Logo Design for our 'Red Ink' Trailer

This is the official logo design for our trailer, 'Red Ink'. I decided to use this font as it relates to the main idea of the story, in which the main character embraces his ability to illustrate the fate of his victims.

Film Poster Mock-Up for 'Red Ink'

This is a mock-up idea of what we hope to be our film poster to be like.

Test Shot of Teaser Trailer Animated

This is a test shot of how our trailer will be like, but has been animated by Ali.

Test Shot: Example of Trailer

Above is a video that I edited featuring a variety of different shots filmed with my phone camera that we intend to use for our horror movie teaser trailer. I decided to record this to see what angles would work for the trailer. There were many other shots I had filmed but I only used the angles that I thought worked the best. This helped me to finalize the storyboard, as I was initially confused as to how to place the camera shots/angles.

The Storyboard for Our Trailer

Textual Analysis of Film Trailer

The teaser trailer I chose to analyse is for the latest remake installment in the iconic horror film franchise, Friday the 13^th, released in 2009 and directed by Marcus Nispel. Over the last 30 years, the franchise has spawned 12 films in the series and with each film there are major differences in the trailers. I decided to analyse this trailer as it is the latest, and I also feel it does well in building up the character of Jason, especially for viewers that do not know much about the franchise.

The trailer starts off with an establishing shot of a lake site featuring high key lighting. This works to mislead this audience because of the fact that it is a horror movie, and beginning the trailer with such a pleasant view could be a false front. There’s a sudden quick cut, and a quick shot is showing of a light source wavering in the darkness, accompanied by a sudden haunting diegetic sound. They most likely intended this to represent how the darkness, in the case, with always overtake the light, and at this point the audience know that the first shot was a false front. Following this, all other shots have much lower key lighting. Music/sound suddenly turns ominous as we see shots of Camp Lake City and a cabin, all in low key lighting. There is narration over this saying: ‘Did you know the young boy drowned here?’, which is an introduction to how the story began. The word ‘you’ is a direct address to the audience, and they are left wondering who the young boy is, which helps to get them into the trailer.

Shots following this feature a dark figure (as a result of low key lighting) entering the cabin seen from previous shots, waving what seems to be a flashlight, and this is seen in different parts of the trailer throughout. This is very effective, as after questioning who the young boy is, the audience feel involved in searching in the cabin with the character in the trailer. The trailer seems to follow a pattern of having two fading shots of this, followed by a handycam quick shot of a girl running in what seems to be the woods with a flashlight in her hand, and it could work as a warning to the audience, because of the fact that the girl is holding a flashlight, suggesting she has tried searching already and is scared of what she had found.

One of the shots shown whilst the character is searching with a flashlight is a close up shot of an abandoned baby doll cover in dirt. This helps to reinforce the ‘young boy’s innocence, especially when accompanied by the narration: ‘he wasn’t a very good swimmer.’ Following this is, once again, a shot of someone running in the woods with a flashlight, which challenges the audience to think whether or not what the trailer is leading them to believe is true if someone is running away.

The following two shots are fading shots of the dark figured character still searching with the flashlight, along with narration saying: ‘the counsellors weren’t paying attention.’ This is immediately followed by a caption reading ‘from producer Michael Bay’. As the caption is shown, a diegetic sound is heard of a girl crying ‘oh my god’ whilst evidently still running. The narration may work as an indirect message to the audience that they should pay more attention to details of the trailer, and the fact that the pattern that seemed to have been common in the trailer was stopped by the caption (accompanied by the girl’s whimpering) builds even more uneasiness and paranoia.

As we progress, the incidental music starts to climate, and we are presented with more quick shots – this time being close up shots of characters’ facial expressions, and we get a stronger sense of the extent of horror that they experience. Quick shots are used more frequently as the music climates, including shots of a woman running with a flashlight and a police car, clearly signifying danger. When the music finally comes to a halt, we are presented with a close up shot of a lamp swinging helplessly alone in the darkness, perhaps now giving the audience an opportunity to make use of the light to search for what the characters are searching for. Following this is two quick mid shots of the ‘Jason’ character, at which point dark incidental music jumps in and a blackout immediately follows. This gives the audience a chance to understand what the characters were previously running from, especially following the next shots, including a shot of a woman screaming and crawling away in fear is about to be attacked by Jason’s weapon, at which point the title of the movie is introduced.

