Film Magazine Analysis

Similarly to the analysis of the existing Horror Film Trailers and Posters I looked at existing Magazine covers that focus on horror films. Here are some examples of covers I looked at with a few annotations explaining what I found:

I have learnt about the connotations of existing magazine covers and this will aid me in the creation of my own magazine cover.

Film Poster Analysis

To try and gain an idea of what existing Film Posters contain I looked at existing ones. Here are some examples of the posters I looked one with some annotations

After studying these posters, I hope this has helped me with ideas of what a horror film poster looks like and ultimately improve my final design

Film Trailer Analysis

As part of the planning for the creation of my group's Film Trailer, I have looked at some existing trailers for the genre we have chosen.

I looked at the trailers for the films 'Don't be Afraid of the Dark' and 'The Blair Witch Project. I have made notes on the Media Language/Mise en Scene, the Narrative, Genre, Audience, Representation, Ideologies and Insitution through both of the trailers. I have learnt a lot about Horror Film trailers after studying these and I hope that this experience can aid my group's creation of our own Horror Film Trailer.

Here are my notes for 'Don't be Afraid of the Dark'

Media Language/Mise en scene

·         Opening shot of House
·         Leave blowing along the ground
·         Wind blowing
·         Fades to show an old fireplace
·         In the dark
·         Fades into close up of grill on wall
·         ‘THEY HIDE IN THE DARK’ comes up on screen.
·         Mirrored cupboard fades on screen which opens slowly
·         A close up of plug/switch before fading into black
·         ‘THEY WATCH FROM THE SHADOWS’ appears on screen, creating suspense and tension due to the slow start to the trailer
·         Fades between scenes of an old dungeon and a close up of an old rusty grill,  creating suspense wondering what is behind the grills. The rustic and historic look of house and inside it gives the idea that the film will contain historic references
·         ‘AND THEY HAVE BEEN WAITING’ is the next to come up on screen. Creates even more suspension to wonder who ‘THEY’ are.
·         Close up to hand opening front gate
·         Quick cuts between the family members, change of pace in the trailer
·         Little girl looking up at house scared, the family are moving into the old house
·         ‘FOR YOU’ appears on screen, suggesting ‘they’ have been waiting for a family to move in.
·         Little girl, shown in the dark with a torch, showing she is scared.
·         Scenes are dark, the unknown, adding more suspense
·         An Old door opening slowly, into a dark room
·         Eye looking through the key hole, possible metaphor for unlocking something?
·         Something comes through the keyhole to the man on other side before a close up of arms clawing at old fireplace grill earlier in the trailer
·         Quick cuts between scenes, final one is father screaming daughter’s name as a door shuts on him, scene fades to dark.
·         Trailer begins to slow again as little girl takes a bath in the dark
·         Girl’s scream is heard before cutting to scene with ‘DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK’, the title of the film is across the screen.

Audience

·         Scary, horror/thriller, for thrillseekers who enjoy getting scared.
·         Fulfils audience adrenaline needs
·         Trailer leads you to believe you will be entertained and kept in suspense.

Ideologies/Media Values

·         Father protects daughter
·         Little girl chosen to be target of ‘THEM’, the creatures in the film.

Narrative

·         Creepy, quiet voice over, not telling a direct story but more addressing the characters in the trailer and not the audience itself
·         No real structure to the narrative, just short quotes and not from main characters, but from the unknown beasts.

Institution

·         ‘Film District’ and ‘Miramax’, institutions who are well known for creating successful films
·         Fade in to trailer so as not to take away from it, but still gets point across.
·         Actors are not recognisable to add realism to it and make it more believable.

Genre

·         Horror, creepy dark house and rooms. Darkness and the unknown are very typical in horror films
·         Historical, the old building could be a big part in the storyline.
·         Thriller, the quick cuts between scenes suggests a fast moving film.

Representation

·         Young children are easily scared
·         Girls are easily scared and likely to be picked on
·         Male, the father, is shown as the protector, as he tries to save his daughter

Here are my notes for 'The Blair Witch Project':

Media Language/Mise en scene

• Dark screen, informative text appears on screen, “In October 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary” before a few seconds later “A year later their footage was found” appears underneath
• Black and white flashing cuts of woods with creepy witch signs with quotes from Film reviews
•  Flashing screen between black and white, making the audience jump
•    Close up of girl crying, no indication of why
• Handheld camera running through forest as man screams for help, suggesting
• Slight pause then the name of film flashes up on screen along with unknown symbol underneath
• The dark creates tension and suspense as it is very mysterious and unnerving.
•  Hand held footage on screen, not very clear what is happening and the footage is accompanied by similar screaming
• Cuts and fades to ‘This Summer’ followed by website of the film

Audience

• The main characters are teenagers so will appeal to people of similar ages
•  Described as ‘The Creepiest film since the Exorcist’ so people who like that film or similar films will be attracted to it.
• Quick flashes so could attract fans of action films.
• Ideologies/Media Values
• Students are interested in the woods and myths
• They are likely to fall into traps and may suffer horrific consequences
• That people who go into the woods alone will not return

Narrative

• No Voice Over
• Just the muffled screams and sobbing of the characters, unstructured and doesn’t give away the story line
• Entices people to find out what happens in the film by not giving much away.

