Thursday, 25 March 2010
Evaluation of G324 Advanced Portfolio Project
The genre of our film is a high school horror. The film is called ‘Revenge’. These types of horror films are normally based in a college or university in America. Ours is set in a UK sixth form college. Even though the location for this horror is very specific, many typical conventions from horror films can be employed. The only difference is the characters are younger and their defence mechanisms are more limited, as they are more vulnerable.
A technique we have used from other horror film trailers is a close up shot of a person s
creaming and the audience g
etting a glimpse of blood splatter on the wall. This can be seen in films such as Prom Night (2008). Screaming and blood splatter is a stereotypical way of showing someone has been murdered without showing all the horrific details, this allows us to show gruesome horror but not exceed our certificate of 15. The main element of a horror film is the type of music that is used. If you watched a horror film with no music it would not have the same emotional effect. The music builds tension w
hich makes the audience suspicious, so when something does happen it makes them jump, this can be seen in any horror films and thrillers. By using only point of view shots and tracking shots we can present an image of someone stalking the person on camera and by doing this the audience can see through the stalker’s eyes. Also by using a point of view shot, identity is hidden, which leads the audience to ask the question who is
the murderer? An editing technique we have used which can be seen in films such as Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and Prom Night. Because the Exorcism of Emily Rose is a supernatural horror they use white flashes to r
epresent the supernatural, but we use white flashes to represent the unknown and as the trailer goes on the white flashes become more distorted - as the characters start to worry about who the killer might be, but the audience is already beginning to suspect. So that the audience do not confuse the white flashes with the supernatural, we added a number of medium and close up shots of people in extreme panic, showing many people being chased or killed from 
the point of view of the murderer; this is seen in the Prom Night trailer. Another convention from existing film is the use of sound effects to make a small action more dramatic. Such as in the film trailer Scream (1996) - as the scene changes there is a non-diegetic and shocking banging noise where the surprise of the noise adds to the tension in the scene. We use this in the crescendo of the music: the scene changes every time the music jumps. To open our trailer we used a long shot of 
an old, dark tree, which is a typical horror convention that is normally in front of a run down, often abandoned, old house. However we developed this by using the tree in our establishing shot to imply that the college is our form of the scary old house. We use the convention of horror by giving the fear of claustrophobia in school, which is where many pupils would want to get away from. But normally a horror is based in a house in the middle of nowhere or 
next to a lake. This is seen in Jeepers Creepers (2001), giving us a sense that we know something bad is going to happen but we just don’t know what. This prepares the audience for something scary, so that when something does happen it will make the audience jump more, therefore successfully achieving the objective of scaring the audience.
The poster and
Empire magazine covers both show an image of a hooded figure. This reflects the theme of our movie 'Revenge'. Throughout the trailer 
the killer’s identity is unknown and his is always represented in dark colours, reflecting a similar image to the Grim Reaper. One of the sub-plot theme is based around a book called ‘Revenge of a Nobody’ that the English Teacher gave her class to read. This is where the murderer get his inspiration on how to kill his victims. The book is shown in the movie poster but it is not shown on the magazine cover, however the title of the book is written inside a blood splatter on the magazine. The reason for the book not to be included on the magazine cover is because the title of the book is more important than its image. This is because the title explains the motive of the murderer, ’Revenge of a Nobody’ which is part of Claude Levi-Strauss media theory (1949) of what the words represent instead of what the words mean. Strauss’ theory consists of a play on words, just because a word is spoken or presented doesn’t mean that this is its true meaning, it could be used to represent something else like a subliminal message. Strauss’ theory also represents a person’s presence as a passing species which will leave only a few faint traces of its passage when it becomes extinct. Which is what we try to represent as our murderer is never shown, only through point of view shots or as a hooded figure. A hooded figure does not necessarily mean that this is the murderer in disguise, the figure could represent death or simply signify the unknown identity of the murderer.
A change we had to make half way through making our trailer was the character of the English teacher, Jean Tyler. Originally the English teacher was male called Gene Tyler but we had trouble on finding a male teacher or student that was avaliable to help record voice overs and scenes in the classroom. The only option we had then was to change the gender of the teacher because our female friend was avaliable to help us record our scenes.
A main stereotype of a high school horror is the social groups or divide that the pupils encounter to develop a status of popularity. But for those who are on the outside of popular groups would eventually become the killer. Usually the popular group would mainly be female, as the outcast is normally male. The outcast would stereotypically wear black and their face would hardly ever be seen because they eventually become the murderer, if we never see his face we d
on’t see his character as important but really he is the important point in the story. The outcast character agrees with Bishop’s character theory (2008) of a character being snert. Snert means that the character is driven by anti-social behaviour; they would seek to offend their target because of something they have said. The outcast character we use in ‘Revenge’ turns into the killer because of the rejection from the girl that he likes, who is a member of the popular group. The humiliation he received when a boy from the popular group calls him by the wrong name and pushes him to the floor would be the turning point towards the outcasts ambition to seek revenge. The only time we see one of the popular people on their own is when they are targeted and attacked. This shows that popular people are more vulnerable on their own, by singling them out the murderer can attack, just like they did to him. We target our vulnerability by setting the horror in school, an experience everyone can relate to. We also target the loss of identity. The identity of the killer is unknown, the terror of the unknown and the horror conventional questions of who and why.
The characters that are represented in our trailer are part of Erving Goffman's character theory (1959) also. His character theory consists of four people, but we only use the first three in our trailer. The first is the protagonist, which is the leading character. In our trailer our leading character is Mary-Alice, as she is the centre of everyone’s attention and the most popular girl in school. She is also the last person alive out of her close group of friends which means she is who the murderer wants to hurt the most. Goffman’s second character theory is the deuteragonist, which is the sec
ondary character. In our trailer this would be Robin, which is the character I play. She is Mary-Alice’s best friend and she is the one who figures out the murdere
rs methods. The bit player is the minor character whose background the audiences are not aware of. This character is the teacher Jean Tyler. In our movie ‘Revenge’ for she is the author of the book ‘Revenge of a Nobody’ and she is the one who gives the book to our killer. At the end of the movie Jean Tyler was going to murder the killer, as it was her plan all along to kill the students as an act of revenge for her childhood, but the mystery of his character is kept secret all the way through the film.
The production st
udios that I would choose to produce the film ‘Revenge’ would need to be experienced in creating a spectacular horror film. Such films like Jennifer’s Body (2009) with a similar location also using the separation of social groups, as similar techniques that ‘Revenge’ needs to create tension. The production company for Jennifer’s Body is Fox Atomic, however they have not had much experience is producing horror films. The only othe
r horror film they have produced is The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007). Directed by Karyn Kusama, Jennifer’s Body was only nominated for one award, which was Worst Actress for Megan Fox. Prom Night was produced by Alliance Films but they are more American and French film producers and ‘Revenge’ is set in England. Dimension Films is the producer of the old classic Scream which seemed to be the most experienced for horror or thriller films. Directed by Wes Craven, a popular director, this film won 7 awards and had 4 nominations. Dimension Films have experience in other productions such as Halloween H2O (1998) and Scary Movie (2000). Universal studios have produced Drag Me To Hell (2009) and The Strangers (2008), however these are not high school horrors so this would not be ideal for ‘Revenge’ beca
use there are certai
n limits when producing a high school horror such as considering the age limit of the characters and the limited knowledge the students would have of murders. The Production team I would choose to produce ‘Revenge’ is Dimension Films because they seemed to be based around the younger generation, even if it does include comedy such as Scary Movie. Dimension Films are continuously producing younger horror films and they are planning to release new films in the near future.
