Target audience.

Prior to any Film production you will have to establish who your main Target audience is so you are able to work this to your advantage. A target audience is the primary group of people that your product is aimed at. It can target people of a certain age group, gender and ethnicity etc. Therefore before filming the trailer we had thought of a target audience to aim our film at.



The photo above is a picture of Ben, he is what I believe to be a stereotypical audience member of our film. I chose Ben as he represents the age of 17-25 which fits the criteria of our film being an 18+ certificate. The certificates of a film are decided by the British Board of Film Classification as previously there were no agreed rating standards on films therefore young children could watch explicit scenes of violence, sex and drugs and many people didn’t agree with this. As horror films often contain scenes including weapons, gore and mass murders they are not suitable for those under the age of 15 or sometimes 18 depending how detailed the deaths are. As the deaths in our trailer are quick explicit we have chosen to give our film an 18 certificate. Furthermore people under the age of 17 would not be as much of an enthusiast of horror films as they are too young to fully understand some of the complex storylines and will be affected by the disturbing scenes to a greater extent than an older audience.

Another reason I designated this particular image was mainly due to his appearance, as he conveys an average male who enjoys the horror Genre. His appearance conveys this as he looks very dark and would probably be defined under the social group Emo or Goth on account of his hairstyle and clothes choice. He enjoys films such as The Saw sequel, The Grudge, Halloween and many other popular Horror/Thriller Titles. He also watches Television programmes like Skins, CSI, Dead Set, Being Human and Supernatural, as these all feature tension building storylines which are expected and associated with Horror Films. He shops at places such as HMV and GAME because Horror films are popular among film fanatics and predominantly males. His favourite music is Metal or Rock music, this type of music occurs in horror films very often as it sets the thriller scene and appeals to the typical audience, Bands such as Metallica and Motorhead.
The main target audience for a horror film would not conventionally be focused at girly girls as normally these would not consider Horror as their chosen genre probably due to the amount of Gore, violence and suspense. However in our film the cast are all girls some being loud, doppy, girly etc girls may want to watch it as they may relate to a character or scenario, therefore we have made a large target audience for our film consisting of both males and females.

Initial ideas.

We all decided as a group that we wanted to produce a horror trailer. We then started thinking and brainstorming our initial ideas.

Plot - 6 friends go on a camping trip at the end of their a levels, on the journey on the way there, the car runs out of petrol in the middle of nowhere. They have so signal so decide to just camp where they are for the night and wait until the morning to go to get help. Set up camp then all go off to get wood and other things. Each one of them starts getting killed off in a unconventional order, the clever character dies first and the blonde survives till last. At the end their is a twist and they find out the killer is a girl that they used to bully and she is now getting revenge.

Characters - We wanted to use unconventional characters. A couple, a geek (who turns out to be not clever at all), a blonde (turns out to be clever). We also decided we want to use all girls.

Location - Long road - Luittenant ellis way shot from bridge, quiet country lanes, woods for the most part of the trailer and a school.

Film titles - Revenge, Eye for an Eye, Trapped.

Below are inital brainstorms about characters and locations:

Final storyboard.

This is our group’s final storyboard:

It includes all the ideas we inherited from our individual ideas and then put together the parts we thought would work best together. We have written and drawn in detail what we need to film and in what locations, as well as certain shots that could potentially be used in our horror trailer along with the timing. This will help us a great deal when we come to film our trailer as we can refer to the shots when filming and also when editing we can use it to help us have an idea of what order the sequence should be in and the timings etc.

Below is a list of all the different shots and camera angles we want to put in the begining, middle and end:

Inital storyboard.

Before we could start filming, we needed to think of a storyline for our genre of film and what shots would be more affective in the particular genre we choose. Therefore we all individually drew a storyboard of our own ideas and story lines to contribute to the group, as it would help us create several ideas and choose the best amongst them all, create our final shot by shot storyboard that would guide us through filming. By having a detailed storyboard, it will guide our group on the location, angle and mis-en-scene of the shot. Furthermore it conveys how we planned for our trailer to look, what our original ideas where and perhaps how we’ve improved it.

My initial storyboard:

After we all sketched an initial story board, we discussed what would and wouldn't work and adapted each of our ideas to create a final storyboard. By having four individual initial storyboards it meant we have lots more ideas to use and discuss which ones are the preferred and include them in our final shot by shot storyboard.

