Initial group planning

First Group ideas

 

 

Lewis:

A man who starts to see abnormal things to point at which he starts to question and confront it. Eventually it drives him to insanity and is sectioned, whilst his family find out that these ‘visions’ were actually real. But it is too late and the man is found dead is the psychiatric centre.



Oscar:

A man who suffers from split personality disorder finds himself seeing things that are extremely unusual and random. For example people wearing masks and dead people. He eventual kills on of these people, as a result of this he ends up taking his own life.



Alex:

Two main central characters. Story based around one with the other being his hyper best friend. Their school teacher is a mass murderer where he overhears them talking about what they’re doing at the weekend. They are with a group of friends where they go to a forest drinking where 1 friend gets killed by the murderer. The group spot him where he chases them and they get away. There is havoc.



Layna:

I would prefer to have a simple, traditional idea; inspired by classic trailers such as Halloween, The Shining etc. dated back from the 1980’s. This trailer would include the use of “creepy” ‘mask’ and stereotypical weapons such a knife, axe etc. My ideal location would be at night time, ‘lost’ in the woods. I’d like to create the killer as an uncontrollable psycho that doesn’t reveal his identity or voice at any time.

Film Distribution & Marketing

Once films are completed they are then distributed. The distribution of a film is a large process where it is made available to watch by an audience by the distributor of the film. It may actually be completed in a number of ways with things such as: a theatrical release, home entertainment releases where the movie maybe made on DVD or Blu Ray, or a television programme which may include digital distribution. Film distribution is basically the process of releasing a movie to the general public.





A film Distributor is responsible for working with the producers of the film, movie studios as well as other movie professionals to ensure that the film is released to the widest audience possible. They mainly work to create a strategic publicity plan to attract audience members. A distributor of a film may set the release date as well as the method in which the film may actually be exhibited or made available for viewing.





Relating to film distribution there is something called ‘reach’. It works around how much it costs to distribute a film on how much budget you have. This will also therefore depend on how many cinemas across the world the production company can distribute it within. The more budget a company has the more cinemas they can distribute the films within but will they want to do this? They have the option to release the film in a smaller number of cinemas which will cost less but will more likely make less money back on the film or they can take the risk and release the film in a higher number of cinemas and hope that because of this there will be a larger audience therefore causing the film to make more money.







Every film has a detailed marketing plan. The objective of marketing in a film is to create visibility, raise awareness and also engage interest, cutting through the blizzard of competing messages. The distributors of a film must actually compete with each other for a significant share of voice. This is not only against other distributors however but it is also against other leisure activities. Whatever the size of the marketing budget on a film whether it be large or small, the audiences must be reached in compelling ways as well as within environments where they are most likely to receive this communication. They must always be persuaded that the film is extremely entertaining and is a ‘must see’. As the film is released and opened within the cinemas their interest should peak highly. There are various ways in which the film producers and distributors will market the film and there are ways that it will get marketed on it’s own through natural communications. For example it may get marketed through word of mouth where people tell friends about it and then they tell others and then this may increase audience numbers. Posters are a good marketing product where they catch viewers attention so they can see what is involved in the film, what it’s about, who it stars and when it’s released most importantly. You then get things such as Trailers which is a large teaser for audiences and gives them a sneak preview of what the film is like showing them if it’s something they’ll be interested within or not. Online and mobiles are another good source where most films released today have their own website viewers can visit for further information. There are also various other marketing sources.





Every film which is made has its own trailer made distribution plan where the distributor develops in consultation with the producers and/or also the studio as appropriate. The distributor will make a number of strategic decisions and the most important ones they make are when and how to release a film in order to optimise it’s chances of being successful with the audience. Through a wide combination and mix of market knowledge as well as commercial experience, statistical research and also professional judgement the distributors will estimate the type of audience for each film and will set clear targets for its release. They will look at ‘who can be convinced to buy a cinema ticket to see it and why should they do so? Can the film be positioned within a popular, recognisable genre? What sort of audiences have similar films attracted recently? When where they released?’ When these distributors have estimated what a particular film may earn in the box office, they prepare an overall budget to release it. As with every business plan, the main goal is to actually recoup the costs and make a profit. However launching films is extremely expensive as well as risky- audiences of a film have so many other choices they can go too and in all reality, most films do not make a profit from their theatrical runs alone. When distributors plan a new release, relying purely on conventional wisdom is never actually an option. Early information can be gained by reading the film script as well as from discussion with the filmmakers but every single release is a one-off and is individually planned given the current circumstances. Sometimes the films distribution plans may be actually confirmed only when the whole finished film is available to view.





There is a large difference between advertising, publicity and promotion. The advertising of a film is where products are made and distributors basically try and sell their film to a particular audience. As explained in the marketing plan, there are various sources and ways a film can get advertised through things such as posters, trailers, word of mouth, web banners, TV adverts, website, social network site pages, etc. These methods will try and interest and draw a particular audience’s attention to a film which they may love. Advertising is the use of trailers and posters via different media platforms. This is different to publicity which is also through the use of various media forms but works around reviews, press conferences and articles (magazine and newspaper) on the film. It isn’t the creative team of the film who produce these however it is someone different like the press who will publicize the film to get noticed as much as possible. Promotion of a film is also completely different. It works around film merchandise and created products in order to promote the film. For example, films will produce t-shirts, mugs, pens and much more which fans can buy. Once they have brought these it will furthermore promote the film to other people who see this merchandise also. Promotion of a film can also be done through other companies and things such as competitions. An example is an airline company may promote if you fly with them you may have the chance to win tickets to go and see a movie. This is another promotion method for that particular movie.





