Iconography

Mood Board

This is a mood board I have created for my chosen horror movie genre, I have included three of the main factors in a horror movie; location, characters and mise en scene.

Film rating research for chosen genre from target audience

The majority of horror movies are either at an age rating of 15 or 18 as the films tend to be very gruesome and scary. There are some parody horror films which have a lower age rating due to them being a comedy but based on horror films. Below are some horror movies from different film ratings.

Production Company Research

Universal studios is an American film studio owned by Comcast and is one of the Hollywood's 'Big Six' film studios. It's production studios are in California, however the distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal studios is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, it was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and Jules Brulatour. It is the world's third oldest major film studio after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathe. Three of Universal Studios' films- Jaws (1975), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993) (all of which were directed by Steven Spielberg)- achieved box office records; each became the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its initial release.

 

 

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney is an American multinational mass media corporation headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the world's second largest broadcasting and cable company in terms of revenue, after Comcast. Disney was founded on October 16th, 1923 by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television and theme parks. The company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio, then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon theatre, radio, music publishing and online media. In addition, Disney has since created corporate divisions in order to market more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-orientated brands. The company is best known for the product of its film studio, the Walt Disney Studios, which is today one of the largest and best-known studios in American cinema. Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN and ABC Family; publishing, merchandising, music and theatre divisions; and owns and licenses 14 theme parks around the world. An early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, Mickey Mouse is a primary example of The Walt Disney Company.

 

 

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is one of the six major American Film Studios. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it is currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It's the world's second largest major film studio, after warner Bros. The company as we know today, was formed on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger between Fox Film Corporation founded by William Fox in 1915. Twentieth Century Fox has distributed various commercially successful film series, including Avatar, Ice Age and Planet of the Apes. Television series produced by Fox include Family Guy, How I Met Your Mother and New Girl. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple

 

 

BBFC

BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released, this is to protect children from harmful or unsuitable content in films and videos to give consumers information they might need about a particular film before deciding whether they want to watch it or not. The age ratings are U, PG, 15 & 18.

 

 

These are the film ratings which is a guideline for every film released in cinemas. These age limits provide a suitable understanding to people on the sort of content which is included in these films.

 

Film trailer essay

Movie trailers play a fundamental part in the advertising of newly released films, they are a very effective way as they promote new films directly to the target audience. Throughout this essay I will be comparing three new film trailers from different genres. This will enable me to analyse how producers have used different sounds, scenes and lighting to suit the specific genre. My first film I focused on was a thriller called ‘Gone Girl’ it is a psychological thriller where the story begins as a mystery, about a man whose wife had gone missing. It examines dishonesty, the media, the economy's effects on marriage, and appearances. Secondly the film ‘Love Rosie’ is a light-hearted romantic comedy which appeals towards the younger teenagers.  Finally the last film I looked at was a supernatural horror called ‘Annabelle’ this focused on a china doll which as the film progresses you find is possessed.

The lighting and colour in the film Gone Girl uses dark low key lighting throughout the trailer as it is portraying the awful time the husband went through when he found out his wife had gone missing until the plot starts to twist. This is very similar to Annabelle where again low key lighting is used a lot when the couple are in the house which is possessed, giving the viewers an understanding that everything that is going on in the house is very untoward. Although in the trailer there is a long shot of the house they live in from the view of the pavement, this is one of the only times in the film trailer that bright lighting is used where there are no shadows as the trailer is trying to portray that from the outside of the house nothing looks like it would be haunted. Until you get a view inside of the house and it is full of shadows indicating that it isn’t just a typical homely house in the suburbs. This is very different to the film Love Rosie all the way through the trailer there is constant use of high-key lighting where everything appears to be bright creating a happy atmosphere. The trailer uses mostly scenes from the daytime which is able to capture the sunlight so that the film seems very upbeat as if it was just from a young girl’s daily life.

The mise en scene throughout the film Gone Girl enhances the worry from everyone about the missing character, as everyone wears dark smart clothing indicating that everybody is mourning over the life of the missing woman. The trailer creates a very realistic idea about the investigation as there are constant clips in the trailer of pictures and billboards of the woman whilst there also being shots of all the crime scene equipment being used throughout such as when swabs are being taken for evidence. However the film trailer Annabelle uses a very different mise en scene as the clothes the young couple wear makes them look quite middle class with them both looking happy and presentable before any of the horror in films start. The way the couple lives gives a clear indication that the film is not based on the present day as in the house they live in has record players and very old televisions. Love Rosie is quite similar to Annabelle in the terms that the characters appear to be both from middle class families and speak with a very RP accent. They wear casual clothing but nevertheless look well dressed. The town that both the young boy and girl live in seems stereotypically British with it looking quaint as it has a lot of greenery, creating a typical British town.

The sound has a huge effect on the drama and tension the trailer wants to portray, all three films use very different sounds to create different atmospheres. For example the sound in ‘Gone Girl’ has very soft tones which creates a mysterious atmosphere as it is trying to make the audience feel uneasy. This is then followed with diegetic sound from the husband who uses a rhetorical question saying ‘you think I killed my wife?’ this open ended question leaves the  audience watching the trailer in doubt as to whether he did commit the crime or not. This is compared to the sounds within the film ‘Anabelle’ where a lot of non-diegetic sounds are used such as banging of doors and creaking of stairs this creates tension as it is a horror movie the audience can automatically predict that something bad is going to happen.  Love Rosie is very similar as it uses no-diegetic sound but to portray humour for example the sipping of a cup after something embarrassing has happened, this ads a sense of humour to the trailer. There is also very upbeat music played throughout as well as a voiceover of the main character talking through different aspects of her life making this trailer very light hearted.

The use of the camera throughout the film trailers again benefits the type of genre the film is, Gone Girl uses close ups of the missing woman’s face to emphasise the worry that everyone is thinking of her disappearance. However long shots are used throughout the trailer of when people are out searching for her this creates the impression that there is such a vast amount of places the woman could be there is a fear they won’t find her. Anabelle uses similar camera angles as close ups are used when the blood of a woman goes into the dolls eye as it is highlighting when it becomes possessed. Love Rosie is very different as over the shoulder shots are used of the boy and girl looking happy together as they laugh and joke. There are also mid shots used of the boy and girl sat on the grass together but the mid-shot captures the vast greenery around the pair which creates a happy, heart-warming atmosphere.

Finally the editing in the trailer ‘Gone Girl’ uses the fading of text such as ‘To have and to hold, for better or worse’ this is very misleading as it is not in a positive aspect, as the words on screen are being juxtaposed by where the female character is, as the husband cannot have or hold her as she is a missing person. This twists the positive wedding vows into something quite sickening. Throughout the trailer ‘Anabelle’ uses lots of cuts to create a dramatic affect as the film is not smooth running it indicates that a lot of horror happens throughout the film. This is compared to the bright text which is used in the trailer ‘Love Rosie’ which creates an upbeat atmosphere. As although there is text on-screen the bright colours highlight the positivity of the film this is also benefited by the music playing in the background.

Overall by researching different film trailer genres and analysing all the different features of the trailer it shows how films use all the same sorts of features but depending on the genre they are used in very different ways.

Trailers used in essay

These are the three trailers I used in my essay to compare with one another, these are including factors such as lighting, sound, mise en scene and editing.


Here is the Love Rosie film trailer




Here is the Gone Girl film trailer



Here is the Annabelle film trailer

Questionnaire analysis

This is one of the questions I asked on my questionnaire as I wanted to find out the age in which people in education are most interested in films. I found that the 17/18 year old age group is the most interested in films.

Here is the chart for peoples most popular film genres, it is evident that Romcom's are the most popular types of films. However horror movies are closely following, I think a horror trailer would be good to create as it could allow more people to understand the conventions of a horror movie

These are a few peoples ideas about how many scenes that should be used in a film trailer, the majority have given a similar answer of 3+ scenes which means that they will just be short snippets throughout the trailer.

 

Here are the expectations people want to gain when watching a horror movie, everyone can agree that they want to feel scared and jumpy. This emphasises how many people expect to feel scared after watching a horror movie which is why I will need to make the trailer creepy so that people would be willing to go and watch it in a cinema

 

Questionnaire

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8NKJ37M

Here is my survey which I created on Survey Monkey, I created a questionnaire to get some audience feedback on what I should base my film trailer on. The next post has the questionnaire analysis which focuses on the individual answers

Mindmap of a horror movie

I decided to create a mind map of features used in horror movies as I have decided that this will be the chosen genre I am going to have when filming my trailer.