With Halloween and filming coming up in October, I decided to do some research about zombie make-up. I have tried to look for the simplest, but still scariest make up techniques to use.
Items needed:-
Fake Blood
Foundation sponge
Highlighter
White powder
I have also been watching 'The Walking Dead' make-up tips on how to get the realistic zombie look, some of the make-up they used isn't available in this country or is quite expensive, but I did pick up some tips!
Items Needed:-
Conditioner
Fake Blood
Oats
Halloween make-up
Foundation Sponge
Liquid Latex
Tissue
Gelatine
I will try to experiment other things I can use instead of Liquid Latex, may try food gelatine as it is really sticky and should keep the oats and tissue on the face.
I was thinking of looking for fake scars and body parts in the shops since it's Halloween in a months time. Doing this project near Halloween time is brilliant, because we get to use a lot of props, costumes and make-up to create our scary project.
Me and the group will be having a discussion very soon on what should our characters be called, who should be in our trailer and what are their roles. We also need to have a look at locations too, I have a few in mind and I will discuss this with them during next week.
Main Roles
Protagonist - Female
Damsel in Distress - Male
Father Figure - Male
False Hero - Either
Locations (Cities for now)
Hyde
Manchester
Denton
There will be a blog post very soon about the official Roles & Locations.
Me and my group are currently deciding on what gender should our protagonist be. We all agree that the protagonist should be a female. Heroines a very rare in most horror films these days including in a Zombie horror, the only zombie film I know that has a female protagonist in it is Resident Evil.
This video contains all trailers from the franchise.
There maybe 5 films with a female protagonist but these films only contain 1 female throughout the whole franchise. The video will also help our group on how female protagonists are portrayed and how un-stereotypical they are.
This film is not only a horror but it also contains romance and a little bit of comedy and we aren't really going that direction for our own trailer.
Shaun Of the dead
Even though this film is independent and was filmed in a urban UK area there was just too much comedy in this film.
Resident Evil
At the moment this is the only film that has a female protagonist in a zombie film, but we can't use this trailer as inspiration as it is quite extreme with all of the actions cinematography. (Will make a separate blog post about protagonists in the future)
I have chosen these two trailers as inspiration for me and my groups own Horror trailer, the reason why I chose these trailers is because they both are based in a Urban UK area, they're also independent which means a low budget was used to produce these films.
The 'Hypodermic' Model
The amount of content shown on TV, audiences will absorb the information from the TV without knowing, they are being brainwashed in a way.
Cultivation Theory
People who spend a long time watching TV will be living in the TV world more than reality without knowing and more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television.
Desensitisation
Stops any emotional reactions after prolonged or repeated exposure.
Modelling or Copycat Theory
Anything that has been published in the Media , gaining lot of attention will be resulting a lot of people to copy it for their own attention.
Uses and Gratifications Theory
The audience turns to the media to fulfil their pre-existing needs, for example Reality TV shows and The News.
Me and my group had a look at the IMDB website for some information about Horror films that have already been produced.
We looked at:-
Most Popular Horror Films
Highest Rating
Highest Grossing Film
These films are in the top 10 most popular Horror films category. These films were all produced in between the years 2010 - 2013, they're probably the best horror films because of the latest technology and use of CGI.
Even though we do have a good use of technology for our trailer to edit with in the future, I need to research more about best Zombie films.
Here is a list of Highest Grossing Zombie films, this list is helps me and my group even more with the gender of the protagonist, as you have seen this list of films audiences would notice the protagonist is a male. There is only one female in this list who is the protagonist and has their own the franchise. We want to take a different route and have a female protagonist for our trailer, we feel that that would persuade more viewers, not just men but women too to watch our trailer.
The colours Black, Red, & White are used on the poster, this has given us an idea on what colours to use our own poster. The backgrounds are not in a specific location, we can only see grey clouds, smoke silhouettes, Illustrations or just a dark colour. This will help make our editing jobs easier as we won't have to travel and disrupt people while trying to take photos for our poster. We can use a dark screen or even a green screen for our background, also some backgrounds on the posters are close-ups of peoples faces.
Most of the horror trailers I have seen so far have music playing in the background, some are heavy metal/rock to match the trailers tension, some are ironic e.g. happy/cheerful song playing whilst people are running away from flesh eating zombies.
