Title
Black Swan is an oxymoron; swans are white. Swans also have connotations of purity and elegance, whereas black contrasts this, with its own connotations of hatred, pain and the unknown. This is a very mysterious title - it makes the reader imagine something good gone bad.
Title graphics
The title is the only part of the image in black text, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the image. It does not take up a particularly large amount of space on the page, sitting centrally in the bottom third. It is quite a plain, serif font, with elements of elegance. The font itself seems to contrast with the colour of the text.
Image
The image is quite similar to the one in the 'One Missed Call' poster in its size and position. The image is not a frightening one, yet startling in its own way. It is a head and shoulder shot of the main character, with the middle third the most focused, with the crown and shoulders in soft focus, drawing the viewers attention to the most striking part of the image.
Colours
The colours used in this poster are white, grey, black, red and a nude/pinkish flesh tone for the lower text. Most of the image is fairly neutral, with a white/grey background, nude/skin toned lower half and white face. However the eyes and lips are very striking, and along with the title text stand out significantly. This reinforces the idea of the 'black swan', with the two contrasting so harshly.
Title
The title of this film 'One Missed Call' perhaps does not instantly scream 'horror' to some; however does insinuate something quite eerie beyond it's not-so-scary title. (Missed) calls are something very common to people, so it would seem that the film could be identifiable by a mass audience.
Title Graphics
The title is in a white, serif font, and all in all is quite basic. The only mentionable thing about the title graphics is the misty effect at the bottom of the text, which adds to the eerie theme of the film.
Tag line 'What will it sound like when you die?' This is a direct mode of address to the reader, so instantly a connection is formed with the possible viewer. As it is a question it also gives the viewer something to think about, and this question could play on their minds for hours - playing on their senses to intrigue them until they go and see the film.
Images
There is only one image used, and it sits centrally on the page. The image is particulary creepy; the face is not entirely human, and the first thing you are really drawn to is the 'eyes'. The image has been digitally altered to have screaming mouths in the place of eyes, however from a distance they still look like eyes. The face is holding a phone to its ear, reinforcing the idea that there is something terrifying about 'missed calls'. The image directly tells the viewer that this is a poster for a horror film. The image does not just sit on the page, but is blended into the background, almost as if the face is coming out of a dark shadow.
Colours
The colours used are black, red, white, and an eerie skin colour. These colours all fit the conventions of horror; black to insinuate darkness, unknown and death, red to insinuate blood, and white to contrast the black.
The target audience that I am going to be aiming my promotional package at are going to be between the ages of 15 to 25. As I have learnt through my secondary research, most horror films now target and appeal to the female sex, so I will be specifically targeting my film to women. Another reason for this is that the most popular sub-genre of horror was ‘psychological’, which would appear to appeal to women a lot more than men, as there is no blood, gore and over the top deaths which men seem to prefer. These women are not diehard fans of the horror genre, but do enjoy watching new releases that appeal to them (i.e. psychological horror films). They enjoy the sensation of being scared, so tend to watch the films socially perhaps to bond with others. Psychological horror films tend to require an intellectual mind, so these women are most likely intelligent with a good imagination.
1)From my secondary research I had already discovered that the most common age range for horror films was between roughly ages 14 to 20. Since I already knew this, I gave the majority of my questionnaires to a very similar sampling. However, I did want some diversity so included a larger range of ages.
2)I wanted to get a fair result in terms of gender, however as my secondary research showed that ¾ of horror film fans were female, so I gave my questionnaire to 12 women and 8 men, as I thought 15 was a little too many.
3)As my largest age group was 16-18, 100% of this age group asked were students (7/20). My second largest age group was 13-15 year olds, who were also students studying at school. 2 people were unemployed (one 25-30 year old and one 30+). 4 people were University students (aged between 19 and 25), one person employed as a receptionist (30+) and one as a journalist (25-30).
4) This shows that the most popular sub-genre of horror is psychological. "Psychological horror is a sub-genre of horror fiction that relies on characters fear, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instablility to build tension and further the plot." No-one prefered surreal horror.
5) I then asked where people tend to watch these films, and the most popular choice was a DVD (rented). This gained 40% of the votes. 10% downloaded them digitally via sites such as iTunes or Amazon. The second largest proportion was viewing at the cinema, which gained 25%. Perhaps this would mean a front cover of a film magazine would be better than a website as one of my other projects as more people tend to go to the cinema than watch the films by websites.
