Horror Mood Board

For this mood board I have gathered pictures/posters which for me are what horror is stereotypical seen as. For example looking at the mood board majority of the posters are extremely dark which meets connotes jealousy, anger, death and other things through the use of colours. However there are the odd posters such as the eye which start with bright colours such as white which connotes purity therefore contradicting the story line which could help in intriguing people to the product.

character profile

Jenna Johnson

 Jenna Smith is a young girl in her teens. This is our main character who is around 16 years old who is a mysterious, curious and independent individual who could be seen to be like Bella Swan from the Twilight Saga. This is because after the vision Jenna looks into some books to find out what is happening which similarly happens in Twilight when Bella suspects that Edward is a vampire. Also Jenna and Bella share certain qualities such as being introverted, mysterious, strong, curious and independent individuals who partially understand life but feel the need to experiment. Therefore having a strong personality which is easily likable once you get to know the person however Jenna doesn't know what is in store for her.

The ethnic group of her is Asian (Philippine). Most Hollywood films tend to have their main character from a white ethic group therefore by choosing someone different shows that it isn't your typical film.  Also, through out this film Jenna tends to wear stereo typically unisex colours such as grey and black therefore conforming to some form of masculinity. In Visions Jenna can also be seen as conforming to Laura Mulvey's final girl theory. This can be said because she does have that sense of masculinity about her as well as being quite introverted therefore being able to take care of herself and not make irresponsible decisions. Also in Twilight we notice that Bella has a similar role therefore making the two characters very alike. They both create mystery and suspense which keeps viewers constantly excited.


The Mother (Rachel Johnson)

The mother has a background to be quite social compared to her daughter and unlike her daughter she
is quite open. However we won't see this side of her in our trailer we will see a psychotic side of her. We also be going against the Hollywood style as the actress for the mother is also Asian. We notice that like Jenna the mother is also quite mysterious even though she is seen as sociable. However little does Jenna know that her mother is covering a dirty secret of the amount of families she has been with and the amount of times she has seen this curse in action.

The mother may seem like the good one however she is hiding many secrets which may be revealed eventually however for now she goes along with the plot. She has caused suffering in the past however previously when these events have occurred she has managed to sneak away but will she be able to do it again. This can link to Cohen's theory of moral panic as through the viewers knowing this background story they would constantly be worried about Jenna and what the mother might do to her.

Cast List

Jenna Johnson - Estina Lauretta

Estina is approximately the same age of what we want Jenna to be therefore allowing us to make our horror trailer as realistic as possible which will help in making the overall trailer more intense. Firstly our character Jenna is a mysterious teenage girl who is quite curious as well as closed up on her thoughts. Therefore this meant that we had to consider certain factors to make Estina come across in this way. This included her outfit, we decided black and shirt with a dragon would be a good fit as it would show that she is independent, the dragon on her shirt would show that she is curious which would therefore allow her to portray her role well. Also for the scenes where she goes into the vision we had to apply make up in a particular way and make her behave in a psychotic way so that the audience would believe what is happening. By doing simple things like this would allow us to portray a strong character to the audience which allows us to make the overall trailer more intense. In conclusion considering factors like this will enable us to create a strong character which will help us to create an an effective trailer.


Mum (Rachel Johnson) - Bavleen (Previously portrayed by Sakura Suzuki) 

This role was originally going to be portrayed by Sakura however Sakura was no longer able to due
to personal reasons this involved us having to recast in order to find someone fit enough to play the role of the mother. However in  the end we found Bavleen who was able to portray this character well and effectively.

The mother will be played by Bavleen, this role isn't as major as we won't be seeing her face. However as she is going to be psychotic in the scenes it is important for her dress code to seem normal so we can easily contrast what is happening. Therefore in order to bring out the characteristics to the fullest it is important that we make she the costume is perfect. We must also make sure that the behaviour is fully understood by our actress so that we can create an intense horror trailer allowing us to attract an audience.

Visions Auditions

These auditions were to find out who we were going to pick in order to play Jenna and Rachel who are our characters. we believe that it was extremely important to find the correct cast.
 

PLANNING - Brainstorm

Treatment

Target Audience
The target audience for our horror teaser trailer is above 15. After looking at the IMDb's age ratings we decided this as our trailer consists of some disturbing images which might not be suitable for children under that age. Also, our film might appeal to older audience because of the genre of it. It will also appeal to the people who are thrill seekers. The film is solely based on a teenage girl who tries to fight the evil and in order to do that she has to take help from her mother. The concept of our teaser trailer will attract female teenagers as it would be a different thing for them to watch. The film doesn’t have the same old concept of a male protagonist saving the day. During the research of our teaser we came across the concept of ‘the final girl’ which suggests that there is always a female character surviving and the last and only one to survive. Keeping that in mind we designed our narrative and based our story-line around a female protagonist. 

