Genre presentation

Questionnaire

In order to develop our research, we carried out a questionnaire to find out who our target audience would be and what they'd expect from a horror film. We asked roughly twenty people a range of questions about films in general and horror films specifically to discover who were most likely to watch horror films, how many people would be willing to go to the cinema to watch a horror and what things would scare people in films. This would help us decide what style of horror we thought would be most effective to base our trailer on and what to include.

These are our results:

How old are you?

Are you male or female?

Would you consider buying a horror film on dvd or blu-ray?

How often do you visit the cinema?



Do you prefer horrors to other genres?

Do you prefer watching films at the cinema than at home?

What is your favourite type of horror film?

Which of these would most likely make you want to see a particular horror film?

Do you prefer high budget films?

Narrative Theories.

Todoro

From analysing horror films, Todorov discovered that a common similarity in the each of the story's structures was that the plot starts with normality and content and is is then disrupted by a significant event or crisis point and is then resolved with an often new order by the end of the film.

Propp

He looked in detail at 100's of folk tales to see if they had anything in common and  realised that there were 8 main character functions in each of the tales:

1. The villain
2. The hero
3. The donor (provides magical objects)
4. The helper (aids the hero)
5. The princess (reward)
6. Her father
7. The dispatcher (sends the hero away)
8. The false hero

Representation Of Women In Horror Films

In horror films women are stereotypically presented as weak and innocent, and as though they need to be saved, but are nearly always victorious by the end of the film. A lot of the time they are presented as conventionally "beautiful" and sometimes a bit stupid. It is usually a womans role in a horror film to be the final one left at the end of the film, who has been horribly close to also being killed but has found her way out of it or as the victim, who is the killers target for her innocence and weakness.

The women who are presented as victims, and are killed are often shown to be stupid, and dim and a lot of the time are shown through their image and sexualisation.

The women who defeat the antagonist at the end of the film are not seen as dim or stupid. They are still presented as attractive but are also seen to be strong and knowledgeable. Despite this, a lot of the time they do have a moment where it could all go terribly wrong, which fits the stereotype of women being powerless. They manage to overcome this, narrowly usually and are victorious by the end of the film.

 

When the roles are reversed and the woman in the film is the villian or antagonist it makes the film even scarier as it is swapping the stereotypical, traditional views people have of women being innocent and pure. A lot of the time this is done by the female character being possessed which also links in with the idea that woman cannot naturally be evil, they have to be possessed for this to happen. People don't like to think women could be capable of terrible crimes which is why they chose to use a situation where it is not the womans fault she has turned bad. This is unrealistic as it is knowledgeable that women have commited terrible crimes in reality but the media seems to be trying to protect womens idealistic image of being innocent, pure, powerless and weak, when this is certainly not always the case.  

Teaser Trailer vs Main Trailer

Before the release date of a film, two trailers are usually released in order to advertise the film to possible audiences. The one which is released first is known as the teaser trailer and is approximately half of the amount of time of the main trailer. The teaser trailer is normally made and shown to advertise the film a while, a few months maybe, before it is released. The main trailer is released nearer to the release date of the film.

Teaser Trailer
The teaser trailer gives the audience a short snippet of the film to interest them and advertise the film a while before the film is due for release, in order to 'tease' them for as long as possible, creating more interest in the film. It doesn't intend to give the storyline away but often uses devices which make the possible audience question what is happening in order to make them see the film. The idea of a teaser trailer is usually merely to advertise the fact that the film will be coming out rather than to actually give them any clues of the storyline. It then creates hype and anticipation which is then heightened when the main trailer is released. A teaser trailer is therefore often only used for the release of a blockbuster film or a sequel to an exisiting film. Also, sometimes the teaser trailer is put out to an audience before the filming of the film has been completely finished.




Main Trailer
The main trailer is longer than the teaser and is released long after, much closer to the release date of the film. It includes selected shots from the film, particularly the main action parts of the film and the most exciting shots to attract the audience as much as possible. It doesn't give away the plotline but gives a fairly clear indication of what the film will be about and what the main issue or theme is. They are also not in chronological order.

The Return Of The Repressed

The term 'the return of the repressed' is a term derived from the practises of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. It suggests that an unconscious thought in a persons mind will continually find a way to be recognised, often in fictional forms, until it appears on the outside in behaviour or ideas. He also believed that dreams gave an insight into a persons unconscious desires.

