Research and Planning: Questionnaire Results

2. Do you think we should have a voice over for our trailer?

6. Do you prefer films in first, second or third person?

Research and Planning: Suitable and Unsuitable Trailers

This Paranormal Activity trailer would not be too hard to achieve. The simple location and filming techniques mean that it is easy to do. No extreme weapons or locations are used, meaning that the acting would be simple enough and and I feel that we could achieve this type of trailer. 


This Saw trailer would be difficult to achieve with the facilities and equipment that are available to us. The extreme weapons and strange locations would be hard to get hold of, and are dangerous. The characters would also be difficult to achieve as the makeup/masks wouldn't be something we could get hold of.

Research and Planning: Questionnaires Screenshots

This is a blank questionnaire before it was filled in.

This is a completed questionnaire, the results of all questionnaires are in a different post.

Research and Planning: What Is a Trailer?

A trailer is promotional tool for a film. A teaser trailer is usually in between about 1 minute and 1 minute 30 seconds. A full length trailer is about 3 minutes long. They are shown on TV and screening before a film and include clips from the actual film to show what the film is about.


Typical codes and conventions of a trailer can include:

• Montage
• Voice over
• Titles
• Title of Film
• Release Date
• Certificate
• Studio Name
• Peak Scenes from Narrative

Research and Planning: Most Popular Horror FIlms

I went on IMBD and searched the top most current horror movies, and these are the first 14 most popular results.

Research and Planning: Audience Research Theories

The Hypodermic Needle Model
-The audience receive the message that and accept the message unconciously.

The Cultivation Theory
-The more time the audience spend watching TV and playing games, there more they begin to believe that it's real.

Desensitisation
-The more people watch a certain genre of film, they will become immune to it and it will no longer affect them, for example, horror films won't scare someone who has watched so many and become immune to them.

Modelling or Copycat Theory
-People copy things that they see on films or games and blame the film/game for the reason they did it. For example, criminals can commit crimes and blame a violent game for it, as they have copied it.

Uses and Gratifications Theory
-The audience take out what they need from the film, and dismiss or reject what they don't need and what they know isn't real.

Research and Planning: 2nd Trailer Analysis

The Blair Witch Project

Genre

The genre of this film is horror. This is very clearly seen throughout the trailer, but is made very obvious at the start where there is titles shown on the black background telling the scary story of how the film was discovered. 

The questioning of the people from the town also begins to show the horror as they are telling the characters their creepy encounters with the 'Blair Witch'. The footage from in the woods then shows the main horror of the film and where it begins to go wrong.

Most of the lighting throughout the trailer is low key, showing the scary, dull events that happen in the film showing the audience that it is dark and sinister.

The Carol Glover theory is quite relevant to this trailer/film as it shows that the main girl, who was the person who planned the whole thing is the one who is terrorised throughout the film until the end.

Representation

In this trailer, the representation of men and women is quite typical. When the map gets lost the trailer shows the male character blaming the female character for losing it and by him having the stronger side of the argument, it makes him look stronger than her. This make the female character look weak and vulnerable, being a stereotypical representation of male and female characters.

Narrative

A very clear narrative is shown through just the trailer to this film as the title tell the story and move on time, and the footage does the same whilst giving drama to the story.

The narrative is typical to this genre of film as it shows people who are unprepared and unaware for what is coming, therefore it is obvious that something bad is going to happen to the characters. The events that happen are predictable, for example; something going wrong = losing the map, and the characters dying was always going to happen from an audience point of view.

Todorov's theory occurs in this trailer as the beginning of the trailer the is equilibrium and everything is calm from the footage before the adventure starts. The disruption occurs when the map becomes lost and there is conflict within the group of the three people. The climax then happens when the girl is screaming whilst running through the woods, but it then goes quiet again which could be seen and the equilibrium resolved, although the actual resolved equilibrium will be shown in the film.

Audience

As the certificate of this film is a 15, the audience will obviously be people aged 15 and above up to people in about their late 20's. I don't this film has particular gender in it's target audience as none of the characters are sexualised, therefore is doesn't attract a certain gender.

This trailer/film has it's uses and gratifications as the audience will dismiss the fact that there is a 'ghost/witch' involved as many will not believe in this, although they will take in the fact that the character as killed and is an important aspect.

The storyline in this film can sometimes get quite complicated, meaning that the audience will need to concentrate, all though this is only a small proportion of the film meaning that for most of it they can sit back and relax. This type of film is always the same as the jumpy/scary bits are when concentration is needed. This could attract the audience to watch it more as a lot of younger people prefer something that they can just sit back and watch.

I think the lifestyle of people that watch this film would probably be people in college or university that will watch it with friends rather than on their own, so they will be people who socialise. 

Media Language

Cinematography

There is some very effective cinematography is this trailer. The hand held camera throughout shows that the film is supposed to be viewed as 'real footage', therefore this makes it more believable  It also makes the footage more dramatic as the audience get the see what is happening from the characters point of view.

The close up on Heather, the main girl face when she is crying in the tent is very dramatic as it is close up on her eye with tears, this make the image very creepy and dramatic and makes the viewer tense.

As the characters are running with camera, is gives the impression that they are being chased, and as the audience get the characters point of view, the audience feel as though they are part of it.

Editing

The many fades to black after each snippet of footage makes the trailer very dramatic as it doesn't show the whole scene so the viewer wants to know what happens next in the scene.

The fades to black also show the progression of time throughout the trailer, therefore it makes sense and doesn't get confusing.

There isn't a lot of editing in this trailer which makes the fact that it is supposedly 'real footage' more believable and more realistic, therefore little editing will achieve the effect wanted.

Sound

With each fade to black comes a a deep heavy drum sound. This none diegetic sound shows the darkness and drama within this film. 

Through the diegetic sounds in the woods around them make the footage natural, but also dramatic as the woods brings lots of unexpected noises, making some parts of the footage jumpy. This can be used cleverly, as a branch can snap, making them jump, although that it a natural sound in the woods but then a noise that isn't supposed to be there can be used straight after as it is even less expected, this can make the audience even more tense.

The dialogue throughout is very important as it not only tells the story but also the mood of the characters. The fear in the characters voices is huge aspect in this trailer, as the shouting and the language used shows just how scared they actually are, giving the audience more insight into how they are feeling.

The diegetic sound when they are running is very dramatic as you can hear the breathing of the characters showing the fear.

Mise-en-scene

The location in this trailer is the biggest aspect of mise-en-scene. The woods are the main location being where most of the time is spent, but it is also a very effective location as anything unexpected can happen. As everything is hidden behind trees etc., the audience don't know what will happen next, therefore the suspense is kept throughout.

The house at the beginning of the trailer also shows the ordinary lives of the characters involved, which again, makes it more believable.

The costumes of the characters are just ordinary, casual and suitable for their adventure in woods. They also show that the characters are just ordinary people and make the plot believable.

The low key lighting throughout gives away the dull sinister plot to the film. The scenes that are filmed in the dark are made obvious by the dark, black and white camera shots. These shots are very dramatic as the dark is perceived as scary, therefore these scenes are a lot more scary.

The low key lighting also portrays the mood of the characters, which is scared and tense.