To help us to understand what our target audience would like to see in our film and whether or not our product is good, we were asked to create a focus group of a few people who fit our target audience. We would then show them our storyboard and tell them our ideas whilst being recorded, then ask them questions surrounding our product. We can then take in their comments and advice and use this feedback to better our product. Our focus group must contain mostly boys as our target audience is mostly male. These boys must be within the age range of 15-25+ and enjoy horror/thriller themes.
UPDATE: 02/03/12
After recording our focus group, issues arose and we needed to transfer our project to a different location. During this process, the audio file for the focus group was lost and is irretrievable. However, to help us with audience feedback, we had written a transcript during the recording. What Daniel and I said is in bold:
Daniel: For our A2 production we are going to do a film trailer in the horror genre, but with a slasher sub-genre in mind. We have got a group of people here to present our ideas to.
Melissa: Our film trailer will be advertising a new slasher horror film named "Black Magic". The storyline of our film is that a failed magician is on a hunt to find the perfect glamourous assistant but kills each girl in the process. First of all, can I ask you if you like the horror genre?
Barney: Yeah, I watch them on a regular basis.
Luke: It's my favourite film genre.
Jodie: I wouldn't normally watch them, but I have enjoyed the one's that I have seen.
Scott: Yeah, I watch them.
Daniel: We've got a storyboard here to present to you to give you an idea of how the final piece is going to look.
Melissa: From looking at our storyboard, what are your initial thoughts on our film trailer?
Jodie: It looks a bit like a psychological style film.
Barney: I can imagine it as a real film, I like the idea.
Scott: I like the 'quick scare' at the end, it would probably make me jump.
Luke: It looks intruiging.
Daniel: Would you be interested in seeing this film in the cinemas?
Luke: Yes, definitely.
Scott: Probably.
Barney: I would give it a go.
Jodie: I'm not sure. It looks good but I'm just not in to horror.
Melissa: From hearing our pitch and seeing our storyboard, what do you think to our overall idea?
Scott: I do like it, it looks eerie.
Luke: It will be different, the magician idea is unique.
Jodie: It looks like a real trailer so yeah.
Barney: Maybe there should be more magician style objects within the trailer, like a box that he uses in his acts and things.
Daniel: What improvements would you suggest to make the final production better?
Jodie: Like what Barney just said, add more of a magician feel.
Barney: Yeah.
Luke: I like it but not the way the title screen font is, with the lightbulbs. It needs to look scarier, less glamourous.
Scott: I like it all, I'm not sure what to say to that question.
Melissa: Thank you for taking part.
Thursday 24 November 2011
Thursday 17 November 2011
Theories - 17/11/11
In today's lesson we learnt about several different theories that people have had about the media since it's birth. Knowing about these theories gives us a better understanding of media and how it works, and will help us when we create our own product. These theories are known as Hypodermic Needle Theory, Two Step Flow, Uses and Gratifications Theory, Reception Theory and finally the theory of Vladimir Propp.
Hypodermic Needle Theory 1920's: a crude theory depicted during the first two decades of mass media suggesting that the information from a text passes into the mass conscious of the audience without them realising. This basically means that people watch/read media and it's 'injected' into their minds, and that's it - that's what they believe. No processing, no opinions, like zombies. It suggests that as an audience we are easily manipulated by the creators of media and directly influenced by this. It assumes that audiences are passive and heterogeneous. Governments used this theory in order to distribute propaganda. Parents and other adults still quote this theory today as they think that video games influence youths, for example, the boy who shot his parents after playing Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Two Step Flow 1955: Theorists Lazarfeld and Katz later decided that the Hypodermic Needle Theory was wrong as it didn't take into account the individuality of the audience. They realised that people receive information, process it and then take what they want from it using their own opinions. They said that there are two types of audience - the 'opinions leaders' who influence their own opinions about mass media and the people who are influenced by the opinion leaders and have the media filtered in their minds. Hitler was an opinion leader who influenced an entire army.