Narrative/Idea
The film revolves around our protagonist Jenna, a teenager with the gift of being able to perceive events the future. She is an antisocial girl who is constantly secretive, even towards her own family. However, what she does not know is that her family were also hiding secrets from her. Jenna’s whole family has the ability to see the future. This resulted in an evil spirit becoming attached to her family tree; aiming to take each family members life. In the trailer, Jenna will be staring out the window, unintentionally activating her power. She will see the inevitable murdering of her mother, who will leave a message with the remaining life she has within her, knowing Jenna will see it through a vision. This will emotionally destroy Jenna as she understands the concept of not being able to alter time. Before the trailer ends, she will have one more vision which is going to be a montage of a race between her and the spirit. Will Jenna find a way to banish the spirit once and for all or will the spirit succeed in the destruction of her family? The last image left with the audience will be Jenna looking directly at the audience. This will leave the trailer on an ambiguous note, generating fear and curiosity. 

Purpose
 The purpose of the teaser trailer is to promote the full trailer and the film that will release later on. A teaser trailer is one way of marketing the film to the audience and creates awareness about the film and keeps the audience hooked to the story making them eager to wait for the full film. It will also establish the genre of the film and help the audience understand what the film will ideally be about. The codes and conventions of the film will help illustrate the genre of the film to the audience and help them find out if they will be interested to watch the film. Alternatively, our teaser trailer revolves around a female protagonist who tries to fight to protect her loved ones. This would attract the female teenage audience to watch the film.  

Characters
There will be three main characters of the teaser trailer. The first will be Jenna, the antisocial teenager the story is based on. She will wear dull colours reflecting her depressing personality. Her clothing is simplistic to show she is a reserved character in contrast to other characters her age. Jenna’s mother is the second character. She is called Rachel and behaves as an ordinary mother. Her clothing is modernised and she is constantly caring for Jenna’s well-being. Her tranquil behavior and appearance is what will deceive the audience of her secretive traits. In order to try and protect Jenna, she does not reveal their families to her. The last character is the spirit. It will never be physically seen, but will appear at times creating havoc for Jenna and her family. Shadows may appear to show the spirit is around creating a gloomy atmosphere and generating mystery over the spirits appearance.

Narrative Plot: chosen idea

This was made by one of my group members

My first idea for our horror trailer

Narrative structure from Jeet_Kaurr

Questionnaire

We carried out a questionnaire to see what is the most popular style/genre is so that we can base our movie ideas around it. Also this will help us decide on which aspects should be focused on the most so that we are able to attract an audience.

Comparative case study

As you can see from above I have chosen The Shining and The Conjuring 2, these films both have a horror genre and have a similar theme. The Shining was made 36 years before The Conjuring 2 which gives us the understanding of how different they are from each other as this genre has developed over the years. Moreover, this will help me to understand how the genre has developed and how any conventions have developed.

The shining trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32A7bTalgAE

The conjuring 2 trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFsmuRPClr4

Firstly, from the two trailers we can see that they use similar codes and conventions for example both films make use of silence. This is shown in The Conjuring 2 trailer as when we see the girl who is experiencing all of this is in her room standing there before the creature jumps out at her there is complete silence emphasising the tension therefore giving it more of a jump factor. However when looking at the trailer for The shining when the man stops speaking there is a minute of silence which builds up the suspense making the audience wonder what will happen next in the trailer, However there is a difference in location, in The Conjuring 2 the location is dark, no colour emphasising the world she is stuck in and how scary it is but when looking at The Shining the director has decided that he would like to use a orange/red setting which contradicts the theme and the genre. Dark locations tend to suggest more danger therefore by the director deciding to use quite a bright location it isn’t as scary as it could be however both films make the us for the convention of silence enhancing the horror genre.

The Mise – en – scene from these two films have their similarities and differences. As in the last paragraph I looked at how the use of colours for the locations were completely different which for one made it has the horror feature wasn’t enhanced as much as it could have been. However unlike The conjuring 2 the convention used in The Shining were more typical for example blood and knives which helps in enhancing the genre and slasher theme for this film. The use of lighting in the two films is also quite different as The conjuring 2 is more of a jump scare film it tends to be quite dim throughout so when something does happen it seems bigger and scarier than it actually is. On the other hand The shining makes good use of their lighting as unlike most horror films they have chosen to do it with good lighting allowing the audience to see everything which takes away how big the jump scare factor could be. 

Again with both trailers sound is a key feature as it helps bring out many features such as suspense, jump scare factor as well as many others. In both trailers they do not use particularly fast paced music but they have sudden changes which helps in bringing out the suspense. For example in The Conjuring 2 every time they are building up to a convention like then monster coming out of nowhere the music intensifies again bringing out the horror aspects and drawing people in. They also use sound bridges and sound effects which help in making it a more eye catching trailer therefore convincing people to go and watch the film. However as The Shining is a slasher film the music starts quite soft and builds up to be quite loud which tells the audience that something big is going to happen.  The music and sound is an important convention and feature for horror films.

The editing for both trailers are similar along with most other horror films as the aim of all horror trailers is to be suspenseful. The Shining and The Conjuring use quick cuts throughout however in The Conjuring 2 the vary their editing techniques as they also use fading. When it comes to horror films  these are the most common type of editing techniques as it allows them to show intensity and suspense easily which allows them to attract and audience. They also create these trailers in a way that it seems so real to the viewer therefore making it more effective and successful. 

Trailers

Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
Characters & their Representation
In Texas Chainsaw Massacre we learned that there are two women representing two different characters for example we saw that there was an intelligent blonde girl, this was understood as she was reading an astrology book and even though her clothes were revealing she was mainly covered up. However the other girl was was extremely revealing with what she wore which therefore tells us that she is the bigger sinner. We also understood that she isn't as intelligent as she is playing with her hair the whole time. Therefore we can gather that the more intelligent girl will be the one who survives at the end over the girl who sins more. The amount of male characters also dominates the amount of females in this trailer.

Setting
For the setting at the equilibrium it is calm to begin with, its a group of friends in car through through a green environment which is usually related to calm and relaxed, the lighting is also quite bright connoting happiness and summer. However when we get to the disruption of the equilibrium the character enters the house which seems quite creepy and the lighting is dim creating a dull atmosphere which allows us to understand that something bad is going to happen. This is a typical stereotype for horror movies, having a house which looks abandoned and slightly odd. There are always people who tend to go inside even knowing that its dodgy.

Narrative 
From this trailer we can understand that its about a few rebellious teenagers this is understood from their clothing and behavior as when this film was made this behavior seemed to be common in teenagers. These teenagers are on a road trip and everything seems to be normal until they come past this odd house which looks weird and quite creepy. One of the male teenagers go inside the house unknowingly closing the door behind him and entering chaos. Slowly one after the other goes in and gets chased by this man who is trying to kill them so that he can eat them, he captures one by one until it gets to the last girl. At this particular time in Texas there was a big issue on cannibalism as how they had found many cannibals therefore the movie is partially based on facts from that time period. From the trailer the girl seems to have gotten away as we only see her running away from this monster and his sinister plan. 

Theories linked to the trailers
we can link the theory of sadistic voyeurism by Laura Mulvey as we can say that the man who is killing these people to eat gets pleasure from doing these activities even though they seem wrong and vile to do. This therefore adds to the horror genre for this film as people may find this disturbing which may allow the horror aspect to be enhanced. This movie is also linked to the final girl theory by Caroline Clover, this theory supports that the intelligent girl is always the last one standing and seems to get away. This is supported through the trailer as we see this girl to be wearing less revealing clothing which makes her seem more pure over the other one along with the fact that she is reading an astrology magazine supporting the fact that she is intelligent and at the end she is the last character that we see.

Types of shots
In this trailer we also notice the use of POV shots which allow us to understand where the character is coming from and any potential feelings they may have. For example when we feel as we are the girl running through the woods trying to get away from this monster so that she doesn't end up like her friends we understand that she is scared and will do anything to get away from this man. This shot allows us to feel and see what the trailer doesn't directly show us therefore giving the audience a better insight on the story line.

I spit on your grave:
Characters & their Representation
In the trailer I spit on your grave we first see a young women who is firstly presented a violent due to the fact that she fires her gun at the man, she is also wearing grey which suggest that she can defend herself. However in the next scene she appears to be portrayed as a sexual object as she is wearing a white bikini and laying in the boat. This bikini is orange she suggest that she is happy and cheerful therefore contradicting what she wore and her behavior in the first scene. We also see three men chasing her one who wears a grey jump suit, the other shirtless which makes us assume that he isn't intelligent and a labor worker and we don't see much of the final man.

