How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Results of your Target Audience research

We produced a questionnaire on survey monkey to gather and find results from people to find out who our target audience would be for what type and the style of our horror movie and trailer. We also posted our survey on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to get a broader search and results. From our research and results we have found out that more males are targeted for the horror movie genre which was 59%. We also found out that the most popular age range was 15-18. The most popular type of horror movie was psycological and only religous coming up at 29%. We also found that that watching a horror trailer convinces you to watch the film and also that clips shown in the trailer from the film also convinces the audience more to go and see the film rather than if they see stars in the trailer. This relates to the fact that most horror film are produced by film companys outside the Hollywood Studios main stream.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Please watch the above video for my answer. 
As a combination of my main product and ancillary texts they probably worked quite well. Although i don't think it was a good idea to use different fonts in each products, for example the title of the film in the trailer was a different font to the film poster. Therefore i don't think it came together as a good coherent marketing image as it could of done. Also i used a different tagline in my poster from what it says in the trailer, although both of the taglines work well with my horror trailer as a whole i think it would of been more effective to have the same tagline.

Draft of both products

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our target audience for our horror movie was teenagers of both gender ranging from 18 to 21. We got feedback from other people by them watching our trailer in turn and giving feed back to our group. There is some videos i have posted to show you what some students thought of our trailer after watching it. When our whole class finished each of their trailers we presented them to everyone. During this presentation other students in our class gave us some focused feedback on our trailer. During the feed back we learnt that the most liked part of our trailer was the dictonary definitions that came up in a typewriter font. People said that this was unique and also made it feel creepy, which turned out to be a good horror convention. Also people liked the most was the fact we played on the binary opositions of the little girl that we used in the trailer, other people said that the shots we got of her were very effective in the way that they were disturbing in a very sureal way. Another popular like to the trailer was the amount of gore we captured. People said that it was a good amount shot, not too much but enough to understand the horror trailer conventions and to keep the audience on their toes. Also people said that it looked very really, and some interesting shots like a extreme close up on the gorey parts worked well althogether. Some other students said they liked how we used short, fast sequences and how we played on some reversed shots. Factors of the trailer that students weren't keen on or thought needed improving was the fact the story of the trailer wasn't too clear in the trailer, although a trailer isn't supposed to give away the full story of a film the audience needs to understand it to make them want to see it. Also people commented on the ending of the film, they said it was quite quick and anticlimatic, felt like there was more to come. The music we used in the trailer also wasn't a favourite to our student audience, people felt that it sounded unprofesshional and also some parts did come in late. Another factor of my groups trailer that people thought we had missed was a jumpy part, perhaps at the end of during the trailer.

Finished Trailer

Finished film poster and magazine cover

Original photos for both products

Initial post of a horror trailer which i found interesting

This is a trailer that i have chosen to analysis, i find it very interesting and there are many shots throughout the trailer which i like.

This is a screen shot i have chosen to look at, i really like what is happening in the clip. The unknown hand coming out of her hair shows horror conventions. This is something that i would like to create in my own trailer.

This is another screen shot of the grudge trailer, i like this shot because its a close up. Conventions of this shot for it to be from a horror trailer is the make up used on the character and also the angle of the camera. Hopefully in my trailer i would like to experiment with strange angles of the camera and extreme close ups to convey the horror genre

This is a last shot i have chosen from this trailer, it is from a series of quick, short shots in a sequence. I really want to use some shots in this way during my trailer, it keeps the viewers hooked onto the screen and also small, dramatic shots that have been chosen from the actual film gives the viewers a 'taste' of what the film is about and what you will expect.

Eploring differences between a teaser trailer and a main theatrical trailer.

What is distincitive about teaser trailers?
A main theatrical trailer is usually longer than a teaser trailer. A main trailer would last 2 to 3 mintues long whereas a teaser would only be about 1 to a half mintues. They show short shots of the film, try not to give much away. But they include some interesting clips and small amounts of dramatic scenes to give the viewer a 'taste' of the actual real trailer that will soon be coming out. Teasers are distributed before the full length trailer, and the main trailers are screened shortly before the film. The teaser trailers are not always used for a film, its the distributors job to decide whether the film needs one or not.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge formsand conventions of real media products?

2, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge formsand conventions of real media products?

evaluation screen shot, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

Horror movie poster

horror movie poster, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

My third horror movie poster analysis.

