Audience.

My trailer is going to be a mainstream horror film which attract a mainstream horror audience in the age range of 16-25. My trailer will target both a male and female audience.


The reason I have targeted this ranged audience is because this is the general audience that horror films are targeted at would be of this age range and at both a male and female audience. Another reason that I have targeted this audience is also because mainstream horror are very successful and I believe my film trailer relates well to these films. This would attract a large audience because they would be able to relate previous experiences of the films they have seen to my trailer making them want to see it.


People who have a keen interest in stereotypical horrors would like this trailer and also people who like films such as 'The Strangers' would like this as they are both psychological horrors.


The idea of marketing the film as based on a true story would also be influential on the audience and create an interest into the events that have generally taken place in a real life situation.

Animatic.

Storyboard.

Initial Film Title, Plot Ideas & Preparation For Filming.

After researching into film trailers based around the genre of 'Psychological Horror', I have decided that the film trailer I will create is going to be entirely film based rather than a documentary style seen in some horror films such as 'Paranormal Activity'.


The film will show the two main characters, the antagonist and the protagonist in which psychological torment will take place as well as snippets of potential violence. My film trailer will be similar to the film trailer of 'The Strangers'. I also intend to have a few short shots of the antagonist and her previous murders and the victims of this.


The plot will develop as we begin to find out the fuel for the murders that we have seen and the one that will take place within the film trailer.


The title of my film is going to be 'Strange Encounters' which will relate to the plot of the film and the reason why the previous murders have taken place as well as the murder that is going to take place. The idea of my storyline is jealousy has fuelled the murders that have taken place committed by a woman with a disturbed past. This idea relates to that of the 'Halloween' film that has been previously analysed as well as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'.


The idea of developing the plot of the story is that it will make things a great deal easier when it comes to producing a script as well as a storyboard for my film trailer. This will also contribute to the decision of locations and props.


I have also gone on to prepare the actors that I will use for the film trailer as they would suit the respective roles of the trailer

Film Trailer Analysis 3 - Halloween 2.

'Halloween 2' is the sequel of Halloween. Michael Myers is still at large and is still considered as being one of the most dangerous people around. After a failed reunion with his sister who is admitted to hospital after receiving several wounds from her psychotic brother, she is still not safe as her brother's murderous rampage continues as he sets out to get his sister all to himself. I will analyse the text and explore different ways in which my film trailer can use the codes and conventions of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' film trailer to create an effective piece.

Media Representations:

 The protagonist in the trailer is represented as the typical damsel in distress. After already being hunted down and attacked by her murderous brother, her character is perceived as being very helpless which is the stereotypical convention of a blonde female in films. The antagonist of the film (Michael Myers) is seen as being very dominant as he plays a very psychotic and strong character. Therefore this character is expressed to the audience as being very negative and is clearly considered as being the 'bad guy' of the film which is shown very clearly through the film trailer.

Media/Language Forms:

Mise-en-scene - The mise-en-scene within the first shot is a dark road with a few streetlights in which we see a silhouette of a character in the far distance. Within this shot we can see trees as well as cars and houses which produce the idea of the film being set in a residential area. As the trailer progresses we are then taken to a different setting which is a hospital in which we see the character strapped to a trolley bed being taken down the corridor. The colouring of this scene is very grim and is basically black and white with small splashes of blue which connote the idea of the hospital and the staff working there. We also see other hospital workers there such as paramedics as well as doctors which we can define by the clothing that they are wearing. As this shot fades out we are taken back to another shot of the hospital which is now dark providing the idea that time has passed as we see the character previously strapped to the bed in a hospital gown with bandages on her head as well as a dip attached to her arm. Within a small duration of many different shots of different parts of the hospital such as the stair case and reception area we are introduced to the protagonist of the film that appears in brown/grey clothing wearing a distorted type mask hiding his identity as well as creating a scary and eerie character. As the trailer progresses, the theme of dark continues as we see several different shots of different setting such as people's home as well as a graveyard which also relates to the genre of the trailer.