Location analysis.

The location for many horror films is conventionally an isolated place where there is no escape. The characters often feel trapped and end up in this mysterious place by accident. In many horror films it is usually a forest, house or somewhere the are trapped in e.g. a cave. Below is a photo of our loacation in the day time.




We choose this pacific place as we felt it fitted the genre well.

Mis-en Scene analysis.

The mis-en scene for a horror is very often similar in many films, as conventioally the murderer is dressed in dark, dull clothes so they are heardly revealed and the victims are running around trying to escape in ripped clothing, with blood down them. Therefore we will follow this convention by dressing our murderer in black clothing and some how dissguise her face to make her look mysterious.
The lighting tends to be dark as horrors are generaly filmed at night as most people fear the dark more as they feel vulnerable and at a greater risk, therefore we will film the majority of or trailer at night.
The camera angles say alot about a film and conventionlly in horror film they use behind shoots to convey someone is being watched or crept up on, close ups of the victims distraught and quick pae shots of the murder, therefore we will use all the ones i have listed plus more to make our trailer as interesting as possible.
As we wantedto stick to the above conventions because these are what make a horror genre easy to identify.



This is an example of a stereotypical murderer as he is dressed in dull, dark clothes and is hiding their identity.

Sound/ Music Analysis.

During horror films the sound and music helps to build the tension for the audience. We tested this by putting a horror film on mute and although it was still scary it wasn't as effective or jumpy. Therefore we assed what kind of music and sound effects they used to create maximum effect. We found that the music always begun low and peaceful then gradually built up towards the middle of the trailer getting louder and adding more bass. This connects with Freytags and Tzvetan Todorov theory as the music of a trailer tends to fit the pattern of the equilbrium triangle as the music begins slowly when everything is "normal" and as the equilbium is disrupted the music becomes louder and deeper to become more effective and convey the disequlibrium. Therefore we are going to use this theory in our trailer.

Character Analysis.

In any horror film you always have a villian, which is normally the killer and a victim/s that are being tortured. After watching many horror trailers the murderer is conventional male therefore we wanted to do a unconvetinal twist on the murderer to create a good selling point for our film. Therefore we decided to do a female killer as we could really use this to distinguish our film from many other horror films on the market. We had already planned the majority of our story line, our story line was that several a level students where heading off on a camping trip we needed more than one vitim. We decided to use five as we wanted to use an odd number to convey a sense of unsteadyness. To begin with we was going to use male and female victims with different personalities e.g. a nerd, a big headed one and a couple. However we then decided to do an all female horror as not only was it unconventional but it would appeal to males due to the male glance and them viewing the females fighting for their lives but also females as they can emphasise with other females easily and perhaps they have been camping or perhaps they are like a percific character. Below are the characters we used and the reasons we used them:

Jodie- The murderer.

We choose Jodie to be the murderer as we felt she was not a sterotypical killer, her long blonde hair and blue eyes are very unconvetional of a murderer. However we wanted to add a twist to all our characters and plot. Although she is not classed as a conventional killer her mis-en-scene was dull, dark and scary which is conventional of a killer therefore it was still easy for the audience to easily identify she was the killer. To begin with we was going to use a small timid character as the murderer, as our storyline was the murderer became a murderer after being bullyed over a period of time. However we felt Jodie worked better as she is very timid, shy,broad and tall. These adjectives are not normally ones you would associate together therefore it makes it clear to the audience why the other characters may be bullying her. Also Jodie was our final choice as she had some knowledge of what it was like to be bullyed and therefore could convey real emotions in the filming and also we knew she would be very reliable as she was a part of our group therefore she wouldn't let us down when we needed her for filming etc.

Philippa- The Survivor.

In most horror films it is conventional to have a survivor, however although we stuck to conventions we added a slight twist. As quite often the survivor is a man or a strong willed dominating character. As our cast was all females we had to choose a female survivor, however we choose Philippa as she is a short and blonde and conventionally blondes are seen as being dumb and fake, therefore we wanted to change conventions and show blonde women in a different intelligent light.

Chelsey- The Geek.

