These are the results to my Questionnaire for my audience research, in which i asked 14 males and 14 females their views about Horror. These results may have an influence on the way in which my group decides to make a Horror trailer as we need to consider which will attract the widest range of target audience.
1.Are you Male or Female?
Male- 14
Female- 14
2.Do you like Horror? Male
Yes- 11
No- 3
Female
Yes- 7
No- 7
Overall
Yes- 18
No- 10
3.What type of Horror do you like?
4.What setting do you like?
The results to the "other" were warehouses and abandoned buildings.
5. What do you look for in a Horror trailer?
The most popular answers to this question were:
the use of suspense and tension
some clips of what is to come which will make you want to see more
a build up with a quick editing pace
voiceovers and intertitles which give the audience the basic plot
PLANNING A RELEASE.
- Distributors must consider what a film will earn so they can prepare a budget to release it. They must have a detailed understading of the core target audience but also try to attract a wider spread of audience.
- Distributors must plan the film release according to many factors such as:
which other films are being released the same week?
is there any star's amongst the cast?
is it being released in a holiday period?
what certificate will the film have?
- Distributors will need to work out whether the film will be shown worldwide in many screens or in very few independent cinemas, according to how popular it will be.
- When the distributor has viewed the finished film and confirms the release plan, the budget is worked out. This is all paid for by the distributor and this includes marketing costs, the cost of prints (35mm or digital) and advertising for post-release. The budget may be itemised in a table as shown below.
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FILM MARKETING
- Full trailers may be preceded by early teasers shortly before the film.
- Most films have an official website, if not one hosted by a partner company which provides more information to the public and they see exclusive photos and behind the scenes footage.
- A poster also may be preceded by a teaser poster with the main stars and production values large. The designers must work hard to make each one stand out.
- Distributors may also provide cinemas with other display materials such as cardboard standee's.
- Screenings are held before the film is released for national critics as th epublic offen accepts news stories and features more readily than advertising.
- UK Film Distributors invest around £170M a year in media advertising alone to launch and sustain their releases.
- Awards and Premiers have to be taken into consideration as television channels can have 30minute slots to cast the newest films and stars walking the red carpet. Festivals also are imporant as new titles may be screened to juries of filmmakers and awarded prizes.
- Tie in merchandising can be literally anything. And the more of it there is, the better.
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LICENSING FILMS TO EXHIBITORS.
- Every week, distributors hold marketing team meetings, reflecting on the films they have in current release.
- Sometimes, film eductation promotes educational use of the local cinemas by arranging screenings for school parties.
- Cinema operators need to be persuaded to 'stock' the product. Distributors screen their titles and present a date release as well as marketing plans. Potential blockbusters may be booked into screens simulatenously whereas independent, lower budget films may be just for the catchment area.
- 35mm film prints are sent to cinemas which are opened a few days before the first playdate. These are laced onto the projector. Digital screens have data on hard disks which are connected to a projector.
- A film can only be launched once. Usually a film will generate 30% or more of its entrie box-office during the first three days of release.
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THE WIDER PICTURE.
-After the weekend box-office takings are counted, distributors sales teams discuss keeping the film on the screens and for how long.
There are several categories in which the key conventions of the Horror genre are categorized into and each of these contains a lot of recoccuring elements that can be widely recognised within a vast number of Horror films. Often; the setting of horror is an abandoned building which later makes a reappearance as it has a history or hidden secret. Most of these buildings are set in a communal, suburban area or an isolated street so that it looks like the community has something to hide or it deserted for a certain 'spooky' reason- see image. This is the case in the 1978 movie "Halloween" where a girl is murdered in a typically safe street. Years on, the house is shown and nobody has lived in it since the incident; however the rest of street remains neighbourly. A lot of the time, medical institutions play a part and this is also shown in Halloween when the murderer has mental health issues and has escaped. Most of the scary scenes take place at night time or in the dark, so that during the day it is shown how the characters live their typical day to day life, before they were affected by the 'horror'. The camerawork in horror films is different to many other genres at the camera uses a lot of different angles and can be canted so that a disorientating feel reaches the spectator. Usually there is a lot of depth during shots of the hero in the foreground so that the audience is at an advantage if they can see a monster or evil thing emerging behind; as the protagonist cannot see this themselves. One of the most common conventions is the point of view shot, in which the audience can see the victim through the eyes of the monster- see image. This shows us exactly what can be seen and shows us in what contex the monster is seeing the victim. For example in "Dracula" and "Nosferatu" which are films that have been made time and time again throughout many decades, the victim