Setting

Ideas

Genre:
the genre is horror as the film is going to be scary with scenes of blood and frighteneing scenes. The location is spooky and the music will represent the genre of horror.

Synopsis:
a group of friends have a party and decide to go on a ghost walk for some fun. They travel to a unknown location of a spooky abandoned houses that have been left from years ago. They decide to play a game of hide and seek each hiding in different location’s around the camp. The main character Iona tries and find the others however when she cant find them and starts finding mysterious items she starts to get worried. A mysterious character that is not fully presented to the audience is the antagonist he is dressed in a gass mask and plain dark clothing. as the audience knows that he is the one taking the othersProtagonist: Iona is the main character in my film. She is the one that goes on the quest to search for the others characters in the film. She has the most screen play out of the others but Iona does not.

characters/ protagonist:

Chrissie Anderson
Iona Renfrew
Jane Howey

Antagonist:

Mysterious man in a gas mask. The audience do not know what he looks like or hear him speak throughout the film trailer. After looking at past exaples of A2 students past horror films i found that some scenes of the antogonist were comical and instead of being scary it was funny i didnt want this to happen in my film. I decided to have my antognist wearing a gas mask and ragged clothing so that the audience would not fully see the character and this would make him become more frightening.


Film Tariler convention:

Film tailers do not show the ending of the film so in my traler there will be no resolution. the audience will se glipses of the anotagonist ut will not fully be aware of his actions in the film.

LIIAR

Language - This is everything that is seen visually on/in a media text. For example, in a film trailer you see text on the screen, dialogue and sound these are shown through the cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene. These are done to help the audience understand what the film will be about in a short film trailer.

Institution - These are the different processes in which a media text is produced. in a film trailer, the institution is the director or creator of the film

Ideology - This is what the media text is trying to communicate to the audience. in a film trailer genre has many conventions, the audience will look for certain things in a romance for exaple they will look for a happy couple. in a horror there will be blood, violance faster editing then a romance. the music in horror films ae there to build tension and suspence.

Audience - This is the audience which the media text is aimed at (teenagers, adults). Each text has a target audience which is who the text is aiming at this can be easily identified by looking at the type of text and what the meaing is. For example, if the genre of a chick flick, romance would apeal more to girls then boys.

Representation - This is what the media text is trying to represent and what we have to try to deconstruct. There are many reasons why something has been done in a media text and we have to try to understand what it symbolises or why it's been used in that way.

History of Film trailers

A trailer is an advertisement for a feature film that will be shown 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 begins. Movie trailers have now become popular on the Internet. Of some 10-billion videos watched online annually, movie trailers rank #3, after news and user-created video.

The first trailer shown in a U.S. movie theater was in November 1913, when Nils Granlund, the advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theater chain, produced a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, opening at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Loew adopted the practice, which was reported in a wire service story carried by the Lincoln, Nebraska Daily Star, describing it as "an entirely new and unique stunt", and that "moving pictures of the rehearsals and other incidents connected with the production will be sent out in advance of the show, to be presented to the Loew’s picture houses and will take the place of much of the bill board advertising". Granlund was also first to introduce trailer material for an upcoming motion picture, using a slide technique to promote an upcoming film featuring Charlie Chaplin at Loew's Seventh Avenue Theatre in Harlem in 1914. Up until the late 1950s, trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service and consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised, often augmented with large, descriptive text describing the story, and an underscore generally pulled from studio music libraries. Most trailers had some form of narration and those that did featured stentorian voices.

In the early 1960s, the face of motion picture trailers changed. Textless, montage trailers and quick-editing became popular, largely due to the arrival of the "new Hollywood" and techniques that were becoming increasingly popular in television. Among the trend setters were Stanley Kubrick with his montage trailers for Lolita, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick's main inspiration for the Dr. Strangelove trailer was the short film "Very Nice, Very Nice" by Canadian film visionary Arthur Lipsett. In 1964, Andrew J. Kuehn distributed his independently-produced trailer for Night of the Iguana, using stark, high-contrast photography, fast-paced editing and a provocative narration by a young James Earl Jones. His format was so successful, he began producing this new form of trailer with partner Dan Davis.