Certificates are i
ssued to films by the British Board of Film Classification and ever since 1984 every video or film that gets released, has been evaluated and given a certificate for the appropriate audience age group. The boundary for a 15 certificate is that frequent strong language is acceptable but sexual abuse is not acceptable. There must be no constraint of nudity and violence may be used but the infliction of pain may not be dramatised. Horror can be sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable and drugs can be taken and shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote drug use. I would give ‘Revenge’ a certificate of 15 because there is m
ild language used, but the violence is not completely shown but the horrific after-effects are shown. Films with similar genre such as Scream were certificated 18; this is so high bec
ause Scream was released in 1997. However, more modern films like Prom Night which was released in 2008, was given a certificate of 15 and Jennifer’s Body which was released in 2009 was certificated 15. Most high school horrors are around the certificate award of 15, which is because it is based in school so there are restrictions to what students can do and what they know. The reason for rating ‘Revenge’ at 15 is because at this stage secondary school students would be getting ready to leave school and everyone older would have already had their school experience. They would be able to recognise the 
behaviour of the students in ‘Revenge’ from when they were at school. Viral internet campaign seems to be the most popular method of advertising horror films such as Paranormal Activity (2010) as the younger generation this film is marketed at regularly use this form of media to gain information. This movie was released
over the internet before it made it to the cinema and because the majority of 15 to 30 year old people have a computer for social purposes such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or Youtube, made this film a huge hit. Every household in Britain has at least one television so by advertising a teaser trailer on the television makes the audience investigate over the internet the full trailer and at this stage you are able to capture their interest.
Technology in media is important because it is how we communicate; it is how we create impossible things with special effects and opens our minds to new possibilities. The technology we used to cr
eate our movie trailer was a camera, a tri-pod, and a special effects programme but for a more professional trailer production they would have more technological advantages. They would use tracks for their tracking shots and a crane for their high angle shots, for the establishing shots. Many of these techniques are not available to us. Normally in horror films if the director wanted to film a scene in black and white for affect, they would be able to place a pane of glass in front of the camera lens. This way the colours in editing do not seem fake and are more realistic. We explored what special effects were available on the camera. We discovered different colours can be used such as pink, blue and grey as the primary colour on screen. We could create a symmetrical line down the centre of the shot. Through the special effect program we discovered how to invert colours to a white flash and also how to control the bass and volume between someone’s dialogue and the non-diegetic music. I also discovered how to extend or slow a clip down. By cutting the scene in half and extending one side, normal speed would emerge with slow motion. As we became more familiar with these techniques, we could use them in more complicated situations and create a better, more dramatic effect.
Our initial intention for our High School Horror film was to take Horror conventions that were found in horror trailers and create a British High School Horror using the same conventions to create the frightening affect. Our audience feedback tells us that they recognised the techniques that they would have expected to see in horror films or trailers. These were such techniques as a shaky camera and the narrative voice over lots of shots displaying murder. Our main ambition was to present plenty of scenes where there is a point a view shot showing someone murdering people, showing the social outcast of the college as the predictable murderer. However, we wanted to lead the audience one way so they think they know who the murderer was but we use a female voice at the end of the trailer stating “I write the book, I choose the ending”, this would make the audience think that their first interpretation of the image of the outcast was wrong and now they have no clue who the murderer could be. The feedback from the audience we received shows that they fell into the trap of guessing the wrong person as the murderer.
There weren’t any surprising interpretations that were not intended because the feedback that we received back they recognised everything we wanted to demonstrate. They could sp
ot who the main characters would be, which were Mary-Alice, Robin and the outcast which the other students mistaken his name for “Kevin”. The intention of only referring to the outcast by a wrong name shows his isolation from the rest of the social groups in school, making him the loner. The audience furthermore picked up on our intentional questions we wanted them to be left with at the end of the trailer, such questions like who did it, is Kevin the murderer and is the teacher involved.
Most of our feedback from our audience was positive. The only changes we needed to make from what our audience suggested were to make the voice over at the end of the trailer and a slight change to one of our white flashes. The voice over at the end of our trailer was a bit too fast for our audience to understand straight away and they thought the tone of the voice was not severe enough. So what we had to do was record it again speaking slower and with more of a stern voice. The white flash we used went through different shades of white, but the problem was that they didn’t flow or fade together so when watching it, it felt awkward. Our intention was not for it to go through different stages of white but we had some trouble with editing technology and we were not able to fade it to white but to black. We resolved this problem by taking out the different shades of white and just used the one. Now the two scenes before and after the flash of white flow together better making the trailer easier to follow.
I feel that I have improved the most in my editing skills. I know more about what techniques to use to create a horror convention effect, such as slow motion. Last year we made the opening of a film in a comedy genre, so this year when we decided to go in the opposite direction and do a trailer based on horror. We did not know much about its conventions or what techniques to use. With much research and the studying of similar horror trailers I now have a much better understanding of why these techniques are used for affect and I know how to create these affects. I am proud of the work I have done towards my movie poster and Empire magazine front cover, I have never made a professional poster before but from audience feedback it looks very professional.
