Magazine front covers presentation

Magazine front covers presentation

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Above is a power point presentation about my research into magazine front covers and how their conventions will be used to help my group and I to construct the front cover of our film magazine. 

Film poster study and analysis power point

Film poster study and analysis

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This is a power point presentation showing the research I have done on film posters and my own personal opinions on them including: my favourite type of film poster and which type of poster would be best suited for out group to create. 


(Please note that I originally had animations put into the presentation so that certain things would appears in a specific order but it didn't transition onto slide share)

Shooting Schedule

Below is our groups shooting schedule for this week. The schedule basically outlines what we will be doing on certain days in terms of filming and what teams members as well as actors will be needed on that day. The schedule only covers this week since we have to narrow down what we are going on each day, and please excuse the fact that the shooting schedule box exceeds the size of the blog post area but I had to make it that size so that it was easy for people to see the text in each box . 

Storyboard presentation

This is our groups power point presentation which shows the storyboards we created and how they will be used as a basis for each shot in our Horror trailer. The power point will show the progression of how the trailer will play out as well as descriptions of the shot and the camera movement/editing, and sound/dialogue/music that will be featured in the clip.

Horror movie trailer Storyboards

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Using Religious connotations and themes effectively

Our horror trailer 'Damnation' is influence heavily by religious connotation and theme that construct the basic narrative of the film in which a girl gets possessed by some sort of entity (presumably the devil) who then goes on a killing spree and passing the possession onto others. Now my group and I were well aware that using religious connotations in films can be very risky since portraying them in a certain way can cause a lot of upset from people of that religion and because of this the film could be easily slated or even unable to view. Naturally we weren't going to do anything extreme religion wise but we couldn't take that risk, so I took it upon myself to watch and analyse a film (in this case a horror film since it further relates to what we're doing) that uses religious connotation and themes, but not to the point in which it's considered offensive or unjust. The film in question is CARRIE (1976).

After watch the film (which by the way is a great film) I came to a slightly odd conclusion, but it's what my theory behind the religious connotations used in this movie is. My theory is that religious themes are used to establish the ground work for the film and its themes, but it's not the basis for the narrative and the main reasoning for the events in the film to play out, but rather as something that can be questioned as the cause of the events based on people’s preferences. The reason for this is that in the first act of the film the use of religious connotation is very strong and helps to establish the themes portrayed in the film since we can see that Carrie's mother is a very strict Christian and that she blames everything bad that happens to Carrie based on the fact that she has sinned (e.g. the scene where Carrie confronts her mother about getting her first period and not telling her about this sort of thing shows her mother merely thinking that if she didn't sin it wouldn't have happened).

So yeah the first act is strong on religion, but in the second act the religious themes and connotations take a back seat in favour of Carrie dealing with teenage issues and starting to become more and more accepted by her piers (e.g. spending more time with Tommy Ross and even being asked out to the prom) and the scenes with her mother become incredibly downplayed since the scenes are much shorter and Carrie no longer become the victim to her mother’s views. It's at this point that the religious connotation seem to be something of an afterthought since the film focuses more on Carrie and her struggles (both good and bad) but it's towards the end of the prom scene that the religious come back into play. It starts with both Tommy and Carrie making a joke saying "to the devil with false modesty" which suddenly sparks off some very deep and dark music. After that Carrie gets elected prom queen only to have pigs blood be poured all over her (pigs blood representing un-holiness since the pig is considered an animal unfit to eat according to Judaism). Carrie (believing that everyone is laughing at her) then uses her powers to kill everyone in the room and the image of her covered in blood and surrounded by fire shows some sort of devil-ish embodiment.

Once she returns home the room is surrounded by candles (which shows the light of god) and after taking a bath and washing the blood off her mother confesses that her sins were the reasons for Carrie's birth (she agreed not to have sex but one day gave into temptation) and that "now the devil has come home". Carrie's mother then attempts to kill Carrie by literally stabbing her in the back but then Carrie uses the kitchen knives to crucify her mother (similar to Jesus being crucified upon the cross). Carrie then out of fear and frustration accidentally destroys her house and the last we see of her is that she is slowly dying with her dead mother in her arms and a close up on a figure of a crucified Jesus Christ (R.I.P Carrie... you're flying in heaven, not burning in hell). So you can see that Carrie' use of religion starts strong and ends strong, but the middle portion of the film allows the audience to take a breather and focus on other things rather than the film forcing the religious themes down your throat and because of this the religious themes come off as more of a possibility behind the events that play out in the film rather than the main reason for them (since the blood being poured onto Carrie could be a result of spite rather than sinning).      

So after looking at Carrie I knew that if we were to feature religious connotations, it would have been something that eventually gets underplayed rather than being a primary basis for the entire story. So because of this we decided that the first half of the film should be strong on religion but then underplayed in favour of a more survival horror/zombie infestation type of story. This will allow us to get the audience familiar with the religion theme we're portraying but not keep it dominant throughout the course of the film so that (like Carrie) the religious themes could be considered as possibility for the events that take place throughout the course of the story but not being the exact reasoning as to why they occur.

