Screenshot Evaluation 3: Costumes & Props

This is a screenshot from our trailer of a tracking shot showing our killers movements through our protagonists house. We chose to keep the shot low to draw focus to the characters weapon which makes him seem more powerful, intimidating and expands the threat he imposes on our victims. This shot took several attempts to achieve as we needed to keep the camera relatively level with the villains waist whilst moving and also tracking our villains movement accurately. This meant not walking too fast so most of the shot would be taken up by the black of our characters outfit nor too slow so that he would be out of shot whenever he walked around a corner. 

We initially filmed this shot with lights on but it didn't quite look right as we still want to carry the enigma code of our villains identity so it made more sense to keep him in a low light environment to reveal as little of him as possible. This also makes the actions of the antagonist seem even more creepy as it is a fear audience can relate to, that of having someone lurking in the dark areas of your own home.

Screenshot Evaluation 2: Setting/Location

This is a still from our trailer that introduces our antagonist, having him stalk a random victim under a bridge. We filmed this shot at Leatherhead bridge as it was easy to get to and quiet, meaning we would not be disturbed by any members of the public which was important as we wanted to make it seem as if our characters were completely alone. 

We liked the long pathway that runs through the centre of the shot and the open environment as it makes it seem as if this area is further away from civilisation. This extends the threat of our antagonist and makes our victim seem more vulnerable as there is nowhere they can run to. The area itself is also quite tranquil with the river running on the right third of the shot and the trees and grass representing nature. This juxtaposes the dark nature of the events actually being depicted in the shot, an innocent person being stalked and killed by a masked murderer. Having the location differ in tone from the events the audience sees has an unsettling effect on the audience, which is exactly what we want to achieve through our trailer.

We opted to place the camera under the bridge filming outwards, as this achieved our desired lighting effect. In this shot, we have our victim and villain walking towards the bridge from the outside, with our victim walking under the bridge and being plunged into darkness. Having our victim walk from the light to the dark connotes walking into the unknown and shows the character unknowingly putting himself in danger.

This shot is a high-angled long shot. We decided to use a high angle for this shot as it empowers the audience over the characters. This fits with what the audience sees onscreen as they are aware of the threat our killer imposes but the victim is completely unaware. Therefore we are making the audience feel safer only to surprise them later in the trailer. In later shots that only feature our antagonist we revert to the conventional low-angled shot to belittle the audience and empower our villain.

Screenshot Evaluation 1: The Title of the Film

This is a screenshot of the title of our film in our trailer. We chose to put the title along with thunder and lightning in the background in order to give the title an air of power and importance to the audience like the name alone should command their respect. This amplifies the audiences desire to see the film if they think it is important that they see it. This also has the effect of foreshadowing dark events taking place in the film, representing the dark tone that our murderous antagonist brings through his actions. These titles come straight after our female protagonists screaming after the lights go out, meaning the lightning is suggestive that the result of that event is negative but the audience will still want to see the film to find out what happened.

We chose a white font for the title itself in order to make the title stand out from the rest of the shot which is mostly black. It was important to make the title distinctive so the audience knows the name of the film which will help them recognise it in cinemas and allow for word-of-mouth promotion, which wouldn't happen if the audience didn't even know the title of the film. The colour white also connotes innocence, purity and vulnerability and carries a symbolic code of heaven which juxtaposes nicely with the evil-and-hell-linked lightning. Inspirations for this come from Se7en, The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project, all of which also opt for a white font set against a dark background.

Trailer Conventions Analysis

One convention of a film trailer is to have the title of the film appear at the end of the trailer. This is done to make the title a focal point of the trailer, as if it is the last thing the audience sees it is likely to be the thing they best remember. Making the title a focal point for the audience is very important as if they don't know what the film is called it is less likely they are going to find and see it because they won't recognise it by name. We conformed to this convention in our trailer for the same reason, as we want the name stalker to stick in the audiences memory. I think this is even more important for a film such as ours as the title tells the audience a key part of the film, that the antagonist is a stalker. Without drawing attention to our title the audience may misinterpret the character to be a typical murderer as there is no other reference to stalking in our trailer apart from the title. We want the audience to know our antagonist is a stalker as it gives a bit more detail to the characters motives and makes him a bit more 3-dimensional, as if they do not know anything about his motives as well as not knowing who he is or what he looks like they may not be interested in the most important character in our film, and therefore the film itself. The titles we have created are also important at highlighting the tone of the film, as our title is linked with darkness, thunder and lightning which we think leaves the audience with a foreshadowing of what happens in the film and carries significant symbolism along with it.

Trailers often give the audience more information through voice overs and titles throughout the trailer that help to paint a better picture of the film that may be hard to represent through showcasing certain scenes. The typical example of a voice over would be Don LaFontaines work on nearly every action movie trailer ever including Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Rambo. We opted not to use a voice over in our trailer due to it being a horror, as we felt the inclusion of a voice over would remove the audience from the suspenseful atmosphere we were trying to create. A voice over isn't part of the film and instead is made in post-production and therefore serves as a reminder that what the audience is watching isn't real, making it harder to have them fully invest in the characters. On the other hand we did decide to use a title card towards the beginning of the trailer that says "based on a true story." This is a statement most horror films like to make whether true or not, as it makes the audience want to see the film more if they think that all the crazy events depicted on screen happened in real life. Whilst not part of the film, this title card works to draw people in to the world the film is creating as it gives it an edge of realism, as opposed to reminding the audience that it is only a film designed to entertain.

