Whole film idea

When I was in the process of in the process of deciding which type of horror film we wanted to create, there was a strong feeling amongst all three of the group members that we wanted to create a trailer which was different to the current theme of horror- gore and blood. We decided instead that we wanted to make a psychological horror trailer which played with the readers mind, and influenced them in a much more indirect way, rather than the immediate horror effect which a slasher or gore horror film would.

The story begins with two friends in a car, driving through country roads, seemingly happy and they're just looking for something to do. There is a clear bond between the pair, shown by the way they are laughing and chatting in an informal way. The pair eventually end their journey when they pull up on the side of the road and see a mysterious figure running through the woods. Intrigued, the pair decide to investigate and follow the character, to be led into an abandoned church. Although the place is very quiet and somewhat peaceful, there is a definite sense of fear amongst the characters (Kieran Browne and Louis Caseley). As the light begins to fade over the abandoned ruins, the intensity increases and the atmosphere becomes very tense. While the boys are looking around the ruins, they become separated, unable to find each other, until Louis sees the figure standing in a gap in the ruin walls, as he escapes and runs from the scene, his friend Kieran screams his name while trying to search, but to no avail. Kieran is then "caught" by the un-identified figure, due to the burlap sack which covers his head, leading Louis to think his friend has been killed.

As the film continues, Louis starts to see Kieran's name everywhere he goes, thoughts of his death, and weather it was his fault plague him, eventually taking over his entire life. Negatively effecting his social life to the point which he could actually be considered mentally insane. The twist in the movie comes when Louis decides to visit the place where Kieran was supposedly killed by the demon, only to find out that he wasn't actually killed, but in an attempt to kill who he thinks is the killer. he actually kills Kieran, as Kieran wasn't actually dead in the first place, in-turn becoming the killer himself. This part of the film is not shown in the trailer, to allow for the audience to be surprised when they actually go and see the film in the cinema.

The film mainly follows Todorov's theory about structure. With a clear equilibrium at the beginning, with the two friends in the car, followed by the problem, the recognition, the fixing the problem stages, however the twist in our film means there is simply no second equilibrium. Due to Louis being killed at the end of the film, the film ends in sadness, which is reasonably uncommon in film, but more common in horror film. This is done to play on the audiences mind, for example if the film ended and everything was okay, the element of fear would disappear from the film. However as there is no calm, or death of the evil character, the audience would leave the cinema thinking "what if that happened to me?" Which is exactly what horror producers want because it keeps viewers talking about their films and it keeps them coming back for more.

The key characters in the trailer are the two boys, and the masked demon. They are very different but all important in their own ways. The two boys are very normal, wearing everyday clothing, being at one end of the scale, where as our classic horror villain was at the other end, being very abnormal and an actual psychopath. The trailer gives an insight into the characters they are likely to see in the film and there is instantly a feeling that they should side with the two boys when they watch the actual film.

There are also definite examples of Binary Opposition in our horror trailer also. With the main example being the characters in the trailer. The two boys being very normal, with no outrageous or noticeable unique qualities differentiating them from others of their age group. Opposing this however is the obvious evil character in the trailer. He is in fact very abnormal and clearly not an average human like the boys. We thought it was important to show the opposition of characters as there is then a clear divide between good and evil. The other example of Binary Opposition is a less obvious one, in the weather and the times used when filming. When we were filming the equilibrium stage of the trailer, we wanted to show calm and normality, so filmed in sunny, bright conditions. However opposing this, we filmed in darkened, dusky condition when we wanted to add an air of horror and creepiness to the trailer. Opposing the initial bright conditions. This was important to the trailer as we needed to show that the film would become scary and the perfect way to do this was by the dark conditions and use of fabricated lighting. Covering both ends of the binary scale.

Storyboard

Here is our original storyboard, we started off going by the storyboard, but then as we were filming, started trying new angels and filming techniques that we thought might be better. There are about 50 shots on this storyboard but because we wanted to experiment ended up using around 100 in our horror trailer.

Filming schedule

For our filming we had to make sure the time of day was correct and identical to the previous time we filmed. We filmed the horror scenes in an old church, at night time, a stereotypical time in horror films for things to turn bad. Then we filmed in the safety of a home during the day when things remained calm, the same with driving around looking for things to discover, this happened during the day whilst it was still sunny and a calm atmosphere.
We filmed at 11-3 during the day, for the calm scenes but we had to be precise when we were filming as we started filming of February 14th, so the light would fade very quickly, meaning we could no longer film.

Empire magazine analysis

This is the magazine I liked best, I am going to use a similar layout to this magazine cover. I like the simplicity of the image and it's background. The main image is in back and white which makes the image look more detailed, the audience is not distracted by the colour in the image and will look at the shadows and shading in the image.
Another reason I like the idea of a black and white image is because it makes the colour of the title really stand out and obvious. The title lays beneath the main image, making it obvious that the main image is what's important and makes the film look more dominant.
The only sub title on this cover is the title of the film that is featuring in this months magazine. The rest of the writing is the release date, price and month of the issue.
The barcode is in usual place and also blends in with the black and white theme of the magazine cover.
The plain white background makes Bond's black suit really stand out against the white. But I do feel like it's a bit boring, maybe if it had some sort of shattered glass effect or worn paper effect.