Horror movie poster

horror movie poster, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

My second horror movie poster analysis.

horror movie poster

horror movie poster, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

My first horror movie poster i have analysised. I have looked at how different posters have been put together to convey the horror theme using horror conventions.

film magazine analysis

film magazine anaylsis, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

Third magazine cover analysis. I have added notes to the magazine so you can read what i think about the conventions of the magazine.

film magazine analysis

film magazine anaylsis, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

My second film magazine analysis. I have added notes to the magazine so you can read what i think about the conventions of the magazine.

film magazine analysis

film magazine anaylsis, a photo by ottilierounce on Flickr.

My first magazine cover analysis. I have added notes to the magazine so you can read what i think about the conventions of the magazine.

Storyboards Of Horror Movie Trailer

Planning My Horror Movie Trailer

Planning my horror movie with my group I have organised locations for filming and props we need to use etc. We arranged to meet in Lowestoft to film some parts of our trailer in a woods there. We needed to use one of the groups family members for our trailer. Also we plan to shoot more film at a wood near our college and also another wood near where i live. We have also planned to arrange to finish our filming at college and perfect it. Props we needed to use we have to go out and buy them or make them. So at college we planned who was incharge of what props etc. I think our group is quite organised and we will try to make sure everything goes to plan.

The Role Of The Distributor

For every movie made it needs to connect with its audience. This is the distributor's job to make sure the film gets the biggest audience possible. The distributor's have a very important, competitive job to make sure they bring each film to market. They do this by identifying its audience, to consider why people would watch the film, estimating the revenue potential, to build awareness of the film, try and put as much interest into cinema visits and persuading cinema operators to have the film played.

The audience is very important to the role of the distributor. With smaller titles they really have to focus to target their audience. To get vaild data to pin point their target audience they go through a lot of research data. Some stages there is an element of gamble, you know that a particular audience will see the advertising in a particular place. They target different age groups differently, so teenagers 15-19 would be targeted differently to people aged 40-50. The distributor needs a very detailed understanding of the target audience, their age group/gender and also things like their lifestyle, social networks etc so it gives ideas to how to reach them when advertising for a film. It is very important to never lose sight of each film's core target audience. Its the distributor's challenge is to attract a wide spread as possible. Trying to identify the niche interest groups as well as the broad mainstream and to help a film 'break out' and 'cross over'.

Being a distributor is a very high competitive business to launch new films and keep them popular to their own target audience.Its their job to bring each film to the market. The UK has half a dozen major distributors that are connected with Hollywood Studios. There is also other distributors that handle films outside the larger more popular studios acting very independently. Having a bigger budget to produce your film is a major benefit espcially if the distribution company has confirmed all the financal acts for the film. A distribution company looks for eye-catching and distinguishing elements of a new film to help it sell to its audience.

The dynamic sector that is working to connect every new upcoming film to the largest audience is what the distributors plan is. The plan of distribution is the job for a distributor who develops in consultation. With the producers decisions to a distributor is when to release a film and how about going to release it. For a distributor to get a budget to release a film they would need to consider what the film would earn. Although in reality most films don't make a profit from cinema screenings alone. Distribtution plans are only accepted when the finished film product is ready to be viewed. Although there is always a risk with the distributiors, as learnt audiences are very unpredictable for their taste of a film. No one can honestly be sure for a movie to be a hit, so therefore there still is an element of risk in the business.

With the distribution plan there is also a marketing plan that helps create visibility to encourage interest of new, upcoming films. Factors that help raise this awareness is advertising, publicity and promotion. Starting with advertising is a key element to help promote a new release. The use of word of mouth is a social key to help this promotion, people recommending a film is quite an important form of advertisment. A film getting a negative word of mouth would be hard for a film to get over rather than another source of advertising. Another source of advertising is a poster, this type of advertising would show appeal to the film. The main features of a poster includes the genre, credits, stars and maybe a tagline. In the film business a poster is produced for every film, so therefore lots are made and each poster has to stand out the the target audience. Also trailers are another type of advertisment, the distributors chose from visual and audio content to work with to produce a trailer. The main parts of the film, or the most dramatic sequences is what is usually used in the trailer to try and sell the film. Exhibitors select which trailers are best for the feature film before it is actually aired. The distributors fund the duplication of the trailers. The internet is another important role in the advertising and promoting of a new release. A lot of films create their own website, usually in a partnership with another company. The features of the site would be showing trailers of the film, galleries showing stills of the film and also information about the production and behind the scenes footage. This helps build awareness of the film before the trailer or the film its self hasn't even come out yet. The power of social media is very important for a new film release. As soon as a film is screened chat rooms are filled with feedback and opnions about the film. As well as opnions there is also information and content of the film being shown over Facebook and Twitter. For a film to be apart of a conversation in the online world is a must have for the distributors.

