Tutor feedback on prelim trailer

• Good use of Psycho style text movement
• Justify not using a tripod in the first scene - it looks like she is being watched creating a voyer effect
• Flipped images crosses the line and should be taken out
• Appropriate use of sounds; the rain is very effective ,typewriter when type writer font s shown, the use of a high pitched sound at the villains image and prolonged silence at the end.
• good choice of fonts

feedback 2

What did you think of the…?

1.       Text? Good storyline although confused a little

2.       Lighting? Bit too dark at the beginning

3.       Sound and its effect? The sound is good – gives the effect of a scary scenario

4.       Quality? Very good

5.       Editing (how the shot are put together)? There were pauses in some parts and couldn’t make out the connection from the classroom to outside

6.       Your positives of the trailer It kept me interested and intrigued

7.       Your criticisms of the trailer Didn’t really understand the purpose.

feedback 1

What did you think of the…?

1.       Text? ok Big Easy to read,
2.       Lighting? bit dark
3.       Sound and its effect? voice bit lost in quality  and sound effects  work well
4.       Quality? great quality overal only let down by dark scenes
5.       Editing (how the shot are put together)? editing ok,should be lot more creative and tighter no bad shots to be seen by audience
6.       Your positives of the trailer- great first effort, find a suspense errie music to build up to chase and view results.
7.       Your criticisms of the trailer- Lack of variety of shot.look and analyse similar horror trailer see their number of shots.

collecting feedback on prelim trailer

Hello can you help my group evaluate our practice Media Studies trailer?

Please watch the 1 minute video with sound and in short answer what you thought of some of the factors. Thank you

What did you think of the…?

1.       Text?

2.       Lighting?

3.       Sound and its effect?

4.       Quality?

5.       Editing (how the shot are put together)?

6.       Your positives of the trailer

7.       Your criticisms of the trailer

NMBEC A2 Media - Dont look behind you (Halloween parody)

Narrative

Michael, James, Ella, Luke and Jordan have taken the final of their A levels and are not happy with how they went, they need these results desperately otherwise they will not get into the desired university of their choice, the year that they choose.

That same evening they decide as a group to go back into the school after hours to see if they can get their exam papers back and change some of the answers. Everyone is all for it other than Jordan. She is typically known within the group as the “good one”.  She doesn’t want to go back in to get the answers as she thinks that they should all accept their honest result and deal with whatever comes with it. Predictably, the others do not agree and she is resultantly talked into sneaking into the school to change answers.

Michael, James use a metal pole to unhook the latch at the back door of the school. Luke is seen to be making jokes little to the amusement of the girls. The papers they are looking for are kept in a locked office. They set off down a corridor to the caretaker’s office to find the keys, and are disturbed by eerie atmosphere and flickering lights. They are taken off the correct route by Luke who has heard rumors the caretaker had a ‘creepy’ key shed at the back of the field. They are convinced to go this way despite much deliberation.

The shed stands alone isolated from the rest of the school, and is completely chained up, so Ella uses a hair pin to open the padlock and it opens with a frightening creek, to the sheer disturbance of Jordan.  Who screams loudly but is quickly silenced by her friends. To their surprise there is little in the caretaker’s shed, one filing cabinet a table and a small wooden box. The bareness of the shed baffled the group as they didn’t see any sign of keys or anything that didn’t have a layer of dust on. Jordan takes this as a sign to abandon the mission. Nonetheless the rest of the group begins to search trough drawers looking for a master key. Luke mutters something about a lack of mobile phone signal. They begin to become frustrated as the fear of what they were actually doing finally begins to set in.

Jordan had been drawn towards the box, as she noticed it was unlatched. She sat in front of the box and began to rummage through. Nothing that she found really seemed to make sense; she found a locket, some birthday cards, a black and white group photo of students and an old perfume bottle. She noticed several single photos that had the eyes on the photo scratched out. She called for her friends immediately and shared what she had found, the group looked at the items and examined them closely, and they couldn’t understand why these almost demonic looking items were kept in their caretaker’s office. They also couldn’t make out who was in the photos. Then it suddenly dawned on them that they had never known the identity of the school caretaker. Jordan then comes across an old piece of and feels energy about this particular item. The group look on intrigued by the writing as Jordan reads;

He despises teens because they‘re loud and bad

Many years at this school have made him go mad.

