How research has impacted our ideas.

Questionnaire Chart Results

(Please note that on some questions applicants were able to have more than one answer)

Film Distribution and Marketing

What is meant by the term film distribution?
The term film distribution is how many people know about a new upcoming film, film distributors will try to advertise the film to make it well known for the release date in a number of ways. 

What does a film distributor do?

The film distributors job is to plainly get the film noticed by the general public, to do this they set up something called a release strategy which comes up with key points for the film, such as the films release date and when the trailer will be released. Also within the plan it will include the advertising plan which is where they will advertise, how they will advertise and how much they will advertise, for example The Woman In Black had a huge marketing campaign and within the distribution plan it would have showed how they were going to make the films advertising as big as it was. (The is image from FDA, Film distributors guide 2012)

How does reach relate to film distribution?
Reach is one the key things to get in film distribution. Reach is basically how many people you can reach within the advertising campaign and how many people know about the up coming film. The Woman In Black had a huge reach, the film was advertised in newspapers, the TV and radio even on the side of buildings, its reach was massive. Daniel Radcliffe also set up competitions on YouTube and done every interview possible, and on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter the film was again hugely advertised, this increased the reach of the film massively and because of this the film was a huge success becoming the most successful British horror film of all time. Blair Witch Project although being a very successful film had a very poor reach. The film was only advertised online, this gave the film very poor reach, however because of good views and word of mouth the film was still a success, this doesn't mean if you have a poor reach your film will still be a success as Blair Witch Project was a one off, normally films that have a poor reach and do not advertise or only use one type of advertising don't make their production budget back and become a 'flop' film.

What is meant by the marketing plan?
The marketing plan is one of the main reasons for a films success, without advertising and marketing the film will not bring in enough customers and might not even make its production budget back. There are many ways to market a film and one of the biggest is word of mouth, however the only way to make people start talking about your film (and in a good way) is through posters and trailers etc. Posters are a great way of advertising the film and also showing the stars that are featuring in the film, The Woman In Black as it only had one main star in the film (Daniel Radcliffe) he was the main part of the poster to show people that he was in this new film and to also draw people in to look at the poster. The main trailer will then show the main plot points of the film and show what the film is about however not giving too much away, this will start to create a 'buzz' for the film and get people starting to talk about the film, this creates the start of word of mouth. After the 'Buzz' starts to die down they will release the complete marketing campaign. Huge posters on the sides of buildings will be put up and in newspapers there will be a complete page dedicated to the film, this then adds to the buzz and gets people talking about the film, by this time the films release date has been told to the public and people are now pre-ordering tickets and waiting for the film to release. The last part is the reviews of the film, after the premiere newspapers and blogging sites around the world will gives the first review on this film, people will then see these reviews and decide whether to watch the film or not. This again makes people talk about the film and tell people about the good or bad reviews the films got. The Woman In Black was such a success because of its massive marketing campaign and within the campaign Daniel Radcliffe was a huge factor getting Harry Potter fans to watch the new film. Without a marketing campaign a film will not be a success.    

What is meant by the distribution plan?

The distribution plan is a plan that is made up to maximize a films success. This plan will be made before anything has even started or when the film is nearly finished. The plan involves when and where the film is going to be released and where they will advertise the film they will also organize interviews with different stars that are in the film so they can promote the stars in the film and bring in fans of the stars to watch the film (a form of advertising the film). 

What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion?

Although all are very similar they are slightly different and can also link together. Advertising is when a distributor will invest in different types of advertising to get people to know about the upcoming product or film in this case. There are many ways to advertise a film posters, trailers and even getting the stars to do interviews on various talk shows, this then gets the public talking about the film and how good or bad the film looks, this leads to publicity. Publicity is basically how many people are talking about the film, the more publicity the film has the more people are talking about it and the more the press want to know about the film, this can then lead to even more advertising like the film being shown in the newspaper and competitions being held to win a book version of the film or normally the films exclusive merchandise.

Find a teaser poster, trailer, main poster and main trailer for a horror film and put them on your blog - Who was the distributor and in how many countries was it released? Can you find how many screens it was shown in on the opening weekend?

For this question I decided to choose a film that has been very popular over the years, and its of course the paranormal activity series in particular Paranormal Activity 4. As you can see from the teaser poster for the film it literally gives nothing away about the film, it tells us clearly that its the 4th film in the series and that it will be released on the 19th of October. There is one sentence which says "After a past of paranormal events the activity ensues" which also suggests to us that some sort of paranormal activity is going to be happening within this film. We could also look slightly deeper into the poster and see the that the sentence "it's carried in the blood" is in the colour red and is the only thing in red on the entire poster. This could suggest death to the audience, so from the poster we can tell that some sort of paranormal activity will be taking place in the film and because of this there could be death.