This changed many of the ideas and conventions of horror films as people became more open to distressing ideas of films. It also made film makers give characters far fetched physcopathic desires, and could to some extent help them justify that these thoughts aren't ridiculous and people exprience them in their unconscious mind, until they can't help themselves from doing saddistic, cruel things to fund their desires. It stopped all characters in horror films from being monsters to become real people with disturbing inner thoughts, making horror films seem slightly more realistic, scaring audiences more than ever before.

Buried

Directed by Rodrigo Cortes.

Plot Summary
A man wakes up in a coffin to find only darkness; with only a lighter and a mobile phone screen to light the musky tomb, he comes to the realization he's trapped. A film totally focused around a man trapped in a box seems like a risky idea, but during entrapment he encounters various nightmares. Contacting people via video message and phone is one of the main aspects of the film, I'd go as far as saying its a glorified orange mobile advertisement. On one occasion a snake enters the coffin. This is more of a dark suspense thriller than a horror, but the increasing anger and proximate chlostrophobia make this film a tense watch.

The Final

Directed by Joey Stewart.

Plot Summary
The film is set in the present day, at an American high school, where 5 outcast students are bullied by the "popular" crew at school. They eventually get sick of the torment presented to them everyday, and decide to take revenge by holding a fancy dress party with a sickening twist, intending to kill them all. They spike the punch at the party, knocking out all of the guests. When they awaken, they are chained up and are told by the conspirators that they are going to be tortured and traumatised. Chaos erupts as the party goers and hosts all suffer either by being killed or severely disfigured, leaving just Kurtis, who is seen as cool but also friendly, as the only one who escapes without severe injuries.

Trailer Analysis
The trailer begins with a shot of an ordinary school setting, with an image of school lockers and a classroom, which would not normally be seen as the basis of a terrifyingly scary horror film. This setting contrasts with the events and setting which is later to come in the film. Some background information is also given as the audience sees a student being terrorised and bullied, which would help the audience to understand the reasons for what is going to occur later on. The lighting also adds to the contrast, as ambient, natural lighting is used to begin with, opposed to dark, low-key lighting as the horrific events begin. This may also be used to show that from an everyday situation, such as school, the bullying and situations which occur could lead to a drastic turn of events, with sickening outcomes, this could make the film seem as though it could potentially happen in real life, terrifying the audience. Props such as machine guns have been used in the trailer as well as menacing masks of clowns and gas masks to present the horror genre to the audience, as they are things typically associated with horror films. As the trailer gets deep into the horrific events that occur in the film, jump cuts are used from inside the builing, where the party is taking place to outside, as someone is approaching the scene, with the potential to save the characters from the events they are about to be put through, this leaves the audience wondering what the outcome of the film will be, and similar to a cliffhanger, the trailer ends without the audience knowing if the characters live or die, persuading them to watch the film to find out.

The Last Exorcism

Directed by Daniel Stamm.

Plot Summary
This movie follows the traditions of recent films, in the use of 'found' footage. The footage is used to represent a documentary following Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a preacher who performs exorcisms, and although losing faith in this, he is convinced to perform one more, for the entertainment of reality TV. Cotton then performs a 'scam' exorcism on the farmers daughter, and convinces the father that she is saved. However things become more peculiar, and she is found in a catastrophic state, and admitted to hospital. They then find that she is actually pregnant, following an attack on her brother with a knife. Therefore an actual exorcism takes place, and Cotton then discovers that the girl is actually possessed by a demon, and so the gore continues to unfold.

Trailer Analysis
The trailer begins in the daylight, setting the scene and showing a man in his car who seems to be going to somewhere unfamiliar, the trailer gradually gets darker to represent the way the film gets creepier as it goes on, which is conventional for horror films as they usually start off quite normal and ordinary. Captions of text have been used to give the audience a hint of what the film is about and what the topic is, for example, 'Reverend Cotton Marcus has performed over 47 excorcisms'. A close up of a letter is also used to help the reader quickly understand what the film will be about. There are a number of different camera angles used in the trailer, such as a canted angle to keep it interesting and ensure the audience is gripped to the action. Throughout the trailer some of the camera work is hand held which adds to the unknowingness of the film and suggests uncomfortableness and distress. The shots are fast paced, short and there are a lot of them in quick succession to heighten the sense of tension and drama. There are also quick flashes between the shots to break them up. The colour scheme which has been used is fairly ordinary dull colours, such as cream, grey white and brown, but this is mixed in with a bold red colour at various points in the trailers to stick with the convention of horror films and as an effective technique to scare the reader. Close up, fuzzy shots have been used also to add to the atmosphere and intended effect on the audience.

The Horde

Directed by Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher.

