Distribution and Institutions

Idea 1

From listening to certain scary sound clips, I found this clip which made me think of a circus, or if not, all the things that you would find there such as clowns and freaks.
Tilly has never been allowed to go to the circus, her mother would never let her. One night Tilly is at a friends house for a sleepover, when this topic comes up. Her friends interest sparks the story that Tilly's mother used to tell her when she was younger about the Circus that used to drive through different villages.
How once you saw one of their posters they would come to make you join.
Now that Tilly is 16 she knows its all lies, but wonders about the story, and if there is any truth behind it. She looks up about it, only to find out that there have been children missing when a circus has come to town. She researches online the story and comes across it, once she has found the website, a poster is displayed across her screen. A message saying " W E  A R E  C O M I N G" then follows. Paranoia sets in and Tilly feels like she is being followed, but is she? or is she imagining it all?

Analysis of Drag Me To Hell trailer

Drag me to hell analysis from HollyBidgood66

Analysis of Sinister trailer

Production

The production of Sinister original developed from a nightmare that the writer C. Robert Cargill had after he watched a horror film, The Ring. Cargill's initial idea for the boogie man was based around a being that was both terrifying and seductive towards the children in order to lure in the children. Later on in the design process the name Baghuul became the monsters name and would interpret the look of a picture called "Natalie". 

The filming started in 2011 and the film wad released in the UK on the 5th October 2012. The film was directed by Scott Derrickson, who also wrote the film along with C.Robert Cargill. 

Plot

The story-line is based around the Oswalt family and how the father, Ellison, moved his family to a new house in which previously a murder took place. Ellison's moved his family to the house so he could find out more about the murder that took place there, he would then move this information to use in his new book. He roots through old boxes to find some with old film in, he plays the films and sees murders happen, yet a face appears which seems mysterious. He finds a similarity between the films, which appears to be a symbol of the boogie man Baghull. He possesses the youngest child. By watching these films, he puts his whole family in danger from this demon. 

Codes and Conventions

In the trailer for Sinister,lots of codes and conventions for horror are shown. First off,the father is investigating what is on the strange films. The fact that is based around death is also a convention included in horror films. 
Also, a warning goes unheeded, the father was warned to stop watching the films and to destroy them straight away, however he ends up researching them meaning that by the time that he destroyed the tapes, the evil had already been released. 

The Summit entertainment logo has had an effect put on in to highlight the genre of horror. The dull tone or filter on this logo, warns the audience that there is something not quite right. 



There is also a death in the first five minutes as it shows four people hanging from a tree.

 This is shows the audience that a main theme within this film is death.

Narrative

The narrative to this film trailer is non-linear, you can get a basis of the story line however. The events that happen within the trailer all fit together and look like they are in chronological order but in fact are not. The trailer creates questions in the audiences mind and does provide answers to some; such as who is the face in the background in all of the photos? it then goes on to explain who the face is. 

What is done well is that some questions that the audience may be asking are still left without being answered. This leaves the audience wanting to go and see the film. 

Representation

Within this film, there is a lot of different representation of characters. To start with, the Father puts his family in danger by looking at the films that he was warned not to do. He ignores the warning and knows that it may hurt his family. This is showing that the dominant male of the film is willing ignore warnings and to put others in danger. Another use of representation was the vulnerability of children. In the trailer it is made apparent that they are susceptible to be be taken over by the demon spirit. This plays with the audiences emotions as they will feel sympathetic towards the children, and wanting the parents to protect/ save them. 

Characters

By looking at the trailer you can immediately see that the young girls is shown to be innocent and her older brother is seen as the rebellious one. The father is shown to hold responsibility for the whole family including the financial state of which we can denote when Ellison talk about not being able to afford living in their old house. Furthermore, he is perusing his book and is going trough extreme lengths to make sure that the story will cell. You can connote that this may be due to him wanting to provide more money for his family. The mother seems to be the stereotypical supportive wife and wants to make sure her family has the 

best, even if this means moving to a house in which people have dies in.

Mise-en-scene

An important part of this trailer would be the fact that it is predominantly filmed in the dark.  This is when the boogie man is seen in children's tails. This is sparking the fear of that dark that a large proportion of children have when they are younger. 
The setting is unconventional to what most horror films are like. It is set in a suburban house with houses surrounding it, meaning that help is around. Additionally, the study seems to be the main room of focus as this is where the films are played and the father spends most of his time. 