Publicity for a film is very important, film publicists create kits for journalists containing cast, crew lists, biographies, facts and infomation about the production. This information is put up and broadcasted around online pressrooms. The distributors create 'hooks' or 'angles' for articles about the film and promotions. The team for the publicity for the film are supported by agencies to get interview with stars of the films. The more the film's talent wants to support the publicity the better it will be for the film.

Promotional partnerships are very important as another form of advertising for the film. Promoting the film can be tackled at in a range of different ways depending on the film's theme, genre and target audience. Tie-ins create displays for the film in places where conventional advertising cannot be used. So they would go to shops or resturants to advertise on packs or for example a Happy meal at McDonalds could have the film as their theme and have a toy character of the film to be the toy. This also enables the customer to interact with the film as well. Looking at family films in particular mechandising programmes are very popular. Tie-in merchanise can create toys, action figures, ringtones, clothing, stationary etc. Films also would have a soundtrack to the film and some then make games relating to the film.

Group's Inital Idea For Horror Movie

The people in my group all had similar ideas for our horror movie trailer, and putting them together gave us a horror movie about religion, cults and self harm. In our film there is going to be 2 victims of the 'monster' which is the religion or cult. They get trapped in as they find a young girl laying in a country road, trying to help her and then search for help they come across this cult. The important part is that this young girl is actually the 'devil' of the cult, or who they worship. The couple don't know this, they think that the cult is trying to lure the young girl in   to hurt her. So the couple fight for the young girl, this obviously doesn't work and they become trapped into the cult. They become so brain washed with the religion and weird goings on that they start to self harm and then later on try and kill themselves. Also crucifixes are shown and used to torture the couple at the end. In the trailer we want to obviously give the audience a slight understanding of the characters and the film plot, but not too much. We didn't want to give the story away, so by quick flashy images and film towards the end of our trailer this creates suspense and interest of the film also creates questions in the viewers head. And to only find out what happens or what some of the footage shown is about is by going to watch it. We also wanted to use text in our trailer, in different parts we are going to give definitions of different words related to religion for example worship. This tells the audience its about religion and also makes them think about what could the film be about.

Results Of Target Audience

Link Here!http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6MXMHGR

How Women Are Represented In The Horror Genre

‘Carol Clover in Men, Women and Chainsaws argues that many horror films are interesting in their representation of gender because they provide a female point of identification for a male target audience. To what extent do you think horror represents gender progressively?’

In the media today there are debates whether women are shown progressively or conservatively. In some ways the media shows a higher visibility of men, but in other ways of media males and females can have the same visibility which shows a more progressive way of representing gender. Jeremy Tunstall (The Media in Britain 1983) looked at researched to show how gender is represented in the media. His overall research told him that women are emphasised in 4 different activities; domestic, sexual, consumer and martial. But don’t we see numbers of males showing a father, husband role? Yes, but it does show in the media they have less to say about these male roles.  You can see that their family status is irrelevant in the media, for example in an action film the role of the male is the hero or villain showing strength, power and courage. You tend don’t to see his family status at all. In 1992 men were seen on screen more than women, outnumbering them by two to one. Although research in visibility on TV has shown that men and women are shown equally, but males were shown more likely than females to have an occupation, males were shown more out of the house or home than females.

In action movies female protagonists are presented in a objectified, sexualised way. Exploitation of women’s bodies in the media represents a conservative way of representing gender. Even though today there are many more male models used in advertising and the general media, could this show signs of equality? Laura Mulvey in her famous essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ shows you that the cinema puts you in the eyes of a heterosexual male. Using the camera cinema presents the women as an objectified sex object. So the audience is put into the eyes of the male. This is called the male gaze, camera techniques help create it. The use of close ups (CU), point of view (POV) and reaction shots of the male character identify him as the subject. Then other uses of long shots, tilts up the body showing only certain body parts, e.g. the legs, chest or face. The parts that are considered sexual. This helps the audience look at her and helps to show you what a heterosexual male would be feeling towards this.

But how does horror show these well known representations? In the book, Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol Clover she argues the identification of females and roles of the female character, looking in more detail than the ‘Male Gaze’.  Carol Clover talks about ‘The Final Girl’ in her book. Relating to horror as towards the end of the film there always seems to be a final girl.  This sometimes is used to show identification with females. The final girl always seems at the end of the film to turn monstrous and heroic and defeats the villain showing power and a different side to herself. In the films that I am analysing I will tell you how the final girl is represented in each way.  The core audience of the horror genre is male. And they accept the point of identification Carol Clover argues in her book that it is related to a males experience of the masculine idea, of being a victim to a bully for example. So with horror having a weak hero who is female shows a difference in other film genres.

