Storyboards

Sketched Drafts

The Role of the Distributor

In order for a film to be successful, it needs to be distributed correctly and to a relevant audience. This is conducted by a distribution company, like 'Columbia Pictures' and 'Twentieth Century-Fox', which are two very large distrubtion companies and 'Summit Entertainment' and 'IFC Films', two smaller businesses. Rather than just selling it to a mass target audience, a distribution company needs to establish the very core of this mass market, and mainly target that, whilst keeping the rest of the vast target audience interested. Along with this, the distributors must attempt to, not only attract the typical target audience established by the genre of the film, but also attract those who may not stereotypically fall into that category.

The three key aspects of a marketing plan, which is created by the distribution company, are; publicity, advertising and promotion. Distribution is the highly competitive market of launching and sustaining films, with an objective of achieving the highest possible return in the box office and in the overall market. Movies have the power to shape our lives in many ways; they can amaze us as well as amuse us. However, they don't stop there, they push past this by affecting and influencing the music we listen to, fashions we adopt, the advertising we see around us and the games we enjoy.

In order to bring a film to a product driven market, it is the distributor's job to:

• Establish, identify and address its audience
• Create a USP and a reason for the audience to go and see it
• Estimate the potential revenue created by all formats of the films release, e.g. the film itself, merchandise, sponsorships etc
• Build relationships between themselves and other media companies to support the films appeal, raise awareness and build interest
• Convert interest into actual cinema visits
• Convince and persuade the exhibitors/cinema operators to show the film

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Shot list for our trailer

•      Fade from black
•      Washing hands in toilet
•      Opens door to weird man standing there
•      Shot of woman sitting talking on phone (talking about being almost home)
•      Shot of woman sitting looking out of window (phone conversation continues over top)
•      POV looking out of window (phone conversation continues)
•      Train comes to a stop and she gets off
•      Unlocking door
•      Starts unpacking suitcase
•      Looks in suitcase (odd item)
•      Close up of face, door in background opens out of focus (no one there)
•      Cut to her turning off tv, sees reflection of man, looks round, no one there
•      In bed, hears tap on window, no one there
•      Hears front door unlock, hides under bed
•      Shot of her, then POV of his feet walking around bed
•      Camera pans to the right, man is there
•      Quick flash shot of man behind her (heartbeat)
•      Quick flash shot of man in mirror/water (heartbeat)
•      Quick flash shot of close up of face (heartbeat)
•      3 Quick flash shots of a flame
•      Flashing shot of flickering lights, man getting closer with each flash
•      Dolly zoom grab of face
•      Bang to black
•      Goes down stairs, fades to black, sound of steps then flash of her being grabbed
•      Flash credits
•      End.

Empire Magazine Front Cover

Empire Magazine Front Cover, a photo by kylespeirs1 on Flickr.

Return to Sender trailer

Poster

Magazine Cover

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

The above image displays the various different types of media I used.

Adobe Photoshop - using Photoshop allowed me the most useful and simplistic gateway to create my ancillary tasks, as well as allowing me to branch my answers to the evaluation questions further than just a block of text. Adobe Photoshop is used by a various range of people, both professionally and by amateurs. My experience and knowledge of Photoshop is greater than the majority of other media technologies used in this project, as it was used last year whilst making my main product (magazine cover, contents page and double page spread) on my AS media course. My skills with Photoshop are at a similar level as to completing my main product last year, however I do feel as though they have enhanced slightly, certainly the time it takes me to create a media product has decreased massively as I have become more familiar with Photoshop.

Apple Final Cut Pro - using Final Cut Pro was a first-time experience for myself. As I had never used this application before, I learned, both from my teacher and other group members, useful techniques and how to use it. This was the key piece of editing software we used to construct our trailer. Final Cut Pro enabled us to edit both the sound and video, using effects and transitions to create the trailer exactly how we desired; allowing us to give it the professional appearance we wanted.

Twitter & Facebook - we used these two incredibly popular pieces of social media to promote and advertise our finished product. We also used it to ask the thousands of people, accumulated by the total amount of friends & followers between all 4 of our group, to complete our survey to understand our target audience. As they are social media, our entire group had an existing understanding of these and found no difficulties operating them.

Blogger - having used Blogger last year, as well as this, I already mostly understood how the site operated. As I have used other blog sites, I could contrast how well and easy Blogger was to use in comparison to others. Blogger gave me a platform on which I could present my entire AS and A2 coursework. The flexibility of Web 2.0 allowed multi-media convergence on blogging sites such as Blogger, meaning you can include many different types of media, e.g. photos, videos, hyperlinks etc, within a post; the basics of which are understood by myself. Not many difficulties were encountered during this user-friendly site.

Apple Garageband - yet another application supplied by Apple on their Mac's, Garageband was used to create our music throughout the trailer. Our groups unfamiliarity with Garageband was evident judging by the audience feedback and the comments about the music. However, it did allow us to create fitting music for our genre, thus we made a "spooky", eerie piece of music. Garageband provides pre-recorded audio clips and allows you to maneuver and rearrange different clips, much like Final Cup Pro, to create your own piece of music.

