Proposal of idea

Horror Narrative idea from afkbbs_

As a group, we decided to incorporate the ending of my proposal narrative trailer and the whole story plot of another individual in our group that will be shown in our teaser trailer. This presentation(that will be shown below) has all the main components of the film itself which we will use as a basis for now but it could change as our pre-production process and production process furthers.

Three waves of feminism

First wave feminism
This took place during the 1830's- early 1900's whereby it was focused on the Suffragette movement in which women wanted the right to vote as they were not allowed to vote due to the misconceptions that women are too innocent to be involved in political manners and therefore they will end up crying due to so. This movement impacted women greatly after they were given the right to suffrage(initiated in England in 1928 but was decided to listen to the movement in 1918) which led to greater liberty for women and the start of the blur of gender inequality.

This relates to film because films such as 'The Women's Rights' which was released in 1899 where two gossiping housewives are discussing about women's right to vote which gives the motive for local villains to nail their skirts to the fence they were standing outside. This film could imply how men don't want women to vote thus this might give the incentive for women to publicly fight for their suffrage and to men to change their perception of women.

Second- wave feminism
This took place during the 1960's- 1980's whereby it was focused on the workplace, sexuality, family and reproductive rights. This was completely transformed in the 1960's crucial event of the 'Sexual Revolution' that gave women greater amount of rights through the introduction of contraception, liberalization of abortion and 'free love' which gave women much more freedom to do whatever they want with their body and no longer the 'possession' of men no longer. It also doesn't constrain women if they lose their virginity that they will automatically get pregnant as contraception helps stop this from happening thus giving women much more freedom with what to do sexually than ever before.

This relates to film because films began to give a film rating of 'X' which includes pornography which mostly represents females thus showing how women are rebelling against the norms and values of normal society to further their rights and to blur the gender inequality even further,

Third-wave feminism
This took place during the 1990's-present whereby it is focused on central issues that are faced by women currently today. This may include the pay gap between men and women as well as reproductive rights. So, this wave of feminism encourages women to get involved politically. This could be argued this has been achieved because Theresa May is the current PM of the UK which shows that men as well as women are able to behold influential, important roles in society thus women are not constrained on only being housewives and being committed to domestic chores.

This relates to film because issues surrounding sexuality, ethnicity, social class and gender has impacted the way films are perceived. People nowadays would have the incentive to actually watch a film about same-sex relationships or a ethnic minority struggling with life as these are problems people understand and would emphasise when watching these films.

Trailer analysis- Everyone Loves Mandy Lane

Trailer as well as general movie analysis of ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’

The first shot that is shown in the trailer is a group of cheerleaders doing their cheer which helps set the scene of the film and also tells the audience where the characters are from already which is highly effective because I already tell us information about the characters from the trailer itself. The second collection of shots(shots of a certain part of Mandy alongside with the reaction of the boys- thus making Mandy look prettier than she already is and helps the audience emphasise with the boys’ reaction as we are seeing it ourselves) help introduce the protagonist immediately, and the centre of the film. These collections of shots as well as the camera flicking towards the boys is a representation of sadistic voyeurism as well as throughout the film because it presents women (Chloe and Mandy) to be submissive, vulnerable and sexual (well with Chloe is a modern teenage girl representation of the film as in one scene she has sex with one of the characters).  But this could be argued that Mandy is not submissive neither vulnerable because there is a POV shot of Chloe running towards Mandy for reassurance and help(with one of the killers driving to try to attack Chloe) but she is then killed by the person she least expected her to kill her, Mandy thus implying that Mandy has been manipulative throughout the film which is a characteristic evident in a male antagonist therefore Mandy subverts the representation of women generally and how the other characters perceived her to be.

The production of ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ is a mini-major corporation of Dimension Films and the distribution of ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’ is an independent company of StudioCanal UK (that is known for releasing foreign language films like Studio Ghibli that have released films like Spirited Away) that chose to release the film seven years after its release but was given a limited release thus giving less dispersed audience because it wouldn’t allow as much people globally to watch the movie but the film was available through video on demand in September 2013 which allowed the company to have a box office number of $1.89 million  which is a massive amount of money even though it had a limited release and was many based on video demand.  The reason why the production as well as the distribution company chose to have a limited release is because it received lots of bad critics that considered the film to be ‘’bogus and compromised’’ whereas others praised its ‘’grind house’’ aesthetic which they thought that they must be a divided reviews from the audience also if the critics received did not overall consider the film to be good or bad.  Therefore, this impacted the marketing strategy as there were no critics mentioned in the poster and the main emphasis was on the concept of the film rather than the reviews of critics no matter how influential they are.

