Website problems

Unfortunately the host site that I was using for my website, hostrator, has now gone offline, and so I will now upload my website to another different host.

The new address for my website is;

http://helen-chapman.supanet.com/hush/home.htm

Website

I have now completed my website, though there are still a few problems with how to get the video to play. This is a screenshot of the main home page of my website.

http://chapmancarrie.hostrator.com/

Deconstruction of websites

I have visited several websites for films of the horror genre to take inspiration from them and to see how they challenge and conform to different preexisting media conventions for horror films. I have looked at 'Paranormal Activity', 'The Forgotten', and 'Final Destination'.


http://www.paranormalactivity-movie.com/

The film is about a young couple who move into a house and are haunted by a demonic presence, which proceeds to torture, posses, maim and kill the pair, who attempt, unsuccessfully, to seek specialist help. This film challenges the traditional convention of women being shown as helpless 'damsels in distress', as the lead female character may in fact be the biggest danger that the other characters are presented with.

The website background is block black, with text boxes interlaced over the top in the centre of the page. The colour scheme of red, black and blue carries connotations of blood and enigma and danger and death and passion. The background of the text box in the centre of the page has the background image of the bedroom from the film. The image is in blue and black, and is blurred, as if from a hand-held camera. This creates enigma and a link to the audience, as many of them are likely to have taken home movies, and they will recognise the image from their own productions. This association between the film and a household object will make the movie seem more real and scary for the audience, and will draw them in as it creates enigma and their morbid curiosity will be aroused. The use of the 'home video' effect looking onto the main character's bedroom also makes it seem as though the audience is watching the film much in the same way that you would go to a friend's house and watch their movies. This creates a link between the audience and the characters, as though the characters are trusting the audience with their private lives, and the audience feels more empathetic towards the characters and wants to protect them and find out what happens to them, and so they are more likely to watch the film. The rough lines created by the 'home movie' effect that has been used also connotes violence, an underlying subliminal message which is strengthened by the blurred shadows used on the font of the title at the top of the page.

Links to social networking sites have been placed at the bottom of the page, along with the film company logos. This creates a sense of finality, in that the audience member knows that they have reached the end of the page. Merchandising adverts for the movies are also displayed on the left of the home page, and are in full view all the while the trailer is playing. This is further use of subliminal messaging, as the audience will associate these products more easily with the film, and this helps to create a desire for the audience to purchase the products so that they will feel closer to the film and the action and story line.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/the_forgotten/

The film is about a woman who's son disappears, presumed dead, and her battle with against an alien who is stealing her memories of him for an experiment to get her family and her life back.

The homepage of the website is dominated by the image of the DVD cover and the poster, which helps to link the film to the other products associated with it and maintains a level of continuity for the audience. The site challenges some traditional codes and conventions of websites of the same genre. Unlike other horror film websites, the colour scheme is white and blue, with the dominating colour as white, which connotes innocence, heaven, ghosts and also can connote death as it is commonly associated with the 'light at the end of the tunnel' theory when you die. The colour white can also connote cold and fragility, which echos the main plot of the film, as the aliens are experimenting to see how fragile the bond is between human parents and their children. The other colour used is blue in varying shades, which fades to gray and black and connotes death and darkness and creates enigma. The main image is one of the main character's face merged with the silhouettes of figures where her hair should be, but parts of her face are missing, and those parts of her face which are in view is washed with blue, which carries connotations of corpses. Her eyes have been left out of the image, so the audience cannot have direct eye contact to draw them into the image. As the audience are so used to seeing people with eyes, this difference not only challenges traditional horror film conventions, but also makes the image seem scarier and connotes to the audience that this movie will be physiological, rather that physical and action packed. The edges of the image are jagged and torn like ripped paper, which also shadows the main plot, and connotes to the audience that the film will involve violence. The image has also been edited so that it is grainy, and looks as though the audience is looking at it through the rain, which again follows the main plot, as her memories are washed away, and creates a link to the audience, as rain is something they experience regularly, and so it will help them to empathise with the character.