A technique we have used from other horror film trailers is a close up shot of a person s
creaming and the audience g
etting a glimpse of blood splatter on the wall. This can be seen in films such as Prom Night (2008). Screaming and blood splatter is a stereotypical way of showing someone has been murdered without showing all the horrific details, this allows us to show gruesome horror but not exceed our certificate of 15. The main element of a horror film is the type of music that is used. If you watched a horror film with no music it would not have the same emotional effect. The music builds tension w
hich makes the audience suspicious, so when something does happen it makes them jump, this can be seen in any horror films and thrillers. By using only point of view shots and tracking shots we can present an image of someone stalking the person on camera and by doing this the audience can see through the stalker’s eyes. Also by using a point of view shot, identity is hidden, which leads the audience to ask the question who is
the murderer? An editing technique we have used which can be seen in films such as Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and Prom Night. Because the Exorcism of Emily Rose is a supernatural horror they use white flashes to r
epresent the supernatural, but we use white flashes to represent the unknown and as the trailer goes on the white flashes become more distorted - as the characters start to worry about who the killer might be, but the audience is already beginning to suspect. So that the audience do not confuse the white flashes with the supernatural, we added a number of medium and close up shots of people in extreme panic, showing many people being chased or killed from 
the point of view of the murderer; this is seen in the Prom Night trailer. Another convention from existing film is the use of sound effects to make a small action more dramatic. Such as in the film trailer Scream (1996) - as the scene changes there is a non-diegetic and shocking banging noise where the surprise of the noise adds to the tension in the scene. We use this in the crescendo of the music: the scene changes every time the music jumps. To open our trailer we used a long shot of 
an old, dark tree, which is a typical horror convention that is normally in front of a run down, often abandoned, old house. However we developed this by using the tree in our establishing shot to imply that the college is our form of the scary old house. We use the convention of horror by giving the fear of claustrophobia in school, which is where many pupils would want to get away from. But normally a horror is based in a house in the middle of nowhere or 
next to a lake. This is seen in Jeepers Creepers (2001), giving us a sense that we know something bad is going to happen but we just don’t know what. This prepares the audience for something scary, so that when something does happen it will make the audience jump more, therefore successfully achieving the objective of scaring the audience.The poster and
Empire magazine covers both show an image of a hooded figure. This reflects the theme of our movie 'Revenge'. Throughout the trailer 
the killer’s identity is unknown and his is always represented in dark colours, reflecting a similar image to the Grim Reaper. One of the sub-plot theme is based around a book called ‘Revenge of a Nobody’ that the English Teacher gave her class to read. This is where the murderer get his inspiration on how to kill his victims. The book is shown in the movie poster but it is not shown on the magazine cover, however the title of the book is written inside a blood splatter on the magazine. The reason for the book not to be included on the magazine cover is because the title of the book is more important than its image. This is because the title explains the motive of the murderer, ’Revenge of a Nobody’ which is part of Claude Levi-Strauss media theory (1949) of what the words represent instead of what the words mean. Strauss’ theory consists of a play on words, just because a word is spoken or presented doesn’t mean that this is its true meaning, it could be used to represent something else like a subliminal message. Strauss’ theory also represents a person’s presence as a passing species which will leave only a few faint traces of its passage when it becomes extinct. Which is what we try to represent as our murderer is never shown, only through point of view shots or as a hooded figure. A hooded figure does not necessarily mean that this is the murderer in disguise, the figure could represent death or simply signify the unknown identity of the murderer.A change we had to make half way through making our trailer was the character of the English teacher, Jean Tyler. Originally the English teacher was male called Gene Tyler but we had trouble on finding a male teacher or student that was avaliable to help record voice overs and scenes in the classroom. The only option we had then was to change the gender of the teacher because our female friend was avaliable to help us record our scenes.
A main stereotype of a high school horror is the social groups or divide that the pupils encounter to develop a status of popularity. But for those who are on the outside of popular groups would eventually become the killer. Usually the popular group would mainly be female, as the outcast is normally male. The outcast would stereotypically wear black and their face would hardly ever be seen because they eventually become the murderer, if we never see his face we d
on’t see his character as important but really he is the important point in the story. The outcast character agrees with Bishop’s character theory (2008) of a character being snert. Snert means that the character is driven by anti-social behaviour; they would seek to offend their target because of something they have said. The outcast character we use in ‘Revenge’ turns into the killer because of the rejection from the girl that he likes, who is a member of the popular group. The humiliation he received when a boy from the popular group calls him by the wrong name and pushes him to the floor would be the turning point towards the outcasts ambition to seek revenge. The only time we see one of the popular people on their own is when they are targeted and attacked. This shows that popular people are more vulnerable on their own, by singling them out the murderer can attack, just like they did to him. We target our vulnerability by setting the horror in school, an experience everyone can relate to. We also target the loss of identity. The identity of the killer is unknown, the terror of the unknown and the horror conventional questions of who and why.The characters that are represented in our trailer are part of Erving Goffman's character theory (1959) also. His character theory consists of four people, but we only use the first three in our trailer. The first is the protagonist, which is the leading character. In our trailer our leading character is Mary-Alice, as she is the centre of everyone’s attention and the most popular girl in school. She is also the last person alive out of her close group of friends which means she is who the murderer wants to hurt the most. Goffman’s second character theory is the deuteragonist, which is the sec
ondary character. In our trailer this would be Robin, which is the character I play. She is Mary-Alice’s best friend and she is the one who figures out the murderers methods. The bit player is the minor character whose background the audiences are not aware of. This character is the teacher Jean Tyler. In our movie ‘Revenge’ for she is the author of the book ‘Revenge of a Nobody’ and she is the one who gives the book to our killer. At the end of the movie Jean Tyler was going to murder the killer, as it was her plan all along to kill the students as an act of revenge for her childhood, but the mystery of his character is kept secret all the way through the film.The production st
udios that I would choose to produce the film ‘Revenge’ would need to be experienced in creating a spectacular horror film. Such films like Jennifer’s Body (2009) with a similar location also using the separation of social groups, as similar techniques that ‘Revenge’ needs to create tension. The production company for Jennifer’s Body is Fox Atomic, however they have not had much experience is producing horror films. The only othe
r horror film they have produced is The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007). Directed by Karyn Kusama, Jennifer’s Body was only nominated for one award, which was Worst Actress for Megan Fox. Prom Night was produced by Alliance Films but they are more American and French film producers and ‘Revenge’ is set in England. Dimension Films is the producer of the old classic Scream which seemed to be the most experienced for horror or thriller films. Directed by Wes Craven, a popular director, this film won 7 awards and had 4 nominations. Dimension Films have experience in other productions such as Halloween H2O (1998) and Scary Movie (2000). Universal studios have produced Drag Me To Hell (2009) and The Strangers (2008), however these are not high school horrors so this would not be ideal for ‘Revenge’ beca
use there are certai
n limits when producing a high school horror such as considering the age limit of the characters and the limited knowledge the students would have of murders. The Production team I would choose to produce ‘Revenge’ is Dimension Films because they seemed to be based around the younger generation, even if it does include comedy such as Scary Movie. Dimension Films are continuously producing younger horror films and they are planning to release new films in the near future.Certificates are i
ssued to films by the British Board of Film Classification and ever since 1984 every video or film that gets released, has been evaluated and given a certificate for the appropriate audience age group. The boundary for a 15 certificate is that frequent strong language is acceptable but sexual abuse is not acceptable. There must be no constraint of nudity and violence may be used but the infliction of pain may not be dramatised. Horror can be sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable and drugs can be taken and shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote drug use. I would give ‘Revenge’ a certificate of 15 because there is m
ild language used, but the violence is not completely shown but the horrific after-effects are shown. Films with similar genre such as Scream were certificated 18; this is so high bec
ause Scream was released in 1997. However, more modern films like Prom Night which was released in 2008, was given a certificate of 15 and Jennifer’s Body which was released in 2009 was certificated 15. Most high school horrors are around the certificate award of 15, which is because it is based in school so there are restrictions to what students can do and what they know. The reason for rating ‘Revenge’ at 15 is because at this stage secondary school students would be getting ready to leave school and everyone older would have already had their school experience. They would be able to recognise the 
behaviour of the students in ‘Revenge’ from when they were at school. Viral internet campaign seems to be the most popular method of advertising horror films such as Paranormal Activity (2010) as the younger generation this film is marketed at regularly use this form of media to gain information. This movie was released
over the internet before it made it to the cinema and because the majority of 15 to 30 year old people have a computer for social purposes such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or Youtube, made this film a huge hit. Every household in Britain has at least one television so by advertising a teaser trailer on the television makes the audience investigate over the internet the full trailer and at this stage you are able to capture their interest.Technology in media is important because it is how we communicate; it is how we create impossible things with special effects and opens our minds to new possibilities. The technology we used to cr
eate our movie trailer was a camera, a tri-pod, and a special effects programme but for a more professional trailer production they would have more technological advantages. They would use tracks for their tracking shots and a crane for their high angle shots, for the establishing shots. Many of these techniques are not available to us. Normally in horror films if the director wanted to film a scene in black and white for affect, they would be able to place a pane of glass in front of the camera lens. This way the colours in editing do not seem fake and are more realistic. We explored what special effects were available on the camera. We discovered different colours can be used such as pink, blue and grey as the primary colour on screen. We could create a symmetrical line down the centre of the shot. Through the special effect program we discovered how to invert colours to a white flash and also how to control the bass and volume between someone’s dialogue and the non-diegetic music. I also discovered how to extend or slow a clip down. By cutting the scene in half and extending one side, normal speed would emerge with slow motion. As we became more familiar with these techniques, we could use them in more complicated situations and create a better, more dramatic effect.Our initial intention for our High School Horror film was to take Horror conventions that were found in horror trailers and create a British High School Horror using the same conventions to create the frightening affect. Our audience feedback tells us that they recognised the techniques that they would have expected to see in horror films or trailers. These were such techniques as a shaky camera and the narrative voice over lots of shots displaying murder. Our main ambition was to present plenty of scenes where there is a point a view shot showing someone murdering people, showing the social outcast of the college as the predictable murderer. However, we wanted to lead the audience one way so they think they know who the murderer was but we use a female voice at the end of the trailer stating “I write the book, I choose the ending”, this would make the audience think that their first interpretation of the image of the outcast was wrong and now they have no clue who the murderer could be. The feedback from the audience we received shows that they fell into the trap of guessing the wrong person as the murderer.
