Sinister Plan

The description for this really sets the scene and you can tell this is a horror film. 'gusty winds' and 'the silhouette of a man' is creepy description which helps anchor the horror feel. It creates an eerie atmosphere. This helps to show how a horror film script should be set out and the language that should be used. It also helps to show how to make a script scary rather one that is just a little eerie. 

Questionairre Analysis.

 These are a selection of the questionairres we got sent out. these were the most common answers seen on our questionairres. The questions answered above suggest that horror films are not scary unless they can make an audience jump out of their seat. This suggests tension is a key part of the persons ideal horror. They suggest this can be achieved through the music. They suggest a costume would be the best thing to use for the iconography of a horror and also believe seeing this costumed killer thorugh bright lighting would be shocking. They believe this would be unnusual as it not normally seen, so this is something new a horror could achieve.

 They believe the 'vunerable girl' aspect of a horror has been done too many times and wouldnt approve this idea for another horror. They also believe keeping the killer a secret all throughout would be a good idea to add mystery to the horror. For nearly every questionairre filled in, the answer to 'Would you like to see the plot of the film in the trailer?' the answer was a firm no; as seen clearly in this questionairre.

 This next person has the females view towards horrors. They, again, do not find horrors real as there is no element of realism. This is something that would have to be achieved through my trailer. They would also prefer the slasher genre. They, too believe that tense music is important in a trailer as it signals something is about to happen. Music would be a key part of any trailer. They feel that a mask would be a good iconography to use as it, again, creates the element of mystery as to who is behind it. They believe the lighting should be dark and then light to suggest a sudden bright light would signal an attack or something happening, this would be accompanied by dramatic music.

For the second part of the questionairre, they believe it is better when everyone is in danger rather than just one vunerable girl. It creates a more tense atmosphere as no-one is safe. They wouldnt mind what gendre the killer is and believe a forrest setting would be a spooky one to have as horror trailer setting. they would watch a film due to what other people say, so due to this I would do the two-step theory and include reviews in my trailers and how many stars the film got on my poster and magazine cover. They also believe the trailer should only be a teaser.

 This person, is also female and in the teenage bracket. They believe that horrors have lost their scare because they think they are too predictable. This suggests a shocking twist is needed to make a horror interesting. They prefer spoofs and believe that music is what makes a horror scary as it can make any situation scary. They too believe that a costume would be good iconography for a villain as it is memorable, and would like to see this costumed person through dark lighting to make it seem like a horror.

Finally, they believe that the 'vunerable girl' has been done to much and would prefer not to see this again. They would prefer a female killer as it is not seen as much as males and believes the woods would make a suitable setting. Lionsgate is associated with horrors so I could include there logo within my trailer for a pre-determined audience. Trailers intice this person and they would only want a teaser for the trailer as too not give away too much plot. They believe a horror poster should be scary like the trailer to fit with it and due to this, a trailer should only be short in length of 1 and a half minutes.

Empire Demographics.

This shows the demographics for many magazines, but more specifically looking at EMPIRE. Simon Pegg was feautured on the front of EMPIRE for his horror-spoof 'Shaun of the Dead'. If I was to follow their style of magzine it would tell me that I was appealing to 74% male, so mostly a male audience, and the highest age range for reading this magzine is 15-24. This appeals more to my teenage audience as they are reading this more than 'Horrorhound'. So this magazine style would suit my trailer and its audience as I will be appealing to a young teenage audience. However I would design my magazine with more horror elements included. To do this, I would have darker colours and include scared emotion on people featured on the front of the magazine. This will show fear and a horror genre of my magazine.

Demographics for Horrorhound

For my magazine cover, Horrorhound is one of the magazines I will follow ideas from as they are specifically a horror magzine. Due to this information, I know what audience they appeal to and by following them, what percentage of audiences I would also be appealing to. They appeal mostly to a male audience and this is shown through the layout and cover of their magzine, as it is dark with horror images. The highest percentage of people reading this magazine are aged 31-40, so if I wanted to appeal to a teenage audience I would have to change a few key aspects to achieve this. Such as; including teenagers on my magazine so they can relate to it. Also using short sharp sentences or tag lines so the information is received quickly by my audience.

Horrorhound; Magazine Conventions.

D3100 Manual

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/kie88335f7869dfuejdl=-cww2/D3100_EN.pdf

This is the camera I will be using to film my trailer; and this is how it works. It explains the way to get the best shots, such as depth of field. It explains about self timing for if we need everyone in a shot, and this is a helpful guide to the camera we will be using. If we ever need extra guidance on how to enhance or improve a shot, we can turn to this.

