The Role Of The Distributor

At its most basic, the distributor has the sole job of seeking out the largest possible target audience for the film that they are working for. There are many entertainment options available for the distributor to complete their job in hand, making their choice of distribution method very difficult. Distributors are chose for their ability to create a higher interest in the film through their promotion techniques. The first step in distribution is working out how much the film may yield from their box office and dvd success etc. It is through this that a budget for distribution is worked out, with big budget films obviously able to have well distributed material.


There are three main things that the distributor is required to find out.

Who can the distributor convince to go buy a cinema ticket?

Who is the target audience?

The audience that was attracted for previous films within the same genre.

The distributor has a specific marketing plan, starting with budgeting the film release (this covers the launch and post-release products).
Advertising is then organised by the distributor.

A poster is created which advertises the movie. The social construction of 'word of mouth' advertising can be sparked through this poster.

They then create a film trailer, which is viewed as the most powerful advertising technique within the current technological climate (YouTube, Sky+, ITVPlayer etc.).

Online services are then set up for the movie which can include exclusive media such as behind the scenes info/footage/photos, free downloads (desktop backgrounds/screensavers etc.). This helps to gain a massive following within the online community.

The distributor then takes an active approach to the audience (rather than a passive approach) which is for the sake of media advertising.

After the advertising is taken care of, they aim to take care of the publicity;

• The publicity team within the distributor arranges cast interviews and press junkets and sends the cast to film premieres etc.


• A press kit is formed by publicists for journalists. This can contain cast/crew lists, film facts, biographies and a film synopsis.


• Screenings are constructed for national critics before the films release, and also set visits are organised.


• Merchandising is also part of the publicity stage.

Promotional partnerships can be created by the distributor which enables the film to be consistently advertised in as much places as possible. For example, the McDonalds Happy Meal is constantly creating a promotional partnership with childrens film. This helps to create sales of happy meals to go up due to the toy the child wants, and also advertises the film to parents and children alike.

Research of Target Audience

We carried out a questionnaire on a few people within our target audience from our class with the aim of gathering a sufficient amount of qualitative and quantitative data which will provide us with information about what it is about the horror genre that attracts the audience. This questionnaire did not gather detailed data about the target audience but what we did gather did give us a basic insight about general feelings and beliefs about horror and its specific sub-genres and appeals.

Horror Movie Ideas

My Original Pitch;

Originally i wished to make a film trailer based on some kind of virus, infecting people and effectively creating zombie like creatures. The virus would snowball until there was 3-4 people all fighting for their life but realised that there would be a lot of difficulties with make-up and getting the sheer amount of people that i would of liked in the trailer.

My Groups Original pitch;

We wished to make a supernatural horror created with paranormal activity in mind where one person would haunt a group of people who get lost. The supernatural atmosphere would be represented by the building which was a location that we found during the planning. There was also an emphasis on an object which links the supernatural 'horror' to the building and the group of people, we finally settled on a necklace.

Magazine Covers (Linked to Analysis)

The Horror Genre and it's Representation of Women

Halloween, 1978, was and still is one of the most well known ‘slasher’ films around and modern film directors still give a nod to it, effectively recreating the same scenes with different characters. The male:female ratio within the film is at around 1:1 taking into account the main characters only which is progressive as the ratio is usually around 2:1 in films made within the same decade. The main character, Laurie, is a female which seems to abide by the gender stereotypical roles of a female, being domestic and caring towards her siblings and friends alike.



However, she does not follow the same route of other female characters within the film who, compared to Laurie, seem very immature and very sexually Promiscuous. Her friends, Annie and Lynda, are shown as overly promiscuous and consistently drinking alcohol. These characters proceed to be brutally condemned by the film which seems to have a sexually reactionary agenda, punishing anyone seen to be partaking in any ‘sinful’ acts. The first scene of this movie even includes this ‘punishment’ of sexual behaviour where a promiscuous girl is slain with her boyfriend through a POV shot of the killer, Michael Myers.

This girls later turns out to be Michael Myers’ sister that he has brutally murdered, but apparently with no motive (as pointed out by the Doctor in the film), even though coincidentally the majority of murders in the film have a link to sexual activity. The POV shots from Michael Myers later continue in the scene where Annie is killed as she tries to be sexually provocative towards the killer, believing it is her boyfriend mistakenly. This could be playing with the theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ as the male proportion of the films target audience is huge and would therefore help to please them.



The male stereotypes are also within this film, with the ‘men at work’ ideology being directly fed by the older males within the film being doctors and sheriffs, and the young man a very sexually active alcohol drinker. This man obviously gets killed within the film. The androgynous nature of Laurie within the film suggests that the stereotypical representations are not there and suggesting that the film is progressive in that way. The androgynous image and behaviour of Laurie creates a blur between the two boundaries of male and female and her part as the ‘final girl’ in the film almost mutes the progressive nature of the film. The death ratio of females to males is around 2:3 placing the murders of the females to be blamed purely on their sexual activity as the director does not give Michael Myers a motive for these murders. All-in-all Halloween does follow the gender stereotypical representations throughout the film, with exception to the androgynous character Laurie who is being consistently recreated in other slasher films.

