Analysis Of Magazine Cover

captainamericaempire1, a photo by Luciex1 on Flickr.

Audience Research

Whilst doing our research through SurveyMonkey, we created a survey to ask people a variety of questions about Horror Films/Trailers. Our first question asked we asked was are you female and male? and from our research you can see we had an equal amount doing our survey.

Our second qustion we asked how old the audeince was, from our results we can see that the majority of people were 17 years old. And for our 3rd question we asked them do they like horror and 80% said they did which helps us work out if the younger genration enjoy horror more than the older genreation.

For the 4th question we asked the audience how often they would go to the cinema to watch a horror film, and 50% of the people say that they rarely go which shows that maybe people find watching a horror film in a cinema to scary maybe. Another reason why a majority of people won't watch a horror film in a cinema is because not a lot of horror films make it into the cinema.

On question 5, most people would rather watch a horror film on DVD than go to the cinema and watch it.

For question 6 we asked our audience who they watch horror films with, most of our audience watch them in a mixed group of girls and boys. But also we see that 40% of people watch horror films with their boyfriend/girlfriend.

For question 7, we asked people what kind of horror they enjoy watching. From doing the surevey we can see that the same amount of people said they like a Thriller or a Psychological one. From asking this question we can see what our target audience would rather watch so we can decide on our own trailer.

For the 8th question, we asked our target audeince what scares them the most and from our feedback we can see that a majority of them said Ghosts/Spirits which helps use understand what kind of horror we can create with our target audience.

The final question we asked was what settings scare you the most and they responded by saying that they find abandoned places scary. From doing this whole survey we can see who and what or target audience like to see in a horro film and what conventtions and techniques scare them the most.

Research into Flim Posters

For research, i've looked into Horror Film Posters. I have chosen theses particular posters because they all have an element which i would like to use in my own horror poster. 'An American Haunting' is a good exapmle because I like they way they have placed the girl on the poster and they have used a few effects onto the poster which can make the viewer be able to see what the genre of the film is. On most horror posters they tend to use dark and dull colours because the poster wouldn't work with vibrant colours. I really like the way the face on the 'Mirrors' poster is darkened a lot on the face and the eyes seem to pop ouy off the page which can be quite scary to look and and it can bring the audience in and want to see what the film is actually about. Another poster i really like is the 'Unborn' poster. I love her expression and where she is stood on the poster. I think the water has a big impact on the image and creates and mood and is cleverly done to freak the audience out. The last poster I looked at was 'Walled In', in this poster I really love how the light only goes on certain parts of the body and it makes mysterious and creepy. I also really like the typeface which is used and would like to try and achieve that on my own horror poster.

Essay on how woman are represented in the horror genre

Carol Clover In men, woman and chainsaws, argues that many horror films are interesting in their representation of gender because they provide a point of identification for a male core target audience. To what extent do you think horror represents gender progressively?

Carol Clover talks about the representation of gender in different ways. She talks about the final girl who is also known as the final protagonist. One of the Stephen King novels she has looked into is carrie. She talks about what her role is in the story, she is shown as a shy, social outsider who becomes the class joke who gets bullied, for such reasons as starting her period. She also mentions that the story is very feminist. She also argues that the processes of identification/objectification going on in many horror texts are much more complicated than the typical 'male gaze'.

Also in different media, woman are represented in other ways. We looked at the classical theoretical view of woman and how they're represented in the media. In the media males and females are usually presented in terms of stereotypes, males are shown to be dominant, strong, active, and independant. But on the other hand females are shown as submissive, passive, sexuality and emotionally. And they're often defined through there relationship with men. Jeremy Tunstall looked into gender representation in the media. He argues that woman in the media are represented as being domestic, sexual, consumer and famuliar. In most films they're shown as being housewives, contented mothers, eager consumers and sex object. In later research they found out that males and females are approximately equal in prime time TV, but males were more likely to be shown having an occupation and they're also shown outdoors more, also males are more likely to be depicted as authorities and females as consumers.