The first film we watched was Halloween (1978), the film shows an equal visibility of female and male characters to therefore this shows a progressive representation on visibility. The roles of the female characters show a conservative representation of gender, by 3 of the younger female characters having roles of sex objects, and the other characters of females are used as a domestic role. The final girl Laurie is shown in a domestic role, she is a quite a boyish character with relates her being the final girl in the film. Although in some certain parts of the film she shows quite a feminine side to her character acting like the ‘damsel in distress’ when she acts quite weak in battling against the villain. Also her name can be a males name, so this shows another reason and point of her being the final girl, also the fact that her other friends are more sexually active than her and much more girlie throughout the film. So I think this is playing around with the role of the film a bit, although most of the female characters so a conservative representation, Laurie is the protagonist and is the final girl. In the film there are some parts that show the male gaze, more focused on the friends of Laurie, like when Linda shows her bare chest off in a scene, although the camera in my opinion doesn’t focus on her nude body reflecting her as a sexual object as she is the one that is making herself come across as a object rather than a subject. Although there are other parts of the film where the camera focuses on parts of the women’s body when one of the female characters is getting undressed.  But Laurie is not objectified; she is shown as the subject not an object unlike the other girls. So you can argue that the use of male gaze shows the female characters conservatively or progressively. The narrative of the film shows that more women die than males during the film, so therefore this represents the narrative of the film conservatively.

In class we also watched another horror film called The Shining (1982) where again I will argue whether the film shows represents gender progressively or conservatively. By the visibility of the gender in the film you can see that it is shown conservatively, there are less women characters than male characters. The roles you can see of the females in the film are sex object, domestic, and martial. The role of the sex object is shown by one of the female characters fully naked walking out of a bath tub, but this gaze is complicated as she is then shown as an old, unattractive women. Wendy who is the mother of Danny in the film shows her role as domestic and also martial, by the fact she has a caring role- mother and that she looks after her family. Also the boss of the hotels secretary shows a domestic role, where she goes and makes a cup of tea for her boss. Although this is showing a conservative representation of gender, Wendy also is shown as the protagonist where she starts to do Jacks jobs.  The narrative of the film tells us that there is equal deaths during the film, therefore this represents the gender as progressive.

 The last film we watched in class was Eden Lake (2008), I will also analysis this film to help illustrate my arguments and points whether horror films represent gender progressively.  In the film men outnumber women by 8-5. Therefore this shows the visibility of the genders in the film is conservative. As there is only really one main female character in the film her roles show that she is martial. As even though she has a job her job is a teacher of younger children which shows that it is related to caring. Also there is a part of the film where there is a female waitress; this also could be related to domestic. And the young girl in the gang is passive as she is in the gang with the guys, which shows a progressive side to the roles. There is also a point where Paige refers to objectification as a way of insulting Steve, who is a main character. But overall the roles of the women in the film show a conservative representation.  The narrative of the film tells you that more men die than women, and women aren’t punished any more than men.

To conclude I think that horror represents gender progressively at a equal extent to representing it conservatively. As in the films I have looked at there is a mixed of telling the audience and showing them how it shows a conservative representation or progressive. In Carol Clovers book it tells you that she thinks in some ways it shows a conservative look at genders, but as the use of a final girl turning monstrous and powerful this mixes the idea of it. Overall my opinion is that it depends of what type of horror you are watching, and by the evidence of my 3 films I have analysed you can see that there isn’t really one type that is stronger than the other.

Narrative Theory

In class we explored the ideas of four narrative theorists; Propp, Todorov, Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson. We applied the theories and ideas of four narrative theorists to 'The Shining'. Propp was a Russian critic who explored the underlying structures of folk/fairy tales and proposed a set of universal character and narrative functions which he thought were the basis of all stories. His ideas were an uneasy fit with 'The shining' because the roles Propp uses doesn't really fit with The Shining. As in the Shining hero could be many different characters such as Wendy or Danny, so it doesn't show a clear understanding of the theory in this type of film. Although one stage fits well as there the film does show a character leaving home, Jack and his family moving to the hotel.


Todorov is another theory where there is different stages in the film; equilibium, disequilibrium, pathway to resolution and new equilibrium. For The Shining this fits relatitively well as the equilibirum would be Jack getting the job at the hotel. When the problems happen and when Jack goes crazy this is the disequilibrium. then the pathway to resolution would be when Wendy and Danny trying to escape the hotel coming across many obstacles in the way, and then Danny leading Jack into the maze and making Jack lost and ending in him dying. So overall this could be the theory that works best with The Shining?