When we was anaylising conventional characters amongst a gang of friends, there always seemed to be "the geek". However the geek is conventionally very clever and seems to survive or be the last to die, however we wanted to convey the geek as being ditsy and not very clever meaning she was one of the first to die. We choose Chelsey for the role as we all thought she fitted the appearance of a geek well.

Miranda (me)- The loud one.

Amongst every group of friends there tends to be a leader, therefore I was chosen to be the loud one as I was the leader of the group. You can tell this in the trailer by the way I am driving the vehcle and also the way the other girls tend to follow me e.g. when the car broke down they all followed me.

Natalie- The dumb/ doopey one.

We all choose to have a doopey one as they tend to break the tension in a horror and add a little laugh to the story line. We choose Natalie to play this part as she natuarally comes across as dopey by the way she acts, therefore we thought she would be perfect for the role.

Kelsey- The tom boy.

Finally our last character was Kelsey acting like a tom boy, we decided to choose a tom boy as we did not have any male characters in our trailer therefore we wanted to add somebody who would have that masculine, sporty attitude. We choose Kelsey because her dress sense and style is slightly more casual than some of the other girls we choose for our cast.

Mood Board.

To gather ideas for my horror trailer I put together a mood board to compare the similarities that occur in colour, character and themes. I observed that all the photos below use dull, dark colours that are conventional of the scary genre. The anti-protaganist which is often the killer normally wears a mask or has a terrifying distorted face, as hiding their identify adds mystery, makes them looks horrific and adds tension. The innocent victims are conventionally tortured in a graphic, gory way to add the gruesomeness to the genre. The setting and theme conventionally starts peacefully however the victim/victims take a wrong turn to fall in to the villains trap where the surrounding changes and conventional turns dreary, leaving the victims trapped, this refers to Freytag's theory of the climax in the film and Torodov's themes of disequilibrium.

Focused analysis of horror.

Conventionally horror films appear very dark with very little lighting. The dark represents the unknown danger that is too come and also conveys the characters fears in being in an isolated place, they often feel uncomfortable in. As the characters show fear and uncomfort it builds tension for the audience as they begin to feel unsettled like the characters. Tension can also be created with use of music, quick shots and dim lighting as it keeps the viewers guessing.

Characters are very important in any storyline as they are often the main feature of a film. A character is normally portrayed by what they are wearing or how they act e.g. if the character has a policemen’s uniform on the viewer will identify he is a police officer or if a characters keeps looking at the floor and has no smile there facial expression conveys they are perhaps unhappy. Therefore to help the audience identify they are watching a horror the murderer is very rarely shown and if they are, they have something about them that does not conform to what a ‘normal’ person looks like e.g. a mask or scaly skin. The victim’s costumes always begin clean however as the pace picks up their costumes become covered in blood, torn and frayed to convey the ordeal they are or have been through. Facial expression is a very key theme to horror as in order to understand the storyline or sympathise with the characters, we need to sense there fear and the only way the audience will feel tension is if the facial expression and body language of the characters portray they are horrified.

Aswell as costumes Props can help the audience identify what genre they are watching therefore you have to be careful not to break the verisimilitude by having an object that doesn't fit with the genre e.g a blow up hammer in a horror. Props in horror films are typically weapons such as sharp objects like knifes, axes or guns used by murderer to kill his victims.

Horror films are typically set in isolated areas where there is no escape. As then the characters are trapped and unaware of their surroundings therefore they are vulnerable. They are conventional set in places like a haunted house, in the countryside or in an isolated forest.

Focused detailed analysis of The Orphan.