Sound - The trailer begins with orchestra like music which creates a sense of eere as well as suspension about the trailer. We can also hear the dialect of 'I killed him' coming from the protagonist in the film. We then hear the digetic sound of a gun shot as well as a sound bridge of the protagonist screaming as we cut to the hospital scene. The music in the background then replicates a heart beat that is getting faster which fades out to a high pitched sound which gets louder as the scene progresses creating a build up of tension. This then stops as a crash of thunder is heard in time with the cut showing a new scene. As the  trailer progresses more non digetic sound becomes apparent which contains high pitched squeals as well as deep bangs all in time with the cuts of the trailer creating suspense and keeping the audiences attention fixed on the trailer. At 1:26 we hear the first of a voice over within the trailer which is accompanied with sections of dialogue from the film.

Editing - Within the first section of the trailer we see the use of non continuity editing which is common within trailer as mentioned in analysis before. Instead of clean cuts, the use of fades are used as the music builds up eventually coming to a climax resutling in the editing to become a great deal quicker as well as using clean cuts rather than fades. The techniques mentioned are persistant through out the trailer allowing it to take on the typical conventions of film trailers.

Cinematography - The trailer begins with a low angle establishing shot showing the setting of the trailer as well as introducing the protagonist which we can faintly see in the background. The shot then cuts to a long shot of the protagonist allowing us to see the character in more detail as well as introducing a police care that drives behing her. We then see a short over the shoulder shot which quick cuts to another long shot which is taken from a low angle showing interaction between the protagonist and the police officer. We then see a two shot which is in close up showing the officer asking the woman 'who have you killed'. A small montage of clips that are represented to be in the past shows a various sequence of angles and shot sizes showing the protgaonist shooting somebody. Further in the trailer we see a very effective high angled shot of Michael Myers as he is chasing his sister through the hospital as he is stood at the top of the stairs showing his dominace. Another effective shot used is an over the shoulder shot of a character in the mirror revealing the antagonist stood behind the character.

Total views: 2,507,718

Ratings: 2777		Comments: 5,886		Favourites: 2,011
Likes: 2479 Dislikes: 298

Significant discovery events

	Date	Event	Views
A	02/09/2009	First view from a mobile device	106,793
B	16/07/2009	First referral from related video – Zombies! Halloween Make up, Guts, Effects : BFX	57,340
C	09/06/2009	First referral from related video – Dead Snow Movie Trailer	78,707
D	06/06/2009	First referral from related video – The Final Destination Movie Trailer	126,540
E	02/06/2009	First referral from related video – GI Joe Movie Trailer #3 - Official	60,805
F	30/05/2009	First featured video view	379,170
G	29/05/2009	First referral from YouTube search – halloween 2	189,243
H	29/05/2009	First referral from related video – Bruno Official Movie Trailer	49,585

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Audiences

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Gender	Age
Male	35-44
Male	18-24
Female	13-17

Film Trailer Analysis 2 - A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

'A Nightmare on Elm Street' is a re imagining of the original psychological horror based on the horror icon Freddy Krueger. Freddy Krueger is a serial killer who wields  a glove with four blades embedded in the fingers and kills people in their dreams, resulting in their real death in reality. I will analyse the text and explore different ways in which my film trailer can use the codes and conventions of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' film trailer to create an effective piece.


Media Representations:


The main protagonists in the film are a group of teenagers that are all the victims of Freddy Krueger. The group are like any stereotypical group of teenagers there is a mixture of both male and female characters that have are represented in a way in which teenagers today can relate to. They are a close friendship group with a few sparking relationships contained within it. Each of the characters are perceived in a strong and independant manner which begins to dissolve out when the hauntings of the antagonst Freddy Krueger begin. Freddy Krueger is shown to the audience in a negative and vengeful way as he stalks his victim's dreams resulting in their death. This film his seen as a psychological horror as we see the antagonist stalking and mentally as well as physically.


