PLANNING: GENRE

 For our promotional pack, Harrison, Jake and I decided to focus on the horror genre, with a deeper focus on the paranormal and found footage sub-genres. I have already watched many horror movies including the insidious series, The Conjuring series and other stand alone movies like the Blair Witch Project.

The horror genre has two common directions, found footage and narrative. Found footage is commonly teamed with action, with a focus on a group of people who have gone through the events of the footage already. The films often take place in woods or old houses. Narrative films show a more structured film, with more emphasis on the tropes as well as well-rounded characters.

There are four main sub-genres that I looked at within my research. 

Paranormal:

Often has a ghost as the antagonist which is defeated by a group of teens.

Case studies include The Paranormal Activity series (2007-2022), The Conjuring Universe (2013-2021), the Blair Witch Project (1999), the Insidious series (2010-2018), the Grave Encounters series (2011-2012) and the Quiet Ones (2014).

Slasher:

Often the goriest of the horror genre, slasher often has a group that turns on each other or a murderer as the villain.

Case studies include The Cabin in the Woods (2011), Happy Death Day 2 U (2019), The Babysitter (2017), Halloween (2018), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), the Saw franchise (2004-2021) and The Human Centipede (2009).

Psychological:

Often has the danger as an urban legend or the uncanny which plays with the audiences' minds.

Case studies include A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), The Purge Franchise (2013-2021), Psycho (1960), Frozen (2010), The Ward (2010), 347 F (2011), The Descent (2008), Inside (2007), The Strangers (2008) and Buried (2008).

Zombie/Virus:

Like the title says, the main threat in this category is either a zombie or a virus outbreak.

Case studies include Night of the Living Dead (1968), Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974), Dawn of the Dead (1978), 28 Weeks Later (2007), Resident Evil (2002), Pontypool (2008), Rammbook (2018), White Zombie (1932) and Zombie (1979).

I also looked at relevant horror tropes that I knew we could use in our own work. The most important one is the Final Girl trope. Often the sole survivor of the group is the girl that often has abstained from drinking or sleeping around. She will often be the one to defeat the antagonist. Others include the Mirror trope (often the protagonists will look into a mirror and see a glimpse of the antagonist, but not a major look so the mystery remains), the no signal trope (where characters don't have signal, so can't contact for help- entities drain batteries to try and manifest from the stolen entity), the Basement trope (where the basement is the single most haunted place- no characters want to go down there but they do anyway), the Shaggy Search Technique (instead of showing characters actively search for clues, they stumble across them like Shaggy from Scooby Doo), Credibility trope (where often for audiences, a sign that says based on true events will make a story scarier- especially for stories with a paranormal plot device) and the Constant, Lurking Evil (by showing brief glimpses of the antagonist, the audience keeps the mystery but are satisfied with speculating about the antagonist).

PLANNING: TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

 Ahead of creating our a2 work, Harrison, Jake and I decided to create a questionnaire to send out to identify our target audience more closely. We all undertook this task separately to ensure that we reached as many people as possible. I decided to use Google Forms as the platform to host my questionnaire as I used it in my AS work, and found that it was easy to format both for me as a creator and the people who answered it.

As our group has decided on doing a found footage, paranormal, horror film, we decided to show some trailers and posters specific to the genre of our ideas. This meant that I needed to be aware of who I could send the questionnaire to. As some of the trailers use flashing scenes, jump-scares and gore, I decided to preface the trailer section with a trigger warning as well as an email describing the warning, and a reminder that if the respondent knew they did not like horror, they did not have to fill in the questionnaire.

I decided to format my questionnaire in three sections and a thank you page. The first section looks at the respondent's category (female, 15-35) and an intro to the genre of horror as a whole. The second section looks at three trailers: The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and The Amityville Horror and asks about the effectiveness of certain aspects of the trailers including sound and pace. The third section also focuses on the three films above, however, it looks at the film posters and how effective aspects such as institutional information and colour are used.

 

Upon creating the first question, I realised in my as questionnaire, I did not cater to non-binary identifying audience members and so I reached out to a potential audience member and asked how to phrase it.

I checked previous horror film demographics and the categories were 15-35 and 35 up, so I decided to utilise the same. The other factor to consider was that an audience member may not want their age within it and so I factored in a prefer not to say option too.

This category was extremely important as we needed to know what sub genres for horror were the most popular. We have already decided on our sub genre but felt we needed to see an overview of the genre as a whole to find our target audience.

Within this header I included a warning and a way for the respondent to avoid answering questions pertaining to the trailers to ensure the comfortable experience of answering the questionnaire was maintained.

RESEARCH: CIE TRAILER ANALYSIS

 TRAILER ONE: GRAVITY

How does the trailer signal its genre through visual and sound codes?

Gravity is a sci-fi thriller with elements of horror. Some signals include the typical white astronaut suit as well as scenes set in space as often sci-fi films like ET are set partially or fully in space. Therefore by setting the costumes to reflect the setting within the trailer shows that Gravity is at least partly sci-fi. 

The thriller genre is often characterised by showing fear on characters faces, using sounds to create an atmosphere of tension and apprehension. Gravity shows Sandra Bullock's emotions as uncertain and fearful, as well as using erratic, loud and tense music to build up the direness of the situation, supported by the quick breathing, usually meaning a character is scared or tense.

As well as this, a thriller trailer should introduce the central conflict. Gravity does this by setting out the danger within the world, as well as showing the tense environment through meticulous closeups of Bullock's facial expressions that range from stressed to worried. Sound can also be used to highlight conflict. Often film trailers don't contain silence as they will be made to highlight action and tense moments in the film. However Gravity uses silence in the first inter-title to make the audience feel uncomfortable, as well as immersing viewers into the silence of space, where the main characters are located.

