CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF HORROR FILM- PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3!

Analysis of a film trailer in the genre horror!

FILM TRAILER: INSIDIOUS 2!!

The movie used many sound codes and conventions of the genre of horror such as:

-It starts off by using a sound bridge where in the beginning it indicates how they are finally a happy family by using peaceful music in the background, but towards the middle of the trailer when things begin to get wrong the music switches to freaky music when the ghost haunts them, this sound bridge indicates how things became from happy to dangerous. It shows typical props such as baby monitors, and a baby walker start to move and make disturbing sounds to show how the ghost is haunting them. There are Sound codes such as echoing and repeating whispers created a panicking atmosphere as you can hear the sounds of it going round and round in your head.The trailer shows how most of the movie is set in a huge haunted looking dark house which the ghost lady keeps following them in. The trailer portrays quick flashes of the ghost faces that repeatedly keep appearing and different scenes are mashed together to create tension whilst watching it and it create a fast adrenaline feeling.  

Another sound code is the use of violin like instrument that becomes quiet to loud to clearly suggest how and when there is danger about to strike. There are Little subheadings that appear in different parts of the trailer such as “it began two years ago” “from the makers of Saw and Paranormal Activity, “This fall” this creates some sort of persuasion towards the audience as they will be excited to watch a continued series as this is the 2^nd movie, it also encourages them to watch it if they enjoyed the films mentioned and the successful directors, moreover, “this fall” suggests how the film is set in the spooky time of the year “fall” time creating a much urge to watch it.

The film trailer includes the most of the terrifying and interesting scenes that will be entertaining for the audience and are purposely put together to gain interest, fear and the continuous  scenes of action suggests it’s a nail biting movie to watch.The trailer used editing techniques such as fade out to create a suspicious atmosphere as it faded out from a scene also suggesting how the trailer is only showing snippets of the film by not  revealing everything and it encourages the audience to watch the film as they want to know what happened next. Moreover, the fade out creates a tense and spooky feeling. 

I ALSO ANALYSED INSIDIOUS 1:
Also used sound code of ticking of a clock to show how slow the time passes, this was shown in the start of the trailer when it was silent with no background music. This set the scene of the spooky atmosphere.The sound of ticking continues as it illustrates how everything in the start was fine and the family was happy and the sound of laughter is in the background. Suddenly, when the problem occurred and the boy is in coma, there is a dingy music in the background. This indicates danger and makes the audience suspect that something it wrong. The scary music lurks the audience in the mystery and makes them suspect that there is a problem. The Titles pop up of the movie title to reinforce to the audience and referring them what the movie is about making it look haunting. There is a use of silence when we see how the ghost was in the scene, suddenly the silence changes into deep music which really makes the audience jump and gives them a fright. Sound effects of the baby monitor, baby crying and door handle rattling all show snippets merged together to indicate how the atmosphere is turning fast paced and tense which makes the audience very shocked. 

This information i gathered by analysis the film trailers was useful as it gave a clear indication on how to make my film interesting and engaging with the audience through the use of sudden sound effects that will be incorporated in our film in order to make the audience react (uses of gratification theory) and applying these sound and music in order to create a horror atmosphere. 

MOVIE REVIEW- THE WOMEN IN BLACK!

The Woman in Black is a 1983 horror novella by Susan Hill, written in the style of a traditional Gothic novel and directed by James Watkins and produced by the biggest film productions "Hammer Productions".The plot explores the theme of women who is a ghost (her spirit) and haunts a small English town, heralding the death of children if she is seen by the children.

 The narrative and setting of the movie gives a great atmosphere as it is set in the olden times, Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills. The movie makes use of many codes and conventions of horror because  way the movie is shot uses good use of dark, gloomy and blue tone, grey colours as most of the scenes are set in the evening/ night times and is during the winter season making things even scarier making the movie nicely photographed and shot. This is a good convention of horror as most horror films are shot during the evening and night time and also during the winter/fall time where the weather is cold reflecting the mood and atmosphere where there is usually low key lighting which makes everything more eery and mysterious. It Splendidly delivers the old-school, hocus-pocus goods, reminding us that sometimes a bone-chilling movie scare can be frightfully, fitfully fun.

It’s well produced, acted and written and for fans of vintage horror, you'll definitely be entertained. The film delivers good conventions of horror such as the filmmakers really intensify the “ghost” convention and take it further by understanding  the simple power of ghosts, and they deliver a tense and chilling spook-fest. The characters in the film are dressed very old fashioned reflecting the time in which the film was set as the film is set in the olden times which makes the film even more freakier as behind anything ancient theires always something haunting and scary!  This film defiantly fits into the genre of horror as the vintage girls room little toys kept in the haunted house comes to life and is out to get you as things start playing around mysteriously at night with the use of sound such as sounds of lullaby's and the sound of the "women in black" wailing and crying really freeks me out as its very repetitive and you always hear the sound of her crying when she is secretly lurking in the dark!

The main actor of the film is Daniel Radcliffe, but fresh out of the "Harry Potter" series who as a lawyer travels away from his home to a village where he finds an abandoned house where he first discovers that the “Women in Black” spirit haunts the house and reveals all the terror, fright and spookiness that he discovers about her in the house. He is a lawyer and single parent still grieving the loss of his wife is sent to a country mansion supposedly haunted by a woman who causes the local children to commit suicide. Radcliff, in his first adult role since the Harry Potter is perfectly suited for this role as his intelligent looking character fits well into the role that he plays in this movie as it makes a convincing case for life after death and, for Radcliffe, life after Harry Potter. This movie is so good at inspiring moments of pure terror as Radcliffe paces down the hall and the camera zooms in all too perfectly. The film also makes good use of an establishing shot in the start of the movie where it reveals the place and setting of the film. The mise en scene indicates how there is a steam train indicating that the movie was set in the previous era and the scenery of lush overgrown trees and leaves suggests that the haunted house is a place that nobody has entered in a long time and shows it is abandoned house, again reflecting back to the conventions of horror as haunted houses indicate danger in a horror film.

