Our group's ideas

Idea 1- Josh's idea...

A lady named Jennifer is being studied in a mental hospital. She is possessed by a demon, and whenever you are alone with her, it spreads like a virus. Slowly the demon gets further and further into the hospital, infecting both the staff and patients. After being in solitary confinement for years to prevent the spread of the demon and to keep her and others safe, she becomes more possessed, and ends up passing the demon onto her daughter, who appears to be normal, so no one realises she is possessed.



Idea 2- Livi's idea...

A new girl is introduced at college and immediately becomes attached to one of her classmates, who rejects her when she asks to go out together. She starts to become obsessed and follows him, manipulating things which happen to him and murdering girls who talk to him.



Idea 3- My idea...

A girl is studying at university and living in a student house with her friends. Being incredibly stressed, she starts to suffer from night terrors where she dreams her friends die. When she wakes up she discover that they are dead, and begins to become paranoid after seeing a shadow follow her everywhere she goes. She ends up dreaming that her best friend is murdered, and when he comes over to check on her, after they fall asleep, she awakens, covered in his blood and discovers she has been the murderer and is suffering from a multi personality disorder.

Film Distribution and Marketing

Film Distribution is an important process in the making of a film, as it responsible for the marketing of the product. This includes exhibiting posters and trailers to entice people to go and see it.

A film distributor will be responsible for identifying the audience, deciding the release date of the film and the method through which it will be exhibited, for example either for home viewing or theatrically. If they release it theatrically they secure a contract stating that the exhibitor of the film pays them back a percentage of the gross. They must also ensure that each exhibitor gets their copy of the film in time for the opening day, as well as monitoring its safe delivery and return. They also ensure that each exhibitor has a full line of advertising material to attract the largest possible audience. Distributors work with the physical production of film prints, and the creation of advertisements for newspapers and magazines, posters, television commercials and trailers. If they are distributing a foreign film, they will be responsible for dubbing the film and adding subtitles. 

Here are some examples of some major film distribution companies. The first one, Warner Bros, is owned by the conglomerate 'Time Warner', because of this it make distributing the film much easier, as Time Warner owns it's own magazines, cinemas, DVD companies etc. So this means it is easier to distribute all the films material.

The reach of a film is in relation to the way it reaches it's audience. For example, a huge Hollywood film such as 'Avatar' (2009) had a large worldwide reach and was released all over the world. It has since become the most successful film of all time, and this could be down to it's reach. However, films with a smaller reach, such as the niche film 'Colin' (2008), it won't have quite an impact. Colin was made using only £60, and ended up with a profit of almost £800, this just shows how even with Niche films, if you market them well enough even they can become popular.

Distributors also work with a marketing plan, which is basically to try and get as many people as possible wanting to see thew movie, so that when it comes out, it will make more money. They do this in several ways, such as releasing a teaser trailer up to a year before the film is even finished, just to get people talking. By doing this, people then become aware of the film, and spread this awareness through word of mouth. When it comes nearer the time of the release, the distributors create posters, trailers and any other forms of advertisement for the movie, such as pairing up with other companies to advertise it. For example, advertising on a cup from McDonalds, or coaster in a pub.

They also work with a 'Distribution plan'. This is where the distributors decide who their target audience are, and research them to find out how best to reach them and when to release the film. For example, they might do private test screenings of a film several times before hand to see how it reaches the audience best. They also might wait to release the film until a certain time which helps promote the film best. For example, if it's a Christmas film it will be more popular at Christmas rather than mid summer. Or a romantic comedy film around valentines day. Distributors must also take into account current events and the context of the film, as if something is quite large in the media at one point, it may be either perfect timing to release the film, or it could end in disaster as it is disrespectful to whatever happened. For example, movies,documentaries and TV programs about 9/11 were not released until several years after as it is a very sensitive subject.

Although very similar, 'advertising','publicity' and'promotion' each mean something different. They are all about making people aware of the film, but publicity is where the actors of the film, or directors etc, are seen everywhere around the time the film is released, for example interviews in every magazine and on TV. This adds subtle hooks to the audience who then want to see the film. Advertising is literally just advertising the film, through posters and trailers etc. Promotion is where other companies work with the distributors to promote the film, such as promoting the film on packaging at a fast food place, or the film sponsoring something popular on TV, meaning it'll get a a large viewing.