Flickr - Flickr is very handy when analysing. It was used for analysing posters and magazine covers during research for my ancillary tasks. The way Flickr operates with 'notes' allows your to pin-point certain areas of a media text and comment on them. It also provides an option to share a Flickr analysation straight onto a Blogger site, thus making it very useful and fitting for us. However, as this was a fairly new site to me, it did take me a few goes to fully understand it.

Survey Monkey - this site was very useful when doing our audience research. It allowed us to create a questionnaire and, through the answers, understand the key conventions and ideas we needed to include in our own trailer. After advertising through the social medias of Twitter and Facebook, we received a high number of responses, widening our knowledge of our target audience and increasing our chances of creating a successful trailer. It then allowed us to present both the qualitative and quantitative data in graph formats.

Youtube - this popular piece of media is another example of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. We used it to research other trailers, to understand conventions and gain ideas and techniques, and to finally present our final media product, which can be viewed from anyone all over the world; which is one of the reasons Youtube is so popular, it creates a portal of which you can present anything you like to the whole world. It also provided an embedding code which allows Youtube videos to be linked directly onto a Blogger site. It also allows the audience to like, share and comment on the media products; thus creating more audience feedback and allowing us to understand how successful our trailer was.

Fujifilm Finepix S200HD Camera - we used this camera/camcorder to shoot all our footage on. With our footage going onto a SD memory card to allow us to transfer it onto the Mac's to edit it, this camera come camcorder is an example of a multi-application camera that not only shoots stills, but video footage as well. These pieces of media technology are becoming more accessible to regular people, rather than professionals, but are still producing the same level of quality media. The high quality footage, along with our creative thinking and a tripod allowed us to create professional looking shots, like a slow zoom over the protagonists shoulder and using the Z axis to perform focus shifts allowed us to create the conventions we desired for our horror trailer. As directing and shooting the footage was an area of interest of mine, I enjoyed using the camera, from different angles, to shoot our trailer.

Adobe After Effects - we used After Effects mainly to create our inter-titles. This was possible the application I struggled to understand and operate most, as it was a completely new experience for myself and required more understanding and knowledge than any of the other resources. This technology is used, not only by amateurs who eventually understand the operations of it, but by genuine professionals to create amazing special effects. This software is capable of performing a huge range of different tasks involving seemingly impossible effects. However, with our trailer, we kept the usage of After Effects to a minimum; using basic effects to create inter-titles containing plenty of conventions of horror, e.g. the colours used and smoke floating in the background to maintain the atmosphere and tone of the trailer.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The range of comments we received.

Audience feedback is a useful task to carry out with any media product as it offers tips and advice on how to improve your product as well as pin-pointing the elements of the media that are particularly good and stand out. We screened our trailer in front of a class of 17/18 year olds, who fall under the target audience of horror movies, 15-25 year olds, therefore this is the ideal audience to gain feedback from.

The editing and camerawork displayed in our trailer was the segment of the audience feedback where our group received most praise. The range and exploration of camera angles and movement was mentioned several times as being a positive aspect of our media product, as it created suspense and a tense feeling at an appropriate time during the trailer. Our camerawork and editing, judging from the feedback, successfully used horror conventions and our editing style was described to have a "professional look". However, there was a few comments mentioning that if some shots were edited together quicker then it would create a more horrific feel within the trailer & allow the possibility to create more 'jumpy' scares. Despite this, the majority of comments concerning editing & camerawork were positive; certain shots, such as the mirror scene and the effect used on the car while it was pulling away from the car park were techniques that were picked up on. However, the main negative associated with our trailer was that the inter-titles could have been on the screen for longer, as the audience felt that they were not given enough time to read and understand what they were telling they audience.

Comments made about the sound and music used in our trailer were both negative and positive. Some people mentioned that it didn't quite suit the imagery and was "out of place" at certain points, whereas others said that it added to the fear factor, creating an eerie, creepy feel to the trailer. However, usually when the music was mentioned, it was because it seemed out of place, therefore music is an area that we could look to improve. Another problem found with the music was the lack of a change of pace or tone. All things that could reviewed and edited.

Despite not being commented on often, the mise-en-scene and setting was found to be not very effective when attempting to create a scary setting. However, where it is a fair comment, suburban houses are a conventional setting for horror films; plus the stairs of the home played a key role in, possibly, the main and most effective shot.

The structure of our trailer seemed to be successful. As there was a few comments mentioning how the build up to the jumpier, scarier scenes was effective & how it created suspense in the areas it was needed. However it was mentioned that the the pace at which the story was told could have been quicker, as it took a while to get to the point. Another area we could possibly look to improve.

Lighting was only mentioned once, specifically the good use of candles. The use of candles was said to have "worked well", thus creating an eerie feeling throughout the trailer from the start, with the shot with the protagonist in the background, partially out of focus, and the candle in the foreground, carried on later with the shot of the flame of the candle reappearing.

Overall the feedback has pin-pointed which areas our trailer was weaker in and which that it was strong. The majority of comments made looked to have interested and intrigued the target audience, which was our overall aim. However, there was obvious areas of which we could improve to make the trailer more effective.

The problems and good points detected were very fair and insightful; allowing us, if chosen, to adjust our media product in a positive way to make it overall more appealing to the target audience. Things like the music and the length of the inter-titles could be improved, whereas the more professional looking areas of the trailer, the camerawork and certain scenes, could be enhanced further.

Despite the constructive criticism, which fell under the minority of comments made, our media product seemed to be an overall success as it received many compliments related to the use of horror conventions.