Scream is a horror movie which was distributed in various cinemas and has good advertising, as well as promotion and distribution. The film was a worldwide hit after being released in various countries across the globe. The main countries were: USA, UK, Argentina, Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Africa. It may have been also briefly released in others too but those shown above are the main ones. As it was released in so many, each had their own distributors. The picture below shows the distributors for the film in the countries in which it was released.

In the opening weekend the film was released within a various number of countries. It had a total number of 2659 screenings this weekend where these were shown in USA, UK, Argentina, Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Shown below is the teaser trailer and the full trailer for the film- Scream (1996). The idea of the teaser trailer was to of course ‘tease’ spectators and give them a short clip from the film so they therefore knew what it would be like. Of course the full trailer would give them a better idea of what the film would consist of and more insight into characters, settings etc. The trailers were again advertising for the film- Scream.





OFFICIAL TRAILER

Shown below is the teaser poster and the main poster for the film- Scream. The teaser poster just like the teaser trailer was to of course 'tease' spectators and give them a slight idea of the film. It would tell them the release date only pretty much not giving them too much information. It would also have a main picture which would again give them a very slight idea to what the film consists of, and what type of characters there are etc. The main poster is in much more detail where it shows who the cast is, producers information, and a tagline at the top of the poster which is very clever and in some ways tells what happens in the film. It also contains one main picture which is a girls face with her hand over her mouth. This will be revealed slightly more than the one on the teaser poster and brings out something more about the characters and maybe the main character invloved.





OFFICIAL POSTER

 

 

 

After doing various research into the film Scream, I have found out that they have produced various types of merchandise for the movie. This is of course part of the promotion for the film. The movie has produced action figures of the main horror character-Ghostface, there is Ghostface fancy dress costumes, Ghostface masks, Scream Machete's and much much more for the film.







   

The representation of woman in horror films

Inside of this essay I will be discussing the representation of woman in horror films and how they are portrayed. I am writing this essay to show my understanding of how woman are depicted in horror films and overall I will focus not on just if they are killed or not but infact, how they are ‘viewed’ in movies of this genre. I will do this by giving examples from  films I have watched in class and independently. I will also relate to theorists inside of my examples. 

The films which I will be analysing are: ‘The Crazies’ which was released in February 2010, ‘Scream’ released in May 1996, Halloween released in October 1978, and My Bloody Valentine which was released in January 2009. I have decided to choose these films as they are brilliant examples to discuss how woman are represented in these types of movies and what happens to them. These really are good films to show the representation of the female gender where in each they show the way females are brutally killed but also how they try and fight back despite their gender to save their life inside of their current situation. The films do relate very well to my theorists. The first theorist who I will go onto to discuss is- Carol Clover. Clover tends to look more at how female characters are portrayed inside of the horror films. She looks specifically at how maybe the female gender acts differently to how it is stereotypically seen by many in horror films. Clover is the critic behind what is known as the ‘Final Girl’ theory and looks at female characters with their role in narrative as being more aggressive fighters than weekless individuals. The ‘Final Girl’ by Carol Clover is seen to represent woman in horror films as Androgynous characters where when in horrific situations are willing to fight back instead of stand down as many people would see them as doing because of their gender. It goes against the stereotypical representation of the female gender and weakness and shows their aggressive attitude to stand up for themselves. It literally does relate to the final girl left in a horror movie willing to fight for her life. 

This theory will relate to all of my analysing films. Firstly within The Crazies, again David is seen to have more power and Judy is seen as the victim more and not as powerful. However at times she fights back and shows her Androgynous features. When in the petrol station for example with David, she is alone whilst he goes off. She notices the mentally ill infect individuals coming into the petrol station and therefore hides. After firstly trying to save her life from one and escaping she does the same again where she hides in a room full of dead bodies. This doesn’t expose her to the infected and saves her life in the end and so therefore shows the way she runs and finds methods to save herself than just letting herself get killed. It is very similar with the girl inside of my second analysing film- Scream. Even though in the end she get’s killed she is still shown to fight for her life. When the chair gets thrown through the window she instantly picks up a knife in preparation to fight back. This shows her Androgynous attitude going against stereotypical female gender. She is also the final girl as she is the only girl in the house on her own fighting back. When she notices the killer with the mask through the window and he smashes it, she hits him in the face to fight back. He then chases her outside and stabs her where she still fights back hitting around the head with the phone and attempts to get away. As explained in the end she gets killed though. In Halloween this theory is shown by Michael Myers is hiding and waiting for every kill he commits which portrays the male character as a more dominant prowler and the women as a helpless damsel in distress.  The theory is shown to relate more to his last attempt of killing in the film which was upon Laurie. He has already killed various females as well as a male inside of the films where he has leaped upon his victims out of disguise to murder them and none of the females have attempted to fight back. The theory relates extremely well infact with Laurie who Myers tries and kills lastly as she fights back. She is also actually the final girl left out of all in the film as he has killed the rest. When myers tries at kills her at first instance inside of her living room Laurie stabs him with a knitting needle. He falls to the ground in pain and lays still where she thinks she has killed him. She grabs her son and Marion’s daughter where she takes them upstairs. Myers seems to get up and walk upstairs again and tries to attempt to kill her again. She hides the children and places herself in a wardrobe. Myers in the end destroys the wardrobe and Laurie is shown to fight back, this time using a coat hanger. He falls to the ground again where she definitely think she’s killed him this time around and again in the end he gets back up. He comes from behind her and grabs her, where eventually he attempts to strangle her but again she is fierce and fights back. Dr Loomis comes to rescue shooting him to get him away. In my last film- My Bloody Valentine the same theory applies within a particular section which I would like to discuss. In the film, when Sarah and Megan are in the supermarket they are doing late night work when they think someone is there. The lights go off which make them scared even more and when trying to escape they come across the miner. He chases after them both, with sarah firstly where she ends up pinned against a fridge. She grabs some meat out of here and hits him around the head fighting back to save her life and again shows Androgynous attitude and goes against stereotypical female gender and how it is represented. She runs away and with the miner running behind her she trips and falls to the floor. He goes to hit her with the ax until Megan appears from around the corner with a floor mop hitting him to also fight back to save both of their lives. 