Original Film Idea- Individual

Jordan is a 21 year old girl in her last year of University. She is stressed from the deadlines and amount of work she has to do, but she is very smart and capable. Her housemates, Zoey and James are coupled up, and not making life at home easy. Her best friend Tom is also madly in love with Jordan, and would do anything for her.

One night before an important exam, Jordan is desperately trying to cram in as much revision as possible, but is rudely interrupted by the sounds of her housemates making love. To clear her head she goes for a walk around the city, and is convinced she hears footsteps following behind her. It’s raining, so in a puddle she sees a dark shadow following her.

She returns home to find Zoey and James in the kitchen cooking dinner, with music blaring on the speakers. Stressed she shouts at them and goes to bed for an early night’s sleep.

The morning Jordan enters the kitchen to find Zoey and James’ corpses on the kitchen floor, with blood everywhere, and the knife they were using to prepare their dinner with stuck in Zoey’s back. Convinced it was done by whoever she saw following her home, she tries to tell the police, who then start a manhunt.

Jordan tries to forget the ordeal and tries to get life back to normal at University. Sitting in her lecture, she sees a dark silhouette of a person sitting at the back, and is convinced they are staring at her. Stressed from the workload, she falls asleep, and has a nightmare about her tutor being slaughtered. She leaves the lecture late and follows behind her tutor, watching as he gets into his car.

That night she sees on the news whilst with her friend Tom about her tutor dying in a car accident after someone cut his brakes. She becomes increasingly paranoid and is convinced someone is after her and anyone she knows. She tells her worries to Tom, who appears to listen, but the next day signs Jordan up to a psychiatrist. Next we see Jordan at the psychiatrist, starting to look tired and more stressed, telling the psychiatrist about how she sees someone following her before the murders. She is confused when Dr. Cooper asks if she’s seen this man’s face, and answers that ‘No, just his shadow.’

That night, angry at Tom for making her see a psychiatrist, she has a nightmare about him being slaughtered, but wakes up in the middle of the night, panicked from it. She can’t sleep, and desperate to hear from Tom, she calls him up. He tells her he is on his way to see her. In hysterics, she sits on the sofa and waits, but hears a door slam in the apartment. Convinced she is not alone, she hides in the airing cupboard, and listens. She keeps hearing doors slam through the apartment and sees a shadow pass under the door. We hear a timer on the boiler clicking slowly as she puts her hand over her mouth to silence her crying. Suddenly the door slams open and Tom is there. He pulls her out and holds her close as she cries into his shoulder. They fall asleep on the sofa together, and she wakes up, stands over him as he sleeps, looking distracted, and walks to the bathroom. She tries to clean her face in the mirror after her crying, but she is so emotionally drained it makes no difference. As she looks down into the sink, her reflection in the mirror continues to stare at her. Seeing a dark shadow pass by the bathroom door she returns to Tom’s side and falls asleep on his lap. 

The screen is blacked out, but we hear Jordan whispering, and then muttering something angrily under her breath, we assume she is having a night terror again. Suddenly her eyes jump open, and we see an extreme close up of her eyes. As we slowly zoom out, we see she is covered in blood. Panicking she sits up and looks down at  her bloody clothes and hands. In one of her hands she is holding a knife. She doesn’t feel hurt, and then remembers Tom. He isn’t on the sofa with her, so screaming his name she runs around the apartment. She finds his body in the bath where he is sitting in his own blood. Jordan falls to the floor in tears. As she does her shadow doesn’t move from it’s position. She looks up and her eyes are black. She then smiles into the camera.

Narrative Theory and 'The Crazies'

Bordwell and Thompson
The image below illustrates Bordwell and Thompson's theory in relation to 'The Crazies'. As you can see, we have mapped it out so we can clearly show what information we see on screen, and what information we assume after getting clues (these parts are blue). The plot is the part of the film we actually see onscreen, and during this time we do assume lots of information. But in he time of the story, which goes on before the plot even begins, we assume some information, such as the goverment crashing the plane and infecting the water supplie, thus infecting Rory, which is where the film begins.



Todorov
Introduction- Todorov's theory states that at the start of the film there is equilibrium, however, 'The Crazies' introduces us straight to chaos which engages the audience, going against Todorov.

Disruption to the balance- Even though it isn't shown on screen, we understand that the plane crash causes the disequilibrium as it causes the first person, Rory Hamill to get infected and go crazy, causing the chaos to spread.