Teaser Trailers Vs. Trailers

Teaser trailers are generally speaking, released long in advance of the film’s release to try and ‘tease’ the audience and generate interest before the main trailer is out. Trailers are generally very short (between 30-90 seconds) and rarely contain a lot of shots from the actual film and the majority of the time it’s a truncated version of a full trailer. Some teaser trailers include footage that was never intended to be in the film, notably Pixar trailers do this. One of the earliest teaser trailers was for Superman when it was nearly a year late of its scheduled release. Therefore, they used a teaser trailer to regenerate the interest lost due to its long delay. Teaser trailers are sometimes ridiculously unconventional; take Cloverfield for example. On the Transformers DVD’s extra features there was a teaser trailer for Cloverfield did not release any information about the film, not even the title. The only text on the trailer was the name of the producer (J.J. Abrahams) and the release date. This almost defeats the point of generating interest for the film because they do not know what it is. Avant-garde style teaser trailers I believe can be sometimes created in a way that defeats the point of marketing the film. Theatrical trailers have a MAXIMUM length of 2:30mins in America as enforced the the MPAA. Clearly, as the normal trailers are of much larger length they can contain a lot more information and generate a lot more interest but don’t generate it in the same way that teaser trailers do.

Original Photos for Ancillary Texts

Magazine Cover

Film Poster

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Hardware To create my trailer and related ancillary texts I used a Sony mini DV camcorder, Canon Digital SLR camera and an Apple iMac computer. These were predominantly used in the construction of my product where me and my group captured all the necessary footage we needed at the location using the HandyCam. To upload footage onto the iMac we captured it using a firewire, rather than a USB wire, meaning that we were able to do so at relatively fast speed and with control over which footage we wanted to import. The manual and auto focusing abilities of the handycam came into play when we needed to focus on a certain object especially when the intended shot involved extreme close ups of anything. An example of this is the shot of the eye at around 24 seconds in (see below).

The issue I faced with the camera was that it was controlled using touch screen rather than physical buttons which brought up a few issues as it would've been easier to focus with a simple push/pull trigger than digitally. On the majority of shots we used a basic camera tripod set up so that the camera was as stable as possible but on the desired shots it seemed right to use it by hand to get a 'paranormal activity' effect. I used a digital camera for the ancillary texts shooting a few low-key shots of a girl with a black background making the editing easier as I didn't have to crop out any out-of-place objects in Photoshop. The photos that I took were simply in the dark and lit using nothing more than a household torch which achieved the desired effect without needing any other artificial lighting. The camera was 14 mega pixels which is a generates a high quality image making it easier for me to make my ancillary texts look professional.

Final Cut Pro Final cut pro was the main piece of software I used for constructing my main piece combining the audio and visual pieces. I had never used this before so the program was completely new to me but the basics were picked up on quite fast by everyone in our group meaning we could all work together in the editing process. As Final Cut is a professional product it has the ability to do a lot of things that other programs simply do not have the capability of doing. However, the frame rate would occasionally drop due to physical restraints related to the iMac's CPU. This issue would occasionally be an issue as we could not properly see the final image without rendering it which is time consuming and wasted valuable time. The ability to crossfade images and transitions together also came in handy as our editing process involved a lot of cutting and fading footage together because of the style we wanted to recreate that we had seen in other horror trailers. The main idea came from the trailer for 'The Grudge' which used a variety of rapid shots in a very disorientating manner which would've been more difficult to recreate on perhaps a less basic program.

Adobe After Effects CS4

After effects is a piece of digital motion graphics and compositing software used in proffesional film making for anything from titles to extreme special effects such as explosions. I found use for it for the titles within my main task, the horror trailer. Having never used the program before I used trial and error to work out exactly how to create titles and edit them effectively. After a long time of experimenting I settled on an effect I found suitable for the trailer and set on making it look as proffesional and smooth as possible. As I only had basic knowledge of the program I dont believe I used it to its full potential but I do believe that if I had used the program before I could've utilised it for other processes than simply creating inter-titles alone. Involving this program in the construction of my group's trailer I believe set us apart from the other groups in the class because the titles stood out and were unique. Other programs such as Final Cut or LiveType simply do not possess the editing capabilities that After Effects does.

Cubase 5

Steinberg's Cubase 5 is an Digital Audio Workstation recognised as one of the leading in the field along with ProTools. I was able to use Cubase in the stages after the visuals were complete in my trailer. We rendered the video and imported it into a new cubase 5 project. We were then able to create music literally along to the video track meaning we have much more flexibility than using royalty free loops. We were able to use the MIDI capabilities of the program to create and manipulated audio to fit the video source as accurately as possible. All of the music in our trailer was composed by my group and I and wasn't sampled meaning that it was unique and gave us the ability to emphasise certain moments within the trailer. This technology has the capability to run an unlimited amount of tracks (depending on CPU) and an infinite amount of different sounds and effects. Garageband (the other program being used in class for audio) does not have the same capabilities as Cubase which meant that we were able to create a much more polished result than others. You also have the ability to record audio into Cubase alongside the MIDI meaning that we were able to add whispers to the video and manipulate the audio very extensively. Using a lot of reverb and some equalisation we were able to create an eerie whisper effect used in many horror films and trailers. Without the tools that Cubase has I do not believe we would've got a result similar to that.

Adobe Photoshop cs4/5

I used Adobe Photoshop which is one of the most comprehensive image editing and creating programs around to construct my magazine cover and movie poster. As I have used photoshop before I did not have to learn the basics meaning that I could start constructing the ancillary texts as soon as I could experimenting with different ideas. I prefer to use photoshop to develop ideas rather than pen & paper because it is much more flexible when used right and if you get the desired look first time you do not have to remake it like you would if you sketched it out. The adjustments you can make to images on Adobe Photoshop allowed me to manipulated my original images to look more scary/horror-esque whilst still making them look realistic.

