Original Photographs used in my projects.

 

 

Finished products - Magazine cover and Film poster

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have used many different types of new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my course and they have also encouraged my understanding and creation of the work within the horror genre.

Blogger: I have used blogger throughout the year to show the progress in my work and to learn about the horror genre and conventions within them, I have also used blogger to view other people’s blogs and to help my understanding of the conventions of a teaser trailer. It is very easy to use and is helpful in allowing me to show my work in a more interesting and eye catching way which is laid out neatly and clearly for my work to be read and followed accordingly. Blogger has helped me in all aspects of the course as it has allowed me to blog my findings in planning, research, construction, evaluation and gone towards all my final product and ancillary texts.

Photoshop CS5: I used Photoshop to create my ancillary texts, which makes it possible to add a professional touch to them and at the same time make easily fulfil the conventions of the horror genre, using all of the functions and tools available within the software.  Photoshop has also helped me in the evaluation stages. As I have been able to take still images of my trailer and upload them onto Photoshop in order to match them up to existing trailers and edit them to create an understanding of how and why certain shots and approaches were used within the trailer, and how they capture the conventions of the horror genre within the trailer.

Garage Band: I used Garage band to create and edit audio files, such as the sound effects like laughter and the music box sound, and most importantly the music for the trailer. Garage Band also made it possible to upload the trailer, so that music and the trailer were synchronised.

Final Cut Pro: Final cut pro is where the trailer was made, and is the software I used to upload and edit the footage, that was shot; it could be uploaded and edited anytime during the process of doing the coursework.  Final Cut Pro enabled me to produce titles and add effects on colours and contrast e.g. the brightness and contrast and colour corrector and the effect Bad TV. The effects available on the software allowed me to add different things onto the footage, to help it adhere to as many horror conventions as I could. I also used fades and the cut/razor tools that enabled me to edit the footage into a teaser trailer and add certain conventions into it.

Flickr: I have used the website Flickr in my course to add an interactive feel to my blog and the posts within it, this enabled me to make more posts look more interesting and attractive. Flickr has allowed me to analyse images in a more interactive and all round easier, quicker way. Audiences can simply click on some of my posts and it will take them to Flickr where I have evaluated stills and mood boards using a ‘note’ tool, so that when the user hovers the cursor over  part of the image that I have analysed, my notes will become visible. This helped make my research much easier and simplified my knowledge and understanding when looking back at certain shots.

Youtube: Youtube allowed my group and I to get different ideas and see some conventions through the watching of existing movie trailers which had previously been uploaded to Youtube. Watching these also helped me to analyse my product once we had uploaded onto the college's account on Youtube, this helped loads for the audience feedback and for the evaluation of our products.

Video Camera: The group and I used a video camera to film the footage, we attached the handheld cameras to tripods for steady use and without the shakiness and lack of control just using the camera alone would produce. However we did use some handheld camera shots as it is a typical convention of the horror genre.

Apple Mac Computers: I used Apple Mac Computers throughout all work done. It enabled me to use all the technology I have mentioned and also standard applications like the Internet. This definitely contributed and improved the quality of our products.

Still Camera:  I used a still camera to take pictures of the storyboards to upload them onto the blogs.

Tripod: I used a tripod to fit the camera onto so that I could use a number of shots and angles for the production process. It allowed me to create tilts, pans and cranes whilst also making the production quality to a better standard.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The film and media distributors have three sections in which to focus on when trying to make their film successful, these three sections are; Advertising, Promotion and Publicity. The advertising itself is the trailer and poster. The trailer will be shown before films in the cinemas to become of interest to cinema-goers. The trailer and teaser trailer will also be shown on TV adverts breaks, as this is a prime time for when families and/or their target audience will be focused and attracted to the trailer. The teaser trailer would be shown around summer time so it allows the audience to be teased into going to watch the film at an early stage and entice the audience to go watch it as soon as it comes out. This means that audiences will be interested and would be visiting the websites to try and gain further insight. This advertising campaign is similar to that of  'Paranormal Activity' where the distributors uploaded the trailers onto the website and got audience feedback and included them in later trailers. The poster would be shown in cinemas along with bus stops, billboards, shopping centres from around Autumn time so that the film is once again noticeable and reminds people to have tickets booked as it won't be long till its release date. Publicity would contain the magazine as it is not run by the film or film distribution company which means it has an external opinion on the film. By putting the film title and information on the front cover means it is of high interest at the time that this magazine is published and then is uncontrolled by the film company . This method should prove costly for the distribution company as it could flop or increase interest. The promotion campaigns to a film being distributed are the interviews given by directors, actors, film editors etc and the masses of  merchandising  which are all things that the film company can control and can prove very profitable in the long run. The interviews not only featured in the magazine but on TV shows would be aspects of both promotional and publicity as the interviews themselves would be set up by the film company. The interview(s) would consist of many questions asked and responses which could attract higher levels of interest from wider audiences depending on the questions asked and responses given. These would all help the promotional and publicity sides of the film campaign.