From this trailer, I will take of the fats pace editing as it made the trailer more effective when building tension towards the audience. Furthermore, I like that not all of the story line has been given away, this makes the audience start to ask questions, which is what I intend to do in my horror trailer.

Analysis of The Conjuring trailer

From this analysis, I think that will take into account the use of the mise-en-scene. This is becauase the use of costumes and setting were very important to the story line, it gave the audience more depth into what era it is set in and also the personality of the surroundings.

My focus group

When analysing my results for my focus group I found out that many of the answers were conclusive as a whole group, it showed that this age range all shared similar opinions. This is why I picked the group specific to my target audience and who I was aiming my horror trailer at.

From the first question, which asked about the type of horror genre that they preferred, the overall attitude of my target group went towards the idea of psychological horror. They chose this as the impression of the film will last with you for longer, they implied that many of them have had moments of the film staying with them after watching the horror such as being scared of the dark.  

I can achieve this within my trailer by using influential lighting and suspense, by making the audience feel like something bad is about to happen (fake scare). I can also use fast pace shots that can have certain images that flicker but not fully reveal what is in the shot, this will then make the audience start to question what the thing might be.

Furthermore, when thinking about the content of my trailer, I noticed that it was more appropriate to look at showing less of the plot line. By only revealing a little bit it will make the audience start to enquire about the film more as it makes them drawn to having their questions being answered. However I know that when doing this I need to keep the balance between revealing too little and revealing too much about the plotline. I can make this happen by using lots of jump cuts and fast pace editing, also I shall use a non-linier/ non-chronological order, to mix the events up that happen. When doing this I also need to make sure that the contents I use still fits together and makes sense which will also entice my target audience.

The stereotypical characters that are commonly used in horror films are either liked in trailers due to both their appearances and personalities; they indicate to the audience what is going to happen to them in the film. On the other hand, this, to some people in my focus group, is seen as boring and predictable. I have decided to go along with some stereotypical aspects, such as my main character being blonde, she will be being haunted and at the focus of the horror, however I shall use suggestion that she does survive in end, which goes against what happens to the blonde character in most horror films and again going against convention.

Due to the attention of my focus group, I have decided that the story line of my trailer shall be non-linier, I feel that this will be my better option as it will mean that my audience will be interested it throughout its entirety. However I shall be using some conventional aspects of a horror film as this will make the audience feel familiar and can follow the plot line with ease. 

Horror film posters

https://uk.pinterest.com/hollybidgood/media-horror-posters/

Above is a link to my Pinterest account board that I made titled 'Media Horror Posters'  
On this page is a selection of different horror posters. There are some posters that are for the same film, but they will be both the old and the new version. I did this so that you can compare them and how they have changed over time. From the posters, you can tell that the codes and conventions of the Horror genre are the same back then as they are now. The colours of the older posters are more vibrant and involve colours such as yellow and green. This is less conventional now as the main colours include dark shades of black, grey and red. A lot more is going on within the picture and it looks more authentic and less digital. There is also more information on the older posters as they include the name of the starting actress and actor in the film along with a slogan such as "Beware the eyes that paralyze" from Children of the Damned. The use of block colour is eye catching and draws the eye to the center of the posters which is usually where the main image is, this then makes your eye glance at other places on the poster to find details of what it is and where to see it. The use of the bold red colour could be representative of the Devil and his evil, especially in contrast with his pure white eyes that stand out and draw the audience, this links to there tag line "Beware the eyes that paralyze".
However, the more modern posters are eye catching, yet in a different way, they have one main image that draws us in, usually as it is surrounded by dark tones and the eye is automatically drawn to see what it is in the light. But also how they have more to it, an example is 'One Missed Call'. With the first look, you can see a face, but upon further analysis, you notice that it is not eyes on the face, they are two mouths with nostrils above them. The mouths appear to be screaming which signifies threat and horror. This poster also contains a tag line of "What will it sound like when you die?" giving a direct address to the audience and linking with the main image which is central on the photo. Furthermore, the creature has a head-on shot and is looking at the camera as if it is calling the audience on its phone.
I created this board to put together a collage of all different horror film posters so that you could easily compare them to one another. The benefits of this is that, you can see the similar codes and convention, and the certain styles that prove to be common when advertising horror films. I found that eyes were a common theme; that along with close ups of faces and the same main colours, black, white and red. 
By placing both new and old posters together, you can also see the progression in the technology and special effects; therefore showing the evolution of them and how they are now being adapted to draw in their target audience. 

