Feedback on rough cut trailer

Questionnaire results analysis

From our questionnaire, the predominant audience we gathered responses from was 18-24 year old females. Although the mixture is nearly even with 50/50, suggesting that the audience for this appeals to both males and females equally. The second most popular age range was 17 and younger. This suggests that this audience are most likely and interested in a new movies. Horror was the joint second with action, of the most popular genre of films that the results came back with. For the question, "what is your favourite sub-genre of horror?" the most popular one was psychological horror. The least popular choice was the killer/slasher horror. The most consistent response to our film synopsis is that it was a well thought out narrative, and they liked the cliffhanger at the end. another interesting response was that the ending leaves it open to a sequel. when asked whether they would watch a film that has been labelled the scariest movie of all time. The most popular response was "possibly" suggesting that they might watch it depending on whether they get into the narrative once they start watching it. The majority of the responses , 41%, agreed that they are more inclined to watch a film after seeing the trailer. This tells me that a good trailer is key, as it needs to be intriguing for the audience to make them want to watch the movie to find out more. 

Questionnaire results

Representation of Women in Horror

1. Who wrote about the “final girl” in 1992?

Carol Clover

2. In what book did they write about the “final girl”?

Men, Women and chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

3. List three traits of the “final girl”/three ‘conventions’.

Virginal, androgynous and the ability to fight back against danger.

4. Who wrote about existing research on women’s roles in media texts in 1983?

Jeremy Tunstall

5. What were the 4 roles mentioned?

Sexual, domestic, consumer and marital.

6. In 1992 research showed that men dominated women on-screen, but by what ratio?

2:1

7. What was the only genre in which the ratio of males to females was more equal?

TV adverts

8. Name one of the three problems with the findings

Men were still shown to have an occupation, unlike the women which were shown.

9. Why does the reading suggest that Ripley (Alien) is ‘more progressive’ than Lara Croft (TR)?

Lara Croft still has the sexual female character role who wears revealing clothes and attracts male attention as well as being feisty and a dangerous female you can fight her own battles. There is still the voyeuristic view of the male gaze present with this character. However, Ripley does not have this feminine attraction that Croft has.

10. What are the 3 ‘C’s when discussing the portrayal of women in some lifestyle magazines?

Cooking, cleaning and caring.

11. Who wrote 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'?

Laura Mulvey

12. (Briefly) describe what is meant by the ‘male gaze’

When the audience are put in the perspective of a man watching the film, making the female characters seem sexualized.

13. Give an example

In Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho', the audience are shown Janet Leigh's character through a peep hole in the wall. She is in her bathroom having a shower, so the audience are put into the position of Norman Bates who is watching her (making her seem as though she is the object, and we, as Norman, are the subjects).

14. Which magazine removed the male centerfold in the 1980s and why?

Cosmopolitan. Women laughed at it rather than finding it sexy.

Trailer inspiration

The Conjuring (2013): 

This is a paranormal horror, which was directer by James Wan. The cast for the film aren't well known and haven't been in many other films. Therefore, the audience will have been attracted to the film for the narrative itself, and not for the 'stars' that are featured. The film had a budget of $20,000,000, and making $316,700,000 worldwide. 

The target audience for this movie would be 15-25 years olds. This is because the film is a 15 certificate, and this is the age range of the people who would go out to the cinema with friends to watch it. It is "based on a true story" making this narrative intriguing to the audience. Also, there is an element of mystery in the trailer, which leaves some questions unanswered, making the viewer more inclined to watch the film to find out what happens. 
Similarly, this trailer introduces the main characters of the family that move into the house, and the couple that attempt to remove the evil from the house/woman. 

This is a selection of the action scenes from the 'quest' section of the film. All of which are appealing to the target audience, as they are tense and gripping, making the audience want to carry on watching to find out more. 



From these images, we can tell that the mood of the film is a terrifying horror which is going to make the audience scared and intrigued. The characters are scared and give the audience the feeling of fear. This trailer doesn't give away all of the narrative, making the audience hooked. I would like to use aspects of this in my trailer, making the audience question the story, but also giving enough clues about the narrative to not completely confuse them. 