Media/Language Forms:


Mise-en-scene - To begin with we see several abandoned warehouses which is set in a dark location. We then see a character wearing casual clothing running away froma group of people in cars. The only aspect of the car we can make out are the headlights which emphasise the darnkness of the setting we see. As the trailer progresses we see Freddy Krueger rip off his coat as he is surrounded by flames revealing the red and black striped jumper which is iconic of the character as well as connoting the idea of evil and danger due to the colours. We then see what appears to be a very short extract of a past event, we can see the three blonde haired girls wearing white dresses whilst skipping. This portrays the idea of innocence due to the colours as well as the children's game. The following shots in the trailer all have the mise-en-scene of a dream like world. We see snow in a house as well as a drak corridor lit by a flame coloured light which has pipes running down it causing the characters to show as shadow like figures. Each of the scenese in the shot appear to be based at night time which we can tell due to the dark lighting as well as the fact the characters appear to be sleeping.


Cinematography - We are introduced to the film trailer with several establishing shots of dark, gloomy and abandoned warehouses which connotes the sense of desertion and introduces the horror genre. We then cut to see a extreme long shot of a character running down the deserting road which then cuts to a long tracking shot of the character running. After several more cuts of the character running using the same style of shots, we can then see that the character is being chased. The long shots and trackings shots used portray this well as we see just how fast the character is running. The theme of using establishing and long shots to introduce the characters and settings continues until we are allowed to become more personal with the characters through the use of a close up of one of the main teenage characters speaking. We then see a close up of the four bladed glove that is icnonic of Freddy Krueger which is the first introduction of the character we see in his 'mosntorous form'. The shots then move to medium close ups as they continue to introduce the teenage characters showing us extracts of the film that are key to the storyline. This style of cinematography is continuously used through the trailer showing the audience key characters and events.


Editing  - The stereotypical editing style of film trailers is used which is montage editing. By using this editing technoque, this allows the trailer to put great detail and emphasis on the main characters as well as the key sections in the film which are the most exhilirating and will more likely than not draw in a wider range audience. Although we see this editing throughout the majority of the trailer, at the beginning we see the use of continuit editing which introduces the plot as well as the backstory about the main story for the film and why what happens actually happens. Unlike a great deal of horror film trailers, we do not see the use of fades instead the cuts are clean and very quick which is also a stereotypical idea of horror film trailers. The editing also cuts in time with sound that we hear whilst watching the trailer.


Sound - The sound that we hear is also very similar to other horror films. The drum like bangs are used throughout the trailer as well as some dialogue to introduce the plot. We can also hear the theme song that was created for this particular film. '1, 2 Freddys coming for you. 3, 4 you better lock your door. 5, 6 grab your crucifix. 7, 8 better stay up late. 9, 10 never sleep again.' This sound track used proves very effective in the trailer as it adds to the horror theme as well as drawing the audience into the film even more as the sound track proves very 'catchy'.

Total views: 1,070,159

Ratings: 1375		Comments: 2,552		Favourites: 1,046
Likes: 1258 Dislikes: 117

Significant discovery events

	Date	Event	Views
A	13/02/2010	First referral from YouTube search – a nightmare on elm street	33,811
B	16/01/2010	First referral from YouTube search – a nightmare on elm street 2010	42,077
C	30/10/2009	First referral from YouTube search – nightmare on elm street trailer	63,751
D	21/10/2009	First featured video view	50,311
E	20/10/2009	First referral from YouTube search – nightmare on elm street 2010	117,696
F	17/10/2009	First view from a mobile device	83,310
G	17/10/2009	First referral from related video – Jennifer's Body (2009)- Official Trailer	59,038
H	17/10/2009	First referral from YouTube search – a nightmare on elm street trailer	29,501
I	16/10/2009	First referral from YouTube search – nightmare on elm street	59,747

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Audiences

This video is most popular with:

Gender	Age
Female	13-17
Male	13-17
Male	18-24

Film Trailer Analysis 1 - The Strangers.

The Strangers is a 2008 psychological horror in which a couple after returning from a wedding reception to their holiday home based in a woodland area undergo an extreme case of harassment carried out by 3 masked figures that psychologically and physically torture the couple until they eventually kill them. I will analyse the text and explore different ways in which my film trailer can use the codes and conventions of 'The Strangers' film trailer to create an effective piece.

