Theories

Hypodermic Syringe - developed in the 1940's this theory suggests that the audience is represented as being passive and media institutions/organisations 'inject' they beliefs and views into the audience and in turn they accept this information as being the truth.

Disadvantages of applying the theory is that we cant cross reference it to the 1940's as times have changed dramatically.

This theory can be strongly applied to young children as they are the leas likely age group to question what they see, quite often in U and PG rated films, life lessons i.e. smoking is dangerous are interwoven into the film so the children are taught.

An example of when the hypodermic syringe model comes into practise is on April 1st (April fools day). the media can release a story and more often than not the audience are likely to believe what they see. As people we like to think that we are active not passive but in this instance we are not.

The hypodermic model can be applied to the film "Natural Born Killers" according to this model, if an audience sees the characters in the film getting away with their crimes and being romanticised, then the view will take the message accept it and imitate it.

An example of this in the film industry is "Fatal Desire" a movie based on the real life murder of Brian Miller and has reportedly been influenced by other murders. Another example is "clockwork orange" which was banned through fear of imitation of the violence.

The hypodermic model should not affect our trailer because we haven't created any violence that can be replicated.

Storyboard for Trailer

During our planning, we designed a storyboard that will guide us through while we are shooting our trailer. We also provided a clip by clip commentary showing, the different techniques, camera shots/positions and edits that we will use.

Pitching our film narrative

In our lesson with both teachers and the class present, as a group we pitched the beginning idea's of our horror film and what would go into the trailer, we did this in order to gain audience feedback as part of research.

We originally pitched the idea of:

At the beginning a young family are travelling, they have a car crash in which the child dies and the parents survive. Throughout the car journey the child was singing a lullaby. As the film continues the reoccurring theme would be the lullaby being heard and the dead child being seen by the parents.

After we had pitched our idea, the class and our teachers asked us questions and suggested ideas that might improve and add to our trailer further. By doing this it was good to get audience feedback, in a discussion group. This will only help us to improve our coursework further and not hinder it in any way.

Some of the suggestion were; the idea of the child just reappearing throughout the trailer and not doing anything, was weak. This made us re-think this idea and we made it more interesting, now the child is more involved and does things to its mother i.e. pushing her down the stairs, this shows the child's thirst for revenge, as her parents appear to have moved on.

Another comment that was made was that we needed something extra in the car crash seen, like a tipping point that caused the crash in the first place. From this criticism we decided that an argument between the parents would cause the crash, so then the audience would witness why the parents feel the guilt they do, as they are the reason their child died.

What is the purpose of a teaser trailer?

The purpose of a teaser trailer is to give an audience a quick glimpse into the film, they usually last around 30 seconds. They are aimed at attracting an audience and generating hype around the film and to see the audiences reaction towards the film will be and from this they can determine the films success. They usually consist of jump cuts and quick edits between the film scenes, letting the audience see some of the action and story. The trailers are often shown during a commercial break on the TV as this means a lot of people will view it. The benefits of people discussing the film in advance is that, it generates interest around the film, it also attracts media attention as, magazines, websites newspapers etc. recognise people are interested in something and do features on this, to make them buy there product.

However, some teaser trailers do not contain material from the film as they are released well in advance and so often just show the film title and release date, an example of this is the 'Davinci Code'.

I also did some research into Horror teaser trailers as this is my chosen genre to base my coursework on.
As i viewed horror trailers, all that i watched stick to Toderov's theory, however some like "Orphan" left out an ending equilibrium - this makes people want to go and see it to find out the ending. Also the use of provocative language from the narrator e.g. "you'll never guess her secret" draws people in and makes them want to go and watch it.

The audience are in constant wait of something scary about to happen, however they don't know when this will happen and so this adds to the tension, and to the "scare" factor. People watch films in order to be scared. The action doesn't happen straight away - its delayed until around 1 minute into the trailer. Some of the main story line is established before the audience is "shocked". In sequels e.g. "S.Darko" and "Ghostbusters" the same piece of music is used so people can relate back to the original.

The trailers i watched lasted around 1 to 2 minutes.
In my opinion the more effective trailers did not use a voice over; they just have a recognisable song/tune played over the top of them. Although with the use of a voice over it can help people to understand the film a bit better. Words appearing across the screen also seemed to be an effective technique.