At the beginning of the trailer, I would use slow/calm songs to start off the equilibrium, this could give off a happy and positive atmosphere to the audience.
I would use one of these songs for the equilibrium:-
For the disruption scenes in the trailer, I would choose either heavy metal/rock songs or ironic to play through. Some of the music could introduce the character and show clips of them fighting zombies or some songs could match the tension of the scenes being preview e.g. fighting, running away, chasing etc. just add an dramatic effect or make the trailer look a little morbid. One of these songs for the disruption:-
Is the sequel to the British independent horror film '28 Days Later' (2002), directed by Danny Boyle. The film was released in cinemas on 11th May 2007. The certificate for this film is an 18 due to the amount of gore, violence and some upsetting scenes.
Genre
At the beginning of the trailer it gives away that this film is a horror, judging by the soldiers carrying guns,title cards for example saying 'Quarantine', 'Eradication' and 'Sterilisation', making the audience assume that London has now been re-built by the soldiers, removing zombie corpses and giving locals a home again making them feel safe. London is in a post-apocalyptic state as the zombie virus has stopped spreading. Andrew Sarris' theory can be seen in this trailer, implying that there will be no more zombies infecting the city will draw the audiences attention as they will know that one way or another the infection will spread again and they will want to know how. Levi Strauss & Roland Barthes can also be found, as we can see the humans running away and fighting for their lives from the zombies, this implies that they are the good people in this film despite the fact that they are killing other people (zombies), and the zombies are the villains of this film, because we can see them chasing after the humans uncontrollably.
Representation
Laura Mulvey's theory has been portrayed in this trailer/film as the protagonists are one child and one teenager. A boy (the youngest) and a girl (The oldest), they are both brother and sister. The young boy is definitely not a stereotypical male as he is only a child, the female teenage protagonist is slightly stereotypical as it is her responsibility to take care of her brother, but later on in the trailer we see her as a leader, controlling their safety along with the soldiers. Even though the soldiers aren't the protagonists they are very stereotypical males, they're strong and independent and will try their best to protect the people who are in danger, but during the trailer audiences will notice some of the male soldiers have been infected by the virus and have lost their life towards the zombies, this shows a weak move towards the male stereotypes as they are portrayed as heroic and brave. A female solider cane be seen halfway through the trailer, she is seen holding a gun while limping with a solider, this is quite stereotypical as women are known for being weak BUT she was also brave and heroic trying to help guide the children to safety.
Narrative
The trailer starts off in a post apocalyptic state, 6 months after a virus was accidentally spread in London (28 Days Later, 2002).
From the start of the trailer, audiences will not be sure who the protagonist is as various amounts of clips are being viewed with a lot people in the shots, such as solders and evacuees. We find out who the protagonist is when a train pulls up at the train station with two kids in the camera shot, these kids are in many other shots in trailer e.g. settling in at their hotel room, running away from the infected, talking to the soldiers. The are no Anti Hero's in this film as it is a soldiers responsibility to fight and protect for the people who need it. The narrative is previewed with Todorov's theory as the equilibrium starts off at the beginning where the city is safe from the virus and evacuees can go home to find their families, until a woman, who has been infected arrives at the military base, this is where the disruption happens. During the disruption the virus spreads throughout the military base infecting numerous amounts of people and it's up to the children and a few soldiers to find safety.At the end of the trailer the words 'IT'S. NOT. OVER' are presented, this places fears and tension towards the audience, informing them that the zombie virus never stopped spreading.
Audience
This film is rated '18' which means no one below that age should not be watching this film as it contains, violence, blood, gore and upsetting scenes. I would say that the target audience is for 18-25 year olds and I also think both genders would be interested in watching this film. My reason for this is because, the protagonists are both genders too, so they may like the equality used to produce this film and also the soldiers are both equal, the females will be glad to see a female solider fight to save people instead of a stereotypical male. I'd say that this film isn't for the squeamish and sensitive as there are some upsetting scenes used for the story line, I think the audience would be quite passive during the start of the film as there is no chaos or tension, but as the disruption occurs audiences would be active while the zombie outbreak begins again.
