Planning

Possible cast -

• Tonicha-Rose Bryars 

• Maya Tether

• Amy Cowling

• Georgia Cowling

• Kara Williams

• Beth Burns

Possible Locations - 

• Garthorpe Chapel

• Swinefleet Yard

Possible Props -

• Jumpsuits
• Black boots
• Shovels
• Fake blood
• Car

Possible Costumes -

• Jumpsuits
• Boots
• Messy hair
• No/Scruffy makeup
• no jewellery
• old clothes to go under jumpsuits

Climax Shot Makeup - 

• red/brown lipstick
• eyeshadows (bruise colours
• cotton wool
• fake nails
• fake blood

Equiptment - 

• light boxes
• tripod
• extension lead (if needed)
• makeup equiptment

Storyboard - Quick cut detail

StoryBoard

 

 

 

Time Plan

 

26/09/13 - Location/Cast/Props.

 

03/10/13 - First few scenes completed.

 

17/10/13 - Most of practical work will be finished.

 

21/10/13 - Music decided.

 

04/11/13 - Practical work finished.

 

14/11/13 - Shots will be edited and will be placed with music

 

18/11/13 - Both the poster and the magazine will be completed.

Codes and Conventions - Film Magazine

Screen Shots / Pictures – In all cases a review page will feature a still screen shot or image taken from the film – either directly from an in-film shot, or from the front cover. Alternatively, many review pages will have some sort of cropped image defining the genre of the film, such as a lone woman victim. The purpose of using an image is varied; to identify a famous actor as a protagonist, to give an overviewing tone of the film or even just provide a teaser, essentially the purpose is to entice the audience into finding the film interesting.

Titles – Many review pages identify the title of the film as a main selling point, or as a point of generating interest. A well-followed franchise of films will make the title of the film the focus point as the reviewer wants to draw attention to the title to attract an already curious audience. Typically the title is not in bright colours or diverse fonts, the reviewer wants the page to be simple and easier to read from not just a long distance – also there is a sense of professionalism, there is no need for flashy colours to entice the audience.

Rating – The most important detail of the review page, apart from the in-depth analysis, is the rating system. In most reviews the rating system will be ranked as number out of 10, or 5, as this is the simplest convention and is easy for the audience to understand. Several others complicate the rating system to provide a greater detail for the review, such as percentages out of 100. The importance of the rating is underlined in the trust and respect the audience has for the reviewer, while a high review will attract an audience just as easily as an extremely low one.

Captions – Although not the most common convention, several magazines utilise a caption to describe the context of an image within the film, or sometimes including a pun playing upon the picture. The purpose of this can merely be interaction with the audience, but sometimes it can provide depth and context which will encourage the audience to read the review.

Short Plot Details – Within all reviews, the plot of the film is summarised without any ‘spoilers’ to give a brief overview of the film, so as to entice the audience into watching it or to provide a backlog for the audience to relate to the review later. Most of the time the plot is written as briefly as possible, giving the opening developments of the film or what has already been revealed on trailers and interviews.

Directors & Actors – In many high-budget films, a major selling point is the inclusion of famous ‘Hollywood Actors’ and Directors, who have in the past featured in popular films. Review pages will often pick up on this, depicting an image of the actors as a screen shot or including them in a headline next to the title of the film. Sometimes an image of both the actor and director will be included in the shot, which increases the interest of the audience massively.

Quotes – Sometimes review pages will feature quotes, either from the film itself or from interviews from the reviewer or generally to public outlets. Quotes can work in both ways; a quote from the film will engage the audience in an active interaction with the film before even watching it, giving them an incentive to watch it themselves. As well as this, a quote from an interview gives the audience depth and context to the reality of the actors or director, which the audience can relate to – often this leads to the audience taking a more active interest in the film and watching it.

Review – The main body of the review page is often the review itself, which consists of several ‘strands’ which create it. The in-depth analysis is just one, albeit large aspect of the review, which the majority of the time takes up a large portion of the page or a whole page in a double page spread. Often the analysis will piece together the positive and negative aspects of the film while attempting to add human feeling to it with emotions. The other aspects of the review include the rating, the main image, the captions, the colours of the page (tone – black and white often connotes a dull sense, while colours spark up an interest).

