Side-by-side poster/magazine work

Solo trailer review 3

Name of Film: Zombie Land
Year Released: 2009
Genre of film: Horror/comedy
Your mark: 77/10

Positive things about the trailer:

Very comedic and has a lot of famous celebrity's such as Bill Murey and Emma Stone
It has similar aspects with the fast moving monsters however in a comedic stances.
quick collision cutting and montage
music fits perfectly with the trailer.
a variety of shots and plenty of body horror

Negative things about the trailer:

a little slow
and hasn't got a clear narrative

Solo trailer review 2

Name of Film: World War Z
Year Released: 2013
Genre of film: Horror
Your mark: 7/10

Positive things about the trailer:

interesting concept and a new idea
it has a clear objective and narrative
the use of the fast moving monster (zombies) running on top of each other seems different and intimidating which creates tension.
the music fits well with the trailer

Negative things about the trailer:

It is very cheesy and not very scary
a bit slow and has rubbish special effects
doesn't have a very interesting beginning and very little jump scares

Solo trailer review 1

Name of Film: THE WALKING DEAD Season 3
Year Released: 2012
Genre of film: Horror
Your mark: 8.7/10

Positive things about the trailer:

the collision cutting from slow t quick scenes was very good
jiggered camera work which created tension
hidden narrative to confuse what's going on
ideal for the target audience of teenagers.

Negative things about the trailer:

It went on a little long
The scenes were not very clear of what the narrative was.
as well as this it wasn't very scary and quite slow.

Evaluation part 3

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used new media for research and planning for my film trailer “Ring Rosie”. I searched many trailers on to YouTube like The Walking Dead, World War Z, and Dawn of the Dead (2004) all of these showed different types of zombies such as slow, mutant or runner ones. All of this gave me insight of what to use for my final piece of work.

 I also used imdb.com to help me show what the most popular rated zombie movies are out there which is The Walking Dead with a 8.7, while the least rated zombie movie is Pontypool with only a 6.7. However, we felt even with a score in the 6’s the zombie sub-genre of horror has a lot of mass appeal.

General horrors DVDs also influenced my trailer of watching many films and techniques which I could include like Clover field with the use of the “handheld” camera as well as Birdman with the continuous longer shots to give a feeling of immediacy.

Other technology I used was Wikipedia to show the origin where zombies came from and the research showed zombies featured widely in Haitian rural folklore, as dead persons physically revived by the act of necromancy of a bokor sorcerer (the bokor is a witch-like figure.) Zombies remain under the control of the bokor as their personal slaves, since they have no will of their own. There also exists within the Haitian tradition called the "zombie astral", which is a part of the human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's spiritual power.  This showed me the life behind of a zombie however I made it more modern by following the path of “the dead will walk the earth” or – as they say in Dawn of the Dead (1979) “when there’s no more room in hell the dead will walk the earth.”

I used media for my construction of my trailer by the use of Premier Pro. In making my trailer one technique I used was the amount of brightness and contrast I used in my shots. The shots we used were to too bright due to the winter sun being in a horror trailer. Therefore, we put the brightness down as well as slightly increasing the contrast to make it look darker and more sinister. We did this to all of the shots. Another technique I used was razor cutting the shots in half and put a zombie sequence in the middle to create a different effect. As well as this I also used copyright-free music – which was a version of “Ring of Rosies” we found online, and then added intertitles so as they show up on the screen the music fit perfectly with it and looks very neat. I also used adobe after effects to create the animated inter-titles and that the filter/animation I used on there was called “dissolve,” which creates a ghostly effect

For my magazine and movie poster I used Adobe Photoshop to make the idea of Ring Rosie come to life. One technique I used was a selective colouring effect on the main character in my poster as well as this added the saturation up to make the subject much brighter to add emphasis. In my magazine I increased the contrast to make everything seem more edgy and darker to prove it was a horror magazine. The fonts I used were from the website DaFont and the font which I used in my poster is called “Heaven Gate” and the font in my magazine is called “Zombie.”

Lastly, I used media technologies to evaluate my product with the use of my blogs also anyone can see as well putting up on YouTube to make sure it is easy to access. The focus group screening from my whole class gave me a rough cut of what to improve in my shots and what I should do for my final piece. My friends also shared the trailer on their Facebook accounts and a few comments saying “it was good” and so on. Hopefully my final piece won’t be too bad with the second final screening and I will get a high mark overall. 