6) I asked how often they watched horror films; the majority said that they watched them around once a month - less than once a week. This gives me an idea of my target audience as they are not die hard horror fans – i.e. they do not watch horror films too often, therefore they are probably heavily influenced by things like the trailer to make them watch the film.
7) When I asked if film trailers influence the viewer the go and see the film, 85% of participants said yes, 10% said sometimes and 5% said no. This shows that the majority of people are heavily influenced by the trailer, so the trailer is very important in selling the film.
8) I then asked what the participants liked about horror films; I left this as an open question so I could get a more honest opinion and a wider variety of answers. I then looked at the answers and grouped them into similar groups to avoid having nearly 20 different variations of one answer. The three main answers were:
- They enjoy the sensation of being scared
- They are clever
- They have a good plot line
9) I then asked the subjects what influenced them to see a film, and the majority (50%) said it was the trailer, then close behind was the storyline.
10) Are there any horror films you have been influenced to see just from the trailer? If so, which one(s) and why? These were some of the comments included:
- ‘Pan’s Labyrinth, the trailer told the story but didn’t give everything away so it left me wanting more, so I went to see that at the cinema.’
- ‘I remember seeing the trailer for the Orphanage, thinking I’d hate it because it’s in Spanish but the trailer was action packed, there were a few bits in it that really scared me, so I got it when it came out on DVD, very scary.’
- ‘I found the Drag Me to Hell trailer quite scary, had some really shocking moments in, saw the film and it was terrible! Shows what a good trailer can do!’
- ‘When I was younger I saw a trailer for ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and I remember it giving me nightmares! It was the close up of Antony Hopkins that really spooked me – needless to say I didn’t see the film for many years!!’
- ‘I always find the Saw trailers quite influential, they have scary voiceovers and give you a little information on the film but not too much so it gives it all away. Have seen them on DVD.’
- Blair Witch Project – I saw that after I saw the trailer, I think I was interested because it said it was a true story and the acting looked quite realistic so I believed it.’
- The trailer for Insidious made me want to see the film. Very action packed and full of suspense – keeps you hanging on.’
- The new paranormal activity (3) trailer really frightened me. I wanted to see it due to the fact I’ve seen the first two but the trailer influenced me more so, especially when it goes dark and silent – had heart palpitations!!!’
For the first part of my audience research, I gathered secondary research by undertaking a Google search using search terms such as ‘horror film audience’ and ‘horror film audience statistics’. One website (http://temple-news.com/tag/horror-film/) said that “Recent high-grossing horror movies all had predominantly female audiences” (taken from ‘Horror Films... And The Women Who Love Them!’ – Christine Spines, 2009). This article also revealed that now the film industry has noticed that horror film fans are predominantly female, they have began to make horror movies geared specifically to women. On website fanpop.com, I took a random sampling of 20 of the ‘fans’ of horror movies, and looked at their profiles.
1. Female, 14 years old
2. Male, 18 years old
3. Female, 14 years old
4. Female, 15 years old
5. Male, 17 years old
6. Female, 19 years old
7. Female, 17 years old
8. Female, 14 years old
9. Female, 16 years old
10. Female, 15 years old
11. Female, 18 years old
12. Female, 31 years old
13. Female, 13 years old
14. Male, 17 years old
15. Female, 54 years old
16. Female, 15 years old
17. Female, 14 years old
18. Male, 15 years old
19. Male, 22 years old
20. Female, 19 years old
15 out of 20 (3/4) of these fans were female, compared to only 5 (1/4) male. The female sampling ranged in age from 13 years old to 54 years old, and the male sample ranged from 15 to 22 years old. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/do-you-like-horror-movies/ In “What Spooks the Masters of Horror?” Jason Zinoman states: “One of the great things about childhood is how easy it is to access the distinct delight of being scared out of your mind. Adults just have more trouble getting goosebumps.” Perhaps this is why so many viewers are younger? In my sampling, the mean of the ages is 18.85 (19) which appears significantly higher due to the anomalies 54 and 31. However the average age from my sampling is 14/15. This may seem young as many horror films are 15’s and 18’s, so this just goes to show that younger children (female dominated) are becoming the most frequent viewers of horror films. This article then invites students (13 and older) to comment on horror films. Some comments included are: “Best ones are the ones that make you jump, keeps you guessing, and sometimes a little gore. (If it’s too much gore, it makes you sick.)” “I think that the better horror movies are not the scariest ones, but the ones that build up the most suspense without giving away too much. This allows the viewer to put in his/her intuition to play a part in the guessing game that occurs throughout most of the movie.” “I suppose I learned a lot from the development of that essay, but the most important value I still embrace is that I realized why Psycho is considered the pioneer of Horror movies.” “This is what I like about these movies: the unexpected, the suspense, the surprise.” “Good horror movies are characterized as: “movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers.” I then went on www.amazon.co.uk and searched for different horror films, then looked at the ‘What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?’ section. On every occasion, four different horror films of similar sub-genres appeared, with an option below to ‘Explore similar items’. This gives an indication that fans of certain horror films also like other horror films, so it would appear that fans of horror films tend to like most films of the genre, rather than just one off’s.
-Black screen white text ‘Guillermo Del Toro presents’
-VOICEOVER – ‘Everything around her begins to vanish (4) Now she’s alone in the darkness’
-Scream taken from matching film clip
-Heavy breathing noises play throughout clips
-VOICEOVER – ‘4 (2) 3 (2) 2 (2) 1 (3) You can open your eyes.’
(number) = seconds pause between utterances.
This teaser trailer lasts 46 seconds and relies soley on the voiceover to give an insight into the story. There are only two sounds that come directly from the film used within the teaser – that of a woman screaming and an eerie heavy breathing noise. The voiceover is a male voice, very deep and quite powerful. The voice is perfect for establishing an eerie mood when watching the trailer. The voiceover also manages to give some insight into what the film is based around, however does not give the film away so retains a large amount of mystery so viewers of the teaser trailer will be intrigued as to what the film is about more so than a teaser trailer that tells the story through a succession of clips. This creates a sense of mystery and fear in the viewer and hooks them in so that they will be more persuaded to see the film.
-‘You should see Lisa’s dress. He’s gonna love you in it.’
-‘He’s gonna love me even more out of it’
-Black screen white text ‘The Anticipation’
-‘Oh my god! He’s here!’
-‘You look beautiful’
-Black screen white text ‘The Celebration’
-‘Oh we’re turning in we’re turning in!’
-‘Look at this place’
-‘This is amazing!’
-‘Can I get 3 keys to suite 312?’
-‘Oh my god, you guys!’
-‘This is it. This is all ending. This time of our lives.’
-‘Sure gonna miss you guys’
-‘Cheers’
-‘Cheers’
-SONG ENDS
-‘Okay everyone Bridgeport High’s Prom King and Prom Queen are…’
-‘Lisa?’
-‘Oh my god’
-‘3 years ago, the guy he got obsessed with a young female student. He went psycho. He’s been in a maximum security prison up until 3 days ago.’
-‘Claire?’
-‘He’s somewhere in this hotel’
-‘Is anybody here? Hello?’
-‘Donna’
-I’ve missed you’
-Black screen white text ‘It’s a night’
-Black screen white text ‘To die for’
-‘What’s going on?’
-‘He’s locked all the exits’
-‘I can’t find Lisa!’
-‘Please don’t do this, please don’t do this’
-‘Donna!’
-‘I got officers down I need backup now!’
-‘Noooo!’
-‘Where is she?’
-‘He’s not gonna stop until he gets her’
-Black screen white text ‘Prom Night’
-Black screen white text ‘Coming Soon’
In this 2 minutes 12 seconds clip, there is no voiceover at all. The story is told by a succession of clips taken from the film to tell the story shortly. In this clip there are 33 different utterances, with 16 matching up with the clip and 17 not matching the clip. This estimates around 50/50. There are seven black screens with white text to give more information to the story. There is utterances from ten different characters which gives the viewer an introduction to most of the characters.
-‘Exorcism is alive and well. Today, it’s bigger than it’s ever been.’
-Black screen with white text
‘Reverend Cotton Marcus has performed over 50 exorcisms’
-‘This will be his last’ (black screen white text)
-‘Reverend, I need you to do an exorcism for the soul of my daughter’
-‘Now, can you hear me?
-‘Yeah’
-‘Good. Nothing to be nervous about'
- Scream
- 'Nell?!'
- 'Where's Nell?'
-‘In the fire'
- 'Shh. Do you hear that?'
-‘Let’s get out of here’
-‘If you can’t save my daughter’s soul (5) I will.’
-‘Go, go!’
-‘You should be compelled to leave this girl’
-‘In the name of Jesus Christ I demand thee to be gone!'
-‘Hello?’
-‘Oh my God’
-‘That isn’t human’
-‘The Last Exorcism. PG 13. In theatres everywhere August 17.’