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

In order to reach and attract their target audience, as well as the trailer, horror movies must create a relevant promotional package. In our case, along with the trailer, we made a magazine front cover and a promotional poster; all advertising our horror films. The idea of a 'promotional package' can range all over different types of media, things like trailers, posters, teaser trailers, magazine features, websites, merchandise etc. The stars of the film will often appear on chat shows/interviews or feature in magazines as another way to promote the film. All of the mentioned techniques are different ways to promote a media product into the public eye.

The distribution company has a direct role to play when deciding what is included in the promotional package, i.e. the magazine cover & poster, to ensure that the correct design and content is used to appeal to their target audience, while keeping it within the genre of horror.

The two images above show the original image (left) and the image when used in my second ancillary task, the magazine cover (right).

The image shows the director of the movie, therefore the feature article in the magazine will be from the point of view of the director; a director's cut. Leading with the idea that the director in my image is well-known amongst the film world and, therefore, this magazines target audience; the image of him would be enough to establish that the article would be a director's cut. Many people are attracted to a film simply due to the actors within it or the directing/production staff behind the scenes, i.e. someone may go and see a film simply because Brad Pitt was the star or Steven Spielberg directed it. However the image of the director still stays within the horror genre, with the low lighting and dark background, therefore it gives the audience enough information just from the front cover.

Good publicity campaigns are essential for any movie that wants to succeed in the film industry. Things like magazines and interviews/chat shows are a direct outlet to the audience, which creates an enormously powerful form of promotion; word of mouth. Many people will decide to watch a film because of a review online or in a newspaper or a recommendation from a friend.

However, using magazine features as publicity can be dangerous as they are given the freedom to establish whatever opinion on the film they choose. Usually, depending on the magazine size, they are read by thousands of people nationwide, sometimes internationally. Therefore, if given a bad review, it could trigger the downfall of the publicity campaign and result in the movie being a flop.



The above images show the two stills from our trailer (top left) (top right) that I used to create my promotional poster.

The poster establishes the genre immediately. The image and colour scheme alone connote horror conventions, e.g. the red used in the font connotes blood and pain. The image suggests that the eye is that of a distressed person, as it has expanded; connoting fear. The shadow of a black silhouette is present in the iris of the eye; suggesting that, by looking at the eye, we can see the reflection of what this person is seeing, thus explaining the look of fear. The slogan "Lock your doors, shut the windows. Pretend you're safe" implies that nothing can detain and keep out this horror, intriguing the reader into wanting to know what is creating this fear. The use of the certificate 18 in the bottom left corner of the poster also suggests that this film falls under the genre of horror. All of these things establishing that this is a promotional poster advertising a horror movie.

The use of dating the release of the movie as 'August 2012' is subtle but effective. It leaves the audience with a feeling of uncertainty towards to the poster and, overall, the movie. This would either repel or, in most cases, intrigue the audience; filling them with the desire to see this movie in order to answer any pressing questions they may have. Thus being a successful promotional poster.

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

Evaluation Question 1, a photo by kylespeirs1 on Flickr.

Click the image above to read my exploration of our use of horror conventions.

The purpose of a horror trailer is to intrigue, entertain and advertise the genre and overall plot of a film to, ultimately, attract its target audience. Teaser trailers are shorter than regular trailers, however the conventions are very similar. Teaser trailers tend to contain more quickly edited shots and less storyline, as they are shorter therefore they need to quickly establish the genre and, very basically, the plot and characters. Whereas with regular trailers you have that little bit longer to spend on expanding on conventions and plot, allowing the audience to gain more of an understanding with the film. The below images and explanations analyses the similarities and differences between our own trailer and other horror trailers, ranging from 1922 to 2009.

'The Strangers' Poster

The Strangers poster, a photo by kylespeirs1 on Flickr.

'The Final Destination' Poster

'The Final Destination' Poster, a photo by kylespeirs1 on Flickr.

Creep (2004)

As this is a more modern, British film, I found it easier to relate to. The opening shot is a handheld shot, with a point of view of someone who is heavily panting over the top. There is some distorted music, which adds to the suspenseful opening. Eventually, we head down the familiar escalators of a London underground tube station, where the shot cuts to a women standing against a wall with her eyes shut.

The inter-titles have the background of the London underground map, however the colours have been switched to a yellow and black, whilst the text flickers, possibly to suggest faulty electricity.

We then discover, through the help of the woman's acting and the inter-titles reading 'missed the last train home?' that this woman is stuck in the underground station, with no way out, therefore isolating her from the outside world and making her more vulnerable.

As she is on a pitch black carriage the music switches and the inter-title reads 'don't worry, you're not alone'. This tells us that there is something not quite right and introduces the horror and fear. A man's hand appears from under the train, covered in blood, he lifts only his head up and utters "run" to the woman, kick starting the plot and fear.

Shots of conventional horror features, like rats and dark tunnels, begin to fade in and out at the same tempo as the sound of a heart beat, being played over the top. This pulls the audience in more and creates more suspense as the shots have fastened.

Another distorted sound is put on a quick loop as we feel as though the monster is getting closer and beginning to hunt. A lot of shots of people running and other conventional horror shots are added to a montage of quickly edited shots during this time, including shots of a knife being picked up, feet being dragged along the ground and someone crawling along the floor.