Test filming take 2

Before shooting our actual film trailer we decided to have another go and shooting shots from our storyboards so that we could get a good understanding of how to use shots effectively and how many are needed for a minute and a half trailer. Now did have one go at filming but i didn't turn out as successful since it was our first time and we weren't familiar with the various error that can easily be encountered when filming such as: misplaced props, bad lighting and reflections etc.

This time around the filming turned out to be much better since not only did we take into consideration the errors that occurred last time but also we had our main actress (who portrays the role of 'Angela') with us which was much better since because of her the shots turned out better in terms of emotion and authenticity plus she got a idea of what the character it like which will be very beneficial through out the film since she already know how to portrayal 'Angela'. We decided to use more important scenes in our storyboards since they would be the harder ones to shot and having that experience now would benefit us when it comes to the actual filming. The shots them selves turned out really well compared to last time since we avoid the errors we made before and shot the same scene several time in order to get the best result for the editing process.  

We plan to film this Friday and this second shooting tryout has really helped us to use camera more effectively and prepare for the actual filming.  


NOTE: When the filming does take place we will be using the inside of a church building for some or our scenes. We did however get permission from the vicar to use these premises. 

Narrative Theories used in our Narrative

In our film/story Damnation it's narrative consists of two main theories. These theories are 'the final girl theory' and the 'monstrous feminine'. 

The monstrous feminine is the more pro-dominant theory used in this narrative since the character Angela starts out as a nice, sweet but rather quiet girl who then after an incident in her church becomes possessed by and ungodly force (most likely the devil) and then turns into this maniacal, vicious and unstoppable monster. Angela's character and her transformation are very similar to 'Carrie' since they both religious girls who have demanding parents, though Angela isn't nearly as shy and doesn't posses any powers from the get-go. The main reason we chose this theory is that if pulled of correctly, this type of theory can be incredibly powerful since it often involves a female character becoming some sort of terrifying creature and usually when the change comes about it's very powerful. The best example of this is 'Carrie' since as the film progresses we connect with Carrie and understand what she's feeling and get to relate to her more as a character, but once she's covered in blood and turns evil the impact is very strong since we care for her seeing the change is very striking. We did something similar with Angela expect that she's not necessarily the evil one, rather that she is being controlled and influenced by and evil spirit, yet the audience already knows what she's like and the change of character due to the result of her actions that aren't actually hers gives off a rather upsetting and rather strong emotion feeling towards her.   

We also used the final girl theory but like most films that use this is occurs during the last act of the film. This is when Mason is dead and both Leyla and Freddie have been 'possessed' and it's just Sammie against Angela, Angela pins Sammie down and tries to posses her but Sammie then stabs her in the heart when her guard's down, which dosen't exactly kill her but rather stops her. This theory does play a rather small role in the narrative and our narrative goes against the common convention associated with the final girl theory. What I mean is that in the final girl theory the 'final girl' is the only one who can fight of the killer and this character just so happens to the only developed character throughout the course of the film where as the side characters are based around stereotypes and are simply used to provided killings for the killer (e.g. in Halloween Laurie is only character that is explored and all her friends get next to no development and are just there for Michael Myers to kill), In our narrative Sammie, Leyla, Mason and Freddie are all developed (some more than others) and there purpose in the film is to be there for Angela at the being and try to confront her and the end rather than just being victims for Angela.   

Influential Horror trailer 2- Grave Encounters

This horror trailer in particular really showed us how to use the shaky camera technique effectively and how when done right it can come off as something very realistic and scary rather than a cheap and sometimes choppy camera movement. It also used text editing very well which is something we plan to do in our trailer since the text helps to explain the back story of the this trailer while the clips portray the current narrative. We plan to use a similar technique but only for a more scary feel since the text will mainly be used for tag lines and so on.

Influential Horror trailer 1-The Woman In Black

This trailer was very influential to use since it showed that trailers don't have to be in a linear fashion (start to finish) in terms of story and also i shows that most trailer use around 60 shots for just a minute and a half of film with each clip lasting roughly 2 seconds. Plus it showed us how to use music effectively in a trailer since the music in this trailer gradually builds and the editing corresponds to the ticking of clock in the background.

Damnation Narrative

This is the narrative for our film/story Damnation. Naturally we couldn't include everything mentioned in the narrative in the trailer so the bits that are high lighted in green our the scenes that should be featured in the trailer. 

Beginning

In South -East London, England, a teenage girl named Angela is mysteriously looking at a church. A flashback of her at a younger age is shown where she is constantly going to church with her mother. Suddenly, her mother disrupts the flashback and we return to the present stage and her mother asks if she is going inside the church. She then states that she will come into the church within a few moments and hence her mum goes in without her. She continues to stare at the church but suddenly sees her friends across the street and a smile is illustrated on her face. They quickly greet and Sammie states that they are going to Freddie’s house to watch a movie; she then states that she is going with them and therefore ditches the idea of going to church. She looks back at the church worryingly but soon forgets about her betrayal to her religion when she converses with her friends.

Once inside Freddie’s house they settle down and begin to watch the film. They then begin to watch a horror film and she is reminded of her betrayal to the church in which this makes her feel uneasy. Then, some religious connotations are portrayed within the film and she begins to panic as she thinks about her own deception. Her friends try to snap her out of her madness and once calm, suggest that she should go home and rest and she follows this advice.

