Aimee - Personal Research
Activity Two - Research Task
Activity One - Mind Map
This is my mind map in which I created showing all my different thought and views on horror - I have also put on it about the different types of horror films and the classic things in which happen within these horror such as supernatural films usually invlove a doll or something.
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Activity Three - Content Analysis Horror FIlm Trailers
Film Title: Battle Royal
Year of Release: 2000
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0p1t-dC7Ko
Shots of Victims - The amount of shots used in this film was 13 for the victims
Shots of Aggressor - In this trailer there is 20 shots of the aggressor
Graphic Content - Child covered in blood, Bloody hand running down window
Sound Techniques - Talking, Music – classical piano, creepy laughing, screaming and lots of dialogue
Editing Techniques - Quick Cuts, continuing shots
Camera Techniques - Close up and establishing shots
Locations - On an island – looks like there is a warehouse of some description
and they are also on a bus
Total number of shots - There is 53 shots in total during this trailer
Film Title: Oculus
Year of Release: 2014
Director: Scott Derrickson
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXmqMjdkZYk
Shots of Victims - There was Ten shots of the victims throughout the trailer
Shots of Aggressor - There was Four shots of the Aggressor
Graphic Content - Blood dripping down the mirror slowly spelling out Oculus and a girls mouth was bleeding once she bite a glass
Sound Techniques - child talking, Wind sound, Screaming, Echoes and fast/slow beating.
Editing Techniques - Slow-Mo, Quick Shots and zooming in to the mirror slowly.
Camera Techniques - Crabbing shots, medium close up, close up and bird eye view
Locations - Attic, rooms in a house – IT WAS ALL FILMED INSIDE A HOUSE
Number of shots - There was 27 shots in total
Film Title: Prom Night
Year of Release: 2008
Director: Nelson McCormick
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_7JKWRWnkU
Shots of Victims - There was 14 shots of victims in this trailer
Shots of Aggressor - There was 36 shots of the aggressor in this trailer
Graphic Content - Lots of shots of people falling and getting dragged/strangled
Sound Techniques - Lots of screaming and slow music – making it sound creepy
Editing Techniques - Quick Shots – the start it rolls and tell the story then the trailer starts changing directions and becomes quicker and more dramatic
Camera Techniques - Shot reverse shot and cutaway shots
Locations - Prom Hall, Hotel, Outside prom hall, hairdressers ( at the start)
Number of shots - 103 shots
Film Title: The Boy
Year of Release: 2016
Director: William Brent Bell
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1U21VBSbSs
Shots of Victims - In this trailer there was 8 shots of the victim
Shots of Aggressor - There was 8 shots of the aggressor in the trailer – the aggressor was a doll
Graphic Content - There was no graphic content in this
Sound Techniques - -Song playing slowly in the background
Editing Techniques - The first is few shots tell the start of the story where the victim goes to the house and meets the ‘child’ then after that it all becomes out of place and quick shots to different bits of drama that happen throughout the film.
Camera Techniques - Cut away shots
Locations - Once again this was all filmed in a house location
Number of shots - There was 78 shots in this trailer
Conclusion of Horror Trailer
I looked at four different horror films trailer in which all allow me to evaluate the types of things that occur during different genres of horror films. I looked at Prom Night which is a Slasher along with Battle Royal which is a splatter/slasher/J-Horror. The other two films I looked at were The Boy and Oculus which are both supernatural based films.
Starting with The Boy and Oculus which are both supernatural the trailers were extremely different even though they both came from the same genre. Starting with the number of shots – Oculus has 27 shots as most of the shots were long, many filming into a mirror with slow talking whereas The Boy has 78 quick and fast paced shots which showed lots of drama. However the style of the trailers were similar – both trailers did have quick shots happening throughout showing a range of weird things happening in the house and showing the characters reactions. Another thing I noticed from these two supernatural trailers was that the main victim in both was a young woman who is trying to stand up to the ghost/doll but seems to be failing during the trailer. The two images are of the women who play in The Boy and Oculus, they both play the main character so it seems and from looks they have a similar appearance – both women look innocent and pure as well as frightened about the situation they are in. It seems to be that a characteristic of supernatural horror is to have a main woman who is trying to solve the issue or get away from it.
