BENAge: 17
Studying in A2: Media studies, Religious studies & History Interests: Rugby & Building Goals for the future: To travel the world and explore different cultures as well as going to university. Skills: Martial arts and carpentry. Favourite horror film: Friend Request Genre
Rick Altman’s theory argues that genre offers audiences a set of pleasures, these are the emotional pleasure which gives the audience a feeling of fear when watching a horror movie. The second is the visceral pleasure this gives the audience a squeamish feeling or physical response of jumping and screaming, and the last is the intellectual puzzle, for this there must be a mystery for the audience to figure out for example in my teaser trailer the identity of my antagonist is kept secret as you never see their face now the audience was an intellectual puzzle to try and figure out who it is. Another theorist is Christian Metz he states there are 4 stages that a genre must go through as they evolve over time. The experimental stage is the first when coming up with the conventions, next is the classic stage where there are now set conventions. The third is the parody stage in which the conventions are made fun of and finally the deconstructive stage which creates hybrids of the genre like zombie/romance/comedy. My teaser trailer would come under the classic stage as it is sticking to the key conventions of a slasher like phallic objects such as knives being used as a weapon. The third theorist to look at when making a horror trailer is Steave Neale he states that a film must follow the key conventions of that genre so it is recognisable but it needs to put a twist on them so that it doesn’t become too predictable for they need to evolve or the genre will die out. In my trailer I did not follow this theory closely as I have the key conventions like my antagonist jumping out of a door way to scare my protagonist, this is a key convention but I failed to put a twist on it so my audience may find to predictable and not be scared when it happens. The finale theorist you need to look at is Graeme Burton for him a genre needs familiar and recognisable characteristics these come in the form of many things that you need to make a successful teaser trailer, he says you need a protagonist, stock characters, stock situations, icons, themes, background and decor, without these it is hard to recognise the genre in my trailer I included stock situations as I had someone being murdered, icons in the form of a knife as a phallic imagery my background and décor was as abandoned warehouse which sets the mood for a horror trailer and the theme used in the teaser trailer was teenage punishment as my protagonist is breaking in to the abandoned warehouse. The things I need to work on for this theory is setting up my protagonist as the audience they have no idea who this person is, I also need to add in stock characters such as some superficial characters to be killed which will help with the climax of the trailer. In conclusion my teaser trailer I did over the summer does follow some of these 4 theorists ideas but there are parts I failed to include like stock characters, emotional pleasures and failing to put a twist on characters, emotional pleasures and failing to put a twist on conventions which \re things I will need to work on to improve my next trailer so it can clearly be classified in the horror genre. |
ASHLEYAge: 17
Studying in A2: Media studies, Graphic Design and ICT Interests: Designing and Exercise Goals for the future: To get into university and become a well paid designer. Skills: Designing and Editing Favourite horror film: Saw 1 GENRE
The production that I will be explaining in relation to the topic of genre is the piece that was most enjoyable, which is my horror teaser trailer. The genre of the trailer will be horror as we all know. This genre expands the amount of creativity of the trailer, however this genre limits the array of generic conventions that can be implemented which agrees with the target audience needs. A media theorist known as Graeme Burton suggests that we can understand a lot about a films genre (in this case horror) by looking at a number of key concepts, which implied that my group and I needed to utilise many obvious elements to our horror teaser trailer so that the genre is easy to detect by the audience. Graeme's theory links quite well with my horror teaser as for the generic features were easy to locate as well as the trailer will still interest the audience. To do this my group and I chose a psycho male antagonist who was hidden behind a mask while holding an axe, which was a typical generic role for a man in a horror movie, furthermore the generic convention of a mask and a phallic object was seen to be the conventions that appear the most in horror movies. In addition to the psycho killer, my group and I chose the background of the scene to be a broken down workshop styled room, with saw blades and other contraptions, along with the use of really quite and menacing sounds. This empowers Graeme's theory because of the typical psycho killer and psycho room link up, along with the overused suspenseful sounds. Also another key element that was added to the trailer was the 'dragging the bodies' as well as 'a group of teenagers' not following the rules of how to survive a horror stock situations. With all of these elements combined as well as the addition with the theme of the horror teaser trailer being 'Gore' and the sub genre being 'Slasher', they add up to create a genre formula. Steve Neale believed that "Genres are instances of repetition and difference" and "Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre". This simply dictates that films and there trailers can only qualify as the genre they're meant to be if there are many stereotypes and typical conventions throughout, however the film or trailer needs to subvert the genre's stereotypes and conventions to not be classed as a clone of a movie that is already made. This theory was portrayed throughout many parts in my trailer such as the use of a broken down workshop being the background of one of the clips. Furthermore the use a phallic object also lets the audience identify exactly what genre this trailer is, however the way the trailer subverts the typical conventions and stereotypes is through the use of a Santa costume. Santa is perceived to be a God send and very nice, however the representation on Santa being a savage antagonist is not a clone of other horrors. The trailer that my group and I created followed Stage 2 of Christian Metz's theory. He states that genre develops in four stages: Experimental, Classic, Parody, and Revisionist/Deconstruction. Stage 2 implies that the trailer follows the classic horror genre concepts, with the use of the genre formula. My trailer consist of an antagonist who is wearing a mask while holding a phallic object (This is iconic to the horror genre). There is a stock situation which includes a teenage victim being tied up and trapped in the corner of a broken down room. Furthermore the stock characters are teenagers and one of the backgrounds were an abandoned and broken down work shop. |
TARAAge: 17
Studying in A2: Media studies, English Literature & Language & Drama Interests: Music, Drama & Sports Goals for the future: To be a teacher and travel around the world. Skills: Organising and Debating Favourite horror film: Nightmare on Elm Street (Original and Remake) Genre is important in highlighting an already established audience to new movies they would enjoy. However sometimes the walls between genres are permeable for example ‘Warm Bodies’ – romance and horror.