She arrives home only to find her mother extremely angry with her missing out on church. The two argue until the mother hits her and states that she should repent her sins. She runs to her room, cries and then falls asleep. Once awoken from her slumber, she realises the time, 3am however, decides her mother was right and that she should go and repent. She gets her coat and walks silently out the house, trying not to awake her mother. She walks to the church reciting versus’ from the Bible. Once in the church, she kneels by the alter and starts praying. Suddenly, the door opens but she cannot see anyone there, she then decides to hide away in fear thinking that God has arrived in the room. It turns out to be a thief trying to steal ornaments from the alter including a Bible, a cross and some money from the offering. Angela then beings to become more and more scared and then hear voices within her mind telling her to kill. The voices then begin to get louder and before she can control herself she beats him to death with a candle holder. She then stops and realises what she has done and runs to the bathroom to try and wash away the blood. She then looks in the mirror once, thinking that something is behind her. She then looks again in which her eyes go red and the scene fades to black.

A mysterious person who has witnessed the event goes to Angela’s mother and tells her about the event that happened within the church. Thinking that this person is wild, she refuses to believe the story and tells the person to get out of her house. The person tells her to beware of Angela, and then runs out of the house whilst Angela’s mum is left bewildered.

Later her mum is sitting in her chair and waiting for Angela to arrive. The doorbell rings and her mum slowly approach the door, baring in mind what the witness has said about Angela. She slowly opens the door to find Angela with her head held down and her clothes ripped. She then goes to touch Angela’s head but Angela then quickly raises her head and her mother realises that she has glowing red eyes. Her mum runs away in fear but Angela catches up with her. She then stabs Angela in the stomach but Angela laughs and then takes the knife out showing that it has had no effect. The scene then ends with Angela going towards the camera but at an audience’s point of view coming towards the camera. 


Middle
The next morning, Leyla and Sammie arrive to Angela's house to pick her up for school. After ringing the doorbell and waiting for a couple of minutes they soon find that the door is open and decide to go in. They search around the house and fail to find Angela. As soon as they are about to leave, Angela jumps from nowhere and Leyla and Sammie scream. Angela laughs, greets her friends and they all go off to school.
 
After school, Freddie and Angela walk to Freddie's house to do their English project together. Soon after arriving at Freddie's house, Angela gets restless and tries to kiss Freddie. Freddie backs away and states that he does not want to kiss Angela and that she should leave. Angela gets angry and Freddie then states that he'll find another partner for the project. Angela then transforms from normal Angela in to evil Angela and then passes the curse onto Freddie. Angela leaves the house when she hears Freddie's parents arriving back to the house. Freddie's mum asks if he is okay and Freddie does not reply and instead passes the curse onto his parents. The scene ends with the family laughing manically.

Clips of Angela and Freddie killing and cursing people are then shown. Even a clip of Mason is seen with Angela stating that he'll have fun before giving killing him and sending him to hell. The whole of South East London are then told about the violent attacks through different media texts.

Sammie wonders why all of this is happening and decides to do some much needed research. We see clips of her reading books, searching the internet and find out what Angela is and how the curse is spreading. Suddenly, Angela calls Sammie and states that Sammie should stop what she is doing whilst Sammie is confused and then the two argue on the phone. Sammie throws the book and holds her head with her hands.

A couple of weeks later and Leyla and Sammie are sitting in Leyla's front room pondering about all the attacks. There is a new curfew of 5pm for children and 6pm for young adults and 7pm for adults in order to ensure everyone's safety. Sammie then states that no one is safe and the two then share stories about the kind of attacks they've heard. Suddenly they hear glass shattering from the other room and scream only to find out that Leyla's mum had accidentally dropped her glass of water and then begins to cry. The two girls comfort the mother until she is calm again. They smile and then Leyla's mother then goes upstairs to rest. Leyla states that she has become this way because of all the attacks and they return back to the front room. 

Ending

Sammie then gets a strange call from someone calling from unknown. She picks up and the person is frantically telling her to stay away from Angela as she is spreading the curse. The mysterious person is then revealed to be connected to Angela’s past. Sammie listens but then demands for evidence and the mysterious person tells her to look outside her window. Leyla hearing the conversation then looks outside the window to find the "evil Angela" grinning. Sammie drops the phone and the two decide to run upstairs into Leyla's room. Angela breaks down the door and stops Leyla from going up the stairs. Leyla is crying and shouts to Sammie to save herself. Sammie then tries to save Leyla but is flung to the dining room door. Leyla is then taken to the front room where Angela blocks the door. Leyla screams in agony whilst Angela laughs. Sammie screams and runs outside.

After giving Leyla the curse, Angela then tracks down Sammie and finds her at an abandoned house. Sammie screams and short dialogue is spoken between the two. There is then a final standoff between Angela and Sammie. Sammie then tries to run away but Angela drags her by feet to her previous position. Sammie frantically looks around to find something to kill Angela and comes across a knife. As soon as Angela tries to possess her, Sammie stabs Angela in the heart and Angela screams in agony. She says her last words then drops to the floor and returns back to the "normal" Angela. Sammie remembers that Angela had been possessed; this drives her to call an ambulance. Sammie then runs back to Leyla's house to find a "normal" Leyla. The scene is left with the two of them hugging.