There is a particularly good shot when a man is standing in the carriage way, facing the woman, when two bloody hands grab his head from above him. I found this effective as we do not necessarily expect an attack from above as oppose to from behind or even below, the shock factor and as this is unusual it will feed more fear into the audience.

The title is once again yellow and flickering, to reinforce the setting at the end of the trailer. All the way throughout this trailer, the level of realism carriers a constant flow of fear.

The end shot uses Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposition; we see a toy doll continuously playing a high pitched sound, yet the sound and image produced by this innocent object constructs further fear into the audience from this trailer. We are given the second shot of someone crawling across a concrete floor, as we are once again shown the image of the knife being picked up by someone wearing a green apron, an item that is usually worn by butchers when chopping meat, we hear a female cry "please don't hurt me" as the man proceeds to walk.

Audience Research

Introduction
In order to create a successful horror trailer, we needed to fully understand the specifics of our target audience as, with any media product, this plays a key role in whether or not the product achieves its goals. Our trailer aimed to attract and entice our audience; encouraging them to see this film, leaving un-answered questions by including mysterious moments in the trailer. To understand to the highest level the audience we were aiming our media product at, we conducted audience research. 

Methodology

We decided, as a group, that the most effective and efficient way of understanding our target audience was to create a questionnaire, through the website SurveyMonkey. This free survey website gave us an ideal, easy to use set-up in which to organise our questionnaire. We used social networking giants Facebook and Twitter to promote our questionnaire to our target audience, who are likely to use social networking sites like these. Also, with the collective number of online 'friends' we obtained by all four group members, we gained a higher response count. You can find details of how our group used SurveyMonkey and other technologies here. As for questions, we decided, due to the nature of SurveyMonkey, that we would keep the questionnaire relatively short, not pro-longing the experience and therefore boring the participant with a never-ending list of questions. However the data was still kept concise with effective questions that gained both quantitative data; age, gender, company when attending the cinema, how often the individual watches horror movies and preference of different sub-genres within horror, and also qualitative data from the audience from asking questions that refrained from using a multiple choice format, thus giving the participant more freedom with their answer and making the range of responses more varied.  

Results From Audience Research

View more PowerPoint from Kyle1994

Results
Through the use of media promotion, we obtained 40 fully complete responses. Our results had coincidentally fallen 50% male and 50% female, which created a fair comparison between the two genders and was very useful when gathering data. We organised the age question in order to achieve more responses within the target age group of the horror genre (17-25), in which, I believe, we were successful in doing so. Both males and females had almost identical preferences in sub-genres of horror. Questions like "what are they key features that you expect to see in a horror film trailer?" created quantitative data, along with having qualitative from the multiple choice questions, and allowed the participant to elaborate on their answer, giving more of an understanding to their answer. All questions asked and responses received can be seen in the above slideshow.

Analysis
Our group certainly took the results from our audience research on board and attempted to use the knowledge we had gained from our questionnaire and transfer it effectively into our trailer. The charts and data gained shows a fair representation of the target audience of a horror product, with the lack of the 'other' option, when presented, rarely being used by participants showing that the questions were easy to understand, well constructed and relevant to the audience we had targeted. The information we gained from question 6, which asked about most effective settings for a horror film, was implemented in our trailer. Originally, a lot of the trailer was to be shot outside, but, after conducting the survey, we came to a group decision that horror within the home would be more effective. Many of the 'key features' that were said to be expected in a trailer in question 8 were used in the creation of our trailer, e.g. "jumpy bits", "suspense" and "fast paced action scenes". The 50/50 split in the gender of our audience gave us no indication as to what gender our product should be mainly aimed at, however, from previous knowledge, we understood the audience for horror films is predominantly male.

Our groups initial idea for a horror movie

A women who is traveling on the train home from visiting her family, is sat with an unusual man. She tries to make conversation with the man but he has no response. She has several awkward moments with the man on the plane, which makes her uncomfortable. When she gets off the plane she collects her luggage and heads home. When she gets home she unpacks her suitcase and finds it is not her belongings and that something of real value is inside the suitcase. She then takes the time to decide whether to hand the suitcase in or keep it. After a long think she keeps the suitcase, and thinks that she has had some real good luck. She was sadly mistaken when she was the victim of horrid torture for making the mistake of keeping the suitcase, which belonged to the mysterious man on the plane. The torture began with just a few noises and odd episodes of events in her home. She then realised that she had made a big mistake in keeping the suitcase, and was going to be severally punished. She is chased by the man in her house, and is caught, where she can’t escape.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The fact this entire film, let alone trailer, was filmed using hand-held camera makes it very different from most other horror films, as, hand-held may be used when trying to create panic or sudden fear, but not the entire way through the film. This trailer gives us relevant information into the plot; we know why they are doing what they're doing etc. It also gives us a conventional location in a forest and the possibility of a final girl, due to the characters we see. Personally I do not find this trailer very effective as we are not given anything to identify the horror with, apart from the forest, some people may argue that this leaves the audience is suspense, however I feel as though to do that they have alienated them from the plot.

Representation of gender in horror.