Plot Summary
The Horde is a French film, which is set in the present day and based in Paris. The film begins with the discovery of a murdered detective, who is found by his fellow collegues and friends, who then decide to take the law into their own hands and seek revenge on the violent gang who killed their friend. They find the gang in an abandoned building where they are hiding and just as they are about to seek revenge by torturing and killing them, a swarm of zombies appear, trying to kill all of them, and the two groups. the gang and the corrupt police officers have to work together in order to survive.

Trailer Analysis
The trailer of The Horde presents the film as a thriller horror. The trailer begins with a shot of a group of men in balaclava's and then an establishing shot of what seems to be a block of flats or apartments. The lighting is low-key and quite dull throughout which is typical of horror films as they are prodominantly set at night, in order to maintain there scariness. Guns and explosions are used to show the film is fast moving and exciting and these are also things which suggest a thriller horror film. A birds-eye angle is used to show the people on the ground and then a medium close up shot is used to show the audience that the people are actually zombies, this will also help the audience to decide whether they want to watch the full length film or not, as they may or may not like films which feature slash horror, and are unrealistic and unbelievable. There is a quick series of shots from a punch up leading to a man falling down the stairs, to an aerial shot of a winding staircase, then to a shot of the outside of the building, to lightning in the sky. This fast sequence shows the audience the action that is taking place and builds up the excitement and suspense of the film. There are fades to black in between the shots, which make the film seem even darker and scarier. The movement in the trailer gets much faster as the zombies appear and there are flashes of the film, showing the invasion of the zombies, with chaos as blood is everywhere and there are also people being bitten, hurt and tortured. This is conventional of horror films although this type of thriller horror is a genre of it's own and may not appeal to all fans of horror, making the trailer even more important.

Hostel Trailer

An Interesting Trailer

 

Analysis

Hostel is an interesting choice to study when developing ideas of horror film and horror film trailers. It is a conventional film in the horror genre, as it includes the expected features of a horror, such as blood, death, good and bad characters and highly dramatic scenes. The trailer starts with dim lighted shots of the creepy setting with close ups of water dripping to set the dingy, scary scene. Captions which relate to the setting, there is a place' are used to give the audience a sense of the plot. The text which is used is orange and quite bright compared with the dim, dark background. The texts starts big, jumping out at the audience and then gets smaller. This could represent the audience being drawn into the film, which would immediately grab their attention. After the first caption there is a long shot of a man wearing a type of builders uniform with a transparant mask on, he is holding a hose and is placed in the centre of the shot, showing that something creepy will happen involving characters or a character dressed in this way. It gives the audience a quick feel of what the film will be about. There is then a second caption, 'where all your darkest' and then a medium close up of a shirtless man having a cloth taken off his head to reveal his face which is facing slightly away from the camera, this could suggest his terror as he is avoiding something. The next caption 'sickest fantasies' reveals a lot about the plot, as this is when the audience realise that the man is going to experience inhuman suffering. A link could be made at this point with the idea of construction, as suggested by the man with the hose. This would then make the viewer wonder whether it is the terrified looking man which is going to be constructed on. There are then shots of tools, and more captions to show the events which are to take place will be truly disturbing, this also links in with the genre of horror as in most horror films there are specific weapons which are used against the victims in the films. There are many shots showing many different characters, some of which look like they are trying to espcape and some which look as though they are involved in the twisted events. This shows that, as with some horrors where there is usually one evil character, or monster, this film seems to break with conventions to a certain extent as there are a number of evil characters.

Film Distribution

Distribution = Marketing + Duplication + Getting film into the cinema (finding an audience).

The Role of the Distributor

The distributor of a film is it's lead into the movie market place and they have to decide who they think the audience of the film is and who it will appeal to, why they would want to watch the film and how they are going to appeal to the target audience of the film. The distributor has to decide on the elements of the film which will help to sell it and attract audiences to watch the film, such as a USP (unique selling point). For example, the cast of the film could be the unique selling point, such as Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds, as he is a well known actor and has appeared in other films which have been highly commended, therefore fans of him are likely to want to see his films. The unique selling point of the film could also be the genre or the originality. The distributor needs to be extremely clear of it's target audience, the average age for people going to the cinema is between 15 and 24, therefore film producers need to base their film and it's marketing around this fact.The average age for going to the cinema is between 15 and 24, therefore the film distributor needs to be very clear on the target audience for the film and the market it will appeal to before deciding whether it is suitable for showing in the cinema, based on how many sales it is likely to make.

Blockbuster films such as Spiderman, Shrek and Titanic are all high budget therefore they can afford to spend a lot of money on distribution as they know they will profit once the film is released.