Synopsis analysis

Horror Synopsis

Research in to stock characters

The wanderer: The wanderer is always a person who is killed by the serial killer, this often happens whilst they're drunk or under some other kind of influence. Examples: The wanderer in Freddy vs Jason is the very drunk girl who wanders in to the field and is then killed by Jason. Another example is from the movie Friday the 13th (2009), one of the guys goes to the shed, but before this he was under the influence of alcohol, he is also killed by Jason. These characters both adhere to the wanderer stereotype.



The popular girl: The popular girl is usually killed for being promiscuous, quite often they are killed before, during or after having sex, all serial killers seem to hate 'sluts'. Examples: The popular girl in Halloween (2007) is killed just after she has sex with her boyfriend, another girl in this movie is killed just before she has sex. In this movie the girls both adhere to the stereotype of the popular girl, this is not only portrayed by how they act, dress etc, but also by how they are killed.

Jock: The jock is nearly the male version of the popular girl, however the jock is portrayed as being the tough guy, which is ironic as they are always killed. Examples: In the film A nightmare on elm street the jock is one of the first people killed, in the movie he acts like a tough guy by trying to pretend that the dreams weren't real. This again, adheres to the stereotype of a Jock as a stock character in horror movies.

The final girl: the sole surviving member of a group of girls killed by a manical serial killer who, quite often, either does not like women or tries to collect them. Examples: The surviving girl in Scream and Julie James in I know what you did last summer. One girl who breaks the archetypal final girl stereotype is Amanda from Saw 2/3 who becomes the killer in the following movies.

The pervert: The pervert is usually very weird, for example, they would talk a lot about sex but never actually experience it. Quite a lot of the time they tend to be geeks. Example: In friday the 13th the pervert is also the wanderer, he makes a lot of weird jokes. He is also the first to die in this movie. In this movie he adheres to the stereotype as he does not survive, which is also the case in most horror movies.

In horror movies, stock characters are almost always the same. These are the stock characters that are found in almost all horror movies. They all contrast with each other in one way. All these characters are known as "sinners" and therefore killed by the serial killer.

Discussion of movie trailers

Discussion of movie trailers

In class we had a discussion about movie trailers. This was so that we'd understand what movie trailers were really about. We learnt that movie trailers consist of codes and conventions, characters, setting, costume and sound. These main features help make a good movie trailer.

Iconic Killers

10 iconic killers

View more presentations from premti.

Applying conventions of trailers

In class we worked in groups and were told to create a plan for a horror movie trailer. Together we all came up with a few idea's for the plot, setting, characters, USP and the conventions of a trailer. We were then recorded presenting what we had came up with. This was a very useful task because we haven't worked together in groups a lot and this gave us an understanding of what it would be like. It was also useful because we finally are properly realising what should be in trailers. For example, voice overs, montages, soundtrack, production company, and so on. This task also made us bond more as groups and this will be very useful when we start making our trailer.

Considerations of film titles

Film title considerations

I created a powerpoint presentation of deconstructing film titles. I considered why producers use the fonts they do, why they use italic/bold fonts, the colour schemes and also the background features.

Analyzing a trailer

We are told the film title at the end of the film. The producers of the trailer purposefully do this so that the name of the film is the part we remember most.

 The reason for the producers giving away the starres of the film is so that people who are fans of their previous work in films will become engaged with the trailer. This is called a unique selling point.
During the trailer, we see a lot of the main parts and the parts where the camera is very fast paced, this is done because this automatically gets the viewer more upbeat, sort of like having an adrenaline rush.
The music during the trailer quickly reveals that it is a horror because it is typical to other sounds you would hear in horror movies. These sounds are usually made by instruments such as piano's,violins, flutes. The reason for this would have to be because if used correctly these instruments are made to sound spooky.
The voice over used identifies chracters (her son), voice overs are also used to express the plot and theme.
The speed in trailers drastically get faster as we approach the end, this is done to excite the audience. In the film the camera shots aren't as fast paced unless, there is a specific scene where fast pace camera's are used to reflect on feelings e.g somebody getting murdered.
The last frame of the trailer tells the film title, directors name and the release date. This is done because it is usually the last frame that sticks in to a persons head.
Both posters and trailers can be used for different benefits in promotion, however, i pesonally think that trailers are more effective because you see moving images. I would expect to see this trailer before horror and thriller films in cinema's because they're the same sort of genre. I wouldn't expect to see it before a romantic movie because there is a higher chance that the audience going to see that kind of movie wouldn't be interested in seeing a horror. I also think that this trailer would be shown on horror film channels such as sky horror.

The setting and the lighting used together immediatly allows us to recognise that the move is a horror, this is because the setting is in a area far away from city life, this works very well with the lighting in this kind of setting. The lighting shows that it's a sunny day, however, there is still a sense of darkness to it, a sort of gloomy feel.

