Magazine cover analysis - Empire

I am analysing a cover from Empire magazine. The cover itself has many vibrant colours, which attracts the attention of the consumer. The title of the magazine is in red, which seems to be a trend in most magazines. The blue background ties in with the cover model and cover story – the newest Pirates of the Caribbean film (which was soon to be released when this copy of the magazine was published)

                The cover model covers the title of the magazine, which is standard in most magazine covers. All of the sub-headings overlap the cover model, except for the cover story. This may be because it is linked to the cover model. The model is also posing in his character’s signature position, holding a gun while poising his other hand. This is because Pirates of the Caribbean is one of Johnny Depp’s most popular films, and posing in this way whilst in character helps consumers to identify the cover model to the film very easily.

                The cover story grabs attention by being in a larger font and close to the title of the magazine. This works well, I especially like how the cover story is overlapped by the image of the cover model, but it can only work with this title as his outfit and props take up too much of the extra space.

Magazine cover analysis - Mallorca Life & Style

This is a magazine cover from a magazine called “Mallorca Life & Style”. The main colour on the cover is red, this is established by making all the other colours very neutral (creams and light blues). This works very effectively and draws attention to the magazine as it is unusual. The magazine is very unusual, as most magazines have a lot of vibrant colours to attract the attention of the consumer. 

                Instead of putting the cover model in front of the magazine title, the magazine title overlaps the model. Also, the sub-headings are not in capitals, this is also unusual for film magazines, as they are all usually in capitals; this is to grab the viewer’s attention. However, as this magazine goes against the codes and conventions of a typical magazine cover, it stands out more compared to others.

                The cover story grabs the attention of the viewers by being in a slightly larger text in comparison, and is also in a light blue colour. The other sub-headings are in a light grey colour, this draws all attention to the cover model and the cover story. The image of the Oscar award positioned near the main sub-heading and the cover model shows that there is content within the magazine related to the Oscars that year, which most likely relates to the cover story.
 
               The bottom of the magazine shows the many different categories within the magazine, this is a good feature to have, however, when on the magazine rack, it is hard to see this, it may be hidden by the shelf or another magazine etc. I do like this feature but it would only be for people who actually buy the magazine, which defeats its purpose.

Final movie poster

Draft movie poster

 

I have mainly followed the style of the "V/H/S" movie poster I analysed; I made the poster as minimalistic as possible while still trying to portray the storyline of the film. The knife is the killer's weapon of choice, and the blood drop is in the shape of a heart. The heart replaced the blood drop as the villain has killed his victims out of an obsession of them, hence the name "Obsession"
However, I would like to improve the quality of the knife, and also make sure all text is aligned to the centre. Also, I would like to add the production names of the film in the bottom as shown in two other movie posters I analysed, "Sweeney Todd" and "Sinister"

Final magazine cover

Draft magazine cover

Magazine cover draft

 

Photograph used

 

 

I think the way that "Obsession - The sickest lovestory" is portrayed on the magazine cover, however, I don't like the image being sarkened the way it is. I will lighten the image for my final cover. I also like the "Oz, The great and powerful" sub-heading, but I think it should be elaborated, either with the names of the main actors in the film or something to do with the releaste date of the film.

Audience Research (Independent)

The first question on my questionnaire asked “Are you male or female?” by asking this question I was able to get a basic understanding of those who answered. The general target audience for horror films is male, as you can see from the graph below, there were more men who answered than women, the percentage was 53% to 47%; so therefore the results of this questionnaire apply to both genders.

The second question, “How old are you?” shows that the majority of respondents were between 17-19 as the percentage was 47%, and the second highest age group was 20-22 at 36%. By asking the respondents their ages I was able to identify the target audience more specifically. This made it easier to know the specific age group that enjoys horror films. 

77% of the respondents replied saying that they visit the cinema 1-3 times a month. This is a significant majority of the people asked. By asking this question we were able to identify if our target audience was socially active and found that they use the cinema as a main method of film consumption.

The fourth question was “What do you think is the most common element in horror trailers?”, I asked this question to recognise the most common and popular element in trailers that is noticed and remembered by the target audience. I was able to use this information in my trailer, as Knives and Blood were the two most common elements that the respondents answered with. My group and I made sure to include some close-ups of knives and blood.

 I then asked the respondents “what do you think is the best setting for a horror film?” A majority of answers said either an Isolated house (23%), or a playground (34%). This helped us to distinguish what our target audience thought would make a good horror movie trailer.