The second theorist who I will now go onto discuss is Laura Mulvey. Mulvey worked around the theory of what was known as ‘the male gaze’ from her famous written essay-‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’. She suggested that much of commercial cinema puts the spectator into the overall position of a male, where particular camera strategies and movements make the man look upon the woman as a particular object inside of the film. The audience is literally seen to be put into the eyes of a male. I will now attempt to link this theory to my four analysing films. Firstly in the film- The Crazies I would say that Judy can be looked upon by males highly. When she is taken by the army she is tied down with other ill people on a bed. The army go away from the base and the mentally ill, viral infected individuals come into the base and infected room where Judy lays. An infected man with a large gardening fork is going around and killing people in the room. Camera movements are very low and slow when looking upon Judy struggling in terror where she lay and this makes the male gaze at her as an object and as if the spectator is in control. With the film- Scream, the camera tends to follow the final girl all around the house wherever she goes. It comes across as someone is watching her who is not there. It puts the audience into the eyes of the male watching her as she is also being watched from a male outside as well as inside which would be ourselves. The audience look upon her as an object again on her own and are spying on her in some kind of way like the murderer is outside. In Halloween at the very start there is a first person camera movement which is very important and links well to this theory. At the very start spectators are put into the eyes of Michael Myers who is the killer. This slow, unsteady camera movement of himself of course puts the audience instantly into the eyes of a male. As he kills his sister he also looks upon her as an object and with the audience being placed into his eyes it makes them and males look at her as an object overall too. With my final film My Bloody Valentine I will talk about the supermarket scene again. Megan and Sarah are on their own and the miner is quietly spying upon his victims like in Scream. The camera follows both girls around the supermarket as they try and find if someone is there and the spectators are placed into the eyes of a male seeing them as lonely objects trying to seek assurance when we all know what is happening. The male miner like explained tries to capture them where in the end he does. 

Inside of the 70’s and 80’s there was a lot of feminist film theory. It was based from the woman’s liberation Movement which was a political movement born in the 1960’s from Second-Wave Feminism. The movement was based around equal rights for woman. Back many years ago marriages were arranged and woman were seen to be obedient to their husband. They were seen to bring up children and not work outside of the house cooking and cleaning every day ready for when the man of the house returns from his hard days work. The movement was to stop this and to allow woman what they would like to do in life going out and earning money themselves, as well as having equal rights and the same status as men. Within the 70’s and 80’s the feminist film theory worked around many filmmakers and studios dominating the industry and punishing woman inside of film. Many producers and studios would place repeated images and screen time of woman in the films in a way which wouldn’t represent their gender very well. They would show the woman in distress fighting for their lives and also getting killed. 

Someone else I am going to discuss is Jeremy Tunstall. Tunstall argues that on screen woman stick to four main roles. These are: busy hose wives, contented mothers, eager consumers and also sex objects. He argues that they are used for just these roles and strictly nothing else at all. In The Crazies, Judy can maybe be seen as a future contended mother as she is pregnant and will soon be a mother. She can maybe also be shown as a housewife in the film where despite being a doctor she does try in many ways to play this role also. A good example is when they arrive home after escaping being quarantined the first thing which she intends to do is get in the laundry. In halloween woman are seen as more contended mothers as Laurie and also Marion have children and care for them highly. Overall the media represents male as the more fierce, stronger and overpowering gender. It is mainly shown through the way in which men outnumber woman on screen by the ratio of 2:1. Due to this men are mostly shown in their stereotypical role of having a job/career whilst the female gender/woman stay at home. Today in the media overall they are lot more aware and carful of the screen time given to both sex’s and make it more equal. 

Overall I would say that I agree with Carol Clovers theory of ‘the final girl’ more out of my two theorys from my theorists. With Clovers theory I can apply it to all of my analysing films very well. It is such a true theory and in many horror films it shows woman fighting back for their lives instead of backing down like expected just because of the gender. With Laura Mulvey’s theory even though I related them to my films I found it harder to do this. I would say that Mulvey's theory doesn’t really apply in as many horror films as Clovers does and so I agree with Carol Clovers highly well over Mulvey's theory. 

Narrative Theory in relation to - The Crazies

As shown previously on my blog I have related narrative theory and the four theorists: Tzvetan Todorov, Claude Levis Strauss, Bordwell and Thompson, and Vladimir Propp to the film- Halloween. I will now do exactly the same but this time I will be relating it/them to the film- The Crazies.


Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov’s theory as previously explained works around the way that a film would have an original equilibrium and then this would get disrupted which is the de-equilibrium. Eventually by the end of the film it would get restored with things coming back to normal just like at the start. However this theory doesn’t apply to The Crazies.


Introduction:- At the very beginning chaos is introduced to engage the audience. It makes them immediately want to know what has caused this particular event. It goes against Todorov’s theory because it states that there is a balance present in the beginning and in this case their clearly isn’t. Once the burning town has been shown to the spectators, text reading ‘Two days earlier’ is then shown. This therefore means that the majority of the film has already happened and that the story is now being told.


