Thursday, 3 February 2011
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Codes and Conventions of teaser trailers
Codes and Conventions of Teaser Trailers.
Teaser trailers try a sneak peek of the film they are advertising. They last often from 30 seconds up to 1miniute long. Summarising the story, sometimes using footage which wouldn't even be used in the actual final film, this is because teaser trailers can be released up to two years
The music involved in horror trailers are a huge part of the atmosphere created, often suspense is built up at the beginning with slow, short and repeated pieces of music. Then there is speech and then more music is incorporated, which is more dramatic, sped up and messes with the audiences heartbeat. This is incorporated in ' '. which I took inspiration from.
Voice-overs are often used, this is to give general information perhaps about the text.
Teaser trailers try a sneak peek of the film they are advertising. They last often from 30 seconds up to 1miniute long. Summarising the story, sometimes using footage which wouldn't even be used in the actual final film, this is because teaser trailers can be released up to two years
The music involved in horror trailers are a huge part of the atmosphere created, often suspense is built up at the beginning with slow, short and repeated pieces of music. Then there is speech and then more music is incorporated, which is more dramatic, sped up and messes with the audiences heartbeat. This is incorporated in ' '. which I took inspiration from.
Voice-overs are often used, this is to give general information perhaps about the text.
Casting
Main 'zombie; protagonist. Young girl, short brown hair, plain clothing to give effect and emphasis on her zombie look/make-up and special effects. The main zombie which will be featured in my teaser trailer.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Codes and conventions of zombie horroR.
CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF HORROR AND ZOMBIE HORROR.
GENERAL HORROR
The sub-genre of horror I am researching is 'zombie' horror, it has obvious factors which makes it individualistic. Common features found -
Use of special effects makeup to create a zombie look - Pale faces, Dark-tired eyes to signify loss of life. Drips of blood. Mise-en scene also incorporated- Ripped clothing, basic dim colors.
Dead animal parts.
Infection, Isolation, Exposure, Gore.
However generally codes of conventions of this sub-genre relate closely to the wide variety of codes and conventions in general Horror.
Character stereotypes are often seen repeated time and time again. This is found is classic horror films such as ' ' and more modern takes on horror such as ' '.
The 'Final Girl' character, such as ' ' is viewed as the sensible, conservative personality. Her image portrays her as an uptight brunette, covered up, little skin exposed. You will notice she is turns away alcohol, drugs and anything which may allow her to come across as anything more than sensible. She isn't incorporated in a production to push the 'Male Gaze' theory, introduced by theorist Laura Mulvey.
Her character is usually the main central protagonist, she survives until the end. This may be because unlike her exposed co-star 'The scream queen' she isn't sexually active, which is the reason why the 'killer' targets the 'Final Girl' first, she is sexually active and the killer has made up in his mind he has a relationship with her.
This 'Male Gaze Theory' is used for probably one of the most famous characters indentified with classic horror films, her image signifies her as sexually active. Little clothing, skin exposed, blonde hair, heavy makeup etc.
STOCK CHARACTERS.
Identified by theorist Propp, these characters seen in 'Shaun Of The Dead' (wiki) Directed by Edgar Wright in 2004.
The protagonist - Simon Pegg (WIKI) as Shaun.
The helper - Nick Frost (WIKI)as Edd.
ZOMBIE HORROR
Zombie films from the 1930s-1940s. (source)
Zombies are 'Walking Dead' creatures, often with decayed flesh, they are destructive, malevolent, pray on human flesh and are impossible to kill. In the early 1930s filmmakers were beginning to experiment with iconic monsters, when the feature length film 'the walking dead'. The first true 'zombie' was Victor Halperin's and UA's low-budget independant film- the 'atmospheric' White Zombie (1932).(IMDB)
During the 1940s, there were three zombie films from 'Poverty Row's' Monogram Studios, some of which tied Nazism to zombie-lore: The pre-war King Of Zombies (1941) and Voodoo Man (1944) (IMDB)a recycled Revenge Of The Zombies (1943) (IMDB)
Films such as Shaun Of The Dead follow George.A.Romero's 'Dead' series, contemporary taxt that is a good example of conveying not only te codes and conventions of the zombie genre but also hybrid texts, inter-textuality and post-modernism. Numerous lines, scenes etc relate to Romeros series.
Isolation is a big signifier in zombie horror, reinforcing the monolithic problem of genre outlined by Robert Stam.
Costume and special effects is a huge part of zombie horror, pale faces, ripped clothing, fake blood, heavy make-up to create a death-like persona. This allowing the audience to easily identify the zombies.
Shot types.
Point of view shot - the zombie is watching their victim.