The trailer is in my view the most important part of the distribution campaign but others may not agree. They are largest marketing technique when it comes to marketing and distributing the film because of the way the teaser trailer itself shows the best parts of the film without given too much away to their audience and therefore not spoiling the plot, endings or twist. Horror trailers use many ways in which they attract audiences and generate new ones, common ones are things such as dating the release of the film for a school holiday or a popular day of the year like for example our release date is The Omen, which was released on the 6/6/2006 which shortened makes 666, which is the biblical number of the beast,  they used a range of actors and actresses as well as well known/ successful directors for that specific genre of film (John Moore director of The Omen).  Other things that may attract audiences to watch the films could be the advances in technology at the cinema such as 3D like Drive Angry 3D which has just been released and is set to be very successful because of it being shown in 3D.

The poster is horror like and eery as it displays little colour and and little of the film or villain but displays it as evil and quite calm at the same time which is ideal for the horror genre as it creates an un-settling feeling. The poster uses a creepy twist on a child rhyme which attracts the audience and makes them in to want to know more about the film. The rhyme keeps the audience interested as it suggests that it involves children in some way, the children involved are  shown in the trailer, but not i a way in which the audience would be able to guess what is going on. The poster is a lot harder in terms of trying to sum up the main points of the film including storyline, characters, genre and themes whilst also trying to grab the readers attention. The poster needs to be effective and yet simplistic as the audience might only catch a glance at it so having too many words or images on the poster may prove too confusing and distract the reader from the films main points. I used Photoshop to create my poster this was a good way to generate the poster because it gave the poster and magazine covers a professional look whilst achieving it in an effective manner. This could all be possible due to the wide selection on tools, colour changers, contrast effects and font styles i had available.

The magazine also plays a big part of the publicity work. It can attract audiences that may not have been to cinema recently or people that would not normally watch that genre of movie whilst also familiarising normal cinema goers with the directors, actors or story lines that may be familiar and recognizable with them and also people who enjoy the horror genre. I  stuck with a magazine layout and format which will be familiar with existing cinema goers which is that of Empire, I knew this would be effective because its most likely one of the biggest selling movie magazines worldwide (as stated on the tagline of 'the worlds biggest movie magazine') and contains a wide range of genres. So to not make my issue look out of place I decided to keep with the Empire approach and have other genre movies featured on the cover of the magazine. My magazine would be aimed at cinema goers aged roughly between 16- 25 and contain exclusive interviews and reviews of the latest film releases.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The first image is a set of stills taken from our trailer.                    
Please click on the image to read my explanation of the use of conventions that they illustrate.

The second image is a selection of stills from real trailers.  Please click on the image to read my analyses of the conventions used and how they relate to my trailer. 

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The feedback that was collected was from our class mates who were perfect candidates for the feedback as they are at the age of the target audience that we identified during the research and planning of project which is 16-20.