Disruption to the balance:- On screen spectators are not actually shown when the plane crash took place and they are only told that is has happened. In the end it turns out to be an accident and the plane was carrying a virus which had infact actually been developed by the government. It was on it’s way to be destroyed as it was too big of a threat. The first person who was known to be infected with this ‘virus’ was Rory Hamill who actually approaches the sheriff scarily with a shotgun whilst at a baseball game. Firstly alcohol was to blame for Rory’s behaviour. This disease continues to spread as well as the chaos which it carrys within. The overall balance between normality and chaos shifts immensely.


Re-equilibrium:- As explained with Todorov’s theory not applying to this film there is no full re-equilibrium inside. This is because a containment protocol that destroyed Ogden Marsh commences on the town that the couple approach. It is very convential of horror films as well as meaning that Todorov’s theory does not apply. With this we also get a small clip inside of the credits which actually used a real life local reporter who reads the story of Ogden Marsh’s ‘chemical plant fire’ which destroyed the majority of the town. 


Claude Levis Strauss

Sanity/Insanity- The sane characters (the survivors) try to survive and fend off the infected insane characters

Healthy/Unhealthy- The health of normal people deteriorates as they cannot eat properly and the insane infected people are obviously unhealthy.

Day/Night- Night implies danger as there is limited sight and shadows. Day can be equally as dangerous but with better vision and confidence in the characters.

Light/Dark- Same concept as day and night as the darkness limits chance of survival and day does the opposite.

 Alive/Dead- People are killed by the insane and people who are not infected try to stay alive.

 Normal/Abnormal- From the normal life of everyday society to the abnormal situation of the infected. 

Male/Female- David is the male and Judi is the female. They are in a relationship and Judi is pregnant. The male has more power and the female is targeted more. 

Military/Civilian- The military are seen as evil inside of the film. They are controlling and overpowering over civilians in large groups. Civilians are seen as small and feeble individuals with less power.

Monster/Human- The infected people/civilians are seen as the monsters- they are mentally ill. Humans are of course the surviving normal civilians. 

Known/Unknown- The unknown is the infection, how it was made, where it came from and how it effects humans minds, making it dangerous and predictable, while the town and characters are the known, providing safety and comfort. 

Safe/Unsafe- The town in the beginning of the film is considered safe,very American and normal, while the military camps and the town controlled by them are considered as unsafe and dangerous. 

Fear/Courage- Courage is held by the survivors and those who press on even when everyone else is dead , and those who sacrifice themselves to help the group while fear is held by those who panic, flee and allow themselves to be herded by the military.



Vladimir Propp

The villain:- Inside of the film the US Army are actually seen to be the villain. They are the main reason that the virus is inside of the community as they crashed the military aircraft containing a dangerous chemical into the towns water.

The hero:- The hero contained in the movie would be David who is the town sheriff. This is because he rescues his wife as well as several other people and actually escapes from the quarantine. He is also alive at the end of the movie.

Donor/Helper:- Deputy Russell Clank is both the donor and the helper. He qualifies as the donor purely because he gives his life so that Judy and David can go past the US Army without being shot and therefore losing their life too. He also is the helper because he saved David’s life three separate times all together.

The princess/Father:- Judy is classed as the princess as she is married to David and he is actually trying to save her and create a new life. She also qualifies for her role as the princess because firstly the Army capture her and keep her inside of the hospital because they think that she is infected and the others as well as herself are being searched for. She ends up taking the form of a father role as she is trying her complete hardest to protect Rebecca from being killed. She rewards the ‘hero’ in a way because she is of course going to have Davids baby.

The dispatcher:- Rory would be seen as the dispatcher inside of the film because he is the first ever townsperson to become infected by this ‘virus’.

False Hero:- The false hero inside of the film would be the Mayor. This is because he refuses to turn off the water from the town and by doing this he allows the lethal virus to spread to the rest of the town. However though, he was actually thinking of the towns wellbeing as he knew that they would need the crops.


Bordwell & Thompson
30 minutes into the film characters descover a crashed plane. This leads us to question of how this came about, for example where it was going, why it was going there, when it took off and when it crashed. It was loaded with toxins which were the key to casuing the zombification of the residents. This is a really important part of the story but we only see a tiny bit of it because we work the rest out by ourselves.

Individual plan for Horror Trailer- Possible Locations for Horror Trailer & Possible Plan for my Horror Trailer.

Individual plan for Horror Trailer- Props Contained and Costumes of Characters In Film.

Individual plan for Horror Trailer- Characters Contained Inside of My Film.

Individual plan for Horror Trailer- Plot for Whole Film.

Analysis of Horror Trailer 3- The Woman In Black

My third horror trailer analysis is going to be for the film- The Woman In Black. I will apply DISTINCT to the trailer and in depth discuss how the film encourages horror loves to come and watch. Overall I personally believe that the trailer is very frightening, gloomy and terrorising. It firstly starts of with quick credits on the film creation etc and when this happens there is a very gloomy type of screen. It shows a dark horror type of sky with the clouds moving. This creates suspicion to start of the trailer. There is the sound of a train horn and it moving, which has been added over this screen and this is another aspect at the start which adds further suspicion and terror.