Horror conventions and icons are important in horror as the audience would be able to recognise them. A variety of characters are important in filling a storyline and driving it in a number of directions, as in horror it never is just the victim and a killer.My own summer trailer can be read overall as exploring a classic stage with an already establish audience with conventions and icons. Mise-en-scene, lighting, background and decoration are all equally important in setting the scene and the tone of the scene and is very important in establishing recognisable situations for the audience. For example in the equilibrium of my trailer, it is shot in a room which is decorated with Christmas lights and bunting and stocking and the characters are all dressed with Christmas jumpers and one with a Santa’s hat. This helps to establish the calm before the storm, creating an idyllic situation and establishing the time frame of when it is set in without having to use title slates or dialogue. This goes hand in hand with Levi-Strauss’ theorem of binary opposition. In contrast with this scene, at the disequilibrium/climax, the scene is shot in a dark place with work tools to create the shabby and dilapidated place of the antagonist where all is not well. As it was only a trailer, its hard to distinguish what type of narrative it is, however if it was an actual film it would follow a linear narrative with a beginning (establishing characters, setting, time), middle and end (happily ever after/resolution), differentiating from a non-linear narrative as explored in Pulp Fiction – which intrigues the audience in order to spark intellectual pleasures. Instead of establishing the characters at the beginning of the film, it leaves the audience questioning. Pulp Fiction can be said to apply to Metts Revisionist/Deconstruction stage as it pulls apart the conventions of established ideas. My own summer trailer can be read overall as exploring a classic stage with an already establish audience with conventions and icons. The genre of my trailer is slasher, following Domaille’s horror narrative type called Seicirce, which is the fight between good and bad. After creating my trailer, I revised the stages of Mett’s genre circle (Experimental, Classic, Parody and Revisionist). I decided that my trailer fitted in the Classic stage, as it had reconstructed conventions of a horror movie which had already been established and used repetitively. As I had chosen slasher as the genre for my trailer, I had to make sure there I followed Burton’s theory of conventions, which in a horror movie would create a piece which would already have an established audience who would recognise these icons. For example, in my piece I had a mask, a phallic object (axe) and a dim and gritty location. However, these icons wouldn’t be as effective without stock situations, for example a chase scene or someone running down the corridor. In my summer trailer and also generally there was a lack of stock situations in our trailers to entice the audience intellectually and emotionally, to keep them guessing what happened next and give them the thrill of seeing something scary or thrilling. Without two of these three sections of Altman’s theory in our trailers, the overall success of the trailers can be questioned. With the last section of the theory (Visceral pleasure), being mainly associated with gore, death and the animalistic pleasure we get out of horror films, the trailers created were intended to have this effected however not executed well enough, which would dampen or tame the overall thrill factor of the trailers, with us possibly having to revisit our target audiences. When revising my trailer and Propp’s theory of narration, I noticed that of his 7 characters in a horror film, I only had one – the villain. Recognisable characters in a narration achieve an unrealistic portrayal to an audience however this engages them. My lack of characters thins out the success of my trailer. If created another slasher based on my storyline I would include: The villain, the hero, the donor, the princess and the false hero. The use of these characters help to drive the narrative forward, with the possibility of taking it into a variety of different directions enhancing Barthes’ Proairetic (action) and Hermeneutic (building mystery) codes to supplement the audience experience. The use of genre is important in grouping together a certain type of audience appreciation so they know they are getting what they like/what they are used to. To an extent I believe that my summer teaser trailer is attached to the slasher genre due to the use of conventions and setting to create recognisable horror situations, however I also believe that the quality of the trailer can be increased to a large extent after revising certain theory’s such as Burton’s and Propp’s. My trailer finished on a climax following Todorov’s timeline, with the antagonist seen walking towards the main teenager with an axe and then cutting to the title slate “The List”. The audience is left wondering the fate of him and the other two teenagers, last seen passed out on the ground as he was being dragged away. |