One Missed Call Trailer

This is a example of a horror trailer that I like, this is because it fits in with the key conventions of horror trailers and represents the movie very well. I like the use of intertitles because it represents a mobile phone, that is a major prop in the horror movie. Also because the tune that is played in the trailer, as that tune is representing the horror in the movie by hearing that tone people know that their time is limited. And straight away in the trailer the women says that isn't her tune, so it gets the target audience start asking questions like whos ring tone it is being played and why is the ring tone featured so much in the trailer. Straight afterward theres sound affects that make the trailer more dramatic by emphasising it more, then we hear screams coming from the phone being used. We can tell from these frames that the genre of the movie is horror,  also in the horror trailer we get to see a bit of the storyline. This is because when the characters answer the phone we hear one of them dieing on the phone, so we start to wonder how can she there with her friend and also hear herself dieing on the phone this could suggest a sort of paranormal movie. The movie is marketed well this is because our target audience watch a lot of horror movies, especially the japanese kind as they seem to be popular. And in the intertitles of the horror trailer they advertise the movie is based on a hit japanese thriller, so we know that this movie has the potential to be very successful. As we start to see more of the trailer we see a lot more of what the movie is about, and how it develops and also the pace starts to get quicker and quicker like a heart rate. I also like the use of the flashing images as it makes the frames less boring and also shows what happens in the future, it adds more emphasis and catches your attention especially if the viewer is looking away. Another factor that is used in this horror trailer a lot is the sound affects like bangs, and the use of lighting and darkness and lightness contrasts as the makers don't want the viewers knowing too much about the storyline. Though I do think the storyline in this trailer is given away quiet a bit though it does work as it makes sense of the trailer, as we hear the characters say you hear your voice then you die. Though we do not find out what is causing the people to die this is left to the movie to reveal the hidden secrets, the pace of the trailer starts to speed up a lot more towards the end and there is also more voilence by showing a character being killed. I think especially towards the end of the trailer it is very scary as its very quick and jumpy and it makes you wonder what is going to happen next, especially as we don't know what the cause is.

How Horror Represents Gender

Films can represent gender in many ways some can be good some can be bad, this mainly though depends on the character and how the storyline flows. There are typical sterotypes for women in movies these can be being the women who normally get killed that some times can be worked out from the beginging of the movie, or the more down to earth and sensible women who normally makes it out of the movie and kills the bad guy. In class we started watching horror movies and looking at the technical code or what horror genre movies follow. One of the movies that we watched is Halloween that represented the gender roles very well,  having the main protagonist that could either be the victim or the hero.

 Though the Halloween movie featured a final girl that wasn't seen as a sexual object towards men she didn't dress up or have any makeup on compared to the other girls in the movie. And in movies it follows the conventions that the teenagers who are virgins survive, this is more a conservative view though. Another thing that horror genres follow in is colours, where the evil character is wearing darker clothes compared to the survivor or hero normally wears white. And these conventions first mainly started in the Halloween movie, and then contined into the movies that we watched today only they are more developed as the technology has grown. Both sexes have a different approach to the media industry with men the media normally show them as dominant, strong, active, independant, intellectual and authoritaive. Where as women are normally shown  submissive, passive though there is a large focus on the physical beauty and are normally seen as a sex object and emotional. So we can see that both men and women play very different roles, and this has been successful over the years so it is a method that has carried on for many years. Some of the roles that are played are more traditional for exmaple men normally are shown as having the succesful job where as women stay at home and raise the family, the males are also more likely to be shown away from home compared to the women. There is also a technique called the "male gaze" this is a theory developed by Laura Mulvey in her famous essay "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema", this has been suggested as adopting camera techniques which present the women as sexual objects and this is where the audience is literally put into the eyes of the male. This is usually the main protagonist though the camera work creates a lot of this frame, by usually using long shots and tilts up the body especially when the lady used as a object walks into the room. This is because the camera will get frames of the womens body parts for example where we only see a womens legs in a frame as a close up, this is mainly designed though for the male audience. The classical theoretical view of women in media are seen for these four main purposes as domestic, sexual, consumer, and marital when watching a lot of horror movies with the women being more the caring role and always going out shopping this is why shops target more the women into buying products.