The majority of the settings which are contained inside of the trailer are gloomy and mostly dark. To start of with it shows a train moving along in dusk and therefore the trailer begins reasonably normal and not frightening to let viewers engage before and gain and understanding of the story to the film. It shows shortly after a setting of Eel Marsh House where Arthur visits. Despite this being in the daytime it portrays the surrounding and what  type of house it is which is very horror like. It kind of sums up its history with it being old and also haunted. With the lighter setting inside of the train when Arthur is talking to Samuel Daily, you can see the surrounding of the train and what it is like compared to trains in todays generation. This will give spectators some idea of the time when the film is set. There is another setting this time inside of the house. It is very dark and suspicious despite being in daylight once again and this in many ways sums up the house to spectators and what it would be like to stay there. Which of course.. is frightening! There a lot of dark, neutral colours like blacks, dark purples, and greys used to portray further fright in settings. Another aspect of the trailer which is particularly frightening and simplifies the genre of the film is when Arthur is outside of the house in the dark. It is heavily raining as well as thundering and lightening which is typical weather and a typical setting for a horror movie. He sees various dead people which is scary for spectators and shows them the extent of fright which is contained inside of the movie. 

The camera movements are mostly very sudden and sharp. This tends to empathise terror to spectators and make them jump! A brilliant example is when Arthur lights a match and then suddenly the camera immediately jumps to the horror character in front of him which is shocking for viewers. It then jumps back to Arthur’s reaction very quickly. This series of fast, immediate shots creates horror for the spectators and again shows them what the movie will be like when watching. The trailer contains mostly jumpy parts and it is a case of waiting for spectators to when the next frightening part will be. I think this is brilliant as again it prepares viewers for the kind of aspects which the film will contain if they decide to go and watch. An anticipating, jumpy part is when Arthur spins the lamp shade. Everything is quiet and all you can hear is the shade spinning. Arthur looks inside and then an eye pops up suddenly. To empathise the terror on this there is a high pitched immediate sound. Music and sound also plays a large part in the fright of the trailer. There mainly seems to be short sudden sounds of high pitches to empathise horror to viewers. There is a short montage of certain parts of the film in the trailer showing a rook/crow on a table (signifiers of death), a house fire as well as Arthur and Samuel’s reactions to this. These are short sudden clips and increasing sound combined with a mixture of high and low pitches is placed over the top as well as dialogue from the clips to again create suspense. 

Iconography also plays a part inside of the trailer. One particular aspect which I noticed are the three little girls walking towards a window. Before this it shows one of girls foot stomping on a ‘dolls’ head. The fact that there is a doll on the floor shows that they would have been playing with these kind of toys and this is typical iconography for a little girl and the kind of thing which they find interesting at that age. The fact that Arthur has a son and the woman says to him ‘go home to him’ shows that he is away/ working away from his son. This would in a way show the typical iconography of a man- going out to work and earn- he is sacrificing leaving his son. Inside of the trailer there are also various character types. Arthur is seen as the central character inside of the trailer who the film will work around. Samuel is seen as Arthurs helper and friend also and he tends to know what the house is like in some ways because he is local. Arthur is seen as daring in the trailer finding out what is in the house with no ‘local buyer’. With him coming up from London and going into the house he doesn’t know what it contains and what it can lead too. This therefore can make him kind of innocent in a way also. There is a character saying ‘you should have gone when we told you too’, to Arthur. This guy seems to be a local and fond with the people in the current surrounding environment. He tends to be the ‘hater’ maybe along with other locals towards Arthur as he sees him doing something wrong which maybe Arthur does not know he is doing himself. With Samuel being his friend this may lead to locals  not liking him also. The woman who tells Arthur to go back to his son also seems to be a local but one that cares about him . Shee knows what he should do and not stay here. Last but not least there then seems to be the horror type of characters. There is the face which comes up suddenly after Arthur has lit a match and then there is the figure shown in the background of some parts of the trailer in darker clothing which appears to be ‘The Woman In Black’ who seems to be the main horror character. There are also then the dead children arthur see’s when outside the house. These type of characters are the ones which cause the most fright in the trailer towards spectators. 

Lastly there are also some themes contained inside of the trailer. One main one is fear. Of course as explained above and shown in the trailer Arthur experiences a lot of fear as do the spectators also. Neglection is maybe another contained inside the trailer also. When the man says to Arthur ‘you should have gone when we told you too’, they are basically saying that they don’t want him there and with Arthur only recently arriving he is being neglected from an area he doesn’t really know to well. 

Analysis of Horror Trailer 2- The Pact

Overall I think that trailer for the film- The Pact is a brilliant one all round. It is really encouraging for horror lovers to go and watch the film to see what it has to offer. Throughout all of the trailer it keeps spectators on the edge of their seats with fright anticipating what is going to happen.  The short clips as in every trailer from the film in this case which are extremely scary, show the audience the extent of the terror in the movie overall. Something which is really brilliant about the trailer is the way that it instantly shows a horror setting showing the camera entering a dark, gloomy, pitch black door way. This introduces the genre of the film to begin with. I like the way the writing on screen pops us with in a suspicious, scientific type sound to add furthermore horror effect. The majority of the settings contained and shown inside of the trailer are dark and neutral. When the woman is driving her motorbike on the road it is daytime but however it is not very bright and is shown quite gloomy, miserable and depressing weather. It isn’t happy and the setting matches the scared, terrorising content in the film. When day time is shown inside the trailer, despite this it still seems to be quite dark and gloomy overall and when in the house during the day it is exactly the same. When the woman goes and asks for ‘Nicole’ in the house it is daytime and the surrounding area is presented in low key lighting being dull and sets suspicion around the area. When the woman also does the method to try and find out if there’s a spirit in her house with the letters on the floor and the crucifix it is again another point in the trailer with a dark setting. She lights only a candle as her form of vision which again provides low key lighting in the surrounding which is aimed to create more terror for the viewers. Apart from the majority of the settings in the trailer being shown as dark and terrorising they are also more urban. The trailer is based mainly in the central characters house. The most frightening and anticipating aspect inside the trailer is when the woman flickers the lighter to see and when turning round there is a figure present in the same room. Again in this setting it is completely dark to begin with and extremely terrorising for viewers. 