There weren’t any surprising interpretations that were not intended because the feedback that we received back they recognised everything we wanted to demonstrate. They could sp
ot who the main characters would be, which were Mary-Alice, Robin and the outcast which the other students mistaken his name for “Kevin”. The intention of only referring to the outcast by a wrong name shows his isolation from the rest of the social groups in school, making him the loner. The audience furthermore picked up on our intentional questions we wanted them to be left with at the end of the trailer, such questions like who did it, is Kevin the murderer and is the teacher involved.Most of our feedback from our audience was positive. The only changes we needed to make from what our audience suggested were to make the voice over at the end of the trailer and a slight change to one of our white flashes. The voice over at the end of our trailer was a bit too fast for our audience to understand straight away and they thought the tone of the voice was not severe enough. So what we had to do was record it again speaking slower and with more of a stern voice. The white flash we used went through different shades of white, but the problem was that they didn’t flow or fade together so when watching it, it felt awkward. Our intention was not for it to go through different stages of white but we had some trouble with editing technology and we were not able to fade it to white but to black. We resolved this problem by taking out the different shades of white and just used the one. Now the two scenes before and after the flash of white flow together better making the trailer easier to follow.
I feel that I have improved the most in my editing skills. I know more about what techniques to use to create a horror convention effect, such as slow motion. Last year we made the opening of a film in a comedy genre, so this year when we decided to go in the opposite direction and do a trailer based on horror. We did not know much about its conventions or what techniques to use. With much research and the studying of similar horror trailers I now have a much better understanding of why these techniques are used for affect and I know how to create these affects. I am proud of the work I have done towards my movie poster and Empire magazine front cover, I have never made a professional poster before but from audience feedback it looks very professional.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Empire Magazine Features
Masthead is the main title, which would be Empire.
Slogan is normally under or over the central image.
The central image doesn't always have to be in the centre of the page.
Eye contact from the person in the centre image can be direct mode of address, which is they are looking straight into the camera or straight at you. Indirect mode of address is which the persons in the centre are not look at you or at the camera.
Normally feature articles are included on the cover, but is a smaller image than the central image.
Banner and poofs are found at the bottom or top ear.
Flash is used to advertise a new price or something new. A flash can be a circular shape or in the shape of a flash.
Empire normally feature a + sign that is found above featured articles.
Who Did What?
Acting:
Mary-Alice.....Laura Estrop
Robin.....Sarah Chambers
Corie.....Cory-Lee Hopewell
Chris Marshall (Kevin).....Matt, Robert, Stevie, John
Jean Taylor.....Cory-Lee Hopewell
Charlie.....Nick Mahy
Rose.....Becky Dyer
Radio Reporter.....Nick Mahy
Ben.....Jack Naylor
Extras.....Teri Newby, Becky Cooke, Nick Parish, Nay Staples, Dan Carnell and Tom Gamble
Pre-Production elements:
Script - Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Shooting Schedule - Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Camera Maps - Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Production elements:
Camera 1 - Sarah Chambers
Camera 2 - Laura Estrop
Added camera assistances - Teri Newby and Cory-Lee Hopewell
Props - Book.....Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
- Blood.....Laura Estrop
- Car.....Chris Coupe
Post-Production element:
Editing.....Laura Estrop and Sarah Chambers
Music..... http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ selected by Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Mary-Alice.....Laura Estrop
Robin.....Sarah Chambers
Corie.....Cory-Lee Hopewell
Chris Marshall (Kevin).....Matt, Robert, Stevie, John
Jean Taylor.....Cory-Lee Hopewell
Charlie.....Nick Mahy
Rose.....Becky Dyer
Radio Reporter.....Nick Mahy
Ben.....Jack Naylor
Extras.....Teri Newby, Becky Cooke, Nick Parish, Nay Staples, Dan Carnell and Tom Gamble
Pre-Production elements:
Script - Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Shooting Schedule - Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Camera Maps - Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Production elements:
Camera 1 - Sarah Chambers
Camera 2 - Laura Estrop
Added camera assistances - Teri Newby and Cory-Lee Hopewell
Props - Book.....Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
- Blood.....Laura Estrop
- Car.....Chris Coupe
Post-Production element:
Editing.....Laura Estrop and Sarah Chambers
Music..... http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ selected by Sarah Chambers and Laura Estrop
Detailed Treatment
Starting with the Establishing shot we can see the location of where the rest of the film will be taking place, which is a slanted angle of a college with a huge old tree in front of the building. The slanted angle is used because it is a point-a-view shot of someone staring at the college. We wanted to show that the person had been staring at the college for a while, showing that they were deep in thought. Normally when people are deep in thought their head would tilt to one side, which is why we used the slanted angle. Then a Tilt angle is used to look up at the tree in front of the college. The tree has no leaves, dark and appears to be quiet old. A horror convention which is currently used in horror trailers or films is a huge, old tree used in the establishing shot, this is used in such films as “The Unborn” and “Mirrors”. As the camera starts to tilt upwards we can hear the diegetic sound of birds.