Another aspect in which seems to occur within both supernatural trailers was that they tend to be filmed in one place – a creepy looking house. In Oculus the opening part of the trailer is an attic with a bit of cloth swaying back and forth then a mirror appears. In The Boy the establishing shot of the house shows a large creepy old looking house. All the drama that happens in the trailer happens in the house and never seems to go outside it.
Also both Supernatural trailers have more shots of the victims than they do the aggressor usually because they want to leave the aggressor which is a supernatural figure as a mystery to both audience and the characters.
If I was to create a supernatural teaser trailer I would plan to include a main women character who is trying to solve the problem as well as the shots being in a creepy looking house – I would do this so that my trailer would fit in with the characteristic of a supernatural film trailer. I think it’s important to have aspect of the classic characteristic of a supernatural trailer because it create the suspense and the drama that needs to happen with a supernatural film and also to keep the audience on the edge of their seats while watching. Linking back to the quick shots I would also try to include lots of fast pace action in my trailer like these two trailer have (this technique was also used in Prom Night and Battle Royal) to keep the audience interested and also it create a sense of fear as everything in the trailer is happening so quickly.
By looking at these two super natural trailers I also can plan how many shots of the victims I want in a supernatural trailer if I was to make it one I can have a rough idea of how many victim and aggressor shots I want without even knowing the plot of my story.
The other two films I looked at were both slasher films – Prom Night and Battle Royal. Both these films are about two extremely different story lines however the way the trailers are filmed is similar. Once again like the two supernatural films they play a lot of quick cut shots which show all the drama with music that creates tension. Both of these trailers had slow music with a deep base which added a scare to the trailer – every time something bad happens the music changes. It either increases with speed or slows down before something happens. I also noticed that the slasher films trailer have more screaming and less dialogue than the supernatural trailers. I also found there was heavy breathing occurring a lot during the two trailers from the victim who was in a dangerous situation.
The locations of these slasher films were different – Prom Night was filmed in what looks like a hotel where prom is and Battle Royal is filmed on an island isolated from everything so it seems. Unlike the supernatural films the trailer is filmed in lots of different locations and the aggressor is following them wherever they go. In comparison to the supernatural trailers the location tends to look creepy and haunted whereas with slasher films the location tends to be a normal place made scary by the aggressor. As you can see from the screenshot from Prom Night, the location itself isn’t actually scary – it’s a bright lighted bathroom but the people and action that have played out make it scary.
In all of the four trailers that I looked at they all contained Cutaway shots of different objects. This suggest to the audience the emotions and atmosphere of that particular scene and also the rest of the movie. It also a way to create jump scare as the audience may not be expecting anything to happen so would be taken by surprise. Already without having to plan my trailer I know that I’d like to include a few cutaway shots in my trailer to create the tension.
After looking as the slasher films I have decided that I’d like to include slow music that the pace quicken as the drama increases along with someone screaming at one point – preferably when the screen goes black. By looking at these trailers I have been able to get a rough idea of the things I would want to include within my own horror trailer but without having to plan the plot.
Actvity Four - Horror films trailer analysis – Don’t Breathe
Don’t Breath is a new film coming out on the 26th of August 2016 – the film was directed by Fede Alvarez and is about three people who try to rob a blind man, he turns out to be a psychopath and is all about them trying to escape the house in which the blind man has locked up.
Mise En Scene
Throughout the trailer the use of Mise En Scene was used massively throughout the trailer. I’ve looked at the Setting, Props, Lighting, Costume and Non Verbal Communication. Starting with the Setting – at the very start of the trailer is a close up of a women’s face, she looks clearly terrified and seems to be in completely darkness.
Her eyes are wide and she is twisting around looking like she is trying to touch and feel her way through the environment she is in. By starting the setting in such a creepy looking environment it gives the audience an instant eerie feel about the trailer and what to expect from the rest of the trailer. After this it shows the film title and skips straight to another setting which is an over view of the city, the trailer then starts showing clips of everyday things such as bikes and the women in a house talking to her child – it all seems calm and almost normal. We then see the women along with two other people in a car driving to this old creepy looking house. They start walking up the ally way and we start to get a proper view of the setting and how creepy looking this house is. Once they get inside the house the setting changes to like a dirty old looking inside of a house. The house naturally looks scary and is like a place that you wouldn’t want to be. The rest of the trailer is set in the house and shows a range of events happening within the house.
Another aspect of Mise En Scene is Props. Props are used quite a lot during this trailer – they use guns, hammers and other violent looking tools. The first violent prop we see is a gun in which is being used to open the door. The guy who is using the gun shoots it through a bottle so it doesn’t make any noise, by him doing this we can clearly see that he is skilled with guns and understand the use of guns – this links into Non-verbal Communication, we can see how knows how to use a gun and clearly has a clear agenda and has clearly thought out the plan. Linking back to setting with the everyday scene they also use props that you would expect to see in an everyday house hold such as a kettle and bikes. Another one of the main props used are the blind man stick which is used in the start of the film – this shows that that the man does have a disability and they are planning to attack someone who seems to be vulnerable.
Lighting is another part of Mise En Scene – as this trailer it mainly filmed within a house with a blind man. At one point during the trailer the blind man says “Now you see what I see” and make the house into complete and utter darkness. This link in with horror and the way people feel about it – many people are scared of the dark which will make the audience fear the man as he has created this darkness.
The costume used within this trailer are fairly generic within all of the characters apart from the blind man – he is wearing a tank top and what appears to be army trousers which subverts the stereotype of his age range. It also suggest to us as an audience that this man has experience in fighting and could potentially have worked within this kind of work before e.g. an ex-con.
The final part of mise en scene is Non-Verbal Communication - within the trailer the NVC of the blind man seems to be violent and abrupt, he walking around the house quickly and rushing around to lock up the house, it seems like he has done this before as he knows every inch of the house and what he needs to do to keep the victim in. His NVC is something that makes people scared of him – they fear him from the way he acts. The other two characters within the film are acting like classic victims – they are trying to escape the house without getting in the blind man’s way. This shows us as an audience that the victims are scared which we can see clearly from their non-verbal communication in which they show during the trailer.
Narrative Structure
Narrative structure is how the trailer is structured – start, middle and end. Under Todorov in which there is the Equilibrium (beginning), Disequilibrium (Middle) and Resolution (End). The Equilibrium is the start of the structure – under Todorov is the initial situation such as the ‘once upon a time moment’, in this trailer this structure does seem to occur. At the start it seems to be the once upon a time story with the blonde women and her child talking about how they are going to get away and get out of the situation they are in. The Disequilibrium is the middle and is when the balance is interrupted by a problem which starts a chain of events. In ‘Don’t Breath’ the balance is interrupted when they realise that the blind man isn’t weak and unable to fight – the blind man is in actual fact the opposite. Once they realise that the man is out to kill them a chain of event occurs which is them trying to get out. Finally it is Resolution which is where the problem is solved – within this trailer we do not see the issue being solved and we are left on a cliff hanger. We see the pair being put into darkness like what the man sees and then scrabbling their way around this dark dingy looking basement. The trailer ends on this and we as an audience are left on a cliff hanger wanting to know what happens to the pair.
Use of Enigma
The use of Enigma is getting the audience to question what is happening during the film/trailer- to keep the mystery. This can be done by camera shots or speech ect. In this particular trailer many question occur within the readers mind such as why are they going to the house in the first place? Later on in the trailer we discover why – they are going to rob it. Most of the questions thought by the audience are not answered in the trailer and leave the audience on a cliff hanger. Some other question such as how are they going to get out? Who is that girl in the basement? How did she get there? These are all question in which occur within the audiences mind and makes them want to go and see the film. Lots of other questions appear within the readers viewing of the trailer as well as each different person will be wondering different things.
Burton’s genre theory
Protagonist – In ‘Don’t breath’ the main characters are the Blind man and the two member of the team; a women and a man.
Stock Characters – In this trailer the minor character are the friend who got shot when they first entered the house and a few other characters at the start such as the little girl and the parents. All these character appear but do not have a major role within the trailer.
Stock Situations – In this trailer the stock situation is when the two main characters are being chased by the blind man, he is bashing down doors and is trying to lock everyone in the house.
Icons – This is thing like props or music that becomes iconic with the film. In the case of don’t breath I think the women cover her mouth is the icon as it is something that get associated with the film as she is trying to cover her breath – Don’t Breath..
Background and Décor – The background in this is mainly darkness of a creepy old house and the décor is something designed to match it. The house looks old and uncared for almost and most of the house is wooden.
Theme – The theme of this horror film seems to be disability, the whole film is based on a blind man who subvert to the stereotype and isn’t what you would expect a blind old man to be like. It seems to focus on the fact he subvert to the stereotype and is very aware of his surrounding despite he cannot see.
Activity Five - Film Poster Analysis
This is the film poster for the film ‘Don’t Breath’ which is a film directed by Fede Alvarez. The film is based on three young thieves who are trying to escape from the home of a blind veteran who has a dark side.
The poster uses Mise En Scene on the main image – the five part of Mise En Scene is props, lighting, costume, NVC and setting. Lighting is used massively within this poster and suggests a lot about what happens in the film. As you can see the lighting isn’t natural it is red and orange/yellow – this mix of colours seems to look like blood which suggests death within the film. The whole lighting of the image is colours that are usually associated with death – they are not happy colour and they fit in with the idea of death.
The lighting also lights up the women face allowing us to see her facial expression which links into Non Verbal Communication. The NVC within this poster is not only the girl’s facial expression it’s also the hands covering the girl's face. Starting off with the hands at first glance the hands seem to be the women’s hands covering her mouth to keep quiet. However when you glance back at the hands they seem to look like male hands as the arms seem to be hairy and the hands look quite masculine. The hands on the image make you look twice and actually start thinking about whose hand they are. Linking back to the woman's facial expression we can clearly see that she is scared by the way her eyes look and also the way her eyebrows are shaped. Her eyes seem to be looking at something and we can see a slight bright light in her eye – her eyes are open wide and the light reflecting makes it almost seem as if there is blood in her eyes.
The setting of this poster is very basic – it’s just a pitch black background; very much like what is in the trailer when the blind man puts his whole house into darkness so the thief’s can see what he sees. The background is mysterious and also scary as many people fear the darkness and what lurks within it. It’s also a sense of mystery within the film and she looks as if she is falling into the darkness – it seems to be surrounding her slowly. This once again creates a sense of fear for the audience due to the stereotypes of darkness and the unknown. In this film poster their doesn’t seem to be much going on with the costumes as you cannot see what she is wearing – this could potential make the audience interested and intrigued as to what is happening. The final part of Mise en scene is props – once again in this poster you cannot see any props which once again leaves an element of mystery as the audience will be wondering how the killer kill his victims – they could potential think that the killer kill with hands due to the poster however as seen in the trailer we know it’s not. The Costume within this poster you can’t really see – you can’t see what she is wearing at all and nothing appears to be on the hands e.g. a ring, gloves ect.
The text on this image is also quite limited – the main text seen is the words ‘Don’t Breath’ which is also the title of the film. The font of this is a bold font in which seems to fade out at the end of the letters and is the colour white. The colouring makes the title stand out against the dark nothingness background which encourages the audience to look at the film title. The positioning of the film title is at the bottom of the poster but also in the middle of the page making it stand out but not get in the way of the main image. I like the positioning of the title because it doesn’t take away the image and also is bold and almost intriguing towards the audience.
This poster tag line is ‘From the creators of Evil Dead’ which was a film created in 1981 and was an American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi. The film was also remade in 2013 once again directed Sam Raimi. The original Evil Dead was created in the 80’s and was an extremely popular film with box office sales of 2.6 million USD. Don’t Breath was released in the summer of 2016 with many people still being aware of the creator of Evil Dead. By having the Evil Dead film title on the poster it makes people who have seen the film interested in seeing don’t breathe to see if it compares to Evil Dead.
The Film Credits on the poster are extremely hard to see apart from the ‘coming soon’ – the credits are in grey so against the black background it is very hard to see especially with the font size being so small. I think the company have designed the poster like this so the credit don’t take away from the actual image and isn’t something in which the viewers would actually notice. The film credits conform to sterotypes by being small in a greyish colour - the font is much smaller than anything else on the poster meaning it does not stand out that much. This conforms to the
The denotation of this poster is that it is a photo taken with a black background – the image is of a women covering her face with a pair of hands, we are not sure who’s hands they are but they don’t look like hers. The image itself is dark with an orange lighting on her face – almost like a sunrise or sunset. It has a title at the bottom of the page in a white font as well as credit right at the bottom of the page.
Textual Analysis – Nightmare Magazine
Denotation:
This magazine covers shows a painting/drawn picture of a man lying in what seems to be a hospital bed with a demon looking nurse on top of him – she is covering his mouth and he seems to be struggling and screaming. The image is a medium long shot as we can see some of the bodies but not all of it. The background of this image is very grey and shows a wall with blood dripping down it. We can also see a broken electricity box with all the cables cut and broken. We can see that place seems to be a hospital due to the fact he is being held down by a nurse giving us the vibes he is in a hospital or possibly an asylum? The masthead is in bold text and is coloured red making it stand out against the grey background – the words seem faded and almost broken and aged due to the fact they have holes in them. Underneath the title is smaller white writing which says ‘Horror and Dark Fantasy’ – the writing is much smaller but still stands out against the dark background. At the bottom of the page we can see some more white writing which is in the same font which tell us the issue number, the date it was issued and who edited it.
Masthead:
The masthead of this magazine stands out massively against the grey dull background of the image – it is a blood red colour which connotes with the name and also the fact it is a horror magazine which many people associate blood with. I think this shows what the magazine is about and also gives readers an idea of what the magazine will involve along with the content. It is quite obvious that the magazine is a horror magazine but the blood red masthead gives the idea that is isn’t for the light hearted as even the mast head is connotation blood and gore. The font used seem to be a sans serif font as it is quite fashionable – a bold font with no flicks on any of the letters. The name of the magazine means ‘a very unpleasant or frightening experience or prospect’ which is usually something that can be physiological e.g while sleeping etc.
Characters:
The cover image shows two characters – the first which we see is a woman/demon lady. Her skin is a grey dull complexion and she doesn’t really look alive, it looks as if all blood has been drained from her. If we look colour we can see that she has fangs giving us an idea that she could be a vampire. The other character is a man who is lying in a hospital bed being held down by the lady and he seems to be struggling.
Costume:
The costume of the women is a white shirt and a headband with the Red Cross logo on suggesting to us that she is a nurse working in a hospital – I think this has been chosen as nurses are usually someone you can trust and relay on; you want them to say you’re okay to make you feel better. However she completely subverts to her stereotype as she is inflicting fear into her patient. The man on the other hand isn’t wearing anything that we can see apart from a white bed sheet.
NVC:
The non-verbal communication of the demon lady is that she is looking down at the man with her mouth wide open showing her fangs, it looks like she’s screaming down at him as her face is all scrunched up. Her hands are both on the man – we can see that she has a tight grip on him not allowing him to get away from her, one hand is on his mouth and one is gripping his arm. The man has a completely different NVC - he is sinking down into the bed trying to get as far away from the lady as possible and we can clearly see the terror on his face. He also looks like he is trying to scream but her hand is stopping him from doing so.
Lighting:
The lighting is low key as most of the background is dark however in the far corner we can see some light shining through – possibly there is a window there. The light is shining down on the man allowing us to see his facial expression more clearly.
Setting:
The setting seems to be in a hospital or an asylum but it does not look like a nice place to be – we can see blood dripping down the walls as well as what seems to be cracks in the wall. We can also see a broken electric box with the wires hanging down – this is a danger hazard but it clear from the setting that they do not really care about safety in this place…
Cover-Lines:
This magazine cover does not have any cover lines apart from the text at the bottom of the page – this text shows the issue number, the editor’s name and also the date it was released; this just gives some basic information about the magazine and who was involved within editing it as well the issue number which may be important to people collecting the magazine. The text is in the same font as the ‘Horror and Dark Fantasy’ which is a selling line/slogan. The fonts used for both of these are san serif fonts which do not have any flicks or fancy letter within the font. The magazine does not have many cover lines so this could encourage the audience to pick it up and read it as they are not aware what could be in it – it’s obvious that it’s going to be something about horror related.