In calss we looked at 3 different horror films to help us understand the different representations of woman. The films we loooked at were Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980) and Eden Lake (2008) The first one we looked at was Halloween where we looked at the female characters and their representation. In Halloween there are

more females than males, the females each have roles in the film. Linda, Annie and Judith Myers are all represented as being sex objects and laurie, baby sitting girl and the nurse are shown as being domestic. We agreed that the roles are very sexist. We also looked into the male gaze. From the roles of each character we can see that the three females who are sex objects are in the male gaze. Laurie isn't part of that gaze because she is shown to be the protagonist who arn't usually sexual, more domestic and maybe a consumer. Again, we see that it's being conservative to the female characters in Halloween. Looking at the narrative we see that more woman die more than men. The percentage would be around 60%:40%, Female:Male. From looking at the figures we decided that it was concervative because more woman die in Halloween due to the fact they are represented as being sex objects.

The second film we looked at was The Shining (1980). In this film

we see that there are more men to woman, 2:1. Wendy has different roles such as being familiar, domestic and a consumer. The reason for her not being a sex object is because she is the final protagonist. The other characters such as bathtub woman are shown as being a sex object because of her being naked in the film and she tries to seduce jake in the room. Again, we see in this film that it's also conservative because the roles are very sexist. The gaze is only presented on the bathtub woman. but it's complicated because she turns into a a corpse which is very confusing. The narrative for this film is that the deaths are equal so this woman seem to be punished for transgression.

The last film we looked at was Eden Lake (2008). The visibility of this film is that men outnumber woman 11-6, which again is conservative.

From some of the female chracters there a different roles. Jenny is familiar and is a teacher so she would be classed as being domestic, and she is the final protagonist. The waitress in the cafe is post related to domestic also, and paige could be classed as being the passive role in the gang. From analysising these roles we can say that the roles are progressive. The only bit of male gaze we see is where jenny is objectified by the gang.. But then we cut to a close up of her and are not identifying with the boys. Also paige refers to objectification as a way of insulting steve. So the gaze in this film is progressive. The narrative of this film is that Jenny is the final protagonist, and woman are not punished for transgretion any more than men, we found this out by doing a death count of both male and female. From analysising the film more we agreed that the narative is progressive because men are treated the same as woman.

Our Group's Initial idea for a horror movie

Our story is going to be about an old house which used to have a family in many years ago. The man who lived there was a strong alcoholic which leads him to be agressive towards his wife and daughter. In the end they decide they have had enough so they decide to kill him by torture. The story will be taken to present time where 3 girls get dared to go into the house for the night but things don't go to plan as the girls get possesed as the husband and dad from the house will do anything to get to girls after how he died.

Props and Location

Props:

Tent
Something to make a fire
Ouiji Board
Torture stuff
Fake blood
Makeup
Beer Bottles
Broken Glass
Sticks and Marshmellows
Torches
Photos
Candles

Location:
Ludham Airfield

3 Horror Trailers Analysising Horror Mise-En-Scene and Technical Code and Trailer Conventions

The reason I have chosen to look into this trailer is because of the use of the flashing images which will be good to use in our own trailer. Which will help create excitement while watching it. I also like the titles during the film they're very creative and would like to try and create our own titles simular to that. Another effective thing is that when the lady is facing forward the little boys face appears from nowhere which is a good way to scare someone. The music which is used helps bring tension to it and i like hit builds up towards the end. I also like the use of extreme close ups, such as when they're talking about the eye and they get close to it which is a good convention in horror films. I also like the way they use big mansions which may or may not be abondoned which give a creepy look at the film and it helps show where the film is set. I also like the part where we see a shot of her on the ceiling which i find really effective, then we see the little boy lying next to her in the bed. I like how its silent with no music and you can't hear her scream which i think is a very powerful way to keep your audience watching, which i hope to try and achieve in my own trailer. At the end of the trailer, i like how they use very quick shots which get you excited to watch and whilst doing the fast shots we get to see close ups of various people and objects and in a horror trailer you usually see the jumping parts at end to make it seem more dramatic. I hope to use this particular technique in my own trailer.



