Film Poster analysis - Crime Drama Codes + Conventions

Crime Drama typically have:

• constructed realities 
• social realism aspects(Bullying, rape, sensitive issues) 
• represent social attitudes to crime concerning law enforcement, victims of crime, perpetrators and witness to crime. Often Todorov's equilibrium narratives revolve around a 'Whodunit' scenario
• stereotypical representations(criminals, police officers etc)
• use distinct props like weapons, police cars, uniformed police officers
• Victims of crime (ordinary, usually innocent until proven guilty)

The main generic conventions of these crime dramas movie posters is that they usually explore through the visual hierarchy in a master shot which shows the stereotype of young people being involved in crime through the mise en scene. Arguably, crime dramas are a  microcosm of the criminality of young people, specifically in depraved communities or 'ghetto' settings. The target audience of crime dramas, much like horror fans, are largely the student demographic group e whom are part of the explorer psychographic, preferably 16-25, but has been known to attract audiences in their thirties additionally. This may be because, fitting the Users and Gratifications subsection of personal identity and relationships, many viewers can relate to the themes of the film because the consumers are young themselves and will therefore find it appealing.

I have decided as part of my trailer to explore aspects of crime drama with my horror trailer as I wanted to explore the theme of extreme antisocial behaviour in my trailer through bullying, outlining realistic themes that have been explored in previous years in the history of cinematic horrors through inspiring films such as Carrie(1973+2013), Tormented(2009).   

What kind of media institution might distribute my product?

I have done research on publishing houses that would be the idealist publishing media group for the institution of my horror magazine. In doing so, I have started to evaluate the PROS and CONS of using these publishing houses for my upcoming horror magazine.

A subsidiary company of the large US based publishing corporation Time Inc., IPC Media is the UK's leading consumer and digital media publisher with over 60 iconic brands that vary from LOOK Magazine to NME to Super Yacht World.  

PROS

With a monthly intake of 25 million viewers on their consumer websites as well as attracting two-thirds of UK women and 42% UK men, their advertising can be advantageous to increase a consumer's magazine intake. The opportunity to be part of a publishing house like IPC would be mutually beneficial for both the publisher as well as the consumer product(synergy).  The large UK based conglomerate that is IPC would create more opportunities for convergence like advertisements, as well as funding for media product in addition.

CONS

Working with a large conglomerate can mean constriction of information, which may reduce target audience appeal to my media product.

  - Time Warner is a large multinational publishing company that own Entertainment Weekly. The magazine Entertainment weekly covers popular culture and so the Scream feature in the issue above is more likely to attract a niche audience of horror as well as a mainstream demographic of magazine readers. 

PROS
Having Entertainment Weekly being backed by a large US based media institution like Time Warner can be advantageous for example as the magazine has more funding, and the mutual benefit of advertising for Time Warner will attract more people to the magazine as well as the publishing company- an example of synergy.

CONS
The disadvantage is that being part of a large conglomerate may constrict Entertainment Weekly from being independent and divulge in user generated content.

Checklist

7th January 2013
 Complete Filming - Subsection of Production Stage

Shoot all shots for trailer

• Download all shots to use for editing - DONE
• Select all shots to use for editing - DONE
• Start Editing - DONE

18th January 2013

Complete Research and Planning Stage

• Complete film poster analysis - DONE
• Complete magazine front cover analysis - DONE
• Complete flat plan for magazine front cover - DONE
• Complete Flat Plan for film poster - DONE
• Take pictures for magazine front cover - DONE
• Take pictures for film poster - DONE
• Analyse images taken for film poster - DONE
• Analyse images taken for magazine cover - DONE

 17th February 2013
   Complete Production Stage

• Complete Editing
• Complete Magazine Front Cover
• Record Summary of progress in producing Magazine Front Cover
• Complete Film Poster
• Record Summary of progress in producing Film Poster
• Record Video Response to Film Poster
• Record Video Response to Magazine Front Cover
• Record summary of progress in Production Stage

28th March 2013
 Complete Evaluation

• Plan responses to questions - DONE
• Write answers to questions
• Review RESEARCH and Planning Stage
• Review Production Stage
• Add additional plenary for examiner about progress in Advanced Portfolio