The genre of the film is that it is a sub-genre of thriller-horror as there is lots of gory and violence featured in the trailer as well as the film but there is a build-up of tension as each of the characters die one by one and the desperation of the characters trying to figure out who the killer is but they figure out to late which this is a key code and convention in both a thriller and a horror film.  This film indirectly is based on the documentary genre type of feature of social issue whereby women are less important and if they are important to men, it is sexually. This social issue was featured in the film throughout as Mandy’s perception of the boys is that she’s innocent which makes it better for them to cherish her and all the references from the boys in the film was sexually but the ranch workers subverts this as he talks to Mandy as he would talk to himself and doesn’t think of her sexually.

The audience of ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ would generally be 15-19 years old as the characters in the film are roughly around the same age so this age range is where characters are more likely to emphasise with the characters and relate to the things that the characters may say.  It is more likely to be targeted to boys because all the things would happen in a normal boy’s life is presented in the film e.g. the hormonal effects of boys through the obsessional desire to be with a girl sexually, physically and emotionally. The purpose of the trailer which the audience may get from this is to never make reckless mistakes and to be careful when going out with friends which most problems that occur are due to social gatherings of teenagers. The ethnicity that would be targeted by the audience is all types of ethnicity because all the ethnicities are presented in the film and the trailer. But it could be argued that it could not be targeted Asians because there is no representation of Asians anywhere in the film and there is also no Asian characters.

The narrative of ‘All The Boys Love Mandy Lane’ is a group of high-schoolers invite Mandy Lane, an innocent, desirable girl, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. While the festivities range on, the number of problems and deaths begins to drop mysteriously.  This film follows the narrative structure of the Todorov theory as the film has no evidential problem until it comes to threaten and eventually kill the characters one by one whereby the surviving characters hope to find a way to find the killer and to avenge for the deaths caused by the killer. The ideology presented by Levi-Strauss that there are binary oppositions is evident in the film as it’s a fight between the characters vs the killer most importantly Mandy Lane vs the killer because it’s a conformation of Mandy Lane trying to find the killer and the killer going further away from her.

Analysing 3 Trailers

The Conjuring 2














































































Get Out

Insidious Chapter 3

Analysis trailer 3- Regression

Analysis trailer 2- Trick 'r Treat

Analysis Horror trailer 1- The Witch improvements

Analysis Horror trailer 1- The Witch

Trailer

Explain what a trailer is
A trailer is an advertisement or promotion of a feature film that will be exhibited later on in the cinema. It is generally admitted that the most exciting(as well as gripping) highlights of the film are shown to promote the film.

What is a common narrative structure of a trailer? Linear or non-trailer?

• Standard chronological structure with beginning, middle, end(conflict, struggle, realisation).
• Often there is heavy foreshadowing to build tension
• The problem the protagonist faces is caused or aggravated by being isolated, unprepared or naive.
• The narrative is built to cause tension, anxiety, and fear in the audience
• The story plays on standard human fears: the dark, strangers, isolation, dead, violence, insanity, creepy monsters. 
• 3 Act structures:Act 1- lays out the context of the story; Act 2- establishes the problem; Act 3- often features the visual montage of key moments of the film and may have cast name screens if there are stars that sell the movie.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdOnCiQRpQ
• Trailers use long shots at the start to establish character and setting. E.g. The Girl With All The Gifts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjGkB_oWTe0
• Fades to black that suggest shifts in time e.g. The Purge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0LLaybEuzA

How are shots conventionally used to establish character and setting?

Shots conventionally used to establish character and setting through long shots- this is used to help establishes where the movie setting is and it helps give the audience an idea where the story plot will be based on. Shots differ when to establish a character, sometimes they establish the character with dramatic camera angles to show how the character is feeling or jerky, middle shots where the character is having a conversation with another character so we know who they are and whether or not they are the protagonist or the antagonist. #

How are transitions conventionally used and what do they do?

Transitions conventionally used to create emotion, a change of location, a sequence of scenic shots, to help bring the shots together(makes sure there is continuity). Without transition, the story plot of the film,especially some scenes that are deemed to be not to be significant, but they are very significant would not even make any sense and some scenes will leave the audience confused(we wouldn't know what the relevance of some scenes are). Transition screens place significant text on the screen, images and shots before/after echoing the text. Short shots and quick cuts of some of the most exciting moments from the film, the 'events' that lead to resolution but no necessarily in chronological order. Transition/cuts with by booming SFX build tension.

What is the purpose of a sound effect?

The whole purpose of a sound effect is to create a certain type of mood(sound effects really helps to make a scene scarier than it actually is or more dramatic), simulating reality(perhaps making the bottle that is shown in the scene to have been broken, with acting a loud broken glass sound, when it didn't happen), creating an illusion(the sound effect may manipulate the scene by making it seem like this type of scene has happened when in fact it hasn't).

Is the resolution always left out and if so why? 

The resolution should be left out because the viewers should be left guessing so they would be more likely to want to watch the movie due to the suspense and tension the movie entails.

Discuss music and soundtracks conventionally used

Music and soundtracks should be used to build a crescendo.