This is Paranormal activity 4's teaser trailer, as you can see from the trailer nothing big that happens in the film is given away, we see clips from the other films and then a few short clips from the up and coming movie. In the trailer however it doesn't actually tell us that its another film within the series it only gives us the Paranormal activity symbol (Left). People who are not fans of the film series or have never watched one of the films before will not know what this symbol means however hardcore fans of the movie series will know what it means, it means another Paranormal Activity film. When the fans of the films work out that there is going to be another film they will then begin to talk about the trailer and how excited they are for the film to be released, this informs everyone else that doesn't know about the film that there is going to be another film in the series. As said before the trailer doesn't give anything away so we don't really see anything scary happening within the trailer only a lot of dark shots to build the suspense, this begins to build the hype for the film.

This is the main poster for Paranormal Activity 4 and as you can see we get a lot more information from this poster than what we did from the teaser. We still have the pitch black background just like the first poster and the image we see doesn't take up the entire poster giving the feel that they still don't want to give anything too big away. The first thing that catches your eye is the shadowy figure that is standing next to the girls bed and from this we establish 2 things, the girl in bed is going to be either the main character or one of the main characters and secondly this film is about ghosts and paranormal things (if the title of the film doesn't give it away). The image is fuzzy and in the bottom left hand corner we see a time and date, like we get on a camcorder. This gives us the information that this film just like the others is going to be shot using or giving the illusion of it being shot with hand held camcorders. We finally see the title of the film however most people would have guessed that it was going to be called Paranormal Activity 4, the word paranormal activity is in red which again connotes blood and death. As said before in the last paragraph the paranormal activity logo flashed for a split second in the teaser trailer so people would know what the film is, they have put this symbol in the release date (October) and again backs up the fact that its a paranormal activity film. From this poster although it shows a lot more than the teaser poster and even trailer it still doesn't show us everything which is good as we are left in suspense and wondering what is going to happen in the film further building on the hype.

Finally we have the main trailer for the film, this is our biggest piece of information on what we are going to see happen in the film yet. We see that it goes from a normal 'happy family' lifestyle to strange paranormal things happening to people, for example the blonde girl being lifted up in her bed whilst she is asleep. We also get the feel that one of we suspect brothers is possessed as they're drawing ancient symbols on the walls and on his other brothers skin. This is the final piece of information the film distributor will give out before the films release. We see what the horror in the film is, who our characters are and a small insight as to what happens in the film however again not everything is given away as if not people wouldn't go and watch the film. Paranormal activity 4 was shown in around 3412 theaters worldwide, and even though it cost 5 million dollars to make (which isn't a lot of money compared to some films) is made around 29 million dollars in the opening weekend and managed to gross 142 million worldwide.

The Woman In Black

Who do you think the primary and secondary target audience is The Woman In Black? Why?

The primary target audience for The Woman In Black would be Danielle Radcliffe fans and Harry Potter fans. The main selling point of this entire film was that he was the main character in the film. The majority of Harry Potter and Daniel Radcliffe fans are classed as young adults so this would be the primary target audience for the film, this is why the film is rated a 12 and the creators of the movie tried very hard to get it to be a 12 as many Harry Potter fans are fairly young, and even though it is a 12 rated film it's surprisingly scary. The secondary target audience would be pretty much anyone they can attract other than the main target audience, so people that are horror fanatics would go and watch the film as its a horror, or people that only like supernatural horrors this would obviously appeal to them.

How was The Woman In Black marketed? (Think about genre(s), subgenre(s), media platforms, target audience, promotions, size of the campaign, etc.).

The Woman In Black was heavily marketed and it was heavily marketed at the primary target audience which is Daniel Radcliffe fans and Harry Potter fans. As the target audience would be early/teens social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook were used, this got the film more and more publicity which is why the film was such a huge success for a British horror movie. Daniel Radcliffe as he wanted to break free from the Harry Potter scene put a lot of time and effort into promoting the film as this was his first big film apart from the Harry Potter series. Youtube played a large part in the campaign as well as he made competitions for people to enter to win The Woman In Black merchandise. Many trailers were released to build up the hype for the film, a teaser trailer and poster would have been released months before the films schedules release. The main trailer for the film would then be released and this is when the main campaign started. The campaign was massive and huge posters that were put on the sides of buildings near busy motorways to attract even more people, the film also had large promotions in newspapers such as the Sun where is had en entire page dedicated to the film. Opportunities such as being able to win the book of the film and for school children to get the books for free and then watch the film at a discounted price was also done.