Often in horror, especially in slasher films such as ‘Halloween’ and ‘Friday the 13th’, we are given what is called a ‘final girl’, this is the last female character alive to confront the killer and to therefore tell the story, often they will have a past relationship with the killer; in ‘Halloween’ it is the character ‘Laurie Strode’. The final girl tends to be the main protagonist, which is odd for any film, let alone one attempting to create fear. The final girl will be sexually unavailable or virginal; any other women involved who are sexually active during the film in any way tend to be ‘punished’ for their transgression through pain of death, such is in ‘Halloween’ both of Laurie’s friends (Annie and Linda) are sexually influenced at some point in the film and are both murdered, Linda immediately after having sex. Carol Clover suggests that, in such films as these, we begin by sharing a perspective of the killer, but experience a shift in identification to the final girl throughout the film; our identification is unstable across the gender line. Clover also suggests that the killer hunting the final girl is normally a male whose masculinity, and sexuality more generally, is in crisis, for example; Norman Bates in the film ‘Psycho’. The final girl is said to become ‘masculinised’ by obtaining a weapon of some sorts, whether it be a knife or a chainsaw, she calls this "phallic appropriation". Overall the theorist argues that gender identifications in horror movies aren’t as simple as the classical ‘male gaze’ representations used in many genres, saying that rather than a “sadistic objectification” of women, often used in mainstream texts, horror supplies a “masochistic identification” with females.

Other factors affecting representation include the ‘male gaze’. Many theorists argued this theory, none more importantly than Laura Mulvey in her famous essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. She introduced the idea that certain films, more commercial, tend to use certain camera angles and strategies to place the audience in the position of an ‘appraising heterosexual male’, which presents women as objects for the men to look at, e.g. CU or POV shots of the male to identify him as the subject. In a more feministic theory, the male gaze distributes an asymmetric power relationship, between men and women, saying that the female is given the unwanted and objectifying gaze of the male. This is why horror, and Clovers idea of the ‘final girl’, is so intriguing, as horror is aimed at a mainly male audience. Why would it ask its audience to associate with the other, stereotypically weaker, gender? Possibly to disorientate the audience, pulling them out their comfort zone, allowing the film to strike more fear into them. We are normally put into the eyes of a male protagonist in any other genre, however in horror it is usually females. Could the fact that the gender roles and representations have switched round be an element of horror itself? Mulvey also argues that mainstream cinema is part of this sexist regime that pins women as objects and denies them any subjectivity or identification, all for male pleasure; a way of controlling women by denying them any subjectivity and objectifying them. This raises such questions as; what about homosexual people and women? Who do they identify within the male gaze? What about dominant women like ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Lara Croft’? Do action films, like ‘Indiana Jones’, as they objectify the male body, adopt a female gaze? A homoerotic approach?

Jeremy Tunstall, in ‘The Media in Britain’ (1983), argued that, after assessing all the representation of gender within media, that women were mainly subdued into four categories; domestic, sexual, consumer and marital. As males are stereotypically presented as strong, independent, active, authoritative, dominant, intellectual and strong in media, whereas women are passive, submissive, focused on physical beauty, sexuality and emotionality, they are often defined through relationships with men, Tunstall’s conclusion fits the stereotypical female within the media. Men outnumber women two-to-one on screen, meaning the variation of men in media is much greater, e.g. you are more likely to see a black male than a black female on screen. Relating this to three horror films we studied; ‘Halloween’ (1978), ‘The Shining’ (1980) and ‘Eden Lake’ (2008) all of which contained more male characters in contrast to female, apart from ‘Halloween’ which was equal.

In ‘Halloween’ we were given the female characters; Laurie, Linda, Annie, Judith Myers and the nurse. This film is progressive as the number of females compared to males is equal. The nurse supplies a stereotypical females role, as she is just the doctor’s assistant. Linda, Annie and Judith are all placed as sex objects and subsequently are killed for their transgression; Linda after just having sex with her partner Bob, who also dies, and Annie, as she gets in her car to go and have sex with her boyfriend. Before their deaths, Linda and Annie are both objectified, we see Linda’s naked body after she’s had sex with Bob and, whilst in the kitchen preparing popcorn, she spills butter on her shirt and removes all her clothing bar her underwear. We are then given a POV shot from Michael looking in, we are therefore being asked to associate with a murderer to objectify a woman. Judith is killed also after having sex with her boyfriend, we are given a POV shot from a young Michael in this scene and, once again, the naked female body is exposed to the audience. Laurie never has any sexual relations with a man throughout the film which makes it no shock that she is the final girl. Laurie is the complete opposite of her friends; smart, careful and caring. Due to this fact, Laurie is not objectified, she is the subject. More women die in this film than men; 60% - 40%.

We are given five female characters in ‘The Shining’; Wendy, the lady in the bathtub, Grady’s daughters and the hotel secretary. The hotel secretary has very little importance; she is carrying out a stereotypical female role in organising a man’s work schedule. The only portrayal of sexual objectification in this film is through the lady in the bathtub. When she rises from the bath and reveals her naked body Jack is drawn in by temptation and begins kissing her, her body then wastes away and she turns into a corpse; a possible punishment for Jack’s transgression. Her skin dissolving may also be a metaphor for the way the male gaze is removed from that scene. Wendy is the most important woman in the film as she is Jack’s wife and the final girl. She is displayed as very domestic and familial, as she does the jobs around the hotel Jack is unable to do and she stays by Jack’s side whilst he fights with his unstable mind. However, she is also proven to be a strong, independent woman as she is forced to fight against Jack to save her and Danny’s lives. This film progresses towards the end but is very conservative within its roles. The death ratio is equal in this film.