The narrative ends with Angela missing and Sammie, Leyla and Freddie laying flowers for Mason.

First attempt trailer

This is the first attempt at creating our horror trailer using the clips filmed on deep-learning day. Admittedly the trailer looks pretty pants, but that's mainly to do with the facts that the shots we took were rather poor since we ran into a lot of errors when shooting and there were various things we hadn't considered at the time (such as: lighting and reflections, misplaced props etc). The trailer itself just barely outlines what our final trailer is going to be about since we have no dialogue and many of the key scenes needed in order to make the narrative come alive. However, when creating this video we did get a feel for how the editing works (e.g. adding music, shortening/lengthening shots, adding text into the timeline etc) and so that we know what to do once we start to film our final trailer and also how much seconds each shot in the trailer consists of (roughly 2 seconds per shot).  

First taste of filming

My group and I have recently had a taste of what it's going to be like when we actually starting filming our horror trailer. This was done by us using the equipment provided by the media department (e.g. video cameras and tripods) to go out and film some of the scenes used in our story boards (as well as experiment with other shots) just so that we could get a rough understanding of what the trailer could look like and the process of creating it. At first we were rather excited about this since we could get to grips with the technology and how to use it correctly so that we can capture the best shots possible. 

It turns out the filming was more difficult than we anticipated since even though we took a lot of shots and they weren't hard to film the actually end result didn't turn out nearly as good as we thought it would. There are many reasons for this but because of these reasons we now know what we have to avoid so that the trailer is of high quality. The first problem we had was lighting, since we were filming in the morning the lighting was far to bright and didn't give off a scary atmosphere, also when we used electronic lighting there were several instances where the reflections of the ones filming we seen in the windows and it look awful, granted we had a limited time to film the shots so we could shot at night but this was still a valid mistake and our teacher said that "you can use this bright lighting to your advantage since it can create very strong shadows". 

Another mistake we encounter is that a lot the shots consist of to many pans and shots that lasted far too long. The main problem with this is that in most films, pans are useful for establishing the scene/setting, however in a trailer this is not advisable since the shots only last about 2 seconds and there isn't much point of using pans since pans often last a rather long time and when we watched this we could see that it would make the trailer seem incredibly slow, plus often the pans were quite blurry since the camera was constantly moving and couldn't fully focus. To redeem this, our teacher advised us to use more still since we could cut away from different shots much easier and it is easier to focus on a single point which would get rid of blur problems we had with the panning.

The last problem we had with filming was the mise-en-scene. Now this was mainly to do with the fact that were had a limit time to film and couldn't use our desired locations but it still as issue I must address. The mise-en-scene in some scene didn't fit with what we were trying to establish since when taking the shot of the church a car was in the way which was rather distracting and looked out of place and also the shot where we were practicing the blood scene with the sink didn't fit together at all since the sink looked way to modern (since we used the facilities in this school for that since instead of inside of a church) and didn't look the least bit scary, also in that scene we stupidly left the fake blood tube on the side and it was caught in the camera (misplaced prop).

We also had a problem with playing back the record shots from our camera since the camera was automatically set to play back using AVC HD video program. In order to make it possible for use to view our videos on any computer we had to use Transcoding (basically means video conversion) to change the AVC HD settings to Microsoft AVI PAL in order for it took work. To do this we simply had to use Adobe media encoder to Transcode all of our shots in the require format so that it could play back on any computer. In then end even though we ran into a lot of errors and the shots didn't turn out how we wanted them to, we still got a good feel for and understanding of how to use the camera and take the appropriate shots thanks to the feed back we got from the teachers and observing what went wrong in our shots.

Story boarding process

Before starting to create our horror trailer my group and I had to first storyboard how the trailer would play out and how we would show of our film (e.g. showing off the best bits or key scenes). When deciding how the trailer should play out, we had to look at other horror trailers and how they are structured and the techniques they used, after observing various horror trailer (e.g. Grave Encounters, Woman in black, Jeepers creepers 3 etc) we could see that the majority of them used very fast edits with a large variety of shots (roughly 60 for just a minute and a half), fades and text appearing during action sequences. Also it was interesting to see that a lot of the time the trailer weren't shown in a linear fashion (they didn't tell the story from beginning to end) which was mainly because the trailer was to show off the best bits of the film. 


The first stage of creating the storyboards was to highlight the key scenes in our narrative that should be shown in our trailer since they are what we thought to be the best scene and would entice the audience to see the film. After selecting the 10 best scenes we had to decide how they should play out so that it follows the structure of most trailer (i.e showing the narrative in a way that gives the audience a general overview of the plot without giving to much away). This was one of the more difficult step through out the entire process since there were various different ways in which we could portray our narrative and everyone in the group had the own opinion/idea of how the trailer should be structured, plus even though we were heavily influenced by other horror trailers we didn't want to copy them completely and show a lack of originality.


The next step was to decide on each shot that would be used within out trailer. For this exercise the other members of my group were responsible for deciding what the should be in each shot as well as the music/dialogue, the camera movement/edit, and the description of each shot as well as the reason for this type of shot. My job was to draw out each shot based on the description given by my other team members, in total we came up with around 60 shots that would be used in the trailer though admittedly we have may have to create more in case those shots don't fill up the necessary time gap or just aren't enough to make the trailer seem compelling enough. 


