A2 Media: October 2013

Looking at real-life examples

As very soon we are going to be making our own horror trailers, it is important to get a better idea of what it is supposed to consist of. For this reason, I have looked at real life examples really closest so that I pick up on certain factors that may work when I have to make my own trailer.

- The video starts off with a fade into a blue background. The shade of the blue is similar to the colour of the sky at night, and the idea of ‘night time’ could be the first hint that clip it related to horror in some way. Special effects have also been used to relate back to this theme. Of horror e.g. the letter flying away may resemble ghosts.

- The scene starts off in a room, and the room is dark. As well as this, silence creates fear. The camera watched the character from an high angel, which makes it seem as if they are being watched.

Male Gaze

Scream 1996- Film Review

Levi - Strauss's Theory of Binary Oppositions

Carol J Clover Article

The Final Girl

In many horror movies, there is often a character that is shown as the final girl. The final girl is often focused on a lot, and a lot of the time the camera is on her. Another factor commonly found in the final girl is that she is a virgin. The final girl if often portrayed as the innocent character that focuses on things like studying rather than partying. She is also given a unisex name, possibly reflecting her masculine features. She is portrayed as a hero, who may reveal the hidden truth or escape from the whole situation. She is respectable, intelligent and brave. She is often the last one alive.

Analysing Scenes from Psycho

Analysing Psycho Scenes

As we were going to be making our own trailers, it is important for us to get a better idea of what it should consist of. To get a better idea of what to include we have been looking at famous scenes in key horror movies. From the film Psycho, we have looked at a few scenes and analysed them, for example; the shower scene.

Paul Well's Research into Horror Audience

What is Horror about?

As research, my group and I looked deeper into some common questions related to the genre of horror. Firstly, we looked at synonyms for the word ‘fear’. All of the words we found are commonly related back to horror. We also brainstormed a few ideas about what we normally see in horror movies. After looking at many sites online, we came up with a few reasons for why people watch horror movies, and also looked at data to pick out the top four, best selling horror movies of all time.

Applying Propp’s Character Theory and Todorov’s Theory of Narrative

Insidious (2011) Applying Different Theories from pri_ox

In lessons, we were taught about two key theories. We were given a task of applying the two learnt theories to a horror film that we had watched. The film I chose was ‘Insidious’.

Interesting Marketing Idea

As many people know, there is a remake of the horror movie ‘Carrie’ which is coming out very soon. I found a video that has gone viral. This is a video that the team uploaded where they have carried out a prank on the general public relating back to the remake of Carrie. I found this really interesting and it made me think about what i can to to Market my trailer when the time comes.

Wordle

Todorov's Narrative Theory

Scream 1996

Propp's Character Theory

Positives – This theory avoids treating characters as if they are individuals and reminds us that they are merely contracts. Some characters are indeed there just to progress the narrative.

Criticism- Propp’s theories rely on the idea that characters are either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But are all narratives about struggles between hero’s and villains or is that an over simplification.

Carrie 1976

The Exorcist- 1973

How is the camera used to create/ add meaning?

We looked at some images that were taken from horror movies e.g. posters, and we looked closely at the details in it e.g. shot type. As a group we discussed the main camera angles used in filming and explored how camera movements can be used in horror movies. We found that the common camera shots used were; close-up’s, long-shot’s, over-the-shoulder shots, and extreme close-up’s. The common angle types we recognised were; birds-eye-view shot’s, worm’s-eye-view shots, canted, high and low angle shots. This was a helpful activity as it gave me a better idea about what I could incorporate into my horror movie trailer.