We then asked the respondents which villain was their favourite out of a selection of “Jigsaw” from “Saw”, “Freddy Krueger” from “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Chucky” or “Jason” from “Friday 13^th”. Almost half of the respondents answered with “Jigsaw” (48%), this shows that the target audience prefers pre-meditated murders with a lot of logical thought. We decided to make out villain logical as well as this would satisfy our target audience.

“How do you watch horror films?”, this question was asked to find out the main ways the target audience consumed horror films, and we found that a majority of respondents answered with T.V (44%) which shows that our target audience likes to watch horror films from the comfort of their own homes. The second most popular answer was online (23%) which shows that our target audience watches horror movies when it is cheap or convenient to them, the target audience was mainly students and this was a cost effect method.

“What is your favourite sub-genre?” was the last question asked; this was to find out the most favoured sub-genre amongst the target audience so we could include this into our horror trailer. The two most popular sub-genres was psychological (33%) and super-natural (27%)

Night of the Living Dead (1990) Trailer Analysis

Night of the Living Dead (1990) Trailer
The trailer begins first showing the only production company associated with the film, “Columbia Pictures”. We are then shown the first shot outdoors in a grave yard during the day, the music is fast paced. This trailer has a narrator over the music, which is uncommon nowadays. The trailer doesn’t use suspense but instead surprises the audience by showing a zombie attack a female character in the daylight. The music gets faster after this, and over the music we can hear a news reporter talking about the outbreak. Halfway through the trailer we are no longer seeing the scenes in the daylight but instead either inside or outside in the dark. The title of the film is shown to the audience in small segments towards the end in between shots, and then we are shown the title on its own “Night of the Living Dead”. We are also told the name of the writer just as the title is shown.

Most of the shots in this trailer are mid-shots, and there is a lot of colour in the shots. The audience can easily differentiate between the villains and victims within the trailer, this is because the victims all wear light colours which makes them stand out, especially in the second half of the trailer. The infected all wear dark colours, some are dressed in black suits and others are just in darker outfits. Darker colours are more relatable to evil, and lighter colours are relatable to innocence.

No actor’s names are shown at any point during the trailer, which suggests that there are no “big-name” actors used in the film. The shots towards the end get faster and the flashing text follows the music’s pace. The final shot is of a female screaming, which leaves a lot to be asked by the audience. Has a zombie broken into her house? Has she just been bitten? Is she afraid?

Analysis of the 'V/H/S' film poster

I am analysing a poster for a film called ‘V/H/S’, although poster is minimalistic, it still portrays quite a lot to the viewer. The first thing that is noticed when looking at the poster is the way the videos are aligned to show the shape of a skull. All the videos are in old, worn boxes, and the dates on the white videos are all hand written, some in different coloured ink, this shows the viewer that the owner of the videos is an ordinary person, which could lead the viewer to feel uneasy and think that the owner of all of these videos could be anyone. Most of the poster is black and white; the only colour that stands out is the red “V/H/S” in the bottom centre of the poster. This shows that it is the title of the film as it is the second-most-eye-catching element on the poster.

The text “This collection is killer” shows that the videos are related to death and the victims of the villain in this film. This is reinforced by the skull the videos are arranged in. The fine print at the bottom of the poster does not have as much in it as all the other posters I have analysed, which shows me that this is the first film the producers have made, or that their name isn’t very big yet so they cannot get any bigger companies to fund them.

Analysis of the 'Sweeey Todd' film poster

I am analyzing the poster for a film called ‘Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’, the poster instantly shows the viewer that it is a horror film, this is because of the lack of colour, and the use of red. The way the character is sitting on the chair and the way he is holding the razor shows he has power. This makes the audience wonder whether the character on this poster is a villain. The use of red in between the floorboards suggests that people have been murdered/harmed in the room shown in the poster. The room is also shown in the darkness, these dark colours help the red used to stand out, and also reinforces the idea of this film being a horror film to the viewer.

The Big Ben is shown in the distance out of the window, this is purely to show where the film is set. The furniture, clothing on the character and décor in the room are used to show when the movie is set (late 18^th century). The poster also looks like a painting, which fits into this era also. The red barber chair is very decorative and looks very expensive, but the area it is in looks run down and cheap. This raises a lot of questions to the audience and makes the viewer feel uneasy.