The Role of the Distributor

Distribution is very important to companies espeically in the movie industry, this is because the films are selected or targeted towards different sorts of people. Everyone has their favourite sort of genre horror movie, and these genres peak at certain times in the year. It is a very competitive market because distributing the market needs to be at a hiugh quality because if the movie isn't distributed right then the movie may not do as well, and this will mean that they will lose money. The distributors roles invole what the target audience is and where they can grow from there, as it will help with advertising as to where to advertise the movie. But also in merchadising and growing a interest for the movie before it is ever released. Though they need to find the right  demographic audience, another thing that they have to concider is if the movie is targeted towards a niche market or mass market. There is one problem that distributors face today and that is online downloading, this is because many people use it nowadays as it saves paying for the movie. Some times people will use companies such as love film or blockbuster to rent dvds that can be a chearper option especially if they arent sure they are going to like the movie, where as in shops the movies arent cheap to buy so many people like to download the movie as its free and you get to keep the movie. Some movies though may not require as much advertising, this is because if the film is a sequal people will already have a rough idea what the movie is going to be about and will what it to see how the movie continues and changes. Though when distributating a movie it needs to be carefully thought about to think as to how the movie can reach is full potential, as if a movie isn't released at the right time not so many people will go watch it or buy the movie. In the producing of the movie there is many factors and people involved to make it work some times advertising agencies are used or, producers and exhibutors. The movies are protected by copyright laws this means that no one can copy them, and that so other distributors can't make money off another persons ideas.

Comparison Between Offcial Trailers and Teaser Trailers

There are differences between a teaser trailer and the official trailer that are produced for a movie, the teaser trailer is released first and it is also shorter than the proper trailer. I find that the teaser trailer features more action compared to the official trailer, i think this is because they need to get people commited into wanting to see the movie way before the movie is actually released to get plenty of screenings. The offcial trailer shows slightly more detail as to what the movie is about, though it still doesnt give away totally what the movie is about as we need to watch the movie to find out. Teaser trailers are hinted in their name as to what their purpose is, as they are designed into teasing the viewers into watching the horror movie when it comes out.

 The film that I have used is the Crazies the teaser trailer only lasts 40 minutes long, and goes straight into the action with a girl lying on a bed in desperate need of help and a serious of action events which also include fire. It also includes intertitles that involes the audience into thinking into the film more carefully and what it is about like the end of days, also the pace of the teaser trailer is very quick and consists of flashing images. With the teaser trailer it also starts with everything going wrong and working backwards as at the end of the teaser trailer it features the begining of the movie where everything starts to go wrong, it also features a lot of information of how to look up about the movie.

 Where as official trailer lasts two minutes thirty four seconds which is a lot longer compared to the teaser trailer, and the trailer starts off happy by showing their everyday lives. It thens goes onto the begining of the movie where it shows a normal day where everything starts to go wrong at the game, and the first real voilence is a gun shot where as compared to the teaser trailer it was striaght into the voilence. The official trailer then starts to show the characters getting concerned over recent events and is gradually building up, then goes into short flashing images of events going wrong and peoples lives changing. About one minute seven seconds into the official trailer it starts to show the real volience getting us on the edge of our seats, by wondering whats going to happen to this character are they going to make it out alive it also gets us thinking why are these events happening. The scenes that was shown at the begining of the teaser trailer aren't shown until towards the end of the official trailer, as the pace of the official trailer is a lot slower and gradually builds up and like explodes into action. Also when it does explode more into the action it shows a lot more horror frames that scare the viewer, and makes the target audience wonder what happens in the movie as zombie movies are very popular with the target audience at the moment so the movie has a lot of competition.

The Last Exorcism Trailer Analysis

I and my fellow student Jason Parrish studied this trailer, among others to highlight the genre and trailer conventions.

The trailer for the 2010 remake of the classic horror film 'The Last Exorcism' contains several of the expected convetions of the horror genre. These include Darknesss, flashing images, a male hero and an isolated rural setting. Religious themes and the idea of a 'hidden evil' are central to the plot, and a common features in th horror genre. The characters of the male hero, the virgin girl and children are included in the story and the binary oppositions of good vs evil and black and white are also apparant.


This trailer also follows the common conventions of movie trailers. It indicates the movie title and the iconography clearly represents the genre. The graphology also helps to represent the genre. The title of the film, 'The Last Exorcism' is the prduction value due to it being a remake of a classic film. This on its own, will draw an audience. The intertitles also start the well known director, Eli Roth.

Through the intertitles, we learn some of the background of the characters and we start to identify with them. We also start learning the story but large 'gaps' of narrative are left out leaving the viewer with the desire to know more.

The music is quite slow throughout. It starts quiet with the occasional loud bang to emphasise certain points of action. There are long drawn out notes to increase suspense. The music is repetitive nearer the end, increasing in pace and building the tension. The dialogue and music become asynchronous adding to the confusion of the action.

The voice-over heard is diegetic. It is taken from dialogue within the film.