Photoshop Tutorial on creating a Horror Image

I would use this 'bloody wall' effect for my poster to create an eerie feel. I would most likely use this as my entire poster background, to give a dark feel to my poster and to show clearly I was creating a horror and connotate a slasher horror. This tutorial is helpful as it explains clearly step by step what to do, and this effect would connotate fear and helplessness which is exactly what needs to be achieved with a horror.

Review of Last House on the Left

This review is from the film website of 'Rotten tomatoes' telling the story of Last House on the Left and explaining why it is success. It shows that powerful scenes are successful as they areinteretsing to watch and shows that this is why it is a remake success. It explains that the fact the parents become as bad as the killers (by killing them) is a good story plot and this seemingly unexpected twist is what makes films work well. An audience would enjoy this as it will thrill them and give them something more interesting to watch rather than a film an audience can just guess. It shows a good horror needs a twist to keep an audience interested.  



Conventions of Horror

Last House on the Left Ratings

Overall, this 2009 horror is rated between 6 and 7. This is quite a high rating so the film  was successful. Girls seemed to enjoy this slightly more on average, maybe due to the fact a family is defending their daughter and they succeed. As the age of users goes up, the ratings tend to slightly go dwon only a few decimals. This shows that this film is a teenage horror as many teenagers are involved in the story. The gore and revenge story line appeals more to teenagers as they enjoy the bloody side of things and the intense story lines that are interesting.

Last House on the Left Poster

This is the poster connected with the film and only connotates a horror film. The colours are extremely dark with the conventional red, white and black writing and background for a horror poster. The emphasised word 'House' is in blood red and to go along with this, the word is smudged red as if blood has been smeared. This is to connotate the bloodshed in the film. The rest of the writing is white on black background to continue with convention and to suggests darkness and horror within the featured house. It connotates nightime, which is always associated with horror as this is where bad occurings happen. The house is lit only slightly to give an eerie feel and to show this house is either haunted, or is going to be haunted. The tagline is featured in dark wrtitng just underneath the house to try and give an idea of what the film is about; revenge. The companies and ratings are all at the bottom like a typical poster to give credit to the people involved and to show audiences the ratings. This doesn't link with the trailer as much as other film campaigns as in the trailer the actual house is not shown too much so this house on the poster doesn't completely link. For the poster, the house included creates a good scary atmosphere but isn't completely linked with the trailer. The trailer should include more establishing shots of the house or this poster should have the characters featured rather than the house. However the lighting and colour elements link to the trailer as half way through the trailer, when situations turn bad, only dark colours and lighting are sued as the house is poorly lit like a typical horror. this links withe poster as the dominant colour is black with the house being rather dark still and almost black. The trailer and poster link as they both connotate evil due to what happens within the film. The poster and trailer with some elements but also differ on some. They are both successful but would work more successfully together if the main picture on the poster matched to what is featured in the trailer.

Last House on the Left Trailer

This trailer shows the gorey side of horror as it involves blood, shootings and gruesome murders. This would be in the category of a slasher due to all the violence and bloodshed. It shows the tense story of two young girls kidnapped and the story revolves around one main girl. It uses the typical convention of a helpless girl in trouble. She is shot by the kidnappers showing blood and horror. When she is shot, the lighting is dark and eerie as they are in a forest at night creating a tense atmosphere of fear for her life. The camera shows a wide long shot of her floating in the river and then cuts to a close-up of her face as she breaths and regains consciousness. These camera shots show the background and how helpless she is, and the close up gives us hope for her when she breathes. The use of these two shots one after another show where the character is and how they are feeling. The twist for this trailer comes when the kidnappers go to the kidnapped girls house unknowingly for shelter. This is when the bloodshed happens as the parents work out these new strangers in their house have hurt their daughter. This is where the taglines 'if someone hurt someone you love, how far would you go, to hurt them back?' It shows the parents in a series of gruesome murders against these people to get revenge. It is a revenge story. The house is poorly lit to continue the tense atmosphere and close-ups are used heavily to show the victims faces and how they are being murdered. It adds to the slasher as the trailer is not afraid to show blood or murders in detail. The background music is eerie and slow at the start of the trailer but then fades into 'sweet child of mine.' This is a juxtaposition of diegetic sound as this is playing whilst the parents are murdering their daughters kidnappers. The film is dark but the music connatates happiness and a happy family. It shows that this family are close and will stick togther throigh anything and will go extremely far to hurt someone back.

