We have decided to do some extra research on film age ratings for our media coursework to help better the overall quality of our finished product and to increase our own knowledge on the subject. In the UK, we have a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films.
The BBFC rates theatrically-released films. Legally, local authorities have the power to decide under what circumstances films are shown in cinemas, but they nearly always choose to follow the advice of the BBFC.
The government currently designate the BBFC as the authority for certifying video releases. As the law requires the certificate to be displayed on the packaging and media labels of the video recording, in practice only UK releases can be legally sold or hired in the UK, even if a foreign release had identical content.
All films and video games rated by the BBFC receive a certificate, along with "consumer advice" detailing references to sex, violence and coarse language. If a certificate specifies that a film or video game is only suitable for someone over a certain age, then only those over that age may buy it.
These are the rating images commonly seen on DVD and videogame boxes.
From researching the BBFC we are now much more educated about film ratings and which content is giving which rating. From this we can understand and know what we must and must not include in our trailer and the vital objective of not revealing too much in our trailer.
As we thought of questions to ask our target audience we took into consideration how relevant each question would be to helping us understand the audience’s perception of the horror genre, its conventions and what they would like to see from us.
We decided to distribute our survey via the internet, using a site called surveymonkey.com. we thought that this would be a more convenient and efficient way of carrying out our survey and it proved to be successful. We mainly surveyed mostly females for our questionnaire; part of the reason for this is that females are commonly less favourable of the horror than males so surveying this audience enabled us to receive more diverse results as opposed to a mostly male reception.
Many people seemed to like the horror genre and a we received a good variation of choices in our questionnaire results.
Our trailers length is a very crucial part because we want to produce something that will best appeal to our audience and keep them interested. The results showed that most people wanted the trailer to last for around 20-40 seconds, this is a reasonable and common amount of time for a teaser.
1. The Film Title: Paranormal Activity 2
2.Year of Release: 2010
3.Director: Tod Williams
4.Producer: Oren Peli
5.Production/Financing company: paramount pictures
6.Actors:
7.Films Origin/Info: Sequel/follow on from ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007).
8. Synopsis: what is the film about? (100 words max)
Denotation:
We see the audience’s reaction in the cinema to the film in which they all look scared.
First we see something flying at the screen and knocking over the camera, it seems to be clothed in something white, then we actually get to see the persons face pop up out of nowhere.
We see a dog barking in the footage letting us no something’s wrong.
The rocking chair moves on its own.
Lastly a figure standing in the door way.
Connotation:
Using footage of the audience within the trailer is actually clever as you know that it will be scary as you can see their reaction and they are all shocked and scared.
This thing that comes flying at the camera, shows the audience it’s something ‘paranormal’ due to the fact the speed of the ‘thing’ and also you don’t see any face so therefore it is portrayed as something unordinary.
Using the person to pop up in front of the camera was cleverly put; it was unexpected making it seem very jumpy which is what they wanted for the film for you to feel on edge throughout the film.
We see the rocking chair rocking on its own reflected in the mirror this also shows something paranormal like it is a ghost sitting on it.
The figure standing in the door way, which is darkened so much can’t see what they look like so you can’t even tell if they would be alive or like an evil ghost, it’s cleverly done.
Mise-en-Scene:
Lighting: the use of low key lighting the whole way through the trailer indicates the film is going to be that of a horror kind and there is something ‘not quite right’. If in contrast the trailer was filmed in a very high key lighted area it wouldn’t seem scary at all and it would be more visually pleasing as its easy on the eye and bright colours tend to normally be associated with happiness and joy, but where it has been filmed with low key lighting it gives it a sense of danger and uncertantity.
Props: the use of the rocking chair and the frying pans moving by them self in the house really adds to the effect of something ‘spooky’ going on inside the house.
Sound:
non diegetic sound is used for the static sound on the camera and when it cuts into a new screen that sound is non diegetic. Also when the figure smashes into the camera and appears again there is use of non diegetic sound.
The audience screams is diegetic sound. Id believe that the rocking chair is probably non diegetic it could well be diegetic but I think that its more for the audience’s reaction as you wouldn’t notice the rocking chair until you hear the noise. Although on the other hand I would say the dog’s barks are diegetic.
The sound when the figure of the girl right at the end is standing in the door way is a non diegetic sound.
Genre: the genre of this film I would class as horror. I also believe it could be classed as sci-fi. I say that in the sense that its ‘paranormal’ and it isn’t the usual happenings that everyone would believe in or have knowledge on. It’s very distinctive that it is a horror film from the teaser trailer not only that it is a sequel and most people have knowledge of paranormal activity knowing it’s a horror film. Yet for people who haven’t experienced it before you can tell it’s a horror film down to the Mise-en-scene.
Location: the trailer reveals the movie is set in the house and all these weird happenings that take place will all happen within the house hold.
Characters: this teaser trailer is quite interesting as you don’t really see any characters. You see a baby in a cot and also a dog barking. And then all of a sudden there is ‘something’ standing in the door way weather it is meant to be a human being or one of this ‘paranormal activates’ we don’t know. By not having any people in the actual trailer and just this ‘thing’ it creates more of a spook to the film and more of a spook factor in my opinion. As it’s powerful without the use of showing what’s happening to the people and how it’s affecting them.
Voice Over: there’s no voice over in the trailer or narration so your still not getting told at all what’s going to happen in the film I think it really does tease you by not having any narration because you want to find out what is going to happen but your left in the dark therefore it will make you want to research to look in more depth what is going to happen.