is always seen sexually and this is shown when blood is sucked from the preys neck(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2_dF7hn_hQ). The opposite to the point of view shot is the extreme close up of the victims face. Not only does this allow the audience to see the facial expression of the protagonist, it also builds up tension as we cannot see where the monster is. The camera can switch from the innocent to the evil, making the audience jump as this is an invasion of our personal space. The pace of editing indicates when something is about to happen as if it suddenly changes from constant and becomes very fast, you know the enigma of the storyline is nearing as tension rises. Certain things such as props, costumes and colours relate horror in ways of common knowledge. Typically, anybody who see's weapons, masks and religious symbols knows that it is related to horror. This is because of the holiday Halloween which we are exposed to every year. Lighting is usually low key, as the atmosphere would not be scary if a monster was seen in daylight. Certain lighting techniques such as chiaroscuro and high contrasting could be used to emphasise certain objects or to show silhouettes and shadoes. A lot of lighting direction comes from unexpected angles for example in the movie "The Ring" where the main source of light comes from down the well. The moon is also a common source of light as it comes from above and can light below. The colours red and black connote danger and blood. This is almost unnoticed now during movies when these are seen as the audience is so used to seeing them that it is barely an unusual convention. The classic Hollywood narrative structure of normality, enigma, path to resolution, quest, resolution and closure largely applies to horror although there may be certain examples when this is not the case (http://www.inpoint.org/pdf/LanguageofFilm02.pdf). For examples in all of the "Saw" movies, the end is left as a cliff-hanger so that there can then be a sequel to the film (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJyvVMgl-p0) This is mainly a way of making money by having fans of the first film wait for the next to continue the story. Saw 6 has recently been released and this is an example of a very successful chain of sequels. This narrative structure is now based on Todorov's theory. Another theory is by Vladimir Propp who studied russian folk tales and found that they all had certain amounts of structural features (http://mural.uv.es/vifresal/Propp.htm). This was applied to the film "The Shining" by Kubrick and it was proved that some of these did relate. In the sub-genre of 'slasher' movies, usually a psychotic child returns to a past location on an anniversary to kill. This usually includes a gang of teenagers and the surviving final girl. Binary oppositions are used quite commonly to create a sense of innocence mixed with evil. This is the reason dolls, children and fairgrounds are used in horrors and this creates a changing atmosphere- see image. Character types are very simple and usually consist of the main protagonist (who is commonly female) and is kind, virginal and ends up being stronger than it was first thought. She ends up being the final survivor and hero of the film. Other characters include the villain with a hidden secret or deterioration of mental health, children who need saving, a group of immoral teens which are killed off and police/member of the law who the audience think will help when in actual fact, they are useless. The main themes of Horror are out of control science, which relates back to the beginning of Horrir in the 30's when mad scientists were created such as Frankenstein, the hidden evil, binary opposites such as good VS evil, known VS unkown and natural VS unnatural and the return of the repessed. This is a theory by Freud who believed that bad memories were put in the unconsious part of the brain which then tends to reappear in behaviour. This relates to Horror as characters could have a flashback to an unpleasant experience, adding to tension. There is no single text that can contain all of the concepts of a genre and the boundaries are very blurry, therefore it can be hard to tell when one genre ends and another begins. Because of this we must consider genre to be more than just a set of textual conventions.
This teaser trailer does comply with some of the key conventions of movie trailers:
There are three intertitles which firstly present the producers name Michael Bay (which is a prodution value) and then presents the name of the Movie- "Nightmare on Elm Street". There is no voice over and as there is no other intertitles, a situation is not proposed to the audience and there are no rehtorical questions, therefore they are left to make their own minds up about what is happening, based on the clips of the movie shown. The last intertitle at the end of the trailer says "dont fall asleep" which we know has something to do with the plot of the film.
Although we know from the title that the movie is a horror, the beginning of the trailer could be mistaken for an Action film as the mis-en-scene presents an industrial, scrap yard sort of area, followed by a man being chased by cars.
There is no music accompanying this trailer however there is a sequence of constant sound effects with a few pauses to add moments of suspense. There is a creepy song sung by a child with a recoccuring tune and this leads to the build up of louder screaming, banging, smashing and shouting. As the woman wakes up and gasps for breath, the audience thinks that it has ended however after a black screen there is another "in your face" sort of shot with the same woman screaming.
We can gather from this trailer that the villian in the movie is a monster with metal claws. These claws are a reoccuring element as they appear from in the bath and are wrapped around somebodys arm. We also know he is burnt as the woman in this film says "im having a dream, about this man..and hes burnt". Fire is also a reoccuring element in this trailer.