Uses and Gratifications Theory 1974: Theorists Blulmer and Katz decided that the audience has certain needs that the media for-fills. These 'jobs' that the media takes on then gratify the audience. The audience needs to be: Informed
Educated
Entertained
Able to identify with characters
Able to socially interact with others/discuss with them
Able to escape
Reception Theory 1980's-90's: This theory suggests that the media encodes their product and the audience subconsciously decodes it. People decode the product differently which leads to different interpretations. When a media product sticks to conventions, it's called 'preferred reading'.
Vladimir Propp - This theorist said that every story we ever come across will have a basic set of elements. Within this theory he said that there are different character categories which are as follows:
Villain - the bad guy
Donor - someone who gives the hero something
Helper - someone who helps the hero, e.g. sidekick
Princess - the prize of the story, usually a girl for the hero to love
Dispatcher - the one who gives the hero his mission
Hero - the good guy
False hero - the one who almost gets the Princess, sometimes the villain too
Theorists Strauss and Bathes used Propps theory for their own ideas.
Hypodermic Needle Theory 1920's: a crude theory depicted during the first two decades of mass media suggesting that the information from a text passes into the mass conscious of the audience without them realising. This basically means that people watch/read media and it's 'injected' into their minds, and that's it - that's what they believe. No processing, no opinions, like zombies. It suggests that as an audience we are easily manipulated by the creators of media and directly influenced by this. It assumes that audiences are passive and heterogeneous. Governments used this theory in order to distribute propaganda. Parents and other adults still quote this theory today as they think that video games influence youths, for example, the boy who shot his parents after playing Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Two Step Flow 1955: Theorists Lazarfeld and Katz later decided that the Hypodermic Needle Theory was wrong as it didn't take into account the individuality of the audience. They realised that people receive information, process it and then take what they want from it using their own opinions. They said that there are two types of audience - the 'opinions leaders' who influence their own opinions about mass media and the people who are influenced by the opinion leaders and have the media filtered in their minds. Hitler was an opinion leader who influenced an entire army.
Uses and Gratifications Theory 1974: Theorists Blulmer and Katz decided that the audience has certain needs that the media for-fills. These 'jobs' that the media takes on then gratify the audience. The audience needs to be: Informed
Educated
Entertained
Able to identify with characters
Able to socially interact with others/discuss with them
Able to escape
Reception Theory 1980's-90's: This theory suggests that the media encodes their product and the audience subconsciously decodes it. People decode the product differently which leads to different interpretations. When a media product sticks to conventions, it's called 'preferred reading'.
Vladimir Propp - This theorist said that every story we ever come across will have a basic set of elements. Within this theory he said that there are different character categories which are as follows:
Villain - the bad guy
Donor - someone who gives the hero something
Helper - someone who helps the hero, e.g. sidekick
Princess - the prize of the story, usually a girl for the hero to love
Dispatcher - the one who gives the hero his mission
Hero - the good guy
False hero - the one who almost gets the Princess, sometimes the villain too
Theorists Strauss and Bathes used Propps theory for their own ideas.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Presentation, Representation, Narrative Todorov's Theory - 09/11/11
The presentations that we created last time were not up to the standard that our teacher was happy with, and so she gave us a guide on how to make perfect presentations and how to present that in a good way. Using this feedback, we created new presentations that featured examples of horror trailers and whether or not our trailer will conform or subvert the codes and conventions from the last presentation we made. There were six slides to this presentation including a title page once again.
On the second slide, I made a bullet point list of the typical conventions within a trailer just to recap, and then used this bullet points to explain around when presenting instead of just reading off the slide like last time. These bullet points were as follows:
Dim lighting
Music
Voice over
Content
I explained once again how there is usually little or no lighting within a horror trailer as it adds to the fear of the unknown, how there is no music in modern trailers but eerie quiet music in the old ones, how there is usually no voice over in modern trailers but in the old ones there was usually a deep-pitched man speaking to act like the villain, and how the trailer never gives anything away but only showing the build up to important scenes and then cutting the actual action.