Analysis of The Maze Runner

Genre 

Action, Thriller, Science Fiction, Adventure

The use of the sudden sounds makes the start of the trailer jumpy and creates a sense of urgency immediately. This implies to the audience that there will be jumps and the film will be quite intense. This is a stereotype of an Action film. Also at the beginning there is a sound that could be connoted as a heart beat, this could make that the audience feel tense, this implies that it is a thriller.

The way that the sound is used, with the loud bangs and sudden silences creates tension and tells the audience right from the beginning that the film will be tense and there will be action, this implies that it is an action/thriller

The fact that this is a dystopian film and that there is the use of mechanical creatures and unknown technology implies that this is a science fiction film. There is a sense of make believe which again links to science fiction films.

Towards the end, the trailer gets faster and faster, this shows that it is an action film also the fact that the setting gets darker and more sinister makes the audience tense.

This is part of the thriller genre as it creates suspense and excitement. There is also an investigation about an “enigma” which is another convention of the thriller genre

The reason that this trailer/film is part of the science fiction genre as it incorporates hypothetical themes that are a main part of the plot. This is a dystopian film. 

Representation

The contrast of the dark and light lighting could link to the idea of religion. You ascend to heaven and the white lights could represent heaven. However this is not the case it is the complete opposite, Tomas does not appear in heaven. This is a juxtaposition.

The black guy (Alby) is seen as quite and a leader. He is shown to know the most about the maze and why they are there. This is shown when he says “they are never going to let us out” this makes the audience wonder who they are. Although he is in charge of the glade, he is not in charge of the bigger picture. Also Tomas seems, through the trailer, to end up taking over the leadership position. They are both show to be leaders as the other people in the glade listen to them and respect them.

The girl is represented as weak by the boys in the glade as they protect her. This links to Propp’s theory of the Damsel in distress/ princess. The girl is also seen as a significant as she is the only girl that has ever been to the glade and also knows Tomas’ name when she arrives whereas when Tomas arrived he could remember nothing.

The maze could represent how teenagers are threatened by society. The maze also shows how separated from the world these boys are and it adds another obstacle to them finding their way out. 

Narrative

The white lighting gives the impression of coldness and harshness. This could imply that no one cares about these boys and they have been sent there as a punishment. It also gives it quite a clinical clean feel, as if the could be an experiment.

The establishing shot of the “glade” shows them to be surrounded by a huge concrete wall, this supports the idea they are in prison.

The use of the spinning camera work and the overlapping of the picture implies to the audience that the character doesn’t know where he is. It shows confusion that both the audience and the character are experiencing this for the first time.

A character then says “welcome to the glade” this shows that the people there are ‘local’ and native to this setting as they say it with ease and it sound like they use the word all the time. The Glade is introduced to the audience and the new character like it is well known. This could be a link to the book as fans of the book will most probably know what The Glade is. There is also the word “Greenie” used. This adds the amounting questions that the audience and the new character have, you hope that in the film these will be answered, making you want to see it.

The audience are then introduced to the Maze. This again assuming that the audience knows what the maze is, creating more questions

When the audience first sees the Tomas he is confused and in a lift. The audience then find out that he has lost his memory. The rest of the film is him finding where he is and the dangers of this, but then a girl arrives the same way Tomas did. This starts a change in the glade. The girl and Tomas then become friends. Tomas meanwhile is trying to find a way out. He tries to help people escape.

There is no voice over, it is purely narrated by the characters meaning that the audience get a better idea of who the characters are and how they are interpreting the situation. The questions they ask are probably the same as the ones that the audience are asking as both are experiencing this situation for the first time. 

Link to theorists 

When analysing this trailer, elements of Propp’s theory comes into play. First off; Propp suggests that there will be a damsel in distress, this is suggested in the trailer when the girl looks vulnerable as she is being protected when the boys surround her when danger is about. 

When the girl arrives in the glade she creates moral panic as she threatens the social order of the glade.