Setting
For the setting at the equilibrium it is intense to begin with, the scene starts outside where she has a gun towards the man who is questioning her. Then we see a slight disruption of the equilibrium when we see the men looking at her whilst she is laying in the boat on the lake. This contradicts to what is happening in the scene as the setting portrays nice and relaxed environment however what is being planned on her is far worse. When we see a clear disruption of the equilibrium the women is being chased by these men which is shown trough the woods where the lighting also appears to be quite dull. Then again the setting changes to the house after these men have left her and when she gets revenge the setting changes from the bathroom to outside until she has got her revenge on the three of them.

Narrative 
From this trailer we can understand that its about a a young girl who has recently moved to a new area and has been picked on this man however she shows that she can defend herself. One day she decides to go down to the lake so that she can relax and enjoy her day however once she leaves she finds herself in a situation running away from these men as they are trying to rape her. However sadly she trips over and these men get what they pleased therefore leaving her in shock and unhappy. Therefore she feels to seek revenge in order to feel herself again. So one by one she kills these men who perform this horrible event on her which results in them getting back what they did to her, by doing this she feels better as she knows they are gone.


Theories linked to the trailers
we can link the theory of sadistic voyeurism by Laura Mulvey as we can say that the three men who rape her in the first place get pleasure from it, they get pleasure from spying on young girls which can scar them for life. However this also links to the girl as we can say that she gains pleasure from killing them. Knowing that they are out of her life for good and knowing that they can no longer harm her. We can also see the Male Gaze by Laura Mulvey linked in as these men are sexually spying on this girl and she isn't seen to be of the same class to them due to her gender, they may also think that she will not be able to do much about it.

Types of shots
In this trailer we also notice the use of POV shots which allow us to understand where the character is coming from and any potential feelings they may have. For example when we see that these men are chasing her towards the end the director puts us in her shoes so that we can see her urgency to escape these people and to see if she can get away. When she can no longer run we are taken out her shoes and see the character fall from a long shot therefore signifying that she has lost the battle.

Grid 3 trailer analysis

Friday 13th

establishing shot of this is of the moon which is a long shot. The moon is bright and provides the only lighting for that current scene. We get a sense or darkness and horror due to the dark background and suspicious music in the scene. However the moon itself only provides dim lighting for the scene and there are black clouds which are covering parts of the moon which helps in emphasising that it will be a dark trailer. The fact that there are no props in the background suggests that there will be no gimmicks and will get straight to the point of the film. It is also a full moon which seems to be a common convention in horror films it usually suggests the beginning of a bad era about to begin. As we are unable to see much it could possibly be a suggestion that the antagonist will be hard to find due to the pitch black background and the moon being the only source of light which seems to get covered by dark clouds. This could also suggest that purity (being the moon) will be tampered with as the cloud which could be seen at darkness is constantly covering up which could lead us to think that it could be a slasher film.

the next shot is the shot of the main which is a long shot of the man. We see that there is a bright light shining on him but his surrounding are black which enforces the fact that he could be one of the main characters in this trailer. We also notice that he is wearing yellow which is usually colour which people use when they need help for example S.O.S. His facial expression shows confusion which makes us think that something has already happened to him and the current situation seems odd to him. The music in the background of this scene tells us that something is about to happen as it has that tension to it. Then he slowly starts walking towards the camera and at the end we see a close up shot of him where we hear the slasher noise resulting in him falling on the floor in pain. The transitions from these shots are quick cuts which emphasises the confusion of the current situation. However when we see the long shot its almost shaky which makes us assume that it could also be a point of view shot from who we assume is the antagonist as at the end of this scene  he kills this man who seems to be completely innocent.

In the third scene we see that there is a girl and a boy who seemed as they have sinned through sexual activity and as soon as they see someone coming it turns into a close up on the male character who dies. However, it also seems like a point of view shot from the killer’s aspect which therefore makes it seem like this boy is apologising to us. By using a point of view shot it puts us in the killer’s aspect which allow us to only understand what they do when they walk in on these teenager, this helps in leavening the killer anonymous which allows the director to build up suspense as we have no idea what it could be. Again they are both wearing yellow which suggest that they are in need of help. The mise en scene tells us that they are in a hidden location as the room seems to be empty. The girl is also blonde which suggests that she is unable to think for herself and constantly sins therefore practically putting herself up to this horror. This also shows carol clovers ‘final girl’ theory as we see who we assume is her boyfriend get killed but she still sits there on the floor in shock. Again there is dim lighting which is another common convention in horror films as it helps in building up to horror aspect for this trailer as not being able to see much tells us more.

Representation and stereotypes