The film is about a family who lost their baby and decide to adopt a 9 year old girl who seems perfect in every way. However perfect proves to be far from the truth as the movie slowly enfolds. We come to realise that Esther (the adopted orphan) isn’t who she says she is and in fact is a psychopathic murderer. I will be analysing how the creators capture us as the viewer’s interest through the use of location, editing, camera angles, sound and mis-en scene.
Firstly, the location of the scenes captured my interest a lot when I saw the trailer. The main reason why it captured my interest was due to the fact that the families house is secluded which gives me the impression that they are very vulnerable and alone which means that anything can happen and nobody will know to come to help making the plot seem even more interesting and intriguing. Furthermore, this trailer also captured my interest since the location is quite different compared to other horror films which gives this film a great USP. Having a USP in the film industry is very important since there are so many other films which people can choose to go and see instead. As well as the location, the clothing also gives the viewer an eerie feeling, for instance, the era is very modern and definitely the 21st century as we can see from the cars and houses and school, however, Esther is dressed in a very vintage and olden day dress and her hair is in a very old fashioned hairstyle which shows us that there is something about her which is not normal and not right.
The constant editing throughout the trailer also drew my attention, for instance, while there seems to be equilibrium, there are only a normal change of scene e.g. jump cuts, however, as disequilibrium comes into play, the jump cuts become faster and more recognisable. In addition, the way that the words and the lights seem to leak tells us as the viewers to be prepared for something sinister scary and abnormal causing us to focus on the rest of the trailer even more. As soon as these effects are shown the trailer starts to reveal more, for instance, we are shown the daughter sleeping in total darkness and we think she is alone, but suddenly, as lightning strikes, it lights up the room revealing an angry and disturbed looking Esther. In addition I noticed that at one point, we are shown a few clips of the top of the swing, then of a girl peeping out then of Esther looking. In between these clips there is a short pause which shows a black screen with a voice over talking about Esther saying that trouble has a way of finding her. This causes tension as we wonder what is going to happen next seeing as we were shown that Esther is at that particular scene. Moreover, we are shown the mother running in slow motion which ables us as the viewer to see the terror in her face as she runs to try to save her daughter from being killed in the car causing us to want to watch the movie to find out what happens next.
The types of camera angles and movement also cause tension and suspense within the viewer, for example, we are shown a close up of Esther’s face while she is screaming. While we are shown this close up the camera is not stable, instead it is moving around which reflects just how disturbed Esther is and that something is definitely not right about her. We are shown a medium close up of the mothers face as she is running to try to save her daughter in order for us to see the terror on her face causing us to want to see what happens next. Also, the camera moves in a panning shot for us to see how distraught the boy is.
Sound effects and music are also used to build tension. For example, at the start of the film when there seems to be equilibrium we are able to hear a piano playing softly. However, as the parents are introduced to Esther the playing gets a little faster and louder. Suddenly we are shown a change in Esther’s personality and when this happens, the music stops and we are able to hear an eerie wind like noise as well as thunder like noises in between. These noises get louder and louder as the fast editing increases causing the viewer to brace themselves for an unsuspected ending of the trailer.
The dialogue within the trailer adds to the suspense of the film. Esther says that she guesses she's different which makes us as the viewers ask ourselves in what way is she different. Further on, we hear a voice over which says 'I think there is something wrong with Esther', this again causes us to ask questions and want to know more about what is wrong with her. Furthermore, there is another voice over which says 'trouble does have a way of finding her'. Straight after this voice over we are shown a young girl in the same area as Esther which lets us know that something is about to happen which causes us to wait in anticipation and suspense for what is about to unfold.
In this particular trailer we see equilibrium from the offset. We then see it go into disequilibrium. However we do not see it end in equilibrium giving us as the viewers the urge to want to go and see how this film ends.
From watching this trailer I am able to see that it is mostly hermeneutic since we know and have a sense that something is not right with Esther and that something is going to take a turn for the worst.
From Prop’s 8 character roles, I am able to identify 3 character roles. I am able to identify Esther as the villain, the social worker as the helper and the mum as the hero.
From watching and analysing this trailer I was able to learn a lot about this particular sub genre and how it uses location/setting, camera angles, editing, special effects, mis-en scene, sound effects and dialogue to create tension and suspense in the viewer. I was also able to see where the various theorists’ theories come into play with this particular genre.

Grid of 9 for Silent Hill.

Here is an example grid, analyzing the trailer for 'Silent Hill'.

Grid of 9 for the Silent Hill Theatrical Trailer

Grid of nine analysis of the decent.

Desent Grid of 9 h

Grid of nine analysis of the wrong turn.

Wrong Turn Grid of 9 h

Grid of nine analysis of House of wax.

House of Wax Grid of Nine

Theory.

In class we have been learning about several media theorists. Media theory can be defined as a systematic way of thinking about means of communication and their effects. We have started to learn about how different things are portrayed in films such as behavourism, structuralism, marrative and genre, feminism and post colonialism.