On top of the image manipulation abilities of Adobe Photoshop there are extensive tools for creating graphics and vector shapes if needs be. This was very handy on the title font for 'The Necklace' as I converted the font layer into a vector and literally dragged the vector points in different directions to create a unique and smooth font. If I used image creation software without vector editing functionality it would be much harder to achieve a smooth and proffessional look. The ability to add layers with different blending options was also helpful in my ancillary texts as I was able to add textures over other images subtly adding another dimension to the plain original images. Another effect I found useful was the ability to render lighting effects on seperate layers which allowed me to edit any problems with the lighting on the original photo to reach the desired effect.

Youtube

During pre-production I used youtube to research horror trailers just to get an understanding of the codes and conventions used within both teaser trailers, and horror films. Youtube is currently owned by Google and is the largest video website in the world with literally millions of video uploads from the public and companies alike. It is utilised massively by most media platforms as it has grown at a huge exponential rate since its introduction to the world wide web. I also published my group's trailer on youtube because it's simple and free and allows the embedding function so I can place it on the blog. Blogger

I used the blogging site 'Blogger' to create my portfolio documenting my progress with my ancillary tasks and my main task the horror trailer. I did this because of many reasons, the main one being that as a multi-media platform I was able to host images, videos and audio on the site resulting in my portfolio being a multimedia experience rather than a multitude of essays which can get long and monotonous and dont represent 'media' very well. The site allowed me to make a custom colour scheme and even add my own title header to the page to make it look my own and to create a horror blog rather than a standard one. It also allowed me to organise my blog posts into different portfolio sections which make it much easier to navigate around. Without blogger I would just have many blocks of text which are hard to read and hard to find specific areas. The ability to embed videos and images means that I can really use my blog to demonstrate some of my points and of course showcase my work as best as I can.

Traditional Essays vs. Web 2.0


In the majority of subjects any cousework is done in the form of written essays containing detailed written explanations but very little visual and aural information. The inclusion of the web in the coursework allows me to utilise pictures to help emphasise and detail written evaluations in a way which you cant using traiditional essay writing techniques. Personally, i much prefer using the web in my coursework as it is much more flexible and allows me to expand fully on my points without the need to write an excessive amount as i am able to simply post a picture as a demonstration of my point. I don't believe that using web 2.0 really effects the detail of my write-up about my product as i am able to cover in detail the same amount as i would using traditional essays. I am also able to expand on that detail by including other things such as pictures, videos, flickr analysis' and audio.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The horror teaser trailer, poster and magazine cover i have produced altogether add up to one whole promotional package which can be used to promote a film prior to its theatrical release. Normal movie trailers explore narrative and protagonists a lot more than teaser trailers, so combining my teaser trailer with a poster and magazine article aims towards promoting the trailer through word of mouth. It's the anticipation of the movie that will make people talk about the film, and rather than know everything that's going to happen in the film, they will not know what to expect.

Trailers are not the only means of advertising the movie and posters are often used just as much. Generally speaking the posters can appear anywhere a lot of people will see them (billboards, cinemas, online etc.) to try and get the movie out to the largest demographic as possible. Also, having my film the cover story on one of the largest film magazines will also promote the film to Empire's devoted fan base that are likely to go to the cinema often for their love of films. This will increase the demographic that the films promotional package is reaching.

In turn it will make the films financial success greater due to the amount of people going to watch it. However, to ensure this the trailer and poster combined must create a strong sense of identity for the film in order to make it stand out from the crowd of other films out there. It is for this reason i decided to create a sense of unity between all three media texts. For example, my teaser trailer contained a lot of green filtering, unique for any standard horror but it does create a strong sense of identity for my film. Because of the originality i also placed a green filter on my poster as it would directly relate to the trailer. If a person sees the trailer and then later sees the poster on a billboard, they are likely to think - 'oh, i recognise that', therefore grabbing the attention of a potential consumer. The green of the poster and trailer is also reflected within the magazine cover with it being the dominant colour. The colour scheme was green, black and yellow because they are very closely related colours that do not clash and represent the film well. The film title that is on the poster and magazine cover is the same unique font that i created also helping to create that strong sense of identity needed to grab the attention of potential consumers.

The imagery on both the poster and the magazine cover suits the horror genre as they are all low key photos that reveal part of someone's identity, but does not give away the character. This sense of mystery can also help to create an enigma that consumers will want to solve by going to view the film. It will also make the film recognisable as a horror, so horror fans will know exactly what the genre is and may look forward to seeing it. If the photos were not so 'avant-garde' then potential consumers may not realise what film it is. For example, they make think it is a romantic film about a necklace given as a gift between two loved ones - completely different to the actual narrative plot.

As my film does not have any production values in the form of big named celebrities i decided to leave out any obvious naming on the poster or magazine simply because the target audience would not know that names of the actors/actresses within the film so would be irrelevant to what they want to see.

To help achieve the sense of unity needed between the different media texts to work well as a promotional package i also placed screenshots of the film, which are also in the trailer, onto the magazine cover. These are iconic images within the image, in particular the shot of the girl alone in the room as it is very unusual and actually, very freaky. Also, the green filtering on this shot helps to mix create a sense of unity between the different parts of the cover as it is using the same colour scheme. I chose to change the colour of the Empire masthead on my magazine purely because i believe that the change in colour will make that issue unique and stand out to regular readers promoting my film even more. However, i do realise that i would have no control over making decisions if the film magazine was actually being distributed by Empire as that part of promotions is created and edited by Empire's own team, and not the production team on my film, unlike the poster. Instead Empire magazine would be a marketing tool for my film generating favourable publicity across a broad selection of film fans. In order to be featured in the magazine the distributor would have to make use of many marketing techniques available today. One of them is to let journalists into the set during production who can positively generate exclusive news from the film. The publicity team with the distribution company can also organise interviews with the films cast/producers/directors etc. at press junkets or fim premieres which can fulfill the current need for exlusive news which is dominating most media platforms at the minute.