‘Eden Lake’, a more modern horror, contains six women in contrast to eleven men; showing the film to be conservative. ‘Halloween’ and ‘The Shining’ both contain objectification of women at some stage, whereas ‘Eden Lake’ does not show great signs of this. There is one scene where the young boys are looking at Jenny’s body through binoculars and we are given a POV shot from the boys, but it is a very brief snippet. Jenny is a very interesting character as; to begin with, she is very familial, due to her job as a teacher of young children, and is a very caring woman, we see this when a mother viciously slaps her child and Jenny’s reaction reveals her shock, showing this is an unusual sight for her. However, as the film grows older, Jenny becomes more monstrous in an attempt to defend herself and even kills a young boy; Jenny is obviously the final girl. I believe the image of Jenny coming out of a waste bin (right) establishes the moment of the film where Jenny becomes a 'monster' herself. The domestic role is played by the woman in cafe, as she serves food, she is not as polite or caring as Jenny comes across but I believe that to be a regional issue. Paige is a girl within the gang. I believe her death at the end of the film is a form of punishment for leaving the
group. She actually introduces objectification by accusing Steve of looking at her breasts, when he was doing nothing of the sort. The deaths are evenly carried out in this film.

I believe horror is progressive within its representation of women more so than men. This is due to more recent films, such as; ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ and ‘The Last House on the Left’, switching the power from the attackers to the victim (usually a woman); the hunters become the hunted. This allows more power and authority to be displayed in women, in rape-revenge films etc.

If the number of male and female characters is equal, it shows that the particular film is progressive in its representation of gender, as women are shown as equals to men, whereas in the majority of segments/sub-genres in the film industry, males are seen as dominant, e.g. action and romance. Characters like James Bond in the several Bond movies are seen as active and dominant, while women are very passive and objective; looking to get Bond's attention, even shown fighting over it, thus meaning these media texts are more conservative and traditional rather than progressive, as they still show men as in control and dominant. Horror is really the only movie genre that has the ability to progress in gender stereotypes. The larger film companies, like 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Brothers etc, tend to stay away from horror movies, as they are seen as a risk, an unnecessary one at that. As the smaller and more independent film companies are more willing to create a progressive piece of media, in the hope that it will be a one-off masterpiece and smash hit in the box office, these are usually the type of companies in the film industry that make horror movies.

The idea of the ‘final girl’ is still very much a part of horror and will continue to be, therefore I do not believe the stereotypes of woman, i.e. weak, helpless, dependant on a man, will become key in the horror genre. Some conservative views are good to have in there, to an extent, it creates realism. Overall though, I believe horror, as a whole genre, is progressing with its representation of the female gender in comparison to the male.

Horror Mood Board

Masks, such as those worn by Michael Myers, from Halloween, and the man in the mask, from The Strangers, particularly creates horror within me due to the fact you cannot identify the individual, it is a fake appearance of them. The fact that you cannot see a human face gives you the feel as if this creature is not human.
The feel of isolation also creates fear, shown here by the lake and forest. This is due to the fear of not being able to escape, it is just you and the forest.
Mirrors are central in my mood board as they are my greatest fear within horror. The fear of our reflections being able to do completely different things than us, or to us, on their own, creates fear.
Nails scraping along floors, eyes and the image of teeth being knocked out by a hammer are all to do with gore. Gore doesn't necessarily make me scared, I just find it uncomfortable to watch. As in such films as Saw and Hostel many different excruciating things happen to a body that wouldn't naturally.
Operating theaters, particularly completely white ones, I believe create great opportunity for horror. As, in films like The Human Centipede, crazed surgeons could use these and plaster the clean, white sheets with blood, creating fear.
The cave represents the fear of the unknown.

The Road That No-One Took

Despite the suburban, friendly environment that St. David’s school inhabited, there was always a smudge on this picture-perfect location. Metres away from the school gates lay a long stretch of concrete, surrounded and shadowed by trees, banishing any light from the path. No feet, neither that of school children nor adults, had touched the ground of this narrow road for years, not since the incident.

Five years ago, a 16 year old student from the school had ventured down this stretch of land, looking for a shortcut home and for a safe-haven to smoke Cannabis. His body was found the next day, by a younger innocent student of the school when curiosity guided him down this alley. The body had been nailed to a tree, via the hands and feet of the boy, in the shape of a crucifix. There were multiple cuts up and across his body, shaping a cross, leaving a patch of blood-soaked grass at his feet. Still to this day the police have not found a killer and the whereabouts of the young boy are unknown. It is rumoured that the pathway sacrifices sinners for the lives of obedient Christians, due to the drug-taking boy dying and the younger boy leaving un-harmed. As Good Friday loomed nearer, a teenage group of atheists, consisting of two boys and two girls, decide to test their courage and camp on the grassy patch on the corner of the pathway. As the night grows older, as it does the teenagers consume more alcohol. Apart from a few weird noises and the discovery of the first 666 pages of the Bible pinned under one of the pegs on their tent, which they later used to create a fire, the night had not produced anything out of the ordinary. As three of the four drift off to sleep, Darren, the eldest at 18, wanders off to go for a piss. He hears twigs snapping and other odd noises, but just puts it down to nature. As he un-does his trousers he turns around in response to a noise directly behind him. He turns round to find trees staring back at him, as he rotates again to face his front, within touching distance of him are five characters dressed as Nun’s, all with cuts and blood covering their faces and all wielding sharp, blood-stained crucifixes. The screams let out from Darren awake the rest of the group. The screaming and vanishing of Darren startled the friends into a realisation that they were fighting for their lives. Lightning had struck trees near the entrance, barricading the way out. The three must fight for their lives as the pathway attempts to make them pay the fatal price for their sins.