Institution

• Artisan Entertainment, a rather unknown company fades before the trailer starts
• Quotes from established institutions’ reviews such as ‘Entertainment Weekly’ improve the reputation of the film

Genre

• Horror; the dark scenes in the woods, the handheld camera and the sobbing and screaming are conventions of the horror genre
• Thriller/Action; the handheld camera running away suggests possible action
• Mystery; darkness, screaming and hard to make out scenes

Planning: Timeline

As a group we created a timeline to help us plan the production of our Film trailer:

This timeline will now allow us to keep track of how are doing throughout the course and improve our organisation skills, and we will ultimately end up with a more organised and successful product at the end of it.

Genre: Horror. Why do people enjoy it?

One of the most popular genres of films is horror, which intends to scare its audience. Different people have different reasons for watching horror films, while some people find them disturbing and gross, others see them as a sort of thrill seeking, like riding a rollercoaster or extreme sports such as Bungee jumping, giving the participants a massive adrenaline rush.

Sigmund Freud spoke of how as humans, we have various aspects to our mental states; our survival instincts, commonly referred to as fight or flight, our pleasure principal, in which we seek to make our lives as pleasurable and comfortable as possible and lastly, an instinct that exists in all organic matter to revert back to an inanimate state, which for us can only be achieved by dying. It could be said that horror films allow us to achieve a sense of moving towards returning to an inanimate state safely, without having to literally risk their life. Maybe it could be said that by watching horror films, we can get as close as possible to experiencing death without actually having to physically experience it.

Some people just enjoy seeing people die, which is a regular occurrence in the genre, and films like the ‘Saw’ series play on this, with the films containing gruesome and painful deaths though not all horror films are like this and not all horror fans enjoy this. Jeffrey Goldstein, a professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands says "People go to horror films because they want to be frightened or they wouldn't do it twice," and he further went on to say "You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. That's certainly true of people who go to entertainment products like horror films that have big effects. They want those effects," He and other social scientists claim we watch horror films for other reasons too, such as enjoying the adrenaline and excitement, to be distracted from a mundane lifestyle, vicariously thumbing our noses at social norms, or enjoying a voyeuristic glimpse of the horrific from a safe distance.


As a group we plan to use the reasons why people enjoy horror films to create a professional and successful film concept

Film Plot

The film of our film consists of a teenage boy who is bullied at school for having no friends and being a computer game nerd. He starts playing the violent game named 'Death Town' which has been banned and taken off shelves across the country. When he plays the game, he enters a trance and begins to re enact the game's violent nature by murdering his enemies.

The character himself is unaware of what he is doing, and during the course of the film the audience learn that he is the one killing people, creating a state of Dramatic Irony, similar to how it was used by Shakespeare in his plays such as in 'Romeo and Juliet', where the cast think Juliet is dead but the audience know she has only taken a sleeping potion.

Towards the end of the film, the rest of the cast discover who is the murderer and eventually catch him and he is admitted to a mental institution and into confinement. The film ends with him escaping and leaving the door open to potential sequel(s)

Todorov's Theory can be applied to our film by the calm of the start of the film of a teenage who enjoys playing video games. As the film goes on, the agent of disruption (the teenager) causing unsettlement and disquiet by murdering his enemies and the mystery surrounding who the murderer is. There is a renewed state of belief when the teenage is stopped and the chaos has ended, though at the very end there is further disruption as he escapes, breaking away from Todorov's narrative theory.

Introduction

This year I will be working in a group to create a film concept that will appeal to niche audience and gain a large fan base. We will create the film's trailer, a poster and a magazine cover to promote, market and advertise our film.

The genre of film we will be creating is Horror, but with undertones of an action film, creating a hybrid in order to attract fans of both genre films. The plot of the film focuses on a teenage boy who is manipulated by a violent video game and goes on to violently murder his enemies in a similar way to in the video game. Our target audience is people in their late teens and early twenties, along with fans of video games as it focuses on a video games and it's effects.

Instead of having a worldwide institution making our film such as Universal or Paramount, we will create our very own institution, called RRT Productions.  Our film's unique selling point is the realism behind it and that in the media, it has been argued that video games can have an effect on people, and this film will show what would happen if they did, another aspect of the film that is unique is that it focuses on the murderer of the film instead of the people being murdered