Magazine research

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My analysis from Empire Magazine has helped me take into account what makes magazines stand out and look interesting. When creating my magazine research I will take into account all the points mentioned above.

Scripting

In most of the trailers that I have seen, the most common convention throughout all of them would be the amount of dialogue that is said. It is important that only one line is said throughout the trailer as this helps to create anticipation to the audience. Therefore in our trailer, we will make sure we try and use one line with each character.

Characters/Target Audience

In our trailer, there are 3 characters that will be shown:

• Doctor Lemmings - David Ajala

• Maya - Hannah Ajala

• Donna - Emily

Our main reason for choosing these characters is that our USP(Unique Selling Point) within our trailer is that the main victim isn't a traditional white lead character which is shown through most films such as the orphan,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ywOPNNii9w

the orphanage or,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA6pPzh6Bd4

the strangers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TBlPelvbE

Target Audience

The target audience for our new film is 15+, potentially for a national/global audience. In order for us to acheive this we managed to take the time out to do a questionnaire for 10 people aged 15+ both male and female. From this questionnaire, I hope to understand what people from my target audience expect, so that I am able to meet the requirements that they have.

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Hannah researched into our target audience who would preferably be aged 15-28. We obviously noticed that the characters in our trailer were older and more mature but yet, it wouldn't really be aimed at a lot of adults as it is rated certificate 15.

Themes

The main themes to our film trailer are torture and ghostly. Films that had helped us choose this kind of themes are Saw(torture) and the unborn(ghostly). We firstly chose Saw as it is a popular film which is aimed at people aged 18+, and the thing that had stuck out to us the most is how realistic they had managed to show torture and gore.

Saw

The unborn

Secondly, The Unborn is also another film that had inspired us to choose the ghostly film because we liked the way the film had managed to create tension and fear through the different ways e.g sound, dialogue, shots and mise en scene.

From our inspirations by the Unborn and Saw, we would firstly try and make it realistic as we can and secondly, we would try to use sound, shots and mise en scene to heighten our audiences anticipation and to create a tense atmosphere in our trailer.

Film Title

The title 'Friday the 13th' is shown boldly with a sharp font, this is makes it easier to catch peoples attention. The font also suggests the time period, in this case, an old 20th Century feel. It is also written in red, so the title connotes danger and blood, so this gives the audience a little hint that there will be gore on 'Friday the 13th'.

This helped us decide our film title 'WARD 13' as we wanted to relate to something specific. The number 13 also seems to also be unlucky when relating it to the horror genre, so this would tell the audience the type of film being shown.

For the font of our title, we tried out different types of font to see which would look more suitable for our trailer. The important things that we tried to do was to make sure that it looked modern and kind of scientific but at the same time try and give off a horror feel to it.

Our research had a great influence on us, from Friday the 13th we had taken the idea of relating to a specific event but chose to do something based on a place.

Synopsis

Ward 13

Tagline: Promise is most given when the least is said

Based in Homerton Hospital, the story focuses on an enstranged relationship between a Doctor and a terminally ill patient. The trailer begins with
Doctor Lemmings, 27 in the office going through work as his colleague, Donna approaches him with bad news; his favourite patient Maya,, aged 13 has just died from a terminal illness. Doctor Lemmings always visited Maya and they shared a good friendship. Maya didn’t have family and saw Doctor Lemmings as a father figure. Donna dumps Maya’s file in front of him giving him a dirty look and also tells him that he is working in Ward 13 tonight. Doctor Lemmings looks at the file then throws it to the side. He takes his job really seriously and is working all night. He wants a promotion to make his wife proud. He is the last to leave the hospital and as he walks outside of the dark, isolated hospital, he puts his briefcase on the floor in order to put on his jacket and sees the file he thought he threw away sticking out. On the file written in blood it says ‘You promised’. He smirks thinking it’s Donna. He scrunches up the file and throws it away. Footsteps follow him but as he looks back he sees no-one and nothing. Someone taps on his shoulder. As he turns back he has a mortifying experience. Doctor Lemmings is now lying on a hospital bed with Maya resting her head on his chest and singing. Someone else places a cloth over Doctor Lemmings head then blackout.

