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.