Do you think the marketing materials for the film for the film were appropriate? Why?

I think that the marketing materials for the film were appropriate, the reason for this is in some of the trailers certain parts are edited or softened out to make it age appropriate and they had to do this to get the film age rating of 12 certified. In the film Daniel Radcliffe puts his hand up against the window and a face of a woman screaming appears, you can very clearly see the face in the film however, in the trailers its very blurred and you cant actually see what it is that's at the window. Within the marketing materials nothing particularly scary was shown this was not only so they didn't give it away for the film but to also keep the 12 rating of the film. A lot of the material was because of Daniel Radcliffe as he was the main selling point for the film, as he has a celebrity image to keep up everything he done whether is was a interview or a competition on Youtube it had to be appropriate for the primary target audience.

What kind or release did the film have? (Big/Small? How many cinemas showed the film on its release?)
As you can see from the image it had quite a large release, 2856 theatres The Woman In Black was shown in and made 127 million dollars worldwide. The budget for the film was around 17 million dollars and on the opening weekend it grossed 20 million dollars making its production budget back just from the opening weekend alone. A huge red carpet premiere was held in London for the release and stars from the film and around the world came to watch the brand new paranormal horror film. People also came to the premiere as it was Daniel Radcliffe's big night to show the world that he wasn't just able to play the role of Harry Potter, because of this The Woman In Black became the biggest british horror film of all time.





How much did The Woman In Black cost to make? (Production budget) AND what was the industry impact of The Woman In Black (Think box office and trends)


The production budget for the film was around 17 million dollars and it made its production back on the opening weekend making over 20 million dollars. The Woman In Black had a huge impact on the film industry as it became the most successful bristsh horror film in history and this spurred on other studios to make simular paranormal films to try and match the success of The Woman In Black.


Why do you think the film was so successful? (You must come up with at least two reasons).

The biggest reason for the films success was plain and simply Daniel Radcliffe. With out him and the Harry Potter fan base behind him this film wouldn't have been as successfull and the creators of the film knew this, this is why they made the film a 12 age rating. Daniel Radcliffe also done a serious amount of advertiseing for the film as this was his first big film away from the Harry Potter franchise and he wanted to show critics that he could be a serious actor. The oher reason for the films success was that it had such are large marketing campaign. The film was advertised literally everywhere from building sides to newspapers this film was there. Competitions were also held for people to win The Woman In Black merchendise and there was also a 'deal' for schools where they would give schools the book for free to read, and they would then be allowed to see the film for a discounted price. They also advertised Daniel Radcliffe a lot. As he was the main selling point of the film his face was always very big on the marketing posters so you can clearly see the film is about him. With Daniel Radcliffe staring in the film and the huge marketing campaign behind the film, the film was bound to be a blockbuster.

The Cabin In The Woods

What were Jeremy  Tunstall's 4 character roles for women and do they apply to The Cabin In The Woods?

• Domestic
• Sexual
• Marital
• Consumer

Tunstall looked at a wide range of existing research that had been carried out on gender representation in the media. Similar numbers of men are fathers and husbands, the media has much  less to say about these male roles. Men are presented in nude and their martial or family status is not quoted in irrelevant contexts. 1992 research shows that on screen males outnumber woman 2-1. Many groups of woman are still largely absent in all sections of the media, e.g Black woman, lesbian woman, and older woman. Later researched showed that men and woman appeared equally as primary characters on TV adverts, however;

• Males are still significantly more likely than females to be shown having an occupation
• Males are more likely than females to be shown away from home and out of doors
• Males are still more likely to be depicted as authorities and females as consumers, though less so than in the past.

There is also never any guarantee that the 'process' between the decade will stay, process is never one way every generation struggles over gender ideology and sometimes things even step backwards.

How is Dana typical of Clover's 'Final Girl' theory? Please mention: the ending; Dana's appearance and her actions during the film.

Dana is typical of Clover's theory because plain and simply Dana is seen as the virginal character and the most boyish. Compared to Jules (the whore) she is very manly and nothing like the typical teenage American girl. She reads, and unlike Jules, Dana fights back against the horror that's going on around her. Another point in Clover's theory is that the final girl is rescued much like Laurie Strode in Halloween. Marty stops the zombie from killing Dana and so they're able to get revenge on the people that had done this to them. Dana also escapes death many times in the film atleast 3/4 times this is again another point in Clover's theory. In Texas Chainsaw Massacre the final girl actually kills the psycho that is trying to kill her. Dana also kind of does this as she unleashes the monsters that are kept in the facility onto the people that have killed her friends so she infact kills her killers like Vantia (Stretch) Brock.

