Final Evaluation for Audience Research

Film Crits and Content Analysis

Genre Question 1b

The production that I will be analysing and evaluating, on the basis of its genre aspects is 'The Conjuring' trailer. This film is a horror and its sub genre is a supernatural/ psychological horror. In order for me to have recognised this sub genre the trailer had to have certain codes and conventions that tend to consist in most psychological and supernatural horrors. These codes and conventions are made by numerous theorists. 

To begin with, Warren Buckland said that, 'Genre creates expectations that condition our response. Genre sets up hopes and promises and brings pleasure if these are fulfilled'. This is depicted in 'The Conjuring' trailer as the mother is possessed, we can see this through the mise-en-scene used; she has scars and her eyes are just black holes. This situation is created in the trailer as the target audience are aware that a possession normally takes place in psychological horrors so when this occurs in the trailer, their hopes are fulfilled. 

Although this does take place, some films like to challenge the conventions, for instance in 'The Conjuring' there are a lot of camera shots used on Mrs Warren who is one of the protagonists. This is unlikely in horror films because males are normally the dominant characters as Mulvey stated in her theory. The director most probably did this so the audience can be pleasured and shocked by the differences. This could also be use to highlight a social issue: post-feminism. For instance women are important and the ability to help others that are in need. 

Furthermore, another way that this trailer signifies which sub genre it falls in is through the key elements that Graeme Burton stated.  These are: protagonist, antagonist, stock characters and stock situations. An example of a stock situation in this trailer would be when the girl gets dragged in her sleep by the evil spirit, the slow cut which transits into quick cuts in this scene builds the tension and suspense which helps us identify that this trailer is a horror.

In addition to this the trailer uses typical jump scare and boom non-diegetic sounds that are normally in most horror trailers to scare the audience at random points. 

Audience Q1B

The project that I am focusing on is the trailer for the horror film, 'The Conjuring'. The film is rated a 15 thus it's target audience is mainly 15+ and young adults. This audience group only watch the film for some sort of adrenaline and thrill of getting scared. The trailer highlights Strauss's theory of binary opposites in this case, God vs. the Devil. 

Audiences are generally split up between active and passive viewers. Many theorists believe that audiences watch films for different purposes. For instance the effect/hypodermic model theory suggests that audiences are passive and hidden messages from films are injected into their minds which influences them mostly in a negative way.  This can be evident in the 'James Bulger' case where two little boys killed a child as they were 'influenced' by the horror film Child's Play. 

Another popular audience theory that links in with the effect/hypodermic model is the cultivation theory. George Gerbner who created it claims that, 'Persistent long term exposure to television content has minimal but measurable effects on the perpetual worlds of audience members'. To summarise this, he is trying to put forward that watching a film doesn't influence the audiences actions but their minds. 

In regards to 'The Conjuring' trailer, the desensitisation theory - which basically states that audiences are now immune to watching violent things - only applies to a minor extent as the trailer doesn't contain any violent footage. As an audience they are normally scared by the jump scares and boom non-diegetic sounds that randomly pop up rather than the quick cuts through victimising scenes. 

However 'The Conjuring' trailer does support the uses and gratification theory to a major extent as the trailer is played on YouTube which has a link that can be embedded into any social media sites. It also is a very popular box office film so personal integrative is used when people communicate to one another about how good the film is. 

Magazine Evaluation

Trailer Evaluation from Mariamqt

Magazine Evaluations

Magazine Questions

 

Above is the sheet that I gave students to answer from.

Question 1 - What layout do you prefer the most?

Question 2 - Which shot do you prefer?

Question 3 - What colour scheme do you prefer?

Question 4 - Which font do you prefer for the masthead?

Question 5 - What should the magazine price be?

A - £3.99

B - £0.99

C - £4.99

D - £1.50

Question 6 - How many cover lines should there be?

A - 4

B - 2

C - 7

Question 7 - Should the magazine consist with any competitions or giveaways?

A - YES

B - NO

Question 8 - What is a good magazine title?

A - GoreyTopia

B - Bloody Lines

C - POSSESSION

D - Any Suggestions?