At the start of the trailer i like how it starts of the with equilibrium, and sets the start of teh secene where we can see that we are looking at an abandoned factory/building site. They are also useing dark lighting in the shots to make the scenes more creepy which i will achieve in my own trailer. I also think that the music they have chosen is a very good shoice for this particular film and it works well with various parts of the trailer. I hope to try and find the right music for my own trailer. Throughtout the trailer we see various titles being used, which i will use in my own trailer. I love the way they have created the titles by using red which connotes danger, blood and death. I like the shot were we get an extreme long shot of the villian in the abandoned building in the shadows which is a really good convention for horror, not being able to the the villians face, but we get to see what he looks like at the end of the trailer. Half-way through the trailer we get a song being played which is sung by a little girl, which makes it creepy to watch as children in horror films can be shown as the villian.


The third trailer i have chosen is a film called Woman In Black which is released in 2012. A reason why i chose this trailer to anaylsis is because i love the way they have strange music playing in the background and they use props such as childrens dolls and toys which can have a scary imapct on the viewer. Another reason i like this trailer is because i really like the way they do the shot where she comes out behind him at the window and i feel that it would be a good thing to try out in my own horror movie trailer. The use of rain in the trailer connotes saddness and can also connote death. I also like how the children seem very innocent and are used as being creepy towards the people who come to the house. Its also very common to have an abandoned house in horror movies, this one is particually scary because there are rooms which you can't get into and its very dark at night which is when the woman in black comes to haunt you. Another thing i really like is the titles, they use a very good font for this kind of horror and i would like to try this in my own trailer.

Pitch For A New Horror Movie

Beyond The Line

A group of girls are at a graduation party in New York. After a few drinks the alcohol starts going to their head, and because they’re the ‘IT’ girls, boys were all over them. Bex, Chloe and Jasmine make the big mistake of driving home that night which doesn’t turn out very well. On their drive home they are all messing about in the car and before they know it they hit something in the road. But instead of looking at what it is they have hit they drive on in panic. But after 2 miles of driving they decide they need to go back and see what they have hit. But when they get there they see a body lying there, it’s a boy they met at the party. The girls are in shock from the whole thing, but was it them who actually killed him? The girls then decide to dispose of the body in a nearby wood just to put it out of their minds so they can just get on with their lives and they swore they wouldn’t speak of it again. A couple of months down the line strange things start happening to all the girls such as items of clothing being stolen and at the night Bex starts having weird dreams which involve a middle aged man in them who is always carrying a knife and just as she wakes up he goes to kill her. After all the strange antics, one of the girls have a massive problem, for 2 years now a middle aged man has been stalking the girls as he is obsessed with Bex. Because Bex won’t take notice in the mysterious man he starts killing people she’s close to, even her ex-boyfriends. When she finally realises that someone is killing her loved ones she tries to get hold of the police but before the police arrive he is at her house ready take her away. She manages to kill the stalker with a knife and now she can get on with her life but will Bex be stalked again or even killed?

Mood Board

I have chosen these images to put on my mood board because these things are what get me freaked out and scared. Such as Sharks and spiders. In most horror films they use iconography such as graveyards, and dark forrests which really scare me also. Another image i have put on there is a picture of small spaces which can be scary, which they sometimes use in various horror films to make the audience feel uncomfortable with the situation. I have also added a picture of blood on my mood board which they use in almost every horror film which makes me feel disgusting seeing gore in a film. In my own trailer i hope to use gore and blood which will be really effective for this particular genre.

Narrative Theory

Narrative Structure

Vladimir Propp

When we watched The Shining in class we talked about different critics who talk about the different parts to the narrative structure. One of the critics we looked at was Vladimir Propp, who talks about the characters within a film. The character roles he identified are; The Villain, The Hero, The Donor - who provides the object, The helper who aids the hero, The princess - who is usually classed as a final girl in horror films. In the Shining we come across a lot of these characters. The villain we see is Jack when he starts acting strangely and at the end he tries to kill his own family. The helper which aids the hero is Wendy but it could also be Danny. The final girl in the film is Wendy as she tries to fight jack off which works. The hero and victims in this are Wendy and Danny also as they both get injured and both get away and fight the villain.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Another critic we have looked at is Levi-Strauss who looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary opposition are just opposite values like Good and Evil. But then he looked deeper into different arrangements of themes. For a Horror film such as The Shining the binary oppositions could be Good/Evil and maybe Normal/Strange.