If you enjoy your ghost stories, chasing shadows, and enjoy them sad and melancholic, creepy terrors then youll love this movie! 

However, a con to the movie is that the storyline is predictable and not as unique, as most of the story is set in a “haunted house” where the audience automatically know that bad things always lurk around in the haunted house and is very common! Moreover, If you're looking for nail-biting horror and suspense, this isn't the ticket as it is scary,but not as scary as many other scary films that I watched. But, is may be a good thing sometimes good as a younger age group will be able to watch the film without getting to spooked out.

Star rating out of 10: 7/10

Case study of a Film Company that produces films in horror genre:

Hammer Film Productions!

Fact file:

-Hammer films film Production Company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced films in the genres of science fiction, thriller, film Noir and comedies.However, during the most successful years hammer was successful in the horror genre market dominating worldwide distribution and good financial success. The success was partly due to partnerships of the well known, famous United States studios of Warner Bros.In May 2009. Hammer films began to up their game so they announced plans to spend some $50m (£25m) on new horror films. The new owners also acquired the Hammer group's film library, consisting of 295 movies. Since then it has produced the feature films Let Me In (2010), The Resident (2011) and The Women In Black  (2012)

List of successful films produced by Hammer film productions!

-The Curse of Frankenstein

-Dracula

-The Mummy

-Frankenstein

- Hammer consolidated their success by turning their most successful horror films into series.  (Six sequels to The Curse of Frankenstein were produced between 1959 and 1974)

-Cave Girls

-Psychological thrillers

-The Karnstein Trilogy 

 -In April 2012, the company announced it was to make a sequel to the The Woman in Black titled The Woman in Black: Angels of Death. Also in 2012, two more films going into production during 2012, entitled The Quiet Ones and Gaslight.

Critical response:

-The Hammer Horror films were often praised by critics for their visual style, although rarely taken seriously: "Altogether this is a horrific film and sometimes a crude film, but by no means an unimpressive piece of melodramatic storytelling" - critic of Dracula in The Times in 1958.

-Kim Newham, have praised Hammer Horror more fully, enjoying their atmosphere, craftsmanship and occasional Camp appeal.

-Terence Fisher's The Curse of:  Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959) 
 "are among the loveliest-looking British films of the decade... The early Hammer films offer a last gasp of British romanticism, the solid sets drenched in a soft brilliance of shadows, of greys, reds and blues".

Another example is TWISTED PICTURES!

Twisted Pictures is an American independent  production company,  which is popular in creating films of the horror genre. The company was founded in 2004 by Evolution Entertainment's Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Gregg Hoffman who are told be the best known for producing the  Saw film series  which was a popular and big hit.Twisted Pictures was formed after the box office success of Saw in 2004, which lead to a nine-picture distribution deal with Lionsgate. This lead to the company on to producing six sequels in the Saw film series. In June 2007, the company formed a joint venue with RKO Pictures  to remake four films out of RKO library, which include, Five Come Back  (1939),  I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Body Snatcher  (1945), and Bedlam (1946). Then, In October 2009, Twisted Pictures landed a deal with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre rights-holders Bob Kuhn and Kim Henkel after discussions with  Platinum Dunes fell apart. The deal is for multiple films. On June 28, 2012, Twisted Pictures opened a new television division. The first production of Twisted Television is  a television anaption of Anger Management. "We are thrilled to be able to finance and produce cutting edge, story driven genre films and know we have the proven marketing and distribution expertise of Lions Gate behind us" said Burg Koules and Hoffman. "The isn't another distribution company in the business who better understands how to reach out to the vast audience of genre fans who want to see the uncompromising style of film we are commited to making". 

Short film fan sites!

WHAT ARE THE AUDIENCE TALKING ABOUT ON BLOGS/ FAN SITES?

-ON BLOGS & FAN SITES:

-They review the film and by giving good feedback to the wider audience it will attract more of a wider audience and influence them to watch the new movie. The audience share trailers as well as sneak peaks behind the show which gives us an insight into the movie and trailers become really popular if shared online as it can become viral making the movie automatically big and viewed to a wide audience. The fans post exclusive pictures of shots from the movie to attract audience and they may upload the film posters of the movie.Fans post pictures/ talk about the famous bankable actresses/ actors so they become well known to the public and become more likable so this means a wider range of audience will view the film if they are interested in who stars in the film.  There is usually a list of all the cast members and the character that they are playing. Includes exclusive interviews with the stars which allows the audience to get an insight into more information on the film/actors. Help by promotion of the film as they post films release dates and the release dates on different countries.

HOW DOES THIS HELP ME WITH MY PLANNING/ GETTING IDEAS FOR MY FILM?

This helps me with planning as by posting on a blog this automatically gives me a good chance to get public feedback and advice on particular areas of my film such as people are able to give me advice and feedback on how I can improve and what to add/ get rid of. Moreover, by posting onto blogs and fan sites people are able to rate the film/ posters/trailers to say how good It is and if there is a low rating you know that something needs to be changed. Fan sites/ blogs are very useful as they have comment boxes and different way for people to interact with others which will help as this will help with making the film as you get a good understanding of what the audience requires/ expects from a short film.