From the audience feedback i have learnt that the good points of the Childminder trailer are that the audience liked the effects that were used, such as, Bad TV and the spinning shots, as they create confusion and distress. We also received good feedback on the inter titles that we used, the audience liked the text, fonts and the shaking effects that were used on the inter titles. The audience commented on the fact that the children were used in the trailer as it connotes innocence and works well as a horror convention of using children as a tool of innocence. The trailer was shot in a wooded area, which the audience feedback highlighted that it was a good location, and which was conventional to the horror format. As part of the location we used an abandoned bath tub, the audience commented that this adds an air of mystery as it is used in the trailer, but it is not shown to have a specific meaning which helped to keep the audience on edge. The audience liked the use of day and night shots as it shows the transition from calm day time to scary night time. The audience liked the point of view shots of the children, through a fence as it shows that they're being watched. This also creates mystery and confusion as the audience aren't sure who or what is watching the children. The audience also liked the point of view shots of the path ways and the close-ups of the children to show the fear in their eyes and body language. The audience enjoyed the good use of the make-up and latex, to create the wounds on the 'zombie-like' characters at the end of the trailer. These characters are shown as quick flashes of horror which the audience liked and they also liked the way that the trailer was edited and executed. The audience also thought that the shot of the childminder alone in the dark, scared at the end of the trailer, this left the audience wondering what has happened and why she is alone.
          From the soundtrack the audience highlighted that they liked the walky talky sound effect as it fits in well, as it is a conversation between police officers saying 'we don't want to do anything to scare your children, that's the last thing we wanna do'. Towards the end of the trailer the audience noted a like for the music box soundtrack and the children's laughter, the audience liked this as it is un-nerving and errie.
          From the audience feedback, some criticisms of the trailer were highlighted, one of which is that the audience found the doll, was a bit ambiguous and some of the audience were not sure where the doll fitted in with the plot of the film. Also the length of time that the children were seen playing and the time the children were seen with the childminder was criticised for being too long, and appearing in too many places, throughout the trailer. The trailer was also criticised for one of the inter titles, being too slow in the amount of time it took for all of the text to be displayed. Also some of the audience found that the walky talky sound effect didn't really fit in, and that the sound levels weren't quite right as some of the sounds were too loud above others.

Draft of magazine front cover

This is a draft of the magazine front cover advertising the horror film Childminder.

Total Film, magazine cover analysis

imagesCA3EYO30
Originally uploaded by liljenz1991

Click the cover image to view my flickr analysis.

Empire, magazine cover, analysis

magsgallery6-1160
Originally uploaded by liljenz1991

Click on the image of the magazine cover to view my flickr analysis

Empire magazine cover, analysis

imagesCAFWNHCB
Originally uploaded by liljenz1991

Click the image of the magazine cover to see my flickr analysis.

Childminder magazine front cover

Childminder teaser trailer 2011

Storyboards for Childminder

Shot lists for Childminder

Childminder poster

Draft of my horror poster design

This is a draft of my horror poster idea.

The last exorcism horror poster analysis

The-Last-Exorcism-poster
Originally uploaded by liljenz1991

click on the image of the poster to view the flickr analysis.

Eden lake horror poster analysis

eden_lakeposterrevieew
Originally uploaded by liljenz1991

Click the film poster to view the flickr analysis.

Analysis of Candyman film poster - flickr.

candyman
Originally uploaded by liljenz1991

Click on the picture to read my flickr analysis.

Group idea for horror trailer

The trailer starts off with a young innocent girl called Chrissy taking two 7ish year old boys, Matthew and Dylan to the park, as she has been hired to be their childminder for the day, so she takes them to a quite park where they play.

Until Matthew walks into a nearby wood and emerges with a doll in his hand. After a while of persuading Matthew to drop the dirty doll, Chrissy goes back to her studies on the park bench. Later on Chrissy packs her studies up and goes to get the boys, when she realise that Matthew has gone and left Dylan point into the hole in the fence that Matthew went in when he found the doll.
Due to it being late, Chrissy starts to get worried and goes into the wood to search for Matthew, then realise that she has lost him she tries to call for help but doesn't have any signal and is running low on battery for her mobile, so she goes deeper into the wood to find him.To her shock she finds a series of dead bodies when searching for Matthew and then she comes across one of his shoes along with one of the dolls.
She carries on searching and find Matthew hidden in a bush with the doll in hand and his eyes blacked out,  she grabs the doll and gets a visual of all the deaths that had happen around the doll. And she finds out that Matthew has been possessed by the doll.