The red text “Never forgive, never forget” is the closest writing to the character, and because it is the same colour as the arm rests on the chair he is sitting on, it makes the viewer feel like he is saying this; which, alongside his position and the razor he is holding, seems very threatening and dangerous. The name of the actor is also mentioned, showing that this is a ‘big-name’ actor. The name of the actor is also included, just above the name of the movie. “Tim Burton” is known mostly for his Gothic horror films. The title of the film has a fancy text compared to the rest of the poster; this reinforces that it is the title of the film. The red splash of blood across the title reinforces once again that this is a horror film, could the splash of blood be due to his razor?

The text beneath the title of the film is small and thin, this is so that it doesn't take the attention of the rest of the poster but still credits the companies used to help. Right at the bottom of the poster is “This Christmas”, this shows that there is no specific date of release yet but there is a rough estimation of when the film will be released. 

Full film analysis - The Nanny (1965)

I am analyzing a film called ‘The Nanny’ (1965), this film is a psychological horror, I intend to create a psychological slasher trailer. I aim to use the same techniques used in this film to create suspense in my own trailer.

Todorov theorized that every movie had a basic narrative structure consisting of five points: The equilibrium, at the beginning of the film when everything is calm; A disruption to the equilibrium, something happens to disturb this but the characters within the film haven’t noticed yet; Recognition of the disruption, the characters have noticed that something has happened which usually causes chaos of some sort; an attempt to repair the damage, resolve disruption somehow; back to an equilibrium of sorts, because of the chaos that has happened the equilibrium cannot be the same as before, instead a new equilibrium occurs.

This film follows Todorov’s theory nicely, the beginning is calm and light hearted music is playing, the scenes in the beginning are well lit. The calm equilibrium is disturbed when the child, Joey, moves back into his home with his parents, Joey strongly dislikes their Nanny and keeps accusing her of trying to cause him harm. Later, the disruption is noticed by all the other characters when Mr. Fane goes out of town on business and Virginia is taken to hospital because she had been poisoned. The Nanny had framed Joey and called for his aunt Penny to come over to look after Joey. The attempt to repair the disturbance happens when Aunt Pen realizes that Joey has been telling the truth the whole time. The new equilibrium is installed once the nanny realizes what she had done and leaves with her belongings, the family believe Joey and they are reunited.

Propp  also had a theory, his was about the character types within movies and how each one has characters that fit into these roles:
-The Villain, this character struggles against the hero

-The donor, this character prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object

-The (magical) helper, this character helps the hero on their quest

-The princess, this character is the person who the hero marries, often searched for throughout the narrative

-Her Father, this person usually dies during or before the film or book

-The dispatcher, this character sends the hero off on their quest

-The hero, this character reacts to the donor, marries the princess and kills the villain

-The false hero, this character falsely assumes the role of the hero

In ‘The Nanny’, there is almost a character for each of the character types listed above. The only character to have more than one type was Sarah. ‘The Villain’ in this film is the nanny, as she kills Suzy, Aunt Pen and attempts to kill Joey too. ‘The Donor’ is Sarah, as she offers to let Joey use her father’s equipment to kill the nanny. ‘The helper’ is also Sarah, she is the only character who believes Joey and tries to help him throughout the film. ‘The Princess’ is Virginia; both the nanny and Joey desire her attention but only one can get it. ‘Her Father’ is Mr Fane, instead of dying during the movie, he leaves town. ‘The dispatcher’ in the film is Suzy, her death causes Joey to realize what the nanny is capable of. ‘The hero’ is Joey, as he spends all of his time in the movie trying to capture/reveal the nanny as the villain. ‘The false hero’ is Aunt Pen, she tries to reveal the nanny as the villain but is caught by her and killed.
Barthes theorised that all films also have a Binary opposition, where there is good and evil in every film. In this film, the evil is the Nanny, as she kills the young girl, Suzy, and attempts to kill the young boy, Joey. The hero is Joey as he tries to show the other characters that the Nanny is evil and succeeds in the end.

The target audience for this film is teenagers both male and female. At the time when this film was released, horror films were aimed towards younger teenagers. This is because of the basic story line and the use of suspense in the film.

The only message portrayed in the film is that adults don’t always know best. The only child in the film knew the true motives of the nanny but all the adults brushed it off as just a child’s imagination.

Analysis of the 'Sinister' Film Poster

I am analyzing the film poster for a movie called sinister,Looking at the poster it is easy to tell that this film is a horror movie. The most eye-catching element in this poster is the blood covering the wall, it is the strongest colour on the poster and the drips of the blood work together to form a face of some sort. The face shown looks angry, which leads the viewer to believe that the face shown is the villain of the movie All other colours on this poster are neutral as to show the innocence of the girl on the poster and also to intensify the blood drips. The cracked paint and dirt on the wall shows that the area within the poster is isolated; making the girl on the poster seem more innocent and at risk.