Total Film magazine analysis

The title of this magazine is in the biggest font on the cover, making it obvious that it's the title. The other thing I noticed is that the 'film' in the title has been experimented with and played with to fit in with the main image and the background. Even though the text blends in it's still noticeable and stands out from the rest of the background.
The next biggest font is a sub title of what's featured in the magazine, Inception. Total Film has labelled it at the top 'The mind blowing issue', this is also relevant to the sub title Inception. Inception is a film based in people minds, a team enters an individuals mind with a task to gain information. The sub title Inception lays on top of the main image but not covering the face or any key part of the image.
There is also a circle shape that has an effect as a sticker, this also grabbed my attention, separating itself from the rest of the cover. It's another sub title explaining that there is information of a new film coming out in the magazine.
The barcode is in a typical place, barcodes always seem to be in either bottom corner of the magazine, keeping out the way of the main image, sub titles and any other information on the cover.

Horror magazine analysis

The title of the magazine stands out from the rest of the text on that page because of the purple background and the red outline on the black text that states 'Fangoria', making it eye catching and obvious that it is the title of the magazine.
There are also lots of sub titles on the front cover, introducing what is going to be inside the issue of the magazine. The most important sub title is the text above and below the title of the magazine. "Fangoria - presents, Best and Bloodiest Horror Video" this text is also as important as the title of the magazine because it explains that this magazine is a limited edition magazine about the top rated Horror Video. The texts front range in style but the magazine title is on a separate background making it obvious it's the title.
This magazine also uses three little pictures besides the main image in the middle of the magazine. These images are example of what other films are up for the title of "Best and Bloodiest Horror Video". The main image grabbed my attention, straight away I knew this magazine was a Horror based magazine. The main image is Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, the image captures his burns and his aggressive expression seeking for revenge.

Representation of Women in Horror films

For this task I will be looking at how women are represented in horror films, women are usually seen as a weak character in horror films, unable to fight or escape from the killer. But there are two theories that support and oppose this. The 'male gaze' theory and the 'final girl' theory.

The final girl theory was created in 1992 by Carol Clover. The theory consists of a female character that survives the massacre in horror films particularly slaughter films. The character is usually the last person out of the cast that is alive and would confront the killer and lives to tell the tale. Usually a female character in Horror films would often be seen a the weaker character who can't defend or look after herself and is usually the first to die. But in the final girl theory the female is stronger willed and tends to dress quite masculine.
Wendy Christensen portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead from Final Destination is a great example of the final girl, she is innocent and sensible, does not wear cloths that show any flesh off and does not participate in any sexual acts during the film. Wendy figures out what is happening and why her and all her friends are dying. Wendy had vision at the beginning of the film, seeing her and her friends going on a roller coaster ride and the coaster coming lose, and they all die. She causes a scene and her and her friends are taken off the roller coaster, cheating death. Wendy is the last one to survive out of the group making her the final girl. She figures out what's going on and then tries to prevent it from happening. Without realise her and the next friends to die (Julie and Kevin) are all on the same train, she figures out that they are about to die and tries to stop the train, but it's too late. The train crashes leaving the friends to die tragically. She is the only one alive. Until, she finds herself stuck on a train track with a trapped leg, she cannot move and sees the next train coming. She dies in the end but she still follows the role of the final girl.

Here is the last scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sxvSqv7LEQ

Unlike two other girls in this film, Crystal Lowe portraying Ashlyn Halperin and Chelan Simmons portraying Ashley Freund who are in the 'male gaze' theory. These two girls dress to impress the males and grab the male audience attention in their tanning scene. As you can see from the pictures above and below there is a major difference in the style of clothing the girls are wearing, both girls below are wearing pink and yellow, typical girly colours and also they are both wearing short skirts to give the males something to look at. In the picture above Wendy is wearing blue and red, more masculine colours, they also seem to be covering her whole body, not revealing any flesh. She also seems to be holding a camera consciously making her seem innocent and shy. The scene where Ashley and Ashlyn die support the male gaze theory, they are both in the tanning bed wearing nothing but bikini bottoms. A shelf from above one of the tanning beds comes loose and fall, trapping the girls in the tanning beds. Previously one of the girls brought a drink in the room, placing it above the control box that controls the heat of the tanning beds, dripping on to the control box the tanning beds start to increase the heat, until they burn alive.

Here is the scene of Ashlyn and Ashley supporting the male gaze theory, and their deaths. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaz73KCiKaM

The 'male gaze' theory was brought up by Laura Mulvey in 1975. Mulvey noticed that in some cases women were used to grab male attention and sell the film or advert. The women would wear tightly fit revealing clothes, or in some situations hardly any clothing what so ever. The camera tends to focus on the woman's curves and figure in scenes of the male gaze women. In adverts made to sell products this theory also comes into action, women are used more an object or prop to help grab the male audiences attention and convince them to buy whatever is up for sale.

Other examples of the 'final girl' theory would be Shelley Duvall who is portraying Wendy Torrance in The Shining. She escapes and survives her husbands madness and slaughter also with her son Danny. Although she is the only female in the hotel at the time and for the majority of the time, she still follows the theory. She wears masculine based clothing that always cover her whole body, she is generally a quiet and shy character as we find out during the film. She protects herself and her son, using a bat and knife. In the scene I have posted below this picture Wendy has confronted the horror character and stand up for herself, she hits Jack around the head with a bat, and Jack falls from the top of the stairs to the bottom knocking him unconscious. Wendy and her son escape leaving Jack outside stuck in a maze, Jack freezes to death.

 

Here is the scene of Wendy supporting the Final girl theory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n47U-v3v1-Q