If you think you can get away, you’re very wrong

The secret of this shed won’t stay hidden for long.

He’ll wring your neck if you scream and shout

Wonder who he is? You’ll soon find out.

Now he’s escaped to settle the score

Because you forgot to close the shed door.

As Jordan read the last line the door banged loudly unlatched in the wind and Ella gasps deafeningly. The gang looks around at each other afraid. They decide to put back everything as found it and leave quickly ignoring what they had read and ultimately getting more scared by the second. They did all of this successfully and reached the corridor that had lead them outside. While there they hear footsteps coming from all around them. The footsteps were intrusive but the group could tell that they only belonged to one person. The footsteps were now louder and were accompanied by the sound of a screaming woman. This quickly prompted screaming from a terrified Ella followed by a failed attempt to calm her down by the Michael. All five of them run to the nearest exit and began franticly trying to open it. They it is locked. A dead silence dropped upon all of them and James utters the words “this door was not locked when we came in”. The startling sound of shattered glass comes soon after prompting more whimpering as the lights cut out. The group makes a run for it, ending up hiding in different rooms within the school.

By now it really has become a full on mouse chase, but scarily it is not evident yet what exactly is chasing them. James unfortunately upon trying to reach a hidden destination, is hit over the head with the same pole that he used to open the door at the beginning and killed. Ella stumbles across James’ body as she is making her run for it and lets out an almighty scream. She sprints away to find the others but when she finds Michael and brings him back to the location where James is, he is nowhere to be found. The smell of bleach suggests that someone has attempted to clean up the blood stained floor.

Michael runs back to the caretaker’s office in the hope of maybe finding the keys that can open the doors and free the group, but he too is beaten to death by a mysterious figure. One by one they all begin to go. Ella is next when she tries to escape through the window, and she is shortly followed by Luke who was trapped alone.

Jordan is the last one left hiding cleverly from the killer. Jordan recalls seeing an emergency phone in the shed and begins her frightening mission to reach it coming across a dying Michael. She successfully calls the police but her life is immediately endangered as she is confronted by the caretaker; she is whacked over the head with the bloody pole. She appears to be dead and the killer goes to retire but we see she is alive. She reaches for the box and hits him over the head with it. After knocking him out, she escapes into the hands of the police. She tries to explain the caretaker is attacking her but the police are unconvinced. They search the real caretaker’s modern office and find nothing. They cannot find any trace of the dead bodies she is claiming that there are, she is warned that wasting police time is a serious offence. As Jordan is driven away in the police car the caretaker’s silhouette can be seen standing on the school field watching them.

Narrative 1st draft

Michael, James, Ella, Luke and Jordan have taken the final of their A levels and are not happy with how they went, they need these results desperately otherwise they will not get into the desired university of their choice, the year that they choose.

That same evening they decide as a group to go back into the school after hours to see if they can get their exam papers back and change some of the answers. Everyone is all for it other than Ella. She is typically known within the group as the “good one”.  She doesn’t want to go back in to get the answers as she thinks that they should all accept their honest result and deal with whatever comes with it. Predictably, the others do not agree and she is resultantly talked into sneaking into the school to change answers.

Michael, James and Luke use a metal pole to unhook the latch at the back door of the school. The papers they are looking for are kept in the caretaker’s office. It has been known to the students of the school for years that this is where they are located but no one has ever dared to go in search for them, this for a reason that is yet to be known to the students. They successfully get into the school and find their way to the caretaker’s office; it is completely chained up so Jordan uses a hair pin to open the padlock and it opens with a frightening creek, to the sheer disturbance of Ella.  Who screams loudly but is quickly silenced by her friends. To their surprise there is little in the caretaker’s room, one filing cabinet a table and a small wooden box. The size of the filing cabinet baffled the group as they didn’t think the exam papers of an entire sixth form could possibly fit into this cabinet.

They began to search through the files, well all the student excluding Ella. While the others were frantically searching through the cabinet with the evident fear of what they were actually doing finally beginning to set in, Ella had been drawn towards the box, as she noticed it was open. She sat in front of the box and began to rummage through. Nothing that she found really seemed to make sense; she found a locket, some birthday cards, some photos and an old perfume bottle. She noticed that the eyes in the photo had been scratched out. She called for her friends immediately and shared what she had found, the group looked at the items and examined them closely, and they couldn’t understand why these almost demonic looking items were kept in their caretaker’s office. They also couldn’t make out who was in the photos. Then it suddenly dawned on them that they had never known the identity of the school caretaker, so decided for sake of solution that the man in the pictures was him. But that didn’t give any reason as to why the woman in all of the photos was scratched.

The group as a whole now began to get more and more freaked out as none of what was going on made any sense. As they had thought, the filing cabinet was not big enough to hold the exam papers so their search had been in vain. They decided to put back everything they had found and leave quietly because they were ultimately getting more scared by the second. They did all of this successfully and locked the caretakers office back. While they were leaving they heard footsteps coming from all around them. The footsteps were intrusive but the group could tell that they only belonged to one person. The footsteps were now louder and were accompanied by the sound of a screaming woman. This quickly prompted screaming from both Ella and Jordan followed by a failed attempt to calm them both down by the boys. All five of them ran for the nearest exit and began franticly trying to open it. They realized it was locked. A dead silence dropped upon all of them and James utters the words “this door was not locked when we came in”. The startling sound of shattered glass comes soon after prompting more screaming. The group makes a run for it, knowing only to hide in different rooms within the school.

By now it really has become a full on mouse chase, but scarily it is not evident yet what exactly is chasing them. James unfortunately upon trying to reach a hidden destination, is hit over the head with the same pole that he used to open the door at the beginning and killed. Jordan stumbles across James’ body as she is making her run for it and lets out an almighty scream. She sprints away to find the others but as she finds them to bring them back to the location where James is, he is nowhere to be found. The smell of bleach suggests that someone has attempted to clean up the blood stained floor.

Michael runs back to the caretaker’s office in the hope of maybe finding the keys that can open the doors and free the group, but he too is beaten to death by a mysterious figure. One by one they all begin to go. Jordan is next when she tries to escape through the window, and she is shortly followed by Luke.

Ella is the last one left and has to figure out a way to hide from a figure that up until now she has not been able to see because of the darkness. She goes back into the caretaker’s office and tries to make sense of the things that she saw in there. She is followed in by the figure and smacked over the head with the pole. She appears to be dead but she is not. She reaches for the box and hits him over the head with it. She was the only member of the group to be carrying a mobile phone. She reaches for it, leaves the caretakers office to make the call to the police. One they arrive they cannot find any trace of the dead bodies she is claiming that there are. Forensics couldn’t find any traces of blood, and the figure or the murder weapon could not be found. She is escorted home by the police and warned that wasting police time is a serious offence.

Idea 3: Apparition/reality

·         Group of hedonistic teens/students

·         Begin to one by one go missing/are killed off

·         An apparition/mirage of one’s desire lures them in and kills them

·         The challenge is to decipher reality from fiction

·         E.g. to escape they head excitedly towards a door only to realise it too is an apparition making them suspicious and paranoid of everything

·         In the end the ‘final girl’ heads home although we see the house and family are all an apportion

Idea 2: Reflections/empty

·         Rumours surrounding the mansion elderly owner goes mad

·         Final girl becomes a live-in nurse and moves into the dark, empty mansion in an isolated setting.

·         She begins to feel how eerie the mansion is and can hear people walking, whispering around the house and appliances switching on of their own accord.

·         The ghost of child can be seen in mirrors and reflections but only at a glance and is easily dismissed once it disappears

·         The final girl is resourceful; placing mirrors and reflective surfaces at every angle so she is not caught off guard

·         Creepy poem

The boy is a reflection that can only be seen by us

The figure is most prominent at the time of dusk

Mirrors will help you to watch your back

But the boy will play with the sight you lack

Which door is he behind?