Cut to black and all we can hear is a diegetic car engine turning off. As soon as the car engine turns off an image of the car appears on the screen. Then there is a link of close up car parts showing the back of the car, the car wheels, the characters getting out of the car, where there is a long shot of the females feet. The affect of this is they are being watched from every angle, this gives us the feeling that they will not be able to escape; this is also used as a slow introduction to our main characters and we know they are female because of their type of footwear. There is non-diegetic music playing at the same time as the car images, the music consists of sinister and atmospheric movement in the sound. A quick cut to a long/wide angle shot of the front of the car to see the characters getting out. Then a close up of one of the characters spinning the car keys round her finger, this represents a stereotype which is often seen in male characters, but in this case the character is female. The movement of the keys shows superior of power, something as simple as being able to drive gives this character the self-satisfied feeling, therefore giving the audience the impression of her popular status which gives us our main character. As they get out the car there are diegetic car door noises and key clattering noises.
Cut to our first set of titles, “It Was Just An Ordinary Day”. The use of the word ordinary as a horror convention raises suspicion that it was not ordinary and something unordinary is going to happen. The titles lettering is white which represents a calm and peaceful meaning, with a black background, which is another horror convention, making the letters stand out more. Then into a fade out which makes the scenes flow together.
There is a diegetic bell sound, matching the setting of the location, the college; the audiences can assume that the bell is a school bell, meaning that the characters now have a lesson to attend. After we see the girls walk away, we see someone hiding behind a tree. This image flashes between a boy walking down the school drive in inverted colours, there is also a match on action with non-diegetic music as there is a swooping noise with matches the flashing images. The flashing images between two pieces of footage is another horror convention, the use of inverted colours are also frequently used.
Fade in text on screen with black background. The titles letters colours are between a white and a pink colour, which compared to the first one is supposed to show the colouring of the words are leading somewhere, further into the danger and the blood bath. “It Was Just An Ordinary Lesson”, followed by an image of a classroom. There is a clear divide between a group of people and a boy sat on his own at the front. This shows the social divide which is usually found in schools and the audience could relate to which social group they belonged to. Cut to a teacher at the front of the classroom using a wide angle/mid shot which hides the face of the teacher. The teachers face is hidden because her identity must remain a secret because her character plays a significant part throughout the film, but like most horror the most obvious characters are not recognised by the audience. The teacher mentions that they will be studying the book that she has written called “Revenge of a Nobody”. The music is still cynical but quietly building up. Then there is our next title page with a black background but the lettering has developed into a pink/red colour. The colours of the titles continue to develop as the story is building up. “It was just a story” the titles here are relating to the book cover, the titles instead of fading there is a cut in and out.
As the titles scene cuts back into the images the first one we see after is the inverted colours of the book “Revenge of a Nobody” on a table. The match on action of the music matches the flash of the book image. The music raises and goes back to quiet after the image of the book is gone. Then we cut to a scene outside the classroom, there is a long shot of a group of girls outside the classroom, following a boy leaving the same classroom and trying to talk to one of the girls. Interrupting the scene enters the titles reading “He Was A Nobody”, in a darker pink/red colour; this labels the importance of the boy’s role. The girl repelled his friendly offer of conversation and another boy leaves the classroom, pushes the boy over and getting his name wrong and leaves with the group of girls. Here there is crescendo in the music, hinting that there has been a change in the emotion of the story.
Fade to black screen and titles of “It’s Not A Story Anymore”; these titles are in blood red. This is important because the next scene is when the murders begin, making the increase in the colour of red in the titles significant because it relates to the amount of blood build up throughout the trailer and the film. Music is still building up, however since this scene is the first murder the audience is shown, we have added a heartbeat. The scene opens with a handheld camera displaying a point of view shot of the killer. The image present where the killer is stood it is dark but on the other side of the window everything is light. The image is of the person looking through a door window as a girl walks by and as the girl passes the person walks through the door using a panning shot, as the door close the girl hears this and turns around. She screams and starts to run up the stairs, in her panic to escape she trips and falls on the steps where the killer catches up to her. The screen turns to black and we hear the girls scream, which leaves the impression to the audience that she has been murdered where the non-diegetic heartbeat stops.
Quick cut to a wide angle shot of a radio with a diegetic male broadcaster reporting on the crimes that are currently being investigated at the college. Music changes to a disturbing atmosphere sound and during the voice over there are cuts to scenes of a dead girl on a school desk surrounded by blood. This image cuts to different coloured versions of the original, first red, then black, original, black and back to original. The colour red is a typical convention of horror representing blood. Black represents evil or the unknown and the original version is shown to represent that this is reality. The voice over says “local college” as the image of the girl murdered in the classroom is shown, which is match on action because this defines the girls murder local. Quick cut to a girl falling from a height, trying to escape but we can’t see who she is escaping from. The music creates a match on action, for as she falls the music makes an exhaling breathe sound, representing the girl’s last breath. The image fades out before we see her land from her fall and into another murder where a lad is discovered dead in a classroom. The boy is leaning against a wall and a girl taps him on the shoulder. He falls to the floor revealing all the blood that he has left on the wall he was leaning on. Mise-en-scene is used in this scene, on the windows above the wall the boy was leaning on there is black paper stuck to them. The black paper represents the students being blocked in, they cannot escape from evil and black is the colour that represents darkness and evil. However the last window out of the three above the wall is open, this represents that chance of freedom and they can escape. This shows that the boy was so close to escaping but it was too late. Then we cut back to the radio and it gets hit by a male hand, which is meant to mislead who the killer is and breaks the radio. The hit is edited to be in slow motion that goes up to a close up shot of the radio.
Cut to black, the heartbeat begins again and this time it is louder giving a warning of danger out. The non-diegetic music continues where there are quick cuts inverted images of dead people and the same image in its original state after the inverted image. The heartbeat creates a match on action because when the image changes the heartbeat beats. The heartbeat is a horror convention because it can represent the heartbeat of the victim or the killer; this is used in “Prom Night” trailer. Because ever image shown is flashed from one to the other from inverted colours to normal, this is interpreted into an investigation scene, where it would be the police taking photos of the victims.
Cut to fast running down a corridor, but we do not know if it a victim or the murderer because the camera is handheld demonstrating a point of view shot. At the end of the corridor, where the doors are, next to them is a caution sign on the floor. This is foreboding as it is only a caution wet floor sign, but the only word that is readable is caution, giving a clue that something bad is going to happen. There is also an exit sign above the door. The corridor is dark but through the windows on the doors at the end of the corridor is light shining through. When the camera reaches the doors the light expands as the screen goes into a white flash, which is known as polarisation. There is a non-diegetic whoosh sound as the camera hits the doors this is match on action as music matches the movement on screen.
Cut to a wide angle, long shot of a dark room and windows with light shining through. A boy dressed in dark clothing, which gives an impression of mystery about him. He walks towards and down the stairs, as he reaches the bottom of the stairs it walks in slow motion as he disappears off screen. Music makes a bang as the boy steps on the last step. There is a slow motion technique that is used every time there is a boy on screen that is used, when there is a suggestion that this person is the killer, but we never see who the person is. This slow motion is used to make the killers get away as a cynical movement of escape. No one can catch him, he can go as slow and take as much time as he needs and no one knows who it is.
