Advanced PortfolioPromotional Package for a Film

TrailerThe Slasher Genre

For my chosen project I will be producing a trailer, poster and film magazine front

cover for a new slasher film. Before I look at how trailers, posters and front covers came about, I will first look at the genre

itself.

So, how did the slasher-sub horror genre come about?

Routes of Horror FilmsThe modern horror film as we know it could be traced as far back to when people used to live in villages in the

woods, thousands of years ago; when mothers would tell frightening stories to their children, persuading them to stay out of the dangerous forests. In time, around the 1500‘s when more people started writing, these stories would be

recorded in novels. Novels became plays and plays eventually became films. The first film was “Round-hay Garden Scene” which was made in 1888. Soon after the first feature length horror films, such as “Nosferatu” came about. It was a silent film with only non diagetic piano music playing. Its very different from horror

films today that rely heavily on sound to scare us, but it where the horror genre in

film truly starts. Nosferatu [1922]

Celtic Village, pre 1300’s

Books started to be written more

commonly around the 1500’s

The Globe Theatre, built in 1599

SlasherI am looking at a particular type of horror. The sub horror genre of slasher. Slasher involves

more real concepts of horror. It lacks monsters and ghosts, and focuses more around the more real concept of mental illness. A madman with a knife, and a damsel in distress. Often with very

simple narratives, which sometimes reflect issues such as domestic abuse, stalkers and

murders rather than curses or the paranormal.

Slasher horror only truly emerged after Alfred Hitchcock “Psycho” in 1960.

Alfred Hitchcock’S “Psycho” [1960]

Although Psycho is not your classic slasher film, I consider it to be the innovator of the

genre. The film features the key conventions you need for a slasher: a mad man, a damsel

in distress and a believable narrative. It prefigures slasher. It is the film which made horror american and spawned the a genre

which would be popular for the next 40 years. Linked here is probably the most famous

horror seen ever filmed. It’s the pivotal shower murder scene from this film. I’m sure you’ll

recognise it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4

John Carpenters “HALLOWEEN’ [1978]

After the genre’s innovator (psycho) comes the classic slasher film. I

consider this to be John Carpenters “Halloween” This definitive slasher showed the film industry that the

slasher genre could make money. It was shot on an extremely low

budget, ( $325,00) but made $47 million, which was a huge success. It

spawned a franchise of copies; nightmare on elm street and friday the 13th being the most famous.

Halloween is everything the slasher genre is about, as this well known

scene from the film shows:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGFnthx6Cpg

“Scream” Wez Craven [1996]

Lastly, after the classic slasher (Halloween) comes Scream. This is the parody of

slasher, it manipulates and twists the genre, testing the audiences familiar knowledge of

it. I consider Scream to be the last film in the the slasher genre cycle. After it came

only remakes and sequels. People lost interest in the genre as it failed to scare its audiences. People needed something more than just a man with a knife to scare them. Scream is important therefore, because it produces the last original material for the genre. It does the last original thing that

can be done; it puts a spin on slasher and thereby killing it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvwMvqx8How

Post Scream SlashersThe film industry tried in vain to keep the slasher genre alive. After scream followed a series of films which where essentially cheesy spin offs of the slasher genre. For example “Freddy v.s Jason [2003]” which used horizontal synergy to fuse the killers

from nightmare on elm street [Freddy Kruger] and Friday the 13th [Jason

Voorhees]. Both these films are essentially remakes of John Carpenters

Halloween and have been mixed together in a twist genre (like Scream) in an

attempt to revive the genre. The film was unsuccessful and reflected that the slasher genre had lost popularity, creativity and had even run out of

parodies and remakes. The genre had run dry by the millennium.

By looking at these three films you can see how and why the slasher genre began, changed and (excuse the pun)

died out. You can also see a change in the female characters, becomes less helpless over time, to the point were (in scream) the heroine is actually able to beat up

the mad man and kill them. It could reflect the progress in women’s power over time. People lost interest in the genre and wanted more gore and pain in horror films (leading to the making of popular films such as “final

destination” and the “Saw” series in the 2000’s

Slasher films or trailers are ideal to produce as student. They require simple narratives and minimal budgets, (all

you need it a mask, a house, a knife and a damsel in distress). I have decided to make a slasher trailer, but what do slasher trailers look like? and have trailers in

general changed over time as dramatically as their films have?