History of Horror

The Blair Witch Project

Teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWO3XP4zavk
Teaser poster: 

Official final trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Hw4bAUj8A

Final film poster:

                                                          

The distribution company for The Blair Witch Project is Artisan Entertainment. It was released in 38 countries and was shown in 1,101 screens in the opening weekend of it's release. Thus, making $29,207,381 in the opening weekend. 

FDA UK Distribution Guide and Questions on Film Distribution

1. What is meant by the term film distribution?

Attracting the audience to see the film, getting it to the largest scale audience it can reach. 

2. What does a film distributor do? 
They look for distinguishing features of the film that they know will be marketable to a well suited audience. They also realize that a 'local' product is very important. In selling to audiences, they naturally are more accepting of films that originate from their home country, such as a British audience will be more inclined to warm to a British film. 

3. How does reach relate to film distribution?
If the marketing of a film has a large spread, and has a good frequency in the number of products that are produced, it will reach a wide audience and frequently be seen. However, this may create a good reach, but will cost a lot of money, so will need to be assured a profit on the film at the end of it. 

4. What is meant by the distribution plan? 
When and how to release a film in order to maximize chances of success. They gather not only market knowledge, but also commercial experience along with statistical evidence to gain information and result in release dates for the films. Once the distributors have estimated how much the film will earn, they prepare a budget for how much they can spend on marketing and production for the movie. 

5. What is meant by the marketing plan? 
The marketing plan is put in place to create awareness about the film, and to gain as much publicity as is possible. This is done through finding the most popular ways to get the attention of a specific audience. For example, newspaper adverts will gain more attention from older audiences, as they are more likely to be reading it. However, trailers for the film that come on in the adverts of the channel four soap 'Hollyoaks' will be a younger, more teen based audience, because they are the age group that will be watching the show. Posters, trailers and online sources are ways of marketing the product. 

6. What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion?
Advertising is where companies pay for their product to be put our to the audience, and establishes awareness of it. For instance, the new new Hunger games film, Mocking jay will have paid for their film poster to be put in magazines, on websites and on billboards. The company pay for the amount of space the poster will take up, and for how long it will remain in/on there and in the public eye. However, the idea of promotions, is to build sales in the short term, rather than the large scale, long-term awareness that advertising brings. Promotion also can allow the audience to interact with the product. Examples of these are press releases and merchandise to promote the film. Alternatively, publicity is what is gained from the advertising and promotion of the product. Publicity can be gained by the film's cast making appearances and dong public interviews about the film. This has been known to engage the audience more than some advertising that has been paid for. The audience are more likely to take an interest, if it is of a more personal nature, such as interviews with famous talk show hosts, such as Johnathan Ross. This will all gain exposure for the film, making it more profit in sales, as it will be more popular and well known. 

Audiences and Institutions: The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2012)

1.  Who do you think the primary and secondary target audience is for The Woman in Black? why?

I believe that the primary audience is male and females under the age of 25. This is the age group that typically enjoy horror films, no matter what the narrative is, they just like to be scared. However, I believe females under the age of 25 would screen the movie because of Daniel Radcliff as the protagonist. The secondary audience would be middle aged, middle class audience, because of the time period that this film is set in. It is a typical period-drama setting, so the audience that would like those, would possibly be interested in watching this film for that reason. 

2. How was The Woman in Black marketed?

Firstly there was a teaser campaign that came out five moths before the films release. This would create a stir in audience members and get them talking about this new film before it was out. The teaser campaign included a film poster and teaser trailer. This poster introduced the genre of horror into the film, and made it clear who was the main actor featuring. Daniel Radcliff was one of the main reasons for this film's marketing success. He recorded interviews and appearances to promote this film, which were shared online and on television. This drew his fans in who had followed him through the years with the Harry Potter franchise. He spent a lot of his time on marketing this film, wanting his career to move away from the success of the Harry Potter films and into this new horror genre. The main campaign brought the official trailer for the movie and a new and improved poster. We began to see the film's narrative unfold a little more with the added elements to these products. Therefore, the audience began to get gripped on the horrifyingly scary ghost story, making them more inclined to see this film on the release. Not only did they use newspapers to do press advertising, but the producers also created a radio advert, so that this trailer was being heard everywhere. It was also being seen everywhere, through the use of billboard advertisements. The Woman in Black also had merchandise created for the film. They had products to market the new film, including T-Shirts, mugs and torches. also, they had the original The Woman in Black book cover redesigned with Daniel Radcliff's portrayal n it. The world premier attracted wide attention, and at this point, after months of publicity and promotion, masses of people were ready to screen this new horror film. The campaign was extremely large, and took a lot of time and effort to carry out. However, without it, the film would not have had the huge success that it reached. 