Close-up shots- show the emotion/extent of decay
Long-shots- show the mass of the infection- a number of zombies.
Themes.
Consumerism/Capitalism - for example in 'Shaun Of The Dead', zombies represent mindless/dozy shoppers in a shopping center.
Isolation is the main theme, being trapped and far away from civilization.
Chaos within society, the breakdown of society,
People who maintain humanity- survival (It should be about the survival of the humans, not the attack of the zombies)
People who become zombies - death.
Somebody who may ruin it for everyone: Resident Evil, 28 Weeks Later - husband lets out the virus.
David Bordwell said 'Any theme may appear in any genre'
GENERAL HORROR
The sub-genre of horror I am researching is 'zombie' horror, it has obvious factors which makes it individualistic. Common features found -
Use of special effects makeup to create a zombie look - Pale faces, Dark-tired eyes to signify loss of life. Drips of blood. Mise-en scene also incorporated- Ripped clothing, basic dim colors.
Dead animal parts.
Infection, Isolation, Exposure, Gore.
However generally codes of conventions of this sub-genre relate closely to the wide variety of codes and conventions in general Horror.
Character stereotypes are often seen repeated time and time again. This is found is classic horror films such as ' ' and more modern takes on horror such as ' '.
The 'Final Girl' character, such as ' ' is viewed as the sensible, conservative personality. Her image portrays her as an uptight brunette, covered up, little skin exposed. You will notice she is turns away alcohol, drugs and anything which may allow her to come across as anything more than sensible. She isn't incorporated in a production to push the 'Male Gaze' theory, introduced by theorist Laura Mulvey.
Her character is usually the main central protagonist, she survives until the end. This may be because unlike her exposed co-star 'The scream queen' she isn't sexually active, which is the reason why the 'killer' targets the 'Final Girl' first, she is sexually active and the killer has made up in his mind he has a relationship with her.
This 'Male Gaze Theory' is used for probably one of the most famous characters indentified with classic horror films, her image signifies her as sexually active. Little clothing, skin exposed, blonde hair, heavy makeup etc.
STOCK CHARACTERS.
Identified by theorist Propp, these characters seen in 'Shaun Of The Dead' (wiki) Directed by Edgar Wright in 2004.
The protagonist - Simon Pegg (WIKI) as Shaun.
The helper - Nick Frost (WIKI)as Edd.
The princess- Kate Ashfield (WIKI) as Liz.
The villian- The zombies.
Some of the stock characters often portray a bimbo, clown, jock etc.
STOCK PLOTS
Theorist Todorov introduces the idea of equilbrium, disequilbrium and new equilibrium. Often an establishing shot to introduce the equilbrium, a killing to introduce the disequilbrium and for example the police coming for the new equilbrium.There is often a false scare involved which has been used in many existing media products, this is to build up suspense and to first trick the audience into feeling uneasy. Then when the real scare comes, they already feel uneasy and on the edge as they are more aware if there's something going to happen.
Horror films generally don't have a central protagonist, the first person seen on the screen, is the one who is killed first. In my case it is 'ALICE TAYLOR' who is seen from the beginning, she is one of the southerners who has travelled from down southZOMBIE HORROR
Zombie films from the 1930s-1940s. (source)
Zombies are 'Walking Dead' creatures, often with decayed flesh, they are destructive, malevolent, pray on human flesh and are impossible to kill. In the early 1930s filmmakers were beginning to experiment with iconic monsters, when the feature length film 'the walking dead'. The first true 'zombie' was Victor Halperin's and UA's low-budget independant film- the 'atmospheric' White Zombie (1932).(IMDB)
During the 1940s, there were three zombie films from 'Poverty Row's' Monogram Studios, some of which tied Nazism to zombie-lore: The pre-war King Of Zombies (1941) and Voodoo Man (1944) (IMDB)a recycled Revenge Of The Zombies (1943) (IMDB)
Films such as Shaun Of The Dead follow George.A.Romero's 'Dead' series, contemporary taxt that is a good example of conveying not only te codes and conventions of the zombie genre but also hybrid texts, inter-textuality and post-modernism. Numerous lines, scenes etc relate to Romeros series.
Isolation is a big signifier in zombie horror, reinforcing the monolithic problem of genre outlined by Robert Stam.
Costume and special effects is a huge part of zombie horror, pale faces, ripped clothing, fake blood, heavy make-up to create a death-like persona. This allowing the audience to easily identify the zombies.
Shot types.
Point of view shot - the zombie is watching their victim.
Close-up shots- show the emotion/extent of decay
Long-shots- show the mass of the infection- a number of zombies.
Themes.