Media Representations: 

There are two main protagonist characters within the film. Kristen Mckay (Liv Tyler) plays a stereotypical female character within the film. She is portrayed as being helpless and innocent which we can see through the nightgown she wears which is very angelic. Her character appears to be weak and helpless as the torment begins within the film. We can see this by the way she scrambles around the house hiding and locking all doors and windows therefore playing a typical damsel in distress which is more predominantly shown when the character is left on her own. The other protagonist James Hoyt (Scott Speedsman) is stereotypically the stronger character out of the two main protagonists. He is portrayed has being very strong and independent which we can see when he is trying to protect his partner. We also produce the idea that the character is wealthy and comes from a wealthy background. We can produce this idea by the fact he is wearing a suit and owns a holiday home that he can retire to as and when he pleases. The three antagonists that we see during the film are obviously portrayed in a negative way as they are torturing and killing people, apart from this we cannot tell anything about the characters personalities as they are hiding behind masks and do not say anything throughout the film.

Media Languages/Forms: 

Mise-en-scene - The costumes that we see within this film trailer are all very basic but each tell us about the character. Kristen's costume changes within the film trailer, to begin with we see her in a lightly coloured gown which represents the idea of her being angelic and kind. Her costume then changes to a much more casual and hard working appearance of a checked shirt and a pair of dark jeans. Although this contrasts to her previous costume, the character still has an innocent appeal towards her as her hair is down and straight. James's costume stays the same throughout the trailer and is basically a black suit. This connotes wealth to the audience but also provides background information about them being at a wedding reception before hand. The antagonists costume's are all very dark, the male character has a sand bag mask on his head, and the two women both have different masks. One is a doll mask and the other is the mask of a pin up girl. This hides the identity of the characters therefore this doesn't reveal anything apart from the fact they do not want to be seen.

The settings we see are very limited, to begin with we see he setting of a wedding reception which provides the audience with an insight of what the protagonists have been doing. After this the only setting we see is the holiday home which consists of a log fire with a open plan kitchen with a great deal of homely furniture with warm red and brown colours.

Sound - The sound that we hear is all we joined together. To begin with we hear a variety of non diegetic music what seems to be a piano sound playing a light, slow tune which relates to the piano that we see in the house. This the changes to a lower pitched music which contains loud thuds and bangs throughout which the trailer cuts in time with. This then changes again as we hear the squeaking sound of a moving children's swing which is repeated for a short amount of time. As the editing speed increases the music changes to a stuck record of doll like music which gets faster along with the editing speed. We also hear some diegetic dialogue through the trailer which is slightly covered by this until the end when we hear the protagonist ask 'Why are you doing this?' then the antagonist replies 'Because you were home' which is one of the only times we hear any of them speak throughout the film.

Editing - Montage editing is used in order to emphasise main characters, themes and the narrative of the film within the short trailer. There are also some examples of continuity editing used when the characters are having a conversation in order to reveal a small section of the narrative. The pace of the editing begins slowly in time with the slow music but then as we get further through the trailer the editing speeds up significantly to keep up with the beat of the music. This creates tension within the trailer making it more appealing to the audience. Dark fades are used through out the trailer to move through the shots as well as introduce the text that is used within the piece.

Cinematography - Establishing shots are used to begin with in order to give the audience a brief idea of where the film is set. This then moves to a series of medium close ups and close ups in order to introduce the main characters in the film. These shot sizes are also used to emphasise actions made by both the protagonists which signifies to the audience that these two people are a couple. Long shots are used to introduce the antagonists within the film trailer when we see the man in the sand bag mask appear behind Kristen.

Total views: 2,750,647

Ratings: 3780		Comments: 9,971		Favourites: 987
Likes: 3484 Dislikes: 296

Significant discovery events

	Date	Event	Views
A	02/09/2009	First view from a mobile device	131,175
B	10/05/2009	First featured video view	187,288
C	16/04/2008	First referral from Google search – the strangers	51,732
D	28/03/2008	First referral from YouTube search – strangers	133,593
E	26/03/2008	First referral from YouTube search – strangers trailer	87,710
F	26/03/2008	First referral from YouTube search – the stranger trailer	44,028
G	25/03/2008	First referral from YouTube search – the strangers	614,075
H	25/03/2008	First referral from YouTube search – the strangers trailer	403,956
I	25/03/2008	First embedded view	52,020

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Female	13-17
Male	18-24
Male	25-34

 

(This is a statistic chart that shows what age range view this video as well as the countries it is most popular which are highlighted in dark green)

Genre Conventions. (Horror)

Genre Conventions.

