Proplist

Health and Safety

Evil Dead Trailer Review (Class Trailer 2)

Name of film: Evil Dead

Year released: 2013

Genre of trailer: Gory Horror

My marking after viewing: 10/10

What happened in the trailer: A group of kids stay in a cabin in the middle of the woods. They then find a hatch covered in blood which leads to the cellar. One of the guys heads down there and finds a load of old papers and books, and ends up reading a passage out of a book which subsequently releases a load of evil beings on them. They then try to fight to survive as they are brutally attacked and possessed by evil beings, forcing them to mutilate themselves, but also fight off the creatures of the forest.

Which positive clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well? The use of stabbing music creates an unsettling effect. Also the mixture between slow paced close-ups of the characters, and fast paced montages helps set the narrative, but get across the heart-pounding action also. The choice of low-key lighting, set in a dark woods, with only lamps to light the place gives a sinister feel to the whole place. The way the trailer speeds up the montages and gore throughout the scenes gets the viewer on edge, and their heart racing.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing? 
Nothing.

What was the trailers average score in class? Why did it receive this score?
The average score for this trailer was 10. This was because the trailer offered everything you would expect from a gory horror. The montages, and collision cuts of fast to slow scenes of gore helped add a disgusting and heart-pounding feeling to the trailer. The parallel music also worked really well, as the deep groans, and high nasty sounds of things running through the woods, gets the viewer on the tips of their seat.
 

Cloverfield (Class Trailer 1)

Name of film: Cloverfield

Year released: 2008

Genre of trailer: Action Horror

My marking after viewing: 8/10

What happened in the trailer:
The trailer is a scene trailer. It starts with people having a fairwell party for the main character. Midway through the party, sudden shaking and noises start happening like an earthquake. The party heads out to the balcony looking worried and confused, where they are met by a louds and bright explosion in the background, and fragments start hurling towards them, so they run back inside the apartment staircase. They then venture outside to see another explosion in the distance, and end up having the statue of liberty's head hurtling towards them. There is then diegetic screaming and people in hysterics as the credits appear on-screen.

Which positive clever or interesting aspects do you think you could include in your own trailer? What generic features are fulfilled well?
The use of a scene trailer gives us an enticing view into the film, as it gives us a dramatic scene from the film, but it doesn't give too much away, tempting the audience to want to go see it. The use of a hand-held camera immediately throws the audience into the diegesis, putting us into the mindset and emotion of the characters in the film. The low-key lighting works really well, set during the night time adds an even creepier and sinister feel about the film, but also makes the audience feel more vulnerable, as the night covers a lot of the streets so you don't know what's around the corner about to attack you. Also the sounds work really well, especially the deep groans of the monster, and screams in the background. Something I particularly liked was the use of the iconic Statue of Liberty from New York. Destroying something so iconic and well-known all around the world, and throwing the head around like it's a piece of scrap paper immediately effects the audience, as it's something many look up to and admire, something we wouldn't imagine being destroyed.

Which aspects of the trailer did you think were unsuccessful and would put off its target audience? How is it disappointing?
The trailer may be limited by not being able to get across enough of the narrative, so the audience may not fully know if the film would suit them. Also the trailer starts of a bit slow, so the audience may get a bit bored to begin with.

What was the trailers average score in class? Why did it receive that mark?
The average score from the class was 8. A scene trailer can work really well if a very dramatic scene is chosen from the trailer, which offers an enticing view into the film, without giving too much away, so people want to go see it for themselves. This is why I think Cloverfield received a high score.

Class Poll: Favourite Horror Trailers

Below is the class horror poll that we conducted in October, 2012. It was carried out with 8 males and 9 females, and confirmed that females generally prefer psychological and action horrors, while males prefer gory horrors. The results were close, however, which suggests horror can appeal to both genders.

Choice of Trailer

We have chosen to make a highlights trailer. Our reasons for doing this is because we will be-able to cover more of the narrative and also are able to get a better idea of what our film will be about. Plus, because our trailer is for a psychological horror, editing and montage will be an important factor to make it scary and suspensful, something best displayed in a highlights trailer. We chose not to do a scene trailer because there wouldn't be one scene from our movie that would get across the full narrative of our story well enough. Also a scene trailer would not allow us to include enough variety and scares to intrigue the audience, and make it memorable.

As our film is a psychological horror we have chosen to do a greenband trailer. This is because we will not include much body horror. The film will be more appropriate for a wider audience, thus making it more marketable, as the trailer will be shown in more media. 

Audience research: Initial class poster

1a. Research (Film)

Audience Research: Initial Class Poster

 

Plot details of your idea

Two teenagers, one male, one female are babysitting two young children, a girl and a boy. The young girl sees the “blank man” in her room so screams which causes the teenage girl to run upstairs. However, the teenagers cannot see this illusive “blank man.” There are strange happenings during the film and the teenage boy dies or disappears paranormally. The “blank man” appears in different situations luring children away. We don’t know his motive and we don’t see how he kills or even if he kills at all. The teenage girl survives, conforming to the genre checklist of being the final girl/heroine. The younger female child also survives, almost as if the “blank man” protects her. The trailer will end with the “blank man” and the young girl standing beside him looking up to him. We will see the parents as the final shot with the “blank man” standing in the woods with snow falling around him just staring into the house at the parents.