Cut to a black room with the window on the door where light is shining through. Close up of the door, cut to mid-shot of the door, then a long shot of the door and every time the camera cuts away from the door, two girls are walking through the door and asking is Kevin is there. Kevin is not his name, they got it wrong again. The two girls are suddenly worried about this boy who they call ‘Kevin’ trying to solve the murder but not getting anywhere and the cuts backwards shows their not getting anywhere. Quick cut of an eye, inverted to red, this is a conventional reference to blood and an eye sticks to the theme of being watched or stalked.
Cut to library of the two female characters that were in the dark classroom earlier. One of them is reading the English assignment book and the other is on her IPod. Music fades away as the two characters realises that the plot of the book is the same method as the school killer is murdering in. Non-diegetic music changes to continuous build up until the end, causing tension. Voice over is used for match on action such as “killing on the stairs” and there is an image of people that have been pushed down the stairs. “Slaughter in the classroom” and an image of several people dead in a classroom. Voice over finishes. Quick cut to someone being pushed into a wall and as she hit the wall, she falls in slow motion, the killer’s trade mark again of a slow motion technique. The investigation is slow; no one can find the killer, fade out no one is coming to help.
Cut to class of the teacher reading the book she introduced at the beginning and bangs it on the table, match on action sound of a non-diegetic bang as the book hits the table. Then there’s an echo of realisation of the plot, a dramatic form of regret and responsibility. Cut to running down a hall with the room dark and the light only coming from the windows again, this can represent that they are trapped inside and the only chance of survival is to get out the school. Cuts to different levels of a white flash until the screen is completely white. This show that as people are realising the plot of the killer’s actions, the mystery becomes known but they still can’t escape. Cut to black and white image of a girl crouched in a corner and then runs away. Non-diegetic music becomes faster. Cut to close up and a zoom towards someone’s legs and feet. Following the killer slowly as the second half of the scene of the legs is in slow motion. Cut to black eye, black representing evil. High angle shot, a stalking shot of a girl in a classroom, this is our next victim. Flash of black eye, stalking, being watched again.
Cut to a girl in the corridor of bang using a long shot, tracking handheld point a view shot. A girl screams and then there’s another chase before the next victim is killed again but we never see anyone get killed. Cut to girl running upstairs shouting for help using a still, long shot, light and dark room again. Mise-en-scene is used were the corridor walls cut the view available of the audience, which matches that no one ever sees the killer. Cuts to two girls running down a corridor. Their dress code is black and red, red representing blood as she is the next victim. They don’t really care about their appearance any more, they care about survival. The girl wearing red falls and shouts “Alice!” which is her friend who the killer is after and she starts crawling for her survival but does not. We then see the other girl who was running, screaming and running backwards into a dark corner for her life. Music is at its loudest point, which adds to the drama. Cut to black screen. Voice over of “I write the book, I choose the ending”, then a non-diegetic gunshot, that cuts to black screen. The titles ‘Revenge’ in a calm blue colour, which is important because everyone is dead. Music is crescendo with the gunshot and titles bang on screen.
Cut to black and all we can hear is a diegetic car engine turning off. As soon as the car engine turns off an image of the car appears on the screen. Then there is a link of close up car parts showing the back of the car, the car wheels, the characters getting out of the car, where there is a long shot of the females feet. The affect of this is they are being watched from every angle, this gives us the feeling that they will not be able to escape; this is also used as a slow introduction to our main characters and we know they are female because of their type of footwear. There is non-diegetic music playing at the same time as the car images, the music consists of sinister and atmospheric movement in the sound. A quick cut to a long/wide angle shot of the front of the car to see the characters getting out. Then a close up of one of the characters spinning the car keys round her finger, this represents a stereotype which is often seen in male characters, but in this case the character is female. The movement of the keys shows superior of power, something as simple as being able to drive gives this character the self-satisfied feeling, therefore giving the audience the impression of her popular status which gives us our main character. As they get out the car there are diegetic car door noises and key clattering noises.
Cut to our first set of titles, “It Was Just An Ordinary Day”. The use of the word ordinary as a horror convention raises suspicion that it was not ordinary and something unordinary is going to happen. The titles lettering is white which represents a calm and peaceful meaning, with a black background, which is another horror convention, making the letters stand out more. Then into a fade out which makes the scenes flow together.
There is a diegetic bell sound, matching the setting of the location, the college; the audiences can assume that the bell is a school bell, meaning that the characters now have a lesson to attend. After we see the girls walk away, we see someone hiding behind a tree. This image flashes between a boy walking down the school drive in inverted colours, there is also a match on action with non-diegetic music as there is a swooping noise with matches the flashing images. The flashing images between two pieces of footage is another horror convention, the use of inverted colours are also frequently used.
Fade in text on screen with black background. The titles letters colours are between a white and a pink colour, which compared to the first one is supposed to show the colouring of the words are leading somewhere, further into the danger and the blood bath. “It Was Just An Ordinary Lesson”, followed by an image of a classroom. There is a clear divide between a group of people and a boy sat on his own at the front. This shows the social divide which is usually found in schools and the audience could relate to which social group they belonged to. Cut to a teacher at the front of the classroom using a wide angle/mid shot which hides the face of the teacher. The teachers face is hidden because her identity must remain a secret because her character plays a significant part throughout the film, but like most horror the most obvious characters are not recognised by the audience. The teacher mentions that they will be studying the book that she has written called “Revenge of a Nobody”. The music is still cynical but quietly building up. Then there is our next title page with a black background but the lettering has developed into a pink/red colour. The colours of the titles continue to develop as the story is building up. “It was just a story” the titles here are relating to the book cover, the titles instead of fading there is a cut in and out.
As the titles scene cuts back into the images the first one we see after is the inverted colours of the book “Revenge of a Nobody” on a table. The match on action of the music matches the flash of the book image. The music raises and goes back to quiet after the image of the book is gone. Then we cut to a scene outside the classroom, there is a long shot of a group of girls outside the classroom, following a boy leaving the same classroom and trying to talk to one of the girls. Interrupting the scene enters the titles reading “He Was A Nobody”, in a darker pink/red colour; this labels the importance of the boy’s role. The girl repelled his friendly offer of conversation and another boy leaves the classroom, pushes the boy over and getting his name wrong and leaves with the group of girls. Here there is crescendo in the music, hinting that there has been a change in the emotion of the story.
Fade to black screen and titles of “It’s Not A Story Anymore”; these titles are in blood red. This is important because the next scene is when the murders begin, making the increase in the colour of red in the titles significant because it relates to the amount of blood build up throughout the trailer and the film. Music is still building up, however since this scene is the first murder the audience is shown, we have added a heartbeat. The scene opens with a handheld camera displaying a point of view shot of the killer. The image present where the killer is stood it is dark but on the other side of the window everything is light. The image is of the person looking through a door window as a girl walks by and as the girl passes the person walks through the door using a panning shot, as the door close the girl hears this and turns around. She screams and starts to run up the stairs, in her panic to escape she trips and falls on the steps where the killer catches up to her. The screen turns to black and we hear the girls scream, which leaves the impression to the audience that she has been murdered where the non-diegetic heartbeat stops.