Media Language
Cinematography
At the beginning of the trailer a lot of birds eye view shots and pans were used to present the city in it's current state, which is deserted, this shows the audience that there is no one human left in London until they see soldiers in the pan shot flying over via helicopter. When the kids arrive at the train station, a few point of views shots are used to view what the character is seeing which gives a positive effect has the children are being reunited with their father after so many months, giving a peaceful and sentimental effect towards the audience, there is also high key lighting at the beginning of the scene reflecting the children's and other evacuees happiness as they arrive back to their city with no fear of the infected. Close ups are used to present the fear on each of the protagonists faces while they are locked in the military base as the infection spreads throughout the base which raises the tension for the audience as they know there are zombies running around. Low key lighting is seen as the zombie infection spreads again, giving a grim and negative affect towards the audience informing them that there is no more happiness anymore as there are people becoming infected, dying.
Editing
A number of fades are seen in trailer, lasting for about 3 seconds on each scene, the trailer isn't giving much away about how the apocalypse has started again and who are infected. There are also jump cuts used halfway through the trailer giving away a dramatic effect, mixing up the continuity, trying to confuse the audience. A series of cuts raise the tension as the infection spreads, they are also used when there are zombies running after people.
Mise-En-Scene
A group of men and woman are seen wearing camouflage uniform, this informs us that the military have taken over the city, exterminating the remaining infected. The soldiers in their uniform look tough and brave,especially while they are carrying their weapons to protect themselves. The locations used are various streets in London that are deserted and in ruins, it is ironic to see London look so deserted as it is always crowded with people walking through the streets or driving, before the the outbreak. An empty hotel building that is owned by the soldiers for the evacuees to stay in giving them a feel of urban life once again. A military base can also be seen underground, this is not a usual everyday place to go to , it gives away a dramatic effect, informing the audience that the evacuees now need proper security and care. The make-up for the infected makes the film more realistic and scary, especially if you can see flesh and blood on the zombie actors as they are running after people, the red contact lenses help make them look like the real deal as it us an abnormal eye colour for normal people.
Sound
Non diegetic sound is playing right at the beginning, the film has it's own score to give the film more drama and tension. Sirens are also added in during a title card, raising the alarm as people are being infected inside the military base. Rock music can also be heard while people are running a way in fear, as the singer screams so do the people causing more drama and fear towards the audience. Gunfire has been added in the trailer, because real guns cannot be used to shoot as they are very dangerous while filming. The diegetic sounds used for the trailer are peoples screams and zombie moans, using people to make those needs gives the film more tension as it is them showing their feelings.
This film trailer is World War Z, the film was release in cinemas 21st June 2013. Directed by Marc Foster, the certificate for this film is 15 due to the amount of gore, violence and some language. Analysing this trailer will help me have a bigger and better insight in the media language for my horror trailer.
Genre
At the very beginning of this trailer audiences would assume the film was a family film due to the cinematography's high key lighting, giving the scene a happy positive mood, also the mise-en-scene would also give a cheerful effect, the characters clothing for example, they're all wearing light, clean clothing. The next scene gives away the true genre of this film which is Horror, a way audiences can tell it's a horror film is by the cinematography used such as extreme long shots to view the humans running away from the zombies in terror, cars are deserted in the middle of roads as people run. Sounds used are of people screaming in fear, weapons being fired at the zombies in order to protect themselves and other people who haven't been infected. The trailer uses it's own music score, violins are playing in the background with speed to give the trailer a dramatic edge, can also hear beats of drums to build up the tension halfway through as the soldiers and protagonist go to war with the zombies. The editing is quick paced, only giving each scene at least 3-5 seconds of showtime, locations such as Washington are briefly shown but it is deserted and full of smoke due to explosions, there are also different parts of Europe show, and are also in the same state as Washington. Strauss & Barthes hypothesis is featured in this trailer as the uninfected are represented as the good people and the infected are portrayed as the antagonists.
Representation
Laura Mulvey's theory is the 'male gaze', a stereotypical males point of view. A stereotypical male is represented as heroic, treats women as objects, single etc. The protagonist in this film trailer is portrayed by a male, he maybe male, white and able-bodied BUT he is a family man who cares to save his wife's and children's life, another reason why he isn't stereotypical, he is seen cooking the breakfast at the very beginning of the trailer, which is known as a woman's job in the stereotypical world. He is typically fit and strong for the brave leader role and also has a past of using weapons which is what makes him half stereotypical, but not fully as he is a married man, who treats people with respect.