 

Positive responses from other class members

The class liked our tagline of “you can’t stop what you can’t see.” They also thought we had created a good “bad guy” of Slender as this is a well-known folktale so people could relate to it. They liked the idea that only the children can see the “blank man.”

 

Negative responses from other class members

Our peers suggested we should refine the middle of the plot to make it more interesting and to also add in some action. They also thought that the “blank man” needs a motive so this is something we will definitely consider.

 

How many voted that they would watch the film? Out of the five groups, where did you finish?

Out of 19 class members, 11 of them said they would watch our film, “Blank.” We finished fourth overall out of the five groups.

 

Are you happy with the score overall? Why/ why not? Do you think this idea is worth making for your real trailer?

We are fairly happy that 11 out of 19 class members said they would watch our film, however we would like to take on board their comments and see if we could get more people to feel they would like to watch it. We feel this is a good basis for our real film trailer as we mostly got a good response from other class members. Nevertheless, we will definitely look at their suggestions and try and change aspects to fulfil their ideas. Our trailer will hopefully then appeal to more of a wider audience. We will probably keep the idea of the “blank man” but with changes to the plot and include a motive for him.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) Still analysis 3

Here we see Ana ailing away on a boat, staring back at Michael in the bay. Looking at the mise-en-scene, we see the American flag taking up the right side of the shot. This links to historical context, as because of the happenings relating to Iraq and Al-Qaeda, this could connote Ana, an American, to be heroic in some sense, as she has survived the battle, and overcome the challenges, and are now sailing away to freedom, possibly hinting that America itself will overcome the terrible real-life tragedy that had happened in 9/11. This scene of Anna also goes against normal horror conventions, firstly as she looks more of a female victim yet she has survived, but also she is a lot stronger than most people, because even though she has lost her husband, and is now losing Michael. She looks sad, but refuses to cry, showing she can overcome turmoil and loss easily. This could be seen to represent the rise of feminism, linking it to the historical context of the time, as women are becoming more powerful, and independent. The high-key lighting and slow montage calms the audience’s emotions, putting them into the mournful state that Ana is feeling, making the scene more upsetting.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) Still analysis 2

Here we see Michael shooting the zombies just outside the backdoor of the mall, automatically comparing him to Flyboy of the 1979 version of DOTD, we clearly see a change in skill, and likability in him. He is also very skilled with his phallic weapon, a pistol, making him a more masculine character already, whereas Flyboy was useless with a bigger a more powerful rifle. Linking to the historical context, this scene is a classic example of how times have changed, where not only are the zombies a lot more realistic and scary looking, they are also a lot faster (fast moving monster), which strikes more fear into the audience of current times. This also makes it harder for the characters to escape, almost giving you a feeling of claustrophobia and being trapped.

The over the shoulder, medium close-up shot puts the audience into the scene, as if we are really standing behind Michael, and the zombies are coming after ‘us’, causing the audience to feel a little uncomfortable, but also wanting the characters to survive because we feel closer to them.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) Still analysis 1

Here we see a scene from the opening credits of Dawn of the Dead (DOTD, 2004), Directed by Zack. Here we can clearly see historical context being used. The movie has cleverly adapted to its early 2000’s audience, and tickled the fears of the population with this opening scene, and the others, of the ever growing fear of a war from the Middle East, but also from an experimental virus causing an apocalypse. Already the director, Zack Snyder, has appealed to the audience in the context of 2004. This is because of the massively devastating terrorist attacks, 9/11, and also the presence of the second Iraq war. The importance of understanding audience’s impact on film was written about by Janet Staiger in Interpreting Films (1992), who looked at appealing to the audience and their contexts more than anything. The use of black and white editing creates a dirty and more sinister look to the scene, and the eerie feeling is also a part of the soundtrack. Also upon analysis, the soundtrack makes references to biblical Armageddon, immediately setting the tone for the movie, and giving the audience a sense of what is going to happen.

Dawn of the Dead (1979) Still analysis 3

In this scene we see Francine in the foreground, with Stephen wrestling a zombie behind her. This scene is quite important and when analysed, we can see there is more than meets the eye. Firstly, and most importantly, we see Francine looking almost panicked and upset, worrying about the zombie that’s coming for her, but also the zombie that Stephen is tackling behind her. Although she is represented as a female victim, she refuses to scream like one. This is important as it goes against our expectations of horror conventions, and gives the audience a subtle hint that Francine may be more important to this movie than first anticipated. This goes against the generic conventions of the blonde female victim, which brings across Romero’s auteur style, as he likes challenging stereotypes.

Also included in the scene, we have our slow moving monsters, which although seem a bit useless, the fact that the zombie is slowly closing in on Francine builds a suspenseful atmosphere. Looking at cinematography, the scene goes from a medium close-up of Francine with the struggle in the background, to her point of view shot of the other zombie coming towards her, showing her confusion and almost dilemma whether to run, or help Stephen. This scene also shows Stephen as very small in the background, which helps connote his weakness.