Quick cut to a wide angle shot of a radio with a diegetic male broadcaster reporting on the crimes that are currently being investigated at the college. Music changes to a disturbing atmosphere sound and during the voice over there are cuts to scenes of a dead girl on a school desk surrounded by blood. This image cuts to different coloured versions of the original, first red, then black, original, black and back to original. The colour red is a typical convention of horror representing blood. Black represents evil or the unknown and the original version is shown to represent that this is reality. The voice over says “local college” as the image of the girl murdered in the classroom is shown, which is match on action because this defines the girls murder local. Quick cut to a girl falling from a height, trying to escape but we can’t see who she is escaping from. The music creates a match on action, for as she falls the music makes an exhaling breathe sound, representing the girl’s last breath. The image fades out before we see her land from her fall and into another murder where a lad is discovered dead in a classroom. The boy is leaning against a wall and a girl taps him on the shoulder. He falls to the floor revealing all the blood that he has left on the wall he was leaning on. Mise-en-scene is used in this scene, on the windows above the wall the boy was leaning on there is black paper stuck to them. The black paper represents the students being blocked in, they cannot escape from evil and black is the colour that represents darkness and evil. However the last window out of the three above the wall is open, this represents that chance of freedom and they can escape. This shows that the boy was so close to escaping but it was too late. Then we cut back to the radio and it gets hit by a male hand, which is meant to mislead who the killer is and breaks the radio. The hit is edited to be in slow motion that goes up to a close up shot of the radio.
Cut to black, the heartbeat begins again and this time it is louder giving a warning of danger out. The non-diegetic music continues where there are quick cuts inverted images of dead people and the same image in its original state after the inverted image. The heartbeat creates a match on action because when the image changes the heartbeat beats. The heartbeat is a horror convention because it can represent the heartbeat of the victim or the killer; this is used in “Prom Night” trailer. Because ever image shown is flashed from one to the other from inverted colours to normal, this is interpreted into an investigation scene, where it would be the police taking photos of the victims.
Cut to fast running down a corridor, but we do not know if it a victim or the murderer because the camera is handheld demonstrating a point of view shot. At the end of the corridor, where the doors are, next to them is a caution sign on the floor. This is foreboding as it is only a caution wet floor sign, but the only word that is readable is caution, giving a clue that something bad is going to happen. There is also an exit sign above the door. The corridor is dark but through the windows on the doors at the end of the corridor is light shining through. When the camera reaches the doors the light expands as the screen goes into a white flash, which is known as polarisation. There is a non-diegetic whoosh sound as the camera hits the doors this is match on action as music matches the movement on screen.
Cut to a wide angle, long shot of a dark room and windows with light shining through. A boy dressed in dark clothing, which gives an impression of mystery about him. He walks towards and down the stairs, as he reaches the bottom of the stairs it walks in slow motion as he disappears off screen. Music makes a bang as the boy steps on the last step. There is a slow motion technique that is used every time there is a boy on screen that is used, when there is a suggestion that this person is the killer, but we never see who the person is. This slow motion is used to make the killers get away as a cynical movement of escape. No one can catch him, he can go as slow and take as much time as he needs and no one knows who it is.
Cut to a black room with the window on the door where light is shining through. Close up of the door, cut to mid-shot of the door, then a long shot of the door and every time the camera cuts away from the door, two girls are walking through the door and asking is Kevin is there. Kevin is not his name, they got it wrong again. The two girls are suddenly worried about this boy who they call ‘Kevin’ trying to solve the murder but not getting anywhere and the cuts backwards shows their not getting anywhere. Quick cut of an eye, inverted to red, this is a conventional reference to blood and an eye sticks to the theme of being watched or stalked.
Cut to library of the two female characters that were in the dark classroom earlier. One of them is reading the English assignment book and the other is on her IPod. Music fades away as the two characters realises that the plot of the book is the same method as the school killer is murdering in. Non-diegetic music changes to continuous build up until the end, causing tension. Voice over is used for match on action such as “killing on the stairs” and there is an image of people that have been pushed down the stairs. “Slaughter in the classroom” and an image of several people dead in a classroom. Voice over finishes. Quick cut to someone being pushed into a wall and as she hit the wall, she falls in slow motion, the killer’s trade mark again of a slow motion technique. The investigation is slow; no one can find the killer, fade out no one is coming to help.
Cut to class of the teacher reading the book she introduced at the beginning and bangs it on the table, match on action sound of a non-diegetic bang as the book hits the table. Then there’s an echo of realisation of the plot, a dramatic form of regret and responsibility. Cut to running down a hall with the room dark and the light only coming from the windows again, this can represent that they are trapped inside and the only chance of survival is to get out the school. Cuts to different levels of a white flash until the screen is completely white. This show that as people are realising the plot of the killer’s actions, the mystery becomes known but they still can’t escape. Cut to black and white image of a girl crouched in a corner and then runs away. Non-diegetic music becomes faster. Cut to close up and a zoom towards someone’s legs and feet. Following the killer slowly as the second half of the scene of the legs is in slow motion. Cut to black eye, black representing evil. High angle shot, a stalking shot of a girl in a classroom, this is our next victim. Flash of black eye, stalking, being watched again.
Cut to a girl in the corridor of bang using a long shot, tracking handheld point a view shot. A girl screams and then there’s another chase before the next victim is killed again but we never see anyone get killed. Cut to girl running upstairs shouting for help using a still, long shot, light and dark room again. Mise-en-scene is used were the corridor walls cut the view available of the audience, which matches that no one ever sees the killer. Cuts to two girls running down a corridor. Their dress code is black and red, red representing blood as she is the next victim. They don’t really care about their appearance any more, they care about survival. The girl wearing red falls and shouts “Alice!” which is her friend who the killer is after and she starts crawling for her survival but does not. We then see the other girl who was running, screaming and running backwards into a dark corner for her life. Music is at its loudest point, which adds to the drama. Cut to black screen. Voice over of “I write the book, I choose the ending”, then a non-diegetic gunshot, that cuts to black screen. The titles ‘Revenge’ in a calm blue colour, which is important because everyone is dead. Music is crescendo with the gunshot and titles bang on screen.
Media Theories
Roland Barthes (November 12, 1915 – March 25, 1980) was a French literary critic, literary and social theorist, philosopher, and semiotician. Barthes' work extended over many fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiology, existentialism, Marxism and post-structuralism.
Formalist Vladimir Propp developed an analysis that reduced fairy tales to a series of actions performed by the ’dramatis personae’ in each story. Propp argued that all fairy tales were constructed of certain plot elements, which he called functions, and that these elements consistently occurred in a uniform sequence.