Questionnaire Analysis

We carried out a Questionnaire to gather ideas for our horror production. Because we wanted to find out a mix of qualitative and quantitative data we carried out a questionnaire that included both open ended and closed questions. From the questionnaire we discovered that, out of the people we asked the majority were aged 16-20. From this we found that the majority of people asked were influenced most by trailers as the type of advertising that encourages people to view horror films. Also out of the people asked nearly half prefer gore as their favourite type of horror genre. From the research carried out it nearly three quarters of those asked are encouraged to see the film by the storyline, over anything else. Surprisingly from our research we discovered that almost two thirds of people we asked visit the cinema yearly. Over half of the people we asked are most scared in horror films by the jumpy scenes.

Horror essay

How does the Horror genre represent gender? (with reference to three study films)

The first film that I studied was Halloween (1978), in which the gender representation appears to be more conservative, although there are more female characters; their roles within the film appear to follow traditionally female gender roles. The visibility of the characters appears to be equally balanced on screen; the roles of both the men and women in the film appear to be fitting to their stereotypical gender roles. The male characters in the film include Loomis, The Sheriff, Mike Myers (as the monster) and the boy Tommy; their roles include a doctor, a sheriff, the monster, and Tommy the needy child. All of the adults in the film are portrayed as having traditional and conservative male roles. The female characters in the film are Laurie, Judith, Lynda, Annie and Lindsey; all but one of the female characters follows the conservative roles; this is Laurie. Judith was the sister of Mike, the monster; Lynda is the girl in the film, who is friends with Laurie and Annie, she makes plans to have sex with her boyfriend (Paul), she is also seen as a sex object in the film and so she is mainly associated with the role of sexual; Lindsey who is one of the young children that Laurie looks after, when she babysits the house, along with Tommy; Annie who is the daughter of the Sheriff, and also friends with Laurie and Lynda, she also fits into the role of sexual, but also into domestic as she is seen making popcorn for herself and the child she is looking after, Annie is also familial too, as she is babysitting and taking on the parental role of looking after a child, even if it is only for a short period of time. Laurie, both follows and challenges gender conventions at the same time, as she is not sexual, which in this film is typically female, but she is domestic and familial as she is babysitting. She does hang around the opposite kind of girls to her, as Laurie does not talk about sex like her two friends, she does rebel by smoking occasionally in the film, which is typically a male act, also that Laurie is also androgynous which means that she portrayed a lot of boyish characteristic, like the way she dresses and also her name which is unisex, and she is also the one who takes on the monster and survives at the end of the film as the final girl. In the film Halloween, the monster Mike Myers seems to draw on previous grievances and punishes the teens for committing sexual acts, or being sexual themselves. Although the visibility of males and females in the film are equal, more females die in the film than males do.

The second film that I studied was The Shining (1982), in which the gender representation is more conservative, there are more males in this film than females, mostly gender conventions are followed but for some of the film these gender roles are challenged. The visibility of the characters is that the men outnumber the women by 2:1; the male characters in the film are, Jack the seemingly loving husband to Wendy and caring father to Danny, until he himself becomes the monster within the family; Danny is Jack and Wendy’s son, he is telepathic and also has an imaginary friend Tony; Halloran is the chef at the hotel, and is also telepathic; Grady is the butler in the gold room as part of Jacks apparitions; also there are some more minor males roles in the film, which include the hotel owner, from the job interview, the barmen, seen only by Jack and the radio operator. The female characters in this film are Wendy is the wife of Jack and the mother of Danny, throughout the film, her character seems to be very weak, but when Jack begins to change, she takes on the male roles in the running of the hotel, to help, but also continues with the domestic and familial roles; The Woman in the bath, this character is also part of Jacks apparitions she is found in the forbidden room of 237, she gets out of the bath in front of Jack as a sexual woman, completely naked with sultry and sexy, come to bed eyes, as she flaunts her body in front of him, tempting him, as they embrace and begin to kiss, the woman begins to almost decompose in his hands; Two little girls, the two female children, were the daughters of the previous caretaker, who lost his mind and killed his family, the two girls are seen in Danny’s visions; also Grady’s wife, who is never seen in the film but is mentioned, by Grady to Jack, there is also minor female character who is the receptionist. For much of the film, the audience identifies with Wendy, but she is not objectified in the film, however the woman from the bath, is the initial objectification undermined by subsequent switch to a dead body. The final girl, Wendy gets away, males and females die throughout the film, but the percentage of female deaths were much higher.