Dawn of the Dead (1979) Still analysis 2

Here we can see Roger and Stephen in the middle of a field shooting zombies. The mise-en-scene in relatively empty which really makes us focus on Roger and Stephen. Looking at the phallic symbol of the gun, we can clearly see Roger is much better and more powerful than Stephen, as he has to take over because every time Stephen tries to shoot a zombie he keeps missing. This sort of challenges the horror conventions as we would expect Stephen to be generally quite powerful and eventually be a survivor in the film, as he is good looking, a TV weather reporter, and has a beautiful girlfriend, yet his consistent uselessness forces us to not like him.

The medium close up allows us to see both their reactions, and more prominently the looks of disappointment from Stephen. There is little body horror in this scene, just a little spurt of blood from the zombie after being shot by Roger. I feel this is done to make us concentrate more on the uselessness of Stephen, and again brings across Romero as an auteur as he has flipped the character stereotypes with Stephen.

Dawn of the Dead (1979) Still analysis 1

Here we see a scene from the ending of Dawn of the Dead (DOTD) 1979. We can see the two final characters: Francine and Peter. Looking at the director George A. Romero, we can clearly see from this final scene that he is an “auteur” (as written about by Andrew Sarris in “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962”) as he’s put in his own beliefs into this scene. Firstly, he’s challenged the stereotypical horror conventions, and has the survivors as the two people we would most expect to be killed off in a horror movie: a typical female looking victim – blonde hair, blue eyes, initially useless (not helping Stephen fight zombies at the refuel), yet as the movie goes on, the becomes stronger and more independent (learning to fly). Also Peter is a survivor, which is significant because Romero hated racism, being half Cuban himself, so challenged everybody’s expectations of those times and saved him. Romero also does this in Night of the Living Dead 1968, where Ben, played by Duane Jones, was the hero of the film. This may have caused some controversy due to the times, but Romero simply stated “he gave the best audition”.

The scene is depicted in a medium shot of Francine, with Peter being blurred in the background. This puts us into Francine’s emotional state, off the realisation they have just lost everyone they loved, and now have nowhere to go. The arrangement and mise-en-scene shows Fran’s strength, as she fills a lot of the frame and has a look of real power about her, especially since she is now in control of the aircraft. George Romero always tends to flip the character expectations. Although Peter, looking at themes, doesn’t fit into the CDI, as black soldiers were uncommon. He is also the hero of the film, and portrayed as very powerful, and the audience ends up rooting for him by the end of the film. 

Psycho (1960) Still analysis 3

 Here, we see the scene of ‘mother’ killing Arbogast. This scene has also has all the generic conventions of horror in it, as written by Thomas Schatz in his book Hollywood Genres (1982). Looking at the mise-en-scene, we see the use of a creepy and enclosed location, an old fashioned mansion in the middle of nowhere helps make the audience feel uncomfortable to watch it. The use of collision cutting is also very important for this scene, as it starts by Arbogast slowly walking to the house and up the stairs, to the then fast paced killing of him, partnered with a parallel, uncomfortable and harsh stabbing soundtrack, really emphasises the mood of the scene. The use of the bird’s eye view is also very clever as it creates an uneasy angle for the audience to view the scene from, but also allows the identity/ unveiling of mother to be kept a secret. This makes us question if it really is Norman’s mother as she is able to rapidly move through the hall way to overpower a grown man. Looking at the themes, we can associate the fear of death & violence to this scene as Arbogast is killed, and the suspense leading up to it gets the audience on the edge of their seat.

Psycho (1960) Still analysis 2

This is the famous show scene from Psycho, where the fate of Marion is finally decided. The prominent use of the knife is very important here, as it’s contradictory to the user, and our expectations. The knife is seen as a phallic symbol, which is generally used to represent male power, however, we clearly notice a seemingly female body is doing the stabbing and then running away, accompanied with the face constantly being shadowed/ off-screen. This makes the viewer question who the killer may be. The low-key lighting, along with the shower mist and more noticeably the rapid montage of the scene throws the viewer into an uneasy and disoriented viewing of the scene. Restricted narration had to be used for the killing of Marion due to the ‘Hays Code’ which was issued at the time, therefore we never actually see the knife penetrate Marion’s skin.‘Genre Theory’ written about by Thomas Schatz is important, as the fact that the scene has all generic conventions if horror. Some of the conventions featured are fast montages, between Marion screaming and mother stabbing her, female victim (Marion herself) and low-key lighting, all things that are expected in a horror film.

Also, we find that Hitchcock’s auteur style came through in this scene, as he is renowned for being quite an odd and sexually repressed person who, as demonstrated in this scene, is obsessed by blonde blue-eyed women, who are usually tortured. This is represented in Psycho by the killing of Marion. His obsession of tortured women is also represented from his film, Birds, where he stuck real bird crumbs in the actresses hair, causing the birds to actually peck at her scalp, causing her a great deal of pain.