman (who exits the bath tub, who you could class as two), the twin girls and the hotel secretary who make an impact in the film at all. This is very much keeping in turn that the horror genre certainly at this point is a conservative one. We move onto Eden Lake where there are only slightly more boys because of the group/gang. The women in the film are Jenny, Café woman (mother), Paige, Caring woman, the woman who slaps her child and Paige’s mother. As this film was made in 2008 and the fact that it is only slightly more males because of the gang, it shows that over the time that changes within society are now being slowly introduced into media texts such as film.
In the media usually women are seen as one (or more) of four roles: Domestic, Sexual, Consumer or Marital/familiar. In Halloween we look at the roles that they contribute to in the film. They are sex objects, domestic and familiar. This is because Annie and Linda are both sexually active teenagers creating a negative attitude towards women. Linda is shown during the film before and after her sexual encounter these are the only notable moments in which the film heavily features her this then classifies her as the sexual role. Annie is shown prancing around care-free in her underwear and then as she prepares to meet her boyfriend she is killed. Also during the film they are shown to make food and cook popcorn and to babysit which is usually a females’ job, Annie later in the film spills butter on her she then cleans it up further stereotyping her in to this domestic role. Annie also is the town sheriffs’ daughter meaning once again that she doesn’t have her own identity or has created her own identity she is merely just the sheriffs’ daughter. Her identity much like Judith Myers as being “the killers’” sister/victim has been formed through the relationship of another which in both these cases are women. There are no cases of “consumer” during this film although the 3 other roles have been used and rather extensively. In The Shining, the main woman is Wendy she is portrayed as a weak, feeble and domesticated woman her part was well played by the actress Shelley Duvall I found that she presented Wendy as you might expect from this hospitable environment, when she was shouted at by Jack on multiple times she held herself in such a recessive way that further enforced her role. On a few rare occasions she challenges this role and is seen dressed in overalls doing Jacks hotel maintenance work, which of course is a strange concept for a woman to be doing (in media texts). Wendy is also portrayed as a familiar having a role in the film directly linked with her relationship with being wife to Jack and mother to Danny. The woman from the bathtub introduces the sexual role to the film as she is objectified by Jack’s point of view when he enters room 237, we see her as a sexy, beautiful and young woman. These points therefore suggest that as three of the four roles have been fulfilled, society and time may go on this does not mean the horror genre does. Lastly on women’s role in the horror genre we apply it to the film Eden Lake. In this film we are introduced straight away to our main protagonist called Jenny, she is a school teacher who teaches the very young, they will have probably only been at school for a year and Jenny consequently complies with one of the roles a familiar she is defined by her relationship with the children giving the audience reason to believe that she is caring and emotional in her stereotypical job, it could be argued that her role is undermined by the fact that she is employed and not a housewife or domesticated. This role of being a familiar is further reinforced by her later in the movie when she accepts her boyfriend (Steve) engagement ring meaning that she wishes to marry him and be for example Mrs Steve. A few points in the film she could be viewed as being sexual, for instance we are put in the view of the gang and watch Jenny through some binoculars when she is wearing a bikini this is quickly reversed as she covers herself up and us as they audience are made to feel perverse. Jenny and Steve are also seen having foreplay but Jenny herself is not made out to be objectified by this. I found the character Paige in Eden Lake an interesting one in the way that she doesn’t have a role but has elements of a sexual one, the first confrontation between Jenny, Steve and the gang she remarks “you looking at my tits!” it’s clear to the audience that this isn’t the case and we question why she is trying to objectify herself towards Steve? Her role within the group is also a peculiar one she is reasonably passive but as seen from the quote I included she is aggressive towards the “outsiders”. At the end of the film Paige is seen to run away from Brett after she deems that enough is enough and her morals kick in after the horrific events, she is seen running and looking upset, distraught and for the first time looking weak which I find intriguing as although from the conventions in this film have been progressive it appears at this point it swiftly comes back to being conservative and putting women back in their “correct place” in the media.
The male gaze is another way in which we can analyse how women are represented in the media. In Halloween Laurie is seen as androgynous therefore she isn’t objected by men as she is “man-ish” in her clothing and her look, just by looking at her name it could be used for either a man or a woman. Because we as the audience don’t objectify her she doesn’t die in the film. Whereas Annie, Linda and Judith Myers are all objectified which results in their death when they attempt to/have had a sexual experience. In the shining throughout the film we identify with Wendy who like Laurie is androgynous, this is a good and useful technique used in horror film which forces the main target audience (Male 15-24) to identify with the masculine female character, this is strange to make your target audience identify with the opposite sex. Although at the end of each film they become the final girl where they take control of the situation and are the ones who deal with it, this then helps the audience recognise with the final girl rather than affecting their sexuality. As all the films have a final girl it could be perceived that the genre is progressive this could be considered to override the minority cases of the conservative objectification of women. Carol Clover exercised this point of view by saying that men are willing to identify with on screen females in horror films even when in fear and pain. She also states it’s important for there to be this identification instead of a male gaze.
Narrative issues underlying in the three films are that in Halloween the amount of deaths involving women outnumber the deaths to men 3:2 and only one of the men’s death is on screen, this continues with the deaths in the shining, then in Eden Lake the ratio of deaths of men to women is almost the opposite to Halloween this could be a resultant of the gang conflict and the leader Brett picking “the weak” off and some being killed by Jenny. The narrative doesn’t especially have a pattern across the films but is seen to become more progressive as time goes on.