Theme: the theme of the trailer is horror/sci-fi. As it has paranormal things going on throughout.
Pacing: the pacing of the trailer is varied. It cuts quickly from the different rooms as a security camera would but the pacing of the different rooms is very slow and then something appears which happens really quickly which speeds the pace up.
On-screen graphics/captions: the time is in the corner each shot which is clever as the concept is that all of the footage has been caught on tape whether it be hand held camera or a security camera.
‘in 2009 you demanded it’- lets us know already that it will be a sequel to a film without giving away to much at the start, unless you saw paranormal activity you will recognise the setting of the room is the same.
‘Nothing can prepare you, for what’s next’ this caption gives a sense of fear as you know something bad will happen and you won’t be ready for it therefore you will be on edge the whole screening of the film.
‘Paranormal activity 2- comes up at the end which is the name of the film and the website ‘www.paranormalmovie.com’ without even a release month this creates more buzz around the film and the use of the website put on the end will make people look up the website to find out more about the film where it is a teaser trailer.
Editing & post-production:
Obviously the woman/spirit coming in knocking over the camera was really effectively where it was so quickly paced. I really like the rocking chair also I think it worked so well because how would it be moving it makes you think, even though it’s very subtle and you can only see it reflected in the mirror but for me it think it worked the best out of the whole trailer.
I also liked the fact it looked like a security camera the whole time with the static and the way it kept cutting from different things I think it was cleverly edited.
How does the trailer begin and end? What is effectively edited?
It starts and ends with the same static screen apart from right at the end the film name comes up. I like the use of the static i think it works well as it does make it look like a security camera.
Why is the trailer being played before the release? What is the purpose?
The trailer gets played before the release for the simple reason it starts to build an audience before the film is even realised. People see the trailer and it creates a buzz around film making people talk about it and it get more attention, making more people hear about it and so on.
Do trailers always tell you everything you need to know about the film?
no trailers only give you the very basic information. The reason trailers do that is because they want to get people suspicious about the film and to create a buzz so it will make people look up the film online and see what its all about getting it more publicity.
As soon as you bring in anything supernatural or beyond this earth into a story, be it ghosts, demons, zombies, or alien invaders, the story becomes a supernatural horror. This sort of story links into a lot of different sub-genres of horror and includes a vast amount of undead villains such as Dracula, Anne Rice’s vampires, George Romero’s zombies in Night of the Living Dead or the demon in The Exorcist.
_______________The Ring and The Host________________
Monster (also referred to as a monster film', creature feature or monster movie) is a name commonly given to films that are based around the struggle between human beings and one or more monsters. While there is no specific official genre classification of that name, the term is usually applied to films sometimes labeled as horror, fantasy, or science fiction films.
These films involve fictional creatures, but in most cases they are over-sized monsters, despite its beginnings with adaptations of horror folklore and books.
Typically, monsters in films differ from more traditional antagonists in that many exist due to circumstances beyond their control; their actions not entirely based on choice, potentially making them objects of empathy to film viewers. This can include scientific accidents and human disturbances of some sort.
Supernatural films are those that depict events that appear beyond normal perceptions e.g. paranormal activity. This includes villains wielding impossible-to-believe abilities (magical or otherwise), demons etc. It is argued that monster movies such as those that include vampires, werewolfes and dolls etc. should have their own categories as they can be seen as something other than a monster. Examples include Freddy Krueger, Chucky and Frankenstein.
Psychological horror relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot Psychological horror is different from the type of horror found in "splatter films," which derive their effects from gore and violence, and from the sub-genre of horror-of-personality, in which the object of horror does not look like a monstrous other, but rather a normal human being, whose horrific identity is often not revealed until well into the work, or even at the very end. In psychological horror the essential element is to frighten the audience mentally.
Psychological horror tends to be subtle compared to traditional horror and typically contains less physical harm, as it works mainly on the factors of mentally affecting the audience rather than the display of graphic imagery seen in the slasher and splatter sub-genres. It typically plays on archetypal shadow characteristics embodied by the threat It creates discomfort in the viewer by exposing common or universal psychological vulnerabilities and fears, most notably the shadowy parts of the human psyche which most people repress or deny.
An example of pyschological horror would be The Unborn
Thrillers are mostly characterised by an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and murder by showing society as dark, corrupt and dangerous, though they often feature a happy ending in which the villains are killed or arrested.
Thrillers heavily promote on literary devices such as plot twists, red herrings and cliffhangers. They also promote on moods, such as a high level of anticipation, adrenaline rush, arousal, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and sometimes even terror. The tones in thrillers are usually gritty, slick and lurid.
The tension of a thriller usually arises when the character is placed in a menacing situation, mystery, or an escape from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation.
Characters in thrillers include criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent victims, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, private eyes, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more.
The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.
Thrillers mostly take place in ordinary suburbs/cities. Though sometimes, they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger. However, more common in crime thrillers, they may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger, like, police officers and detectives. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common.
An example of a modern thriller is The Last House on the Left.
Vampire films have been a staple since the silent days, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in movies throughout the years.
The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been from Bram Stoker's Dracula, with over 170 versions to date. Running a distant second are adaptations of Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.
The legend of Elizabeth Báthory, the "Blood Countess" has also been an influence. By 2005, Dracula had been the subject of more films than any other fictional character.
