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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
This trailer is for the sequel to the 2007 version of Halloween, both made by Rob Zombie. I've seen the original, and Zombie's remake which is the one i prefer. This trailer shows the film's legendary character Michael Myers rampaging through a hospital, slashing his way through everyone that gets in the way of his main goal; his sister. Halloween as a franchise has a good name amongst slasher films consistently making films better, with a few exceptions, than other films in the genre. The narrative in this trailer displays the hatred Michael has for his sister and the pure evil driving him to end her life. The structure however doesn't appear to be linear in this particular trailer as it has a few flashbacks to the 'beginning' of Michael's story, back when he was a kid. The shots are all shot using very low key lighting creating a very dark and sinister atmosphere especially surrounding Myers. Perhaps as expected, the trailer even shows a few gruesome shots, obviously keeping it PG rated but preparing the audience for what is almost guaranteed to be a no-holds-barred blood fest.
At the end of Rob Zombie's remake the main character Lauren is seen on top of Myers stabbing and shooting recklessly; as seen in the trailer with a monochrome effect to signify the fact it was a flashback. This film appears to carry on literally hours after that incident with Lauren walking down the road, injured from her bloody battle, murmuring the words 'i killed him' to the policeman. This direct link the other remake is a tactic which i think could possibly draw in the audience of the first film to see exactly what does happen to Myers. Sound wise the trailer is very ambient, sticking to non-diagetic sound drenched in reverb and consistently using simple motifs containing harsh dissonance putting the audience on edge. Diagetically the sound is very broad, ranging from creepy whispers during tense moments to loud screams and shouts when Myers is on a rampage. Unsurprisingly the non-diagetic and diagetic sound work together during the sequence with loud industrial sounding bangs in action filled clips but devilish whispers where important dialogue is present. Conventions of the horror genre are played upon heavily throughout the sequence from the crashed of thunder as lightning strikes illuminating a gory scene, to the apparently abandoned hospital from which there is no direct escape route. The main reason i like this trailer is because they appear to be doing everything well; from the disruptive narrative to the cinematography, it all appeals to me. This could be, however, because i fit into the target demographic of 15-24 year old males which they are obviously marketing the film towards.
Interestingly the two directors, John Carpenter (original) & Rob Zombie (remake) do not approach the character of Michael Myers and the Halloween franchise from the same angle. John Carpenter's approach was to keep the town where the dreadful events are taking place very atmospheric and gloomy, sustaining the suspense throughout the film to the 'final battle'. Carpenter also keeps the character of Michael Myers very secretive. No motives are given, no back story is uncovered and no emotions or words are emitted from the character. Keeping a level of mystery behind the film, and giving Myers a supernaturalmonstrous persona that is never broken one bit. However, Rob Zombie takes a much more direct 'Hollywood' approach to the film going for constant action with tiny sections of suspense built around Myers and his attacks. Myers's motives in the original remake were almost completely uncovered by telling the story of his troubled childhood. His Mum was a stripper and his Dad was a wife-beating stay-at-home alcoholic, both of whom argued aggressively consistently and gave no kind of attention the Michael, who was a baby at the time. The dialogue shows the lack of love for Myers with words such as 'it' and 'thing' used to describe Michael who Zombie is positioning the audience to empathise with. This is where the two films differ; Carpenter positions the audience into thinking he is a plain psychopathic killer. Zombie prefers the disturbed killer with a destructive personality forced on him due to his dreadful childhood. The interesting thing about this trailer is the exact motive for Myers is said to be 'revealed' by the narrator who has the most dramatic and deep voice in the history of the human race. This in particular will definitely gather interest in this particular movie in the franchise which, as of yet, never told the audience why Myers was killing anyone. Perhaps more interestingly, the secret to why he is trying to kill his sister will be revealed.
