Super 8 Camera Prezi

PhotoSnack Slideshow

Poster Analysis: Insidious

Poster Progression

After looking closely at the previous poster image, we noticed a mistake in the photograph. Where we had used a torch to illuminate Elsie's face, we had shone it mainly on the left side of her face (from viewpoint of the camera and audience), whereas the moon was positioned in the top right of the image, therefore if the image was to be realistic, the light from the moon would be on the other side of Elsie's face. So we rearranged the figure of Elsie and moved the moon to the top centre of the page to make it look more realistic. We also liked the idea of using the moon as an 'O' in 'Durlock' but wanted to keep to the idea that the human eye moves from the top left to the bottom right of the page, therefore rearranging the image has made the overall effect of the poster better.

We also decided to use our preferred font of 'De Walpergen Pica' as we feel it is more effective and eye catching for the audience.

We decided to use this image as a poster as it portrays one of the main characters; Elsie. She is the 'ghost' and main 'fear' of our story. We wanted to hold back some information to our target audience as to make them want to find out more and therefore watch the trailer and film (if there was one to be created), so we kept the image very dark and out of focus so you can just see basic features of Elsie's face, similar to the Insidious poster but not giving as much information away, therefore using 'subtle horror' which is what our target audience said they preferred. 

For this poster we placed the title of the film 'Durlock' in the centre of the image as to draw the audience's eyes straight to the name. The main setting and basis of our horror trailer is set in Durlock House, we felt the name 'Durlock' was powerful enough and gave off the right connotations as a title and basis of the story. We kept to the dull colour scheme of black and white and decided against using any form of red colouring in the title, as this will connote blood, which is not a specific convention we are using in our sub-genre Paranormal/Supernatural. The photograph of Durlock House acts almost like an establishing shot, based on the ideas we have taken from The Conjuring poster, this introduces the audience directly to the setting of the horror and gives them some form of information and idea of what the film is going to be like.
We created the basics of our posters on a free editing website www.picmonkey.com and used 'Roman Antique' font in black and to stand out against the background, we also used a white shadow to highlight the text and link to the black and white theme of the house.

Poster Analysis: The Conjuring

Target Audience Research

We asked ten people (5 males and 5 females) aged from 16-18 years old to complete our questionnaire based on Horror movies, this will give us an indication on what to include in our own trailer and a general understanding of what our target audience are interested in.

Results

50% of people we asked said their favourite sub-genre of Horror movie was Paranormal/supernatural. This is our chosen sub-genre for our Horror Movie Trailer as it appears to be the most popular. 20% of our participants said they like Psychological and one person enjoys Found Footage and therefore a sense of realism. We will try to include conventions from these three sub-genres to our Paranormal/supernatural Horror trailer as they are the most popular and relevant to eachother.

We will apply the results from Question 2, 3 and 5 as these are the favoured answers from our target audience. They also link in well with eachother to create a ghost/haunting theme relevant to the sub-genre of Paranormal/Supernatural. We also now know to base our trailer in the present time but reference and possibly relate to the past.

60% of participants asked said they would prefer to see a teenager as the main protagonist, this is perhaps due to the age range of the people we asked as they will be able to relate to the main protagonist if they are of a similar age. The fact that all of the participants we asked said they prefer Horror films to be 'realistic' supports the idea that they like Horror movies to be relevant to them and believable, so they can feel directly involved and almost 'part of the movie'. Relating a storyline to real life will be closer to our target audience too, and therefore 'scarier' for the viewers.

This question gave us mixed ideas as to what to do about the casting of our main character, but as the highest percentage, 4/10 participants said 'don't mind/unsure' about the gender of the protagonist, so we have decided to choose our friend who is female to play the main role.

More male than female participants said they would prefer for the main protagonist to be female, perhaps this has relevance to Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory (1975) where the dominant point of view is masculine and the women are often displayed in order to provide voyeurism for the masculine viewers. But as the response to this question is mixed as the majority of participants 'don't mind' or are 'unsure' of what gender they would prefer to be the main protagonist, we will not be conforming to the Male Gaze theory like in many other Horror films such as 'Psycho' and 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'.

Overall, this questionnaire has helped us to make vital decisions related to our Horror Movie Trailer that will affect and appeal to our target audience.

Narrative for Trailer

There are many different narrative structures that can be used for a Horror trailer, the narratives depicted in the trailers we have studied and analysed such as The Conjuring, Insidious and Paranormal Activity are mainly non-linear as they show rapid and frequently changing clips, cuts, flashbacks and the events do not necessarily follow eachother in chronological order. The ending of these trailers is also open ended as this does not give away the whole story or any form of closure to the audience. Therefore leaving them on a cliffhanger and persuading them to watch the full film to find out what happens, this is the purpose of trailers, they act as a 'teaser' for the audience with a sense of ambiguity about them. Which then draws an audience in to watch the film.

In our trailer we have decided to stick to the basic open ended narrative as to not give too much away to the audience and withhold information from them, convincing them to watch the full film (if there was one to be made).

We are considering doing something a bit different from the trailers we have analysed, instead of creating a trailer with a single strand narrative focusing on one character's adventures, we are thinking of using a multi strand narrative. We have three characters that we plan to represent in our trailer, a young boy (aged 8/9), a teenage girl (aged 16 as to appeal to target audience for relevant age) and Elsie (the ghost/paranormal being in our trailer). We were thinking of creating three separate parts of a trailer, each showing the three characters story and how they are relevant to our storyline. We could use point of view shots and hand held cameras to create a sense of personal narrative, this will also directly involve the audience and make them feel as though they are part of the story/film.