The website does conform to some codes and conventions of horror films, as the trailer is shown on the home page of the website, but it only plays when the audience member selects the correct link. As with other websites for similar film genres, the film company's logos are listed at the bottom of the page, but, unlike other similar websites, there are no links to social networking sites displayed on the page.

http://www.thefinaldestinationmovie.com/

The film is about a group of teenagers, on of which has a premonition of a disaster that will result in their deaths. The teenagers survive due to this premonition and the narrative charts their battle with death to avoid their own fates, which is ultimately lost.

This site uses Adobe Flash Player 10. Unlike many modern websites, the background is made up of a single picture of a screaming girl's face in shadow, which is interlaced over a picture of a skull. It is also an interactive site. The background is in 3D, and the shards of glass move with the mouse as the audience member navigates the site. A colour scheme of black, blue and white has been used throughout the site to maintain a level of consistency and to connote evil and fate and death, and to create a sense of enigma so that the audience will want to watch the film, though they already know what the storyline will be from the prequels and the title. The colour scheme also connotes the sensation of cold, which is loosely associated colloquially to death. However, the stereotypical background pictures of the skull and the girl's screaming face, aside from the black shadows which create a sense of enigma and impending doom, are shown in white, which commonly connotes innocence. This coupled with the fact that you can't see her eyes as they are in shadow creates an empathetic bond between the audience and the character, as the audience imagines that the girl is looking at or just past them as she screams. This creates the idea that the girl is either trying to protect the audience, or else is asking for the audience's protection. This simple yet effective marketing technique rouses the audience's morbid curiosity and creates enigma, as the audience knows that she will eventually die, but wants to know how, why and if they could have been saved in any way.

The shards of glass which feature as a motif throughout the site and the film are jagged and sharp, which connotes violence and that the characters are walking 'on the edge'. The tag line of 'Rest in Pieces' is written across the top of the page, and also moves with the glass shards, which emphasises the violence involved in breaking a window or mirror. The shards of glass could also connote a broken mirror which, as popular superstitions lead us to believe, will result in 7 years bad luck.

In keeping with the stereotypical codes and conventions of horror film websites, the trailer is shown on the home page of the site. A line of actors and producers which worked on the film is also printed along the bottom of the page, the same as the poster, which creates an instant link for the audience and creates a sense of loyalty. Links are featured to popular social networking sites, such as 'Facebook', which appeals to the younger teenage audience.

Ancillary Tasks

Now that I have completed the main task of the coursework, I will focus more on the Ancillary Tasks, which constitute of a website for the film, a poster for the film, or a magazine front cover featuring the film. I have decided to create a website for the film and a poster for the film, as my coursework for last year was based around print media, and I want to challenge myself.

Finished Trailer

I have taken on board all of the constructive criticism which I have received from my focus group and teachers, and edited my trailer accordingly before I put it to the group again. They were satisfied with the changes which i had made, and this is the finished product.

Focus Group

I have shown the rough draft of my film trailer to a focus group of my peers, both media students and not media students, and asked them to give me some constructive criticism as to how it could be improved. These were the results:
"It's really cool. A good soundtrack would be good, though. You need to build up suspense more."

"Put another underwater shot in; they're really creepy!"

"Faster editing and a bit shorter; it's too long for me."
"More black slides with more mysterious stuff written on them!"
"I want to see that movie!"

Rough Draft

I have now completed a rough draft of my media trailer, though there is no sound yet.

Deconstruction of trailers

I have decided to watch and deconstruct several different trailers of movies with similar genres and or plots to my film for inspiration and to analyse how they were edited together to create tension and enigma. I have deconstructed the trailers for 'Paranormal Activity', 'Final Destination' and 'The Forgotten'.

