Plot summary

PROTAGONISTS
STOCK CHARACTERS
PLOTS & STOCK SITUATIONS
ICONS
BACKGROUND AND DECOR
THEMES

Jennifer's Body

In Devil's Kettle, Minnesota, the story focuses on two girls who are best friends. One of them is Anita "Needy" Lesnicky (Amanda Seyfried), a nerdy, substantially less popular, "plain jane" student. The other focus is on Jennifer Check (Megan Fox), a beautiful black-haired girl who is on the school's flag team.One evening, Jennifer has Needy accompany her to a local bar, where an Indie Rock Band named Low Shoulder is playing. During the performance, the bar catches on fire, and Needy and Jennifer just barely escape from being killed in the fire. Upon escaping, they are accosted by the band who seem to have made it out okay. However, Needy watches as the band members lead Jennifer to their van, before driving away, with Needy watching as the remains of the bar collapses to the ground in a fiery inferno.Needy eventually makes it home, where she calls her boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons), and explains about the disaster. However, she soon encounters Jennifer in her home: clothing torn, and bleeding. Things get even stranger, as Needy watches Jennifer tear into a raw chicken in her fridge and give an otherwordly roar at her, before spewing up a black substance...

Sorority Row

When five sorority girls inadvertently cause the murder of one of their sisters in a prank gone wrong, they agree to keep the matter to themselves and never speak of it again, so they can get on with their lives. This proves easier said than done, when after graduation a mysterious killer goes after the five of them and anyone who knows their secret. [D-Man2010]college juniors CASSIDY (Briana Evigan), JESSICA (Leah Pipes), CLAIRE (Jamie Chung), ELLIE (Rumer Willis) and MEGAN (Audrina Patridge) are sorority sisters sworn to trust, secrecy and solidarity, no matter what. But their loyalty is tested when a prank at a raucous house party goes terribly wrong and Megan ends up brutally murdered. The girls agree to hide the bloody corpse and keep their secret forever. Fast forward one year to graduation. As they prepare to say goodbye to the house and each other, the girls plan one last alcohol-fueled bash on Sorority Row, confident their dark secret remains buried. But does it? As the party rages in the front yard, the bedrooms and the hot tub, the girls receive cell phone videos taken the night of Megan's murder from an anonymous sender who threatens to forward the videos to the police...

Both storylines do share a similarity of conveying female characters as the characters with the most power, in 'Jennifer's body', she is enveyed by girls and lusted for by guys and is the main character and in 'Sorority row', it is based on girls in a sorority with a strong friendship and sense of community

What makes the storyline of 'Jennifer's Body' different is that she has a secret, strange and unusual lifestyle of feeding on young men which seems oblivious to the students that adore her at her high school. 'Sorority row' also has a different storyline as these girls who are part of an honest and truthful community choose to keep a deep, dark secret of the dissapearance of their 'sister'.

I can see BOTH plotlines as a part of a formula for the 'horror' genre as they both contain a portfolio of key elements from which they are composed [highlighted in different colours] which are the headings for the kinds of item the audience would look to see from a horror movie. At the beginning of both plot summaries, we have already been introduced to the genre of the movie; "In Devil's Kettle, Minnesota" They 'Devil' suggests that this isn't any ordinary town full of ordinary people, and the kettle symbolises the town like hell. (Jennifer's Body). "When five sorority girls inadvertently cause the murder of one of their sisters in a prank gone wrong, they agree to keep the matter to themselves and never speak of it again, so they can get on with their lives." The word 'murder' draws the audience straight into believing that this is a horror movie and ''..and necer speak of it again,.." shows that this a mystery and unexpected events are about to occur..

Applying recognisable conventions of trailers

In order to play with the recognisable conventions of trailers, in groups we came up with ideas about how to market and promote 'Bloodshed High'.

We firstly thought that the best way to get the visual of the title given to us would be to create a storyboard of the events that would take place in the trailer. We thought the best way to start rather than to jump into the story line would be to introduce it by a well known production company so rather than the typical 'Twisted Pictures Present..', we decided to use 'Lionsgate' as they are never really known to make horror movies so it would look like they are venturing into something new.

I genuinely felt confident about the task as we were given the opportunity to create any visual of the title 'Bloodshed High', coming up with creative ideas and concepts which we were capable of doing.

We had a good unique selling point which was a very important feature such as the setting which would be in a school in London with British actors rather than in typical America with Hollywood actors.

After our group presentation (above) and looking at other groups ideas I learnt A LOT from this exercise;

Trailers are the most important type of advertisement for a movie; it shows the best parts of the movie which can be full of action, mystery, images and sounds which lures the target audience into watching.

Most successful film trailers contain well known actors and actresses and mentions a well known director e.g. The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan

Introduction of our group

Me and Eleona are a group and are going to construct a horror movie trailer along with a film poster and magazine cover. We firstly exchanged contact details to make sure that we would keep in touch outside of school incase of new ideas. Planning started from early - including the content of the trailer - we wanted to make it different so we both looked through A LOT of horror movie trailers for inspiration and ideas. As Mr Rosen says ''good artists borrow, great artists steal''.