A SHORT HISTORY OF Trailers

The term trailer is used to describe a short motion picture used to promote a film. The very first trailer (aired in a

U.S. Cinema) was for a film called “The Pleasure Seekers” in November

1931.Trailers then up until to 1964, with a promotional motion picture for “night

of the iguana” consisted of slides, which switched over the top of

music, rather than being made up of bits of the film itself.

Screen-Shot from the 1956 film trailer for

“Attack!”

Night of the IguanaThe very first conventions of trailers can be see in this promotional

video for “John Huston’s” 1964 film adaptation of “night of the iguana”.

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

Some modern conventions of the trailer:

The trailer features a voice over.

Its made of the best clips from the actual film.

Some features which strive form modern conventions:

The trailer is over three minuets long, which is considerably more than modern trailers, it would be far too expensive to air on todays T.V.

It gives away too much of the film, including the end and some key plot points

It does not clearly say who directed the film, or when the film will be released

It has credits for everyone who appeared in the trailer

A Selection of screenshots from the trailer

The Modern Horror TrailerBecause the slasher genre died out in the mid 90’s its difficult to find a well made modern slasher trailer promoting a new slasher film. Instead I’ve been looking at

general horror trailers.

Here is the trailer for “Saw 4”(2007).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8u2WifJLDc&feature=related

I would consider this to be a conventional modern horror trailer. Its fast cut editing creates confusion and suspense. An antagonist is never revealed and we don’t

actually see anyonedie. It gives a clear realise date at the end and utilises a voice over. It ends with a long length shot of character lying unconscious on a medical bed. This shot is meant to stick in our minds and seems to reflect the last memorable scene from the classic horror “The Shining”. The trailer has had much consideration into its editing and sound, both used to create suspense while teasing the audience with images from the film.

Mise en scene consists of dark lighting with often desaturated colour. This makes the picture look more “gothic” and nightmarish.

Horror Trailer Comparison1984 Nightmare on Elm street

Obviously this trailer has been made for an entirely different sub horror genre to saw, but the whole layout of the trailer is dramatically different. Its interesting to see how much has changed in such a small space of time. Trailers have recently gotten more professional, shorter and more teasing for their audience. It suggests that lately, the film industry have been relying heavily on the advertisement of trailers. You can see the difference in this trailer, for “nightmare on Elm Street,” a horror slasher made only in 1985 when the genre was high in popularity. It gives much more away than Saws trailer, revealing its killer, who they kill and lasting more than three times longer as Saws trailer.

However, the trailer does manipulate shot length to its advantage. Like Saws trailer, shots get quicker and quicker building suspense. It even starts with a slo-mo shot in the beginning. But as these three trailers demonstrate, the film industry have been making quicker trailers, giving less and less away each time. It means the less you show your audience (within reason) the more suspense you leave them in.

Modern horror trailers are faced paced and usually give the audience a tiny glimpse of the films antagonist at the end. This leaves the killer surrounded in mystery and the audience wanting to know more about them. Many make use of a voiceover for both speed and suspense. They manipulate shot length in their editing; drawing their audience in with longer length shots at the beginning which gradually get faster and faster to a point where the suspense climaxes and the killer or the release date is shown. This modern horror trailer promoting “Devil” [2010] supports this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7l3nzjHYTgA screenshot from the very

end of the “Devil” Trailer. The shot lasts less than half a second, and you can just

make out a strange masked character in the background

FILM Posters

Film Posters: A SHORT HISTORY

Films posters are among the oldest form of advertisement for films. Although they became a

popular way to promote films during the 1980‘s they date back as far as 1922 with this poster for the film “Blood and Sand” This poster looks nothing like the ones of today, or even ones from over 60 years ago.