The third film I studied was Eden Lake (2008), the male characters in the film are, Steve, who is the husband of Jenny; Brett who is the leader of the gang that terrorises the unsuspecting couple; five boys that are apart of Brett’s gang; Adam who is Brett’s dad; also the bartender, and the male party goers, towards the end of the film. The female characters in the film are Jenny who is in a relationship with Steve, Jenny although she has got a job, her job is a primary school teacher, which is a stereotypical caring job, she is also familial as she accepts Steve’s engagement ring. Jenny is also sexual to some extent as the boys in Brett’s gang put her in that position. Paige is the only girl member of Brett’s gang, she is aggressive and not stereotypically female, but submissive and controlled within the group. Also the woman from the cafe who insists that the terrorising kids are not hers. Jenny, is the final girl, the point of identification with the female rather than objectification of her, when Jenny is looked at by the gang, the camera shows clearly that Jenny is not comfortable with the looks.

　

The Role of the Distributor

A distribution plan is a reporting system, comprising of reports, updates, and information systems feeds that articulate the requirements of the theater distribution system to the strategic and operational resources assigned responsibility for support to the theater. It portrays the interface of the physical, financial, information and communications networks for gaining visibility of the theater distribution system and communicates control activities necessary for optimizing capacity of the system. It depicts, and is continually updated to reflect changes in, infrastructure, support relationships, and customer locations to all elements of the distribution system (strategic, operational, and tactical).
A marketing plan is a written document that details the necessary actions to achieve one or more marketing objectives. It can be for a product or service, a brand, or a product line. It can cover one year (referred to as an annual marketing plan), or cover up to 5 years.

Here are some example of the Qualitative research.

From Questions 3, 4, 7 and 8 of the Questionnaire we gathered Qualitative data, here are some examples of the answers we collected.

Person 1:
3. Trailers. Seeing the best bits of the film gives me an idea of how good it is.

4. Psychological. I like having to think to understand a story like and a twist at the end.

7. Soundtrack. It’s usually building up to something scary and you know it’s coming.

8. Silent hill. I like the fact it’s gore, supernatural and psychological mixed together


Person 2:

3) Word of mouth, this is down to the fact that the trailer for the movie could be awesome, but then the film could turn out to be shit. So word of mouth would be the best, because it would matter what your social group thought of the film and in turn would make you go see it or not.

4) Psychological.

7) Setting.

8) I don’t really care about fucking horror films.

Person 3:

3) Trailer because it gives you a teaser as to what is gonna happen

4)I prefer psychological because it keeps you interested throughout the movie.

7)The setting and the jumpy scenes scare me the most cause you don’t know what’s gonna happen.

8)Nightmare on Elm Street, it terrified me when I was young and haven’t watched it since J

Person 4:

3) Trailers, as they are eye catching and are easy to access through different types of media, such as t. v. and Internet.  The trailer for me is the main part of the advertising that makes me want to go and watch an up and coming film.

4)I prefer Gore, as it is more appealing to me, I find it entertaining to watch and is a good topic of conversation when talking with friends about the latest horrors.

7)Jumpy scenes,  as they cause suspension, and make you feel scared.

8)The saw films

Questionnaire results - Quantitative data.

Audience research

View more presentations from jconnolly2010.

The Questionnaire - Quantitative form of data collection.

Questionnaire – audience research into horror.

1. Are you male or female?
Male Female

2. How old are you?
10-15 yrs     16-20 yrs      21-25 yrs     26-30 yrs     31+ yrs

3. What type of advertising influences you the most?
Poster     Trailer     Reviews     Internet     Billboards     Words of mouth
And Why?..............................................................................................................................


4. Which type of horror do you prefer?
Slasher    Monster    Gore    Undead    Sci-Fi    Psychological
And Why?...............................................................................................................................