Audience Front cover analysis + Publishing research

I analysed this magazine front cover as the cover was a representation of a generic conventional horror magazines. This magazine (Fangoria) is likely to attract a mainstream (psychographic) of horror fans. Notably, the horror factor is reinforced on this magazine - entitled Fangoria - front cover by the stream of images positioned at the bottom of the page. My analysis tells me that for my planning and production stage of my magazine front cover I will need to use some typical layout format that indicates that my product adheres to the generic conventions of horror. Typically, a horror magazine features a close up shot or a mid close up shot of a central character in a horror movie. The top of the page is where the mastheads will be centred, usually accompanied a by a skyline subheading or a slogan. However, this is not always the case as seen by the layout of the Entertainment Weekly which features the subheadings of the magazine at the very top, above the masthead.

Storyboard

I created this storyboard to use a plan of what I would be filming for my horror trailer. My main objective was to use the storyboard as a guideline to filming effective shots - whether close ups, long shot, short takes or high angles - so I would go one to editing effectively and formalise a montage of shots for my finished trailer product.

Secondly, another aim which is just as important as the first, was to establish a storyline which contain generic features of horror to look like a real horror trailer. This presented a problem as you can see that slides of my trailer contain moderate generic representations of bullying and anti social behaviour. The theme of anti social behaviour, or bullying specifically became the foundation of my narrative.

The narrative, entitled 'The Unexpected' is to clear about a victim figure whom is bullied to the point of desperation. But little do the bullies - also the protagonists - know that the victim, in revenge is planning to give them a taste of their own medicine. Only when a mysterious figure appears and people start vanishing do they realise it's too late...

I took care in producing the slides of my storyboard as I wanted to depict the diegesis of a summarised horror narrative, simple enough to establish Todorov's equilibrium as well as Propp's set of characters, but not over complicate the story by strictly adhering to Propp and Todorov's narrative theory as the trailer should preferably be minimum a minute/minute and a half.

 

Film trailer analysis

The diegesis of this trailer of this movie Tormented(2009) is based on the attack of a group of teenagers who taunt an asthmatic student Darren Mullet. Little do they know in his death, he returns the favour....

The trailer opens within the mise en scene of a house party. A low angle shot mid close up of a group of teenagers shows their amusement of playing pranks on each other, looking dominant and establishing their role as the protagonists of the trailer.  Presumably, this shot already show the audience that the protagonists are the popular "it" crowd whom like to make fun of others, even within their own group. An equilibrium is established.

An over the shoulder shot succeeding this shows the same group of teen protagonists in a school, surrounding a chubby, boy. This is presumably to bully him as his stooped body position suggests he has just been pushed. The target audience will recognise this stereotypical character as the victim and under the Audience and Gratifications sub section of personal relationships, the target audience may learn to identify and sympathise with the victim character.

This shot is a hint to the disequilibrium as the victim in close up shot is clutching his throat choking whilst the protagonists in the background are looking amused. This shot shows the target audience the explicit nature of the trailer, and indicates the group of protagonists' downfall will be their excessive pride in thinking they will get away with bullying the victim.

 The disequilibrium is established, as the shot succeeding the previous shows a funeral gathering  presumably the victim's family come to pay their respects. The low angle camera angle indicates how, even in death, everyone looks down on the victim. An ironic representation.

 The next shot particularly pinpoints the disequilibrium ; the protagonists are being taunted by an unknown force. This is shown by the close up shot display the frightened facial expression of one of the protagonist receiving a sinister text message. This shot is a long take, which creates a greater climate of fear among the audience.

This close up shot is shown as a match cut from the previous shot to show the protagonist reaction, and intensify the irrational climate of fear. An futile attempt to solve the disequilibrium is shown in this extreme close up high angle shot. The protagonist who received the text message assuming the person who sent the message in someone in her class, breaks her phone on the floor with her foot.

This last close up shot shows with little focus a close up shot of said victim staring sinisterly in the direction of the camera. This technique otherwise known as Breaking of the 4th Wall, makes the audience feel  like their being watched. This intensifies the climate of fear and the 'unknown factor' as the victim is meant to be dead! Notably, this is the first time in the trailer that the mysterious figure attacking the protagonists is shown, which is a generic convention of horror trailers as the unknown factor behind who is attacking whom in the trailer intensifies the climate of fear, inadvertently creating the horror appeal to viewers and encouraging them to find out more.

Website analysis