SAW V Trailer

This is the trailer for Saw V. Unlike previous trailers I have looked at, it is unconventional. However, it still works as an effective trailer. Conventional Teaser Trailers show the audience the best and thrilling pieces of the film constructed together to look appealing and effective. The Saw V trailer is simple, not giving away any of the action contained in the film, this makes the audience want to go watch it and find out what its about. One unique selling point about this trailer is that it is from the same director as the successful horror film, 'The Hills Have Eyes' and it says that on the trailer, showing it too is going to be a good movie to watch. In my opinion I thought maybe because 'Saw' is a sequel, not much information is needed as they are well known movies - meaning the audience can guess what is going to be contained in the film. This ad could be a statement. It is still an effective trailer, especially with the darkness, sinister music and creepy voice-overs. I feel it is a good trailer to contrast the last two to. This is not a trailer we are going to create but its good to get a wide range of knowledge on the different ways to advertise.

Mirrors Trailer

This is a trailer of the film 'Mirrors'. I found this trailer effective as it is conventional in the way it gives the audience pleasure and intrigues them to watch the film. The trailer starts off relatively normal and gradually increases into something unusual. The genre again is what we are looking for, so we can use this as it is something we hope our outcome would be. The credits are effective, showing '20th Century Fox' and 'Regency' backwards, reflecting the theme 'Mirrors'. 'The Grudge' is another example of this, showing the credits in blood and water, this is reflected on the death of the girl.

The Haunting In Connecticut - Trailer 2

This trailer is particular effective, it is the same genre we are looking for, which is 'Psychological Thriller'. It contains the typical conventions of a trailer which grabs the audiences attention. These include: lasting around one minute with around 100 cuts. The 'what seems to be normal beginning' intensifies and eventually shows the most thrilling bits in the movie, this is to do with the music as it gradually builds up. It starts with a voice-over which is common in most trailers. This trailer creates enigma codes, why is this happening to the boy? what becomes of the family? what is the secret behind this house? The trailer leaves the viewer wanting more. There is a lot of darkness and dim-lighting used for a mysterious effect and this creates suspense and tension, especially when the trailer builds up to a climax.

Subsidiary Ideas

As much as we are researching trailers and our own storyline, it is very important that we don't forget about our pre-lim tasks and keep on board thoughts and idea's for these.

Here are some posters which we're most appealing to me, and have given me inspiration for my own poster which i will be creating soon in the near future.

What strikes me most about the poster above is it mysterious, you can see its a person but you cant see there face, the plot of the story isn't given away but you are left wanting to know more.

The poster to the right is a film called 'Shriekfest', i haven't seen the film but this poster caught my eye. I like how it looks like a script or document and the title of the film is on this which looks effective. It is black and white, but with red blood coming down, which again looks effective and intriguing.

Market Research Evaluation

We asked 22 people of all different ages a variety of questions about horror films (questions on previous blog) We wanted some audience feedback to see what the public enjoy watching and what they want from the films they watch. We will take on board everything they said and try and gain ideas from this.





The most popular horror genre is by far the 'Psychological' genre. This includes films such as 'The Unborn', 'The Omen', 'One hour photo', 'Silent Hill', 'The Uninvited' and many more. These are very popular films therefore its not a surprise it was the favourite horror choice. Psychological films tend to be more subtle compared to traditional horrors and contain less physical harm. The aim is to play with the audiences mind and mentally affects them, rather than showing a bunch of blood and gore, typically associated with slasher films.





We asked people what their favourite film was and many agreed it was 'The Omen' Mainly because they were disturbed by its creepiness and how it 'stayed with them' after watching it. People seemed to love the suspense that came with them, for example 'The Ring was a favourite'. Some younger students agreed that 'Saw' and 'The Strangers' we're their favourites, this was because of things such as 'It was jumpy' and 'The gore in it'. There is a link with the younger generation watching the new and modern horror films.





We asked what they thought was the most successful way of advertising was to them. This Pie Chart shows the results.
As you can tell the most successful way of advertising is the Trailers, this makes us feel comfortable about the brief we chose. The second favourite is the Poster, we also have chosen this brief to do.





One question that was ask was 'Does it have to be American to be successful?' People half agreed yes and no, the reasons for this are, 'yes, it has to be big-budget to be effective'. And 'No, '28 days later' is just as effective as 'The Ring'. Many participants believed 'British is Best, they are less predictable and more original'.

How predictable are horror films these days? Three quarters of the participants believed that nowadays the horror film industry is so predictable and something more original should be released. However, a quarter believed that some horror films are still just unpredictable and they're not all the same.

The last question was 'What makes a film appealing to you?' The actors, director, storyline, music or action?' Most media students agreed that the director is the most appealing but some others said they would be taken by the action and storyline and if this appeals to them, they would be intrigued.

This market research has been very beneficial to us, here is a list why...

* It has shown the public's preferred choice of genre.

* Its clear to see the trailer is the best way to advertise according to statistics

* We now know what peoples favourite films are and what viewers our age like to watch.

* We know what to include in our trailer to make it eye-catching for the viewer.

* We can use this information in the making of our trailer, we have audience feedback we can take on-board what the public said and create a masterpiece of our own!

Market Research

Here is the questionnaire we constructed for gaining information for our trailer

Questionnaire for market research

• What is your favourite horror film?
• Give reasons for this.
• What is your favourite horror style, e.g. Zombie, Slasher, Thriller, Supernatural or Psychological?
• Which would you prefer? Suspense/Psychological Vs. Gore/Bloody?
• In your opinion, what would be the most successful way of advertising?
• What is your opinion of predictability in horror films nowadays?
• Does horror have to be American to be successful? E.g. Shaun of the Dead and 28 days later, Vs. The Ring and Halloween.
• What makes a film appealing to you? Actors, directors, music, action or storyline?

Notes for Filming and Researching Coursework

Researching tips

• YouTube
• Social networking sites
• IMBD
• While filming, take photos for pre-lims, e.g. Poster and magazine

Production tips!

• Use lighting for effect
• Mise en scene
• Variety of camera shots and angles.
• Enigma codes.

These are the things that we will use while filming, researching and editing. I have included this in my blog so I can show what sites I will be going on and what I will be doing while producing my film.

'Its All Been Done'

‘Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another’ - WEB DEFINITION

There’s always one main question, has it really all been done before? Is there no originality and has everything that has been created nowadays just been borrowed from other texts?
I do believe this to some extent. Most people don’t realise (apart from film buffs) how much films and music is written off until they see or hear the original piece. The fact is, most of the original texts are older therefore people don’t realise how much intertexuality is being used.
For example, ‘Psycho’ (1960), a legendary and iconic film by Alfred Hitchcock made horror film history. Most horror films today contain aspects of this film, the music, the shots and even some of the scenes have been copied. Think about how many horror films contain a bloody bathroom scene? This is where it was first created. Psycho was a landmark for most modern horror films, in a way it was the ‘Mother’ of all horror films. Films that followed such as; Homicidal (1961), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), Motel Hell (1980) and DePalma's Dressed to Kill (1980) all contained aspects and intertexuality from ‘Psycho’.
Massive, iconic and original texts are often used because of the fact they are ground-breaking and new; most producers just want similar success, therefore look to other successful texts as inspiration.

So how original is my text going to be? My first piece of coursework in year 12 was undoubtedly a much borrowed piece of film and contained a lot of intertexuality. However, our aim was to attract a wide audience. It can be argued that film producers want to ‘please’ an audience. For example, happy endings are often cliché, but the film may often be criticised for not having such an ending. By creating a new and unexpected film, you may be going against conventions, which in most cases is what the audience wants. Therefore we went with the conventions, using aspects from films such as Halloween, Friday 13th, Leatherface, The Grudge and more.

Our new piece of coursework may be similar as we feel like inspiration is needed; however we hope to put much more of our original ideas into the film. Our original storyline was to have a film where the main cast is ‘trapped’ in a building because of something lurking in the darkness. However, many films like this have already been done, ‘Quarantine’ and ‘No vacancy’ is an example of this.

It is hard to come up with originality when there has been so much done already. It’s almost like people are waiting around for someone to come up with an idea so they can do a spin-off of it.