Title/ Logo of magazine – Lastly, the title of the magazine review is often depicted in high-profile magazines or exclusives. Essentially the title is the banner to attract the audience, as the reader relates the title to that of a film reviewer  – it’s a very simple technique but often examples such as ‘TotalFilm’, ‘Empire’ or ‘NewFilm’ are renowned for their reviews and many will simply choose these names before any others. The logo’s colours are mostly different and unique from others, so the audience can differentiate between them, while a few logos are bright coloured or professional to attract their target audience.

Codes and Conventions - Film Poster

Dark and dull Colour Scheme – Many film posters use a darkened colour scheme to reflect the themes of the film, for example shadows and darkness are linked with fear and terror. While a lack of colour could represent a lifeless feel to the poster, signifying death or decay, again both typical horror themes.

Red / Black Colour Scheme – While several posters use a dark colour scheme to connote fear, others use typical colours to signify the sub-genre of their horror film. An example could be an excessive use of red to signify blood and a ‘slasher’ horror.

Distorted text – Usually on film posters the title text or text in general has themes of horror, such as an eroded text to show decay. Another example could be distortion to represent the aspect of confusion or paranormal themes.

Main Image – A common aspect of film posters is the focus of the main image, this can be used for two main reasons. One of which is the eye-catching nature of the image, a large image which fills most of the poster will attract the attention of the reader – especially if the image is abnormal or unnatural.

Main Image 2 – Another feature of the main image is to reflect the focus and themes of the film, obviously the image connotes the themes of horror but often it signifies the sub-genre of the film to attract a specific audience. Typical aspects of films like a classic zombie apocalypse will include a rising hand from the earth, the rise of the dead.

An Eye-catching Title – Most posters position their titles at the bottom of the page, usually just with a few words on a single line for simplicity and easy reading. This is not always the case, but most do this to catch the readers’ attention and create a memorable title.

Taglines – While the image and the title usually attract the audiences’ attention, the taglines are used to sell it and provide context which hopefully will interest the reader into watching the film. Mostly a short simple sentence or question is used in a creepy style to entice the reader into watching.

Release Date – This piece of information is usually placed at the bottom of the page if the release date isn’t something particularly seasonal, like Halloween or Summer – which are common themes of horror films. If the release date is based at an interesting time, it will be a main focal point of the poster, with a line such as “Coming this Halloween” etc.

Institutional Information –Typically high-budget films will include a section of information providing the reader with news of those who have worked on the film, or previous works. Aspects such as the director, actors or producers could be another main selling point of a film, if their previous films are particularly impressive or have a dedicated fan base. However, mostly Horror films do not use

Poster Credits

Poster credits are the legal lines that appear in movie posters, giving credit to the cast and crew that made the film, as well as the producers, distributor and financier behind it. Poster credits are widely known also as 'billing blocks' or 'credit blocks'.

How many lines do they have?

- Poster credits have an average of four lines, usually laying at the bottom of the poster, underneath the title. For layout purposes, you can see poster credits with 6-8 lines justified left or right. Sometimes they also circulate around the edge of the poster. Poster credits play an integral part of the design.

What logos should there be?

- By convention, the logo of the distributor appears in the bottom right, the logos of the production companies begin in the bottom left.

Camera angles in a Horror Trailer

Slanted angle: This is where the camera tilts around the subject. It is often used in horror films to create tension and disorientation, it is mostly used in dramatic scenes to draw the user in and creates distortion to the scene.

Establishing shot: This is when the setting fills up the frame, it is mostly used in the beginning of a scene to emphasize the setting, for example if there is a haunted house in the film, an establishing shot would show the house at the beginning to build tension and draw the audience into the set.

 Dark Shadows

Close up/ Extreme Close up: This is when the camera closes up on the subject, it is used in horror films to make the audience feel uncomfortable as to get close to someones face is unnerving.

 

Point of view: This is when the camera is from someones point of view, the camera can see exactly what they see. this is mostly used in horror films to place the audience in the characters shoes, giving the shot a more realistic feel.

Textual Analysis

Film Trailer: Insidious - Mise-en-scene

The trailer consists of a typical location, a middle class house in a nice, respectable neighborhood occupied bu a family which is also inhabited by a demon. The use of beds, windows, chairs and hospital equipment are used throughout the trailer, all of which are used to create fear when the demon is present, such as doors slamming to create a 'jump' effect

The bed appears to be the key prop throughout the trailer as it aids the overall plot of the film, in order for the demon to get into the 'mortal realm' it must go through the child when they are sleeping. This creates a sense of uncertainty as beds are seen to be a place of rest, peace, safety and comfort but, when placed within the film, produces the opposite effect. Childhood props are also used such as toys and monitors. Seeing as children are perceived to be innocent and pure, it creates fear within the audience to see these props in horrific scenes.