The first modern looking film poster in my opinion was this one, promoting “Attack of the 50ft Woman”

[1958] You can see evidence of the modern film poster conventions here, the billing block at the

bottom, title at the top and made of one image from the film. However, it lacks many features we see on

modern film posters, for example there are no reviews, actors names, age certificate or captions.

Horror PostersHorror film posters have very strict conventions. You can see the similarities between these ones, each promoting a horror film. features a dark background with lots of empty space left black, to denote darkness and night which we associate with evil. The primary images are usually a close up shot of a face, either the protagonist “victim” or the

antagonistic “killer”. It is often partially concealed creating mystery to the character and their surroundings. Red is often featured as a connotation of blood and gore. The composition of the title is either at the very top of the poster, or above the billing block. It is usually of larger font than any other piece of writing, with the rare exception of a big stars name. The billing block is always in smaller white font at the bottom and will include the directors, producers, institutions and

studio companies names. Sometimes there is also a cinema release date printed in large font below this.

[Note: I have posted this research in its own separate post earlier, I have added it in here for

presentation purposes]

FILM Magazine Front Covers

Magazines Covers:A Short History

The term “magazine” used to be a word which meant “storehouse”. Magazines (in their readable form) have been found to date back as far as 1731, when Edward

Cave published “The Gentles Magazine”, or “traders monthly intelligence”. This is

considered to be the first public magazine. As you can see from its front cover, it

looks very different to magazines of today. It looks more like a newspaper than the magazine on todays shelf. It would take another three hundred years before the first modern looking film magazine front

covers would be produced.

Modern Film Magazine Conventions

Like film posters, front covers of film magazines stick to very strict conventions. They often appear with the same image as the the featured films promotional poster. I will be using this magazine front cover from an issue of total

film, featuring “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” [2005]. Although its not classed as a horror film, it still

appears with similar conventions on the front of a magazine. You've got the main image (the same as the poster) of the main character shot in mid close up. They

stare out at the reader, making it easily noticed as readers are drawn to eye contact. Cover lines are placed

vertically down either side of this image, with the magazine brand name in huge font at the masthead. The

stars name is in large font, with other features such as “ultimate summer preview” also in large font. The main

image, (like its poster) is usually a promotional shot which is on its own. This is what separates film magazine

from other brands of magazines. They lack inserts and more often rely on the impact of one large image to

attract their readers.

InfluencesTrailer: From my research I have been influenced to make a modern style trailer, using the conventions I have studied. These conventions will influence my trailer to be short, well

edited and teasing.

Front Covers: From researching front covers of film magazines I have been influenced to plan out a cover featuring my film. It

will keep to the conventions I have studied, utilising a full cover primary image of a character in mid close up. It will make use

of dark colours and stick to a conventional layout.

Posters: I have been influenced to create a film poster in a similar style to the ones I have been researching. I found that a mid close up of a face on a black background works well with to promote the genre. I now know what horror film posters have much in common, their colours, pictures and layouts are all

very similar. I will use these conventions to influence my work.

Bibliography

Source

Company/ Author Name/

What I searched for

When Accessed

Address

Video

Youtube“Psycho Famous Shower

Scene” “Night of the Iguana Original Trailer”

“Attack! Trailer” “Halloween scene” “1996

Scream scene”

Thursday 15th

September

http://www.youtube.com

/

Information + Image

Wikipedia“Film” “The first motion

picture” “round hay garden scene” “The first Newspaper” “John Carpenter’s Halloween

1978” “Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho 1960” Wez Craven’s

Scream 1996”

Thursday 15th

September

http://www.wikipedia.org

/

InformationIMDB

“John Carpenter’s Halloween 1978” “Alfred Hitchcock’s

Psycho 1960” Wez Craven’s Scream 1996””Nosferatu 1921” “Freddy vs Jason”

Thursday 15th

September

http://www.imdb.com

/

Image

Google Images

“Celtic Village, Old Book, Total Film front covers, Empire front covers,

Slasher film posters, old film posters, Scream, Halloween, Psycho, Freddy

vs Jason”

Thursday 15th

September

http://www.google.com/

imghp?hl=en&tab=wi