3. Do you think that the marketing material were appropriate for the film? Why?

I do believe that the marketing was appropriate for the film. The marketing was spread worldwide, creating maximum success from the promotions. This, along with the use of Daniel Radcliff as the protagonist, brought a vast amount of people interested in this new release. I believe that the trailer alluded to the frightening nature of the film, showing that although it was only registered as a 12a film, it is still an extremely jumpy film.  However, I believe that this film was wrongly certified. I think it should be a 15 rather than a 12a. This is because of its jumpy nature, and the fear that is created by the curse of The Woman in Black could easily be too much for a young child to watch, because they would be the age that The Woman in Black would go after. 

4. What kind of release did the film have?

The film had a very large release, and was shown 2856 cinemas in over 46 countries on its release. 

5. How much did The Woman in Black cost to make? 

It cost them $17,000,000 to make, and their marketing budget was almost half of this total. However, in the opening weekend of its release, the film made $20,874,072. The worldwide gross from the film totaled at $127,730,736, making it the biggest selling British horror film in 2012. This film was then what influenced other film productions to make paranormal horror films, using similar marketing techniques after The Woman in Black's huge success. 

6. Why do you think the film was so successful?

I believe the film had the success it did, firstly, because of it's mass marketing. This drew in audiences with trailers and teasers before it was out, making them want to see the film increasingly more each time. Finally, another reason for it's global success was though the use of Daniel Radcliff as the protagonist. He brought with him his previous Harry Potter fans, and featured in interviews and trailers, making this film have maximum publicity and gaining audiences from social media which may not have been found if he had not appeared in them. This way, not only did this film grab the attention of horror fans, but also the Harry Potter fans that follow this actor in whatever he does.  

The Cabin in the Woods

Halloween- 1978 John Carpenter

1. How does the start exemplify a common technical code convention of the horror genre?

There is restricted narration, so we don't quite know who's perspective we are viewing the film from. It is only when there is the shot of the little boy holding the knife that we see he was the murderer who's perspective we were in. Similarly, another convention is the low-key lighting, along with the diagetic heavy breathing. This makes it seem spooky as it limits our view of what we can see in the shot. Likewise, there is iconography of a clown mask and a large knife. These are all common in horror films as dangerous and there is a creepy nature to the childlike image of the clown.

2. How does the setting fit with the horror genre?

It is set in an average suburban town, which makes the audience feel more scared, as they can see that this could happen at any time to them as well. There is also a mental asylum which is common in a horror film. This is because people that are there are usually unpredictable and can flip without notice. This is why they are featured in horror films, because the audience never know what strange things are going to happen there. Similarly, the 'Myers house' where the initial murder took place is isolated and run down. This is frequently used in horror films, because the audience don't know what is hiding in the shadows, not wanting to be found.

3. What iconography of 'innocence' do we hear or see early on?

Laurie is seen as a virginal character, who is an innocent babysitter. She is referred to, and refers to her self as a 'girl scout'. She coughs when she tries smoking, and shudders at the idea of sex. She is compared to her friends who are promiscuous and sexually driven, so this brings out even more of her prudish nature.

4. What was the main industry impact of Halloween?

This film was cheap to make, with a low budget, allowing it to make a large profit. It was not focused on the well-established stars or producers, but the introduction of the 'slasher' movie industry.

5. Name some 'slasher' films which followed on from Halloween

Friday 13th, Prom Night, The Burning, Night School and Terror Train all followed the theme of Halloween in the 'slasher' industry

6. What are the four plot rules of the 'slasher' film sub-genre which Halloween began?

• Past traumatic event creates psychopathic killer
• Killer returns to the site of event
• Stalks and kills teens
• 'Final girl' survives  

7. Give three ways in which Laurie is androgynous?

Laurie fights back against Micheal, almost killing him twice, showing she's stronger and more masculine than her friends who have been victims of Micheal. Likewise, her voice is quite deep, and she has a strong jawline showing her masculine face with wearing no make-up. Similarly, she wears clothes that cover herself up, and are not revealing or promiscuous at all. This shows she doesn't want to be viewed as girly or revealing.