Textual Analysis

Trailer: The Woman in Black - Camera Shots

The trailer uses a wide shot, this camera shot emphasises the fact that the location is isolated and remote. It then switches to a shallow focus shot of a cross placed in the sand, using this type of shot tells the audience where they should focus their attention and adds to the enigma of the film.

The trailer also uses an establishing shot, depicting a clear location for the narrative and and sticking to the conventions of film trailers in general. The shot also clearly depicts the genre of the film with the shot being of a derelict in dire conditions.

There is then a close up shot of the family that previously resided within the mansion, but in the contrast to a previous close up shot of the family photo, this one has the eyes cut out, clearly depicting the type of reaction wanted from the audience and adding to the rising drama of the trailer as a whole.

The trailer then reaches its climax with the shots becoming frantic through the use of quick cuts, giving the audience a tantalising taste of the climatic scenes or the 'attempt to restore equilibrium'.

The ending shot reinforces the production name and ensures that it sticks within the audiences memory.

Codes and Conventions of a Horror Trailer

Target Audience = more often then not it is the younger generations (15 - 21) as they tend to lack a sense of mortality.

Disruption - generally comes in the form of an object in supernatural/paranormal films. This object can be small, or it can be a whole house, but it is usually cursed or possessed by an evil entity. For example, in 'The Possession' the disruption is the purchasing of a 'Dibbuk Box' whereas in 'A Haunting in Connecticut' the disruption is a cursed house.

Quick Cut Montage - this editing technique is to increase the heart rate, fear and tension of a trailer to attract the audience. This technique is usually combined with emphasised diagetic sound or a quickening pace to increase the audiences heart rate.

Cut to Black - this is used generally with a stab of sound to shock the audience.

Title and Release date - crucial information, this is generally featured at the end of the trailer after the title, tagline and institutional information with a stab of sound intended to scare the audience and leave them with a memorable image of the movie and the name of the film.

Stabs of Sound - usually with silence beforehand, a stab of sound is used to scare the audience and make a scene scarier.

Contrapuntal Sound - this technique is when a usually innocent sound such as a lullaby, is placed over a scary scene to create horror out of innocence and destroy the safety that is usually connotated with it.

Emphasis of Diagetic sound - heavy breathing, heart beat or other quiet sounds are commonly used for tis effect and it is used to emphasise the silence of a scene. For example, if a character is hiding in a closet and the antagonist is approaching, the breathing or heartbeat of the protagonist would seem louder and the footsteps of the antagonist would aswell. This is to enhance fear.

Lighting - lights may be darker or used to highlight something are used to disorientate the audience.

Angle Shots - high angle shot are to make something appear imposing or menacing. Low angle shots are used to make something appear vunerable.

Audience

• An audience is a group of people who consume a media text.
• A target audience is a group of people that producers place into groups such as; age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, cultural background, social class and special interests and aim their work at them.

Audiences need to be able to relate to the text in some way, therefore texts need to be able to touch human emotion. Audiences tend to relate to events in their own lives.

The Format of Trailers

Trailers tend to follow the same pattern as a film. They have a beginning, or introduction sequence, followed by a problem and then an attempt at the solution (This ties in with Todorov's narrative theory). This shows the audience the narrative and main plot of the film, however, it has been argued that this format reveals the whole story in the trailers. Some people suggest that all the best bits are put into the trailer to make the film appealing, but the rest of the feature leaves a lot to be desired.

Most trailers have three 'acts'. It is common for them to have three separate songs, which are quite often not included in the films as trailers are made before post production has finished where, usually, the soundtracks is one of the last things to be added. This was not the case for 'E.T.' or films with quite distinctive soundtracks.

Some trailers also include sequences that are not actually in the film. This is most famously seen in the six minute trailer for Hitchcock's 'Psycho' in which the whole trailer is shot post production and even included a different actress for the main role. However, some things are in the trailers that have been cut from the original film. An example of this is in the 'Spiderman' trailer in which there is a scene of criminals near the World Trade Center, where the film was released soon after the terrorist attacks when the area was still very sensitive.