There are also various technical codes inside of the trailer. The camerawork contained seems to be very robust, slow, smooth and simple when starting the trailer and telling the basis of the story of the film. However when reaching scary, intense parts the camerawork becomes very quick, sudden, sharp and distort to empathise terror and fear for the audience. A good example is right at the very start of the trailer when her little girl on video call says ‘mummy. Who’s that behind you?’ and when she turns around the camera sharply changes direction focussing on a figure in the doorway to create terror. There isn’t any actual music added inside of the trailer but there is sound. The sound tends to be sharp, sudden high and low pitched sounds to once again frighten spectators. These sounds only occur of course at the terrorising and scary parts in the trailer and apart from this when showing the rest of the trailer there tends to just be voices talking which also is reasonably suspicious as the mood is quite dull because of this. Also with just the voices speaking in other parts of the trailer it makes the spectators think when the next sudden scary aspect is going to come with loud frightening sound. The costumes of the majority of the characters are plain and simple and not very horror like at all. The make up on the girl who tries and contacts the ‘other side’ is very faint and pale. This however is very horror like. 

There isn’t really much Iconography which I can talk about inside of the trailer but there is however still some. The main central character of the woman as explained is a mother. She appears to have some kind of paranormal spirit inside of her house and of course will do everything she can to protect herself as well as her daughter from this. This can relate to her playing a typical, protective motherly role. She is the victim but also is the hero at the same time. Something else which I can relate to iconography is the male helper. He seems to step in also in the trailer entering the haunted house with the central character looking around. I can relate this to an indicator of masculinity of him helping out being a gentlemen. 

 

There are various character types contained inside of the trailer. There is of course the main central characters who’s life the film focusses around which in this case in the woman. You then have the central characters daughter who appears to be on video call and then I think in her bedroom in the house. These characters are normal everyday people. There is also then the helper who appears to be a physchological kind of woman. As explained she is actually quite a horror type of character with bold eyes and pale skin. She can seem too connect with spirits and so therefore is a different type of character. There then also seems to be another type of helper which is the man. He seems normal just like the central character however and and outgoing, everyday type of guy. You can also tell this from his simple, normal type of costume. 

There are many themes which are present inside of this trailer. One of the main ones is Female Power. As described previously the woman is in most control throughout the trailer trying to fight off the paranormal spirit inside of her home. She has the most power out of the characters and does it all on her own mostly with the slight help of the other characters.

I can also relate this trailer to the conventions of horror. In many horror movies (of course depending on the type), you expect to see particular aspects and witness certain events. For example you would typically expect to see things like blood, death, weapons, large frightening characters, ghosts/spirits etc. In this trailer there are many of these. There is a paranormal spirit in the house which shuts doors, and as shown drags the central character in her house and picks her up etc. The central character also has a knife in her hand at one point in the trailer which is a typical weapon many would expect to see inside of a horror movie. Darkness is another convention in horror movies which is common and something audiences expect to see. As explained when talking about setting, their is a lot of darkness present in the trailer which provides extensive fright. 

After looking at the four theorists as explained previously on my blog some of these can relate to this particular trailer. I cannot relate Tzvetan Todorov as I am only analysing the trailer and so therefore do not know the whole story of the film. I can relate some of Vladimir Propp's theory of character roles from the characters I have witnessed in the trailer. The Villian of course tends to be the spirit in the house. The hero tends to be the central character who is the woman trying to get rid of the spirit/find out what it is, and the man as well as the pale skinned girl are the helpers who aid the woman slightly in the trailer. The donor maybe the girl as she may be able get in contact with the spirit present which is a large help to the woman. The other character roles which are: The princess, her father, the dispatcher and the false hero I cannot relate to the characters in this trailer. Looking at Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions in the trailer I have identified a few. These are: 

Day/Night

Spirit/Human

Male/Female

Young/Old

Light/Dark

Normal/Abnormal

I cannot relate the theory of Bordwell and Thompson to this trailer.

Narrative Theory in Relation to Halloween

Recently I have been researching and looking at the narratives of four Media Theorists. These people are: TzvetanTodorov, Vladimir Propp, Claude Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson. The theorists looked at narrative in different ways and how the plot of a film/story went. I will now relate the theories of each of the theorists to the film- Halloween.

Tzvetan Todorov

In relation to the film Halloween, I think that Todorov’s theory doesn’t really apply to the film. Going by Todorov’s theory the film would start with equilibrium with everything being fine and normal and then there would generally be a disruption/disequilibrium (event) which would then set off a series of events within the film. These would happen and then in the end there would be a new equilibrium and everything would come back to normal like at the start. In Halloween there isn’t an original equilibrium. Spectators are instantly put into the horror aspect of the film witnessing horrific events of Michael Myers spying on his sister and her boyfriend eventually killing her after they went upstairs to have sex as he sees this as being wrong. This event of course is right at the very start of the film and sets of a chain of events which lead to Michael being placed in a mental institution, escaping, killing more people etc. However after spectators see the first event of Michael killing his sister it shows the doctor- Sam Loonis as well as his assistant- Marion Chambers travelling to the local sanitarium to have Michael transferred to a maximum security prison. This is the point where he escapes and steals their car driving it away. Again this is another horror aspect and event which has occurred at the start of the film and isn’t an equilibrium. After this stage the film becomes a lot more original and normal where Laurie a 17 year old girl is walking to school. Cutting the long story short Myers is still out there, and this is the point where he sets a chain of events of killing people, one trying to be Laurie but he does not succeed. At the end of the film is the point where he tries and kills her. He does not succeed after various attempts and with Dr Loomis helping as back up shooting him, it knocks back his chances. He is shot and falls over the balcony of Laurie’s home. One minute he is lying on the floor and when looking again he is not there. He is still on the loose prepared to kill once again. The film ends after this point and there is not a new equilibrium with things not necessarily returning back to normal life for Laurie as she knows he’s still out there. This backs up my idea of how Todorov’s classic Hollywood narrative doesn’t apply to the film really in any way. 