Finally I had to draw out each shot. When creating the trailers I had to use quite a lot of template images from the internet in order to draw out how they should look since a lot of the characters movements were from different angles and it's difficult to draw these type of actions from memory. I got the template images from the internet and it made it much easier for me to draw the images accurately, also I had to go over all of my pencil drawings in black fine-liner pen so that I could scan them into the computer and save them as JPEG images so that we had back ups of the images just in case something happened to the originals. 

 

Deciding our Horror title

When creating the title for our horror film myself and the people I were working with came up with 10 potential names for the film. They are: 


. Perdition
. Damnation
. Condemnation
. Destruction
. Malediction
. Domination
. Possession
. Repression
. Profanity
. Absolution 


Each of these film titles have some connection to religion or religious connotations because the film is about devil-ish possession so these title seemed fitting. Also all the titles are simply one word and this is because we thought that one word titles were more powerful that longer ones since some of the scariest titles for horror films have been simply one word (e.g. Halloween, Scream, Psycho, Alien, Carrie etc). In order to decide on which title would be best we had to get audience feed back on what they thought was the best title, so we diced to only had out cards for people to tick, we also put the question on survey monkey to try and increase are overall feedback and have more reliable results (though admittedly I thought that absolution was the best title). 

After tallying up the results it turned out that the top 4 title that the audience chose were: Damnation, Condemnation, Domination and Perdition. In the end we deicide to go with damnation since it got the most votes and personally we thought it best suited the type of film were are going to make. So now that we have chosen a title we also have an easier time on choosing a tag lines but what's different about our tag line is that we can link it to both the meaning of the word to the meaning of the film since most tag lines reflect the film rather than the film title which happens a lot with horror films (e.g. Halloween's tag line is "the night HE came home"). 
 

What makes ‘Halloween 1978’ so scary?

After watching John Carpenter’s Halloween I have chosen it to be the second greatest horror film of all time (next to ‘Alien’) which is quite interesting as it’s a independent film and it has very little blood in it. There are many reasons as to why it is so effective as a horror film but there are three reasons in particular which make Halloween such a scary and effective horror film.

The first factor is the music. The score created for ‘Halloween’ works perfectly for creating tension and suspense throughout the film. This is because the main theme is used constantly through out the film whenever Michael Myers is near or present in the scene, this helps to build tension because the audience knows he’s there. The music itself is very creepy and gradually builds along with the tension it’s creating, also the second piece of music which is used when Michael attacks someone is incredibly creepy and uses high-pitched notes similar to Psycho’s famous ‘Psycho strings).

The second factor is the atmosphere. The film takes place on Halloween night which helps to set the dark and creepy mood of the film, and identify all the iconic imagery and themes associated with Halloween (e.g. jack ‘o’ lanterns, skeletons, death, blood etc). Also the location is rather scary but also rather different to most horror films because it takes place in a quiet neighbour hood which isn’t exactly isolated but it’s not exactly an open environment ether. The neighbour hood setting gives the film a strong sense of realism and helps the audience connect to the film more since they could live in a similar type of location.

The final factor which makes Halloween so scary is the killer ‘Michael Myers’. What makes him such a great killer is that not only is he a human killer (which makes the film seem more realistic), but also his lack of motives or goal which makes him a very unpredictable character. What’s really scary about Michael is firstly the fact that he appears various times with in the film yet we don’t know when he’s going to strike, for instance there is one scene where Michael is standing outside the door and Laurie’s friend has her back turned yet he doesn’t kill her until she gets in the car and he appears out of nowhere. Michael’s appearance is also rather menacing because the mask he wears has a completely blank expression and it makes him look like he has pitch black eyes. Another factor that makes Michael so scary is that he doesn’t say a word. This makes Michael seem like a silent killer and could strike at any time and the only noise he ever makes is his incredibly deep breathing.     

At the end of the day there are various reasons why Halloween is so scary but I believe these three factors are the most important and it's because of these elements that Halloween is considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever, since horror films are about scaring people and let's be honest "every one is entitled to one good scare".

Horror Movie Questionnaire results analysis

In this post I will be showing the result of the on-line questionnaire that I conducted and the result/answers from the questionnaire which can be used to construct the basic elements of my horror movie trailer (e.g. the type of genre, the scariest elements of horror etc) since it will feedback to the general opinions of those who watch horror films.


Question 1 

I was rather surprised with the response to this question since horror films are often viewed as being more male oriented type of film due to the often large amounts of violence and the very often used male gaze. This just goes to show that cinema is no longer a male oriented type of media which shows a great contrast between say 20-30 years ago to now. 












Question 2

I did rather suspect this type of answer since these people are now the right age to watch horror films where as they were previously to young. This helps to narrow down my target audience and understand how I can use various different types of media within the construction of my horror trailer and poster in order to connect more with this particular audience (e.g. posting both my trailer and poster on popular websites like Facebook and twitter etc). 








Question 3

These results show that horror movies aren't something that is view on a regular basis and is more of a cult sensation rather than mainstream viewing. Because of this I have to try and make my trailer stand out so that it can raise awareness about horror films in general but also so that it doesn't get over-shadowed by other horror films or films of other genres.