Re-equilibrium- Again, going against Todorov there is no re- equilibrium. We think the couple manage to escape to the next town, but because of a containment protocol which is shown at the end of the film, we understand that the same thing will happen in this new town, and that the virus will keepspreading. This also relates to Bordwell and Thompson's theory.

Levi- Strauss
Here area few example of binary opposition in relation to 'The Crazies'.

• Sanity/ Insanity-The sane characters try to survive and fend off the infected insane characters.
• Day/ Night- Night implies dangeras there is limited sight and shadows, and day can be equally as dangerous,but with better vision and confidence in the characters.
• Military/ Civilian- The military are seen as evil in the film, they are controllingand over powering civilians in large groups. At the time the time the film was made, The military inreality are busy at War, as so by making them the villains, it shows the attitude against war at the time, as there have been alot of conspiracy theories and cover ups.
• Fear/ Courage- Courage is held by the survivors and those who press on even when everyone else is dead, and those who sacrifice themselves to help the group i.e. Russell. Fear is heldby those who panic and allow themselves to be herded by the military.

Propp
Villain- The US goverment... as they are the reason the virus is in the community as they crashed the military plane containing the virus into the towns water supply.

The Hero- David... as he rescues his wife and several other people and escapes fromthe quarantie. He also survives the film.

Donor/ Helper- Deputy Russell... He qualifies as both donor and helper as he sacrifices himself so that Judy and david can sneak past the military withoutbeing shot.

The Princess/ Father- Judy... She is princess as she is Married to David as he is trying to save her and create a new life. I also feel she qualifies as princess as she is taken by the military, thus becoming a damsel in distress. She also takes on the role of the father, as she works hard to protect Rebecca from being killed, she also rewards the hero by carrying his baby.

The dispatcher- Rory... he is the first person in the town to become infected by the virus.

False Hero- The mayor...he refuses to turn the water off in the town, by doing so he allows the virus to spread to the rest of the town. Admittedly he was thinking ofthe wellbeing of the town, as being a farming community they need water for the crops to thrive.

Representation of Women in Horror films

I am going to be looking at the representation of women in Horror films to find out how audiences view the subject. I will do this by looking at horror theorists such as Carol Clover and Laura Mulvey and comparing them against four particular horror movies I have watched. I watched two films from the last five years; ‘The Crazies’ (Eisner, 2010) and ‘The Strangers’ (Bertino, 2008), and the other films I will be looking at are ‘Halloween’ (Carpenter, 1978), ‘Scream’ (Craven, 1996) and also ‘Nosferatu’ (Murnau, 1922).

 

First I will be comparing my chosen films to Carol Clover’s ‘Final Girl Theory’. ‘Halloween’ introduces us to character ‘Laurie’, a name that’s not traditionally feminine, an innocent, smart, bookworm; Which is what society expects a good role model to girls to be. The audience automatically identify with her through the film, as being ‘the final girl’; the audience want her to survive. Laurie’s friends aren’t virginal and pure, and so are killed. Clover argues that women who stray out of the bounds of conservatism are punished, such as engaging in sex, drugs and alcohol. Laurie participates in none of these acts, and so is saved. Her friend Annie drives to her boyfriends, to have sex, in her underwear and is soon slaughter. The same happens to Laurie’s other friends.

Another example of this in ‘Halloween’ is through the way Meyers appears to kill his sister in response to the fact she has sex with her boyfriend. We could say he is almost punishing her, and uses the knife as a phallic symbol of his repressed sexuality. John Carpenter apparently later stated that the reason Laurie wasn’t killed was simply because she was the only one to pay attention, unlike everyone else. This is seen at the beginning of the film where she notices him parked outside the school, and no one else does. This ultimately goes against Clover’s theory.

In ‘The Crazies’, the character Judy could also fit into the role of the final girl. Clover also states how women become empowered in Horror Films, rather than being shown as Damsels in distress. Judy begins as a damsel in distress, as it is her husband David who rescues her after she is captured from a psycho murderer in the hospital wing. Eventually she has to learn to fend for herself, and shoots a man in order to save herself and her husband. She doesn’t fit the conventions of the final girl as she is still quite feminine; however, she’s a Doctor, thus smart. She’s also pregnant, so we could say she is a protector. She doesn’t step out of the bounds of conservatism as she is happily married, successful and is dedicated to getting a family together.