Taking advantage of other big name films is also part of my magazine cover as it mentions a few of the biggest and newest film releases in the UK and will help to maximise sales of the magazine as a lot of people will want to read about them films. If people buy a magazine to read that story the chances are they will also read the other stories within the magazine, such as my story. The promotional package I have put together is to create as much possible publicity whenever possible.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The target demographic for the majority of horror films is young males between 13-27. There is also a small demographic of young couples that go to see horror films meaning that young females can also fit into this. As my class is full of 17-18 year old males predominantley, with one or two females, gaining feedback from them will give me and my group appropriate opinions about the trailer.

During the screening of our teaser trailer we received comments from every member of the class about what worked well and what didn't. The feedback from the audience which, as teenagers, were in the target demographic for horror films was very helpful to me and my group as we were able to change appropriate things to change in the trailer. This screening helped us finalise the trailer to make it as good as it can be without any major re-filming.

There weren't many issues pointed our in the trailers 'first draft' as we did our best to iron out all of the problems objectively and ignore the amount of effort we put in, if the result wasn't what we were trying to achieve. We were impressed with the lack of negative comments about major parts of our trailers as they were mainly about aspects that we could easily edit without re-shooting. Mixed opinions about two main things were cropping up in the class; the inter-titles & the audio.

Effectively, the main opinions that were coming up about the inter-titles were that they either looked professional, or that they looked too 'Sci-Fi' for a horror trailer. After we realised the opinions were mixed we carried out a quick poll to find out whether we should keep them, or change them.

The results we obtained made our mind up that we should keep the titles in the trailer because the majority of reviews were very positive. All the negative opinions about them were only mild opinions and no one had an overly strong negative opinion. However, we didn't just ignore the opinion that the inter-titles had an overly 'science fiction' feeling and we took time to dull down the effects that were placed on them.

Another negative point that kept occurring after the screening was based on the recorded audio in the soundtrack as we placed whispers on the inter-titles. These were deemed to be cheesy and even brought a few members of the class to laughter. It was due to this that we removed them whispers and instead recorded audio during one of the scenes which gave us an opportunity to explain the narrative a bit more than previously. However, although this was a negative opinion we did receive some comments about how to explore the basic idea of having whispers. One of them was to add a 'wall' of whispers during one of the scenes to act like a crescendo as the main protagonist approached the 'evil' to ultimately lead to the low key shot of the evil's face.

The other main negative was that the colouring on our trailer involved a bit too much green which is a signifier of the sci-fi genre and not so much of horror. Some members in the class also said that red would of been a more appropriate colour but we, however, strongly disagreed. We thought that adhering to the conventions of horror so strongly would've affected the originality of our trailer so we stuck to the original colour scheme. The green colouring was chosen originally to to try and represent a supernatural being within the location and this was key to give the location them connotations.

We also got some very detailed specific ideas about how we should edit the trailer as well, my favourite idea being that we should only place the green filters on the visuals when inside the building. This would give connotations about the whole building being a supernatural location rather than just the 'necklace' being an object of supernatural essence.

On the whole though, i believe the screening taught us a lot, especially about how difficult it is to objectively create a product that suits the target demographic even with the basic codes and conventions that we should adhere to. For example, I believe that if we did not carry out a screening we would've maintained the whispers throughout the trailer because we originally liked the sound when combined with the title. But getting the perspective of other people caused us to take notice of the sound and actually realise the flaw of having non-diagetic sound simply repeat what is happening visually.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Step-By-Step Deconstruction of My Trailer

how my trailer uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions

1 - Black Screen - In terms of horror trailers, they generally start with short a black screen with either transitional order or a direct cut into a scene. We done this in our trailer as it achieved a nice effect and put emphasis on the establishing shot. The black screens are prevalent throughout our trailer, as they are in horror trailers that I researched during pre-production. 'Don't be afraid of the dark' has a trailer that plays on the black screen particularly well and altogether it takes up around half of the overall trailer time.

2 - White Noise/Static - The white/noise static effect is used in a lot of modern horrors, particularly 'The Ring' as the static effect creates an enigma as it's unusual and creates a mystery about why its happening and what is causing it. The static image regularly shows up in our trailer throughout to repeat this mysterious effect.

3 - Establishing Shot - Although not regularly used in trailers as such, the horror genre - as with other genres - uses the establishing shot to let the audience know where the 'horror' is taking place. As our trailer is based around the supernatural location and object (the necklace) we thought that leaving out the establishing shot would leave out one of the main parts of the narrative. If our narrative plot was not based so strongly on the location we could've left the establishing shot out to create an enigma. This is done in many films, with the Saw franchise playing on the mystery location a lot with the 'torture chambers' being in an unknown location in every single one of their films.

4 - Film Distributor - As a main part of the distribution of a film the company in control of distribution is usually named in the trailer, with 'Mothership Media' being the fictional name we used in our own trailer. The distributor can actually make people want to see a film. For example, Lionsgate Films is a predominant company within the horror genre and personally, when I see the logo on a trailer i expect it to be a good film because the past films distributed by them are successful (American Psycho, Saw, House of the Dead etc.)