5. What would encourage you to go and watch a horror film?
Director     Actor/Actress    Setting/Location    Storyline    Sequel

6. How often do you go and watch horror at the cinema?
Weekly     Fortnightly     Monthly    Yearly     Never

7. What scares you the most?
Soundtrack    Tension    Gore    Setting    Jumpy Scenes
And Why?...............................................................................................................................


8. Favourite horror film…….?


9. Is horror your favourite genre?
Yes No

My mood board

I chose the images in this mood board as they show all the aspects of horror that enjoy and i think some of the ideas from this calibrated with those in my group will help to form some interesting ideas for our trailer project.

My original idea.

My plot – Revenge is sometimes sweet.

·         Two main characters are: two sisters called Karen and Sam (dead)

The plot

·         Karen had a sister called Sam, who was an intelligent and career minded teen, the complete opposite to her outgoing party girl sister.

·         Sam was reluctantly dragged to a party by her more outgoing friends, whilst at the party her drink was spiked, as a result of this she fell down the stairs at the nerds n naughty’s house party, and died when no one came to her rescue.

·         After Sam’s death Karen, wants to avenge her little sisters, misfortunate and unexpected death, Karen accesses Facebook through her sisters account to see who went to the party, she wants revenge, and someone to blame for her sister’s death.

·         When Karen finds the party event list of attendees, she finds who she considers maybe the main targets for spiking her sisters drink, which includes a group of 4 of the ‘it’ boys from the high school, who were into taking drugs, n something clicked in Karen that it was them. 

·         Karen had to do something to take revenge over her sister’s killers, she uses Facebook to pose as her dead sister sending messages from the grave to her killers, after some time of threats and disturbing messages to the suspects, they meet up as a group and come to the conclusion that it’s all a big wind up.

·         Although one of the four begins to get guilty and confides in another of the group members who takes the piss out him, as it’s not real, n it’s just a stupid prank.

·         But when they turn on their computers and hear the voice of Sam from beyond the grave tormenting them, through their, Facebook, emails, phones and even their home computers, it becomes too much for a member of the group and he commits suicide.

·         After this the 3 that are left from the disturbed, but guilty group meet up, one of them starts an argument accusing the rest of them that the prank has gone too far. One of the others pushes him into an open burial ground, and convinces the other weaker one that it’s his fault and they bury him alive.

·         But when the torment continues, and the paranoia and guilt sets in, can the remaining two figure out who it is?

·         When the last two, are invited to a rave, by Sam’s sister Karen, they are well up for it as they may be able to ask Karen about who might be doing this, and also use the rave as a get away from the mind boggling torment.

·         When they get to the rave and Karen offers to sell them some drugs to help take the edge off their friends dying, they accept like a shot, but unfortunately they have been got by their own game, the drugs are a lethal compound of many prescription drugs. And of course the two, are rushed to hospital, of which Karen hopes for their permanent extermination, and what appears to be unexplained deaths, as the drug is untraceable.

·         Karen is satisfied that she has got revenge for her sister’s death, but could one of the thought to be dead boys, be crashing back down to earth with a bang to their revenge on her.....................

Difference between a Teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer.

A trailer or preview is an advertisement for a feature  film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening.That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film (or the A movie in a double feature) begins.
A teaser trailer, or just teaser, is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming film, television program, video game, or product.
Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. One of the reasons for the name "teaser" is because they are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to "tease" the audience.
Teasers are also commonly used in advertising. The so-called teaser ad or teaser campaign typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements which anticipate a large(r), full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event.
Tester trailers are usually only made for big-budget and popularly themed movies. Their purpose is less to tell the audience about a movie's content than simply to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming release. Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film. Other ones (notably Pixar films) have scenes made for use in the trailer only. Teaser trailers today are increasingly focused on Internet downloading and the convention circuit.