Horror Make-Up Test

Shots & Angles Suitable for Horror Films

Trailer Questions Evaluation

Trailer feedback from Mariamqt

Trailer Responses

Representation Essay (30 minutes timed)

Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory talks about women being objectified and sexually displayed in films making male viewers become voyeurs who experience erotic pleasure from seeing them.  The trailer for ‘The Conjuring’ is set in the 70s were most women had to cover themselves up and were frowned upon if they wore anything revealing. This is shown by the costume that the female protagonist wears which is a white and black evening gown with puffy long sleeves. Her gown is buttoned all the way up; this doesn’t correlate with Mulvey’s theory. Although the trailer doesn’t relate to the theory in that aspect it does in the area where Mulvey highlights that females don’t tend to be given big acting roles as they are just in the films for male and other female audiences to gaze at. In the trailer, most of the dialogue is said by the men in the film, this shows that they are more dominant. In addition to this, all that the women mainly do in the trailer is scream. For instance, there is a scene where one of the women falls down into the creepy basement screaming. There is a bird’s eye view shot used to make her seem inferior and weak, this ties in with Mulvey’s theory as women are just in films to simply appear, thus their characters get targeted a lot.

Furthermore, Clover believes that most horror films has a final girl in them, who ends up breaking out of her ‘shell’ as she is left to battle with the antagonist because everyone else is dead. The final girl tends to fall into Slashers were they are seen using phallic objects to penetrate the antagonist. The Conjuring is a very supernatural and psychological horror which doesn’t show a final girl in the trailer. As a whole most trailers don’t show the final girl as it ruins it for the audience as they know the last person standing making them know that everyone else is dead.

Neale who is another theorist states that there are three types of monsters in a horror film such as: the external monster; the internal monster and the man made monster. He also believes that the antagonist is created based on a social issue that is occurring during the time of the recording of the specific film. In the conjuring trailer, the evil spirit is an external monster as she is trying to haunt the family and latch onto them in the case of disrupting their lives. We hardly ever see the spirit throughout the trailer apart from once where her face is not clear. This is done to make her ambiguous so the audience is much more scared. A scene where we see this external monster disrupting the family is when a special effect is used to show the pictures on the wall falling down by themselves. 

Trailer Questions

Question 1 - Do you prefer short or long trailers?

Short Trailer

Long Trailer

Question 2 - Do you like a slow or a fast paced trailer?

Slow Paced

Fast Paced

Question 3 - Would you like to see the antagonist or protagonist more?

ANTAGONIST

 PROTAGONIST

Question 4 - Do you prefer voice overs or dialogue in a trailer?

Voice Over

Dialogue

Question 5 - Do you like a lot of captions in a trailer?

- Yes

- No

Question 6 - What key lighting do you prefer in a trailer?

Low Key Lighting

High Key Lighting

Question 7 - Would you like a glimpse of the resolution shown in the trailer?

- Yes

- No

Question 8 - Do you like to see quick cuts of several disastrous things or slow cuts of a few?

- Yes

- No

Question 9 -Should the narrative of the trailer be presented?

- Linear (In Order)

- Non-Linear (Irregular Structure)

Feedback given

Synopsis Feedback

Synopsis Responses

Synopsis Questions

Above is the sheet that I gave to students in my college, asking for feedback on our synopsis.

Synopsis Questions

         Three girls move into their new university house, they unpack all their belongings and settle in. To make friends and get to know people the girls invite a few friends over to celebrate the beginning of their independent lives. However this gathering disturbs the demonic spirit Angela, as the teenagers mimic connecting to the ‘other world’. They all share ghost stories with each other. One of these stories is Angela's, the girls think it will be funny to chant ‘Angela Angela Angela’ except for Sam (Final Girl).

          Strange encounters begin to erupt, different supernatural occurrences begin to happen around the house which alarms the girls. They see different sightings of a ghostly figure through mirrors and windows.

       One of the three girls gets attacked during their sleep which traumatizes her.

     The second girl gets possessed by the spirit and tries to kill her two friends, she only kills one of them.

     The third girl is the only one left against her friend whose body has been possessed, and with the help of a demonologist they eventually relieve the girls body of the spirit.

        Question 1 - Does the title relate to our synopsis?