How does the trailer draw attention to the roles taken, particularly star talent?

There are many ways a trailer can show off the star talent, including title cards, references to other works they've been in, or, like Gravity does, show close-ups of their face.

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are two extremely well known actors that are utilised as unique selling points for the movie. This means fan of the actors themselves will want to see Gravity when they know the actors starring in the movie.

As this movie is a thriller, the intertitles have to be carefully picked. While there were not individual intertitle cards for the actors themselves, a shared card placates the audience as many fans can feel annoyed if big names like Clooney are not credited properly. 

What essential narrative elements are explained in the inter-titles?

As the Thriller genre relies on tension, Gravity's inter-titles are usually there to provide some context but not much. The facts presented are straight to the point. An example reads "At 372 miles above the earth there is nothing to carry sound. No air pressure. No oxygen. Life in space is impossible." By setting up the rules of the universe Gravity is set in, the viewer automatically knows that this will be important for the plot and shows it is a survival story, which immediately makes the story more tense.

How does the trailer use dialogue?

What little dialogue is used in the trailer is very important and establishes the character relationships. Clooney's character addresses Bullock's as Dr Stone, showing she is a high status, smart character, and Clooney respects that status. Clooney also mentions people down on earth "Do you think that there's someone down there looking up?" which suggests Clooney has motivation to go back home and there must be some form of a plot point around people back on Earth.

What institutional information does the trailer contain, such as names, production companies, talent, directors and release date?

The ident for Warner Brothers shows clearly the production company, as well as a card showing the director, Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron has a very large fan following, and his films have been critically acclaimed (like Roma, located on Netflix), which is guaranteed to bring in a large audience. It reassures the audience that this film will be of high quality. Like said earlier, Bullock and Clooney are credited as well to bring in more viewers. The film trailer finally shows the release date (10.4.13) which helps allow the viewers to keep an eye out and book tickets for the film. However, Gravity's trailer does not include any critic reviews, perhaps as to not disrupt the tense atmosphere of the trailer. Gravity does not need to rely on reviews as most viewers will recognise Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and Alfonso Cuaron.

How does it inspire me?

I like that the trailer is very straight forward with setting the film's rules and uses inter title cards to relay this information. I want to be able to create quite a simplistic trailer that doesn't overwhelm the audience but still shows viewers the basic plot and important information in a fun way.

TRAILER TWO: CLOVERFIELD

How does the trailer signal its genre through visual and sound codes?

As a dystopian horror film, an audience may expect dark music and monotones. Cloverfield does indeed follow the conventional horror sound codes. The use of static sounds, explosions and screams also reinforce the horror genre as well as creating the sense of a post apocalyptic society. Shots show Robert Hawkins with a dirty marked face, intercut with many scenes of chaos, which show visual codes for dystopian films.

How does the trailer draw attention to the roles taken, particularly star talent?

The trailer does not focus much on the roles taken but the audience get to meet the main character through some shots and a monologue, which gets the audience invested in the story revealed within the monologue. Robert Dawkins is clearly the character who will take the viewers through the adventure of this bleak society.

What institutional information does the trailer contain, such as names, production companies, talent, directors and release date?

This trailer has very few inter-titles, but there is one for the producer, J.J Abrams. Many Abrams films are followed by many fans and this is a clever technique on the marketing teams side. At the end of the trailer the title and logo are showed in keeping with the promotion package and at the start the production company's ident is also shown.

How does it inspire me?

I felt very inspired by this trailer as I am very interested in the genre. I read a lot of books similar to the plot of Cloverfield, and with the resources we have for our trailer, it could be achieved. I also thought the use of sound was excellent and I hope to be able to use sound more effectively within my work in order to immerse the audience within the story. Cloverfield also mimics cinema-verite.  "The trailer is unique in its style, as it is shot entirely handheld from what seems to be a video recorder or mobile phone." Cinema verite is a style of documentary filmmaking which combines improvisation with the use of the camera 'to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality'. Cloverfield uses shaky camera work, casual zoom work as well as flitting between subjects to present a 'mockumentary'. This lends a historical feel of authenticity to the events shown as if they are being recorded. This is reinforced by the testimonials apparently recorded on the camcorder. This is something I would like to attempt as an amateur film maker, as I love documentary style dramas.

TRAILER THREE: THE BIRTH OF A NATION

How does the trailer signal its genre through visual and sound codes?

The Birth of a Nation is a biopic, drama and also historical film. Inter-titles reveal it is based on a true story and this immediately lets the audience know. Sound bridges with particularly powerful emotional music helps present the main character, Nat Turner, as an inspiration as well as the constant referring back to Nat.

The chains show that whilst the film will be empowering, there will be a serious undertone to the movie.

How does the trailer use dialogue?

The dialogue is extremely helpful in showing the storyline of the film. When Nat Turner talks to his fellow slaves and says something controversial, the viewers are shown the consequences of his words which represents what views many characters in the film hold.This is also shown through the derogatory remarks made towards Nat Turner by his captors.

What many different elements make a good trailer?

I believe that a good trailer should perfectly balance important information like star talent, directors, release date and crediting the production company. It should leave you questioning but not as much as before seeing the trailer. It should make you feel excited for the film and concerned for the characters. A good turning point is also helpful in capturing the viewers' attention. In The Birth of a Nation, a series of slow shots of the oppression Turner faces allows a slow pace to the trailer until Turner stands up to the oppressors, with each major shot being separated by a black screen. This also shows the turning point in the movie will be that Turner stands up to the oppressors.

How does it inspire me?

This trailer inspired me because it took a real story and made it interesting to viewers by showcasing one character. It also used music to heighten the story rather than be the main event which is something I want to look at in my own trailers.