Monday 14 December 2009

Trailer comparisons

Having looked at the three horror film trailers (The Exorcist, Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity) I have noted some ideas for my own horror trailer to bring back to my group when we come back from our Christmas holidays. These include Having a narrator and making the trailer dark. I have also learned how horror film trailers have changed over time.

The first trailer I looked at (which you can also view on this blog) is the Exorcist , arguably the greatest and scariest horror film of all time. The trailer is dark and sets the tone for the film itself and unlike most film trailers it doesn't give away the best/scariest parts of the film, however you do see a small glimpse of the young girl in the film who gets possessed at her most shocking state.The trailer also has a narrator who with his low tone and deep voice makes the trailer seem even scarier just like the film.

The second film trailer I looked at was Poltergeist, a film about a family who finally find their dream home, they eventually find that an evil spirit does not want them in the house and horrible things start to happen as this evil spirit haunts them out.

The final trailer I reviewed is Paranormal Activity, I found this was a very smart trailer since it's different compared to most other trailers. You see a group of people viewing the film Paranormal Activity rather than bits of the film. Unfortunately this film does give away probably most of the scary moments in the ,however it still is a good film (baring in mind its just as funny as it is scary apart from the final scene which was very scary in my mind.)
This trailer shows people's reactions to the film and as you will see they are very scared and it is very tempting to see "what the big deal is all about" and go and see the film. This is a good idea to get people to come and see the film. Another thing that may suggest that you should see this film is the comments you see during the trailer which include "one of the scariest films of all time" which having already decided that the Exorcist is the scariest of all time (just ask the people who ran out of the cinemas scared and started fainting). This may persuade you to come and see the film to try and decide for yourself which is a very clever way of selling it. Having seen this film myself its also an unorthodox film as well as the trailer, as it is filmed like a documentary not a film with no credits before or even after the film.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

New trailer for Paranormal activity

This is a new trailer for paranormal activity. I will review all three trailers on my blog and compare the differences along with listing what I think are the best bits.



Narrative - About a girl, (Katie) that is being haunted by a demon ever since she was little. Katie is now a adult and has a boyfriend (micah) that she is living with because of the demon is haunting her and making her life a misery. Her boyfriend decides to catch the 'paranormal activity' on camera and in the end her boyfriend dies trying to protect katie.After the young, couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban “starter” tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that a demon but is certainly most active in the middle of the night.

Starring - Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Amber Armstrong and Ashley Palmer.

Target audience - 18 to 30 year olds.

Music/sounds - Starts of with muted drum that's like a heart beat, this stops when the movie is about to start. This sounds makes it sound like something bad it about to happen, makes the audience feel tense. A sound of a spirit swooping pass the camera. Floor boards creak as if someone it sneaking about. These sounds makes the audience feel there's a spirit that it in the same room as them. A loud bang (with reactions of load screaming of fear from the audience). Shocks the audience as they don't know it is going to happen, makes them jump. All these sounds are very powerful and frightens the audience.

Camera angle/shot types - The camera is hand held throughout the whole trailer. There are a numerous camera angles, it starts off by showing the audience then it shows the film, this is done repeatedly throughout. This is a good affect as you get to see the audiences reactions to the film. The camera shots are long when showing the film but when the camera shows the audience it is a close-shot, this shows the audiences faces and shows them being scared.

Written Text - There are only written text at the beginning and the end of the trailer. The writing at the beginning of the trailer explains a bit about the film trailer its self. The next shot has white writing at the bottom left corner which tells you the date the first screening was, the 1st screening is the film trailer. The end of the film trailer it says 'one of the most scariest movies of all time' this persuades the viewer to watch it so they can say the have watched the most scariest movie ever and to see if they can handle it. It has more similar writing trying to persuade you to watch it.

How the audience was addressed - This film succeeds in it's purpose to scare the audience by raising tension and as this happens the slow scary low pitched music gets louder. Although the trailer gives away most of the scary moments apart from the final scene (which was very scary). This film doesn't rely overly on special effects but more on tension building and the audiences imagination.

Research of horror trailers (Poltergeist)

The is the second horror trailer that I have researched. I have decided to look at the differences between new and old horror film trailers.

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Research (Exorcist trailer)

In order to research I have decided to view several movie trailer's for ideas for what i might like to put in my own movie trailer. The first of which is the Exorcist,this became one of the most profitable horror films of all time.