Another commonly used aspect of a trailer is the montage, where a series of shots are shown in quick succession in order to highlight some of the key moments in the film without giving too much away. This also has the side-effect of raising the tempo of the trailer and making it seem more dramatic as it builds to its climax at the end. We chose to subvert this convention for our trailer as we feel that ending the trailer on a high tempo with a big climax is better suited to an action film that is working to get its audience pumped up in anticipation of seeing the film. We felt it was more important to have our trailer create a low tempo with high tension to match the genre. Suspense is created from longer shots as it gives the audience time to digest exactly what is happening onscreen and anticipate what is going to happen next, allowing for a bigger 'jump-scare' so we chose to match this slower pace in our trailer. Our trailer has a clear 3 act structure taken from 3 key scenes of our film, not giving too much away to our audience in order for clear enigmas to be left hanging that encourage the audience to see the film.

The most influential inspiration in the making of our trailer would have been director James Wan. He is known for his work on a lot of modern horror films including Saw, Insidious, Insidious: Chapter 2 and The Conjuring. Insidious is particularly well directed in its use of long, lingering shots that hold the audience on the edge of their seats and we sought to recreate the same technique in shooting our trailer. All of the James Wan films mentioned above also share something in common in terms of location, with them all being predominantly set inside a single room or house. This gives off the idea of being in a confined space, away from civilisation and trapped with the antagonist. We chose to employ this method with our trailer as well with most of the film taking place inside the protagonists house.

Audience Theory

My film "Stalker" is a horror film and it utilises many conventions from the horror genre in order to convey this to the audience. For example, my film includes a masked, mysterious antagonist that is hardly shown in my trailer in order to raise tension and enigmas in the audience. This is a clichè adopted by many films because it is so effective at enhancing the fear factor of the film as it plays on audience fears of the unknown. Specific examples include The Collector, Saw and Predator. The Hypodermic Needle Theory states that the audience is a passive mass who will immediately accept the version of events presented to them. Applying The Hypodermic Needle Theory to my film, it would mean the audience instantly believing that there is an escaped asylum patient that goes around stalking/killing people and that it could happen to them, further increasing the scariness of the film. The vast majority of horror films are rated 18 because the messages they are conveying are considered to frightening for a younger audience. Due to this, my film is rated 18 also as it contains certain messages which may be unsuitable for children, such as an escaped lunatic going on a murderous rampage.

The Uses and Gratifications theory was popularised by Katz and Blumler, and works as a way of explaining what the audience uses media for as opposed to what the media does to the audience. The theory states that there are 4 main reasons why someone would want to use media; diversion, information, social interaction and personal identity. I believe the audience would want to see my film for the diversion (immersing yourself into media to be entertained and as an escape from their normal lives) and social interaction (so they can talk about the new horror film with their friends and family and not be 'out of the loop') elements. You could also say my film satisfied the simple need from the audience to be entertained through my use of creating enigmas and suspense for the audience.

George Gerbners Cultivation theory states that the longer the audience spends in the world of media the more they believe that what they see is applicable to the real world. For example, the more crime films an audience member watches the more they will believe the world is a violent place and that crimes like the ones they see in the films can be happening round the corner. With my film, Cultivation Theory would believe that it would help to further the audiences fears of being killed or heighten their fears of the unknown as they are both elements my film plays on in order to entertain. The violence-related content contained in my film would link with the 'Mean-World Syndrome' that Gerbner mentions in his theory.

Laura Mulvey coined the phrase "male gaze" in 1975 to describe her theory that films are shot from a heterosexual male perspective and that women are often reduced to objects to be gazed upon in films. She also believes that women need to watch films from the male perspective as events depicted on screen are filmed in the context of a mans reaction to these events. It can be argued that my trailer does conform to the theory of the male gaze, mostly due to the fact that my trailer doesn't flesh out our female characters personalities enough even though they are meant to be the main protagonists/victims of our stalker. Instead they are slightly objectified, only shown screaming and with one line of dialogue between them making it obvious to the audience that they are simply cannon fodder for our film. You could say that this was a consequence of having to prioritise what was shown in the trailer, as with a film called Stalker you want the stalker to be on screen as much as possible in the trailer as that is what will draw audiences in, not finding out what the protagonists pets are called or what jobs they have. So whilst they may seem relatively monotonous for horror victims in our trailer their characters would have been expanded upon in our film so that the audience has characters to sympathise with and root for rather than just people to watch get murdered.

The Utopian Solutions Theory comes from Richard Dyer, and states that audiences consume media to fill the inadequacies in their own lives. Films would therefore gain the best response from an audience member if it provided them solutions to multiple inadequacies. For example, a film like Wolf of Wolf Street is successful because it provides the solution of abundance to audience members problem of poverty. Audience members who feel their lives are boring will enjoy The Expendables because it contrasts to their real-world problem with exciting action-packed plots. Many sit-coms become popular because it provides community to people who feel isolated. My trailer would provide a solution to people who feel their lives are mundane. Audiences would watch my film and they would enjoy the contrast between their own lives and running for your life from a knife-wielding maniac. You could also say that a film in the horror genre, such as mine, almost reverses the Utopian Solutions Theory, as the audience takes enjoyment from watching characters with inadequacies and problems whilst the audience themselves is likely to already have the solution of safety.