Scream 4 Magazine Cover

This Scream cover comes from the horror magazine of HorrorHound. It is featured on the front page of a horror magzine so this implies the film is one of horror as critics of HorrorHound believe it is front page material. The state it is a 'HorrorHound Retrospective' inducing the 'two-step flow audience theory' showing of to their horror audience that this is a horror film worth watching. The picture featured is of the killer in cartoon style to give a fake side to him due to his rubber mask. It gives the audience an idea of the film and plays on the previous 'screams' that the mask is involved again. The mask is an iconography. The background behind him is of fire connotating pain and fear to reinforce the horror of the scream murderer. These colours are surprisingly bright for a horror character but still have the same effect as a dark background because of what fire connotates. The picture is a medium close-up to show the horror of the mask and also the gown he wears to cover himself up so no-one has any clue as to who it is. It gives the film mystery. there is also the iconography of the knife used a weapon. This is feauted huge in the foreground to show what is being used in the film and to make the audience stand back to look at this. This links with the poster used for this campaign as it includes the iconography of the mask and shows clearly that ghostface is involved yet again. Also the title is in red and white and this links with the poster as the title is white on the poster to contrast with the black background. On this magazine cover the title in white is on a black background to also make a contrast and to make is stand out against ghostface so the audience know what film is advertised.

Scream 4 Poster

This poster shows clear conventions of horror whilst advertising the film. The many conventions used are the iconography of the mask, which shows us the main character and shows clearly that this film is another sequel to the scream films. This is a successful clear advertisement that a new scream is coming soon. The colours used on the poster are also clear conventions of a horror. The colour scheme is typically red, white and black and this is used to connotate fear. The black shows evil and the accompanying red is dark which adds to the connotation of this. The white is used as a contrast to the black and due to this the film title is clearly visible underneath the mask. Also, as the mask is white on a background, it shows a contrast and makes the mask bolder on the background. The fact that the bottom of the mask is a knife is also visible due to the background even though it is at the bottom of the mask. The tagline used 'new decade, new rules' shows that this film is different to the other scream films to try and entice a new audience as well as the old. It shows that there may be a new surprise in store and to expect something different from the other scream films. This is done to try and draw in a new audience. Finally, the opening date is located underneath the title in bold red letters to clearly advertise it. Your eye scans down the poster so when you see the title, the opening date is instantly seen. This is done so the audience know when it is playing, and so many people will go and watch the film. The whole poster is successful because it is simple but effective. It is obvious what the film is and who will be involved within it. The essential information is there such as the opening date and the three pieces of text used are the most essential so nothing else is needed. This is what makes the poster successful as the audience have everything they need from it.

Scream 4 Trailer

Scream 4 Trailer Analysis

It starts with the green screen of being 'rated for appropriate audiences' which is included in nearly every film trailer. The first few seconds are of a returning character 'sydney' which shows this is a clear follow on from the previous 3 films. it shows us familiarity. It then has quick flash edits of each of the main characters faces. I think this is a clever use of editing as it shows us who is involved but in a typical horror way as their faces all look scared or serious and dark slow music ins included in the background. Accompanying the music is the deep unnatural voice of what we assume to be the murderer. We assume this, as the voice is low and laughs sadistically throughout. After this, the main plot is revealed with one of the main characters talking over the creepy music that plays throughout. The plot is suppose to be different from the others to give a new fright. It makes us, as an audience, fear a new unknown as the way people are being killed has changed. The killer is now filming the murders to try and differ from the past three films. This gives us new excitement as we know expect something new and different. After the plot has been explained, the edits and the music become quicker with the tension of what we are seeing. We now see snippets of the murderer in action to give us an idea of what to expect from the film. Many close-ups are used to show the fear on peoples faces and close-ups of the murderer are used plentiful to show what they are up against. The close-ups are used to show the iconography of the mask and the killer is mysterious as we can see the killers face.

Sinister Ratings

These are the ratings for 'sinister' from the company 'IMDB'. it shows us that people under 18, males and females are rating this the highest, showing this is a teen horror. Overall females are rating it slightly higher giving an insight in to what gendre this film is mainly appealing to. Ages 18-29 are still rating is highly but not as highly as teenagers. So this film is still appealing to the next generation up from teenagers. It has a wide audience range shown by the high ratings that both females and males, of varying, ages are rating it.



Sinister Poster.

This poster shows the main image of the creatures face in blood on a wall, looking as if the major amount of blood is coming from the girl. The background is of a cracked grey wall, connotating evil and supernatural. The image is a long shot shwoing the girl in full and the main disturbing image of the face in blood. These are the only two 'objects' showing this poster to be plain because the only thing needed is the blood picture. It shows evil as blood connotates pin and suffering. The text is in black and white using the typical conventions of a horror. The title of 'sinister' looks like it os dripping to match with the blood. The tagline of 'once you see him, nothing can save you' shows even more that this is a horror as it is implying no one can be saved just by simply looking at this image. Again this induces fear from the audince just by looking at the poster because it could affect us. The top by-line creates a pre-determind audince to ensure viewers of this film. 'Coming Soon' is including at the bottoom in larger black writing to tell its audience when to look out for this film. It advertises the main creature in the film and its intesnions as we can clearly see this is not a friendly creature.