Horror films are generally unsettling that aim to bring forth emotions such as fear, disgust and horror from its viewers. They often feature scenes that are very startling for the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural and often frequently overlap with genres such as fantasy, sci-fi and also thrillers. Horror films specifically target the viewer’s worst fears, nightmares, revulsions and the terror of the unknown.

Although the vast majority of horror films are generally supernatural related, they can also contain plots such as morbidity, serial killers, disease/virus outbreaks and surrealism. Plots written in the horror genre often involve the intrusion of a force of evil, an event or personage commonly of supernatural origin into the everyday world.  Themes or elements often prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses, Satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and serial killers.

The trait of the genre of horror is that it provokes a response, emotional, psychological or physical within each individual that causes someone to react with fear. In order for that response to be elicited there are different techniques used, such as unreal figures (phantoms, mummies, etc.), or more real situations and figures (serial killers). The whole horror genre is built up upon people's fear of the unknown and anxieties

Most horror films follow a set of conventions throughout the genre although sometimes these conventions can be broken to provide a twist in the film. The common conventions we see in horror films are:

-          Dark/Shadowy lighting

-          Isolated locations

-          Female victims

-          Disruption of normality

-          Sub plot of male/female relationship

-          The defeat of a monster

Some examples of horror films that I believe are effective are:

-          The Strangers

-          Haunting in Connecticut

-          Paranormal Activity

-          Insidious

-          Quarantine

Genre.

I have decided to produce my film trailer based on a horror genre.

One particular section of Horror I am using is psychological horror, which is the idea or psychological torment which stereotypically finishes with the victim of the film being killed.

LIIAR

LIIAR

Language: The language of a film trailer would consist of the basic language of moving images and films. The language I am referring to would be the micro elements of film such as Cinematography, Sounds, Editing, Mise-en-scene and performance. The macro elements of film such as the narrative would also be equally important. The narrative is important because it would give insight into the film through the trailer as well as advertising the film giving it a sense of narrative and a storyline that would interest a specific audience. There will also be form of editing and other language that we do not necessarily see within the film and the more common moving image media texts such as title, text slides and even potentially voiceovers although these would be more common in texts such as documentaries.

Institution: The institution would be the company involved in the making of the text. In film trailers this would usually be the director and/or the production company of the film which would be a good format of advertising, however as mentioned in my ‘History of film trailers’ post, some companies are formed primarily for creating film trailers.

Ideology: This is what the media text is trying to communicate. It often involves utilizing the beliefs/views/representations supported by the institution, and also what the institution believe the audience want to see. An example of ideology relating to my project would the genre conventions of my film trailer which is horror. These conventions are created by the institutions and match audience expectations of the horror genre.

Audience:  This is the target audience that the text is primarily aimed towards. When considering the audience of a film trailer, the audience that would be attracted to the text would be strongly dictated by the genre of the text as someone that likes romance films wouldn’t necessarily watch a film trailer that is horror based. The typical stereotypes for audience and film trailers would be females watching romance and males watching action. For my genre of horror, I believe that the target audience will be a mixture of male and female within the age range of 17 – 20 (this information is taken from the poll I have created and the answer I have received from it so far).

Representation: Who and what the media text is trying to represent. There are normally many reasons why something has been utilised in a media text (whether a stylistic feature or a part of the narrative) and we have to try to understand what it symbolises or why it has been used in that specific way. Certain aspects of the ideology of the institution, audiences, people and different groups can be represented in different ways in texts.  

The History Of Film Trailers.

The History of Film Trailers

A film trailer in basic terms is the advertisement of a future film that sometime in the near future is going to be shown in cinemas or released on DVD. Movie trailers are also becoming more popular on DVD’s and Blue Ray Discs as well as on the internet in order to promote new films and the actors that will star in them. Out of ten billion videos watched on the internet annually, film trailers are ranked third in the popularity of videos consumed by audiences all over the world.