Textual Analysis of a Film Magazine

Above is the front page of the film magazine, Empire, featuring a far shot of Heath Ledger as the popular Batman series icon the Joker, sitting on a bench in what seems to be a cell. He has an evil, yet smug, expression on his face. Aside from the logo, the magazine is mostly dominated by the colour scheme green and pink, which is similar to the colour scheme of Joker’s clothing, and this helps support the fact that he has taken over this edition of the Empire magazine.

There are connotations that lie beneath the colours used for this edition of Empire. The colour green works well to express the character of the Joker, as in this case it could connote sickness – reflecting his sadistic nature, and mold – reflecting everything he touches as disgusting. This strongly contrasts the colour pink as, although the colours work well visually, pink commonly connotes femininity, affection and tends to be non-threatening. This could be the reason why the colour green overtakes pink, as it is more noticeable on the magazine cover. Nevertheless, both these colours clash with the subtle colour scheme of red, black and white that is present as a result of the magazine masthead, cover lines and the background.

The main coverline of the magazine reads: ‘Meet The Joker’, which works as an introduction to the character. It has quite a punk-like grungy font, and is a combination of both serif and sans serif, possibly expressing both the jokey and the serious side of the Joker – the overall colour of the text being green summarises him as being sick. Underneath this reads: ‘One-on-one with Batman’s new nemesis!’, which suggests maybe an interview featured in the magazine. This being in the regular white italic font that Empire uses may be representing the fact that the magazine is entering Joker’s world, as it is surrounded by paint and irregular text.

There’s also text running across him in a scratched, trash-like font, reading: ‘He’s a cold blooded, mass murdering clown!’. The paint in the background, which has a pink colour, opposes the negative description of Joker.

The title for the magazine, Empire, could suggest that they are the leading magazine for all film news and updates. It could also be an anagram for premiere, suggesting they are the first to go to for the latest in the film industry. 

Textual Analysis of a Film Poster - A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

As part of our task for media, it is essential for us to analyse movie posters in order to understand how they build hype and entice the audience through conventions used. The poster above is the one used the 2010 remake of the popular horror movie franchise, A Nightmare on Elm Street, featuring it’s main antagonist Freddy Krueger.

In the poster, we see a medium close-up of Freddy Krueger, who is clutching his hands and bowing his head which allows his hat to cover half his face. Props used in the poster including Freddy’s hat, his jumper, and his claw, along with make up for his burnt face. There is a great amount of low-key lighting, along with a bright light shining from the background, which helps create an outline around Freddy. There are clearly other sources of light that help illuminate his hands and areas of his face.

The connotations of this poster bare much deeper meaning. One area of mis-en-scene used in the poster that is testament to this is the lighting. As mentioned before, the poster is dominated by low-key lighting, and this gives a depressing, murky mood. This coupled with Freddy bowing his head, allowing his hat to cover his face, builds a great deal of mystery, which gets the audience wondering what he is capable of. There is a bright white light shining from behind, and usually a white light is a sign of hope and peace. And this case however, it could connote a coming of death, and it is said that went people die they go towards a bright white light. Freddy being in front of the light may also connote that he is what stops his victims from having peaceful deaths. There is also minor lighting used to illuminate Freddy’s face, jumper, hands and his claw. The iconic claw is illuminated to the point where (whether it be edited or not) it is actually glistening, which suggest the claw being a sharp, clean weapon, wanting to be used. It is helps to make his claw the main focus of the poster.

There is non-verbal communication present in the poster. Freddy is seen clutching his hands, which is a clear indication that he is preparing to attack. It could also be the case that he is not clutching his hands, rather he is guarding his clawing hand, and leaving one of his claws showing, suggesting he is getting ready to fully reveal his weapon. As mentioned before, the white light suggests coming of death, and it further guides the connotations that Freddy is getting ready to kill.

There is a relation between the colour combination used in the poster, which mainly consists of red, black, and brown. The overall image seems to have a dark-brownish kind of filter, which dims any possible vibrancy that may have come from the green stripes on Freddy’s trademark woolly jumper, leaving the shirt looking mainly red. The filter gives the image a dirty, gritty type of look, which works well with the rough, damaged material of the jumper he is wearing and the texture of his hands and his burnt face.