Sinister Trailer

This trailer uses many conventions of a horror film and is highly scary. It starts with an establishing shot of the main house to show the setting of the film. It uses the cvonvention of '9 months later' to shows a new family is comig into a house with old horrors. The lighting all throughour this trailer is very dark through low key lighting to create a dark mood with shadows to make the film eerie. The main plot is with discovered camera tapes and these are typically found in the attic of the house. the attic connatets darkness and mystery so this setting is used for when the main man watches the disturbing images. The characters themselves jump at the images seen like an audience memeber would, whioch connects the audince to the film mamking them feel more involved and thus; more scared. Also the tagline of 'once you see him' induces a fright because we know from watching this that once you see this creature you become possesed. Due to this we feel that as soon as we as the audince see him, we too could become possessed whioch is what makes this trailer highly frightening. The editing is slow at the start of the trailer as the story is building and the plot is being out into place. However when the plot in unveiled and the fear becomes more intense the edting becomes quicker to match the pace of your heart. It becomes more tense to match the characters mood becoming more fearful. However at the end, the editing stops, we see a creepy few seconds of children possed and then a quick flash image of the creatures comes down and then the railer cuts out. This is to give us a jump and create fear from this creature. It leaves us on a cliffhanger w3anting more and to see this film. The diegetic sound gives us the background to the families story and why they are there. The diegtic is scarce as a lot of action takes place in this trailer and speech is not too nesscary. the speech very much needed is from the man telling them the information about the creature and this is over non-diegetic music used throughout. The non-diegetic music is used for nearly the entire trailer to give a creepy tone to the film. When the image of the creature comes up, a static scratching is heard for a split second to make us cringe. The other music is deep, scratchy and hollow to stay withing the conventions of the genre. it is hard to listen to, to put the audience on edge. A pre-determind audience is used from the the shot saying 'from the creatures of paranormal activity and insidious' so people who have previously watched and like this films are likely to watch this also.

Paranormal Activity Magazine Cover.

This magzine takes the horror away from the film as the surrounding picture has no connotations of the horror genre. It is light and bright in mood and takes away the horror element. The two main characters are included and they dont look happy, but they dont look terrified like they do in the film. This is an exmaple of how a magazine can use an imge from a film but take away from its initial genre. Within the campaign of Paranormal Activity; the trailer and poster, this completely differs from the both of them. The trailer and poster use dark colours, mostly completely black as it is filmed at night and the poster is a screen shot of the film at night surrounding by a completely black background. Within the trailer and poster, they clearly connotate horror as they are spooky and dark. The poster looks distorted to show their is something wrong and the trailer fills us in on everything going wrong in their lives with camera shots and how the character act. So this magazine cover doesnt match the rest of the campaign as this doesnt look like a horror as much as the trailer and poster and has no clear connotations of a horror. This is an example of how sometimes one product from a campaign can change the conventional elements of a horror and take a different root.

Paranormal Activity Poster.

This is the poster for Paranormal Activity and it gives an insight into the film very well. It shows an establishing shot of where the whole film takes place and gives the mood of a horror. The picture is in the middle of the poster taking up lots of room to draw attention to this main image. It does this by being in grainy black lighting and it shows this is filmed by a handheld camera with the date and time in the bottom right hand corner.This inclusion gives the film some realism as it implies this is not done by an expensive film set, but by normal everyday people. This gives more of a fright as it implies this horror could happen to anyone.
This mise-en-scene in the picture shows the two main characters (we infer this by them being the only ones in the picture aind in their own bed) looking fearful during the night shown by the woman pointing at the open door. Their fear is hwon as they are pressed up against th end of the bed away from the door. The door to the open corridor also strikes fear as outside the door is the unknown and is draker than the foreground.
The writing around the main picture is in blocks of black to keep with the tone of darkness and fear. The writing is mainly white and red keeping with the connotations of a moody poster. The only red writing is the title of the poster to also draw attention to this as this is one of the main pieces of information needed by an auddince, to kow what this poster is advertising. The font itself is distorted to connotate things going wrong. The taglines in white also induce fear as they say such things as 'dont see it alone' and 'nightmares are guranteed' to show that this is clearly a scary horror.