What is the purpose of silence and at which points is thus effect used?

Sudden movements of quiet and silence will have the impact on mood and pace.

How are voice overs used in modern trailers?  How is the narrative formed?

Modern day trailers don't have voice over(used to be used to get story across and USP) instead the narrative is formed through sound and dialogues. Voice overs nowadays are used directly from the character(not some story teller that what is the story is about) to explain how the story came about(this cannot be obtained from anywhere in the story so it is highly effective for movie trailers where normality has been disrupted greatly).

Research of Freud's and Mulvey's theories

Sigmund Freud and Laura Mulvey theories by Naima Ahmed
Evaluation- what we learnt/ I learnt
From researching the key ideas of psychologist, Sigmund Freud and well-known media theorist, Laura Mulvey, I learnt the importance of the selection of particular moving images and what particular shot or technical elements that we want to attribute the moving image to conform or subvert to a media thought. This research task has allowed me as well as members of my group know the importance of media theories and whether or not we want to use them.

Using what I already know- Apartment 143 Movie trailer analysis

Evaluation- what I learnt 
From analysing the Apartment 143 trailer as well as pointing out and explaining the distributor/disturbed, genre, representation, age rating, narrative and ideologies/themes, I learnt the importance of denotation and connotation when it comes to figuring out the message of particular shots and editing styles.

PowerPoints: Marketing Campaign

Evaluation-what I learnt
My partner, Jeet, and I had to present this marketing campaign in front of our class and to elaborate on the significance of each shot that may be shown in the trailer of 'Lights Out' and what marketing campaign has been implemented to encourage people to watch this movie. From our knowledge from last year as well as the new knowledge we have obtained this year, we have learnt the importance of marketing and how this solely used to help either jeopardise  

Sound in film

We made it! by Naima Ahmed

Evaluation- what I learnt

All of these sound techniques are essential in reinforcing the narrative or to prevail a certain emotion within a film which helps the audience get engaged when watching the film thus increasing the film industry' profit. It could be said that all types of sound are wrapped around the film theory of 'Uses and Gratifications' because a certain type of sound could be used for entertainment purposes, relaxation and possibly escape their normal lives as well as many more reasons. So, our group must consider this important question: How can we make the audience scared? What do we need to do to make them feel what we intended them to do in the first place? We must consider all these similar arising questions into our Horror Thriller piece through particular shots, editing techniques and most importantly, sound. In order to do so, we will be researching into lots of copyright sounds and which ones will make the audience feel a certain way.

Moodboard

Evaluation- what I learnt
From doing this mood board, I incorporated all the essential code and conventions used in the Horror genre. Some of the pictures such as 'The girls wearing revealing clothes' are purposely used there as there could potentially be different interpretations whereby the film could be erotic or there are sexualised female characters. These pictures are there to show the fundamental ideologies presented in the genre of Horror but the objective nature of these pictures makes it easier for us to interpret these pictures in own way. Therefore, we try to incorporate all of these pictures in our Horror teaser trailer as well as our own interpretation of this given mood board.

Introduction

My A2 media coursework is a promotional package for a new horror film which consists of a poster, a magazine front cover where the movie is featured in and a trailer. The reason why I chose a horror film is there are many conventions that can be easily recreated but you can still adapt them to make them original. Therefore I will start off by doing consistent research into various horror trailer and watching the actual movies to fully understand what are the typical conventions in all horror movies then I can incorporate in my own trailer. I will then research the purposes and functions of trailers and analyse five varied and recent horror trailers in depth. When it comes to my own trailer I will be put into a group where we will plan a storyboard, shot list, character profile and will eventually go into filming. In order to succeed with this task we will have to incorporate our knowledge of typical conventions of horror film as well as their own originality into our own trailer. This will be successfully achieved through team work and cooperation with one another.

These two horror trailers(The Conjuring series and The Purge) is what my group have chosen at this stage that we hope will be the fundamental of our horror film trailer as well as incorporating new ideas of our own. We hope to have our lightning and sound as effectively to work in our trailer as shown in 'The Purge' as well as having similar montages and the build up of tension as The Conjuring 2 series. As our research of horror movies intensify, there is a high likely that we would incorporate more horror movies into our final horror film trailer.

This blog will also be include a range of media theories that will be incorporated in my Year 13 Media Exam which I will explain in my Question 1 how and why the influence of some theories made me produce this type of Horror film as well as how much it impacted the technological, marketing and look of the Horror movie to my thriller media project that was completed in Year 12. As with Question 2, I will include all the relevant theorists that directly agrees with the question given or counter argues with a specific theorist that agrees and possibly a theorist that simply disagrees with the question. This blog will also include trailers of movies that have been watched in class with thorough analysis of the trailer itself and the movie with references to any relevant theorists. All the movie analysis and media theory included in this blog will help me prepare for my exam as well as getting the best grade possible in my exam in June.