My 2nd horror trailer analysis.



Psych 9 is a new horror which is aimed at an older audience of 16 to 24 similar to what my trailer targets. The trailer conveys on the stereotypical aspects which you expect to see in a horror trailer, hand-held camera following the victim around to create a realistic impression.

The flicking of the light bulb which is shot through a medium shout creates a sense of tension whilst watching whilst creating an enigma to the audience as we are unaware of what is developing through the scene and the only thing we experience is the use of the digetic sound of screaming which a typical convention of horror trailers.

I paid particular attention to the voice over which is non digetic sound this add to the effect of the whole trailer as the what is presumed a middle aged news reporter style man who is telling us of nightmares and dreams creating a sense panic as what we are watching in the back of our mind are linking it to the voice over. And towards the end says "deep in our mind lies secrets" and "time to confront demons" which are two very direct lines used to scare the as demons suggests death and darkness and secrets suggests mystery and suspense which seem to play a similar part in all the film trailers i have analysed. I have analysed three trailers before this and the voice over on "Psych 9" very similar to the other voice overs i analysed this shows that the stereotypical middle aged man is something which the directors and audience members identify as scary, the realism in added when they narrator speaks as the audience immediately identify it to the news which is of course a real programme talking about real events.

The use of font colour is also something which is a typical convention of horror trailers. The colours red and amber which are used in this trailer for example when the font come up through a dissolve edit "Some nightmares are just dreams" the words nightmares and dreams are highlighted in dark amber showing links to death and horror which the colour dark amber represents.

The whole of the trailer is filmed through very low lighting which is a common convention of horror trailer this is done to create the mystery of the seen and darkness is now associated with horror so this is an essential part of modern contemporary horror films. The high angle shots which are seen to be like a CCTV camera add the realism as this makes the audience feel like the action is being shot live and not just set up and staged which adds to the horror.

The straight cut between the darkness of the outside world which can identified as dangerous with no lighting to the hospital which can be identified as the opposite to the outside world wheres theres safety which is seen through full lighting. This straight cut from the dark to the light represents the two sides to the story good and evil.

The non digetic sound of the quiet creepy background when the male is sneaking about adds affect that he isn't supposed to be there creating tension within the audeince the the quick cut to the high angle shot of what is believed to be a dead person the music also heightens trying to frighten the audience and make them experience the fear in which the character is going through.

Towards the end of the trailer we experience the pace pick up as the digetic sound of thunder appears,then suddenly the pace of the music speeds up with the camera creating a sense illusion as the audience are unaware of what is happening or what is creating the sudden change in pace and then the horror part takes place with sudden montage editing of fire blazing in a kitchen shot through a medium shot to the quick pace of a women running down the street dressed in all black apart from a distinctive whit scarf which i believe is to suggest heaven in the white battling darnkess in the black, two very contrasting colours.

Genre

There also other different genres such as;

War genre "Hurt locker"
Western genre "The maginificent seven"
Musical genre "High school musical 3"
Adventure genre "My sisters keeper"
Crime genre "Deja Vu"
Comedy genre "The invention of lying"
Adventure genre "Indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull"
Sci fi "Back to the future"
Rommance genre "The time travelers wife"

Title research

The title for our film trailer will be called "The Missing".I came up with this name because i also researched other similar horror genre trailers with names such as "The 4th kind", "The Cottage" and "The Echo" all these names get straight to the point and are very direct, so the audience know exactly what the film is, with a title like "The Missing" audience members will straight away associate the film with people being lost and therefore will be the back of there mind whilst watching the trailer something i want them to do. With the title being called "The Missing" the audience already know something or someone in the film will go missing but the enigma of not knowing how will hopefully intice the audience to view it.

Audience Research

I wanted to do some audience research to be able to make sure i make the correct decisions behind the film trailer. I asked 15 people 4 questions which where;
1- What age range should i target my trailer at
2- Are they any particular gender group i should focus on
3- What demographic group should i target
4- Should the audience know the killer or keep the suspense

What age range should i target my trailer at?

Out of the 15 people i asked 11/15 said it should be targeted at 15 to 24 this is due to the mild violence scenes i will be displaying in my trailer as it would be to inapproaite to show to a younger audience and the older audiences may not be as interested in the horror genre.

Are they any particular gender group i should focus on?

19/20 people who i asked said i should target a mixed gender audience and the other person believed i should only target a male audience, i agree with the majority and believe i should not single out any gender due to stereotypical reasons and by targeting both gender audiences i will be able to reach a wider audience. I will have to make sure i keep away from offensive gender stereotypes.

What demographic group should i target?

An astonishing 15/15 said it should be aimed at all groups to try not alienate a particular, so i aim to advertise to every demographic group no matter on music or dress sense.

Should the audience know the killer or keep the suspense?

They were mixed reaction to this question but the majority of 8 said that the audience shouldn't know the killer to create suspense and the enigma of not knowing who or what is taking the cast away.

Codes and conventions of horror films

Horror films genreally consist of similar conventions and focus mainly on visual affects rather than the main narrative of the films. The conovoations are as follows;

- Gore
- Blood
- Mystery
- Torture
- Darkness
- Monsters
- Protagonist
- Antagonist
- Curses

Genre

Theoretical evaluation of production; Genre is a categorised type of media text, my task was to find out other trailers which are being represented in different ways and genres.

Different types of genre;
- Horror
- Romance
- Sci-Fi
- Adventure
- Comedy
- Crime and investigation
- Drama
- Musicals
- Western
- War

Genre

Genre development and transformation

Christain Metz in his book "Langauge and Cinema" (1974) argued that genres go through a typical cycle of changes during their lifetime.
- Experimental stage
- Classic stage
- Parody stage
- Deconstruction stage.