Narrative - The Exorcist is about a young girl from America who lives in a nice house with her mother and has a happy life until she is possessed by a demon (later known as the Pazuzu). She starts to change first in attitude but then dramatic changes in her force her mother to try everything to find out whats wrong with her. She has a grotesque physical change as the demon forces her to self harm. Eventually this non-religious women turns to priests to perform an exorcism which is eventually successful.

Casting - This film stars Linda Blair as Regan Macneil, Ellen Burstyn as Chris Macneil and Jason Miller as father Damien Karras.

Target Audience - Adults over the age of eighteen.

Music/soundtrack - The Exorcist uses modern classical compositions along with music written specifically for the film and Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

How the audience was addressed - To be honest I think the film makers overdid the scare factor in this film when you talk about the audience's needs. If you can handle this sort of thing then you should be fine,(baring in mind at this time in 1973 where anything was considered scary). When this film first came out people were running out of the cinema and fainting, in some cinemas they even provided sick bags. Now surely that must show how good and horrifying this film really is. Another thing that the Exorcist should be credited with is that it was one of the first films that used special effects, which however scary or shocking the film may be it deserves the credit for it's creative boundaries.
One thing that will always be shocking at what ever era you live in is the strong religious language throughout the film ,expressed by the demon who possesses Regan.

Friday 23 October 2009

Character Brief

Max - Leader of the group and best friends with Gerald. Confident and like to explore.

Sam - The hard man of the group also likes exploring and is very full of himself. He loves both himself and a challenge.

Lewis - Smart and interlectual. lewis is in love with kate.

Gerald - He is possessed by a demon and starts to trun shockingly satanic firstly with his personality and then his physical appearance.

Charlotte - Typical girl who woke up one day and realised that daddy cant protect her anymore.

Kate - Independent girl who thinks for herself.

Friday 16 October 2009

Subliminal Messages

We have decided having discussed certain horror films that one of the scariest films of all time is the Exorcist. One of the big things that the makers used to make the film scarier is subliminal messages. Some have caused controversy and some have caused humour, we have decided to put in a subliminal message in our trailer and we wont mention where it is, some people probably wont notice it but if it works then it will be worth it. We have not decided what type of message we will put in our trailer but there will be one.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

The Three Basic Types Of Horror Film

There are three different types of horror

1. The supernatural
The supernatural is what we most often think of as a true Horror movie this usually includes supernatural monsters such as vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts and zombies. These are creatures of legend and come from thousands of years of human psychic response to the mysteries of the earth.

2. The scientific
The scientific horror film is where we find the mad scientist(s) creating or discovering something outside of nature; something that will be lost from human control and run riot before being overpowered (usually) by the army, and the world is restored to peace and harmony. The monsters featured in this type of film are often new creations, things we've never imagined or seen elsewhere.

3. The naturalistic
The naturalistic horror films feature monsters which our daily news is often reporting.The monster can also be an animal, such as a bear or a reptile (usually grown to above-average size), or even a group of beasts (ants, bees, spiders, dogs).
Example:In Night of the Living Dead, a radio announcement is heard that links the zombie madness to a returned space probe. In the follow-up, Dawn of the Dead, one of the major characters recalls something his granfather had said that gives a supernatural explanation to the undead plague. The Return of the Living Dead instucts us that zombies can be created from the application of a certain toxic substance managed by the military. For example, the giant bear that runs amok in Grizzly could be hungry due to a lack of his usual foresty foodstuffs (creating a naturalistic horror), or he could be a scientifically altered, perhaps by manmade chemicals in the water supply, to reach a monstrous size and therefore unable to not eat humans to supplement his diet. And in Day of the Dead, the scientists claim to be on the verge of discovering the true reason why the dead walk. This lands the film in the scientific horror realm.

Friday 9 October 2009

Target Audience

We have decided on our target audience for our section B horror film trailer, and as its a horror film its going to be an 18 rated film and will have lots of violence and gore in it. The target audience will be from ages 18 and above and for mainly males (as its not something you would really want to take your girlfriends to see but if that's what you find romantic then that's fine) and some females.

Planning

In our group we discussed what type of horror film we would like to make a trailer for. We talked about ideas for what could be in it i.e zombies, monsters, demons and so on. In the end we have decided to make a gory type film with demons, we have not decided an exact story for it but we have a rough view on what we will be doing.

Friday 25 September 2009

Brief

Our task is to make a 1-2 minute trailer for a movie of our own invention. The film will be any genre we wish and the trailer should be appropriate for the target audience.