The wife is stereotypical as she is afraid of the terror that is happening in the city, this portrays her as weak and vulnerable, she also has the responsibility of looking after the kids as the male protagonist goes on to save the world.
Narrative
It is unclear at first who the main protagonist is as the first scene is of a man and a woman sleeping in bed, but the audience soon finds out when the male takes control and guides his family to safety on the roof. Propps theory can be seen in the trailer at 1:48, a man is giving the male protagonist some advice, he maybe somewhat of a father figure to the main character, helping him along the outbreak. The protagonist is portrayed as an anti-hero, the reason for this is because he is a loving family man who also respects a lot of people during the outbreak. Todorov's theory is also seen as the equilibrium is shown at the start, where the sun is shining and a family are enjoying breakfast with each others company which presents them as being happy and positive, but the disruption occurs as a newscaster reports an infection has spread and a scene of a zombie outbreak, infecting humans. To add on more disruption the male protagonist has to split from his wife and children in order to save the world. A montage is also added in showing different deserted locations and zombies piling on top of each other to get to the humans. near the end of the trailer their is a brief equilibrium moment until their is an infected on the plain which cause a disruption.
Audience
The certificate for this film is for 15 and above, as the film contains, violence, gore, some upsetting scenes and bad language. In my opinion, the target audience is for ages 15 - 25, reason for this is because the protagonist is portrayed by Brad Pitt, who is a middle aged family man, quite like his character and also their isn't a lot of gore so squeamish people are able to watch the film to. I also believe that both genders would be interested in watching this film, males because of the action stunts and the main character is male, the women would watch the film because, like the men, they'd be more interested in the main character but in a completely different way as they see Brad Pitt as an attractive man in action saving peoples lives and looking out for his family. I think the audience could be active while watching this film as trailer doesn't show how the infection was caused and if the protagonist survives or not, I think the females will care more about the protagonists fate as it is Brad Pitt.
Media Language
Cinematography
Birds eye view shot's are used quite a lot in this trailer, the first one is in the city at the beginning of the trailer viewing the people running away in fear from the infected, also viewing deserted cars. The other birds eye shots are when the clips change to different locations, such as Washington and Europe viewing the demolished scenery. An Eye line match was used whilst the protagonist was talking to the solider (The commander perhaps?) this shot makes the scene looks as if the protagonist is talking to the audience but isn't looking directly towards us.
Jump cuts were used halfway through the trailer, mixing up clips in different orders from locations with the infected zombies running wild, the protagonist running away, to the plane being hijacked by the infected. The jump cuts increases the tension and excitement for audiences as they'll wonder what happens in the film and what order do the previewed scenes go in. A cut is used right at the beginning after the little girl asks "....What is Marshall Law?" in my opinion I believe this is a metaphor, I think the cut is like pulling the plug of positivity and the end of happiness and when the a new scene starts it's an introduction to terror. A couple of fades were used during the trailer, one was used when the protagonist joins the army fades out and fades in to a new scene with the protagonist at the location he needs to be in along with his army crew. The other fade was used when the cameras view the zombies chasing people, fades out and fades in to another scene when a male character talks about finding a vaccine.
Sound
Hear a lot of firing weapons, even when we couldn't see them being fired we can tell that it is someone, who is shooting an oncoming zombie. Screams of terror can also be heard, mostly by stereotypical woman as they show some weakness. The protagonist narrates near the end of the trailer saying "I think these things have a weakness." while people running away as if he has sussed it out as he was watching the people running away. The trailer also has it's own music score, violins are playing in the background and increase in speed to give the trailer a dramatic edge, I can also hear beats of drums playing as weapons are being fired and people are running, this builds up the tension halfway through as the soldiers and protagonist go to war with the zombies.
During the weekend, the horror film '28 Weeks Later', sequel to the British independent horror film, '28 Days Later' was on Film 4. I managed to pluck up the courage and watch it as i am very cowardly towards horror films, but this film was very helpful for my groups future horror trailer as it will be based in Urban area, I took some notes of what mise-en-scene was used in the film.
Location:
Film was based in London, Urban area, various parts were filmed and they were also deserted.