Vladimir Propp

Propp was a theorist who tended to look at 8 different character roles and types which generally can be applied to all kinds of narrative. I will now go onto relate these character roles to the correct characters contained in the film- Halloween. All of the character roles which Propp looked at however will not apply to this movie and the movie will not have some of these types characters. 

• The Villain- Michael Myers (Killer)
• The hero- Dr Loomis
• The donor- No One
• The helper that aids the hero- Marion Chambers (when alive, Loomis not a hero)
• The princess. (The sought for person) reward for the hero and object of the villains schemes -Laurie (maybe)
• Her Father- who rewards the hero- No One
• The dispatcher, who sends the hero on his way- No One
• The false hero- No One Claude

Levi-Strauss

Levis Strauss looked at narrative in a way of binary oppositions. These are sets of opposite values which actually reveal the structure of media texts. They were not so interested in looking at the order in which the events were arranged in the plot and instead they looked for deeper arrangements of themes. After watching Halloween there are various binary oppositions in which are created by the narrative and genre of the movie. These are: 

Day/Night- The daytime in the movie is much more quiet than the night of course. The daytime tends to consist of Myers spying and looking upon his victims in the film and not commiting any kind of crime. The night time is completley different as he tends to commit these crimes killing his targets. These are commited at night with a darker setting to fit in well with the genre of the film which of course- Horror.

Good/Evil- Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chambers and the children (good people, there to help)/ Michael Myers (Killer, the evil person).

Healthy/Unhealthy-Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chambers and the children are all healthy/Michael Myers is unhealthy-mentally ill- he kills.

Normal/ Strange- Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chambers and the Children are all normal people living a normal life/Michael Myers is strange, not right in the head. He is a mass murderer. 

Life/Death- Michael Myers aim is to keep his own life and kill others portraying death upon them. Marion Chambers, Michaels sister as well as Lynda and Bob are killed for example and Laurie stays alive luckily escaping Michaels attempt to kill her. 

Past/Present- In the past Michael killed his sister who was 16 at the time for having sex with her boyfriend. This point was a large change in his life which caused him in to become a psycho killer when older (present time in the film).

Male/Female- Mixture of gender in the film-Female- Laurie, Marion, Michaels sister and Lynda. Male- Michael (main focus) Dr Loomis, Marion's dad (sheriff). Female gender seems to be the main focus of death- Marion, Lynda and Michaels sister were all killed etc.

Happy/Unhappy- The majority of characters are happy to begin with- Marion, Laurie, Lynda & Bob together, Michaels sister with her boyfriend and then of course when being killed- they become unhappy. Surrounding people like Laurie who know Michael is on the loose also become unhappy of course because they are scared of him and what he is capable of.

Young/Old- Children are present inside of the film (Laurie & Marion's children) and then of course the older charrcters like Laurie, Marion and many more as explained previously. Michael was young when he committed murder and then when growing older become mentally ill and a psycho killer. 

Advantage/Disadvantage- Michael Myers tends to have the main advantage over all characters in the film. He escaped from the institution he was in and kills people. He's scary and threatening to people and having the experience in previously committing a crime like this he has the advantage to do the same again which he does to people. The normal people like Laurie and Marion and the other characters as explained have the disadvantage being victims. They are on the receiving end of Michaels attempting crimes.

Victim/Killer-(Laurie/Michael) The victims in the movie tend to be the healthy, normal people such as Laurie, Dr Loomis, Marion Chamber and more as previosuly explained. The killer is of course Michael Myers who is unhealthy and mentally ill.

Rural/Urban- There tends to be a mixture of rural and urban surroundings. When Dr Loomis and Marion Chambers go to try and transfer Michael from the mental institution it is in a rural environment. It is a country surrounding and can be maybe seen in the film as much quieter and less safe in many ways. Of couse Michael escpaes from the institution when they try and transfer him and steals their car. The urban surroundings are the more built up areas with houses where Marion and Laurie live. These are maybe seen by many in the film as a safer area and when here no one could get them.This of course was not the case as they could and did with Myers on the loose.

Sane/Insane- The sane characters as like explained are the healthy, normal individuals such as Marion Chambers, Laurie etc. You then have the insane which is of course Michael Myers as he kills and is not right in the head (mentally ill).
 

Innocent/Guilt- The normal, sane, characters are the innocent ones. They are normal people, living their normal life doing their everyday jobs. For example: Marion Chambers is Dr Loomis' assistant which is her job and she ends up getting killed in the end. Laurie is an inncoent school girl who is dragged into all this terror as she is friends with Marion. The guilty is of course Myers as he is the killer comminting the crimes because of his mental health.

Man/Monster- The man is generally classed as the sane, normal everyday person who are of course people Like Laurie, Marion Chambers and others. The monster is classed as the insane, mentally ill, large terrorising character which is Michael Myers.