Valentine Trailer Analysis

I and my fellow student Jason Parrish studied this trailer, among others to highlight the genre and trailer conventions.

The trailer for the 2001 horror film 'Valentine' includes several of the conventions expected for the horror genre. The themes of fear and isolation are aparent in the voice-over. The distrorting camera angles used are also generic conventions of horror.

The female is wearing light coloured, feminie clothing and is engaging in a stereotypically female activicty. This, along with the setting of 'Valentines day' emphasizes the idea of 'immorral teens'. The voice-over is implying that one of the protagonists will be alone, connoting virginal: another convention of the horror genre. The dress is something easy and simple, yet it will appear to its targets audience as it shows off the female body well hi-lighting her curves.

The music is ambient and diegetic untill the non-diegetic scream which emphasises the genre. The trailer makes use of eeriely long drawn out notes to make the viewer feel uncomfortable. The diegetic dialogue is a well know rhyme, 'He loves me, he loves me not'. This is contrapuntal with the genre of the film.

The trailer shows the title of the movie, written in a bloody font, once again highlighting the genre. This trailer is very short but its to the point, we can already guess in the very few seconds of the trailer what it is going to be about, and this can relate to the orginaly Halloween movie created in 1978. Where it consisted more of a conservative view, this is similar to this movie where teeengers having sex are more likely to die wereas the virgin normally stays alive.

Devil Trailer Analysis

      
I and my fellow student Jason Parrish studied this trailer, among others to highlight the genre and tarilor conventions.

The trailer for the 2010 horrror movie "The Devil", uses many of the conventions that are expected in a horror movie. The interesting use of using a city as the location, though being stuck in a elevator creates a kind of isolation from everything giving a more frigthening feel to the movie as the evelator is stuck on the 11th floor. The use of camera angles also gives more tension when the people are stuck in the elevator, this is done by a high viewing angle that makes the viewers seem superor compared to the victims. In the trailer they take risks by using 4 seconds worth of darkness, this is a major risk because this time could of been used by footage to grab the viuewers attention. Though by using the darkness this works as we just hear noises in the background that make us want to know more of what is happening, in this four seconds we also kinda get to see what the characters are going through as they cant see anything in the elevator when the lights go out so we as the viewers get to expereince what the characters are experiencing. Also the use of text and images at the begining of the trailer, this is because the images are shown upside down this shows already 5 seconds into the movie that something isn't right and that it isn't the adverage day.

Both of the ladies are wearing some light colours as their characters, but they are also dressed very smart as they are attending work on a daily bases. Though the younger women is dressed more feminine, wereas compared to the the older women wearing a suit shes gives off the appearance to be more mascualine. This shows the younger women has more of a sexual appear towards men, as she is wearing a very fitting top that hiughlights her feminine features more compared to the other women.

Narrative Theory

Bordwell and Thompson

They both put together very interesting ideas, were there was no real situation at the begining and that viewers watching the movies would create a timing sense. This is due to the way we think and how we perceive things, and the movies something can manipulate our senses. They defined the narrative that a chain of events in a cause - effect relationship, that is occruing in time and space. This defines that where things take place, when they take place but also how quickly they take place these are like set guild lines in creating a succesful horror movie. When watching a film we naturally try to connect the events to make a sense of what is happening, this way we can see a line of cause and effect. In the world around us we try to connect everything so that we understand it more clearer, this is similar to films as we try to connect the images by what we see in time and also in space. This relates in the movie of " The Shining" this is because of Jacks relality where he starts to go insane, by the type writer where he starts to type the same thing over and over again. But also with Jack because the movie is done as a video diary that shows Jack develop worse and worse over the days, where the past starts flashing into the present though this helps to connect the dots in the story/ plot so we understand more of what is happening. The relates to the shining this is because Jack is being hired for a new job, he is hired as a watcher to look at the hotel in the winter months that is in complete isolation. And Jacks mental state changes during the winter months and his life is changing, as him and his family are growing further and further apart and coming out of the normal though the narrative comes to a end when the chase goes outside and Danny and Wendy manage to get away.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude looked at more the narrative structure, meaning in the terms of binary oppositions. This means that binary oppositions are values which reveal the real structure of the media texts, an example of this would be either good or evil. Claude was not interested into the plot of the horror movies, and in how the events would be arranged. There are different oppositions for example there is good/ evil, past/ present these all represent what claude theory was about. This theory was also used in the movie "The shining", as there was good vs evil. This is because there was the hotel that was evil which also tunred Jack evil and into killing other people, the good people in the movie were Danny, Wendy and the head chef. Where they battled to escape the hotel, but many things stopped this as the hotel had Jack on their side.
                                               Vladimir Propp

