Sutter island promotional package

Trailer
- rapid editing towards the end, alpng with fast pace music
- Detective outfit look - suits, hats ect
- Plain white clothes - mental institution patient

Magazine cover
- The mist surrounding the feet matches the trailer
- Costume is the same
- Lighthouse is in the top corner, he is seen climing near it in the trailer
- Red font - symbolising danger/blood ect

Poster
- The face is only half shows - mysterious
- Dark - suggesting the feel of the film i.e mysterious and thriller
- Red font on the tagline again, linking with the magazine cover

Website
- Has the trailer
 - Simlar to the poster - dark and red font
 - Linked to all three features of this blog post

Horror sub-genres

Action Horror - A subgenre combining the intrusion of an evil force or event in horror movies with the comibination of gun fights, and frentic chases of the action genre. Themes iclude blood, demons, and most commonly zombies. Examples include - Resident Evil, Underworld, Priest and Constantine

Body Horror - The horror is principally deprived from the graphic destrusctiuon of the body, other types of body horror include incorrect placement of limbs. Exmples include - Teeth, Cabin Fever and The Fly

Comedy Horror - The combination of elements from both the comedy and horror genre. Examples include - Shaun of the Dead, Eight Legged Freaks, Slither and Beetlejuice

Gothic Horror - Gothic horror is a type of story that contains the key element horror. At times it may have romance that unfolds in the setting of a horror tale, usually suspenseful. Examples include - Interview with a Vampire, The Phantom of the Opera, The Wolfman and Dorian Gray

Natural Horror - A sub-genre of horror films "featuring nature running in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers." This genre may sometimes overlap with the science fiction and action/adventure genre. Examples include - Tyhe Birds, Black Sheep, Jaws, The Swarm, Them! and Lake Placid

Psycological Terror - Relies on characters' fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability and at times, the ghosts and supernatural beings futher brings the plot and builds tension. Examples Include - The Blair Witch Project, Silent Hill, The Others and Dark Water


Science Fiction Horror - Often revolves around subjects that include but are not limited to killer aliens, mad scientists, and/or experiments gone wrong. Examples Include - Alien, Predator, The Fly, Pitch Black and Apollo 18


Slasher Film - Often revolves around a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, mainly with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe, foten combinging the the crime and thriller game. Examples Include - Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, Friday the 13th and Childs Play

Splatter Film - These films deliberately focus on graphic portrayals of graphic violence. Through the use of special effects and excessive blood, they tend to display an interest of the vunrability of the human body. Examples include - Pirahna 3D, Blood Feast, Saw and Inside

Zombie Film - Zombie films feature creatures who are usually portrayed as either reanimated corpses or mindless human beings. Examples include - Dawn of the Dead, Quarintene, Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead

Teaser v Theatrical trailers

Teaser trailer v Theatrical trailer
Blairwitch project
 First film using a hand held camera – more believeable

Teaser trailers are cut down theatrical trailers to intense and intrigue the audience

Theatrical = 2+ minutes
Teaser = 20-50 seconds

Teaser
 Black screen

      Scared – crying

     A bit of text explaining why the film is there

      Lack of footage

      Result of what happened

Theatrical

      True information – more realistic

      Interviewing people about ‘Blairwitch’

      Screams

      More footage

      Met all the essential characters

         More of an idea – narrative

      Journey of what happened

      General structure

Similarity = the music

Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov A Franco-Bulgarian philosopher, Todorov has published a total of 21 books, including The Poetics of Prose (1971), Introduction to Poetics (1981), The Conquest of America (1982), Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogical Principle (1984), Facing the Extreme: Moral Life in the Concentration Camps (1991), On Human Diversity (1993), Hope and Memory (2000), and Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism (2002)

Todorov's Narrative
Story = a sequence of events, known correctly as the plot
Narrative = the way those events are put together to be presented to an audience.
Therefore, when analysing a narrative we analyse the construction of the story ie the way it has been put together, not the story itself. Considering what the story is about in its most basic terms, ie the theme (eg Love, war, winning).

Vladimir Propp

Vladmir Propp

Soviet scholar who analyzed the basic plots of Russian folk tales, identifying their simplest elements. He broke the tales into sections, in those sections he was able to define a series of sequences.








Functions

1. ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.
2. INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').
3. VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.
4. RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.
5. DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.
   

Comparing Horror Trailers

Comparison of Horror trailers – Paranormal Activity and The Descent Here i will be focusing on comparing the similarities and difference between these two popular horro movies;

The Descent - 

 A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.

Paranormal Activity After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

  

Paranormal Activity
 
- Showing audience reaction – the effect
- Home video/handheld camera – more realistic and in the person shoes
- Night vision
- Sound of ‘demons’ movement
- Fast pace editing, shorter shots towards the end, montage
 - Target Audience – young people/teenagers, 20+ - focused on their reactions

The Descent

-          Jumpy – loud drum noises and bangs

-          Music becomes more fast pace when events start happening/ towards the end

-          Darkness/ weapons/blood

-          Night vision

-          The idea of not seeing anything clearly – plays with the audiences mind

-          Simple font – says the effect of the plot

Expected Conventions in Horror

When wathcing horror films, much like The Ring, we look for the main key areas which are camera angles, sound, editing and mise en scene

Expected genre features of Horror

·         Dark lighting

·         Blood

·         Thriller

·         Idiocy

·         Attractive teenagers

·         Killers/villain

·         Torture/death

·         Tension                         

·         Loud noises/screaming

·         Fast pace editing

·         Build up of tension

·         Enhanced diagetic  sound

The Ring trailer analysis

Mise en scene – phone and television, focus on the writing in the ring (title)

Camera angles – Close up shots, revealing emotion (tension build up)

Sound – Fast pace music, screaming, loud phone ringing (diagetic sound) eerie music (violin) Strong beat toward the end, fast pace and loud drum beats. Non diagetic sound - voiceover

Editing – Black and white – dark, cuts between the video and the action – to the phone call

Introduction Post

The focus this year is the horror genre, i will be focusing on;
- what makes an horror movie
- what you look for in a horror movie
- effective use of camera angles, mise en scene, editing and sound