The text at the top “From the Producer of ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Insidious’”, this aims the poster more towards their target audience, as ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Insidious’ have the same target audience. The title of the film ‘Sinister’ is blended into the wall, and is the same colour as the bloody face, this leads the audience to think that the name ‘Sinister’ and the face are linked somehow, perhaps the villain is names ‘Sinister’? The text beneath the title “One you see him, nothing can save you” shows the audience that the girl is the victim, as the blood is following her hand, but also makes the audience feel uncomfortable, as they can see the face and it is looking directly forward, toward the viewer. At the bottom of the poster, there is a lot of text crediting the creators and actors in the movie, however, this is very small and would only be read if the viewer paid attention to it. There are no names in larger text at the top of the poster, which shows that there are no ‘big-name’ actors in the film. There are also some logos of the production companies associated with the film, and some promotional pages for the movie (such as facebook, twitter etc) to let the audience get involved. There is also the text saying ‘Coming soon’ at the bottom, showing that the film’s release date hasn't yet been announced and that this poster is simply to promote the movie and get the potential audience excited for it for when it is supposed to be released.

Full Film Analysis - Saw - Uncut Version (2004)

I am analysing the Uncut version of “Saw” (2004), this horror film is classed as a torture-porn film as there isn't a great amount of detail in the story line but that is made up in the amount of gore within the film. This film does not fit with my horror trailer, as that is a psychological slasher horror, but the way that this film captures the attention of the audience is useful within this film and I will be using some elements of this film in my trailer.

Todorov theorized that every movie had a basic narrative structure consisting of five points: The equilibrium, at the beginning of the film when everything is calm; A disruption to the equilibrium, something happens to disturb this but the characters within the film haven’t noticed yet; Recognition of the disruption, the characters have noticed that something has happened which usually causes chaos of some sort; an attempt to repair the damage, resolve disruption somehow; back to an equilibrium of sorts, because of the chaos that has happened the equilibrium cannot be the same as before, instead a new equilibrium occurs.

This film goes against Todorov’s theory, instead of developing the narrative, this film starts in the middle of the chaos, when the disruption to the equilibrium has been realized  Adam and Lawrence wake up in a run-down bathroom. Each is chained to a pipe on opposite corners, and there is a dead body in the room. Later on we go into a flash back to when the disruption has just happened but the main characters have not yet realized it, we see crime scenes and police officers and gain a perspective into ‘The Jigsaw Killer’s’ typical crime scenes and traps. We then see another flashback to another victim’s trap, this is more chaos. The film constantly switches between flash backs and current events, each one being in the ‘recognition of the disruption’ stage. The final scenes are an attempt to repair the damage, but they do not succeed. The film ends with both Adam and Lawrence dying and the Jigsaw killer walking away.

Propp  also had a theory, his was about the character types within movies and how each one has characters that fit into these roles:
-The Villain, this character struggles against the hero

-The donor, this character prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object

-The (magical) helper, this character helps the hero on their quest

-The princess, this character is the person who the hero marries, often searched for throughout the narrative

-Her Father, this person usually dies during or before the film or book

-The dispatcher, this character sends the hero off on their quest

-The hero, this character reacts to the donor, marries the princess and kills the villain

-The false hero, this character falsely assumes the role of the hero

‘The villain’ in this film is ‘The Jigsaw Killer’, although he never harms his victims, he puts them in a harmful position and forces them to harm themselves or those who are in the same room for survival. ‘The donor’ in this film is also ‘The Jigsaw Killer’, he gives Lawrence a bullet and other objects to kill Adam in order to save his family. ‘the helper’ in this film is Adam, as he helps Lawrence to work out all the clues in the room and put together the puzzle. ‘The princess’ in this film is Lawrence’s daughter, Lawrence does not want to marry his daughter, but she is the only person he truly wants to save, as he is cheating on his wife, he doesn't want to be with her. ‘Her Father’ is Lawrence’s wife, she doesn't die in the film; she manages to escape. ‘The dispatcher’ is ‘The Jigsaw Killer’, he leaves Lawrence the tape leaving him the quest of killing Adam to save his family. ‘The hero’ is Lawrence, as he has the quest of saving his family and he needs to use the tools he is given to save them. ‘The False hero’ is Adam, as he tries to work out a lot of the clues and tries to keep both him and Lawrence alive, he survives the trap but is then locked in the room on his own to die.
Barthes theorised that all films also have a Binary opposition, where there is good and evil in every film. In this film, the evil is hard to define, but I feel like the heroes in this film are the police officers who try to capture/defeat Jigsaw. However, some may say that Jigsaw (who I would class as the evil in the film) is the hero, as he only puts his victims in a lethal position and challenges them to fight for their lives and appreciate their lives, therefore making their lives better or more enjoyable if they survive.