Bordwell & Thompson

Bordwell and Thompson see narrative as ‘a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship, occurring in time and space’. For themselves, a narrative typically begins with one situation and then a  series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect. Finally a new situation arises which brings the end of the narrative. I will now try and relate this specific theory to Halloween. Firstly at the start of the film there is a situation of Michael spying on his sister and her boyfriend expressing their love for each other in their living room. Like explained Michael appears to be angry by this situation where his sister and her lover eventually go upstairs to have sex and so therefore grabs a knife from the kitchen draw. A series of changes occur via cause and effect as Michaels anger has caused him to kill his sister which is the effect from this outcome. He is now potentially a killer from the cause and effect sequence. After this start of the film we see Michael escape from the mental institution which he appeared to be in. Him being here is a change to his lifestyle which has been caused from the cause and effect situation as well as his attitude and mental health where he is a murderer. The new ‘situations’ which brings the film to an end are the murders in which Michael tries and does commit. It does eventually bring the end of the narrative where at this point he is trying to commit another murder which is upon Laurie but does not succeed. 

Bordwell and Thompsons theory in a film in many ways was simple and true. It is easy to understand. When watching films, what happens on screen isn't always what has happened in the story and to viewers things have also happened off screen. This was there theory that things also happen off screen which are part of the story and these can have a large effect on the film in general. A good example was if to say that a member of a characters family in a movie has died. They may be talking about their death and there maybe a picture of them in the characters home which is shown on screen so it gives viwers an understanding of what has happened. However the viewer has not seen the character actually die in the movie. They would have only figured out what happened to the character who died from what would have been happening on screen in the movie at that present moment. Overall it is a brilliant theory which is very easy to understand and it is also very effective at the same time. It can play a very large part in a film and set up the story from the beginning.

Analysis of Horror Trailer- Insidious

The link above shows the trailer to the horror movie- Insidious. The film was released in the year of 2010 and is rated only an age 15. The director of the film was James Wan with the writer being Leigh Whannell. The film stars Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and also Ty Simpkins as well as many more. I will now go onto analyse the trailer of the film. After watching the trailer over and over again a various number of times, there are many aspects which I find very interesting as well as clever and also appealing . The idea of a film trailer is to encourage people to watch the film which is being advertised and in many ways to grab their attention to the storyline. I can most certainly and confidently say that this trailer does exactly this. Overall the film took in an astonishing $97,009,150 from the box office after only costing $1.5 million to make. The first thing which was shown on the trailer was the name of the film. I think that this is brilliant as it instantly introduces itself to spectators. The font of the text of this name shown is quite a modern but worn text. As well as this it is also placed on a plain black background and both of these features represent the genre of the film which is of course- horror. They give a more horror effect overall. When the name is shown it is an animation and skips between the name ‘insidious’ and ‘in’ where doing this there is a crackly type sound and this is very mysterious. Setting a scarier entrance likes this prepares the audience for what they are about to see and would if they see the movie.

At the start of the trailer after the name, there is a medium close up shot on what appears to be the central character of the movie. This is very good and is another aspect which I particularly like as again it introduces him immediately to the audience so they can see and judge what he is like to begin with. He closes his eyes as if in deep thought and there is a ticking sound which is coming from a metronome. There is no other sound apart from this and once again the scene becomes very suspicious as well as frightening. After this part of the trailer there is a small montage showing the central character and his family. It shows them having fun and in their normal life but over the top of this montage there is still the ticking sound from the metronome as well as the characters voices. The montage is very important as it is giving the spectators some idea of who is contained as it is showing the main characters and their lifestyle. As in most trailers they give clips from the film to sell their film the audience watching and to encourage them to view. Inside this particular trailer I like the way it shows a clip from the film where a rocking horse is moving with no one present in the room and the female character is wondering what it is of course. There is build up music at this part and then silence when reaching the rocking horse. This is a suspicious, frightening aspect of the trailer again and it shows spectators what they can expect if going to see the film.

Throughout the trailer there tends to be a lot of sudden camera movements. This aspect shows fright, as well as a sense of danger and emergency. As well as showing clips from the day time, they mostly show footage which is in dark gloomy settings to show the genre of the film more as well as to add terror. Rewinding back to the start of the trailer, it advertises that the film was from the makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw. Personally I think this is a brilliant feature to add into the trailer as it may encourage audiences more to come and watch if they know that these people have made this film after previously watching the other films they have worked on and enjoyed them. There is a point in the trailer which is very frightening. There is the central male character and behind him comes the horror character which tends to be a devil looking character. He is only revealed for a short time but it allows the audience to get an insight to what he is like. It also scares the audience as he is suddenly revealed and is extremely different looking too the other characters. As with all, this movie trailer gives a basis of the storyline to spectators to give them a feel to what it is about.

As there was at the start of the trailer, a montage has been included at the end. This is something which I think is brilliant once again as well as important. With the montage at the start it shew spectators not only the characters contained but what their life was like and them having fun etc. The montage at the end of the film shows the frightening events which they go through because of the devil/spirit causing them problems. It shows the changes in their life in comparison to what they were like before in the first montage and because of this I think that this is particularly important. Of course the release date is placed at the end of the trailer to make people aware when the film is available to view. When this is shown it doesn’t just show the date it has an effect which makes it slightly more frightening. It reads: ‘Everywhere April 1’ instead of just saying ‘April 1’. ‘Everywhere’ has been added to give the impression that the devil/spirit is everywhere as well as the film will be on this date to make spectators slightly more scared than what they already are. Finally at the end of the trailer the main parts have finished as well as credits and so fourth. There just becomes a black screen and people think that trailer has finished completely. All of a sudden there is a horror character that jumps forward at the camera very quickly. This was unexpected for the viewers and makes them jump. I think this was another brilliant aspect added to the trailer overall as it builds up how scary the movie is even more letting spectators know this and therefore encouraging them to come and watch more than wanted to firstly.