Jules undergoes mental and physical transformations during the film, what are they and how do they cause her to become a horror archetype?

Jules right at the start of the film is talking about her hair that she has recently dyed, of course the hair colour she has dyed it to is the typical slutty teen blonde. This automatically makes her a horror archetype as there pretty much always is a blonde girl that is classed as the 'whore' which is killed. We also find out that the hair dye she has used had a chemical in it to make her act more like a 'dumb blonde' for the ritual. We then see this has started to work when she was dared to kiss the wolf on the wall and Marty picks up on that no one has ever acted like this before. The scene where she is also dancing in front of the fire is also unusual as again Marty says hes seen everyone drunk before and no one has ever acted like this, implying the hair dye is working. When Jules and Curt are outside the 'operaters' release a pheromone that makes her want to have sex with Curt outside so they're able to let the zombies kill Jules. She is the first to die and the 'dumb blonde' character is nearly always the first to die in horror films.

Is Mulvey's Male Gaze theory exemplified in the film and if so, how? Think about framing, camera angles and POV shots.

There are a few examples of the Male Gaze theory used in The Cabin In The Woods. One of these is when Jules is in front of the fire place, they use a low angle shot when showing this, the reason for this is so you only really see her body and not her face. This is saying that people are only there to see her body and don't care what her personality is like the camera angle and what shes doing make her look like an object and not an actual person. There is also a POV shot from Curt's view when Jules is in the woods basically naked. We see him looking at her breasts, again you can only see her body and barely any/none of her face and its another low angle shot. The 'Operators' are also watching her when she is naked on top on Curt which backs up the fact that she is only there to look at. She is being treated as an object, a piece of eye candy for the audience that are watching the film. When she is walking towards the wolf, the camera starts off at her feet and slowly works up to the body. This is showing her as a seductive character and once again you do not see her face in the shot only her body. She is not only treated but she is also shown as an object so yes, Mulvey's Male Gaze theory is used/exemplified in the film.

In the film we, as an audience, are made to be voyeurs; when does this happen and why is it important in regards to representation of character?

Within many points throughout the film we are made to be voyeurs, and by becoming voyeurs we can then make assumptions on the representation of the characters. At one point in the film Dana is looking at herself in what she thinks is just a simple mirror however as the audience we know that Holden is on the other side watching her. These two characters are seen as the virginal characters of the film and we assume nothing will happen. When Dana starts to undress Holden immediately rushes into her room to tell her that he can in fact see her keeping the virginal status intact. POV shots are used so we can see it from the view of the characters. In the woods when Jules and Curt are about to have sex we see Jules from the point of view of Curt half naked with her breasts out. This gives us a representation of Jules as she is now seen as the 'slutty' blonde haired character. Another POV is also used when she is walking towards the wolf to complete her dare, the camera slowly moves up her body like the rest of the gang are all looking at her in this way. There are techniques used in the film to make us voyeurs and this gives us representations of the characters.


(Briefly) summarise the way women are represented in The Cabin in the Woods. Are they objectified and there to provide satisfaction for heterosexual males and/or do they fulfil another role/purpose?

Woman are represented like objects in this film, which is typical for horror movies. In this film in particular you have the 'slutty' blonde girl that's always first to die and is normally the eye candy for the heterosexual males watching the film. We see Jules half naked in a forest on top of Curt, we also see her breasts which again is eye candy for the men watching the film. Out of the two woman in the film we even see the nerdy/geeky girl Dana start to get undressed however its stopped so we still see her as the virginal character. Plain and simply the woman are put in to the film (like object or props) to get more people watching the film this is what Jules is for. Dana however has another purpose in the film as she is the virginal character she must be the final character as she has to finish the film. Her purpose in the film is to foil the killers plot and kill the killer or escape from the killers plan, although Dana is also used as an object in the film as even though she's not quite as 'sexy' as Jules, the woman playing the part of Dana is still slim and good looking so both woman in the film are used as objects in the film purely for heterosexual males in the film.

History of Horror

Frankenstein, Dracula and Mr Hyde - Horror roots in classic literature.

Frankenstein:

It was written in 1818 by a woman called Mary Shelley, the genre of the film is obviously a horror however its also slightly science fiction and romance. This is because Frankenstein was a science project and was created by a mad scientist. Frankenstein is responsible for the beginning of the science fiction genre and has been the inspiration for many films, even now. Some people however complained about the 'graphic' and 'Horrific' scenes that were shown in the film. One of these scenes is where a small girl is near the river making flowers float down the river, Frankenstein's monster pics the child up and throws her in the river.