1-3 Original photos (poster)

Focus G. screening

Ring Rosie Final Cut

1-3 original photos (magazine)

Side by side cover analysis

Side by side poster analysis

Choice of trailer type

The choice of trailer type I will be doing is an action horror. the film is about zombies are invading the world and two best friends fight for survival, however at the end of the trailer one of the friends dies by being bitten. in the end it shows the main character Rosie as the final girl and even though shes surrounded in zombies she still wants to fight. it shows a new modern view on a horror trailer, with it being all female cast and the survivor at the end is a tough girl it shows a new view on a "bad ass".

History of horror

Horror is an ancient art form. We have tried to terrify each other with tales that trigger the less logical parts of our imaginations for as long as we've told stories. From the ballads of the ancient world to modern urban myths, audiences willingly offer themselves up to sadistic storytellers to be scared witless, and they are happy to pay for the privilege. Theories abound as to why this is so; do we derive basic thrills from triggering the rush of adrenalin which fear brings, or do horror stories serve a wider moral purpose, reinforcing the rules and taboos of our society and showing the macabre fate of those who transgress?

Horror movies have long served both purposes. They deliver thrills by the hearseload, as well as telling us stories of the dark, forbidden side of life (and death) – cautionary tales for grown ups. They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time. Nosferatu (1922) is not simply a tale of vampirism, but offers heart-rending images of a town beleaguered by premature and random deaths, echoes of the Great War and the Great Flu Epidemic fatalities. At the other end of the century Blade (1998) is not just a tale of vampirism either, but reflects a fear of the powerful yet irresponsible elements in society, a lawless elite, echoes down the corridor of the growing invincibility of those at the top. Horror movies of the early 21st century cogitate on global concerns of contagion (28 Days Later), or sound reactionary warning notes about the dangers of leaving moral absolutism behind (The Last Exorcism, The Conjuring). Horror movies provide a unique space for free discourse about the moral, political and societal shifts in our communal paradigms.

Each generation gets the horror films it deserves, and one of the more fascinating aspects of the study of the genre is the changing nature of the monsters who present a threat. In the early 1940s, a world living under the shadow of Hitler's predatory tendencies identified a part-man, part-wolf as their boogeyman, whose bestial nature caused him to tear apart those who crossed his path. In the 1990s however, there was no need for a part wolf component: Jonathan Doe (Se7en 1994) and Hannibal Lecter (Manhunter 1986, Silence of the Lambs 1991, Hannibal 2001) were entirely human in their calculated and stylised killing methods. As we move on into the twenty first century, the ghosts and zombies are back in vogue as Eastern and Western superstitions converge, and once more we yearn for an evil that is beyond human. In an era of war and waterboarding, supernatural terror is more palatable than the fear inherent in news headlines.

Evaluation 2

Part 2 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

My movie poster I created for my trailer Ring Rosie is a shot of the main character standing with a gun looking into a black and white forest. This is a key aspect of a movie poster called iconography where it tells the story in a subtle way. My poster gives a subtle way of showing it is a zombie movie and actually shows shots of the actual trailer. It also shows interest & incentives where it gives you a cliff hanger of what the woman on the poster is going to do with the gun, and what the actual movie is about. Another key aspect is the style I used is the style of the black and white background; it is almost similar to the background in the similar poster for Insidious with a dark mise-en-scene and character in the front. The horror conventions of my poster and the Insidious poster are the main character/villain as well as washed out colour. As well as this the text matches the story line i.e. from the forest.

In my magazine cover the key aspects I included was the colouring of blood red and
black it really signifies the horror feel of fanzine style magazines such as Scream and Fangoria.

As well using the intertitles saying it’s the “UK’s biggest horror magazine” it gives a popular vibe of horror to the audience. I also used pictures from my trailer which I used to look like different films and added names which sound like real horror films. While Ring Rosie is the focus of the cover, I also wanted to show my magazine covered a range of similar low budget action/gory horror films.

To finish the cover, I even included a sticker at the top saying 100 favourite horror films of the 2000’s, which would draw in fans of a wide variety of horror films. Another key aspect I used was the main image of a wounded girl holding on to an axe with a hand still attached showing the zombie apocalypse is a war. Even though this is not included in the trailer it still shows the zombie feel, and makes Ring Rosie have more of an epic scale, similar to World War Z.