Vladimir is a russian critic who examined 100s of different examples of folk tales, to see if they had shared any structures. He also published a book in 1928 called the "Morphology of the folk tale", this included 8 different character roles and 31 narrative structures. As in each film the character will play a certain role and be given a title, this would either be the dispatcher, the false hero, the donor or other titles. Though by having these titles it gives us a understanding of what that chracter role involves them doing so that the movie will seem clearer and some aspects we can some times predict what is going to happen in the movie. This theory was used in the movie the "Shining" this is because Propp identified eight different characters in the movie and also thirty one different narrative functions. These consisted of a list of the charcaters that was featured in the movie for example the "Shining" had the villan who was Jack who tried to kill his wife and son, though in the end they manage to escape and so Jack freezes to death. The second character was the hero and this i think was mainly Wendy as she fighted Jack and managed to save her son from being killed, but i think Danny also was partly a hero because he managed to use his gift to be able to call for help when things started to go wrong. The third character is the donor which in the movie the "shining" is a imginary friend called Tony that is in Dannys head. The forth character is the helper this person normally helps the hero, this was Dick who was the hotels chef who had the same gift as Danny by communicating to each other without any one knowing. The fifth character is the princess which is defined as the reward for the hero, this could of been Wendy as she could be seen as she was the survivor and also as a reward. The sixth character was the her father who rewards the hero for saving his daughter, the seventh character is the dispatcher this is the person who sends the hero on his journey. And the last character is the false hero, though i dont think these last few fit into the shining so only part of this theory works with this movie as it doesn't have all the characters.

Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov suggested that stories begin with a equilibrium or known as a status quo, this means that any opposing forces become in balance though this can be disrupted by a event or a series of events. Though we discovered in the movie "The Shining", we discovered the movie didn't return to a equilibruim. And Tzvetan also suggested that each narrative would either end with a wedding or a funeral, and this was a like guild line that horror movies were thought to follow. Though in the film the problems are solved, so that movie can go back to normal. Though in different aspects there are a funeral as Danny's father dies as he goes crazy trying to kill him family, this means that Danny goes up for the rest of his life without a influencing father. But there is a kind of wedding as Wendy and Danny become reunited as a family, meaning they can become strong again and over come the recent events that have over turned their life.  In the movie the shining the movie didn't return to a equilbrum, this is because there was still disruption. Though at the begining of the movie the disequlium changes, as Jack gets the job working as the care taker of the hotel for the winter months. Todorov's theory was that the problems that we see in the horror movie are resolved, i think in the movie the shining the issues are resolved in a way because Jack was causing most of the problems as he was trying to kill his wife and son. And in the end Danny and Wendy managed to escape although their father did die which is a negative point to the movie, though not everything was a loss it seemed Jack had completely been taken over by the hotel and was on the hotel's side instead of his own family.

These ideas are used in movies such as the "Shining", this is because it adds more of a dramatic edge as to who is going to survive. The movie the "Shining was produced in 1980 and was directed by Stanley Kubrick.

The Return of the Repressed

This theory was first thought about by Freud

Everyone reacts to things in different ways, this though can be a distinction between emotions and feelings. Normally emotions come from a experience or situation a person has been in, this is because it can alter our perception, response and interpretation. The reason we have emotions is because it controls the way we think, behave and also our actions. Though if these emotions are ingored it can affect our body in different ways, this is known as either ingoring, dismissing or by repressing. This can have serious affects though on the body, but instead of it being more mentally it will appear more physically because the person suffering is ingoring their emotions. Though some emotions aren't felt but instead released within the body causing problems later on in life, with chronic illnesses as the emotions need to be released to make a person feel better about themselves. Though there any many ways that this can be released as in anxiety, negativity, frustration or even depression, these are known as chemical reactions that happen within the body. This is why some people get referred to a doctor when they are suffering from these problems, as if they dont talk about them it just eats away at the person more and more when they can get to the point of having a break down. This has a lot to do with the unconscious mind, that isnt easy to understand as we do not know what happens in a persons mind and how they will react to things.


Freud thought that we all have to repress some of our primitive desires and emotions, so that we can take our place in society. So infant rages are repressed this means that we can not recall our early childhood, though this theory is about whether in horror movies it allows us to expereince them again but in a safe context. This theory of the return of the repressed involves the unconscious mind, and that maybe in the horror movie part of this thought or feeling is stored in the long term memory that takes some events or watching a horror movie for us to remember it. And some times people won't show these emotions, and they have to be let out some way so it can become a sympton some times dependant upon the person.