Question 4

These results have presented me with a very difficult decision since the top rated answers (psychopathic horror and ROM/COM's) are completely different types of film genre and I can try to meet them in the middle since psychopathic horror is often very serious were as ROM/COM's are just for laughs, the decision about which of these genres to use for my trailer will be determined based on the result that will follow. However what's interesting is to see that these days horror films are seen as both very serious but also very funny which is and odd contrast since horror films have got more realistic but also sillier. 


Question 5

I wasn't very surprised about this type of answer since the majority of horror films these days use this type of killer (e.g. paranormal activity, devil etc) which shows that audiences are more inclined to being scare of what cannot be seen or defined. This helps to understand what type of narrative my films show have since this type of killer often plays against the character within the films and makes them act strangely which means that the narrative and tone of this trailer will more than like be a serious one since it's not a case of escaping a killer, it's more about understand what's trying to kill them. 


Question 6

I honestly didn't know what to expect from this answer what scares people can vary greatly depending on the type of person. What these results show is that most people find the tension trumps other aspects of horror films since it helps to put the audience on edge and then when the scare arrives it has more of an impact (e.g. Halloween, pyscho etc). This means that in my trailer have to build the tension through out the viewing of the trailer and the end gives the audience the scary moment which show result in a more powerful scare and help to make my trailer stand out. 


Question 7

This answer seem the most plausible since the main purpose of a horror film is to scare people with the type of chills that are often felt in real life. This means that like with the previous question I have to try and make my trailer as scary as possible since it will entice the viewers and will again help my film to stand out  which will be achieved through the use on tension with the trailer. 












Question 8

This answer plays into the answer to question 6 and this basically means that I need to use the music within my trailer to add to the tension that I will be aiming to achieve. This can be done in various ways (e.g. psycho strings or being non-existent/silent) but I believe the best way to achieve this type of tension is to have the music gradually build as the trailer progress since it will help to tie into the speed of the trailer and it's a technique used within various horror films like Halloween and in my opinion it works very effectively. 




Question 9

This type of answer didn't strike me at all since the previous answers all tie into this type of narrative and often the scariest horror films are based on real life events or have realistic elements to them (e.g. Halloween, Texas chainsaw massacre, psycho etc). This shows that my trailer has to have a sense or realism to it since something supernatural or just plain strange may strike the audience as being out of place or just plain odd which will make it more than likely from them to nor take the trailer seriously.






Question 10 (Final question)  

The purpose of this question to see what I should avoid doing within my trailer in order to make the trailer seem like a serious films rather than a ROM/COM or horror parody. Over the top violence seem like the most likely answer since violence isn't something than is taken as seriously as it was in the past been we have been over exposed to it (relates to the desensitisation theory) and using to much violence can over-shadow the tension and atmosphere that the film has which often makes violent horror films less scary and more like thrillers instead of horror.

Rationale Research

I aim to gather an over view of people’s opinions towards horror films and what they believe makes a good horror film. To do this I will conduct a survey and an interview and these will be used form the majority of my research. From this I will be able to get feedback from people and what they believe makes a good horror film. This will help me to avoid using horror convention that are ether old or just not frightening so that the trailer actually looks like a serious horror film instead of a parody or cheap knock-off . The survey will simply be a set of questions asking people about various factors that link to the majority of horror films like: what makes them scary, how music should be used, the more favourable genre etc. This will help me to get a general idea of what to include in my horror trailer and will more than likely make up the smaller aspects of the trailer rather than using this study as the basis for the trailer.

The purpose of the interview will be to get more in depth answers as to the questions asked in the survey so that I can uses this as a basis to construct the horror trailer around since the answer will help me to better understand what factors help to make horror movies and trailers stand out and actually scare people, and what makes them boring, choppy and poorly received by audiences, as well why these particular conventions work in a certain way and how the effect can be used to my advantage. The people I plan to interview will be those within my school since they are of a specific age group (in this case age17/18) and I can even choose evenly between male and female interviewees which will help to make the results from the interview more fair and reliable as well as being able to get more varied opinions.

Link to my survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9B7N8TX

The Final Girl Theory

In most stories women often play the role of the damsel in distress. The character that always needs saving and is often the prize for the hero. Because of this role being used ever so often in the majority of stories women are often stereotyped as being weak, timid and often used more a sex symbols rather than being more complex and deep characters. Cinema only increased this since most female characters were very attractive actors that suited the male gaze (shows that cinema is more focused on the male audience compared to female). Now this doesn't apply to every role a women plays since there females villains who are vindictive and evil like: poison ivy, Jason's mother etc, but also some female characters are quiet strong smart and poses the characteristics that are often seen within the masculine hero like Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Samus Aran etc. This type of character is most present within horror films (slasher in particular) since this character is the only one smart, strong or brave enough to escape/defeat the killer where as everyone else (including male characters) have been killed. This is known as the 'Final Girl'.

The final girl theory first became popular with such horror films as alien, Halloween, and Texas chainsaw massacre in which the only characters to make it to the end and live where females. Throughout the course of these films the other characters are picked off one-by-one by the killer, often due to the characters doing something stupid or not being strong enough to confront the killer and once the film reaches its climax only one person is left and she is the one who ultimate defeats the killer or survives (e.g. fight back in Halloween, escaping in Texas chainsaw massacre, and killing the killer in alien). Because of these type of films females have been portrayed as much stronger and more independent characters compared to their traditional role of the damsel in distress, and this often makes the film more exciting to watch since it's something different compared the traditional masculine hero.