Dracula:

The film was produced in 1931 and in the film Count Dracula arrives in England and targets Mina. Although Dracula was a vampire which of course are not real, he could turn into a bat which gave the sense of realism in the film. The thing that also scared people was that it could be seen as being a disease or an infection which again gave it a sense of realism.

Monsters and Mad Scientists:

Horror was reborn in the 1930s and had mad scientists and monsters feature in the film. Sound played a vital role in the movies as it would build suspense and this has become a huge part of horror since. The films of this decade are often set in far off places and the characters dress in period costumes. Universal studios became popular because of their famous horrors such as Frankenstein and Dracula, these two monsters are hugely famous and are recognised around the world by all ages. Some of the most famous films from this time are:
Frankenstein
Dracula
King Kong
Freaks
the Mummy Bride of Frankenstein
Enthusiasm for horror became huge between the 1920s and the 1930s. The cinema provided an escape from the depression and the ominous war. 80 million people attended the cinema weekly in the 1930s period.
The 2 actors from Dracula and Frankenstein are still associated with horror even though they played the parts over 8 decades ago. In 1933, the year Hitler came to power the mad scientist genre had reached its peak due to the dictatorship being too similar to the characters in the film. However these three years saw the making of successful films such as The Invisible Man and The Island Of Lost Souls.

Primal Animal Within -
Werewolves and Cat People - 1940s

The Wolf Man
Cat People
Frankenstein and The Wolfman
The Curse of the Cat People
During this era world war II was happening and this was the reason why Werewolves and Cats were used. Adolf means Noble wolf in old German and various Nazi party HQ's were named after wolves such as the Ukraine HQ which was called Werwolf which means man wolf. Hitler also made his sister change her name to Paula Wolf and one of his favourtite secretaries was called Joanna Wolf and he referred to her as Wolfin (she wolf). These are all factors which the media industry used within their films to scare people in the 1940s.
So why were Werewolves used? Many people died in the 1940s because of the war and this was the main fear people had at the time, knowing that their loved ones could die at any moment, so they used this within the films. Werewolves could be seen as Nazi's, an idea of this is that when a werewolf bites a human, they then transform and pass of the 'condition'. This links to how Hitler was trying to take over the world by making people join his army, he would even let prisoners out of jail so they could join his army. In Wolfman the werewolf dies, this could be seen as Hitler being defeated and giving people that small glimpse of hope. (propaganda). But why were cats used then? During the war the men went away to fight and all the woman were left at home to do the men's jobs such as working in factories etc. The men that made it back then reclaimed their jobs and the woman went back to doing housework like cooking and cleaning. The woman of the world experienced a bit of freedom when the men were away and it was then taken away again when the men returned from fighting the war and of course the woman were not happy about this. This then resulted in films being made such as Cat People. Cat People is a film were females dominate the males and the power within the film by seducing and killing their victims. The reason for cats being linked to woman in films are that they can both be thought to be seen as sly and gracious which links into their key motives to kill in the movies.

Aliens and Monsters:

People were first introduced to mutant creatures and aliens in the 1950's. The first movie to feature aliens and monsters was a low budget movie called Rocketship X-M. This then started a trend of sci-fi films. Some of the most popular films of the genre were ' The Thing', 'The day The Earth Stood Still', 'Invasion of the Body Snatcher', 'It came From Outer Space' and 'World Of The Worlds' these 1950's were the first blockbusters. In the 1950's there was a huge technology scare, people were worried that we were ahead of our time in terms of technology and were scared that it would take over out lives. People lived in fear that the effects of technology was going to mutate and deform people. The film after the war didn't decide to focus on the war and the fighting as this no longer scared anyone as it was over, instead they focused on the technology that was used in the films such as the Atom Bomb the guns and machinery. The Space Race was also a huge thing in the 1950's The new obsession with aliens and mutant creatures meant that countries wanted to explore space and see if there actually was any other kind of life forms out there. The main competition was between USA and Russia. Even now there's still a alight obsession with space and whats really out there. People are always coming up with new ideas of what creatures may look like and we are creating the technology that will allow us to do that.