Narrative Theory

In our recent previous lessons we have been looking at the four narrative theories in relation to 'The Shining', a 1980s horror. The four theorists are; Tzvetan Todorov, Vladimir Propp, Claude Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson.

Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher, well known for being a specialist in the literacy area. He suggested that all stories begin with an equilibrium where any forces, which could potentially be over-thrown later on, are balanced. This is then interrupted by an event, setting in a chain of events; this is called a disequilibrium. These problems are then all resolved, creating a new equilibrium by the end of the story. In this case; a sane Jack and his family are all getting on together and are happy, this is the equilibrium. Jack slowly going insane and being influenced to 'discipline' his family correctly by Delbert Grady is the disequilibrium.

Vladimir Propp

This Russian critic examined hundreds of folk tales, attempting to establish any structures they may share. He also emphasised that characters were not actual people but they were only roles within the world of the story. After evaluating many stories, Propp came to the conclusion that every tale consists of 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 character roles seemed to somewhat fit in 'The Shining', they were:

• The villain - Jack/ Delbert Grady/ the Hotel.
• The hero - Danny and Wendy.
• The donor - Hallorann.
• The helper - Hallorann.
• The princess (or sought for person) - Danny and Wendy.
• Their father - there isn't one.
• The dispatcher - Delbert Grady.

However, Propp's theory on functions doesn't fit into 'The Shining', apart from the more obvious ones, like 'the prohibition is broken' - when Danny enters room 237. It isn't necessarily just stories that Propp's theories relate to, they could also be used within tv, news stories and magazine articles. We tend to get presented with 'heroes' and 'villains'.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary opposition, these are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. Good and evil is a fitting example; we understand the concept of good as being the opposite of evil. Other examples could be; Earth and Space, Humans and Aliens, Past and Present, Normal and Strange and Known and Unknown. However, like Propp's theory, you could easily pick holes in Levi-Strauss' idea, for example; do we need black to see white? No, we only need grey. This theory, I believe, relates more to 'The Shining' than Propp's, due to the two young girls, dressed innocently, were there to impose fear onto both Danny and the viewers. Also, the realisation of Jack's unstable mental state is shown by Jack slowly acting differently and out of the ordinary. However, it is not very clear where the line of binary opposition is drawn into 'The Shining' and therefore does not provide much insight or further knowledge into the film.

Bordwell and Thompson

These two American film theorists stated in their book. 'Film Art: An Introduction' that narrative is "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". Although they never actually created a theory, they did establish many important ideas. For them, a narrative typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur, according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. Like Todorov's earlier theory, this offers a simplistic idea of chains of events, i.e. one thing happens due to another. This can be put into almost any situation whatsoever, especially films. In 'The Shining', Jack died in the maze because Danny confuses him and the climate is too extreme. Jack is convinced to kill his family due to the hotel damaging Jack's mental state, causing insanity. You could structure this within any scene of the film. It is very rare that you would find a story which Bordwell and Thompsons ideas could not tie in with, as it would generally lack a plot or structure, thus meaning the audience would easily become confused.

Sigmund Freud's 'return of the repressed'.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, who was he creator of the concept of psychoanalysis. This could be split into six continuous segments of study;


1. Human behaviour and experience are largely influenced by irrational drives,


2. These drives are mostly unconscious,


3. Attempts to bring these drives into knowledge are blocked by defence mechanisms,


4. Development is by events from early childhood along with the inherited attribute of personality,


5. Mental issues, like depression or neurosis, can be a result of a conflict between ones conscious and unconscious view of reality,


6. The unconscious material is brought through to consciousness (via e.g. skilled guidance), thus creating a liberation from the effects of this material.


Repression is an attempt, by an individual, to repel and detain their desire to carry out pleasurable instincts by barricading these impulses in the unconscious, keeping them out of the conscious mind. This has been argued to play a role in many mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression.

The Austrians theory of 'The Return of the Repressed' was that traumatic events, mistreatment or even just the baby's rage at not being able to have its desires met immediately from childhood have to be repressed, placed into the unconscious, as they put the individual in a state of depression. However, as the child develops into an adult, these repressed memories slip back into the conscious mind, thus making the individual act upon impulse and desire, drove by these thoughts. These impulsive and desirable acts will often be ones of rage, which is seen through when baby's or toddlers throw temper tantrums, which can later develop into a murderous rage; which is when horror utilises this theory to its advantage.

