Feedback from teacher

Our teacher gave us feedback after watching our spoof trailer 'The Man'

• Proffesional
• Polished
• Basic & Simple
• The fewer people, the better

Constructive criticism

• Take more shots
• More footage
• Natural sound effect is needed-breathing and natural sound whilst running

This preliminary task has helped me, and my group to understand that more footage is needed. When we were editing, we realised that there were very limited amounts of footage that we had recorded.

Filming and editing our Spoof trailer

Camera shots & angles

• Long shot
• Medium shot
• Medium close-up shot
• Close-up shot
• Hand-held shot

There was a low angle shot as the villain run close towards the victim who is trying to escape. He drops on the floor along with his hand-held camera. The low angle shot implies that the villain is superior, compared to his victim who is displayed as vulnerable as he is on the floor.

We decided that there would be no dialogue in our trailer to keep it very simple, so that later we can edit it and add sound effects on iMovie on the Mac. I found that it was much easier to use iMovie than Adobe Premier on Windows. All of the text that we added in is stretched and faded from using one of the templates on iMovie. We also added in the heartbeat sound effect to suggest that the victim is frightened and is running.

Spoof Preliminary Task: THE MAN

This is our finished spoof trailer of 'The Man'. We decided to upload it onto YouTube for other people to watch and enjoy. This is also a way for people to give feedback on it, so that we can take their comments into consideration for our final horror trailer.

THE MAN

Preliminary trailer

For the preliminary task, in our groups we had to create a spoof horror trailer in relation to a horror film that has inspired us. We used the idea of the hand-held camera which is used throughout 'The Blair Witch Project'.

This is 'The Blair Witch Project' trailer.
At 1:09 the character is shown running away, and the camera is extremely unsteady as it is hand-held

When filming our trailer, we filmed a clip of the character running away from the masked villain. The character was one of our group members who held the camera whilst running.

The Narrative of 'The Man'

The Man

The man is a horror scopophilia film. It is based around an urban myth of a creature called ‘Slender Man’.

The film is set in the present day; however, it will be based on a home film that was recorded 60 years ago which was owned by the recorder, ........... She had passed away recently and her house had been abandoned. A group of 4 teenagers decided to break into the house at night for fun and discovered the home video in the attic. After watching the video, 2 of them were scared of the video. The others were calling them names and said there was nothing to worry about. Then they proceeded to wreck the house.

They all go home. The next time they meet up at the house, one of the teens looks out of the window and sees slender man. None of the others believe him and make fun of him. The teen becomes hysterical so the others lock him out of the house as a joke. He bangs on the door hysterically as the others laugh before suddenly falling silent. The others think he is messing around but when they go to let him in he is nowhere to be found. They come to the conclusion that he must have found another way into the house and is hiding potentially trying to scare them. They split up and look for him in the other rooms, one of the boys, Jeffery, looks out the window and see’s a tall shady black figure underneath the street’s lamp, he is unusually tall and lanky, with extra long hands. Jeffery immediately realises that he just saw slender man and ducks under the window in shock; he then calms himself and looks again. The figure is gone. Jeffery tells the others but once again they do not believe him, thinking he is in on the joke. They soon realise that their friend is genuinely missing and the whole group begins to panic.

They decide that the safest thing to do is get away from the house and return to their own homes. They make their way down their usual route down an alley but are cornered by Slenderman. They run away in the opposite direction, towards the woods, Slenderman’s preferred domain. The leader urges the group on, saying if they can make it through the woods they can escape through the other side. They run from Slenderman but every time they reach the end of a path he is standing waiting for them. All they have to light their way is the light from their phones and these soon stop working leaving them in complete darkness (Slenderman interferes with technology)

The group have no choice but to use matches to keep Slenderman away (he doesn’t like light) but these don’t last very long. The film ends with the group desperately grabbing matches and trying to keep them alight for as long as possible, but they eventually run out and are taken by Slenderman. The audience think that all the teens have been killed but it is revealed at the end that one of them managed to escape as they had a torch in their bag. The screen goes black. Dot of light from torch gets bigger and runs past the camera.

Initial ideas of horror trailer & 'The Slender Man'

• As a group, myself, Hafssa, Karwin and Kleo, have been thinking of different idea's that we may use in own horror trailer.
• Trailers that inspired us were 'The Blair Witch Project' and also the idea of a scopophilia film, such as 'The Cabin In The Woods'. 
• We have decided that our film will be based around an urban myth of a creature called ‘Slender Man'.  Here is an image of 'Slenderman'. 

History and Mythologies of The Slender Man

•  Slender Man is a supernatural creature that is described as appearing as a normal human being but he is described as being 8 feet tall and he has vectors that are described to be as sharp as swords.
• He is known to stalk humans and cause many disappearances. He is described as a shadow creature that has a missing  face. 
• The creature fits into many mythologies in legends from nations such as Germany which suggests why people think he is real. 
• In mythology, Slender Man was actually trying to save people from a painful death by taking them to the under world early. 
• However, a man named Victor Surge found this legend and made his own version of it which he called 'slender man'. 
• Victor Surge's version shows him as an evil creature that stalks humans to kill. 
• The slender man has become an internet Meme and there have been many sightings of him watching people outside of their house. 
•  These Photoshopped images of the slender man slightly turn it into a game. To spot Slender Man, as he is hidden in the background.

• He is also described to be wearing the clothes of people he killed, like a business suit.

Conventions of horror trailers

• We are not shown the story in narrative order
• An elipses between the story's
• Voiceover (to tell the story)
• Unusual angles are used to show events/character. For instance, in the 'Cabin in the Woods' trailer, ther is a close-up shot of one of the characters, to display his terrified facial expression.