 

 

*When researching multiple horror films I have noticed that they tend to deviate from the conventional narrative as a new equilibrium is not put in place, instead there seems to be no real end to the character's fear and suffering or the indication of a possible sequel is shown, such as in 'Isidious' where the family believe they have successfully rid the demon from the child, it becomes apparent that it has possessed the father which ques the end of the film and a possible sequel.


 

The beginning of Film Trailers

The first promotional trailer was not for a feature film. It was actually a promotional reel for a musical, produced by Nils Granlund, which showed excerpts of the production and raised awareness of it. Granlund also created trailer for a film in 1914, which was produced for a Charlie Chaplin film. Up until the late 1950's film trailers were made by National Screen Service which was contracted by the film companies to create the trailers for upcoming films, the company lasted until the 80's.

The early trailers consisted of short clips showing the key features of the film alongside narration, a big score soundtrack and screens with text and a cast run. An example would be the trailer from Casablanca.

Codes and Conventions

Production Companies Logo

Dark Warner Bros Logo

• The production logo symbolises to the audience the budget of the film they are about to watch and clearly depicts who created it.
• Film logos may give an indication to the genre of the film, as they are sometimes changed to look like the chosen genre.
• If the production company is well known and liked, or have produced other successful films, people may want to watch other films produced by the same company, so including the logo on the trailer may encourage more people to watch the film.
• The warner bros logo is usually quite bold looking with bright, pigmented colours but they have changed the colour scheme and overall brightness of the logo to successfully relate to the genre of film to allow audiences to quickly identify and associate.

Warner Bros Logo





Certification from the British Board of Film Classification

Classification Badge for ages 12 and over

• The British Board of Film Classification determine the minimum age allowed to watch the certain films, determined by their content. This tells the viewers of the trailer and the target audience so they know if the film is suitable for them.

Introducing the cast and crew

• In film trailers the names of actors involved are usually included to entice potential audience members.
• It may also include the director, this is another way to entice the audience.

Different Paces

• It is common for a lot of film trailers to be fast paced in order to show as many clips of the film as possible in order to give an idea of the narrative. However, sometimes the trailer starts slow and gains a faster pace in order to build tension throughout and bring the trailer to a climax.

Length of Shots

• The length of shots varies considerably, from less than a second, to a few seconds, to a larger period of time. Although a few seconds doesn't seem long, in a film trailer, each second counts. If there is a shot that is intended to build up tension, for example in a thriller, you could have a shot of someone heavily breathing, this could last longer to build up the suspense. However, you could then have a shot of less than a second showing a scary figure. The effect of the shot length being short in a thriller is that, usually, these have the potential to make you jump, especially if it is before a long shot, when the audience aren't expecting it yet. Short shots usually shows mini clips of things that may be important to the plot, whereas longer shots may be there to give more information about the story line.

Research

Trailer Technique

• Long shots to establish character, setting and 'The Dilemma'
• Fades to black to suggest a shift in time
• Transitions accompanied by booming SFX to build tension and signifigance
• Short, quick cuts for the climactic parts of the film
• Quiet music to establish story, menacing music to highlight villains and/or build a crecendo
• Sudden moments of silence to leave impact, mood and pace

Statements for Trailer Dialogue

• This season....
• From the people who brought you....
• Based on the unbelievable true story....
• Based on the best selling book....
• Celebrity names (actors/diresctors)
• Title
• Official websites
• Official Dates

Research

Narrative = story/plot - the narrative is the way in which a story is toldas the manner in which it is told can change perceptives. the meaning is constructed.

Key Concepts

• Verisimilitude - the technique of making something look real.
• Hyper reality - where fiction and reality mix together.
• Inter textual - the inclusion of different texts within other forms of media.
• Pastishe - an imitation of an art form, placing it within your own form.
• Parody - imitation of an art form  for comedic effect.

Vladamir Propp - characters

•   The hero
•   The villain
•   The donor
•   The dispatcher
•   The false hero
•   The helper
•   The princess
•   The Father

Todorov - narrative order

1. A state of equilibrium
2. A disruption of the ordered state by a certain event
3. A recognition that the disruption has taken place
4. An attempt to repair the damage
5. A return to a new state of equilibrium

Labov's basic elements of storytelling

1. Abstract - How does it begin? (introduction)
2. Orientation - Who/what does it involve? When/where? (characters)
3. Complicating Action - then what happened (events of narrative)
4. Resolution - What finally happened? (end of narrative)
5. Evaluation - So what? (point/reason)
6. Coda - What does it all mean? (the relevance)