Some rural areas were also filmed e.g. Fields
Deserted Tube Stations
Props:
Army Merchandise e.g. Weapons, shelters,
Hospital gear e.g. face masks, gowns, Microscope
Warning signs
Tear gas
Supplied food
Clothing
Army Uniform
Dark shades, not clean
Stained, bloody, ripped
Make-up
Fake blood near eye area and coming out of the mouth, also on wounded areas
Light Contact lenses e.g. red,white or faded blue
Saw some unpleasant body parts
This is what I have seen whilst watching the film, we can't include most of Mise-en-scene areas as they are either dangerous or not available.
We have decided that our Horror film will be an 18. While researching Zombie/Horror films we found out most of the films were certificate 18's. They included a lot of violence and gore which is definitely not appropriate for younger audiences to watch.
And our trailer towards the audience will be a 12a, the reason for this is because we don't want to give too much of the storyline and the horror parts away to the audience and usually horror trailers are previewed during the day so it wouldn't be appropriate for younger audiences to see before the watershed.
This information is so useful and very interesting, knowing what people of different ages like in a Horror or not like. I also love their opinions on Locations for my horror trailer which I will keep in mind for the future when I start planning the trailer.
These 3 responses were from University students who study/studied film and media, so they'll have more knowledge than me, they have kindly given me their professional opinions.
I have received some very useful feedback which I am very grateful for.4 people have very kindly used up some of their time to answer the questionnaire in the same hour I uploaded it onto Facebook, not sure if i'll be getting anymore feedback yet, but I'll have to wait and see :)
I have put the Questionnaire on my FB account so that I will receive helpful information from people outside of the media classroom and more into the Social Networking sites.
I have had to remove a couple of questions because they were about Cinematography and Editing, the people I know don't really know what they are so I didn't want to confuse and put them off this questionnaire.
Here are our Interviews with 4 people, we asked them questions about Horror films, this feedback will help us in the future for when we produce our own Horror trailer.
Here is my Pitch for my groups future trailer, I have to be honest I did not know what to think of or what plot lines to do, but as I watched some trailers and analysed them they inspired me a little bit for the future trailer. Hopefully I will know what to do to make a successful trailer, props, poster and magazine cover for my project.
For our A2 project this year we were given a choice to work alone or in groups for this project, I chose to work in a group as I had a feeling I would struggled producing my own trailer.
For this years media project, I will be working with:-
During our first meeting we discussed who has more experience the most with Mise-en-scene, Editing, Cinematography and Sound. None of us are any good at Sound, so we decided we will work together on this and combined our Sound skills to make our future trailer sound professional.
For now we are all not sure at what we are best at, but we will try to figure it out over the weekend before the next meeting.
I only know that I am best at Editing because I know some of the Transitions e.g. Fade, and continuity techniques. For editing my own clips, I like to use my time on Technological software's and I also have Photoshop at home too, so I can finish off any projects that need to be done ASAP.
We will have occasional meetings every week to discuss future preparations, Ideas, problems etc.
My tutor gave me and my group a small task to start the first week of media off, we were given an assignment to make a 'Chase' sequence, it was like practising how to make a film trailer in only 1 minute. Dissolves were used to show connection between the characters. Also, we used pan shots to show the scene, we also used close up shots to show the emotions of the characters.
Here is my rough film poster for the classes Photoshop Challenge, the genre of my poster is Horror. I wanted to do horror because I thought I'd challenge myself in creating something scary and mysterious instead of designing something colourful and cheerful as I usually do for most of my work. I also wanted to face my fears as I hate watching scary films because they really scare me!
Using Google images I searched for an extreme close up of an eye with a tearful look. The eye I chose to use was very colourful and did not blend well with the horror theme, so I used Photoshop to dim the lighting slightly and change the eye colour to a darker shade.
I also found an image of a scary woman screaming in front of the camera, audiences would definitely find this photo frightening as the woman doesn't look normal, you can only see her head and nothing else.
Using Photoshop I placed the scary woman's head inside the pupil of the eye, this gives a mysterious and unusual effect, but this image will inform audiences that the eye is facing the head and we can see her face being reflected in the eye as the person is looking through a mirror, hence the title 'Through The Looking Glass'.
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