The next slide is where the examples began. My first example was The Saw Series. I placed a link to the trailer for the first Saw film which is also accessible here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1lgXhFbXy4 Embedding the link within my presentation meant that the class could watch it and then understand why I used it as an example and the different elements it has. I then bullet pointed the key features of the trailer that were conventional, which were that it had dim lighting, little content, no music and no voice over. I talked around these points to give the class true detail, such as the reasons why these conventions were kept and what effect they give.
The second example on slide three was of The Nightmare on Elm Street Series, the trailer to the 2010 version of the first film being here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SulpWn6Glk&feature=related I bullet pointed similar conventions such as the dim lighting, little content and no voice over but there was also a new element to this trailer - a chilling child-song. This famous song sung by small children is conventional of older trailers from around the same era as the original Nightmare on Elm Street film. It's the typical eerie and quiet music, only expressed as a nursery rhyme to create a more spine-tingling atmosphere, and is quite original and unique, as if the creators of this film trailer may have subverted to the conventions of trailers at that time.
The third example I used was Texas Chainsaw Massacre, linked up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mra_Z3cpGCM I noted with this trailer that as well as the typical dim lighting and lack of voice over, it also has very dramatic music throughout which gives the audience a sense that there will be a lot of action in this film. The trailer also contrasts from beginning to end - at the start, there are a few happy young people laughing and enjoying themselves on a drive. At the end, they're bloody and terrified of something that's coming after them. This shows the audience how realistic it could be, that even when it's sunny and everyone's having fun, danger can attack from anywhere. This would scare the audience more than the conventional ways would, as it means that they're never safe.
Our final slide pin pointed how our trailer will mostly conform to the codes and conventions of horror trailers, as we will have dim lighting, eerie music called "The Sound of Silence" that eventually gets heavier, no voice over and the stereotypical male villain and female victim. The only way in which our trailer subverts conventions is that in horror trailers - in fact, in any genre of trailer - it usually shows the best bits of the film in a short compilation. Our trailer, however, will be one long sequence of an entire scene, with bits of it cut out so as not to spoil the action of the film.
In today's lesson we also learnt about representation, narrative and Todorov's theory.
Representation
This is how characters and ideas are put across in media. Using our idea for our A2 horror film trailer product, we created a mind map about representation:
Identification of Characters: magician is a psychopath, insane, put across by how he acts and what he does. The girl is the victim and is vulnerable, so her clothes will be torn and face dirty, tears on face constantly.
Representational Concepts: gender is stereotypically used within our film trailer; a dark, domineering, powerful man attacking a vulnerable, young, beautiful girl. This links into Stereotypical Representations.
Elements: the magician has a vacant yet focussed facial expression and looks directly at what he desires, e.g. the girl. He wears formal, conventional magicians clothing e.g. a suit, top hat and cane. He will act ecstatic and creepy. The girl has a terrified facial expression throughout and her eyes flutter about glancing around. She wears torn casual clothes. She will scream and act scared and worried.
Other Representations: the setting will be a long dark corridor, and a dusty dark room. The location will be an abandoned looking area, isolated and deathly.
Conform/Subvert?: We do conform to the idea of a magician in a suit and top hat, and the to girl having torn clothes and a dirty bloody face, and their gender roles in the film. This is all very conventional of typical horror films, therefore nothing has been subverted.
Narrative
This is the way in which the trailer has been structured and the storyline behind it. We once again used our idea for our A2 horror film trailer product to create another mind map.
Narrative Structure: a crazy magician kills girls whilst searching for the perfect glamorous assistant.
Narrative Techniques: mystery - you don't see much of the antagonist. Lingering shots that build tension for the audience.
Establishment: we have an antagonist and a back story to go with him, lot's of vulnerable female victims and conventional settings such as dark nights and rainy weather.
Adhere/subvert: we do adhere to the narrative conventions of horror/slasher trailers.
Todorov's Theory
Todorov said that all stories you come across have the same five stages which are equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair disruption and reinstatement of equilibrium. In more detail:
Equilibrium: setting is established, key characters are introduced, storyline is set up.
Disruption: oppositional character(s) appear and the story takes particular direction.
Recognition of disruption: lives of characters and events interweave, tension builds (often longest section)
Attempt to repair disruption: highest point of tension - change in dynamic after this
Reinstatement of equilibrium: matters are sorted out, problems are solved, questions answered.
On the second slide, I made a bullet point list of the typical conventions within a trailer just to recap, and then used this bullet points to explain around when presenting instead of just reading off the slide like last time. These bullet points were as follows:
Dim lighting
Music
Voice over
Content
I explained once again how there is usually little or no lighting within a horror trailer as it adds to the fear of the unknown, how there is no music in modern trailers but eerie quiet music in the old ones, how there is usually no voice over in modern trailers but in the old ones there was usually a deep-pitched man speaking to act like the villain, and how the trailer never gives anything away but only showing the build up to important scenes and then cutting the actual action.
The next slide is where the examples began. My first example was The Saw Series. I placed a link to the trailer for the first Saw film which is also accessible here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1lgXhFbXy4 Embedding the link within my presentation meant that the class could watch it and then understand why I used it as an example and the different elements it has. I then bullet pointed the key features of the trailer that were conventional, which were that it had dim lighting, little content, no music and no voice over. I talked around these points to give the class true detail, such as the reasons why these conventions were kept and what effect they give.
The second example on slide three was of The Nightmare on Elm Street Series, the trailer to the 2010 version of the first film being here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SulpWn6Glk&feature=related I bullet pointed similar conventions such as the dim lighting, little content and no voice over but there was also a new element to this trailer - a chilling child-song. This famous song sung by small children is conventional of older trailers from around the same era as the original Nightmare on Elm Street film. It's the typical eerie and quiet music, only expressed as a nursery rhyme to create a more spine-tingling atmosphere, and is quite original and unique, as if the creators of this film trailer may have subverted to the conventions of trailers at that time.
The third example I used was Texas Chainsaw Massacre, linked up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mra_Z3cpGCM I noted with this trailer that as well as the typical dim lighting and lack of voice over, it also has very dramatic music throughout which gives the audience a sense that there will be a lot of action in this film. The trailer also contrasts from beginning to end - at the start, there are a few happy young people laughing and enjoying themselves on a drive. At the end, they're bloody and terrified of something that's coming after them. This shows the audience how realistic it could be, that even when it's sunny and everyone's having fun, danger can attack from anywhere. This would scare the audience more than the conventional ways would, as it means that they're never safe.
Our final slide pin pointed how our trailer will mostly conform to the codes and conventions of horror trailers, as we will have dim lighting, eerie music called "The Sound of Silence" that eventually gets heavier, no voice over and the stereotypical male villain and female victim. The only way in which our trailer subverts conventions is that in horror trailers - in fact, in any genre of trailer - it usually shows the best bits of the film in a short compilation. Our trailer, however, will be one long sequence of an entire scene, with bits of it cut out so as not to spoil the action of the film.
In today's lesson we also learnt about representation, narrative and Todorov's theory.
Representation
This is how characters and ideas are put across in media. Using our idea for our A2 horror film trailer product, we created a mind map about representation:
Identification of Characters: magician is a psychopath, insane, put across by how he acts and what he does. The girl is the victim and is vulnerable, so her clothes will be torn and face dirty, tears on face constantly.
Representational Concepts: gender is stereotypically used within our film trailer; a dark, domineering, powerful man attacking a vulnerable, young, beautiful girl. This links into Stereotypical Representations.
Elements: the magician has a vacant yet focussed facial expression and looks directly at what he desires, e.g. the girl. He wears formal, conventional magicians clothing e.g. a suit, top hat and cane. He will act ecstatic and creepy. The girl has a terrified facial expression throughout and her eyes flutter about glancing around. She wears torn casual clothes. She will scream and act scared and worried.
Other Representations: the setting will be a long dark corridor, and a dusty dark room. The location will be an abandoned looking area, isolated and deathly.
Conform/Subvert?: We do conform to the idea of a magician in a suit and top hat, and the to girl having torn clothes and a dirty bloody face, and their gender roles in the film. This is all very conventional of typical horror films, therefore nothing has been subverted.
Narrative
This is the way in which the trailer has been structured and the storyline behind it. We once again used our idea for our A2 horror film trailer product to create another mind map.
Narrative Structure: a crazy magician kills girls whilst searching for the perfect glamorous assistant.
Narrative Techniques: mystery - you don't see much of the antagonist. Lingering shots that build tension for the audience.
Establishment: we have an antagonist and a back story to go with him, lot's of vulnerable female victims and conventional settings such as dark nights and rainy weather.
Adhere/subvert: we do adhere to the narrative conventions of horror/slasher trailers.
Todorov's Theory
Todorov said that all stories you come across have the same five stages which are equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair disruption and reinstatement of equilibrium. In more detail:
Equilibrium: setting is established, key characters are introduced, storyline is set up.
Disruption: oppositional character(s) appear and the story takes particular direction.
Recognition of disruption: lives of characters and events interweave, tension builds (often longest section)
Attempt to repair disruption: highest point of tension - change in dynamic after this
Reinstatement of equilibrium: matters are sorted out, problems are solved, questions answered.
Thursday 3 November 2011
Presentation on Conventions of Horror Trailers - 03/11/11
We were asked previous to today's lesson to create a Power Point Presentation on the codes and conventions of horror trailers, which would help us to improve our understanding on how they are created and how we need to make our trailers. My presentation had five slides in total including the title page.
Slide two was about the music within horror trailers. I explained how it is one of the main elements of old horror trailers as it sets the atmosphere for what the film is going to be about and creates the right amount of tension depending on the content of the film itself. I pointed out how it is usually an eerie noise, maybe starting off quiet and slow but eventually building up into a big noise. This could lead to a sudden silence to invoke more tension and fear into the audience. Most modern horror trailers don't have any music at all during the trailer, as for some people, utter silence is the worst sound of all, therefore it would be playing on the audience's fears.
The next slide was about the voice over featured within a horror trailer. I outlined how the voice over must be deep, creepy or lingering to make the effect of it being the villain who is speaking. Short, snappy sentences leaves the audience with a lack of detail, making them want to learn more and therefore watch the film. In a lot of modern horror trailers there is no voice over, which makes the trailer seem more real and suspense-filled.
The next slide indicated the importance of what content is used within the genre of horror trailers. I explained how showing very little of the film or the gore/scares builds a fear of the unknown for the audience and also intrigues them into watching the film. For example, is a lot of trailers we would see something like: a man approaching a women with a knife, lifting it, and perhaps lunging towards it... but this would be where the scene would cut and the audience wouldn't know whether or not he actually stabs her or whether she escapes this fate. They must watch the film in order to gain this information.
My final slide was about lighting within a horror trailer - this seems quite obvious to most that there would be little or no lighting as most horror films like to play on the most common fear of all - fear of the dark! Nyctophobia is not actually the fear of the dark itself, but a fear of what could be hiding or lurking in the darkness, therefore this link in with the fear of the unknown. People feel safer in familiarity which is why we prefer to be in the light, where we can see our surroundings. Thus, setting a horror film and it's trailer in dark surroundings where it is difficult to see what is there would definitely access this fear in most of the audiences minds.
I uploaded this presentation onto Slide Share and have embedded it here:
<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_12799462"> <strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MelissaLeah/research-of-horror-trailers" title="Research of horror trailers" target="_blank">Research of horror trailers</a></strong> <iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/12799462" width="425" height="355" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px"> View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-by-powerpoint" target="_blank">PowerPoint</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MelissaLeah" target="_blank">MelissaLeah</a> </div> </div>
I uploaded this presentation onto Slide Share and have embedded it here:
<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_12799462"> <strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MelissaLeah/research-of-horror-trailers" title="Research of horror trailers" target="_blank">Research of horror trailers</a></strong> <iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/12799462" width="425" height="355" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px"> View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-by-powerpoint" target="_blank">PowerPoint</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MelissaLeah" target="_blank">MelissaLeah</a> </div> </div>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)