Often what makes the final girl stand out isn't the character herself in particular but rather the killer and the side/stock characters. This is mainly because the stock characters in most horror/slasher films are generic and one dimensional character that are built around typical teenagers stereotypes (since most character within a slasher film are teenagers) like a nerd, a jock, a whore etc.  These characters serve no other purpose other than providing a cheap laugh and are the murder victims of the killer which is why at the end of the film we want the final girl to survive and overcome the killer since she is the only character we care about (though this isn't present within every horror film since the characters in alien are all interesting and it's sad when they die). On the other hand there is the principle of the killer whom we often follow throughout the first and second half of the film as he kills off each character from his point of view, so we feel like we're him and know how dangerous he is. Once the third act takes place we take the view point of the final girl and we want her to survive since we know what the killer is like and how dangerous he is and because we can see him properly from her point of view this makes him seems scarier since it looks like he going to kill us instead of us being the killer.

Because of these factor the final girl is always the most developed character since she has the most screen time and the audience connects with her more than any other characters which is why when she overcomes the killer there is a great feeling of satisfaction as well as the fact that the character is female rather than male which is a welcome change. What's interesting is that the final girl  theory could also represent some sort of real life issue since with most of these films the killer is a man and the final girl is female, this principle/concept could represent overcoming male oppression since males are often seen as strong more dominant beings than female and this concept could be representing those who believing against this idea and even have experienced this in their lives. The character of the final girl also plays against the expectations of the male audience since not only is she head strong, brave and even possibly masculine, but also this type of character from other females and sometimes doesn't meet the male gaze compared to the other females within the film (though that's mostly down to opinion). However in some cases the final girl does sit nicely between these expectations since she is strong, smart and interesting enough to watch and care about but not to the extent in which she becomes overly masculine that she doesn't meet the male gaze (e.g. Ripley from aliens). 

The Final girl has also been a very large inspiration for strong females in various types of media since the majority of strong females leads are strong, smart, interesting and also meet the male gaze which is what makes them such likeable and recognisable characters since they have both masculine and feminine characteristics and often are very attractive (e.g. wonder woman, rogue, Samus Aran, tomb raider, Chun-Li etc). In the end the final girl theory is simply the identification of certain characters with in a female character in horror films that often play against typical roles females with in storytelling and helps to establish women as much stronger, independent people compared to their stereotypical role of damsel in distress. It's because of these characteristics that the girl is able to outsmart the killer and live at the end due this character being the most developed and cared for by the audience which is often helped by the generic stock characters and taking the view point of the killer so that we can understand how dangerous he is and why there is so much fear when the final girl has to confront him and so much joy when she comes out on top.             

Pyscho VS Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Psycho and Texas chainsaw massacre are two of the most renowned and popular horror films to date and for good reason, both films were cannon to many horror films of the current generation and also help to create the sub-genre know as 'slasher' films. This is was mainly done through the key elements that are used through out bout both films like having a human killer, the larger emphasis on tension and suspense and being based on real life killer Ed Gein, but as similar as the films are the have their difference and it's because of these differences that these films stood on their own and were able to create many of the ideas and conventions used in horror films today.

There is much similarty between both films. As I mentioned before they both have human killers unlike the majority of old horror films having some sort of monster like Dracula or the wolf man, they have a large emphasis on tension and suspense since there the films aren't gore fest and they used their creepy atmosphere and music very effectively and that they were both based on the killer Ed Gein. There are other similarities like the use of a date and time in the opening credits which makes the events that take place in the film look like they could have actually occurred, both films have strong female leads who survive the killer and even help to some-what defeat them (though not to the extent of 'Halloween' and 'aliens'), and that both films use remote locations to signify the isolation of the character like with the bates motel being in the middle of no where and the town where Texas chainsaw massacre takes place being almost deserted. 

Despite their similarities there are also many differences between the films. These consist of: Texas chainsaw massacre while not being a gore fest has a larger emphasis on blood compared to psycho since there is more blood present and the killer has more brutal methods of killing people, the fact that Texas chainsaw massacre is shot in colour compared to psycho being in black and white (relates to the gore factor), the fact that there is suspicion as to who the killer is in psycho were as in Texas chainsaw massacre leather face is the obvious killer, Texas chainsaw massacre uses as documentary style of story telling since there is a narration at the beginning of the film, in Texas chainsaw massacre the entire family are psychopath where as in psycho it's just Norman, also Texas chainsaw massacre is in-conclusive since the girl escape but lather face is still as large where as Norman is captured and section.  

Desensititation theory presention

Desensitisation theory

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This is mine and Leanne's presentation about the desensititation theory.

Audience theories

There are many different audience theories that can be related to audience reactions to what they see and how that reflects on them in real life. However there are four main theories that are most often associated with this type of argument about audience’s viewings.


These theories are: the cultivation theory which is the effects of television on the behaviour and attitudes of the public, and that those who spend more time watching TV will reflect what is being shown on TV.