8. What does the extract mean by "a reactionary sexual agenda"?

Virginal character survives, and the sexually driven people are killed and promiscuity is punished.

9. How does the director counter the suggestion that Halloween had a reactionary sexual agenda?

He says that Laurie was always the intended victim for Micheal. The others are just used as a way to get to Laurie, and become vulnerable because of their other distractions with sexual desires.

10. Why does Mike Myers kill his sister?

He is evil. Nothing could have happened to spar this murder, it was just because he was "born evil".

Narrative theory in relation to Halloween (John Carpenter 1978) and The Crazies (Breck Eisner 2010)

The term Classical Hollywood narrative (CHN) is Todorov's narrative stages. This is when a narrative begins with equilibrium, then there is a disruption in the equilibrium, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair disruption, then the film ends with the reinstatement of a new equilibrium and balance. I believe that the CHN is quite useful in understanding media texts. This is because, when movies then don't conform to this structure, the audience are thrown out of what they were expecting, making the film seem thrilling. For example, Halloween begins with Micheal Myers murdering his sister. As an audience, we are not expecting this crime just as we begin the film, so are instantly told to expect murder and the unexpected through out the rest of the film. 

Similarly, this 1978 film ends on a cliff -hanger, and not with the restoration of a new equilibrium. This then leaves the narrative open for a sequel, and the return of the murderous villain.  By not following the CHN, this allows Halloween to keep the audience hooked with a complex narrative structure. the audience will want to keep watching to find out if it eventually ends well, but are not disappointed when the murderer escapes at the end. 

Propp's created a list of seven character types, that he had found to be common to 100 tales he analysed. These character types are:

Hero

Villain

Heroine/princess

Helper

Donor

False hero

The dispatcher 

The character types that are evident in Halloween are:

Hero- Laurie, because she saves the children while putting herself in danger from being stalked by the villain

Villain- Micheal Myers, who murders his sister at the beginning, then kills four other people on his return home after he escapes from the mental institute where he has been classed as 'evil'. 

Helper- the doctor who is searching for Micheal to put him in the mental asylum for life. He shoots Micheal to stop him from killing Laurie.
I believe that is isn't very useful to look at Propp's character types, in relation to understanding media texts. This is because, when watching s film, you may then be looking out for specific characters and trying to make them fit in with, and conform to specific character traits. This may then limit the views of a character, as the audience may see them as just one character type, an not see them as having lots of layers to their personality, which in turn, makes up the character. For example, in Halloween, Laurie is a character that fits into more than one character type. She has a heroic nature to her, when she protects the children from the murderer that has entered the house. However, she may also be seen as a heroine, as she needs to be saved by the doctor at the end, otherwise Micheal would have killed her. This therefore confuses the character types even more, as the doctor may then be seen as the hero.

Levi Strauss was a French anthropologist who came up with the theory of  binary opposition. He believed that the way in which we understand words isn't to do with the meaning the words have on their own, but by our understanding of the word, and it's 'opposite'. Therefore, with the help of the other, one value is enhanced to seem more powerful than it would seem on its own. For instance, a common example is good vs. evil. When there is a presence of evil battling against the good, both sides are strengthened, so when someone is really evil in their actions, the 'good' side seems to be heightened. I believe that it is useful to look at binary opposition for understanding  media text, because it enhances how society and audiences view the values portrayed in the film. Some examples of where binary opposition is shown in Halloween are: 
Good vs. evil- Laurie battles against the 'bogey man'.
Darkness vs. Light- Danger comes to Laurie at night, where things can hide in the shadows.
Safety vs. Danger- When Laurie is at school she is seen as safe as she is with a lot of people, but when it is just her by herself, she is vulnerable and at risk of danger.
Virginal vs. Promiscuity- Laurie is the only one out of her friends that stays alive. This may be because her friends are occupied with boys, whereas she is seen as slightly prudish, leading her to be aware of what's going on around her, saving herself and the children from harm.
Known vs. Unknown- When we don't know where the murderer is, we are terrified of the unknown and whether he will just appear from nowhere. similarly, when we know where he is, at least we can anticipate his actions, and this makes the unknown even more scary because we know what he's capable of.