It it essential that the audience recognise repeated conventions, for example, Freddie's mask. This automatically makes the audience associate this film to other horror movies that he plays in. However, it is also essntial that the audience are teased by the varied conventions, such as, the new characters and storyline.

The trailer definatly gives out obvious clues so that we have a rough idea of what the film is going to be about. For example, the trailer shows us snippets of people being murdered but you never actually see the murder taking place, this leaves the audience assuming that the murder actually does take place.

The contrapunctual moment is used to dramatically change the atmosphere, this is shown through non-diagetic sound. At first the non-diagetic sound is a guitar playing in major key, this symbolizes happiness, however it very quickly changes to a syncronised drum which symbolises doom.
I used a youtube convert to convert the audio to show this and the uploaded it on to soundcloud. If you listen from 0:36-0:51, you will hear the contrapunctual effect used.

USP Research

We were told to do some research on USP (Unique selling point). I looked at 3 trailers and wrote a little about what I thought the Unique Selling Point of each trailer was.

Real steel:
- A popular star
- Unusual mix of genres
The unusual mix of genres would have to the fact that a style of fighting was used (boxing) which was mixed with robots.

Cowboys & Aliens:
- Unusual mix of genres
- A popular star
This is definatly an unusual mix of genres because there has never been a western style film mixed with aliens, this would have to be the main USP.

Green Lantern:
- Use of special effects.
In this trailer, we see the use of 3D effects and also the use of other special effects.

Looking at other blogs

Film  geek blog - I liked this blog because it uses a variety of different ICT techniques such as:

• Hyperlinks
• Images
• video
• Comment box
• Seperate search engine

It also appeals to its target audience by the way it is written e.g "But it's not the opinion of Cap. He lives, breaths, and sleeps Uh-merica." 


Insaland - The main  reason for me liking this blog is that it uses a lot of imges, this, in my opinion always keeps the audience intrigued because they will be wanting to view his blog to see if there are any new updates.  Another thing that i thought was really good about this blog was that it use cross media, i.e facebook, twitter.


Jesshorrormovie - Again another thing that stuck out to me about his blog was the variey of ICT techniques that were used, for me this always makes a good blog. It does not only keep the audience wanting more but it's also very interesting for the audience. 


Football blog - Out of all the blogs that I'm going to be looking at, this one was the worst because it doesnt have much variety of ICT techniques, It's very plain and the user hasnt updated his or her blog in a long time. Bloggers should be updating there blogs on a daily basis.


Music blog - I think this blog is very smart. Firstly, they are using their blog to advertise items that people may want to purchase. Secondly it has a review box on the side which is a very good way of getting other peoples opinions, this ICT technique will help them improve their blog if needed.


Mediablog - This blog is also a bit plain, however this is used in an effective way because on this blog there are discussions on serious issues such as the riots in the UK. These two combinations work very well together and this blogger has managed to take advantage of that.

Evaluation of the exercise

Class feedback:

- Camera work needs to be improved
- Better variety in shot types
- More props
- Better costumes
- Need to do some editing
- Slight improvement on the acting
- Good use of high and low angle shots

Overall, the feedback we got was fair. I think that his is only a lesson to be learned and that we will look foward to producing better camera work and shot types in the future.

Preliminary task - The meeting brief

In our first lesson, we had to plan and film a short sequence. The purpose of this task was for us to gain some experience in filming as we will be making a horror movie trailer. We didn't edit the sequence because we wanted to see what we could learn from the filming that we did. We used a few different shots in this short sequence, they were:

• Close up
• Mid shot
• Shot reverse shot
• 180 degree rule
• Zoom in
• High angle shot
• Low angle shot
• Esablishing shot

Firstly, we had to speak as a group about what each of us wanted to do for this short sequence, when we had finally made a decision, we started making a storyboard to show each shot that we were going to take. Our establishing shot was a long shot of Ben, he was standing at the end of the corridoor, we then slowly zoomed the camera in.

Filming - When we started filming, our group decided that I was going to be doing the filming, Raif and Ben were going to be the actors. It took us a while to get use to filming, we had a few problems with our tripod, but in the end we were able to overcome these problems and managed to film. However due to our outcomes from the filming we did, it was evident that we had no or very little experience in filming. This task gave us a little bit of experience in filming and planning, this will prove to be useful to all of us when we are making our trailer.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Premti Krasniqi and I am currently studying for my A-levels. The purpose of this blog will be to show the steps I am taking towards creating my horror movie trailer. The A2 course differs from the AS course in a few different ways. Firstly, in the A2 course we will tested on our group work, whereas in our AS we were tested on our independant work. Secondly, the task we are going to be doing are more difficult than the AS tasks which means we will be learning new skills.