Kuehn opened the west coast office of Kaleidoscope Films in 1968 and Kuehn and his company became a major player in the trailer industry for the next three decades. As Hollywood began to produce bigger blockbuster films and invest more money in marketing them, directors like Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone and Barbra Streisand began to depend on Kuehn and Kaleidoscope for their ability to create the best trailers theater-goers could see. Kuehn alumni include leading trailer makers and marketing creatives. Top trailer companies have all been run by former Kaleidoscope creatives, like The Cimarron Group (Chris Arnold), Ant Farm, Aspect Ratio (Mark Trugman), Trailer Park (Benedict Coulter) and Motor Entertainment, run by Greg McClatchy, who previously headed up the film marketing division at 20th Century Fox. Michael Camp headed the trailer department at Paramount Pictures, Tom Kennedy at MGM, Jeff Werner and Vince Arcaro all started their own successful trailer companies and Bob Harper began his career as a messenger at Kaleidoscope before becoming a producer and quickly Vice-Chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment and, in 2007, Chairman of Regency Entertainment. Top industry trailer composer John Beal credits his career success to the thirty-year collaboration with Kuehn and their revolutionary approach of creating original scores using a whole new musical template.

In earlier decades of cinema, trailers were only one part of the entertainment which included cartoon shorts and serial adventure episodes. These earlier trailers were much shorter and often consisted of little more than title cards and stock footage. Today, longer, more elaborate trailers and commercial advertisements have replaced other forms of pre-feature entertainment and in major multiplex chains, about the first twenty minutes after the posted showtime is devoted to trailers.

Horror film Genre History

Horror films are designed to frighten and terrify while captivating and entertaining the audience at the same time. The main themes of horror is focused on dark, forbidden and strange alarming events that wouldn’t usually happen in true life. They create creatures and nightmares that isolate and alienate us with terror of the unknown. Horror films are often combined with science fiction when the antagonist or monster is related to a corruption of technology or science such as zombies, or when the Earth is threatened by aliens (war of the worlds).

The first horror movie, was made by a French filmmaker Georges Melies, prodicing Le Manoir Du Diable (1896) it contained familiar elements of later horror and vampire films for exampke a flying bat, a medieval castle, a demon figure and witches - and a crucifix to dispatch with evil.

Influences- My Bloody Valentine

Textual Analysis- Silent Hill

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Analysis


Silent Hill’s genre is horror. It is a film about a adopted girl called Shannon that has dreams about a place called Silent Hill. Her adoption mother Chritabella takes her to this mysterious place unbeknown to her the background to this place is a ‘ghost town’. Through out the film strange scary creatures regularly appear when an alarm is sounded. The main character Christabella goes on a quest to find her daughter and uncovers some terrible truths about her daughter Shannon’s background. The film ends with a twist as the audience find out that Christabella and Shannon both died in silent hill.

Silent Hill’s trailer follows the traditional conventions. In the first opening scenes we are presented with the two main characters of the film Shannon and Christabella. The dialogue between the two characters tells the audience that Shannon has been having dreams about a place called Silent Hill which is the title of the film. The two characters are presented as being very united as in the opening shot they are placed closely together suggesting a mother daughter relationship they are in a very nice sunny setting.

The setting immediately changes, we can see car headlights in the night and then there is a birds eye view shot of a car travelling in what looks like a isolated area. The text Toucan country west Virginia is shown on the screen which sets the setting of were the action is going to take place.

There is a close up shot of the main character Christabella and then a medium shot of the radio where the radio starts crackling. This is followed by another close up shot of Christabella this shows her reaction to the radio. The crackling of the radio has a hidden meaning to ghosts as many people believe this certain noise to be called white noise. The audience then see a strange shadow of a person walking in front of the car, the car swerves to miss this mysterious person but hits her. However the car goes through the character also suggesting the theme of a supernatural presence.

