Synopsis

The title of the film trailer will be called 'The Hunted' which will therefore be a horror teaser trailer based on a stalker.

Originally the horror trailer was going to feature a group of six friends who venture out into a local forest to celebrate their A-Level results, little do the group realise that they are alone in the forest with an extra individual...their stalker who has been watching them. One by one each of the characters dissapear, and one survives. However I came to realise that this idea would be very difficult gathering all six characters together at the same time and also the plot became fairly complicated, therefore i have adjusted the synopsis.

The title of the film trailer has remained the same 'The Hunted' as the trailer is going to be based around a stalker and one female character, therefore the title of the film can then be assoiciated with the plot.
There will be one character who is named Ellie, Ellie will be featured blonde in the trailer as by using my secondary research and watching several horror films the blonde female character is often seen as very vulnerable and in many cases naive, therefore Ellie will be featured walking through a forest alone to and from her way to college...this will represent her naive characteristic and perhaps her stereotypical outlook. Ellie will be watched by her stalker who has been watching her every move throughout the week, to project this to the audience several days of the week such as 'Monday' will appear in text in the trailer to represent the time to the audience.
The first day which will be Monday will feature Ellie walking through the forest, Wednesday will see Ellie become slightly suspicious and wary as she hears movement and can feel the sense that someone is possibly watching her. Friday will see Ellie being followed home, by this time Ellie is aware that something is not right and her stalker will follow her home. As Ellie's parents have gone away for the weekend she is home alone, Ellie sits in her bedroom terrified and finally becomes face to face with her stalker, this will leave the audience in suspense and end on a cliffhanger.

Audience Research

To create the teaser trailer we needed to establish which age range would our specific genre (horror) appeal too, therefore I created a questionnaire to guide me into doing this.

The questionnaire asks the participant to state their sex, age and favourite film genre.
The questionnaire asks the participants to state their sex, age and favourite film genre.
In the questionnaire we can see that the horror and comedy genre are very popular, however the horror genre is in particular popular with teengaers and young adults.
As I had already decided in which genre I was going to be using in my genre it has helped me in deciding the age range of the characters in the trailer as this will appeal to teenagers/young adults. Therefore I will feature teenagers in my final product as my target audience will be able to engage with the final product.
I also noticed that comedy was popular, often horror can be mixed with horror to create horror and humour, however I am sticking with the horror genre.

To perhaps improve the validity of the questionnaire I could have used a larger sample such as a 1000 participants, therefore this would have provided a valid and representative sample.

Genre - Horror

Horror is intended to scare, unsettle and horrify the audience. It is created to invoke our hidden worst fears in often a shocking and terrifying finale. Horror films center on the dark side of life, the forbidden and strange events which can occur.
Horror films go as far back as 100 years and were often created as very gothic in style this could be better known as the gothic/horror genre, this was usually set in spooky old castles and mansions. Their main characters were generally supernatural creatures ranging from creatures such as zombies, vampires, devils, mad scientists for example 'Frankenstein', evil spirits and many more. It was in the early 1930s that American film producers particuarly Universal Pictures that popularized the horror film bringing to the screen the likes of 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein', some of these blended together science fiction with gothic horror, these films were simply designed to thrill. Universal's horror films continued into the 1940s with the film 'The Wolfman', this wasn't the first werewold film but was agreed to be the most influential. Throughout this decade Universal continued to produce more sequals to the Frankstein series. However in the 1950s-1960s the advances in technology that had occured the tone of the horror films had shifted from the gothic genre towards what people saw as more relevant to the current time era, a stream of productions featured humanity overcoming threats from 'outside' such as alien invasions and deadly mutations to people.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, production companies focused on producing horror films, including the British company Hammer Film Productions. Hammer enjoyed a vast amount of success from full-blooded technicolor films involving classic horror characters in films such as 'The curse of Frankenstein', 'Dracula' and 'The mummy' and many other sequels. During the 1960s Ghosts and Monsters still remained popular, however in 1968 the film 'Night of the living dead' which featured Zombies was deemed as being cultural, historically or aesthetically significant. Blending the psychological insights with gore moved the genre even further away from the gothic horror trends which were first brought about with horror, this therefore brought horror into everyday life. Gore-shock films were also very popular such as 'Blood feast' which featured splattering bloody and bodily disemberment.
With the financial success of the gore films from previous years the 1970s started referencing the occult this often featured gory horror films with sexual overtones. This led to films such as the 'Exorcist', many similar films contained a Devil who represented the supernatural evil which was often done by inpregnating women or possessing young children. Evil children and reincarnation became very popular subjects, also Satan became the villian in many horror films however with a postmodern style. Also in the 1970s the horror author Stephen King debuted on the film scene as many of his books were adapted for the screen, Stephen Speilberg also shot to fame in 1975 with his creation of the deadly shark 'JAWS' this film kicked off a wave of killer animal stories. 'JAWS' is often credited as being one of the first films to use elements such as horror and mild gore in a big-budget Hollywood film.
The 1980s were marked by the growing popularity of horror movie sequels, for example in 1892 'Poltergeist' was followed by two sequels and a television sequel. The successful supernatural slasher 'A Nightmare on Elm street' was seen as the popular face for horror films in that era. Another trend which begun in the 1980s was the involvement of comedy elements, many of which were 'one-liner' punchlines, such films which included this were 'An American werewolf in London' and 'Fright night'. Despite the huge demand for horror films there were many which were seen as extremely controversial such as the film 'Nekromantik' which was a disturbing film about the life and death of a necrophiliac, also the growth in home video led to growing public awareness of horror films and the concern of the availability of such material to children. Many films were branded as "video nasties" and banned an example would be 'Silent night' and 'Deadly night' which was was withdrawn and failed at the theatres as the subject was about a killer Santa Claus.
In the first half of the 1990s, the genre from the '80s continued. Sequels from the 'Chucky-Childs play' had some commercial success however was also very controversial as it was linked to the murder of the young child James Bulger, the ten year old boy's who had killed James had apparently previously viewed these sequels and caused the certificate of the film to increase to age 15 certificate. Among the popular English-language horror films of the late 1990s, only late 1999s surprise independent hit 'The Blair Witch Project' attempted staight-ahead scares.
The start of the 2000s was a quiet period for the genre. The re-stored version of the 'Exorcist' was a success even though it had been available on home video for years. 'Final Destination' marked a successful revival of clever, teen-centered horror and spawned three sequels. A new trend had been set which first appeared in 'The others' which had required psychology to scare the audiences instead of gore. One of the larger trends was the return of extreme, graphic violence. An extension of this trend was the emergence of a type of horror with emphasis on depictions of torture, suffering and violent deaths with films such as 'Saw' and 'Hostel'. Remakes of the late 1970s horror films became routine in the 2000s, such as the 2003's remake of 'The texas Chainsaw massacre', in 2007 Rob Zombie wrote and directed a remake of John Carpenter's 'Halloween'.
Therefore we can see in each decade there has been specific trends and significant changes in the horror genre.

Sources used www.wikipedia.com

Textual analysis - The blair witch 2

I have decided to specifically analyise 'The Blair Witch Project' as this film was located in a wood, therefore this will be able to give me some ideas towards my final product.

The trailer opens with a birds eye view shot establishing the main desolate location which is the woods in which the students want to discover information about the Blair witch, it could also be said that the birds eye view shot is used to project to the audience the size of the forest in which the group will be investigating. A key film trailer convention is used which is the use of a voice over and in this case as it is a horror trailer the voice over is slightly more mysterious to help set the tone and the mood. Close up shots of each five members involved are shown to help the audience establish and make up their opinions about each character, several of the characters are featured smiling and laughing possibly used to create a sense of irony as mystetious happenings could possibly occur later on in the film. The use of the non-diegetic music which is the sound of a piano in the background almost creates a magical and supernatural feeling and is often stereotypically linked with witchcraft films and programmes. Extracts of perhaps useful and story telling phrases in which the characters have said in the film are used such as "If you don't believe in the Blair witch then why have you bothered to come?" therefore the audience immediately know that the group are there to find out and perhaps communicate with the witch.

The long shot of the graveyard reflects that there will be supernatural occurances in the film and is also a very stereotypical horror location. "The Witch is back" projects to the audience that this is dangerous! as this is said the editing becomes fast paced to possibly suggest panic and danger, eery non-diegetic music is heard and flashes of dead bodies, owls and screaming characters are all seen these are all also conventions of horror and are popular in many horror trailers. The montages of the film and the diegetic and non-diegetic music becomes so fast paced that it all together stops and a woman is seen to be frantically chanting however we as the audience do not know who she is, this is all part of the teaser trailer to make the audience want to know what occurs next.