Existing Horror Trailer Analysis

Drag Me To Hell


In this trailer segments that I find particularly scary are the moments between 2:01 - 2:06 where a women is lowering herself back to her bed but instead of her partner lying next to her, it is the demon women who in turn screams at her. This for me is incredibly creepy as the thought of one moment there being the safety and security of someone you love next to you suddenly turning into the thing you are trying to avoid/escape is perpetually horrific. I would like to include a similarly significant moment into my groups trailer as I feel it makes an impact on the audience.

Insidious


In the trailer for "Insidious" a moment I found to be psychologically scary is found between 1:03 to 1:05 although it is a fairly short segment and I confess I didn't see it the first time I watched it.In the corner of the young boys room a dark mysterious being of which you can only really see it's arm with creepily long talon like fingers. This to me completely freaks me out, I've always hated the feeling of having something or someone always just in the corner of my eye, something you can never really spot. The unknown. I also feel I would like to include this kind of style of shot into my groups trailer by never having a long (length or time) shot of our "villain" as so to include the fear of the unknown into our own work.



The Crazies


While the item I highlight from this trailer doesn't scare me I do find it is a brilliant effect in horror films and trailers. It starts at 1:46 and continues for the rest of the trailer. It is the inclusion of a song called "Mad World" by Gary Jules the fact that the pace of the song is very slow which doesn't match what is happening during the trailer as it shows moments of terror, people running around and things on fire. This links to Levi-Strauss's narrative theory of binary oppositions. The song itself contains binary oppositions as it has a slow melodic tempo the lyrics are infact about his dreams of himself dying, these two things you would not expect to be together. This trailer made me aware of the importance of sound during a trailer. Sound is something that I believe has the poetiental to turn an average trailer into a brilliant one if it is correct. Also if the sound is not in tune with the rest of the trailer no matter how good the trailer's effects or choice of shots it is completely ruined by the poor syncing of sound. This is why in my trailer I will be pursuing a high quality of audio choice and sync regardless of whether I am in charge of it or another member is.

Narrative theories in relation to "the shining"

This is todorov's narrative theory, He states that every story starts off with and equilibrium where all the opposing forces are in a balance. This links well if we relate it to "the shining" as the equilibrium is that Jack gets the caretaker job at the hotel and he and his family move there for the winter.

This is then disrupted by a possibility of events it could be Delbert Grady, Room 237 or the hotel itself. In my opinion it is the hotel as you can sense when watching that there isn't something quite right with it. I consider it to be the main agent of change as everything can be linked to it, the feeling of isolation and claustrophobia, the visions that are produced etc. I do also agree that Delbert is an agent of change as he convinces Jack that his family are in need of punishment. Room 237 also contributes to Jack's downfall to madness, the women in the bathtub seems to push him close to the edge as he denies anything was in the room when Wendy asks him about it linking to "the return of the repressed".

When Jack is chasing Danny in the maze we assume that he is going to die, but with Danny's quick thinking he manages to lead Jack astray as so he can escape with Wendy. Although this theory can't be completely applied to the film as we don't know for sure if Wendy and Danny escape the storm to complete the equilibrium.



Vladimir Propp's theory is that after studying 100s of folk tales he discovered they all seemed to have an underlying structure to them. 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions.

Character roles:
1. The villan/s. Jack? Delbert? The hotel?
2. The hero. Danny
3. The donor - who provides an object with some magic property. Tony
4. The helper who aids the hero.
5. The princess (sought for person) reward for the hero and object of the villain's schemes. Wendy?
6. Her father - who rewards the hero. No-one
7. The dispatcher - who sends the hero on his way. Hotel owner
8. The false hero. Jack?


Claude Levi-Strauss
Looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. For example the known and unknown are oppositions as in we understand what the unknown means because we understand the known.

Bordwell and Thompson  had hypothesised  a more complex theory, by stating a narrative as "A chain of events in a cause effect relationship, occurring in time and space." While this doesn't divulge into a full explanation of a narrative it does invoke some interesting points. Basically it is describing that each narrative begins with a setting which then leads to various points of change which can tangent off depending on the various factors eventually leading to a new situation and the end of the narrative.