The copycat theory relates to something that is published in the media which results in other naturally copying what is being seen (e.g. famous stunts or murder that have taken place in a film).


The hypodermic syringe model is when the audience passively receive information via media text without any objection to the data.

And the desensitisation is the over exposure to varying behaviours on screen makes the audience immune to these and thus harder to shock. As a result the effects are generally more widely spread.

Why was 'PSYCHO' such a land mark on the horror genre?

It is easy to argue that 'Psycho' (directed by Alfred Hitchcock) is one of the greatest and most influential horror films to date... but why is that so? There many reasons as to why Psycho is seen as such a great horror film, but there are certain key factors that helped to give it the reputation is has today. First of all the premise of psycho is completely different to any other horror film at the time since most horror films were about monsters like the wolf man, Dracula and Frankenstein and had simple plots about simply defeating these monsters, psycho is a story of betrayal, mystery and real human issues, which made them film seem a lot more realistic than other horror films and made the film a lot scarier since the events that occurred in the film could occur in real life. 

One major factor that made psycho such a hit was because of its killer Norman Bates. Most killers in horror movies were a type of monster or supernatural force that didn't really exist; the use of a human killer added much further to the films sense of realism and set the stage for future human killer such as: leather face (Texas chainsaw massacre) and Michael Myers (Halloween). What was interesting about Psycho is that before Norman bates is revealed to be the killer he seems like a normal person even rather nice at times (despite being controlled by his dominating mother) which really plays with the audience's expectation because in the majority of horror films the killer is painfully obvious from the first time you see them so there is less sense of suspicion and mystery, where as psycho uses these elements to its advantages since the audience were made to expect that Normans mother was the killer after witnessing the shower scene which helped to put the audience on edge and overall make the film scarier. 

This brings me to my final point, which is that Psycho has a larger focus of suspense and tension rather the blood and gore. Through out the film only two people were killed in Psycho and even then the wasn't much emphasis on the blood pouring out of their body (plus the fact that it was shot in black of white) but rather the build up to their deaths and the use of high pitched music or the 'psycho strings'. This more apply to Marion's death or the 'shower scene' which is arguably the scariest scene in the film since the scene where Norman is talking to Marion in the parlour really helps to build  tension and suspense because it's mise-en-scene (the birds being symbolic since Marion's last name is 'Crane' and the way they are position as if they are watching Marion), Norman becoming more paranoid when Marion suggest that he should put his mother in a home, the use of low angle shots near Norman to make him seem like a more powerful an threatening figure etc.

It's because of these key elements that Psycho became such a hit and is regarded as such a great horror film. There are various other reasons why Psycho was such a influential horror (such as the time and dating setting in the beginning of the film and the various shots used in the shower scene) but it's these elements in particular that are the main reason for Psycho's reputation and the reason why many horror film after psycho used a lot it's ideas and conventions (e.g. a human killer and a bigger emphasis on tension and suspense).   

Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992 interpretation differences

Vampires are easily one of the most recognisable and interesting horror icons ever created. This mainly due to the fact that there is a lot more to explore with vampires since they have human characterises and are often seen as rather beautiful creatures compared to other horror icons like the wolf man and Frankenstein. Where it be there presences, powers, scenery they associated them selves with etc, vampires are key movie monster and have been adapted into various different interpretations such as: nosferatu, let me in, van helsing and urgh… twilight. Arguably the most famous vampire tale and character is the story of count Dracula (written by Bram stoker). The story of the Dracula has been used influence various vampire films and the count is a very interesting character and has a sense of class and sophistication to him. The story of Dracula had been adapted in to film various times and the role of Dracula has been played by various different actors (e.g. Max Schreck, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee etc) and Dracula himself has been seen in various different ways, but Bram stokers Dracula (directed by Francis Ford Coppola) has a very unique take on the count and is very different to the traditional look on Dracula.  

The first major difference about this film is that Dracula is given a back story into who he was and why he became a vampire, this helps to establish Dracula as a much more deep and meaningful character instead of just the typical vampire which helps the audience to connect with him more since he only became a vampire because he lost his wife. Skip to present day and we see that Draculas first appearance is vastly different to his traditional look of a cape and a suit, this Dracula has a long red gown, looks rather old and has an odd hair style, he also speaks in a much more slow and creepy manor which reflect how much the curse has effected him and how time has also effected him. When Dracula moves over seas into London his appearance is radically different since he is tall, strapping, handsome and very classy (which caters towards the more traditional look of Dracula, he also has much more human features which makes him look like and every day person and helps him to blend in with the environment.

The reason for this change is done incredibly well because while at his castle his notices that a picture of Jonathan’s wife looks very similar to his wife and because of this Dracula begins to have an emotional attachment to her. When ever Dracula and Maria are together he takes the more elegant form of himself where as when they are apart he looks more like the old decaying version, this is a very strong contrast because it shows how Dracula is filled with life when he is around Maria, because of this Dracula comes off as being a tortured soul instead of monster. He also acts differently around Maria since he won't hesitate to bite any random strange but he struggles against his vampire instinct to bite Maria since he doesn’t want to subject her to the cursed life he follow and this really helps to further segment Dracula as not a monster but merely trapped in an endless cycle of pain and suffering.