 - Yes

   - No

   Question 2 - Is our synopsis easy to understand?

 - Yes

- No

   Question 3 - Do you think it's a good idea for the trailer to be majority recorded in a house?

 - Yes 

- No

   Question 4 - Does our synopsis reveal too much of our film?

  - Yes

  - No

  Question 5 - Any suggestions/improvements?

Final Narrative Essay after 30 minutes

The Conjuring

For my advanced media project I had to analyse the codes and conventions of different trailers that could influence my personal horror trailer. The product that I will be evaluating is ‘The Conjuring’ trailer as it really influenced my ideas. The trailer shows a family who has a haunting in there house, and are helped by some type of ghost hunters/demonologist who are trying to get rid of the spirit. I believe that the theories of Todorov, Propp, Strauss and Domaille are incorporated in this trailer. This is because the trailer applies these theories to a certain extent.

Firstly, Todorov stated that all films have an: equilibrium, disequilibrium and a resolution. This is when there is a happy beginning followed by a disruption which is then solved at the end. I believe that this was applied to ‘The Conjuring’ trailer to a moderate extent. This is because it starts off with a minor disequilibrium of the ghost hunters searching for a ghost. This automatically makes the audience know something wrong is happening, but it is still a slight equilibrium; as there isn’t a happy event taking place but there isn’t a disruption either. During the equilibrium, there is a dialogue of the characters introducing themselves, this makes the audience familiar with them and feel able to confide in them throughout the trailer, alongside this there is a non-diegetic upbeat music playing in the background insinuating that everything is alright.  Subsequently, the disequilibrium takes part as the background music stops playing and there are quick cuts and close ups being used to build tension of the evil spirit haunting the house. There is also a resolution in the trailer but it is to a slight degree. This is because The Warrens are trying to help the family with the spirit but the final resolution isn’t included as it will spoil the movie for people who are excited to watch it.

Secondly, Propp believed that every film has seven archetypes originating from Russian Fairtytales. In this trailer I believe that only three of these characters are applicable, as fairy tales and horror films are made based on entirely different codes and conventions. The first character that is in the trailer is the hero. The Warrens are helping the family by battling with the spirit. Evident of this in the trailer is when there are quick cuts showing different scenes were the spirit attacks and they try to act back. In the trailer we also see another of the seven archetypes which is the villain. This is the evil spirit, we see her once in the trailer when she possesses the mother, the camera is positioned at a low angle to make her intimidate and scare the audience. Also they used dark lighting in this scene and her makeup was very bloody and her hair was roughly hanging down her face.  Apart from this, she is hardly seen, this is done to make her ambiguous, making the audience more frightened by her. This is done to juxtapose her with the other archetype characters, the victims of the trailer which is the family. The audience know each one of them by name and are familiar with them, this relationship that the audience has built makes them sympathise the family when the spirit attacks. Also the young girls tend to wear white night gowns and their hair is neatly done.

This idea of the juxtaposition between these two characters links with Strauss’s theory of binary opposites. He believed that every film has a group/ people against each other. This is applied to this trailer to a major extent as the whole trailer depicts the battle between the good and evil characters in the film. This is shown by the multiple scenes of attacks shown in the trailer. Also the proxemics used in a scene where there is a spirit in the girl’s bedroom shows the divide from both sides. The victims are on the ground below their binary opposite who is above a cupboard showing she has all the power and brings fear to the girls in the room.

Lastly, this trailer does conform to some of Domaille eight types of narrative. One in particular is the ‘Circe’ narrative. This narrative talks about a chase between a villain and a victim. This happens numerous times in the trailer. This is evident in the scene when the spirit forms some sort of bruises in the mothers arm. These bruises symbolise their battle and proof of the villain winning.

Some of the rules of narrative are used in this trailer in different ways which I have explained above. Overall, I do agree to a moderate extent that this trailer shows some of these narratives but they aren’t that severe or clear. For example a way in which they can follow the rules of narrative could be by making an obvious equilibrium; showing the family all happy together moving into the new house and very excited which is a scene in the film. 

Poster Feedback

Poster Feedback from Mariamqt

Evidence of Poster Results