Research - The Blair Witch Project

Research - Paranormal Activity 3

Final Genre Decision

After looking and researching these three sub genre's, I have decided to create a supernatural/found-footage movie. The supernatural movie trailer I researched was Paranormal Activity, I decided I really liked the style and genre of this movie, so researched into it more and found it was a found-footage type movie as well as a supernatural. I now know what the genre for my movie is going to be, so I am going to do some more research on this type of genre. 

Research - Serial Killer Horror

Research - Supernatural Horror

This is a trailer for the movie 'Paranormal Activity', which is supernatural/found-footage movie. This is the trailer used on the actual Paranormal Activity website. This trailer starts off a lot differently to any other horror movie trailers, as it shows a actual audience going into a cinema to watch the movie, it shows the date of when they watched the trailer, and shows the State that they watched it in, convincing the audience that watch the trailer that it is a genuine crowd of people that have never seen it before. Whilst its showing the audience it doesn't have any speech in it, just text that make the audience read it and concerntrate. The text then says 'this is what they saw', and the screen cuts off from the audience in full colour, and shows the audience sat there using a night vision camera, which straight away creates a earie feeling. The text is always white on a black screen so it is easier to read.

The first scene of the movie that you see in the trailer looks like a normal day with a normal couple talking, however when you hear what they are talking about (that they think something supernatural is in the house), you straight away know what the movie is going to be about. You also see the guy holding a hand-held camera and filming through it, so from that the audience knows it is going to be a horror movie about something supernatural in the house, filmed with a hand-held camera, you also see the audience's reaction at this point, and they all look normal.

Shortly after that you see the couple, who we assume are the only characters in this movie, go to bed and the camera goes to night vision, again creating an earie feeling, fourty seconds in you see a few paranormal things going on, such as the light swinging on its own, footprints, bedsheets moving, and the female character claiming something has breathed on her, the camera cuts to the audience to show their reaction. This is effective for the audience that are viewing the trailer as they want to know more about the story, such as what is the supernatural thing, what other paranormal events occur, do they survive, etc... It also lets them see that it is genuinly scary, from the crowds reaction.

The characters speak a lot through the trailer, they usually help to let us know what is going on, such as the footsteps in and none out, the audience most likely would not be observant enough to notice this, so the characters speak at neccassary times. A lot of the noise is screaming, showing that there is a lot of paranormal happenings going on, enough to scare you. The sound that is played in the background is a earie sort of music, it stops on certain points of the trailer which create suspense, and it gets faster as more paranormal happenings are taking place.

The trailer has some more text during it, one that says "'Paranormal Activity' is one of the scariest movies of all times", as the target audience for this movie would most likely be teenagers/young adults that enjoy horror movies, they want to make sure that its target audience knows that it actually is scary.

The title of the movie then shows near the end, which is what most trailers do, following by when it will be released and where, the music stays on whilst this is showing.

Research - Revenge Horror

The trailer starts off with the production company, like every trailer does. The first image you see is of a dark house in a forest. From this the audience already know the setting for the movie, in a forest. They can also assume by this image that the movie is going to be a horror type. The second image we see is of a girl lying down, as the shot is a close up and just of her we can assume by this that she will be the main character, so in the space of 10 seconds the trailer has told us who the main character is, where its going to be set, and what genre it is going to be. Most of the trailer just shows the main character in it, close up, it never shows properly the villains, as you only see flashes and glimpses of them.

Inbetween the clips there is text shown, this text is put there to give the audience an idea a bit more about the movie, also if there is text on the screen the audience has to be concerntrating on the screen properly to read it, so it makes the audience take in more of the clip.

