Questionnaire Responses

Horror/Thriller DVD Analysis for a TV Drama

Horror Film DVD Cover Analysis

Trailer Analysis 

The Conjuring (2013)

To further research my chosen genre, I watched the trailer for 'The Conjuring'. The film is based loosely on true events of Ed and Lorraine Warren who are paranormal investigators and the Perron family. The Perron family asked The Warrens to investigate their paranormal activities within the house, and the film follows their investigations. 
The trailer starts with Ed Warren being filmed in the basement, it is low key lighting due to the only light coming from a torch, which makes it hard to see anything, adding to the uncomfortable atmosphere.The laughing then appears, the laughing sounds innocent as it sounds like a small girl, which makes the atmosphere more tense. The two then go to explain to an audience that they are paranormal investigators, giving the audience an insight into the plot further, a juxtapositional and contrapuntal music starts to play, but stop when the clock is shown, and the mood suddenly changes. Audio codes are key in this trailer, as we very rarely see the actual 'monster' so the audio builds up to when we do see the monster. The trailer mostly consists of diegetic sounds such as screaming and dialogue, but does have non-diegetic sound like the music I have just mentioned. In between some acts there is a black screen with text, in the same font as the title, these make the editing feel more fast paced compared to the dramatic pause of the text screen. 
As the trailer develops, the events become more and more serious, making the audience want to watch it as they want to see what happens and if the family get rid of the spirits.

Oculus (2014)

The first thing that you hear within the trailer is the sound of a heartbeat, and the sound of whistling wind. This makes the audience feel nervous and uncomfortable. The trailer does not reveal a lot at all, and there is not a lot of key moments from the film shown in the trailer which is unusual as horror/thriller films normally show gory parts of the film to entice the target audience in. The first thing we see in the trailer is the camera slowly panning, this makes the viewer feel like the victim peering round the door to see if the room is safe, or like the monster is searching for the prey of the victim. In the middle of the room is a mirror, and is illuminated, highlighting its significance. 
There is a credit screen saying that they have also produced films such as Paranormal Activity and Insidious, this hints the audience that the film is going to be good as they have produced other well-known films. The screen then goes blank, and the sheet is ripped off of the mirror in a way that looks like there is someone from the mirror side tearing it down, but when it completely falls off it reveals just a plain mirror, hinting that the film could have a supernatural theme running through it. The leaves flying away from the movement of the sheet foreshadows that events in the film could have an echo/ripple affect on things and people around. Connotations of a white sheet like that used in the trailer could be ghosts, shroud of death and illness. The little girl voiceover for the trailer adds suspense as she is talking very slowly and carefully, and relates to the screen as she is talking about the mirror, and then ends with ''I can feel you staring back'', this shows that the little girl has a connection to the mirror and the thing within it. The whistling wind noise is present the whole time the girl is talking, but gets louder when she has finished talking, showing and warning the viewer that something is going to happen, and again, a black screen appears, jolting and distracting the audience. There is fast pace editing, showing the fast pace action, but there are longer pauses when the monsters are shown, for example when there are two figures cloaked in a white sheet-like that shown in the beginning of the trailer over the mirror- so shows that they are connected. Computer graphics are used to shows blood flowing down the mirror, this connotes the blood and gore that will be a major part of the film. There are extreme close ups and normal close ups used to show fear in the victim's face and their expression and reaction to the events. The black screen occurs again and the title of the film is shown through blood, again connoting the horror and gore of the film. Then another black screen and a shot of the demon is shown to make the viewer jump.

My choices

Pre-production task

For my pre-production task I will be producing a DVD cover for a horror/thriller film, which will link to my main production piece. This cover will include all the typical codes and conventions of a DVD cover, such as the film blurb, quotes from film reviews and mandatory things like the barcode and the age restrictions. The colours I plan to use are mostly blacks/dark colours and white, I would like to stick to this theme as I like the idea that the white symbolises the innocence of the victim and the black shows the darkness of the monster/events of the film. I will base my DVD cover in response to the research that I did on other professional horror DVD covers. 
My research on professional DVD covers included comments on the typical codes and conventions, the colour impact on the reader and the use of text font. By looking at these designs I have got an idea of the layout and design I would like to use on my pre-production.
I have also researched into what industry will be making the film and who will distribute the film. From this research I have decided to use the 'Hammer' company (Simon Oakes) to be listed as producing the film as they have produced related films to ours such as 'The Woman In Black' and 'Let Me In'. The distributor I would like to use for my film would be 'Warner Bros Pictures' as they have distributed other films in the same genre of mine, for example 'The Conjuring (2013) and 'Chernobyl Diaries (2012)'.  

Main Production task

The research I conducted for my pre-production will also help for my main production piece, but I also have conducted individual research for my main production piece,  which is going to be a horror/thriller trailer. For this task I have watched various trailers for the same genre film as mine, e.g 'The Strangers (2008)' and 'The Conjuring (2013)'. The analysis of which will be on my blog soon. By mixing my research with older horror/thriller films and more up to date horror/thriller films I feel I have got a good variety of research. 
The trailer will be around 3 minutes long and will contain the 'best bits' of the film, to entice the viewer to watch the whole film. The 'best bits' will be the goriest and most horrific, and will give a hint to what the plot is about and the events that occur, but leave enough mystery to make the viewer want to find the film and watch it fully. The trailer will not have a voice over as it is a typical convention for horror/thriller film trailers to not include any narrating. The only dialect will be that in the actual filming, for example, like mentioned in my mind map, I plan to use typical dialect such as "what do you want", so this is an example of a quote I would like to use for my trailer. this is also the same for any music, as I do not want to use non-diegetic sound in the trailer, only diegetic, as I want the trailer to have a raw and sharp feel to it, to add the the uncomfortable atmosphere.
The trailer will be dark and eerie, to automatically make the viewer feel uncomfortable and nervous as to what is going to happen. A typical ending to the trailer is to show one of the key points in the film and the most bloody and then abruptly interrupt it with the credits/releasing dates.

Initial Ideas Mindmap

Tracking Progress