The screen goes black and the next sequence of the trailer is followed by a series of shots followed by screen black outs. The editing is more fast pace as the narrative progresses. There is a extreme close up shot of the main character face looking up at the sky were a something that looks like grey snow is falling. This is followed by a shot of her hand fingertips rubbing the substance this is done to establish to the audience what it is. We learn that it is flakes of ash falling from the sky. These serious of unlikely consequences reinforces the films genre of horror.

The grey misty setting of Silent Hill has a hidden connotation of disorientation because fog covers things up making things hard to see. This is the same in the narrative as Christabella has woken up in this place were ash is failing from the sky having found she has lost her daughter.

The first few seconds of the film the music is subtle, the music is played on a piano which is a nice sound. As the narrative has progressed and when she wakes up in Silent Hill the music becomes more dark and sinister with high pitched noises, the music gets louder as the camera focuses in on a sign saying Welcome to Silent Hill. When the shot cuts to the following sequence the music stops. This is done to build tension and suspense of the audience. The following sequences of the trailer cut to the music so as the music gets faster the shot cuts do as well, this is done to show the past pace of the narrative. On top of the music is Christabella shouting “Shannon” this is also building the story line as no one knows were this girl is.

There is cut between two narratives one which she is in and one were her husband is. There is a close up of a family picture of the three characters presented so far so that the audience know that they are all connected within a family.

The words ‘what was once an ordinary town’ is shown on the screen centrally in black bold font is shown against a foggy grey back ground. This also goes with the narrative as the fog is connected within the miss-en-scene. The man Christopher is wearing a suit reinforcing the idea he is a working business man providing for the family. We see him researching Silent Hill and his dialogue tell the audience what he is reading on the screen. Extreme close up shots of significant parts of the text is also shown progressing the audience understanding of the narrative further. The audience is the shown a series of flash backs were they will make the connection that the girl in the flash back is exactly the same as ‘Shannon’. Further text is shown “has been transformed by evil”. As the fire is flashed onto the screen the music becomes very loud this is done to make the audience jump and to scare them.

The following shots develop the narrative even further with a sequence of shots showing Christabella looking for Shannon in various different locations of Silent Hill. This is the quest of the plot.

There is an extreme close up shot of a girl with messy hair covering her face. She is wearing a blue dress. In the next shot there is an old woman with very long grey tangled hair she is wearing torn dirty closed. She is displayed to be like a homeless person later on in the film she is presented like this because she has been shunned out of the ‘community’.

A non diegetic sound of an alarm is heard and we are shown lots of people running into what looks like a church. A church is a holy place were no evil is allowed so seeing people running into a church could mean that they are running to safety away from these creatures as they can not enter the church.

When the narrative turns more scary and the audience are shown sequences with monsters the background of the text changes. It has gone from a grey foggy background to a red/ yellow dirty colour. This is done to show that the genre narrative has changed to something more sinister and scary. The yellow/ red background also conotates the fire in Silent Hill.

Another character is shown wearing a similar costume to the girl previously shown. The costume worn is not modern this means the people are not from our generation. The hair styles also present his theory as they are very old in style. The music becomes more apparent as these monsters keep on appearing. The sound is very low like a trumpet. The editing becomes more fast pace as it changes to the beat of the music.

The audience hear the sound of a heat beat and there is a montage of different shots of monster, Christabella and the mystery girl that looks like Shannon. The heart beat sound effect is done to build up the tension of the audience as the trailer is now nearing to the end. Each different sequence has a screen black out it edits to the heart beat. The last final sequence of the trailer is a shot of Christabella looking at the camera and screaming. This leaves the in total suspense as to what is going to happen to her making them want to know what happens next..

The film title Silent Hill is shown against a dark brown background. The words silent hill are central and we can see a bight light shinning through them this could be fire which is significant in the film. The background fades out from the sides into the middle and blacks out. This is a typical film trailer convention showing at the end of the trailer the film title and when it will be in theatres. Also at the end there is a website people can go on to find out more about this particular film.

Film Poster




The film poster is for the horror film Silent Hill. The audience for this film would be anyone ranging from the age of 18 plus as the movie certificate 18. The film can be watched from both genders as anyone can enjoy a horror film. The genre is portrayed in the poster in the use of colour. The dark grey fog is a recurrent theme of the film as there is ash falling out of the sky. In the audience watching the film trailer previous they will know that this poster is a clip from the film when Rose a desperate mother tries to find her daughter in silent hill. The writing style of the sign Silent Hill is both gothic and scary; it follows the colour scheme of dull colour’s mainly dull green which is shown a lot through mise-en-scene.

The person on the cover is one of the main characters featured in the film this is a convention of film posters, from researching I found that their will usually always be a character on the front of the poster. The clothing style and colour follows the colour of the film. The dull beige coat mixes in with the grey foggy background. The words Silent Hill are placed at the bottom of the poster in big bold black writing this is down because it is the only thing that the audience can see clearly on the poster. This is major selling point as the producers want the film name to stand out and appeal to the audience. Above the film title is the words “we’ve been expecting you” this follows the genre of horror the film producers want the audience to be frightened and also intrigued enough to want to see the film, this short snappy sentence doesn’t give away what the film will be about but it interests the audience enough to go and see the film to find out what it means.

Through mise-en-scene the only part that has colour on the poster is the date that it will be shown in cinemas this is shown in red. The colour red has a hidden connotation of blood, violence and gore which are conventions of horror. The film accreditations are shown at the bottom in a fainter smaller font; these are always at the bottom this is a convention of film poster.

Textual analysis- Film trailer Quarantine

Quarantine's genre is thriller/horror it follows the main conventions of a film trailer, the opening shot is of the film 'company screen gems' the red font against a black background can conotate what sort of film genre it is for example red connotes blood and violence. The plot is about a reporter making a documentary on the fire department they are called out to a building of houses were there has been an incident with a woman not been seen. However when they break into her room they are greeted with something with someone far less then normal. As the narrative progresses the building gets sealed of and the people trapped inside and quarantined within this building.



Through out the trailer between cuts texts are shown the beginning one is "authorities have denied any knowledge of the incident" this gives the audience another idea of what this film may be about. This quotation implies that what ever has happened was a major event possibly fatal event. The following quotation are telling the audience a story as well as showing the footage. “what happened that night…Has never been explained… Until now”. These texts are shown in a bold font is white which contrasts with the black background making them stand out.

As the footage in the trailer turns to night vision of green so does the font style of and colour. “This year… witness the shocking truth you are not meant to see” These two texts are shown in a smaller less bold font but there is a green fuzzy wave that appears with it. As we have already been told that this event has never been explained before the green wave has a connotation of paranormal creatures. The audience could read into the colour change that the film may hold something that isn’t ‘normal’ creature that we would usually be faced with. This is explained at the end of the trailer.

In traditional horror trailers the protagonist isn’t shown in great detail for example you may see a second clip of the thing but not a huge amount of footage is focused on the character/s. What you are shown is the after event a consequence of what the thing has done. In Quarantine an example of thins is the person falling to the floor we the audience don’t know what has happened to him but from the previous footage of a creatures face we have an idea that this has something to do with it.

The music starts of quiet with a few key sound effect of the fuzzing this only happens when the camera interference is shown. As the action progresses so does the music as it cuts with the action. When scary bits of the film are presented like the creatures face there is a high frequency buzzing noise this is done to make the audience jump as the sound has been quiet up to that point.

The film trailer Quarantine influences a lot of my work as it is filmed on a hand held camera which is the effect I want on my work. I like this effect because it places the audience within the film action. Some key point i like and would like to use are:


In the opening shots there is the date March 11, 2009 this immediately places the audience within the film. Adding verisimilitude as the audience know the date that this happened on.

I like the effect of night cam so your not seeing the action/danger directly which has the audience in suspense as they are not knowing what is going to happen next.

The fuzzing noise effect between cuts emphasises that it is filmed on a hand held camera.

I like that it is filmed on a hand held camera it gives the audience the effect of being in the film were the action takes place. It also has the effect of seeing it through someone else’s view point.

Film Poster

Brief

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer together with two of the following three options:

1. a website homepage
2. a film magazine front cover, featuring the film
3. a poster for the film