You know there is no where to hide

He’ll soon have your soul and all

He’s counting down till your downfall

Idea 1: The Last Door

·         A family move to a small town, their new house is evidently old

·         When moving in an elderly lady warns the boy not to go open ‘that door’ whilst the son does not hear her his parents pull him away and ignore the warning

·         His sister goes upstairs where it is eerily cold she screams and everyone rushes up however this is an anti climax as it’s nothing

·         All the siblings choose their room the boy is left with the last room, he goes to open the door coming into contact with the frosty handle as tension builds his action is halted by a call from their mother downstairs

·         We are given the point of view through the doors key hole arousing suspicions as to what or who is in the room

·         The family are outside and the children are being introduced to neighbours, the boy sees the elderly lady watching them he begins to realise only he can see her

·         Drawn to her he wanders off she now realises she can be seen and whispers ‘you see me? Someone’s been too close to the door’ he is distracted by a sibling then turns to see the woman is gone.

·         That night the family sit down to dinner and the boy tries to explain what he saw yet no one believes him and he storms off to his room

·         The hall is dark now, he finally enters his room to find it creepy but normal with no window the door unbeknownst to him silently closes of its own accord

·         He sleeps and wakes up after what feels like weeks

·         When attempting to leave he realises he’s locked in and the lights are temperamental

·         Stuck for ages he experiences many supernatural occurrences as if the room is watching him and things moving on their own and a impossible breeze

·         He begins to be driven crazy

·         He shows resourcefulness using skills heard of in the beginning of the film and manages to chip away at the door

·         Finally escaping he is shown the rest of the house is derelict as he stands on what’s left of the floorboards

·         The climax begins as he starts to be followed as he tries to find refuge in the destroyed town coming across corpses

·         He is saved by a girl it becomes clear she also became stuck in the boys room before his family moved in and has been barely surviving, she fills him in that their must have been many others but that she must have been the only one to have survived after so many years as ‘she’ believes her dead

·         It come out that the elderly lady was the spirit behind the door

·         The girl traps the spirit a goes on kill her but in a twist she is defeated by the little boy

·         The pair go back through the door unsure of what to do

·         On exit of the room everything has been restored to normal and the boy can hear his family packing to leave their new home months after of devastation of loosing their son

·         When he goes down to appear to his family once more just reaching his father as he is about to step out of the door his father ignores him as though he cant be seen

·         His father steps out the door after a brief moment, the boy calls after him but nothing

·         He runs towards the exit but is tuned to ash as soon as he passes the threshold

·         The girl screams in agony as the elderly lady appears behind her only to say ‘you both died long ago’

trailer conventions

·         Highlights the best bits of the film; the very funny, sad, action packed and bizarre

·         Not in narrative order

·         Showcase the stars of the film

·         Some visual images stay on screen for just enough time for out mind to realise whate we are seeing

·         Conversations between characters usually consist of just one line each

·         Action is interspersed with credits

·         Opens with the production company

·         Music plays an important role on the atmosphere

·         Title does not appear until the end

·         The trailer starts slow then climaxes and ends

·         Ellipsis – having gaps in the story

·         Either written words or voice over

real use of theories and reasearch

The Faculty (1998)

·         Todorov’s narrative theory

·         Twist/subversion

Halloween (1978)

·         The morality of horror

·         Villain otherness

Carrie (1976)

·         The male gaze

·         Representation of women

Alien (1979)

·         Final girl theory

·         Hybrid

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

·         Unique marketing

·         Realistic/Documentary style

Scream (1966)

·         subverts horror conventions

·         Postmodernist

paranormal activity marketing

• $15,00 budget
• fans across the US could literally demand by pressing the 'Demand' button on the official website so the film would screen in their area (this determined which areas Paramount would market the film).
• many online eerie moving strip adverts
• official website for each film of the franchise released
• on the Paranormal Activity 4 website there is an option to 'chat with Alex' making the film realistic and interactive
• all filmed in CCTV night vision realistic footage
• social media and word of mouth played a large role in marketing
• 'the next better (more profitable) Blair Witch Project

Audience reception theories

• 'Hypodermic' needle model - messages are given (injected) through us via the media.
• Cultivation theory - a loss of a grip on reality, basing life on things seen on in media/TV e.g paranoia.
• Desensitisation - the theory that shocking concepts no longer produce an emotional response due to overexposure.
• Modelling or copycat theory - based around acts that are widely publicised and then imitated.
• Uses and gratifications theory - the idea we choose what we want to watch when they can fufil the following:

1. Identify - role models
2. Educate - taking in information
3. Entertain - enjoying what is seen
4. Social interaction - produces a topic of conversation

film marketing

• word of mouth
• magazines
• posters
• billboards
• buses
• bus stops
• film trailers
• teaser trailers
• radio adverts
• cinema adverts
• TV adverts
• official websites
• social networking
• online advertisements
• YouTube/video adverts
• film premiers
• film-star interviews
• reviews
• merchandise e.g. McDonalds toys
• press

Horror conventions in the opening of Scream (1996)

Icons:

• knives
• blood of boyfriend
• shadows
• darkness 
• mask on antagonist

Sounds:

• atmospheric suspense
• loud bands during fire

Mise en scene:

• night-time
• dark room/hall
• hidden villain
• shadows from dim lamps
• isolated setting
• shadows cast by branches
• smoke
• lone swing swaying - implying he had been watching her

Characters:

• lying girl
• unfaithful girl
• hedonistic teenager
• villain's voice is disguised
• disguised villain
• a girl with boyfriend coming round to watch a movie
• a girl dating an high school american footballer

The film also make many references to other horror films as many horrors do:

• phone call from villain just as in 'Halloween' (1978)
• upsetting the seemingly nice villain so he becomes angry just as in Psycho (1960)
• mentions of 'Friday the 13th', 'Halloween' and 'Nightmare on Elm Street'.

Halloween (1978) horror that is suggested but not actually seen

What you actually see and what is implied

• A knife being pulled back then lunging off screen - The girl is being stabbed 
• A shoulder facing Laurie and heavy muffled breathing - Someone watching Laurie is wearing mask                                                                                 
• Hair of a person hiding in the house - The shady figure is Myers returning home
• Point of view from inside a car watching Laurie - Myers is watching Laurie from the stolen 
• The doctor and officer looking at something in disgust - The horrific scene of a dead animal
• View from behind a tree of Laurie - Somone is watching Laurie
• Dark room and muffled breathing - Myers is in the room
• Myers wielding a knife and then Bob's feet off the ground - Bob has been stabbed so that the knife is holding his body pinned off the ground

Examples of final girls in horror films

The Grudge (2004)
Karen Davis

• Final girl - The first and only survivor of  the curse
• Smart - suspecting everything is not as it seems she researches the curse and the house's origins
• Quick wit - In the moment she decides to burn the house to kill the curse
• Resourcefulness - she retrieves her dead boyfriend's lighter and spots petrol in order to burn the house

Kayako Saeki the antagonist shows the non final girl traits such being adulterous and vengful.

other examples of final girls:

• Alien (1979) - Ripley
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Sally
• Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - Nancy
• Friday the 13th (1980) - Alice

looking at female and final girl traits

Initial perception of how women are represented in horror films:

• Smart
• masculine
• pretty but dumb
• lucky
• hysterical
• revealing or tight costume
• objectified
• the damsel in distress
• vulnerable
• final girl

Final girl traits:

• male actions 
• tomboyish clothes
• emotionally strong
• quick witted
• resourceful 

Moral fibre in horror

 In 'Halloween' (1978) the moral fibre of the characters is directly linked to their potential to survive. Chase virginal characters survive and vice versa this has become a convention of Slasher films.

In 'Halloween' we see the final girl's friends give her drugs, lie to the police/parents and prepare to have sex, these girls are killed. After witnessing the final girl refuse to date a boy and show genuine concern over school work she is left the only of her friends to survive.

This convention has even been subverted in many films. An example of this would be Cabin in the Woods (2012) in which the narrative openly highlights the character's roles from the 'whore' who must die first to the 'virgin' who must suffer but can become final girl. However although the final girl favours intellect and finds pleasure in studying she is not a virgin and the narrative mocks this as the manager says "we take what we can get". Also it is not certain whether the 'virgin' ends up as final girl as she is rescued by a boy; the labelled 'fool' whose drug antics save him rather than being the lack of morality that ends in him being killed.

Feminism and horror

Some feminists see horrors as debasing women in a sexual way, this is evident through knife penetration. Feminist Carol. J. Clover suggests the opposite arguing that women are heroinised though the final girl concept. However John Kenneth argues that the final girl does not survive due to brains but simply luck in most cases.