Setting

For the main setting of our trailer, we felt that the best place that our film would be set in would be a hospital. Films such as 'The Eye' and 'Halloween 2' had inspired us to choose this type of location. The use of low key lightings and long shots of the area to create a tense atmosphere had attracted us to make out trailer similar to them.

The Eye

Halloween 2

The second setting in our trailer would have to take plac

e in a room, this is where Doctor Lemmings gets tied up in a dark and mysterious room/basement. So for this we would have to make sure that we would use a low key lighting and an abandoned room which creates an isolated feel to it.

Genre in film

Horror Iconography and Ideology

1) What visual and written codes are being used?

Saw

• Extreme close up of the mouth suggests that the person is being tortured,
• The title is in white and is against a black background to catch people's attention,

• At first glance, the poster creates a scary atmosphere drawing the audience,
• The tongs used to keep the mouth opened suggests that the person is trapped and it could also show vulnerability as the person is unable to move,
• The fact that he has no teeth suggests that the theme of the film is gruesome,
• The tag-line shows when the film will be released, in this case Halloween,

Dracula

• The statue in the image shows us the period of time that the film is set in,
• The name of the film is 'Dracula' which is easily known to the audience because it is the biggest and in the centre of the poster,
• The text used in the poster anchors the idea that it is a horror film as it is written in blood which suggests that the film is bloody,

• The colour scheme of the posters is beige and red. The red is a common convention used in horror movies,
• The tag-line suggests that the sub-genre of the film is also romance,

2) What information do they provide about the films?

Dracula

Saw

• They provide the production company, 'Columbia Pictures'
• The name of the director (to promote)
• The author of 'Dracula' (Bram Stoker)
• The release date

3) What other information might you have expected but is missing?

• For both posters, I expected a certificate to indicate the appropriate age for viewing,
• The names of actors or actresses who star in the film such as the poster below,

4) In what ways do these posters create a sense of enigma?

Saw

• Doesn't show the full face of the character on the poster, this leads us to question who the person is,
• Makes us wonder why the person is being tortured,

Dracula

• Even though the full face is shown, it doesn't show the proper face of Dracula, again this leads us to question what his appearance looks like.

5) How are the film producers trying to create a sense of danger and equilibrium?

• For saw, they use a close up of graphic images to catch peoples attention. The close up enables us to put ourselves in that persons shoes giving us a sense of danger.
• As for Dracula, the font of Dracula already creates an eerie atmosphere and the fact that the statue is staring directly at us also adds to the feeling.

6) What genre to these films belong to?

• Horror

However, within films there are subcategories within particular genres. For example:

Saw

• Crime
• Thriller
• Mystery

Dracula

• Thriller
• Romance

7) What are the generic conventions that are at work in these posters?

Saw

• Low key lighting,
• Graphic image,
• Font type of the title,
• close up image,

Dracula

• Bloody title,
• mid shot of the character,
• Colour scheme of red,

Key elements in a Genre

Protagonists

• Charles Bromly (Vampire)
• Audrey

Stock Characters

• Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke)
• Chris Caruso (Vince Colosimo)
• Elvis (Willem Dafoe)

Plot

• A pandemic disease has turned most of the world's human population into vampires. As human numbers dwindle, the need for blood becomes desperate. When deprived of blood for extended periods, vampires degenerate into subsiders: aggressive bat-like creatures.
• A covert group of humans led by Audrey rescues and hides humans from vampire patrols while they attempt to win allies amongst the vampires
• They meet Elvis, a man cured of vampirism by brief exposure to sunlight while being thrown into water.
• Edward, Elvis, and Audrey meet with Chris and ask him to help spread the cure.
• Chris has finally discovered a viable blood substitute and does not want a cure to become widespread. He calls in a vampire patrol which captures Audrey while Elvis and Edward escape into hiding.
• Edward turns himself in and goads Charles into attacking him. Edward uses the now-cured Charles to cure a group of soldiers experiencing the beginning of subsider aggression.
• They are confronted by Chris, who kills the few cured soldiers to hide the evidence of the cure. Elvis arrives and rescues Edward and Audrey by killing Chris. The three survivors then drive away into the sunrise with a voice-over by Edward stating that they have a cure and can change others back.

Themes

• Vampire
• Medical

Icon

• Blood