This is an example of an Intellectual puzzle from "Inception"

This is an example of a Visceral pleasure from "Donnie Darko"

This is the example of the emotional pleasure "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Genre

What is genre?

Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practises as well.

Genre allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fufill a particular pleasure e.g. want to watch a horror film to experience fear.

As my genre of film trailer is horror, i am tragetting people who are intrested in the bizzare and scary this means my trailer has to draw the attention of my target market therorfre i need to recreate sterotypical horror conventions to create verisimiltude.

Pleasure of genre for audiences

They are three diffeerent types of genre pleasures such as;

Emotional pleasures: The emotional pleasures offerd to audiences of genre films are partically significant when they generate a strong audeince response. For example the film "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud" is a typical emotional pleasure as it is a story about a man played by Zac Efron losing his brother creating a emotion of sadness to the audience, this means that the audience will go watch this film to experience that certain emotion.

Visceral pleasures: Visceral pleasures(visceral is a refrence to internal audience)are "gut" responses and are defined by how the films stylistic constructions ellcits a physical effect upon the audience. For example the film "Donnie Darko" starring Jake Gyllenhaal is an example of visceral pleasure as it creates a surreal impression on the audience and makes them question the conventions of the film.

Intellectual puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thriller or the "who done it" offer the pleasure in trying to unravel the mystery or a puzzle. Foe example " Inception" starring Leonardo DiCaprio is an emerican sci fi about the human mind and perception, audience members will go see this fil to experience the puzzle solving of the characters mind.

Film trailer synopsis.

The narrative of film trailer will be a group of teenagers consisting of both boys and girls venturing out into a forest night. The group get picked of one at a time by an unknown killer, the "gang" will experience some ab-normal experiences which will test their friendship and knowledge like never before. This trailer is designed as a horror genre and not for the faint hearted.

History of horror trailers in the 1970s

Horror movies of the 1970s reflect the grim mood of the decade. After the optimism of the 1960s, with its sexual and cultural revolutions, and the moon landings, the seventies were something of a disappointment. It all started to go horribly wrong in 1970; the Beatles split, Janis and Jimi died, and in many senses it was downhill all the way from there: Nixon, Nam, oil strikes, glam rock, feather haircuts, medallions... However, when society goes bad, horror films get good, and the 1970s marked a return to the big budget, respectable horror film, dealing with contemporary societal issues, addressing genuine psychological fears.

History of horror trailers in 1930s

Horror movies were reborn in the 1930s. The advent of sound, as well as changing the whole nature of cinema forever, had a huge impact on the horror genre. The dreamlike imagery of the 1920s, the films peopled by ghostly wraiths floating silently through the terror of mortals, their grotesque death masks a visual representation of 'horror', were replaced by monsters that grunted and groaned and howled. Sound adds an extra dimension to terror, whether it be music used to build suspense or signal the presence of a threat, or magnified footsteps echoing down a corridor. Horror, with its strong elements of the fantastic and the supernatural, provided an effective escape to audiences tiring of their Great Depression reality, and, despite the money spent on painstaking special effects, often provided a good return for their studio. This was also despite the struggle that many of the major players - such as director Tod Browning - had to adapt to the new medium. Making talking pictures was a very different process to producing silent movies and, watching today, some of the early efforts seem very awkward indeed.

Video Production

For this task I have chosen to work on my own. After thinking about what type of video production i should create, i eventually decided on creating a Film trailer, film magazine front cover and a poster for the film.

For my film trailer i have researched into different genres and i believe horror would be the most effective one to do as it enables mw to use my imagjination to the fullest. As an individual i have looked into similar trailers such as 'Paranormal Activity', 'The Fourth Kind' and 'The Blair Witch Project'. The narrative i have chosen to create will include an enigma this is to create suspense to audience members who are watching the trailer, this is a common technique we found in horror trailers as without the enigma they would be no surprise to the audience. The narrative will include a group of teenagers venturing out into a local forest from a park with some of the group of teenagers disappearing, i have chosen this so that both target markets teenagers to young adults (16-24)can relate to the trailer and the charcters set in it. The remaining memebers of the group then try to discover what has happened to their missing friends. The engima will be what has taken the teenagers ? Where are they ? Are they alive ? How will the remaining group members find their friends ?

The film will be from the perspective of the characters view this is being done to create realism within the trailer as audience members will see diferent reactions from different cast members we hope this creates an effective edge to the trailer. Their personal experiences will be included within the tariler, this will be done through the use of handheld cameras to show that they are traveling and create draw within the scene, as audience members are watching the trailer through the handheld camera we hope they experience a sense of what the cast members are going through from pain to exitement.

My filming will be set in a forest and a local park. The cast will include stereotypical teenagers to create verisimilitude in order to reflect the age group back to our society. i have chosen to include a cast of 5 people including girls and boys so that audience members of both gender can relate to it and also to create a sense of realism, the audience will also see how the different gender react the the events going on in the scene which we hope they find intresting and exicting.

The film trailer will be a 'Circe' and an 'Orpheus' narrative. The video production project as i earlyer said will be a horror based trailer so as camera man i hope to use various camera techniques to give the best effect and create suspence to the audience.

The protagonists in my film trailer will be the group of teenagers and the antagonist will be the person/creature(s) in which have mysteriously taken individual cast members this is why research is vital to make sure we create a realistic story of what is happening in the scene and add exitement to audience members through the dialogue and what is happening in the scene.