Ghosts, Zombies and your Family:

This era is where the big budget horrors returned. These films mainly addressed genuine psychological fears. One of the recurring fears was of children and the fear of childbirth. One of the main films that dealt with children in this era was The Exorcist. It was banned from the UK until 1999 and was voted the scariest movie of all time. The crumbling family becomes the source of fear here as you create a connection with the family, they also use the child's innocence against you. Satanism also comes into the film as the child is possessed by the devil and the exorcism is the only way to remove it from the body. Many ghost stories also appeared in this era. The horror lies in the journey the protagonist takes between sanity and psychosis. These reflect preoccupation with change, with mainly woman being the first (and often the only people) to be destroyed by it. Famous films from this era include:
Rosemary's Baby
Carnival of Souls
The Stepford Wives
Alice, Sweet Alice
The Omen
Halloween

Slasher Movie and Body Horror:

Slasher is a type of sub genre to the horror genre. It depicts a person/killer that mutilates a person with the use of knifes, razors and other such weapons. Body horror, a genre of horror that's main feature is to graphically show destruction and degeneration of a human body or bodies. Some of the most famous of these genres are:
Scream
Halloween
Child's Play
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Psycho
Friday 13th
Slasher films first came about in the 80s due to advances in technology which allowed directors to use different types of special effects and play around with more ideas. This allowed them to show much more explicit scenes which the target audience would soon love hence why so many squeals and films were made. The audiences grew to love the killers from the slasher movies and body horrors such as Freddy Krueger, Jason, Micheal Myers, Chucky and Ghostface. This lead to the creation of many sequels and spin offs such as Jason vs Freddy. Scream was a little different to the normal slasher movies. Scream decided to challenge the conventions of slashers and body horrors by using completely different motive for killing people other than for things such as revenge. He would kill people if they didn't know facts about horrors making it very self aware.

Video Nasties

Almost all of the films went directly onto VHS and they were blamed heavily for changing Britain. They had absurd titles, gory story lines and gruesome covers and people even filed court cases against the films. They were also huge accessible and available even after a law was passed against them. So why did they become so popular? Horror movies became increasingly popular within the home as opposed to the cinma because of the refusal of a British theatrical release. They were also over advertised and dealt with taboo subjects. Absurd, Blood Bath and Axe are just a small minority of banned films.

Gore-nography and Torture porn:

'Gorenography' is a genre of film which focuses purely on showing brutal, gore where there is no plot, story or any real main characters. The popularization of extreme graphic violence in the horror film franchise such as Audition and Wrong turn took their cues from The Last House On The Left and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This helped with the emergence of a type of horror that emphasis on depictions of torture, suffering and violent deaths. Ed Gein inspired Texas Chainsaw Massacre and once his house was searched, some disturbing things were found, such as:
Whole Human bones and fragments
Nine masks of human skin
Bowls made from human skulls
Ten female heads with the tops sawn off
A Belt made of female nipples.
So why do people like this kind of film/genre? People imagine disturbing thoughts in their heads such as What if this happened? This can be represented within films as it is fiction, allowing sick films to be deemed 'ok'. To get a thrill out of them (fear factor). People like to see how far horror and gore can be pushed and some people feel the satisfaction of the feeling of being out of their comfort zone. Eli Roth is a horror film director and producing explicitly violent and bloody movies, most famous for the film 'Hostel'.

Narritive Theory in Relation to Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)

Tzvetan Todorov's Narritive Theory:
Todorovs theory on narrative suggests that films begin with normality. The film is then disrupted and this sets off a series of events, once the events are over the film then seeks closure. Halloween doesn't follow this structure. Right from the get go there is disruption in the film as Mike Myers kills his sister and is then found by his parents holding the bloody knife he just killed his sister with. Once this has happened there is a small amount of normality in the film as Mike Myers is put into a mental institute. Disruption then comes again in the film when he escapes and begins to kill the teenagers. There is never actual closure in the film as even though you think Myers is killed as he was shot several times his body disappears. Most films do follow Todorovs theory however some like Halloween do not. Not following the structure and not having closure in the film also allows sequels to be made as its left on a 'cliff hanger' and you're left wondering what happened to Mike Myers body.
Todorovs theory structure:
Normality < Disrupted < Closure
Equilibrium < Disequilibrium < Resolution/New Equilibrium

Vladimir Propp - 8 Characters Types:

Propp looked at hundreds of folk tales and identified 8 character types roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 character roles are:
1) The Villain(s)
2) The Hero - our main protagonist and victor
3) The Donor - Who provides an object with some magic property
4) The Helper - Who's aids the hero
5) The Princess - (the sought of person) - 'reward' for the hero and object of the villain's schemes
6) Her Father - Who rewards the hero
7) The Dispatcher - Who sends the hero on his way
8) The False Hero - The double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping him.

Halloween again doesn't quite have all the of character types and some of the characters are not meant to be in that category. The villain is clearly Mike Myers, with Laurie being our hero of the film as she in a sense defeated Mike Myers and was the only survivor, The director John Carpenter said the reason she was the survivor was not because she was seen as virginal and the 'tom boy' its because out of everyone she was the one that payed full attention to the things going on around her. The helper would of course be Dr Loomis as he followed Myers after he escaped from the mental institute and tried to warn everyone that he was coming and that he was going to kill. The false hero could be the police as even though they done none of the detective work and do anything to help that much they would probably take full credit of the work of others.