In relation to Clover’s final girl theory, where she states that rather than men enjoying seeing the female killed and stalked, they actually identify with the fright of being attacked. So we could say that in ‘The Strangers’, while Kristen is being stalked around the house, the audience identifies with her. Ultimately, in the end it is Kristen who survives whilst her partner James is killed. They are both tortured whilst tied to chairs and stabbed, and where she normally should be dead, luckily she survives. She doesn’t fight back during the entire film; it is James who does, treating her like his Damsel in distress. Kristen doesn’t seem to fit the role of the final girl however, as we don’t find out her occupation or if she even has one. It doesn’t appear that she’s innocent as she lets James undress her. And instead of going along with the conservative idea of getting married, she turns down James’ marriage proposal.

Laura Mulvey argues that horror movies objectify women for the male audience, who are literally put into the eyes of the male in the ‘Male Gaze’ theory. We can see this in Halloween when the use of a point of view shot from Myers follows him as he watches his sister with her boyfriend, and then kills her. The audience only view his sister as a sexual object here as she is making out with her boyfriend and then leads him upstairs to have sex. We see how the killer takes a knife from the drawer then goes upstairs and stabs her repeatedly while she is naked. We see all this through Myers eyes, which puts the audience in the position of identifying with the murderer.

This goes against Clover’s theory that the audience identify only with the final girl, as they also appear to identify with the murderers. ‘The Strangers’ also feature techniques which objectify Kristen; such as tilts of the camera to show her figure as she stands in the kitchen, a close up of her back as James undoes her back and a shot of her as she sits in the bath. At the beginning of the film we see how James sits admiring her; he only notices her in the room. Because of this, the only people the audience can hear and see is Kristen, as despite her being in a conversation, everyone else is edited out, causing the audience to admire her just as James is. (Clip is here to show this... look from 7:30 onwards...)

Jeremy Tunstall argues that onscreen, women stick to four roles and are depicted as busy house wives contented mothers, eager consumers and sex objects and simply nothing else. I would say that in ‘The Crazies’ and ‘Nosferatu’ the women are indeed shown as housewives, more so in ‘Nosferatu’. In ‘The Crazies’ at least Judy has a successful job of being a Doctor, but I believe it’s like she’s a ‘wannabe’ homemaker but she doesn’t match it financially. This can be seen after they arrive home after escaping being quarantined and the first thing she does to restore normality is getting the laundry. (The link is to the whole movie, but from 53:26 to 54:48, you can clearly see Judy trying to restore normality...)

‘The media depicts males as the stronger sex and this is shown through the way men outnumber women on screen by 2:1, because of this, men are shown in their stereotypical role of having an occupation whilst the women stay at home. This can be seen in ‘Nosferatu’. It is the man who travels all the way to Count Orlok’s castle, whilst his wife is left to stay at home. Nowadays though, the media are more careful about the ratio of men to women on screen and try to make it more even, this can be seen during Advertisements, which still to the generic stereotypes. ’Nosferatu’, ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Scream’ all show women being stalked and tormented before eventually the villain (In Nosferatu and Scream’s case a male) has their way and kills them. This depicts women as weak and conforms to the stereotypical view of women that Tunstall argues.

In Scream, we could argue that Drew Barrymore’s character flirts with whoever is on the phone, and even lies about having a boyfriend, and so deserves to be punished. However, she seems like a fairly innocent girl, and the audience identify strongly with her. We begin by enjoying her witty conversation with the man on the phone, but eventually, when she realises she is in danger, we too fear for her life, and as she hides, there is high tension as the audience worries for her. This relates to Clover’s theory that the audience identifies with her.

I agree with Carol Clover’s theory of ‘The final girl’ as we can relate most horror movies to it. I also don’t agree with the idea that the only reason people watch horror movies is to see women in ‘their rightful place’ according to what Tunstall’s theory shows, or to just be appreciated by a male audience. As it turns out, girls are just as likely to go and see Horror Movies as groups of girls and boys go to see them as a social thing. A lot of couples can be seen at horror movies, young and old, and so it shows that ‘men don’t just go to see women be objectified’ which goes against Mulvey’s theory. Admittedly there are horror films out there purely made for the audience to admire the killings, such as the Saw movies. Even with todays ‘Gornography’ movies, where plots are just to get as much gore and murders in as possible, I don’t believe people get a kick out of watching women get killed, as there are actually just as many men killed on screen. I like how with the final girl theory it gives women power, whereas Mulvey and Tunstall’s suggest they are weak and that the ‘male gaze’ means they are only there to be looked at. This may be true in some cases, but I feel that in the majority of cases, the strength of the women is important to the plot.