Theorist one: Propp.

Propps theory is a form of structuralism. He identified 8 charcter roles.
The 8 character roles include:
The villain
The hero
The donor
The helper
The princess
Her father
The dispatcher
The false hero
These structures are often culturally derived and form expectations in the mind of an audience from within that same culture e.g. fairy tales always have happy endings or the princess always marries the handsome prince.
Propps theory can be applied to generic structures in western culture such as popular film genres, therefore genre structures form expectations in the mind of an audience that certain rules apply to the narrative. However, cultural change can force structures to change e.g. a hero can now be a woman.

Theorist two: Gustav Freytag

In 1863, the German novelists Gustav Freytag published Die Technik Des Dramas in which he outlines his pyramid structure for the plot. Adapting Aristotle's basic triangle he added the idea of the plot complicating, introducing conflicts and building to a climax point, after which it falls away when the conflicts are resolved, the mysteries are also solved and we are finally left with a satisfactory resolution.

Exposition: The start of the story, the established situation before the story begins.

Rising action: The series of complications, conflicts and and layers of mystery that build toward the climax.


Climax: The turning point and the point with the highest intensity, emotionally or through action.


Falling action: Action following the climax and pieces of the jigsaw falling in to place to solve the mysteries.


Resolution: Any disruptions caused by the rising action are returned to a state or 'normality', the mysteries are solved and as far as possible the established order of the start is returned. However where it can not return to the established order, justice is served.


Freytag's structure is noticeable in Hollywood output and is striking feature of Hollywood film trailers. The form of the triangle used below best represents the timing and the structure used in many film trailers where a quiet opening builds to a punch in the music, followed by rapid action and a falling away to a quiet sound and the credits at the end.

Many different types of media that tell a story e.g Music video, films, film trailers and novels follow Freytag's theory as it is a very effective way of creating drama. If they do not follow this theory it is very unconventional.

Theorist three: Tzvetan Todorov

Freytag's theory was further developed in 1960s by Tzvetan Todorov in to his theory of equilibrium - disequilibrium - equilibrium. Todorov was a bulgarian structuralist, he developed the theory of disrupted equilibrium.He reailsed that stories follow a typical pattern of:
equilibrium - The status quo when things are as they should be.
disequilibrium - The status quo is disrupted by an event.
equilibrium - The status quo is restored at the end of the story by the actions of the hero.
Todorov later developed this into a 5 stage pattern
1) A state of equilibrium at the outset
2) A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3) A recognition that there has been a disruption
4) An attempt to repair the disruption
5) A reinstatement of the equilibrium

Theorist four: Roland Barthes

According to Barthes, there are 5 action codes that enable an audience to make sense of a narrative.
*Hermeneutic - (narrative turning point) we know where the story will go next.
*Proairetic - (basic narrative actions) e.g. detective interviews suspect ( similar
to propps 31 functions)
*Cultural - (prior social knowledge) e.g. our attitudes to gender or racial
stereotypes.
*Semic - (medium related codes) intertextuality.
*Symbolic - (themes) iconography or a theme such as image versus reality

All the theories I have mentioned above I will try to use in my horror film e.g propps theory by clearing demonstrating who the villain is and who are the victims. I will also use Freytag's and Todorov's theory as the trailer will begin with them peacfully setting off, climax in the middle when the victims are being murdered and finally when 'the survivour' is running away its an attempt to repair te disruption. That is when Barthes theory comes in as the audience members will have some knowledge of horrors before hand therefore they know the victim will either survive or it will be left a cliffhanger.

Visual pleasure and narrative cinema.

• Film/images fascinates us (engages our emotions).
• Mulvey uses psychoanalysis to discover where and how the fascination of films is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject (spectator).
• She says she is using psychoanalytic theory 'as a political weapon'.
• Hollywood and music videos manipulates visual pleasure.
• It 'codes the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order'. (male dominated society).

          Scopophilia

• Pleasure in looking (Sigmund Freud 1905).
• Woman as an image, man as beholder of the look.
• Pleasure in looking split between active/male and passive female.
• woman connote 'to-be-looked-at-ness'.
• woman are always places in a film in a seductive way e.g James Bond - long and lingering = time slows down.
• Post-modern =, times changed.
• The woman functions as both as an erotic object for the characters within the screen story and erotic objective for the spectator within the auditorium (object of fantasy).
• The spectator is led to identity with the main male protagonist.