Claude Levi-Strauss:
Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts for example good and evil (Mike Myers and Laurie Strode). Not really interested in the plot they looked for deeper arrangements of themes. There are many binary oppositions in Halloween, such as good/evil which would be Mike Myers/Laurie Strode. Past/Present is also in Halloween as you get the past of Mike Myers killing his sister and then the present where he kills the rest of the cast. Normal/strange also appears in the film as you get the normal lives of the teens and then the strange things that are going on and also the strange things Mike Myers is doing to the teens, such as all the dead teens in a room with his sisters gravestone.

Bordwell and Thompson:
Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". A narrative typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect. Finally a new situation that brings a end to the narrative. Halloween doesn't quite follow this. At the start there is one situation that then does start off a series of changes however the situation at the end hasn't changed from the start. Its still the same situation, Mike Myers is still alive and on the lose even after being shot multiple times. When we watch films we try and connect the events so we are able to make sense of the film and even if there is no obvious connection in the film we still try and make one.

Narrative Structures and The Crazies (Eisner, 2010)

Does The Crazies follow the CHN? Why or why not?

The Crazies does not follow the typical CHN structure. The reason for this is the film doesn't start with an equilibrium or normality. You see a small town burning and then you get to see the town 2 days before that and you get to see the events unfold. So it doesn't follow the structure. Everything is then disrupted which does follow the structure however a new equilibrium isn't at the end as the whole thing starts again like at the start of the film.

How many of Propp's Character types can be identified in the film?

The Villain - The Government - The reason for this would be as they developed the virus and started the whole outbreak.

The Hero - David (The Sheriff) is the main protagonist because he is the the one that saves everyone he can.

The Doner - Both David and Russell a they both provide each other with objects they both need to escape, eg, its Davids car however Russell puts the wheels on it.

The Helper - Russell, Judy - They aid David in escaping from the town and Russell even sacrifices himself for David and Judy to escape and Judy is a doctor and helps make sense of the virus and help David when hes hurt.

The Princess - Judy - David has to save her from the man with the pitchfork and the containment room at the high school.

Her Father - David and Judy as they both help each other and want to survive, that's the ultimate goal and they are rewarded with surviving.

The Dispatcher - Judy - She was the only reason why David decided to go back and save her as its his wife and she was pregnant and we find out later in the film that if David didn't go back he would have been killed even though he was tested and didn't have the disease/virus.

The False Hero - The government/Army as they try and contain the virus and try to make things better however they were the ones that started this entire thing.
 

List five examples of binary oppositions in the film and explain them briefly.

Good/Evil - David, Judy etc are classed as the 'good guys' and the government who created the virus are the 'bad guys'. The village is also good to start off with and then turns bad as it becomes a huge burning village, also the crazies are not actually evil. Although they are trying to kill people they have been corrupted by the virus and again its actually the governments fault for this.

Innocence/Guilt - Although the 'Crazies' are running around killing people they are actually innocent and the at the start the whole village is a small innocent village, hence why when David killed the old man with a shotgun that was a huge deal within the community. The government feel guilty as they have unleashed this deadly virus apon the small village and in fact the world and try to help by containing it although it does involve killing everyone they feel that it will save the rest of the world and because the people with the virus are suffering so they're slightly helping them by putting them out of misery.

Normal/Strange - When Judy gets home she starts to take down the washing from the washing line, she's carrying out her normal day to day routine, however this is strange because of the circumstance with the virus and all the death going on around her. She's trying to get back to the normal life of being in a small community where its always safe and nothing ever happens and she tries to find comfort and go back to that place by carrying out her daily routine before the virus outbreak.

Past/Present - The burning town at the start is the complete opposite of the beautiful small little town which is actually is. We see the burning town at the start of the film however we then see the town 2 days later and its a small town which is very clean and surrounded nature. References between past and present are shown throughout the film, for example near the end of the film they see large lorries full of dead bodies with tags on their hands. We know who these people are because of earlier on in the film. They were the people who were tested and didn't have the virus however they were killed anyway. We then realise that if it wasn't for Judy being pregnant and being seen as having the virus, David would have never have gone to save her and David would be dead because he would have been in one of them lorries.

Freedom/Being Trapped - At the beginning of the film you see this small town that is surrounded by nothing, and nothing ever seems to happen. You get a real sense that they are free not only in they're free to do what they like but they're free from the 'Big World'. The government doesn't really effect them and they are no stresses of big city life so they're free in more ways than one. From being completely free they're then completely trapped. Once the government know that the virus has hit the town and is effecting people they decide to try and contain the town. All cars are clamped so they cannot move and road blocks are set up on all the main highways out of the town. Anyone that manages to escape the town is then shot and killed by military helicopters. The characters have gone from complete freedom to being completely trapped.

Identify the three 'durations' and give an estimate of the time each duration covers.
Screen Duration - 92 mins
Plot Duration - 3 days
Story Duration - Years - The story duration could have been going on for years, the reason for this is because Judy is pregnant and that would be over a long period of time. The plane crash would have also have happened before what we see on the screen as the virus had to crash and also get into the water system. The longest one would be the actual making of the virus. This could have taken years for the government to create.

Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film but which occur before the film starts.
Judy being pregnant causes later events in the film, the reason for this is, Judy was pregnant before the film 'started' and so because of this saves Davids life. If Judy wasn't pregnant and had a fever she wouldn't have been taken by the military to the high school where all of the infected people were taken. As David wasn't seen as having the virus they were separated. David then decides to go and save his wife as she isn't actually ill shes pregnant. We later find out that the people that were seen as not having the virus were killed anyway and if David stayed and didn't go and save Judy, David and Judy would both be dead.
The second event would be the plane crashing into the water. As the plane crashed into the water this then contaminated the drinking water for the town and because of this people then caught the virus. This sets off the event of the whole story and having to get the whole town contained and in the end because of this event the whole town gets bombed and completely destroyed.

List two events from the 92 minute film that happened in a different time and space to the one we are shown.
One event that happened in a different time and space to the one we are shown is when Russell had his tyres spiked by the military. You know this as he not only tells us that they slit his tyres but later in the film when we later see his truck the spikes that they used to pop his tyres are there and they actually use the bed of nails to stop the government truck from getting away and to get answers on the situation. Another event that happened in the film but in a different time and space is when all of the people that were seen to as not being 'infected' were killed by the military by shooting at the lorries. You know this has happened at the end of the film as Judy finds the dead bodies with hundreds of bullets on the floor. You see the wristbands on the dead bodies that were given to the people that were not infected.  

Horror Genre Conventions

Settings:
Small communities or isolated places, normally abandoned or have very few people living there. Gives a sense of being isolated from the rest of the world.
Often places with a 'past' which will return for example old abandoned houses, or old asylums like the one in Grave Encounters. Normally places with multiple levels basements and attics etc.
Night time, sometimes a nice place during the day but then becomes different at night.
Religions/medical institutions - possession, demons etc. Can also take place in dreams or the unconscious mind (Incidious).

Technical Code:
Camerawork is expressive rather than naturalistic, high and low angles and canted camerawork is also common in many horror films.
Extreme close ups on victims lets the audience into the victims person space and they get to experience the horror that they are feeling at that exact moment. Sudden ECU's are also used on the monster/villain to show an invasion of personal space.
Point of view shooting is very important, hand held cameras etc. Camera often places audience in monsters eyes like at the opening of Halloween.
Camerawork often makes use of depth of the frame - protagonist in foreground unaware or monster in the background.
During the editing process you can create unsettling jumps from long shots to close ups rather than doing is smoothly by zooming in or going to a medium shot. You can also change the pace of the shots which can also have a huge effect on the film and its audience.
Sound is sometimes very important, ambient sound for atmosphere, footsteps, heartbeats high in the sound mix.

Iconography:
Visual signifiers - Black and red - blood, darkness and evil
Lighting expressive but not natural, motivated, low key, high contrast, chiaroscuro, emphasis on shadows. lighting direction often from unexpected  angles eg below a persons face to create weird shadows. Sunlight, moonlight, room lights always from above.
Commoner objects in the mise-en-scene would be things like weapons of the iconic knife, blood, masks, ghosts and moving objects etc, also things to do with religion and cults
Children are normally associated with innocence - dolls and playgrounds even clowns also children's songs are used in horror films to give the audience a sense of false security, they think the child is innocent with dolls and the songs playing in the background, where actually they are the main monster like in The Ring

Narrative Structure:


Character Types:
Main protagonist often the hero or victim.
Monsters with hidden secret or troubled past
Stupid.immoral teens get killed
Children
Ineffectual police and normal law enforcers (horror is not containable through normal channels)
The have a go hero who will get killed
Scientists who do stupid things or over reach their powers (Frankenstein)
People who refuse to believe

Themes:
Binary oppositions - Natural VS unnatural, good VS evil etc
Return of the repressed, Freudian theory, horror is often close to sex in some way.
The hidden evil inside
Science out of control
What lies on the other side of death