'Paranormal Activity'

The entire trailer is filmed as though from a handheld camera with no tripod and jerky zooming in and out throughout the trailer. This reflects the movie itself, as the main plot line revolves around the idea that the audience is watching the characters through a home video. The first establishing shot of the trailer is a slow pan left along a long line of people queuing outside on a sunny day with the date and place displayed in the bottom left hand corner, as would usually be associated with a documentary. This motif is continued throughout the trailer, with a typewriter font, which carries connotations of memoirs and diaries, and helps to create the illusion for the audience that the characters of the film are real. The use of a typewriter font also creates a direct link to connotations of such great horror movies as 'The Shining' when Johnny The next shot is of people entering a cinema, where the lighting is slightly darker, and finding their seats. This sudden, though natural, contrast and change in lighting instantly creates a sense of foreboding, excitement and enigma for the audience watching the trailer. The lights then go out and the camera switches to a night vision camera mode and an over the shoulder shot of the audience as the opening credits of the movie begin. This makes the audience feel as though they are there in the audience and creates a desire to be there and watch the movie in a cinema with lots of random strangers, which tends to heighten the tension in the atmosphere. This arrangement continues, with the audience bathed in the green light from the night vision mode on the camera, as key shots, characters and parts of the plot are established on the movie screen. The camera cuts quickly and frequently between the audience and the cinema screen to show dramatic key moments from the narrative of the film and the audience's reactions to them, which includes them hugging each other, jumping around in their seat, screaming and generally panicking. This creates a sense of enigma, as the audience is instantly curious as to what the audience in the trailer is watching, and as to why they are so scarred by what they are seeing. The camera cuts to black still shots with white noise behind and quotes about the film written in white over the top. The contrast between the black and the reverse out writing creates enigma, and makes the words look sharper and more visually dynamic, though they are still written in a typewriter font, which maintains continuity and is a visually occurring motif. The editing gets faster and faster as the trailer draws to it's climax, which creates tension and enigma. The trailer draws to a dramatic close when the male lead is thrown into the handheld camera on the movie, and another black screen is shown, with the title of the film, which twitches, distorts and flickers, as though it too is being possessed by a ghost. Flashes of the characters shaking violently, screaming, and writhing in agony appear, and add to the enigma and fear that the audience is feeling for them. The final shot in the trailer is a black still with 'Coming Soon' and the production team's information displayed at the base of the screen. The overall effect of this trailer is to build tension and create enigma for the audience, whose morbid curiosity is awakened, and they want to find out what happens to the characters.

'Final Destination'

This trailer challenges traditional horror film trailer conventions as, unlike it's predecessors, it is set predominantly in the daytime in bright sunlight. This is unusual for a horror film, which are normally set in the dark of the nighttime where it is more enigmatic and inescapable, much like the nemesis in the film. The trailer opens with an establishing shot of a racetrack and the group of friends who are the main characters of the film enjoying a day out and cheering on the drivers from the safety of the stands. Multiple close ups and extreme close ups of parts of the main character's face and parts of the cars and the stands which builds tension for the audience and helps to demonstrate the character's emotional panic as he has a premonition and realises the danger to himself and his friends. A recurring motif throughout the trailer is a flash of a black still, which connotes death and danger and creates enigma for the audience. When the car begins to crash, the black still is shown very quickly as though it is flashing, which creates enigma, draws the audience's attention to the screen and shocks them, as they don't know what's happening or why. The combination of low shots, high shots and canted angle shots of the cars racing past combined with the quick editing builds enigma and heightens the emotional climax for the audience. A slow zoom into the character's face as his premonition begins and he realises what's going to happen, and as the audience sees the same premonition, creates dramatic irony and a sense of urgency as the audience wills the characters to escape their fates. This also creates an emotional link between the audience and makes them want to watch the film in order to find out what happens to the characters. This sense of urgency and dramatic irony is heightened further as the main character attempts to save the others. When the car explodes, the brightness of the resulting fireball dramatically contrasts the darkness of the stands, which are secluded and under cover from the bright sunlight and potential rain. A flash of white appears across the character's faces as the main character turns to his friends with a terrified expression and tells them that "We have to get out of here!". This contrasts the black flashes and emphasises the emotional state and the character's innocence and blind terror as he tries to save his friends. The use of the colour white here connotes that their fates are yet to be filled in, and are, as yet, uncertain. The first of his friends is killed almost instantly afterwards, as a stray tier flies towards her head from behind. Though the trailer does not show her actual death, the shot is immediately followed with a flash of a still shot of a plain red screen, which connotes blood and violence and death. The production company logo is the next symbol to appear on the screen and it is splattered with red, which the audience will commonly associate as being blood and meaning that she has been killed as a result of the stray tier. The trailer goes on to show key moments of the narrative from 10 years later where other characters are killed off in progressively more violent and horrific ways, combined with quick and frequent flashbacks to the original premonition, which creates dramatic irony, and the audience wants to discover if the main character survives.