The other colour used in this poster is red. The colour red is, aside from the jumper, used for the text of the movie’s title. The red used in this poster seems to connote danger and blood, and perhaps lust for blood, as we see Freddy exposing his weapon in preparation to attack his victims. The text is of serif font as it’s edges are sharp, which supports the connotations of the red colour used on the text, as the sharpness of the text and the colour mirrors Freddy using his weapons to kill vicitms. The word ‘Nightmare’ in the title of the movie is a much larger size than the other words in the text, emphasising the nature of the film.

Summer Research

For A2 Media we will focus on the ‘horror’ film genre, the genre of which changed the landscape of cinema from its debut in the 1930s, to its rise in popularity in the late 19^th century and early 20^th centuries.

The horror genre was first succeeded by 1931 films ‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’, both of which were based on books. These pioneers of horror paved the way for future films that would help push the envelope of what would be accepted in movies. This would include movies such as the iconic Psycho (1960), The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), A Nightmare in Elm Street (1984), and the Friday the 13^th series. These films have defined the horror film industry, cementing their legacy by establishing many elements that are considered common conventions in modern day horror movies.

The conventions were suggested by media theorist Graeme Burton who, in his book ‘More than Meets the Eye’, stated that films of a particular genre have a set of key elements that are followed in order to be recognized as a film from that genre. This list included protagonists, stock characters, stock situations, icons, background & décor, and themes. In terms of the horror genres, these conventions are executed differently depending on the film’s sub-genre. This includes the following:

- Splatter
- Slasher
- Vampire
- Zombie
- J-Horror
- Thriller
- Monster
- Psychological/Supernatural

The modern day splatter movies has seen the birth of one of the most successful film series of the last decade. The ‘Saw’ series, created in 2004 and directed by James Wan, has left an impression on the splatter genre for because of its unique plot. It revolves around main antagonist John Kramer, nicknamed ‘Jigsaw’, putting his victims through psychological and physical torture to test their will to live. This movie lives up to its genre name because of it gruesome nature, and is considered by many as ‘torture porn’, although the creators disagree.

The series follows many common horror conventions. One major element they follow is the trend that the victims placed in danger and tortured by Jigsaw have done something in their lives that is either morally wrong or discriminatory. This has been a recurring trend in the Saw series. However, this method is used differently to movies like Friday the 13^th or Halloween for example, and this is achieved through its use of stock characters. Whereas the usual horror movie would have the main protagonist portrayed as pure & innocent and all other victims being killed because of their reckless actions, the Saw series reverses this, having the innocent stock characters being put through torture because of the main protagonist’s wrong-doings. The series is also known for the repeated appearance from Jigsaw’s puppet Billy, who delivers pre-recorded messages to his victims regarding the ‘games’ they are put through. It has served as somewhat of an icon for the Saw series especially as people can identify the mask of the puppet to the series. The movie can also be recognized with its signature theme, named ‘Hello Zepp’ after the antagonist in the first film, placed as a red herring, was revealed to be a victim of Jigsaw’s games rather than the actual Jigsaw killer.

Saw was originally directed by James Wan, a Malaysian-born Australian producer, screenwriter and film director. Along with Leigh Wannell as writer of the movie, the two created a 9 and a half minute horror short film, called Saw, in a bid to pitch their concept to other actors and studios and create a full-length movie. The ‘Hello Zepp’ theme was created with the help of Charlie Clouser, and with their cast limited, even resulting in Wannell taking role as main character himself, the film was created. They pitched their film idea to Lions Gate studios, who accepted the deal and were provided with 1.2million dollar budget, and with this they were able to gain great success, grossing 103 US dollars worldwide, with profit being over 80 times bigger than budget.

Along with Leigh Wannell, James Wan was able to take his idea based on his fears and dreams and turn it into the highest grossing horror film franchise of all time worldwide. Wan has also been involved in other film projects including Death Sentence (2007), and teamed up once again with Leigh Wannell for 2007’s Dead Silence horror film, and their most recent project, 2010’s supernatural horror Insidious.