Thirdly Bordwell and Thompson is another theory we looked at and studied. This theory they put together having the narrative having one situation at the beginning and then having causes and effects occur during the film and then ending in a situation that ends the film. In ways this does work with The Shining as we don't necessarily see what is happening in some certain parts of the film, so in our heads we try to link images that we do see to things that we don't, we just make up what we are not seeing to something that would link to what we have seen. Doing this we help to understand the film and creating images in our heads shows that this theory does slightly work with The Shinning. Although this theory doesn't look on the film plot and story line, so it is quite difficult to work it out and try to connect it with The Shinning.


The Claude Levi-Stratus talks about the narative structure in terms of binary oppositions. To understand this we use examples like past and present. We know past is the opposite to present. Connecting this type of theory to the film The Shining, we see situations where good and evil binary oppositions are clear. But although this theory does link to The Shining in some way, it only concentrates on the themes of the events throughout the film instead of the arrangement of the plot.


To conclude these theories i have looked at and studied show a different outcome of the horror movie narrative. Applying this to The Shining i did find difficult although there were some factors that defiantly connected with some of the theories. As the theories were so different each one covered something different from the films narrative. They either looked at the plot more, or the characters etc. Overall i felt that there wasn't a certain one that stood out that linked to The Shining the most.

My idea for a horror movie

A group of university students arrange to go to a music festival abroad. During their first night there they become uncomfortable with the surroundings of the place and with many different elements during their stay they find out it is a torture camp.
The group try to plan an escape, but during this they loose each other and miss their plane home.
Throughout the film each person gets tortured individually, while there is still a young female trying to escape, unknown that her fellow friends have either been killed or captured. She finally finds dead bodies of her friends and becomes physco.
She then plans to attack the main people that have killed and tortured her friends and makes a good escape after she has killed them all.

Mood Board

This is my mood board. It shows different images that i have found that scare me. These images also show you what type of horror film i would like to make. I have included photos of settings; churches and mental hospitals. These type of places i find scary as they might have a past to them. Also i have included photos of different people including Jesus, the idea of a religious horror could be distrubing. Also dark faces, ghosts and paramornal figures. Twisted bodys and old humans also scare me and create a distrubing atmosphere. Also unknown cuts on bodys, how did they get there? And the sight of blood is always scary.

Analysis of existing trailers

I have chosen The Unborn trailer because there are many parts throughout that i like and i feel that i can use different parts and interesting bits in my trailer. The first part of the trailer that caught my eye at 1:06 where she sees herself in the mirror and then the sound track changes to a sort of heartbeat sounds, its very slow which i like as it creates an uneasy atmosphere and then there is a high pitched scream coming from a child which also is another part in the trailer that i like. Also at 1:33 there is a scene where a old man is crawling up the stairs and then his head twists round.


I would love to have this effect in my trailer as i think it would link well to my ideas and would work effectively. Also at the end of the trailer there is a long part where loads of photos and parts of film are shown quickly in a sequence. This creates tension, suspension and i think it would be a good effect to put into the trailer. It probably needs a lot of work to make this look effective and work but i feel that if we achieved this then it would be a good success. Overall this trailer has many good points and parts throughout that i would like to use in my own trailer.

This is the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3. I have chosen this as there are many parts and techniques they have used in the trailer that i like and i would maybe like to use in my own trailer. At 0:16 is the first part of the trailer i like. Where its all normal at the begging in the trailer and then there is a quick part of a different clip showing a dark figure, it looks like she is crawling. This is a good effect to have as it surprises the audience and the use of camera work it makes it look creepy. Also there's a part of the trailer when the characters are talking normally and then their voices get deeper and slower, this is another thing i could use in my trailer. By changing the voice and sound. Throughout the film there are bits where the camera cuts out and goes fuzzy. This is another effect i would like to use in my trailer. The main part of this trailer that i like is the camera work throughout. The use of handhold camera work makes it scary and really effective.





This is another trailer i have analysis ed, The Grudge 2. Parts that stood out to me and which i liked was the quick cuts and quick clips of film put in randomly to make you jump. The trailer is very jumpy which is what i like. Also the use of sound during the trailer, there is like a voice over of screams in certain parts. But the screams are so mixed together it sounds like high pitched music. My favorite parts are at 1:00, 1:09, and 1:19. Overall this is another trailer that has loads of different parts that i would like to use in my own trailer.