Horror film trailer - worked with Kristy and Lauren

At first it is hard to tell the genre of this film as it as at first we see the city the film is set in and star Renee Zellweger talking about a 'case' implying she is some sort of officer or social worker. However, clips of dialogue from within the movie such as "what are they doing to you?" changes the mood slightly. Throughout the trailer we get more hints and clues that the film is in the Horror genre. An innocent is firstly introduced which is a clear horror convention, the lighting in the trailer changes drastically to menacing and dangerous whist music continues to speed up. Cuts and flashes of weapons and graves show us this is a horror film. As with all trailers the name of the movie isn't mentioned till the end, this forces the audience to watch the whole trailer whilst their attention is being grabbed by the trailer and they're getting the feeling that they 'need to see the film' and 'what happens next?' this is deliberately done by the producers to bring people in. This name of this film appears in type serious font such as Times new roman all in capitals and the same size. To the left is the only other thing on the screen, lighting leaking through a gap in a locked door relating to the film. The first sign of production values is that the film was made by Paramount a well established company, but not usually in the horror genre. The only noted star is Renee Zellweger, generally a comedy actress or in chick flicks, her name appears in bold capital letters. A directors name is not visible showing a less known director. Special features such as warped human faces, fire, a bed swallowing the innocent girl and locusts attacking the male character are used in small segments to attract attention.

The target audience is mixed of those who like horror/trailers and those who are fans of the supernatural. Also the fact the movie is about a social working case involving an innocent child might be enticing. Lastly, the actress and the production company both usually are involved with comedy so someone who's familiar with the them might be intrigues to watch the film also. The central characters are introduced immediately, the main (hero?) being Emily (Zellweger) who saves young Lilly from her seemingly evil parents. A relationship is automatically established here as we see the respect and love between them. This appears to be the only essential relationship though possibly her male friend who appears to be murdered could be important also. The central narrative enigma would be the disruption of Lilly moving in with Emily, we see some clips of the course of events such as Emily trying to escape and keep Lilly safe from the force that is threatening them. The resolution is never revealed as it would give away the point of the film this works quite well as we are left wondering how and why this is happening to them. We get lines from the Mother of Lilly such as "people die around her, not by her own hand. They just, die". This tells us that whatever is trying to get them comes from the child making it harder for the hero to save her. Moments from the quest that draw people in are essential to any trailer, here are a few when Emily is talking about Lilly she says "this little girl heard her parents say they were going to send her to hell" this makes the audience wonder why they're going to do this. After this we see a grave dug in the basement the child's dialogue acts as a voice over "they hate me they go into the cellar" "I'm scared". Shortly after the music softens and is calm and delicate as Lilly is saved, we see the main characters hugging "What she needs right now is a safe supportive environment, i think that i can provide that for her" throughout this speech we see clips of the main characters embarrassing one another, talking, holding hands etc. This is the loving part of the story which might attract a wider audience. " do you live alone?" this is an almost ominous line from Lilly to Emily "just me, just us" though the audience know they're is something/someone else with Lilly. "her Mom and Dad had deadbolts on her bedroom door" this is where the sequence changes again to horror as a series of events and deaths happen around them. The mood of the film is a sense of 'the other' something supernatural or unknown to us whilst also loving and caring. The soundtrack changes from delicate to ominous a few times making it easy to distinguish the mood of each clip. The music stops suddenly at the end and a scream is heard this leaves the audience with a 'What happened?' feeling as the name of the film flashes up.

Horror film trailer - worked with Kristy and Lauren

The genre of this movie is not clearly indicated from the beginning however it is something in which we discover throughout the trailer because of the pace of the high pitch music quickens. In addition there are references to horror genre in this trailer such as police investigations into a murder as well as other mysterious deaths among the town. The name of the movie isn't revealed until the end of the trailer which is also very typical as it allows a build up to be formed. Trailers often provide a feeling of 'wanting to see more' through the use of jump cuts and fast pace music leaving the viewer unsatisfied by not seeing the hole movie. By leaving the name of the movie until the end of the trailer after there has been a build up it provides a sense of satisfaction for the viewer however still leaves them with the thought 'i wanna go see that.' This trailer doesn't appear to mention the names of the actors in it during the trailer which suggests they aren't well known and this is a completely new film with a fresh cast of actors. However is does mention that it is the same director of the film 'Cloverfield'. Furthermore it does show a quick screening after the title of all the production information, but by leaving it for the very end, in small text as oppose to showing the 'big names' during the clip, tells us that they aren't well known.