Another form of narration is used which is text, dramatic pieces of text are used to frighten the audience and to not believe anything they've heard and to find out at the cinema itself what the film is about. As this is shown and spoken flashes of violent images and events are projected to the audience by using low angle shots up at the sky to show movement and perhaps referring to unknown spirits, which is very relevant to this film. A long shot of a woman spinning round in circles on her bed establishes to the audience that she has possibly been posessed and has been in contact with the witch, the mise-en-scene also helps the viewer think this by displaying books and candles which are often associated with spell casting. The use of showing short, teasing clips of characters getting killed and in this case a man falling off a bridge creates excitement and creates a cliff-hanger effect.

The effect of using a handheld camera to record their reactions creates verisimilitude we as the audience can imagine and see what it is like and have an understanding, this has given me ideas of how i could represent the stalker in my final product.

As the title of the film 'Blair Witch 2', this appears as if it is being viewed in a wave effect this could be perhaps to reflect the motion of waves and how they dissapear associating this with the group members who go in search of the Blair witch. We also know that this is a sequel due to the title 'The Blair Witch 2' therefore this is a popular and successful film, also a non-diegetic sound of a woman who appears to be a news reporter is speaking about the brutal murders and happenings which have occured in the woods, at the same time an establishing shot of the wood is being shown to the audience this creates a mysterious and ambiguous end to the trailer.

Textual analysis - Sorority Row

The first thing which i immediately notice about the trailer for sorority row is how it begins with upbeat non-diegetic pop music to represent the happy lives in which the group of friends have. The mise-en-scene has also created this atmosphere by the colourful and bright lighting used, colours such as yellows and summery colours often represent cheerfulness and warmth. The fast paced editing gives off the quirky student lifestyle, this effect is often used in party scenes or clubs to again represent the student lifestyle. The characters featured in these shots are viewed as being happy and vibrant, we as the audience see this by the positive emotions expressed. The parties could also be viewed as very stereotypical with the alcohol, loud music and dancing.
However the mood changes as the camera moves in to a close-up of the group of girls speaking about a boy, we then realise these are the main characters in the film. To create a mysterious effect the director has darkened the light to create a key convention which is used in horror. The way in which the group of girls are seen in a bedroom could also be seen as stereotypical as many American films use this to reflect the closeness between the friends.
"A deadly Prank" this phrase is used as a form of narration, the word prank is often seen as humourous however the adjective 'deadly' informs the audience that this prank has backfired. On the other hand the non-diegetic music appears carefree, perhaps this is to reflect the irony of the situation. The group of friends end up in a desolate area which is very cliche in horror, the lighting is dull as it is nightime this exhibits the darkness of the situation. The weapon used is captured in a close-up so that the audience can see that this weapon could possibly be the main weapon used in the film. The trailer does not show the full scene of the killings as this would give away what some of the audience would call the best bits. As the first killing is briefly showed the editing is extremely fast paced with flashes of lighting as this is often associated with horror films, the diegetic sounds of screaming and crying expresses the volume of fear indicated from the characters. The cutting from darkness to lightness indicates the sign of how life moves on and in this case how the friends have forgotten about the situation, the slow motion of the graduates celebrating could perhaps signify how their happiness is gradually slowing down. The use of technology today such as receiving picture messages through a mobile phone is indicated through the mise-en-scene this is important as it creates verisimilitude and reflects life to this day. Montages and the fast paced editing display panic to the audience which builds up to the murder of one of the members of the group, however we as the viewer do not see the killer as this is one of the devices in which the producer uses to draw the viewer into seeing the film. The phrase 'sisters for life' could be seen as ironic being featured after a killing which dulls the tone and establishes the mystery in which is occuring.
The use of flashing images of the weapon used is seen as a key convention of the horror genre, this also perhaps signifies upcoming danger.
I have noticed throughout the analysis that to create a scary effect the producers do not feature any sound for several seconds then suddenly feature screams and loud non-diegetic sounds this forms a sense of fear to the audience. The non-diegetic sounds of young children singing appears to be popular in the use of horror trailers as it adds a specific creepy feeling as something is not right about the situation. The pitch of the diegetic and non-diegetic gets louder and the diegetic sounds of knife blades rubbing together are heard, as the editing gets faster this reflects the fear and panic.
The title of the film is featured towards the end of the trailer to perhaps add tension, it could also be seen as acting as a cliffhanger. The short snippet of the film after the title sequence could be viewed as shocking, this could be signifying the horror and the events which are going to be featured.