My magazine cover also includes a few horror conventions such as iconography with props with the axe in the main image as well as the background is blood red and black the character types such as the person in the main image could be said to be the “final girl” or a “slow moving monster” as she’s about to turn into a zombie. As well as this, the colour scheme includes reds and black to connote the theme is horror. I deliberately designed it to look dark and scary for the audience.

Movie Poster

My poster and film magazine fit into my trailer by the style of it. The magazine shows an almost empty feel as in the actual trailer it has this slow eeriness to it which follows through quite nicely in the poster. While the magazine cover has similar black/red/grey colours to the trailer and again the emptiness was intentional as it fits nicely with the mood of the trailer. As my trailer is about the people instead of the slow moving monster it gives a rare focus that is why not many jump-scares are show as well no close-ups of the face or eyes in the magazine cover. Unlike  the magazine Empire with Hell Boy’s face so you no exactly what the movie is about ( A demon)



Horror Magazine

The audience I am aiming for is around 15+ as it’s gory but not necessarily for only 18+. It could appeal to the Sight and Sound audience as well as the fanzine market because it does focus on the feminist aspect. Like the Walking Dead it follows the same view of focuses on the survivors, broadening its appeal to a mass market.

Evaluation 1

My Horror trailer Ring Rosie fits the horror genre with the use of gore and body horror, I tried to make it seem as realistic as possible and added many bruises over the scars. I also used quick shots and had a variety of different shots – especially close-ups to create drama – to maximise the emotional effect. As well as this the parallel music I used was very intense and it put people on edge, creating the feel of an action packed gory horror.

  

Thomas Schatz wrote the importance of genre which he talked about how the genre of a film makes the most money; a horror film fits with horror fans and therefor makes more money. The use of feminism can bring in more of a crowd. Dawn of the Dead (2004) inspired me the most with the use of fast-paced zombies (seen in the above screenshot) however the TV series Walking Dead especially inspired me with the amount of special effects I could use. An example of a special effect from the series is in the first season when a zombie in the well gets ripped in half it showed amazing body horror and looked very believable. Both have an interesting narrative and bring in many different audiences judging by the amount of lovers for zombie based films and TV series.  There are 15.7 million viewers who watch the Walking Dead which sows it’s a very popular show on TV.
 

I used archetypes with the “final girl” and the “female victim” this shows a view of feminism with two girls fighting rather than being saved by the “male hero”. In my horror trailer I also used conventional mise-en-scene with the use of props and costumes and plenty of non-diegetic (soundtrack) and diegetic sound (sound fx).

Pacing was important to create using collision cutting. This caused it to do quiet to loud then quiet and loud right at the end for a jump scare. This all created suspense and jump scares. As well I added a slow build up which included a show of the main characters going to the graveyard and you can see their friendship and it builds more and more with the zombies overcrowding and Rosie’s friend dying; this added more tension.

  

With Ring Rosie, I wanted to recreate the style of the World War Z Trailer as it uses collision cutting and goes from a happy family to running away from zombies. Even though I do not like the film the feel of the trailer really inspired me to make a zombie trailer myself.

The Auteur who inspired me to bring into my trailer was Frank Darabont, the original director and producer of The Walking Dead. Even though this is a TV series this still inspires me as the atmosphere and the amount of jump scares/body horror just typifies the “zombie” horror sub-genre.

What makes my trailer distinctive from other trailers is the feminism and the archetypes which make up the film, instead of using the same male hero and the main protagonist the fact the final girl is the hero really changes the stereotype that women can’t be tough.

The distinctive thing about my trailer is the editing. We cross-cut and use the same clips a few times to create suspense while also making it a flashback in a trailer. The fact while the music is quite slow and builds up in this intense why it adds suspense. The song fits perfectly with the mood of zombies as it talks about the black plague (“A Tissue, A Tissue, We All Fall Down”) as well as it fits in the title which gives us a strong edge.

My film in my opinion reflected it’s historical (institutional – this means zombies are popular in the media industry at the moment. Historical would mean there are zombies in the real-life context of 2015) content with zombies. Zombies were meant to be slow and followed in groups and that’s what I showed. I would have preferred there be more zombies however the whole class helped and we gathered 14 zombies at one time, which made an impact of the character feeling trapped. The thing I changed was the stereotypes of women being protected; as this was an all-girl cast and production crew it showed the main character Rosie being good with a gun and become a final girl.