Usually teaser trailers are much shorter than this one, typically ranging from 30-90seconds however there can be some exceptions.
This teaser trailer does comply with some of the key conventions of movie trailers:
There are two intertitles which present the name of the producer (which is again Michael Bay. This shows how popular he really is in the film industry.) and one which mentions that it is from the same director of Chain Saw Massacre. This means that if there are any big fans of the 4award winner film, they will want to see this due to the qualities they enjoyed in the other. The name of the film is displayed twice, once over a zooming out image of the "monsters' mask.' with the number 13 changing from white to red (as it is supersticiously unlucky.) It is then shown again at the end of the clip, floating on the right over an 'earthy' patch in the background.
There is dialogue throughout the teaser which acts as a sort of narrator although it comes from the actual movie. It proposes the problematic features of the plot and is an older sounding women. Her voice has an echo effect and it is creepy sounding.
We can immediately establish that the genre of this trailer is a horror as the sound at the beginning is very obvious. Although there is no soundtrack accompanying the trailer, there are constant effects which create a lot of tension. There are bird noises which sound more like an large, hunting bird rather than a small sweet whistling tune. This is followed by a black screen, low key lighting and a dark and strong mysterious blowing wind noise. There are sound effects throughout such as doors creaking, cars, bangs and breathing and there is one quiet screeching noise which runs throughout the trailer. There is no real build up towards the end of the trailer but i like this as the sound keeps changing and the audience does not really know what is going to happen next.
Usually teaser trailers are much shorter than this one however again there are exceptions.
This teaser trailer does comply with some of the key conventions of movie trailers:
There is a voiceover throughout the teaser. It is a deep, authoritative males voice and it informs the audience that the movie is set at halloween. The speech is broken up into clauses with dialogue and visuals between each one. These visuals back up what the voiceover is saying for example we hear "Terror is just around the corner" and then see a clip of a young female standing next to a corner. The lights behind her go out, therefore the audience knows that something is lurking there. There are no rehtorical questions, alliteration or other grammatical devices in this voiceover however what there is, is short and sweet and is effective in explaining the 'complication'.
One intertitle introduces the name of the movie in a contrasting white font compared to the black blackground. It is in upper case and the font is creepy looking as it has squared edges rather than round. The text falls back into the background and looks very effective.
There are no production values shown in the movie especially since the movie had not yet been shot as the trailer was a callout to try and get funding.
We do immediately know that this trailer is for a horror because not only does the name of the movie give it away, the music is eerie and different to that of an action or rom-com. There is one tune throughout the beginning of the trailer which underlies the dialogue and sound effects. It is very high pitched and of a constant volume. It ceases at the sound of a knife and from there onwards it begins to build up. This begins with a bang, the laugh of a 'monster', a rising pitch which is played by string intruments and ends with a long, echoed scream.
The length of this teaser is also inbetween the average length of 30-90 seconds therefore it gives enough information and footage to leave the spectator wanting more without having seen too much or the resolution of the movie.
The film 'The Shining' by director Stanley Kubrick was made in 1980. Vladimir Propp looked at a wide range of tales and found that all of them shared certain important structural features. He categorized these into character roles and narrative function groups. This relates to 'The Shining' in a number of ways and the character roles are:
• The Villian: This is Jack. He starts off like a normal man but we see him becoming more distressed and isolating himself from his family, wanting to be alone. This is when he becomes driven to harm his wife Wendy and son Danny.
• The Helper: This is the Cook, better known as Dick Hallorann. He could also be considered as the false hero as nearing the end of the film, he returns to the Overlook hotel and there is a chance he could save Wendy and Danny, but he is killed when he stumbles upon Jack. He is mainly the helper as he speaks to Danny about having the shining, gives the family a tour of the hotel and tries to check up on them over the winter.
• Hero/Victim: This is Wendy. She is Jacks main target and we find out that she is stronger than we first thought. She fights for her own life and puts her son Danny before her although there are times when we are not sure if she will survive or not. She manages to escape Jack when he is exhausted and cold; driving out of town in the Snowcat with Danny.