This dialogue is not all necessarily from the section of film it is matched up to in the trailer. In the 1:00 minute clip, seven of the utterances are matched with the film clip as we visibly see the characters speaking the lines. However, in eleven of these utterances we do not see them as they are being spoken so could be from different sections of the film, included to tell the story more precisely and give more background information to the viewer without including less dramatic scenes. There are two sets of visual text on the screen, in which the background is black and the text is white. There is no voiceover running throughout the teaser trailer as the narrative is told by a succession of different shots from the film, by the dialogue of the characters. There is also two visual sets of text to add to the information given by the characters dialogue. At the end of the teaser there is one voiceover narrative telling the audience the film rating and when the film is out in cinemas. The dialogue features three different characters – the father, the exorcist and the daughter. This allows the viewer to be introduced to the main characters within this short clip.
-0:49 black background with fog/mist effect at bottom of screen – ‘DON’T’ fills the screen – see extreme close up of person in the ‘N’
-0:50 long shot set behind a grate in bedroom – hands are grabbing the grate, behind which is a person in bed
-0:51 black fade up to mid shot of woman and child outside in the rain with the camera zooming towards the woman’s face
-0:53 black fade ‘BE’ fades up (black background/fog) text is very large, square and white with a texture like the moon. Mid shot of man running within the ‘B’
-0:54 black fade up on mid shot of door closing on man’s face
-0:55 black fade ‘AFRAID’ fades up, see close up of screaming woman in ‘R’
-0:55 black fade up to extreme long shot of eerie Victorian manor house
-0:56 black fade very long shot of woman uncovering something inside house
-0:57 close up of cloth falling/releasing dust
-0:57/8 medium close up of woman
-0:58 black fade mid shot of eerie painting on wall
-0:58 black fade mid shot of different eerie painting on wall
-0:59 black fade and misty/foggy effect ‘OF THE’ with close up of girl in ‘H’
-1:00 black fade birds eye shot of girl lying on floor
-1:01 black fade lowcanted angle of man reaching through door window towards handle
-1:01 black fade even lower lowcanted angle of same man with the glass of the window smashing everywhere
-1:01 extreme high angle of girl in dressing gown in bath camera zooming towards face
-1:02 black fade close up of eerie hand on door
-1:03 black fade black screen misty/foggy effect ‘DARK’
-1:07 ‘DARK’ fading, mid shot of woman in window fades into ‘A’
-1:08 black fade (smokey/misty effect) ‘A Guillermo Del Toro Production’
-1:15 black fade head and shoulder shot of girl crawling through bed under sheets
-1:21 close up of girls feet disappearing under sheets
-1:22 close up of girls face
-1:25 mid shot of mattress/sheet joining on mattress
-1:29 close up of creature under sheets
-1:31 ‘DONTBEAFRAIDOFTHEDARK-MOVIE.COM’
-1:37 black fade
-1:38 production info
-1:40 production info
-1:41 production info
-1:43 black fade.
The teaser trailer lasts for 1:45 and includes:
-27 cuts
-1 extreme close up
-1 long shot
-7 mid shots
-7 close ups
-1 extreme long shot
-1 very long shot
-1 medium close up
-1 birds eye shot
-2 low/canted angles
-1 extreme high angle
-1 head and shoulders shot
This may seem like a small amount of cuts compared to the other trailers, however almost half of the teaser trailer is taken up by the beginning black screen with voiceover.
Mise en scene
Clothing
We don’t really see a lot of the characters in this teaser, but what we do see is the woman wearing a brown leather jacket, white top and colourful scarf. We also see brief shots of the man in a black jumper, the girl in a red dressing gown and also in red pyjamas.
Props
Again these are very minimal – we see on two different occasions’ characters holding a torch, which could signify darkness which has connotations of evil and fear.
Locations
The trailer is located entirely within the house the family appear to have just moved in to. There is an outer shot of the house complete with large gothic gates, the house of a similar description.
Lighting
The lighting in this teaser is also very dark, which creates a very mysterious sense. It is however quite light at the end of the trailer when the little girl is playing under the covers, perhaps to lull us into a false sense of security?
Editing
This clip contains many different cuts from different parts of the film, this is done so that the viewer gets an idea of the content of the film in under 2 minutes.
Sound
This trailer is very different to the others I have analysed as a big part of it involves a voiceover. The first 45 seconds include a strong male voice speaking eerily to introduce the film. There is no more dialogue throughout the trailer.