Consumerism/Capitalism - for example in 'Shaun Of The Dead', zombies represent mindless/dozy shoppers in a shopping center.
Isolation is the main theme, being trapped and far away from civilization.
Chaos within society, the breakdown of society,
People who maintain humanity- survival (It should be about the survival of the humans, not the attack of the zombies)
People who become zombies - death.
Somebody who may ruin it for everyone: Resident Evil, 28 Weeks Later - husband lets out the virus.
David Bordwell said 'Any theme may appear in any genre'
FearThe characters must be scared to ensure the audience is also - this requires good acting.
Comic Relief
Some lighter scenes for humour and relief, for example in 'Dawn Of The Dead', where they play chess on the roof surrounded by zombies.Characters often seen...
There is usually a character who becomes emotionally attached to one of the zombies and not want to kill them - keep them safe in hope of them becoming human again.
The person that lovs killing zombies but whose cockiness eventually gets them killed.
The person that freaks out and eventually causes some sort if disaster.Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Attempt 1 film magazine cover
This was my first attempt at creating a film magazine cover. It was created in Microsoft word and basic tools such as Wordart. In general I am happy with the outcome considering it is a first attempt, however I am wanting to improve and change it vastly to produce a final product. I chose one of my own photographs which I thought was the most bold and effective. I created the name CUT for the name of the film magazine cover because it's a name that isn't used for any other publication, the connotations of it clearly relate to the film industry, but on the other hand is perfect to represent the type of genre 'zombie horror' as the word cut may represent the cut of a knife and is quite graphic. As this is a first draft for the final copy there will be vast improvements. These will include more sub stories, perhaps smaller framed pictures of different features within the magazine. I will research further into magazine covers, concentrating on the font type and size and generally where things are placed.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Experimenting with special effects. and photography for magazine cover. Attempt 1
Whilst shooting example footage for my zombie teaser trailer and experimenting with photography for my film magazine cover, I tried out various make-up techniques to try and achieve a realistic zombie look. This consisted of white pale lifeless faces, dark tired eyes, drips of blood on the face, hair and clothing. I tried to complete the zombie look by having my model Alice Taylor who I plan to cast in my final media product, in basic clothing, black and white colours and slighty ripped.
Applying dark make-up on the cheeks, eyes and coller bones helped to create a decaying look.
Using make-up of my own was efficient and effective, i used pale powder to lighten my zombies skin tone.
When finished applying the make-up this was my end product, only for blood to be added for the gore factor to be signified.
Extra Photographs of potential locations are incorporated here, the rambling fields of the Yorkshire Dales are a perfect location for the type of genre I am working. As these photographs suggest Isolation and a lowly populated area, isolation is a huge theme in zombie horror.
I thought these pictures were particulary effective for potential shots for my magazine/poster tasks. They show the themes of being trapped, isolation and clearly gore from the blood stained hands and make-up. It connotes to the audience they are being watched and clearly signifies the genre.
A potential shot for my film magazine cover, a relatively simple idea but shows a girl looking over an abandoned field, signifying she is on her own and isolated from society. The blood on her hands stands out, it incorporates the horror aspect. Leads people to think why does she have blood on her hands?.
These next few shots are all general close-ups of my 'zombies' face, I think quite a traditional shot type for a magazine cover. Probably the most obvious choice. However I think for my final magazine cover choice it may be to much of an obvious choice to represent the zombie horror sub-genre I'm portraying.
I hope to use these shots within my magazine cover/poster, however if they don't work well and provide what I need, additional shots will be used.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Location/setting.
I will be using a variety of different locations and settings within my teaser trailer to give a taster of a good narrative outline
Location/setting 1: 4 young people 3 male and 2 females in a black car, black to signify simplicity which also links within the mood and tone of the genre. Shots of the car on its own driving down a country lane, signify the group lost and far away from society and no apparent life around them, this adding scare to the feeling of the trailer as if a situation occurs where they would need help there would be no human contact with the outside world to rescue them from potentially dangerous happenings.
Location/setting 1: 4 young people 3 male and 2 females in a black car, black to signify simplicity which also links within the mood and tone of the genre. Shots of the car on its own driving down a country lane, signify the group lost and far away from society and no apparent life around them, this adding scare to the feeling of the trailer as if a situation occurs where they would need help there would be no human contact with the outside world to rescue them from potentially dangerous happenings.
Location/Setting 2: A small isolated village (Addingham) where the group will get lost in on the way to their destination. It appears an abandoned village, no life insight to signify a death of a village.
Location/Setting 3: A forest area where one of the members of the group gets lost whilst trying to find help. They get chased through the woods here by an infected zombie, quick editing will be used.
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