In the narrative categories, the occuring functions are:
• PREPERATION. 1. A member of family leaves home- Jack leaves home for an interview. He later takes the rest of his family with him as they move to live in the Overlook Hotel for Winter. 2. A prohibition or rule is imposed on the hero- Jack tells Wendy she must never enter the room when he is typing. 3. This prohibition is broken- Jack is having a nightmare and Wendy runs in the room to help him however Jack never says anything about her having disobeyed him. 5. The villian learns something about the victim- Jack learns Wendy is mentally and physically stronger than he first thought as she hits him with the bat and locks him in the sotrage cupboard. 7. The victim unknowingly helps the villian by being decieved or influenced by the villian- Wendy could have left the hotel at a much earlier point when Jack was more mentally stable, instead she hung around until the very end, making it easier for him to take advantage of them. 8. The villian harms a member of the family- Jack never physically harms Wendy and Danny although he tries to, he causes them a lot of harm mentally as they become unhappy and he tries to axe them.
• COMPLICATION
8a. A member of the family lacks or desires something- Jack desires to become a writer. This was his reason for moving to the hotel in the first place so he could get inspiration.
• TRANSFERENCE
11. The hero leaves home- Wendy leaves home along with Jack to the hotel. 12. The hero is tested, attacked, interrogated and as a result, recieves a magical agent or helper- Both Wendy and Danny are interrogated and Hallorann comes to help them as he gets the shining from Danny.
• STRUGGLE
16. The hero and villian join in direct combat- Both Wendy and Jack are in confrontation in several parts of the film. One being when Wendy edges up the staircase with the baseball bat and Jack is following her. Another is when Jack is chopping through the door and Wendy slices through his hand with a kitchen knife. 18. The villian is defeated- Jack dies overnight when he becomes tired in the snowy maze and sits down to rest. He becomes covered in ice and Wendy and Danny are left to escape.
• RETURN
26. The task is accomplished- Wendy manages to escape and save her and Dannys life. This is what she has been aiming for ever since Jacks mental health went downhill.
• RECOGNITION
30. The villian is punished- This is through losing his life. He cannot enjoy his life any longer and has been taken from the earth at a fairly young age.
Sigmund Freud created the term "The Return Of The Repressed" to explain bad thoughts and memories which are put into the unconscious part of the brain. These then tend to reappear in behaviour which could relate to horror films by characters having a flashback to an unpleasant experience, adding to tension. The opposite to this is wishes and fantasies put in to the consious part of the brain where they are supposed to be remembered. Repression is now considered a defense mechanism.
I like this horror trailer because it doesnt immediately scare the audience. The beginning starts off happy when a couple goes to adopt a child. The music is content and the audience is waiting for the point where the genre of horror comes into it. The trailer gradually changes as we begin to realise that the little girl is different. The music then changes and there are sound clips of banging, screeching noises and screams. I think it is the sound effects which make the trailer more intense as some of the sounds i find really freaky. The colour scheme changes from fairly bright to low key colours such as blacks, whites and greys. A thin, creepy looking text appears which grows, making the spectator read as well as watch and gets them involved by 'talking' to them. There are times when the screen goes black and you can just hear voices, which makes it more tense as you cannot see what is happening. There are some slow motion parts of action which keeps you in suspense and the camera tends to focuse on objects with an out of focus background, such as the metal chain on the swing. I really like how at the end of the clip, there is a fast sequence of clips, sound and speech all overlapping which is at a much faster pace than the rest of the trailer. It gives the audience a small insight of all the things which happen and makes them want to see the full extent of them. Also just as the film title is shown and the audience thinks the trailer is over, a final clip is shown which unexpectedly makes you jump, leaving you more involved in the film as it has effected you personally.
This trailer does indicate the genre and name of the movie, however there is no indication of any production values therefore the film does not include any stars or a specific important director.
I think the trailer does pick out aspects of the movie that the target audience will want to see. The target audience will be young couples or groups of friends, aged 15 or 18 (depending on the rating)up until late twenties/early thirties. It shows a wide range of scenarios which happen to this once innocent family in the movie and it shows a small insight to how evil this young child Esther is. The conventions of horror used in this trailer are:
• The music starts off very calm but still has a questionsble sense of "eerieness" to it. As the trailer goes on, the music changes to loud, banging and screeching sound effects more than a tune but they become faster paced alongside the shorter shots and build up to one final scream. • There is a mixture of dialogue and intertitles throughout the trailer. It begins with a selection of clips including dialogue from the actual movie and when a considerable amount of them have been seen, the first intertitle proposes the situation..that "something is wrong with Esther". Although it is not a question, it is a phrase which needs clarification as the audience does not know what that something is. As this intertitle is shown, dialogue from the movie is played which says the exact same thing, which acts as a voice over for this part only. A Further intertitle is shown; "you'll never guess her secret" which makes the audience want to know what this secret is. This is the last one, other than the title of the movie. This is because if more were shown, it may reveal too much about the film and two is enough to propose an enigma for the films plot.