'The Forgotten'

The establishing shots of the trailer are of the main character, the mother, playing with her son and kissing her husband, and enjoying a typical family life. This is something which many of the audience members will be able to associate with, and creates both enigma and an emotional link, as the audience is curious as to what will happen to upset the equilibrium of their family. The narrative of the trailer progresses, showing the mother meeting another father at the park where their children are playing together. The shots flash with a white light as two separate shots are interlaced over one another, and the children and other people in the park disappear. The remaining shot is bathed in a soft, white gradient light, which gives the illusion that the character is dreaming and connotes innocence and that the character is the heroine of the film. This effect continues on to the next shot of the mother chasing her son down a sunlit corridor. Black stills with reverse out generic white writing questions the audience's motives and beliefs and, in turn, makes them question themselves. This creates enigma as the audience wonders what they would do in that situation, and want to watch the film so that they can find out what the main character does. As the trailer progresses, it shows key moments which are fundamental to the plot of the film, and uses media devices such as the visual motif of a family photograph in which the son gradually fades away, to communicate to the audience that the main character is not dreaming, whilst still keeping alive the enigma of what really happened to her son. The trailer shows the balance of the happy family deteriorate, as the mother's behaviour becomes more and more erratic as she clings to the memory of her son, fighting with every character who tries to 'help' her, and the audience questions their own assumptions. Flashes of colour reoccur throughout the trailer, and connote to the audience that the disappearance of the mother's son may have something to do with an alien abduction. This again raises curiosity amongst the audience, particularly amongst mothers, as they fear for the child and for the mother's life if she gets too close to unraveling the mystery and uncovering the truth.

Editing

Whilst I am editing my trailer I will try to keep in mind the traditional codes and conventions of horror films and the trailers which accompany them. I will attempt to follow such stereotypical codes and conventions as an iconic long haired blonde girl in a short skirt dying brutally in a way that could be avoided if she'd had a bit more common sense, the killer being dressed in black to create a heightened sense of enigma and fear, and using lots of quick, short clips of shots in the trailer which build to a climax and create tension and intrigue the audience, making them want to find out more and therefore watch the film.

Uploading

I have now finished all of the filming which i required to create my trailer. I have uploaded all of the footage to my computer and have begun to edit.

Filming

I have now spoken to my actors and arranged a filming schedule. I have also decided to deviate from the original script slightly in that the characters will all separate at various intervals throughout the party and will then die alone, bar the killer, which I think with help the audience to sympathises with the characters and the audience will feel more fear for the character and should get a sense of dramatic irony. First, we will film Jess's death at a real indoor swimming pool rather than an outside paddling pool. We will then go to a forest to shoot Crystal being strangled with barbed wire. Finally, we will go to Bethan's house to film the party scene and the other death scenes in her field and shed, which we have been given permission to use.

Actors

I have now recruited all of my friends who are interested in acting to be actors in my trailer, however I may have to replace Josh's death with Jess and have Josh die differently due to clashing schedules. These are still images of some of the actors that I intend to use which were taken when at one of our possible filming locations, which was later not used, where we went to plan possible shots and experiment with the effects that different shots, angles and light exposure could have on an image. We also tried to experiment with distancing to the camera and moving action shots. These are some of the examples of this: