Questionnaire Results & Figures

After conducting a questionnaire on key aspects of horror genre's for our film trailer, i decided to record the most important questions in bar charts as we as a group believe will help us create and develop our film trailer.

Results bar charts

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Questionnaire

Here me and my group have conducted a questionnaire in order to help us create our film trailer. the questionnaire should help us with what to put in to our film trailer and what not to put in to it.

Questionnaire

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Production Meeting

We held our first detailed production meeting today. We discussed some key points in making our production. Here are some things we discussed;

1) Genre
-We discussed the various sub genres of horror such as ghosts, torture, gore, santanism, serial killers and zombies. These sub genres can be seen in contemporary successful horror movies today. For example; Saw contains

the sub genre of gore and torture on the other hand The Last Exorcism deals with satanism and paranormal activity. Our group has made a final decision that we are going to create a trailer within the sub genre of serial killer and satanism.

2) Plot Ideas
- We discussed a range of possible narratives within this sub genre and came to a conclusion after researching and brain storming ideas. Our plot contains an introverted child getting bullied at a high school by "the popular group". As times pass, the child who was once getting bullied see's a darker side to life and believes in satanism of which he is commanded to sin and seek revenge. We think the stereotypical representations will fit naturally within the horror genre containing typical conventions. This is only a microcosm of which would be a 90minute film, therefore we believe it gives us enough material to make a dramatic trailer.

3) Character Ideas
- As with many of the horror films we researched we will be using stereotypical character types. Using Vladimir Propp's character groupings we will create some of the following stock characters: The Villain, The hero and the princess.

The modern stereotypical Hollywood princess is of a white ethnicity, blonde or brunette, late teens, and physically attractive.

The modern stereotpical Hollywood hero is also of a white ethnicity, tall, athletic and strong of a similar age group.

Our villain will be an introvert character, very innocent at a young age. In our production we will challenge the stereotypical conventions of a villain

4) Mise En Scene
- For the Mise En Scene we researched via looking at contemporary trailers of typical conventions and stereotypes. Stereotypes were elicited out of things such as location, gender, characters, props and lighting. Usual props we saw were props that helped the people get into the predicament such as broken mobile phones/cars and we also saw many props in terms of weapons.

We decided to create a short movie of us creating a brainstorm of some things that we may include in our trailer...

trailers

Conventions Of A Horror

Watching a hand full of Horror film trailers i noticed repetitive conventions with the trailers i watched.

.Film Companies involved are all put at the beginning of the opening sequence of the trailer

. A dialogue is always spoken at the beginning by the character or character involved.

. Deep dark noises are always made when scenes change along with screams and shouting from the characters/ actors involved.

. The scenes are all cut very quickly and are pacey, with camera angles always being close up or mid close up to show and portray the feelings of the actors, on just how scary the ordeal/situation they're in.

.Females

.The actors are always sweaty and of rough looking clothes to show what they have been through.

. Dim orchestral back line music is always playing over the trailer to represent the seriousness of the film.

. The camera movement always zooms in or around the scene. and panning occurs frequently within the trailers.

. The film trailer always starts of happy Then gets darker towards the ending of the sequence.

. Females in most horror stories are always the weaker target unless the female is the main character, in then which she is the surviving character that defeats the evil scenario/ordeal.

. Gore and blood are a common theme to see, or a substance that is revolting.

. There is always a group or couple that are linked in some way.

. The plot is always revenge, lesson learnt, or pure evil & Death.

. Horror Films always offer Social Interaction and Entertainment to there target audience.

Audienece Theory

The target audience at which things are aimed at are very selective about what to watch and consume as there media intake. there are many reasons and within this post i shall try to explore those reasons in greater depth with 2 of the many theories created around them.

The first theory i will be talking about is the Blumer and Kats theory, this is the target audience making an active decision in to what media they decide to consume in order to meet there specific needs. Media can INFORM & EDUCATE, meaning what it says it gives information and helps give understanding in to a certain topic or subject.

IDENTIFICATION: This is when the target audience can relate to the piece of media because they have either been through the situation or can relate through some similarity.

ENTERTAINMENT: This makes the target audience feel something or react in a certain towards the piece of media.

SOCIAL INTERACTION: This gives the target audience the ability to talk to others about the piece of media he consumed.

ESCAPE: This is a piece of media that offers the target audience a reason to relax and forget about the troubles there real life has and almost live the life the character within the piece of media has.

There is also a different approach to Media intake going by the theory of Richard Dyers' Utopian Solution's Theory. This having 3 main reasons for consuming the media. These are called Inadequacy, These are isolation, Confusion and Boredom to these 3 reasons there are answers these answers are Community, Clarity and Excitement. This theory is very simple and easy to understand with the table involved.

Textual Analysis Of Saw III

Saw III is a 2006 Canadian-American horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman from a screenplay by Leigh Whannell and story by James Wan and Whannell.The story follows Jeff after his son is hit and killed by a car; he is put in a series of tests by Jigsaw in order try and let go of his vengeance on the man that killed him. Meanwhile a bed-ridden John Kramer has ordered his apprentice Amanda Young to kidnap a doctor named Lynn, in order to keep him alive for one final test before he dies of cancer. Saw III also contains additional back-story about the two antagonists.

The connotation's within this film subject to props being used is mainly mechanical machinery and metal. From these props, the location can be told of that the movie is filmed within a set up factory, the film is about teaching people who are in really fortunate positions in life but abusing there privileges, an evil life threatening lesson. The people within this film are all American and middle aged within their 40's and 30's, the majority of them Caucasian with one black American gentleman. There is an even mix of Male and female characters/actors,which is very different for horror films because, groups within horror films are either friends or couples of some sort that know each other, were as within this film, none of them are of each other knowledge or recollection.

The iconography within this trailer is very typical to the horror film genre. Sharp contraptions, with fierce metal killing blades, Rough Beat up clothing for the ordeal's the characters have endured, sweating and hard body struggle and lastly dark rusty surroundings.

The camera shots being used in the film trailer are that of typical horror film Genre with many hard Close ups and Mid Close Ups, to portray and make exemplar the fear and terror that is occurring within the film. Something different with camera shot's in the sense that a lot of the shots are made from behind as well as from the front, almost like and over the shoulder shot. This is to show what the actor/character is looking at, almost trying to subjectively film. Within this film Zooms are used quite frequently to get a deeper insight in to the situation that is going on in the film. A lot of pans are used, The camera panning around the room as the characters are put in situations with objects to help them out. The camera Does a full 360 spin of the room catching all of those items.

The preferred reading of the Film Trailer is that, the target audience would hate to be stuck in some of the situation's or ordeal's that the characters/actors are being placed in. This film Trailer creates fear and panic, the concept of the film being to teach those who are fortunate but abusing there fortune a hard lesson. By this The trailer will make it's target audience reconsider just exactly how there living there lives and also whether what happened to the actors could happen to them in real life.

The audience Gratifications and pleasures offered would be those of a typical horror film/trailer Entertainment, making the audience feel something towards the movie/Trailer. Social Interaction in the case that the viewer will go of to friends and converse about the film and lastly some viewers maybe able to identify with the film, as though they've been in a life changing situation which has made them see things a lot more clearer and in a better prospect.

The different groups represented are office and manual worker's, parent's, predominantly Father's and doctor's. all of these character's/actors are all represented as some type of bad person, that being the reason there in the situation there in within the film trailer.

The pace of the shots are very quick jumping form scene to scene in the trailer. the way the shots merge in to each other is very quick as if a door is being shut with a door back noise added in to the cuts. they have used special camera effects like CCTV, giving the viewer the whole view of the room from a camera in the top corner of the room. the montage is made up of a lot of machinery and mechanical objects and because in reality stopping mechanical items and objects is physically impossible unless another mechanical object is used to turn it of it is impossible' This creates the fear and tense atmosphere of whether or not the person is making it out alive or not.

The genre of this film is Horror, with the sub genre being Thriller and Murder. A lot of lives and bodies were claimed in this film to show the gruesome and horrid detail they've gone in to, to scare there audience.

Textual Anylisis Of The Last Exorcism

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4275897881/

The film is told from the perspective of a disillusioned evangelical minister, who after years of performing exorcisms decides to participate in a documentary chronicling his last exorcism while exposing the fraud of his ministry. After receiving a letter from a farmer asking for help in driving out the devil, he meets the farmer's afflicted daughter.

The props used are that to also signify the location of were the film is set. tyre swings hanging from a tree, cars driving on the right side of the road, houses run down made out of wood. these are all connotations and signifier of the film being created and filmed in America.The iconography items used in this trailer are those of old holy scriptures and books, Jesus crosses and cats. These all have some type of mystery and idea of evil behind them as well as good.

Within the trailer a lot of mid shots and close ups are used, a lot of scenes are put together to create a montage of 1 topic or subject at hand.P.O.V's are also used within this trailer to represent and show the seriousness of what's going within the film. Subjective Filming is also used to create macabre scenes and sways the audience in to feeling and thinking as though there in the same ordeal as the character/actor. This is important within Horror as it heightens the entertainment factor of the film also adding and giving more of a thrill to the audience.

The preferred meaning that the creator's of this trailer have tried to enforce on there target audience are that there is one form of evil and Satanism within the world we live in today the tailors been created to put viewers on edge of there seats.
This film trailer once again follows the conventions of the majority of horror film's, made to entertain and offer social interaction the the viewer. it also can offers some form of identification, as some viewers may be very religious and feel that the happenings within the film are very real and something they have either experienced or seen before. The different representations of groups given within the trailer are mainly religious people. There represented as something wrong and evil, Preachers/Pastors are represented as liars and fake.

The editing done within this film is very quick and pacey using 10 cut shots within the first 16 seconds of the trailer.the continuity and editing has been arranged in a subjective filming, so the way each scene merges in to each other is as if a camera recorder's tape has finished or cut out. The montage sequence has been created using loads of quick scenes of holy scriptures, Bible's and crosses. this adds fear and tension to the viewers watching the trailer. the trailer also uses non-diagetic audio's to haunt and also scare the viewer. There is also a voice over to add more depth in to what the film trailer is about.

The Genre is Horror and the sub genre is religion with a mix of the supernatural tied in. The film toys with the reality and non reality of religious good figures and bad.

Textual Analysis Of The Human Centipede

A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exploited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theaterr after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film begins.

The Human Centipede First Sequence is a 2010 Dutch horror film written and directed by Tom Six. The film tells the story of a German doctor who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming a "human centipede". It stars Dieter Laser as the villain, Dr. Heiter, with Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, and Akihiro Kitamura as his victims. According to Six, the concept of the film arose from a joke he made with friends about punishing child molesters by stitching their mouths to the anus of a "fat truck driver." Six also stated that inspiration for the film came from Nazi medical experiments carried out during World War II, such as the actions of Josef Mengele at Auschwitz concentration camp.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4206561049/

http://www.humancentipede.co.uk/

The Human Centipede film is very typical in the connotations within the props, location and actors the film uses.The props used are unlucky props such as Broken cars, this is how the actors fate and situations are predicted and decided. Usage of broken telephones are used as props. these are there to make sure that the characters are un able to escape the predicament that there in and also keep the viewers on edge with the characters. The Location that the Film is set in, is that of a quiet German neighborhood, next to a woodland drive through. The people used are cocaision females of American background, a man in he's 60's/70's, of a German background and a young Korean man.

Iconography within the trailer are things like hospital beds, drugging equipment, syringes and hospital clothing e.g overalls, face masks & gowns.

the camera shots used are mainly mid close ups, close ups. The camera tends to pan to the right very often and also from behind the character/actor to create a form of tension and scariness towards the viewer. The zoom in the trailer is used to portray the actors/characters expressions and feeling's through there ordeal. The cutting sequence within the trailer only cuts 8 times within the first 20 seconds which is very different for a horror film movie trailer as they tend to cut very quickly from the beginning of the film, were as here the quick cutting scenes gradually build up.

The preferred reading that the creators of this film trailer would like to be given and received, is that of the feeling of sickness and scariness. they would like to use all there skills of blood and gore not to chase away the target audience but to attract the target audience, which is a very different approach. the audience gratifications offered through this trailer are predominantly entertainment and some social interaction, the audience will be entertained by the story plot along with all the going on's within the film. The target audience would socially interact through talking about weather the film was good or not' what could have been better and why.

The different representations given are that of Occupation, Gender, and Nationality. The doctor/scientist is German and plays the evil, sadistic role with is common in many pieces of media, with the villain being foreign. The 2 girls are American and are the victims who are there as innocent tourists. this gives the representation of females being meek and easy to manipulate. this has been a common occurrence in many horror film's over the years and has been one of the many reasons for the up rise in horror as a genre it self.

the pace of the shots are very slow & sturdy building up to a more quicker and shaky pace to signify the drama and the pace of what's going on within the film at the time. the continuity editing is very little as it's trying to not do that and is doing what is called jump cutting. there is also a lot of cross dissolve in which scenes are mixed together to show the plot and what is also going on. there are also a lot of fade out transitions used to show how the story is evolving and what's going on next.

the genre is Horror and the Sub Genre is Science slash sci-fi, due to the fact that it toys with the human body and things that have never ever been thought of or attempted in the world we live in today.

Audience Identification

I and my group have decided that our for our social grouping of our target audience, our age range for our horror film trailer is going to be between 16 & 22 and we have decided to cator to both gender's, male and female.

They will be between C1 & E of the Social Classification table, this table portrays how much or roughly how much our target audiences earns and whether or not they would be able to afford our film. To group our target audience for our horror film trailer, i will be using the Graham Burton theory, in which he groups target audience's by there media. This is other media intake such as magazines, t.v etc. The theory is also made up of Social grouping in which this tells the audiences age, gender etc.

Our target audience's other media preferences, will be other horror films such as Scream, Creep, It, Chainsaw Massacre and so fourth. T.V programmes that our target audience will be in to will be programmes such as, friends, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy, mainly sitcoms and light drama's like Hollyoaks & EastEnders. They May also be in to football and action films for thrill and and entertainment purposes.

Magazines that our target audience will be in to, for the Females are magazines like Cosmopolitan, Closer & Red, magazines that give a really detailed and hard incite in to fashion and female perception in toady's society. The male magazine intake for our target audience will be magazine's like Zoo, Nuts & FHM. These magazines all Heterosexual, offer the male eye of today's society a chance to look at the other sex in more vivid sexual detail, also giving tips to health and Life.

Our target audience will be very Web 2.0, producing a lot of user generated content, through web publications such as Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter & so fourth. This gives our film the automatic Social Interaction use & Gratification.

Intorductory Post

For my task and briefing at hand, i and my group have decided to create a horror film trailer, reason being because we think the depths and heights our filming could take us to would be very interesting to face and also enjoy. i and my group have never covered or created anything to do with horror so this we feel may be a real challenge, as horror is there to Entertain and offer Escapism to it's audience as well as squeamish nightmare's.

My group consists of Elise Denyer who is extremely organised, with good perception skills, Callum willson who is very skilled at the art of writting, with an extended, sophisticated set of vocabulary & my self Eugene Bongo, who sketches and enjoy creating scenery with the sketches.With this cauldron of skills I and my group should be able to successfully create this horror film trailer.

The Genre

The term "Horror",or "Horror Film", first appeared in a critics analysis of (1931) Dracula & Frankenstein, both created by Universal Studios. Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to draw out emotions of fear, disgust and horror from the target audience. Horror films often use startling scenes through macabre, the use of a grim or ghastly atmosphere, often overlapping with the supernatural & science fiction Genre's, also frequently overlapping with the thriller genre.

Horror Films often endure the plots of the intrusion of an evil force, personage. Famous horror film writer's can be listed from Gret's such as Ambrose bierce, Richard Laymon to Tony Marsterton, all who have written and produced some of the greated horror films known today and are responsible for creating the genre today as we know it. Horror.