Freud's theory is significant in the horror genre because it is an explanation for unusual or strange actions from an individual, for example; in Halloween, we see Myers as a young boy, who has just entered his sisters room after she's just had sex. Myers then proceeds to murder his sister. He carries on to escape from a mental institute, thus relating back to Freud's theory that repression leads to mental deficiencies, in where he was being held due to his mental state, and then carries out several murders. Thus proving the fact that memories from his childhood have been repressed and are acting out through his murderous obsession. Michael Myers is almost a figure for the return of repressed emotions; personifying it.

Initial post - The Strangers Trailer (2008)

This film is set in an isolated house in the rural environment of a forest alongside a lake, thus offering more opportunity to create a sense of isolation or entrapment. The shot we get of the house, with no other noise than that of nature and animals, is at night, taking us away from our safe-haven of daylight.


After the shot of the house we are introduced to the two main protagonists, the couple. We know they are a couple due to the petals on the bed and the closeness between them. To show the closeness between them, a lot of close-up's are used and particular language is used between them. The constant sound of wildlife and nature is there to remind us they are completely isolated.

It is common in horrors to have a bang or a loud noise come from an unknown place to trigger danger or disruption; in this case it is a loud bang from outside, when they believed they were alone.A classic binary opposition of horror is used when there is a shot of a swing set swinging back and forth with nobody even near it and the sound of the creaking playing over the top. This innocent invention created for the enjoyment of young children somehow, when put in this situation, creates fear in our brains.


The writing coming in and informing us it's 'inspired by true events', which creates more fear within the viewer. Darker colours are used for the writing and a fade in fade out technique is used. Point of view shots are used when the couple are looking out the window at an empty space, showing the vulnerability of the protagonists. The shot that introduces the attackers is a long shot, allowing you to see the female protagonist, in the living room, with the doorway behind her.
We then see a figure step into the door way with a plain white sack over their head, yet the woman is unaware, the mask and appearance of the attacker and the unawareness introducing the shock factor into the audience, the music going dead at this point. This introduces the attackers and adds more fear. The attackers then become more and more involved in the story, making the protagonists' chances of survival less likely and indicating the moment of attack is near, with the phone being put in the fire and the word 'hello' written several times on the window. This breaks the barrier of the attackers being outside, wanting to get in, to actually being within the home and our comfort zone. The introduction of the axe smashing through the door, a classic weapon used in horror films, I believe is a good way of showing how the attackers are intruding into, not only the couples comfort zone, but the audiences too. The shots speed up, creating more intensity in the way the viewer's watching it. Ending with a blurred shot of the main attacker, possibly a point of view shot from disorientated member of the couple, and the title fades in.

I believe sound is incredibly important in this trailer and plays a vital part in enforcing the fear. We are firstly given some natural sounds, e.g. crickets, to show the viewers that this is an isolated area. With a very slow, calm piano playing over the top. The first bit of speech is between the couple, it makes us understand that they are a couple, "you are my girl", "I love you". The loud noise from outside interrupts the happy, normal couple scene, the sound then turns to more conventional horror sounds; creaking swings, "what is that?". The male protagonist tries to reinforce safety into the situation; "it's okay there's nothing here", however it is obvious to the viewers that he is wrong. The sound goes silent as the main attacker is introduced through the doorway, this is to create more of a shock factor. Weird noises coming from the woods is yet another iconic horror convention used in this trailer.
More binary opposition is used when the record begins to play, seemingly on its own, because how could something as innocent as a record induce fear? The singer on this song has a high pitched, odd, scratchy voice, anything but normal in this situation would be seen as strange and creepy. Suddenly, as the door is broken through, the record scratches and the tempo increases. The track is then put on a loop, this allows the cuts to be made at the same rate as the loop, therefore synchronising the two together, creating a higher tempo of shots, introducing more events leading to more horror displayed.
The music, after increasingly rapidly, comes to a complete halt and allows for speech between
the victim and attacker to take place;
"why are you doing this to us?", "because you
were home" over the top of the blurred image of the main attackers mask. This will finish off the trailer, leaving the viewer with unanswered questions and with anticipation as to what happened.


The character types are all fairly stereotypical. However you could question as to why there
were two female attackers and only one male. As, in the trailer, the male seems to do all the work, especially physically, e.g. smashing the door in with the axe and seems to be the only one actually trying to kill the couple. Gender stereotyping definitely comes into it. As the male protagonist is the leader of the couple, he gives out orders as to what they should do, "we gotta get outta here". He is the one who has the gun, whereas his partner has a knife, the gun the more powerful and deadly weapon, implying that, if any of them are going to stop these attackers, it will have to be that man. He is the one standing in front of his partner, shielding her away. He goes out to the car to try and find a way of escape. All of these things expected of a man in a this situation simply due to physical differentiation. These attackers, like many other monsters/killers in horrors, are wearing iconic masks we could immediately relate back to the film. The masks do two crucial things; they allow the viewer to relate more to the film, i.e. if they see that mask/a similar mask, they will most likely think of this film. They also create more fear, as we're used to seeing constantly changing human faces, if suddenly a emotionless white bag over a face, then we see this as different and strange. As far as the masks go, we see the male attackers mask more than either of the females, making us relate the majority of our fear with him, rather than the females.

Binary opposition is a key theme here, as I've mentioned with the swing set creaking and the record playing. The Freudian theory could be involved here as well, as the couple attacked are obviously a very serious couple, as a wedding ring is shown earlier in the trailer. I believe the masks are used to show that horror/evil has no face, that it cannot be consumed by just one person.