The Return Of The Repressed

According to Freud's theory, the very act of entering into civilized society entails the repression of various desires. Each person's psychosexual development includes the surpassing of previous "love-objects" that are tied to earlier sexual phases (the oral phase, the anal-sadistic phase, etc.) however, even well-adjusted individuals still betray the insistent force of those earlier desires through dreams, literature, or "Freudian slips"; hence the term, "return of the repressed." In less well-adjusted individuals, who remain fixated on objects or who are driven to abnormal reaction-formations or substitute-formations, two possibilities exist, the first one is perversion, in which case the individual completely accepts and pursues his or her desire for alternative sexual objects and situations (sado-masochists, etc.) and the second one is neurosis, in which case the same prohibited desires may still be functioning.

In horror films we see a lot of dreams and imaginations coming true. A repressed memory is the memory of a traumatic event unconsciously retained in the mind, where it is said to adversely affect conscious thought, desire, and action. A lot of people are stuck with these traumatic experiences unless they are rendered unconscious at the time of the experience. No one has identified a single case where a specific traumatic experience in childhood was repressed and the repressed memory of the event, rather than the event itself, caused a specific psychiatric or physical disorder in adulthood.

Horror Trailer

This film trailer has many different conventions of horror involved. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is going to be released in 2011, they find out they have monsters which are living in dark areas of the house for years and they come to haunt the people living in the house. At the start of the trailer we get to see the setting and surroundings of the film, we see a huge mansion which is placed in the middle of nowhere. And during the trailer we see that there are many rooms and different vents which is very common in a horror film. We see and unusual large room filled with old junk which gives the impression that this house is quite mysterious, and makes you wonder how old the house really is. The lightening throughout the trailer is very dim and mostly dark which is when the monsters like to mess around with the family, but mainly the little girl.

Another convention which is given is that we get a variation of different camera angles throughout the trailer. An example is where we see a point of view shot of the little girl who helps us get into her character and try and get a reaction out of us, and then a reaction shot to show the terror on her face. We also see a lot of medium shots and close ups which can help the audience which can be unsettling to the viewers as we can’t see most of the surroundings. The sounds which are used in this trailer are quite eerie and sharp. The use many different diegetic sounds such as the door creaking and the soft footsteps of the little girl to make it more effective. They also use a Non- diegetic sound which is the whispers of the monsters throughout the trailer which makes us think about where the monsters actually are.

Also during this trailer they use a variety of different iconography aspects. The first one which I spotted was that they have placed objects in the film to get the audience to believe that this is a horror film, such as, the doll which she loses which can connote innocence of the girl. We also see a tool box which gets knocked over in one of the scenes which is to show the weapons and that they are going to be used. Another thing that we see is that it’s mostly dark throughout the trailer which is used in a lot of horrors, which can connote evil and danger. Also we see a dark, dusty, cold basement which is placed in the trailer which makes us understand that it’s a horror film. In various parts of the trailer we see different shapes of the shadows which make it more mysterious and creepy.

For this trailer the narrative structure which is used is the classic Hollywood narrative as we can tell that there could be a sequel for this film or they will resolve the situation and get rid of the monsters. This theory is based on Todorov’s theories into film structure.


In this trailer we see a variety of different character types, such as the little girl who could maybe be classed as the final girl but they usually use an older woman for that role. But she can be classed as being the main protagonist, as she is the one being haunted by the monsters in the house. We see the married couple who can be classed as being the innocent family and not really knowing what’s going on and doesn’t want to believe the little girl at first. We also have monsters which are hidden in the house and we can see that they have been there for many years.

The theme of this particular horror would have to be the hidden evil inside. Because we see at the start of the trailer that they don’t know that they are there, but during the trailer they start to realise that there is something evil living inside the house.