The first trailer was shown in 1916 when the advertising manager of a theatre company in the USA created a small promotional video for a musical ‘The Pleasure seekers’ which was opening at a theatre on Broadway. The same person ‘Nils Granlund’ was also the first to produce a small film trailer using a slide technique to promote the actor Charlie Chaplin. Up until around the 1950’s trailers were generally created by companies such as the National Screen Service and consisted of key scenes from the narrative being advertised in order to attract the intended audience for the film being promoted. Film trailers in this era where usually accompanied by large, bold text which gave a description of the story as well as a soundtrack of some description taken from studio music libraries. Another convention of film trailers around that time was that they tended to be narrated using a stentorian voice (primarily loud and deep in order to create drama for the trailer).

After a decade of creating trailers with these features, during the early 1960’s they began to change due to the heavy influence of ‘new Hollywood’. Instead of including conventions such as text, trailers became montage trailers using fast editing techniques which had proved increasingly popular within television. Two examples of the first trailers to use this new and popular technique were ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Dr Strangelove’. In 1964, more independently produced trailers created by Andrew J. Kuehn started to be distributed using high contrast photography as well as provocative narration. This went on to prove extremely successful resulting in the partnership with Dan Davis and the creation of Kaleidoscope Films in 1968 resulting in both Kuehn and Davis becoming major players in the trailer industry for a further three decades. As Hollywood gained fame and popularity and produce bigger blockbuster films directed by directors such as Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone and Barbra Streisand, Kaleidoscope became responsible for creating the best film trailers in order to attract theatre goers from everywhere.

Top film trailer companies have all been run by former Kaleidoscope creative’s like The Cimarron Group, Ant Farm, Aspect Ratio, Trailer Park and Motor Entertainment which is run by Greg McClatchy who previously headed up the film marketing division at 20^th Century Fox. Other members of the Kaleidoscope Company also went on to work with companies such as Paramount Pictures, MGM and also at Fox Filmed Entertainment. In earlier decades of cinema, trailers were only one part of the entertainment which included cartoon shorts and serial adventure episodes. These earlier trailers were much shorter and often consisted of little more than title cards and stock footage, this contrast greatly to the trailers we see today which tend to be longer and more elaborate.

Today we can also see that a great deal of home movies also contain trailers advertising other films which have been produced by the same company and are scheduled to be released within a short period of the film that has just been released which allows the company to save money as they do not have to advertise on television. The VHS tapes would play them at the beginning of the tape and the few VHS tapes which contained previews at the end of the movie would remind the viewer to "Stay tuned after the feature for more previews." With DVDs and Blu-Rays, trailers can operate as a bonus feature instead of having to watch through the trailers before the movie.

The 1950s film trailers:

·         had longer trailers

·         told the whole story, or almost revealed the whole plot

·         Flashed words on the screen, such as: terrifying! Close your eyes! Never before seen!

The 1960s movie trailers:

·         still used bold flashing words

·         tried to build on famous actors' names

·         used narration to summarize the story

·         often showed the ending of the movie, in order to reveal an exciting effect

The 1970s film trailers:

·         were still too long, but tightened a bit

·         revealed less of the story, but still showed many key or spoiler scenes

·         enjoyed teasing us with mis-edited scenes, often out of order

The 1980s film trailers:

·         more abruptly edited

·         told very little about the movie

·         often included scenes that were cut from the final edit of the film

·         no spoilers, and instead total mystery about the endings

·         began to revel in catchy tag-lines

Current film trailers (1990’s – current day):

·         current rock or pop music, often from a new or popular artist

·         shows less and less of the real story

·         quicker editing and zoom effects

·         Often these trailers are more exciting than the actual movies.

Overall the conclusion I have drawn from the information I have researched about film trailer industry is that as time has gone on and films have developed as well as the audiences of the films have become more demanding (for specific actors/genres etc) trailers have also had to keep up with times and perceive audience expectations on what would attract them to watching a film. Techniques such as taking small snippets of films have proven effective as well as the use of soundtracks by popular artists are heavy contributors towards sound tracks in the current time which differs to that of the first trailers which consisted of bold texts and voice over’s. Film trailers are key to advertising films and attracting audiences towards them and have been since they first came about in 1916 creating a sense of suspicion and attraction to themselves by playing on the thoughts of people everywhere.