The difference between a trailer and teaser.

The difference between a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer is that a teaser trailer is designed to give you a small insight of the genre and film without giving too much of the story-line away. However a theatrical trailer is longer and normally includes more of the narrative story in the trailer with more references to the main characters and plot.

Here is the teaser trailer for 'Silent Hill'

Here is the theatrical trailer for 'Silent Hill'

As you can see, the second trailer is much longer and includes more narration, more an introduction to the characters, longer lasting shots, location shots, captions to match the trailer, dialogue and more of an insight into the film itself.

Editing film trailers to match the genre.

We looked at a number of film trailers for the same film however each trailer had been edited differently to match the genre that the film had been put in perspective of. Here are some examples of the film trailers that we looked at:

This is the original film trailer for the horror film 'The Shining'.
It fits in with the genre of horror because of the following reasons:

• Erie music
• Isolated location
• Fast editing
• Violent images
• Music speed
• Mis-en-scene
• Quick flashes
• Types of shots

This is re-make of the film trailer 'The Shining' in the genre of a RomCom.

It fits in with the genre of a RomCom because of the following reasons:

• Cheerful music
• Longer shots
• Slower editing
• Camera angles
• Nattive voice
• Introduction of characters

Back to the future.

Before we begun our real filming, we were given a task so we could familiarise ourselfs with how to use the video cameras. We were put into groups and given a set of instructions to follow whilst we were filming. The instructions consisted of a number of shots which we had to shoot of actors within our group. We were given the action in the shot, the shot type, how long the shot had to last for and the location of the shot.
Here is an example of part of the instructions:


Action - Shot Type - Time - Location


Actors A and B walk away from school - MS - 2 secs - Front of school


Empty corridor - LS - 3 secs - Inside


Actor B looks out from behind wall - MS - 2 secs - Inside


Empty corridor - LS - 2 secs - Inside


Actor B says 'Come on. I think it's safe' - CU - 7 secs - Inside


Overall I found this filming task very useful as it improved my understanding of how to film. It taught me a variety of things that will help me with my final filming piece, for example:

• How to upload a video from a video cam to a mac computer.
• Video a shot of scene a few times so you can pick the best out of the shots you filmed.
• Quiet sound location is crucial as the editing becomes a lot easier.
• Taking the acting more seriously helps to make the film more realistic.
• Choose actors carefully so they don't mess around.
• Clear idea of what you want your film to be like so therefore the filming becomes much easier as you know exactly what to film and you want to actors to do.
• To shoot a lot of shorter shots and not to just have one long one.
• Detail is needed in the planning stage.

Film Trailers and Movie Genres.

Films all have a different genre, genre is the type of film. For example:

• Action
• Adventure
• Comedy
• Crime
• Documentary
• Drama
• Horror
• Musical
• Romance
• Sci-fi
• Thriller
• War
• Western

Genre is incredibly important to the film industry in many ways. It helps to catogrise the film and also makes it easy to market when it has a particular genre, as you can market the film in a way that will appeal to your target audeince. Having a particular genre therefore means you can target a particular audience e.g if it is a violent and gory film its target audience will be over 18. It also helps with making and producing the film, for example the writer can follow particular conventions or plot lines from a genre so that the audience can easily idenitfy what genre of film they are watching. Along with conventional camera angles, editing, mis-en-scene and sound effects e.g in an action film when the action begins the pace gets faster, the shots become quicker and the music becomes louder, where as in a romance film the shots are normally quite close up, they linger around the couple and the music is normally soft and passionate.

Coursework Options.

This blog is where I will upload all my ideas and work for my A2 Media studies coursework. For our coursework we had an option to do either a music video or a film trailer. Therefore I decided to create a film trailer as I thought this would be more challenging and you could really adapt and adjust with the conventions of certain genres. We formed a group of 4 and we all discussed our ideas on both a music video and a film trailer and made a joint discussion to do a film trailer. Along with creating a film trailer we also have to make a film poster and a magazine cover which interlinks with my AS coursework of creating a music magazine cover, this was another reason why I choose to do film as I did a music magazine the year before and I wanted to do something totally different.