This film focuses mainly on the gore within the film, so the directors of the film haven’t focused much on the story line, which is pretty generic itself. The target audience for this film is males aged roughly 18-30. This is the typical target audience for most horror films.

The messages portrayed in this film is to be grateful for your life, the characters places within the traps take their lives for granted and do something to harm it, for instance, Amanda was a drug addict before being placed into one of Jigsaw’s traps. 

Full Film analysis - Let The Right One In (2008)

I am analyzing a Swedish Horror film called “Let The Right One In” (2008) because of the codes and conventions broken within the film. This movie is a Romantic Vampire Horror film. This film doesn't fit with my horror trailer, as that is a psychological slasher horror, but some elements from this film could be used in my trailer.

Todorov theorized that every movie had a basic narrative structure consisting of five points: The equilibrium, at the beginning of the film when everything is calm; A disruption to the equilibrium, something happens to disturb this but the characters within the film haven’t noticed yet; Recognition of the disruption, the characters have noticed that something has happened which usually causes chaos of some sort; an attempt to repair the damage, resolve disruption somehow; back to an equilibrium of sorts, because of the chaos that has happened the equilibrium cannot be the same as before, instead a new equilibrium occurs.

Let The Right One In (LTROI) follows Todorov’s theory , the narrative structure of the story is as follows: Oskar lives with his mother in an apartment and is harassed by bullies at his school, this is the equilibrium; the equilibrium is disturbed when Eli and Haken move next door to Oskar and his mother; The disruption is noticed when the characters within the story are aware that someone (Haken) is killing young people and is draining their blood (later we find out this is to feed Eli), and Oskar’s bullying gets worse; The chaos is resolved when Oskar’s bullies try to drown him, and Eli saves him from the; A new equilibrium is installed when Oskar and Eli leave town on a train together, everything is calm.

Propp  also had a theory, his was about the character types within movies and how each one has characters that fit into these roles:
-The Villain, this character struggles against the hero

-The donor, this character prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object

-The (magical) helper, this character helps the hero on their quest

-The princess, this character is the person who the hero marries, often searched for throughout the narrative

-Her Father, this person usually dies during or before the film or book

-The dispatcher, this character sends the hero off on their quest

-The hero, this character reacts to the donor, marries the princess and kills the villain

-The false hero, this character falsely assumes the role of the hero

In LTROI, all of these character types are present, but instead of each type being separate characters, more than one type is applied to each character as this movie only has a few characters. ‘The villains’ in this movie are Oskar’s bullies, this is because of the chaos they bring to Oskar and Eli’s lives and they struggle against the hero at the end of the film. ‘The Donor’ is Hakan, he helps Eli survive by draining people’s blood for her and giving her somewhere safe to hide. ‘The helper’ is Oskar, he saves Eli’s life when Lacke tries to harm Eli. ‘The princess’ is Oskar, Oskar is a very feminine character and he and Eli become an item at the end of the film. ‘Her Father’ is Eli, she gives herself the task of protecting and caring for Oskar. ‘The dispatcher’ is Oskar, as he allows Eli to kill Lacke, but he needs Eli to protect him. ‘The hero’ is Eli, She saves Oskar and protects him throughout the movie. And lastly, the ‘false hero’ is Hakan, he tries to gain respect from Eli by killing people for her, but he fails.
Barthes theorised that all films also have a Binary opposition, where there is good and evil in every film. In this film, the evil is Oskar's bullies as they cause havoc to the main characters throughout the film until they are theorised. The Good in this film is Oskar and Eli, which challenges the codes and conventions of most films, as the 'monster' (Eli) is seen as a heroine in the film.

The target audience for this film is a lot broader that most other horror films, this is because this film’s story line has a lot of depth and a lot of the imagery within the film is representative, for example, most scenes are outside and everything is covered in snow, this is representative of the innocence of childhood. In my opinion, this film is aimed towards both males and females (especially males) aged 20+.

The messages conveyed in this film are that females can be masculine and be the hero, and that men can be feminine and require the help of a hero. Oskar has long hair and has a skinny figure, which leaves him looking very feminine, Eli is shown in the film attacking people, not caring about her appearance etc, which portrays her as very masculine.