This trailer does show parts of the movie which are most likely to be the most exciting bits but only reveals some before cutting to over aspects which the target audience might be interested in. For example after an exciting sequence of jump cuts which provide tension and atmosphere for the audience it will suddenly cut to a much slower pace sequence and then leave the audience with a scare and then the title in order to leave them feeling excited but unsatisfied. It is easy to see which are the main characters in this film and what their relationships are. However they are not introduced using voice overs but with inter-titles. Despite this however they still leave the plot quite vague but simply saying 'in a quiet town, among ordinary people, something wicked lives, this fall, she will keep you safe, she will keep you close, she will keep you forever'. This trailer also provides us with the central narrative enigma however doesn't reveal how it is solved, for example, we know from watching this clip that the young boy is looking for a companion and gets bullied at school. We also know that a young girl and her father perhaps move into this town where strange deaths occur. We then see that the young girl befriends the boy and offers to protect him against bullies. Towards the end of the clip both the viewer and the young boy begin to realise that there is something evil inside this young girl as she quotes 'I need blood to live' suggesting that she could very well be a vampire. Furthermore moments from the 'quest' are also provided in this trailer showing there to be a lot of action as there are many deaths which also sets the mood to be quite 'creepy' as we begin to suspect a young child to be committing this murders. Ways in which this trailer utilises techniques in order to entice and tease the audience are by using the slow pace music too begin with. The music it self is quite high pitch which creates tension and atmosphere and dialogue is used to show a poignant moment in the film the music either stops or gets even slower. I think that the music in this trailer creates most of the tension because of its slow, creepy tension it allows the trailer to make you jump with 'snippets' of action sequences.

The dialogue between the two children also contributes to the feel of this film because children are often associated with horror conventions due to their symbol of innocence and 'goodness'. This is why it makes a good horror to create the opposite.

Horror film trailer - worked with Kristy and Lauren

The Genre of this film is clearly shown at the beginning of the trailer, by a cell phone ringing and two girls nervously looking towards, with one saying 'that's not my ring tone'. The name of the film is shown using an inter-title, and the first and last time we see this in the trailer is towards the end. The production values of the film, include, the use of big name stars however for one missed call this is not the case, the stars that used i could not identify, which would lead you to believe that this is a low budget film, as the actors are not well known. the budget for the film has been noted as $20 million. There appeared to be quite a few special effects, but many of them seemed to be simple but very effective techniques and could hardly be compared to latest James Bond movie. for example some of the death scenes, we barely see any of the received injuries, which for me is not good, as we see a massive build up to the accidents, even the accidents occurring,but rarely the aftermath. The director of this film is Eric Vallette, and from this film has become quite well known but not for the best film award; the film was seriously slated, such as worst movie of 2008 and second worst movie of the decade! the target audience of this film is bound to be horror buffs, but only those who like the cheesy American, copy-cat style horror that this film has been known as. the central narrative enigma to this film, is the missed calls throughout the film, resulting in deaths of a group of friends. in the trailer there are hints as to how the enigma is going to resolved, but i suppose the makers of the trailer, have kept to some of the conventions of trailers by not giving it all away. however many reviews are stating that even the trailer has more jump to it than the film, and the that the trailer is of poor quality, because even though it is not shown how the situation is resolved the audience could easily work it out for them selves.the mood of the film is indicated in the trailer as being quite a dark and mysterious one, although the film has been rated as poor quality, the trailer does have one good vice it does not give away who the monster is, so that when you watch the film, it is no longer a horror as you already know what to expect. there is no voice over in the film however there is a sequence of inter-titles displayed throughout the duration of the trailer, and they do add in to the effect of showing this film to if the horror genre. the inter-titles, are only a short sequence that do help to heighten the plot, the inter-titles read, 'everyday 2 billion cell phones ring...','sometimes you answer the call','and sometimes you shouldn't','what will it sound like','when you die?'. the way that these inter-titles are shown throughout the trailer, to create a good atmosphere, and the overall effect of the trailer would make me want to see it. the sound that is played in the film, is very quiet and not very active music, there is alot more dialogue in this trailer, than music, however there is a weird ring tone which is very creepy and is repeated throughout the film and adds to the erry atmosphere.