Impact of Research

How Has Research Impacted On Our Idea?

Genre

For our trailers, the genre we chose was Horror. We then elaborated on this by creating a sub-genre for the trailer to get a more in-depth understanding of our plot idea and conventional horror. This impacted our original as it led to us creating a Psychological Horror. The psychological influence comes from our villain’s beliefs and motives and his emotional instability as well as his obsession with hating the police due to his back-story. This connection makes our plot a mystery to the audience, as they will not be able to comprehend his insanity from the trailer alone. Research led us down the route of typical low-budget slasher films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and whilst we appreciated how well this form of horror was recieved, we didn't want to go down the gore-heavy path but instead opt for a more tense thriller kind of product as we believed that these are becoming more popular to an increasingly desensitised audience.

Narrative

Our Narrative is loosely based on Tsvetan Todorov‘s “Classical Hollywood Narrative” Theory. This creates the basis of the plot and a chronological story which the audience can follow. Counter-parting the typical narrative of equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition and new equilibrium, we have taken this theory and made a different stereotype, creating an equilibrium, recognition and disequilibrium. This impacted our idea so we could create a more versatile plot with some more intricate ideas. As we were only making a trailer we wanted to reflect this structure in a way that wouldn't reveal the ending/outcome as this would render the point of seeing the full film mute. As a group, we agreed that by starting the trailer with a hand-held shot would throw the audience into the action and immediate;y create a sense of tension and anticipation and we wanted to use a voice-over to explain to the audience what was happening- this was a reflection of Francios Truffaut's explanation of Bordwell and Thompson's use of narrative to build suspense whereby it was explained  that to build suspense in the audience, they must be informed as to the 'what' and possibly 'where' but not when. If the audience knows there is a danger that will affect people but they are unaware then they will be more intrigued and interlinked to the film to wait out a conclusion to it. It was argued that this approach was far better accepted and made for a better film than not telling the audience and having several seconds of surprise compared to minutes of tension.

Representation

The representation we analysed was on Carol Clovers “Final Girl” Theory, This representation helped us to create our main character and make it fit with the plot. Using the final girl theory, we implemented androgynous traits to our female protagonist, this shows that she isn’t a typical girl in a horror film who will die because she is aware of her surroundings due to her lack of sexual activity and so pays attention to her surroundings which keeps her alert to danger. Unlike the 'typical female' which is often sexually provocative, an androgynous female has a uni-sex name and with her masculinity traits she fights back against the villain in various ways to find her escape. We chose to incorporate the final girl into our trailer so as to give the audience somebody they could relate to as this will keep theor interest in our film.

Audiences and Institutions

Focusing on our target audience, our primary audience is based on the younger generation, with the age certificate our film at a 15. This allows for only low-levels of fantasy gore, instead of normal to hard-core gore but as we were not aiming for a slasher movie, this was not a problem. 
By lowering the age rating, this makes the film more accessible to other potential audience members,  as they can relate to our protagonist and are able to handle the plot. Our secondary audience is for ages over 25+, as this is a horror film at such a low age rate this will mainly focus on the primary audience range from 15-21.

Media Languages

Media language helped build our knowledge of creating and visualising an idea and plot for our film. Finding out which Camera Shots worked best was important to get our point across. Using Cinematography helped the group include varied shots such as Tracking Shot, Point Of View, Close Up, Over The Shoulder, Long Shot etc. This will help create an intricate view for the trailer creating a momentum build up with the included editing within the transactions and music surrounding the trailer. Editing will play a huge part in the focus of creating transaction fades with sound bridges to understand dialogue over the dramatic music which will add drama and effect to the build up to the ending scene that will be a featured key insight to the synopsis, but not giving to much away. This will include all the different takes that the trailer will feature but also to hint things to the plot within split seconds if the audience can pick up on them. Sound will be minimum such as ambient, diegetic, sound bridge, sound mixing and non-diegetic. This is to create the tension and upbringing of the trailer throughout the duration it is played for creating key movement scenes through the film to create the audience engaged in watching the film/trailer, tension such as doors creaking and sudden noises will keep the audience off their toes to create the imitation of the being that stalks the main protagonist.