5 - CU of Part of Object - Close ups of sections of people or objects are one of the conventions of horror because just displaying part of an object creates an enigma as the audience are keen to know what exactly is being unveiled. These close ups are commonly used in horror films as a strong enigma can keep the audience interested to the very end. The step by step unveiling of the object keeps the audience reminded of the enigma so that the mystery is regularly in the back of the audience's mind. Also, Close-Ups are generally quite disorientating which almost completely satisfies the objective of horror cinematography which is to make the audience slightly uncomfortable with what they are seeing.

6 - POV/Establishing Shot - The idea that someone, who we have no indication to the identity of, is looking through the doorway is generally quite a freaky and unnerving idea. It's for this reason we placed this in the trailer but it is also a way of specifying the exact location that the narrative is taking place. The re-establishment of location isn't often used in trailers because people wont generally need reminding of where they are due to the short length of the broadcast text. However, this is not to say that specifying the location is not done in trailers as the inclusion of this shot literally takes the audience to the front door.

7 - Brief CU - This close-up lasts a split second but is enough to give the audience a quick glimpse of the supernatural enigma that is building up throughout the trailer. It also acts as a close up of part of what we will later find out is the 'evil' character.

8 - Production Company - In 99% of trailers regardless of genre, the production company will be mentioned at the start. One of the most famous production companies within the horror genre is 'Hammer Films' who were the most successful horror production company during the 'golden age' of horror'. After the downturn in horror film popularity they folded as a company but are now coming back with 'Let me In' being a successful new film by them. I believe the success of that film was due to the production company being popular, which demonstrates the impact that they have on a horror film.

9 - ECU of Eye - Regularly used in horror films, the human eye is suitable creepy and unnerving when it is zoomed in on completely like in our shot. It helps the audience to identify with the protagonists fear possibly inducing a fearful feeling on the audience as they empathise with him/her in a similar way to POV shots. However, the close up shows a generally natural eye in most horrors but we opted for one with a very strong green filter to progress the visuals further.

10 - POV / Window shot- The point-of-view shot through the window combines two of the most common horror conventions as showing the location through the eyes of the evil not only creates the mystery of who's eyes we are actually looking for, but it does so through a window. Windows are used regularly because of the unusual reflections and fragility of the material. Looking through the eyes of a voyeuristic character positions the audience in a way that they feel they shouldn't be looking through that characters eyes.

11 - CU of Object - This is a continuity shot reminding the audience of the enigma that was created earlier on in the trailer.

12 - Inter-Titles - Inter-titles are used in trailers with or without the use of a voice-over to help explain the narrative without giving too much away. We decided to leave any Hollywood style voice-over out because it would create a 'cheesy' feel to the trailer that we feel could've ruined the final product. Instead, we used inter-titles alone that together make up sentences. Breaking a sentence up in the inter-titles is a way of capturing the audience in a way that makes them want to see the trailer to the end, effectively reeling the audience in to the film.

13/14 - Match on action - With this match on action the audience is able to identify with a character, though we are not sure yet if he is the evil, or the main protagonist. This builds upon all the other enigmas within the trailer. The use of the match on action shows part of the protagonists body in the first shot, and the rest of it in the second (minus the head) which helps to create this enigma through the regular Close-Up cinematography used in Horror films.

15 - Introduction of protagonist - This shot is where we first introduce the protagonist who quite clearly is displaying fearful and disorientated body language identifying the audience with a 'lost' individual who we are unaware of the intentions of.

16 - Introduction of Evil - Although we still do not know for sure whether the character is evil we can tell by the increase of the green filter that she, and the room she vacates, is supernatural and not quite human. The reason we feel this way is that the colour green connotates supernatural feelings as it is the colour regularly associated with science-fiction stories.

17 - Corridor Shot - Corridors are very regularly used in horror films, especially in abandon buildings/hospitals etc. such as this because they induce feelings of fear as we do not know what the protagonist is heading towards.

18 - Enigma Solving - The CU series of continuity shots ends on this as the necklace is finally revealed to the audience. However, the enigma is not completely solved as we do not know what relevance this necklace has to the narrative plot and is likely to want the audience to watch the actual film - an obvious convention of general teaser trailers. The solving of this mini-enigma opens up the audience to the proper enigma the film is going to be based on.

19 - Canted Angle - Canted angles are used almost constantly within horror films as the use of conventional straight camera angles do not create that feeling of disorientation that horror sets out to achieve. The shot we created here I am particularly proud of as we were able to create a very supernatural look with the door shutting as if on its own, the chair moving 'on its own' and the room seeming to tilt as it all happened. The unnatural visuals we see are a staple of the horror genre because not only do they create an enigma, the audience is left confused and disorientated.

20 - Hand-held Camerawork - Taking after horror films Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch and Cloverfield the use of hand-held cinematography allows the audience to empathise with the character as it shows the fear felt by that person as every body movement is reflected in the camera movement. The ability to empathise with the protagonist increases the fear that the audience is feeling as they feel more involved with the scene, especially in this type of scene where the character is running. The diagetic sound of footsteps mixed with the eerie whispers warning of imminent danger builds tension in the scene as they now know that the person is not welcome in this place.

21 - Low-key lighting of evil - This shot shows the torchlight that's being shone by the main protagonist reveals the evil character but not completely and the audience does not have a chance to work out exactly who the person is, and what she looks like. This also builds upon the enigma of why the girl doesn't want the protagonist to be in the location, and the enigma of who the girl actually is.

22 - Titles - The titles at the end of the trailer let the audience know exactly what they need to go and see if they want to find out what is happening with the narrative being introduced in the trailer. Also, as its the last part of the trailer they are likely to remember the title of the film which could ultimately improve the chances of the audience going to see the film in the cinema.

23 - 'Coming Soon' - Almost always appearing at the end of the trailer is the release date of the film, but as teaser trailers are generally released before the release date is defined, just to give a taste of the trailer to the audience. It's for that reason we didn't state a date but instead used the phrase 'coming soon' so that the audience looks forward to seeing it when it eventually does get released.


The following images are comparisons of real horror trailers using the same conventions that i've used;

USE OF ESTABLISHING SHOT

USE OF STATIC/WHITE NOISE

USE OF LOW-KEY TORCH LIGHT ON 'THE HORROR'

USE OF HAND-HELD CAMERA FOR P.O.V. SHOTS

USE OF EXTREME CLOSE UPS OF EYES

Forms and Conventions in Relation to my Ancillary Texts

Annotations are available on the image (click to access)

The Necklace Teaser Trailer

30 Days Of Night Poster

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Saw 5 Poster

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Friday 13th Poster

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Drag Me To Hell Poster Analysis

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Horror Trailer Idea

The idea my group and i have come up with bases the story around a supernatural necklace and a young female ghost with sentimental connections to it. We will aim to make the genre a crossover between a psychological horror, and a supernatural horror. The necklace is within a room where the girl protects it from harm due to the sentimental feelings she has for it. The main protagonist is a female (final girl) who gets lost during a road trip and stumbles across the room. Her and her 2 friends (1 male/1 female) find the room whilst searching for residents who could possibly point them in the right direction. They inadvertently find the necklace and take it with the ideological view of 'finders keepers'. After leaving the room the trio split up and the girl seeks to take back the necklace, by any means neccessary.

Horror Film Mood Board

This is my horror mood board which i have filled with images from the internet. They include stills of horror movies that are using ideas that i would like to use in my teaser trailer. For example, the image in the bottom left uses very low key lighting and the 'evil' is not quite clear to the audience. I also like the idea of corridors with bad lighting as it looks creepy.

Three Trailers

Saw 3D

Me and Chris decided to watch the trailer for Saw 3D to investigate the use of basic trailer conventions within the horror genre. One of these conventions is that the production values of any film are indicated, and this film is clearly playing on the '3D' experience throughout the trailer. Around half of the entire trailer is footage of a cinema audience with film-related things happening to them, either from the screen or from their seats. This is signifying to the audience that watching this film in 3D will make you feel like you are actually there, part of Jigsaw's wicked game. Another convention is that the voice over and any dialogue will help build an image of th build up to an event, but never gives away the end, instead building the audience up and leaving them in complete suspense eager to see the ending. The voice-over artist in this is the 'villain' character 'Jigsaw' almost asking the audience to play the game with him, challenging them to beat his sinister tasks along with the characters in the film.

Trailer Conventions Used

• Production Values; The Production values are at the forefront of this trailer mainly focusing on the 3D imagery used. There are also other values such as the size of the 'Saw' franchise and its popularity within the public domain. One of the torture victims featured in the trailer regularly is also a production value; Chester Bennington (right) is the lead singer of multi-platinum rock band Linkin Park. His face appears on the trailer quite alot (glued to the car seat) gaining the interest of the millions of Linkin Park fans worldwide.
• Voice Over; The majority of trailers use a voice over, inter-titles or a combination of the two to inform the audience of the basic plot and to help leave them wanting to know what happens in the film. The basic idea is to talk directly to the audience, asking them questions and in this case, 'Join the game'. Rhetorical questions are also used regularly questioning the audience and trying to get them involved in the film. The voice over artist in this trailer is actually the 'villian' of the film Jigsaw challenging the audience to get involved in the game, and try to beat him. Generally speaking this technique will generate interest in the film because its being displayed as a 'challenge' to the audience.

Horror Conventions

• Violence/Gore; The Saw franchise as a whole pride themselves in inventing some of the most gruesome and gory torture devices in their films. Whether it be something as simple as pulling a man chained to an engine through knives or making someone fill up a bottle with a certain amount of blood so they can free themselves. They do not hold back on blood, amputation and violence. This film seems to be no different with a variety of traps shown in the trailer alone they are clearly suggesting that they will not back down the violence for their 3D release, in order to keep fans happy. An example of one of these traps is below.

• 'The horror never dies'; The idea that the villain/horror in a film never dies is common place in the genre, and Jigsaw does appear in this trailer. After countless scenes in previous films of him lying in his death-bed, or even being picked apart by a mortician, he never seems to die. This idea is to keep the possibilites of a new film open for the franchise and is common place in films such as Friday 13th, Halloween and Saw. Effectively, every Slasher horror will never properly show the death of the 'horror'. Creating suspense and a sense of wanting to see what happens next (in the possible sequel?).


• Isolation; Many horror films are set in small, isolated places that the victim(s) can not escape from or find help. As with all the Saw films, the characters are usually trapped in a small room or building with no way out, instead having to perform bloody tasks to escape. Although not always socially isolated as some films focus on groups of victims rather than a single person, they are never in contact with the outside world.

Quarantine Trailer

Also a trailer from the horror genre; Quarantine positions the audience in the eyes of a cameraman, filming the events of an infected zombie uprising, whilst using very different conventions. Any trailer must indicate what genre the film is, and Quarantine does this by showing the audience multiple scenes of violence, deformed/ill looking civilians and scenes of widespread panic. All relevant to the horror genre. The name of the movie must also be included in the trailer; Quarantine flashes up at the end with an odd green glow giving a very supernatural or science fiction effect.

Sixth Sense Trailer

This trailer for Sixth Sense uses very similar conventions to Saw 3D in that the dialogue tells a story without giving the ending away and leaving the audience in suspense.

There are some basic conventions of the Horror genre that these films all seem to fit in some shape or form.
Violence/Gore is one convention which Saw 3D definately fulfills, opting for a no holds-barred gore-fest filled with decapitations, amputation and other exremely violent moments which really aren't for the squeamish. Quarantine is also a violent film, whilst not focusing on methods of torture it is still filled with violence and gore but at times when the audience aren't expecting it making for a very jumpy and scary film. The Sixth Sense however is not a violent film, but gore is present. Some of the spirits wandering around are visibly injured in extreme ways (e.g. young boy with shotgun wound to the head) fulfilling the convention also.

Applying Narrative Theory to 'The Shining'

We discussed four different narrative theories in class. These theories were devised by Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov, Levi Strauss & Bordwell and Thompson. We were then asked to apply each of these theories to Stanley Kubrick's psychological horror 'The Shining' released in 1980 and starring Jack Nicholson.

Propp - Character Functions

Vladmir Propp constructed 31 narrative functions, and 8 different character roles. The 8 character functions were as followed; Hero, Villian, Donor, Helper, The Princess, Her Father, Dispatcher and the False Hero. The Shining does contain characters fitting into these roles with Jack fulfilling the roles of both the villain and the false-hero. The young boy, Danny, and his mother, Wendy, both took on the roles of the Hero with Dick Halloran being the donor.
Although this theory can be used for certain films, characters very rarely fall simply into one role, and sometimes not all 8 roles are present in the narrative structure. For example, The Shining does not contain a princess or her father. This could be because the character functions were proposed from Propp's analysis of russian folk tales rather than modern day narratives.

Todorov - Theory of equilibrium

Todorov's theory revolves around the basic premise that at the start of any story, there is an equilibirum, where opposite forces are equal and balanced; Normality. The narrative will then be disrupted by an agent of change creating an enigma, and completely changing the equilibrium. The main protagonist (usually) then embarks on a quest - a path to resolution - which then results in a new equilibrium being found. This theory is sometimes regarded as the basic 'Hollywood' narrative as most big films can apply their structure to Todorov's theory. The Shining is no exception. Starting off seemingly normal in the hotel, the enigma is then introduced as weird goings on happen around the hotel and the occupants that appear to be there. The path to resolution results in a new equilibrium where Jack is dead, and Wendy and Danny escape the hotel. Relating to the shining and many other films, the theory is slightly flawed. Not all films have complete closure and are left open ended, although many hollywood movies avoid this. The shining does not end in complete closure, and another film we watched - 'Eden Lake' - doesn't either. Complete closure can only be achieved when the enigma is uncovered; a very rare occurance in horror films.

Levi-Strauss - Binary Oppositions

Claude Levi-Strauss developed the idea that in order to understand an idea, you have to know the opposite. For example, to know what is light you have to know what is dark. To know when something is absent, you have to know when something is present. Etc. These ideas of binary oppositions are consistently being utilised in the horror genre, opting for things that people usually consider 'Good', to be 'Evil'. For example, in the film 'It', the evil character is a clown, whicch in western culture is considered to be a loving and happy figure, not a figure of evil. The two young girls in The Shining are an example of Stanley Kubrick playing on the idea of binary oppositions. The girls look sweet and innocent, but when they appear on screen images of blood pouring down elevator shafts etc. flash up suggesting they are a very sinister presence within the hotel. Perhaps the most obvious use of Binary Oppositions though is the battle between Jack and Wendy; a fight between innocence (Wendy) and Evil (Jack).

The problem with this theory is that although binary oppositions can be found in everyday life, throughout some films their is no clear examples of the opposite forces engaging in battle; although Danny's imaginary friend in The Shining could be considered a battle of opposites.

Bordwell & Thompson - Cause & Effect
Bordwell and Thompson proposed the idea that narrative is simply 'a chain of events in cause-effect relationship, occuring in time and space.' This quite elementary theory is not a complete theory of narrative, but instead simply brings up ideas about narratives as a whole. Very similair to the equilbirum theory, the cause and effect theory states that something causes another thing to change, resulting in a new level of normality. The change in situation is present in most films through a cause-effect relationship, including The Shining. The 'time' element of the theory is present in The Shining because the film regularly shows a black screen before the start of everyday. Each day that passes, Jack becomes more and more mentally unstable as time passes by. Time then begins to lose all meaning as the days are always the same, signified by the same shot of the hotel at the start of everyday, but the behaviour changes and Jack loses control of himself. The effect of Jack getting the job at the hotel, turned out to be the cause of him losing his sanity, his family, and ultimately his life. Its this cause and effect relationship that Bordwell and Thompson relate to.

The Return of The Repressed

The return of the repressed is a term based on a psychological theory by Sigmund Freud. His psychoanalytic theory states that there are three different levels of consciousness within the human mind; the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious. These levels of consciousness are controlled by the 'ego' which acts as a referee between the 'superego' and the 'id'.
The superego is the section of the brain which is filled with neurotic, almost angelic thoughts. If this is too prevalent in the conscious mind some abnormalities can develop such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The 'id' on the other hand is the complete opposite; all the evil, unethical thoughts are possessed in this section of the brain. Obviously if the 'id' is too strong there can be very dangerous consequences (murderers, rapists, terrorists). The ego represses these thoughts to a suitable level, balancing out the good and bad thoughts so that a person is not evil, but is not overly neurotic either.

Freud states that some thoughts and cognition's from the unconscious mind can make their way into the subconscious mind, eventually passing into the conscious mind. This is why some people can suddenly do something against their character, violent and possibly purely evil. In relation to media this is clearly a subject that some horror films are based on. One supposedly innocent person having random bursts of outrage which are violent and sometimes disgustingly gory.

The 'monster' within seems to be unleashed posing the question; are we all internally evil?

Questions like this are played upon by directors and script-writers who directly ask the audience that, even if they are not consciously aware of the question proposed to them. 'The Hills Have Eyes' by Wes Craven is a film that compares good and evil throughout the film, displaying an unparallelled similarity between both a middle-classed western family and canniballistic mutants stalking and methodoligically destroying them one-by-one. The difference between the two groups are that the family repress everything, and the mutants repress nothing. The dysfunctionality of the mutants is because of lack of repression; they have no restraints in their mind in which they have to stop doing what they want to do. 'Ruby' (the donor in the film) is also a mutant though she is not overly possessed by her 'id' and therefore willingly helps out the westerners who are clearly in troubly. I believe this is because she has a strong 'ego' and it is that that prevents her from violently attacking everyone who 'trespasses' on the mutant's land. My subjective judgement is that although the mutants are completely human, the psychological effects of the mutations caused by a nuclear bomb led to them all (except Ruby) having an underdeveloped ego. This led to their 'Id' controlling their mind, letting loose all evil thoughts without repression
The family on the other hand have grown up and lived in a clearly stable society in which social norms are printed into their minds; clearly defining what is 'right and wrong' and ultimately helping them develop a strong ego. This ego seems to weaken towards the end of the film especially in the male 'hero' character. This society where he has lost half of his family seems to have no social boundaries, therefore weakening his sense of right and wrong heightening his evolutionary quest for survival. Violence is persistent towards the end of this movie as the boundaries of right and wrong become blurred and the once repressed thoughts are let out in violent and lethal attacks on the mutants, some without the ability to defend themselves.

This is just one example of a film which unravels the theory of repression to show that no matter how civilised we are, when a moment arises we will unleash the monster within when we need to. Although not a horror film villain, Ted Bundy is a prime example of the return of the repressed theory. He was not an over the top villainous person upon first glance, yet he murdered between 26-100+ people due to the fact he simply wanted to kill. This usually repressed tendancy to kill was brought straight into the conscious of Bundy although he seemed to pave a particularly normal life. A similar villain to him would be 'Ghostface' from Scream. Although he was scary due to his brutality and pure violence one of the factors making him more fearful than most horror villains is the fact that that person could be your next door neighbour. He could be your best friend. He could be a relative who appears to have a normal life but yet could put on that mask, and unleash his repressed tendancies to kill. Harold Shipman is also one person that you could pin the 'return of the repressed' label on.

Horror Trailer; 28 Days Later (2002)

Director; Danny Boyle

Screenplay; Alex Garland

Soundtrack/Score; John Murphy

28 days later is a British horror film directed by highly acclaimed film director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionare, Trainspotting, The Beach) highly focusing on building tension through eerie atmospheric depictions of the deserted London streets. They even managed to get the bustling Picaddily Circus closed for the filming which makes it one of horrors most rememberable scenes (in my opinion). The trailer itself combines audio and visual material almost perfectly grabbing the attention of the viewer who is very likely to want to see this film. As far as narrative is concerned there is not a completely clear sense from the trailer, instead what is created is a transition of moods, from complete isolation to widespread panic, strongly through the use of the diagetic sounds of screaming and sentences from the main protagonist drowned in fear and worry.

The mise-en-scene provides a lot to talk about, much thanks to the surreal site of deserted London streets filled with scraps of paper, abandoned cars even overturned buses. The bright red of the London bus is a signifier in itself as red is a colour with lots of connotations linking to blood, fear, pain, hatred and anger amongst other things. The red flashes continue throughout the trailer whilst the rest of the colour used in the trailer is dark and desaturated slightly, utilising low key lighting throughout. Darkness is played with throughout the trailer helping to create the sense of isolation and fear; something which Danny Boyle seems to have perfected in his directing jobs.

The score from this film is outstanding, especially in the opening scene where the main protagonist walks through the deserted London streets alone, confused and scared. This build up of fear is reflected in the song that is used, which is 'In the House, In a Hearbeat' by John Murphy. An almost minimalist song using repetive melodic progressions almost completely covered in reverb. The song starts quietly with a very sparse texture but towards the end erupts into a roar of distorted guitars, drums and orchestral instruments. Personally, i like the diversion from the typical Hollywood film score which uses almost entirely orchestral instruments, taking a different route from that of Hans Zimmer or Johnny Williams. The idea of using a stereotypical 'band' set-up of guitar, bass and drums works brilliant for this UK film, reflecting UK music in general.

I would like to recreate the sense of isolation conveyed by the film in my own horror trailer although i believe that there could be a greated sense of mystery surrounding the narrative as it is almost completely given away by this version of the trailer. Another trailer i've found does not give away much of the plot at all, and is based on the '28 days' storyline of the film but does not give away the significance of that period of time. (Below)

This is the opening song which creates atmosphere and builds tension throughout the walk through deserted London.