Bordwell and Thompson said that film is "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". This suggests that the events in a film have a domino effect, in that one action will then result in another taking place. I believe that this is quite useful to help understand media texts, as the audience watching will know to anticipate something to follow on from an event in a film. For instance, an example of this in Halloween, is at the beginning, when the young Micheal Myers murders his sister on Halloween night. This then leads to him going into a mental institute and escaping, leading the whole rest of the film to unravel. Similarly, Laurie's friend spills food down her clothes, this leads to her having to go out to the shed in the garden, to wash her clothes. This then leads to Micheal watching her, and getting into the car, ending in Micheal murdering her. An event that happen in the film that we don't see is when Micheal escapes from the mental institute, he finds his sister's grave and digs up the gravestone. We find this out by the doctor looking for the grave, and the grave-keeper says it's gone, thinking it was just kids in the spirit of Halloween. Later in the film, we see that it is in fact Micheal who stole the headstone, and places it on the bed with Laurie's friend laying dead in front of it. Likewise, another event that we know happened but we don't see is when the doctor shoots Micheal at the end of the film, and Micheal falls off the balcony. The audience sees the murderer fall over the balcony, however we do not see him hit the ground, instead it cuts to the doctor talking to Laurie. Therefore, when it cuts to the doctor looking over the balcony to see the 'dead' Micheal laying on the floor, he has disappeared. We don't see him getting up and walking away, yet we know that he has gone. This will therefore lead to the enigmatic ending, as we can assume that Micheal will come back, and that none of them are safe. 

The Crazies- Breck Eisner 2010

1. Does The Crazies follow the Classical Hollywood Narrative?

I believe that it does not follow the Classical Hollywood Narrative, because this film begins with the image of a burning and destroyed town. This is not having everything balanced with normality and at equilibrium, that the the CHN states. Similarly, this film also ends on an enigma, so we don't know if the heroic couple will now survive another attack in the next town. Therefore, this is not following the CHN, as this states that the film ends with a reinstatement of a new equilibrium, and The Crazies certainly does not.

2. How many of Propp's character types can be identified in the film?

• Hero- David (Sheriff). He fights off the zombies to keep himself and people close to him safe. He protects his wife, endangering himself in the process.
• Villain- Disease/Zombies/Army. David and Judy fight against all of these forces to get free and escape the infected town.
• False hero/Helper- Russell. He turns on David and Judy when he becomes infected. However, he also helps them both to escape to safety nearer the end, and protects them from zombies that are attacking David and Judy in their home.
• Heroine/helper- Judy (sheriff's wife). She has to be protected my David, but also saves him from a zombie that is attacking him.

3. List five examples of binary opposition.

• Infected vs healthy- there is a divide throughout the whole film between the people who have the disease, and people who are well. 
• Known vs unknown- at the beginning the audience know that it is an ordinary town, but it becomes unknown why people are acting 'differently' and start turning crazy. 
• Humans vs aliens- the infected become seen as another species to humans and civilization. 
• Strong vs weak- Davis and Judy prove to be strong willed and in more control than Becca who finds protection behind everyone else, and is the first out of the four to be killed. 
• Love vs individual- David escapes from the quarantine to find Judy (who has been taken away by the army). Another man who is there doesn't want to find his wife, making David and Judy's love seem stronger than ever. 

4. Identify the three 'durations' and give an estimate of the time each covers.

• Plot duration- the amount of time that has passed in the film from the character's perspective- three days.
• Scree duration- how long the film plays for, and how long it takes to watch it- 92 minutes.
• Story duration- the plot duration plus aspects of the story that we are only told about and don't physically see. Such as, the plane crash and the virus being made- This process could have taken years for the virus to have been tested and produced, so the story time for this movie is unclear, but could be ranging from 10 years to 1 year, as they can't have done vast research to find out the extent to the virus spreading. 

5. Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film, but which occur before the film starts.

• The plane crash in the lake, that causes the virus to spread among the town through the water. 
• Judy got pregnant before the film starts. This causes her to be taken away from David in the quarantine process because of her high temperature. 

6. List two events from the 92 minute film that happened in a different time and space to the one we are shown. 

• We don't see the people who get the virus actually changing and becoming infected. We just see them before-when they are normal- and after- when they are killing people.
• We also don't see people who are infected in this village making their way to the next own where David and Judy end up, however we know this happens, as the extreme aerial shot at the end tells us that this town is also infected, and on a much larger scale than the previous. 

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