All of the trailers have quick edits, more towards the end to release the built up tension, the pace of the music also quickens and all edits are in time with the music, the music builds up to a crescendo at the end.

Research into the Horror Genre - Looking at the marketing of Cloverfield

Cloverfield

As part of my research into the horror genre, I evaluated the film trailer for 'Cloverfield' in order to look at the marketing aspects of the trailer.

Genre: Mystery/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Release Date:1st February 2008 (UK)
18th January 2008 (USA)
23rd January 2008 (France)
Certification:15 (UK)
PG 13 (USA)
Director:Matt Reeves
Writer:Drew Goddard
Actors:Lizzy Caplin, Jessica Lucas, TJ Miller
Institution:Paramount, Bad Robot
Marketing and Promotion:Website, Trailer, Posters

Conventions of Facebook/MySpace

• Display photographs


• User information - friends, general public, advertising
  
• Privacy Settings


• Free for users


• Instant messaging


• Global Community


• Isolating activity


• Elements of blogging


• Games

Cloverfield and Myspace

Before a film is release a company normally sets up a myspace or facebook page for the characters of the film. People then log onto these profiles under the impression that they are real people. this generates publicity and hype for the film as people like and associate themselves with the characters.

Film Poster

This is the film poster for the spoof film "Shaun of the Dead". The title of the film is directly in the middle, in bold white lettering, it can be clearly seen and so this is good for promotion and advertising.

The pun at the top of the poster relates to the picture, and shows that through the use of a pun the film is in fact a spoof. The colour scheme of red and black is still typically associated with horror, however the white is not, and so this challenges the normal conventions of a horror poster.

The poster still includes all of the normal conventions like, the credits at the bottom, informing people about who is/was involved. Also underneath the title, in smaller writing is a tag line advertising the film as "a romantic comedy with zombies", this will broaden the audience, as more people may be attracted by the "romantic" element advertised; particularly woman who may not normally go and see a horror film.

After reviewing some film posters, I recognised that the majority of posters contain 10 major components these being:

1.Classification - this is there to tell the audience whether the film is suitable for them to watch. The rating will be done according to the BBFC guidelines.

2. Main Image - often a still from the film or a picture of the characters.

3. Title - the title of the film is often at the top of the poster. This is how the audience identify the film

4. Logo - sometimes appears, not always though as often it makes the poster look too crowded.

5. Tag line - entices the audience in as it often sets an enigma.

6. Release date - lets the audience know when they can see the film

7. Names of cast - happens more often with a film that has 'big names' e.g. Tom Cruise, as they are globally recognised and bring a massive fan base with them.

8. Reviews - reference from critics, often a star rating

9. Names of producers - often at the bottom of the poster

10. Previous films by the producer - there best films are often referred to and so if people liked that film then they might like the new one.

Questionnaire

As part of our planning and research we devised a semi- structured questionnaire asking 20 people between the ages of 15 and 18 as this will be the audience I intend on targeting their opinions on film genres and teaser trailers. We did this in order to find out our target audience and use this questionnaire to help guide our coursework projects in order to cater for that audience.

1.What is your sex? (this is important as it may have an influence or show a link between answers)

2. How old are you? ( Also can have an important influence on any answer given)

3.What are your favourite film genres? ( We need to know this, to see which genre's are most popular overall)

4. Why do these genres attract you ? ( knowing this we will know what to include in our trailer)

5. What do you consider when choosing a film? ( It is important to know this so that i can include their points in my products and attract an audience)

6. What is your favourite film?

7. What promotional methods attract you to a film and why? (This will help me with production)

8. Do you find trailers helpful when deciding on a film?

9. What is your preferred method of watching a film?

10. Why do you tend to watch films?

Results

* 4 out the 8 woman asked said there favourite genre was horror, alongside romance.

* 10 out of the 12 men asked favoured horror and the 2 that did not favoured action.

* When it came to why people watch films, the most popular answers were, to entertain them, to scare them, to make them laugh and cry.

*Everyone said trailers were useful when making a decision

* The most common promotional method listed was, a poster in a magazine or on a billboard