Propp's Character theory
Vladimir Propp (1969) developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:
1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess
Goffman's Character theory
Erving Goffman's (1959) character theory suggests that there are four main types of broad character in a media text or production;
1. The protagonist (leading character)
2. The deuteragonist (secondary character)
3. The bit player (minor character whose specific background the audience is not aware of)
4. The fool (a character that uses humor to convey messages)
Claude Levi-Strauss derived structuralism from a school of linguistics whose focus was not on the meaning of the word, but the patterns that the words form. Levi-Strauss's contribution gave us a theory of how the human mind works. Man passes from a natural to a cultural state as he uses language, learns to cook, etc... Structuralism considers that in the passage from natural to cultural, man obeys laws he does not invent it's a mechanism of the human brain. Levi-Strauss views man not as a privileged inhabitant of the universe, but as a passing species which will leave only a few faint traces of its passage when it becomes extinct. He argued that the "savage mind" had the same structures as the "civilized" mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere.
Bishop's Character theory
Jonathan Bishop (2008) developed a character theory for analysing online communities, partly utilizing Campbell et al.'s character theory. In the online community he investigated, he found the following character types:
1. Lurker - The Lurker may experience a force, such as Social, but will not act on it, resulting in them not fully taking part in the community.
2. Troll - Driven by Chaos forces as a result of Mental Stimuli, would post provocative comments to incite a reaction.
3. Big Man - Driven by Order forces as a result of Mental Stimuli, will seek to take control of conflict, correcting inaccuracies and keeping discussions on topic.
4. Flirt Driven by Social forces as a result of Social Stimuli, will seek to keep discussions going and post constructive comments.
5. Snert - Driven by Anti-social forces as a result of Social Stimuli, will seek to offend their target because of something they said.
6. E-venger - Driven by Vengeance forces as a result of Emotional Stimuli, will seek to get personal justice for the actions of others that wronged them.
7. MHBFY Jenny - Driven by Forgiveness forces, as a result of experiencing Emotional Stimuli. As managers they will seek harmony among other members.
8. Chat Room Bob - Driven by Existential forces as a result of experiencing Gross Stimuli, will seek more intimate encounters with other actors.
9. Ripper - Driven by Thanatotic forces as a result of experiencing Gross Stimuli, seeks advice and confidence to cause self-harm
10. Wizard - Driven by Creative forces as a result of experiencing Action Stimuli, will seek to use online tools and artefacts to produce creative works
11. Iconoclast - Driven by Destructive forces as a result of experiencing Action Stiumli, will seek to destroy content that others have produced
Campbell, Fletcher and Greenhill's Character theory
John Campbell, Gorden Fletcher, and Anita Greenhill (2002, 2009) developed a character theory for analysing online communities, based on tribal typologies. In the communities they investigated they identified three character types:
1. The Big Man (offer a form of order and stability to the community by absorbing many conflictual situations personally)
2. The Sorcerer (will not engage in reciprocity with others in the community)
3. The Trickster (generally a comical yet complex figure that is found in most of the world's culture)
Formalist Vladimir Propp developed an analysis that reduced fairy tales to a series of actions performed by the ’dramatis personae’ in each story. Propp argued that all fairy tales were constructed of certain plot elements, which he called functions, and that these elements consistently occurred in a uniform sequence.
Propp's Character theory
Vladimir Propp (1969) developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:
1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess
Goffman's Character theory
Erving Goffman's (1959) character theory suggests that there are four main types of broad character in a media text or production;
1. The protagonist (leading character)
2. The deuteragonist (secondary character)
3. The bit player (minor character whose specific background the audience is not aware of)
4. The fool (a character that uses humor to convey messages)
Claude Levi-Strauss derived structuralism from a school of linguistics whose focus was not on the meaning of the word, but the patterns that the words form. Levi-Strauss's contribution gave us a theory of how the human mind works. Man passes from a natural to a cultural state as he uses language, learns to cook, etc... Structuralism considers that in the passage from natural to cultural, man obeys laws he does not invent it's a mechanism of the human brain. Levi-Strauss views man not as a privileged inhabitant of the universe, but as a passing species which will leave only a few faint traces of its passage when it becomes extinct. He argued that the "savage mind" had the same structures as the "civilized" mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere.
Bishop's Character theory
Jonathan Bishop (2008) developed a character theory for analysing online communities, partly utilizing Campbell et al.'s character theory. In the online community he investigated, he found the following character types:
1. Lurker - The Lurker may experience a force, such as Social, but will not act on it, resulting in them not fully taking part in the community.
2. Troll - Driven by Chaos forces as a result of Mental Stimuli, would post provocative comments to incite a reaction.
3. Big Man - Driven by Order forces as a result of Mental Stimuli, will seek to take control of conflict, correcting inaccuracies and keeping discussions on topic.
4. Flirt Driven by Social forces as a result of Social Stimuli, will seek to keep discussions going and post constructive comments.
5. Snert - Driven by Anti-social forces as a result of Social Stimuli, will seek to offend their target because of something they said.
6. E-venger - Driven by Vengeance forces as a result of Emotional Stimuli, will seek to get personal justice for the actions of others that wronged them.
7. MHBFY Jenny - Driven by Forgiveness forces, as a result of experiencing Emotional Stimuli. As managers they will seek harmony among other members.
8. Chat Room Bob - Driven by Existential forces as a result of experiencing Gross Stimuli, will seek more intimate encounters with other actors.
9. Ripper - Driven by Thanatotic forces as a result of experiencing Gross Stimuli, seeks advice and confidence to cause self-harm
10. Wizard - Driven by Creative forces as a result of experiencing Action Stimuli, will seek to use online tools and artefacts to produce creative works
11. Iconoclast - Driven by Destructive forces as a result of experiencing Action Stiumli, will seek to destroy content that others have produced
Campbell, Fletcher and Greenhill's Character theory
John Campbell, Gorden Fletcher, and Anita Greenhill (2002, 2009) developed a character theory for analysing online communities, based on tribal typologies. In the communities they investigated they identified three character types:
1. The Big Man (offer a form of order and stability to the community by absorbing many conflictual situations personally)
2. The Sorcerer (will not engage in reciprocity with others in the community)
3. The Trickster (generally a comical yet complex figure that is found in most of the world's culture)
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Movie Posters
Movie posters are important because it is a form of advertising and without advertising, no one would know about films that are being released. By analysing a movie poster, you can gain a lot of information. The 'Scream' poster above is a close up shot of what we can make out to be the victim as she look scared with her hand over her mouth, looking like she is trying not to scream. The audience will decide from the poster who is the bad guy and who is the victim, by the audience making their own choices this is called syntagmatic. We can tell the difference between an old movie poster compared to a modern movie poster by looking at the length of text above the picture. On the 'Scream' poster is says "Someone has taken their love for scary movies one step too far. Solving this mystery is going to be murder". 'Scream' was released in 1996, comparing their movie poster to a more modern horror film such as 'The Strangers' which was released in 2008, there are only four words above the main picture, "Because you were home." This answers our question of why.
Horror movie posters conventionally show an image of either the murderer or the main victim that is targetted. For horror film posters they don't have to show the whole of a person, they can show just their eyes, this can be used to show fear. They can show just a hand with them holding a knife, this can be used to show mystery but also telling the audience about the weapon of choice. Horror films are created to scary the audience but they are also create to keep the audience guessing or prove the audience wrong.
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