There's not much speech in the clip, the first sentence of speech in the clip that you hear isn't until 24 seconds, 'whats a pretty thing like you doing here all alone', this is done whilst the screen is black which gives it an earie feeling, it makes the audience question who this man is, the way you hear the voice makes the audience believe that he is the villian. The most effective part of this trailer, i believe, is the speech, 'forgive me father, for I will sin', the music dies down at this part and it is just a close up of her. From the clips before the audience knows something has happened to her, e.g. torture, rape, beaten, etc... so when she says this line, the audience knows that the story is going to change, like the girl has changed herself, then after this the music gets faster and you see a flash of the main character, followed by the villian getting hurt.

The title 'I spit on your grave' shows up 56 seconds in, however it is then followed by another clip, which shows that the title for the movie does not always have to come at the end of the trailer. Then after this it shows 'coming soon'.

I believe this trailer is effective because the audience wants to know more about what actually happened to the girl and what did she do to the villians. It leads a lot of unanswered questions, which will make the audience want to watch it even more to find out. The trailer shows a basic plot; the main character gets attacked somehow, and she comes back to get her revenge.

Three Sub-genres

Out of all of the sub-genres of horror, I have chosen three that I would like to do; serial killer horror, supernatural horror, and revenge horror, I am now going to have to research each of these three genres in a bit more detail, so that I can make my final choice on which genre I am going to do.

Conventions of a Horror Movie Trailer

Movie trailers have conventions, one of the conventions in a horror movie trailer would be that in the trailer they would introduce the main characters and possibly some other characters in it. Horror movie trailers also establish the plot, and give away some detail of what the movie is going to be about, without giving away the actual movie, it usually shows the setting and shows flashes of clips that grab the audience's attention, making them want to find out more and watch iy. However, for a teaser trailer it may not show any real clips of the movie and it would not give the amount of detail that an ordinary trailer would about the movie; it may only show a glimpse of one character followed by 'coming soon'.

Propp.

In a horror movie there is usually:

- Lead character - can either be the villian or the victim.

- Victim - often survives in the movies.

- Villian - They usually have trademark characteristics to how they kill, e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

- The storyline is usually good against evil, which good usually wins.

- Propps theory of equillibrium. Equillibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair, and new equillibrium. E.g. in The Ring... Equilibrium (normal day), disruption (someone dies and unexplained death), recognition of disruption (main character finds out about the tape that is the course of the death), attempt to repair (main character goes in search of where the tape came from, so she can try and stop the killings and manages to do so, therefore saving herself and her son), new equilibrium (back to a normal day).

However, all of this would not be shown in a trailer, but without knowing what my movie will be about and knowing things such as if my main character will be a villian or a victim, I would not be able to create my trailer. So even though I'm only creating a trailer I still need to think about this.

General Horror Conventions

The general code and conventions of a horror movie are: ghosts, apparitions, miracles, gloomy weather, fast paced music for tense scenes, organ music to give suspence or for creepy scenes to give it a spooky feel, dark lighting, deserted places (old houses, forests, fields), villian, victim, hero. I'll take all of these into account when I come to make my horror movie trailer, poster and magazine front cover.

Horror Sub Genres

Horror is a genre which is meant to frighten the audience and give them a feeling of horror or terror.
Having chosen my genre, I have now looked into the sub genres of horror movies, the main sub genres that I found were:
- GHOST - (The Sixth Sense , ghostbusters)
- MONSTER MOVIES - (Frankinstein, Dracula)
- SERIAL KILLER - (Halloween, Saw)
- SCI FI HORROR - (The Unborn, 28 Days Later)
- COMEDY HORROR - (Scary Movie, Shaun of the Dead)
- POSSESSED - (The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror)
- SUPERNATURAL HORROR MOVIES - (Paranormal Activity. The Others)
- RELIGIOUS HORROR - (The Omen, The Prophecy)
- REVENENGE HORROR - (I spit on your Grave, The Last House on the Left)
- PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR - (The Blair Witch Project, The Ring)

A2 Media Coursework

For my A2 media coursework, I am going to create a trailer, a movie poster, and a front cover for a magazine that will feature my movie. The genre that I am going to choose for my movie will be horror, as I know quite a bit about the horror genre, and believe it will be interesting to do.