• Music (to create atmosphere)
• One-line conversations between the characters
• The trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
• Title appears at end, like in the trailer of this horror film called 'Sinister'

The FINAL GIRL theory

What Male characters in there in Horror films?

Good male characters

• boyfriends
• schoolmate

Bad male characters

• Villain- does not invite empathy (as they are masked/deformed-audience is distanced from them) and are eventually killed

HOWEVER, no male character of stature lives to tell the tale

How are women present in Horror films?

• Vulnerable
• Objectified by the male gaze (achieved through camera angles)
• nervous damsel
• Smart traits 
• Masculine/ Androgynous (Ellen Ripley, Syndey)
•  Emotionally stronger
• Resourceful (use what ever they can find to help them)

The FINAL GIRL

• Given a lot of camera time and is therefore important
• is virginal, while her friends are indulging in drugs, the final girl is studying
• tends towards the androgynous 
• she has a shared history with the killer, may help her survive through working out the link
• level-headed/resourceful/intelligent

Sydney as the final girl in 'Scream'

• Short cropped hair & no makeup
• Appears androgynous (unlike the other female characters who get killed)
• Not objectified by the 'male gaze'
• Smart, intelligent, attempts to work her way around who the killer is
• In all sequels, there is a relationship between her and the killer
• 'Sydney' is both a male and female name ...male and female traits? 

Audience theory

 The effects on an audience

• Sense of reality-fear, but ultimate safety
• Entertaining/humor
• Shared experience 

Paul Wells' Research into Horror Audiences (2000)

• Wells conducted a small focus group study involving 12 members of each both the following age groups: 16-25, 26-40, 41-55 and 56-80
• He asked them what the earliest horror film they had seen was and what was the most recent

 

Results

Conclusions

56-80 years : Interest in horror whilst younger, rather than enduring with age.

Were scared by configuration of night and dark – reminded them of walking home in the dark as youths. Were scared by rats (reminder of social conditions). Fear of breakdown of law and order (when society was more fragile). Real horror of WW2 meant they didn’t like imaginary horror.

41-55 years: Reported that Hammer films were an example of vivid use of blood; contemporary films showed good SFX; Psycho (1960) was a film that was genuinely shocking and frightening; contemporary horror films such as The Exorcist (1973) were too violent and frightening.

26-40 years: Slow disengagement with the genre; disliked silly predictability of films in 1980s that relied on certain conventions; noticed that horror was starting to offer less passive roles for women (women got stronger)– more struggled against the monster; believed US horror was far superior to British horror.

16-25 years: Enjoyed the spectacle – bloodletting and gore. Understood the film was artifice and had a strong desire to know about the production and how SFX are created. Strong admiration for certain directors. Engaged with extra-textual world of horror e.g. Websites. Loved comedic aspects, chase scenes and liked predictability. Horror watched socially.

Evaluation

(1) The relationship to being frightened changes with age and relates to broader factors affecting emotional responses.

(2) Audiences between 1970s and 1990s are more anaesthetised to explicit special effects, whereas ‘monster’ films of 20s and 30s reported very strong personal response to images and iconography of horror (when cinema was new and unknown).

(3)Young audiences are aware of artificiality and are becoming harder to shock. This is something that Horror films have to consider in order to attract a young audience.

Todorov & Propp's narrative theory

Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance.

He stated that conventional narratives are constructed in 5 stages 

(1) A state of equilibrium (balance)

(2) A disruption of the equilibrium by some action

(3) A recognition that there has been a disruption

(4) A attempt to repair the disruption

(5) A reinstatement of the equilibrium 

His extended Narrative theory in 5 stages

(1) Exposition (background info/intro of characters)

(2) Development

(3) Complication (main event and action)

(4) Climax (confrontation)

(5) Resolution (restoration of equilibrium)

This type of narrative structure is familiar to us and is applied to many well-known film narratives.

Propp's Narrative structure 

The 6 stages;

(1) Preparation

(2) Complication

(3) Transference

(4) Struggle

(5) Return

(6)Recognition

Propp analysed 100 folk and fairy-tales to identify how characters are used to move the narrative forward.

• The helper
• The princess
• The princess' father (father figure)
• The donor who provides the hero with a magic gift
• The dispatcher who sends the hero on his way
• The false hero

HOWEVER, a character could have several roles in a narrative theory, for instance there could be  smaller numbers of roles than characters (this could be a flaw in the theory)

Flaw's in Propp's theory

• He ignores character, tone and mood in his analysis which differentiates one tale from another
• He works as characters as a function. The role of the character to move the narrative forward

The marketing of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

This was one of the posters that were shown through marketing.


Analysing this poster;

• Red colour text-blood, danger, horror
• Bold text-which creates a sense of importance and stands out. Attracts the audience
• Image is striking as the villain is holding a chainsaw. Portrays violence, and blood which is emphasised from the red text.
• The poster is quite simple, yet powerful

How are horror films marketed?

Different ways of marketing;

• Social networks-Twitter, Facebook, YouTube adverts
• Billboards, banners, flyers, posters (on buses), bus-stops (targeting audience: teenagers)
• TV/Radio/Cinema advertisements
• Film magazines
• Word-of-mouth
• Official websites

Marketing of 'Saw'

• Official website
• Several different posters (these posters display the victims in pain)
• Official 'Saw' trailers that are played on TV and cinema advertisements
• An official 'Saw' store 
• A 'Saw' auction where people can bid on official 'Saw' props 

This image  is taken from the official 'Saw' website www.officialsaw.com/