Concepts of Horror movie

Today me and my group did a shower storm of horror movie concepts. Around the showerstorm we had 3 different ideas of our horror movie trailer containing a storyplan
Idea 1:
Title: "Story Street"
Setting: On a bus at Story Street
BEGINNING: Two detectives in an office discuss the mysterious dissapearings of people living in Story Street

MIDDLE: Young girl gets onto a night bus. Where the bus driver is meant to be is completely pitch black, in a worry she turns to get off bus but the doors suddenly close on her. She hen goes upstairs on the bus. She worries more as the bus goes really fast not even stopping at traffic lights. The bus then says "Story Street" and underneath it says 'Bus Not Stopping' which is odd and as the girl turns around she notices a dark figure on the bus. Suddenly the bus lights start to flicker then as the lights turn back on, the girl is surrounded by strange deformed humans who start grabbing at her clothes

END: The dark figure who is the male detective from the beginning rises and grabs the girl and both fall at the back of the bus. The deformed humans surround them then freeze as the bus says "This bus terminates here, you have reached the end of the line".

Analysing a trailer

We are told the name of the film towards the end of the trailer which wouldn't be much of a suprise to the audience as this is the sixth movie of the original 'Saw' which is a well-known horror movie using twisted images and ways of torture to their victims

There is a lot of action in this trailer especially with the use of torturous machinery. It is very fast and daring creating a lot and urgency and anxiety for the victims to escape. There isn't so much music in this trailer; mostly screaming and the sound of the saws and torture devices.

I would expect to see this film trailer in a movie theatre for movies 18+ as it contains quite ghorry images and is definitely for a more mature audience. It is shown on breaks between TV programmes but a lot of the gruesome images are usually cut out.

At the beginning of the trailer, there isn't so much speed as the viewer realises the setting, that the torture is now taking place in public places. As the torture begins, the speed quickens, creating a thrill for the audience.

The trailer is definitely more effective in making me want to see the film. The sounds, flashing images and the use of 3d would excite me into experiencing saw 3d with a blast.

What are the major elements of a film marketing campaign?

[Bride wars]

Connotations;The title suggests humor with words in no relation to each other (bride, wars). Typography;Use of feminine colour pink, ‘Bride’ is written quite elegantly and then ‘WARS’ in in large bold capitals showing that it could be the opposite of a typical wedding story. (After watching trailer)Connotation;it could turn out to be destructive with two close friends having a wedding on the same day. Denotation;‘Meet Liv and Emma – best friends since childhood. Blonde Liv is sassy and stylish with a great career as a successful Lawyer – she’s a woman who has the man, the wardrobe and the job and settles for nothing but the best. Brunette Emma on the other hand is caring and carefree with a rewarding career as as a school teacher – a woman who just wants the best in life. Everything goes well until they find out their weddings are both on the same day – what are best friends to do?’

[AdULTHOOD]

Connotations; The second part from the movie KiDULTHOOD which could suggest a change over time due to the name being changed to ‘adult’. Typography; A lower cased ‘d’ is used in the title contradicting the name of the film which may not be aimed at adults, especially with the fact that the character on the cover is a young man. (After watching trailer) Connotation;Could suggest that this could be a very challenging but fearless film. Denotation;After 6 years in prison for killing Trife, Sam Peel is released to face the guilt and pain caused by his crime. Before he can rebuild his life there’s something he has to face first…those seeking revenge. In a desperate race through his past, the next 24 hours could just be the longest of his life. As well as his last. Sam is about to go from kidulthood to adulthood..if he survives.

[This Christmas]

Connotations;Suggests that ‘This Christmas’ will be a different kind of Christmas for the family. ‘You can’t exchange family’ could symbolize the people that we are mostly with around Christmas time. Typography;Uses the familiar Christmas colours or red and white with a nice font. (After watching trailer)Connotation;Could suggest that every family have problems and secrets but the loving spirit of Christmas pulls them together. Denotation; THIS CHRISTMAS there’s no place like family. For the first time in years, all the Whitfield kids have come to spend the holiday with their mum and boyfriend Joe. And each has brought plenty of baggage along with them. As the lights are hung and the tree in trimmed, secrets are revealed and ties are tested . But as their lives converge again, they join together to rediscover and celebrate the wonderful gift of family.

Which is more important in a trailer; words or images?

I think images are more important in a trailer because by being given an actual visual of the movie it gives the viewer a deeper understanding of the genre, mood and a look of the characters. However, sometimes images can be deceiving. For example, a picture of a happy family on the cover of a movie could include content of a sad and sorrowful movie which would probably be described in the sub-title. Words can sometimes be very helpful for the viewer to understand the genre of the film e.g. ‘This Christmas’ -> ‘You can’t exchange family’ -> an obvious family movie. But most people into movies such as myself would prefer to see images to look out for whilst watching trailers in the movie theatre

Lesson with Mr Pete Frasier

Starting this blog is a helpful way of planning, pointing down and evaluating the construction of the horror movie trailer that we have been told to create as well as a magazine cover and poster for the trailer. We will be working in a group no less than 5 people and we will be the producers, directors and actors of this trailer. In a lesson with Mr Rosen, on 25/06/10, we were given the chance to be independent workers filming a short scene of any content we wish. We were also advised to remember all the different types of camera techniques which were mise-en-scene, camera shots and angles, editing and sound. It was a good practical as we got a little taster of what was to come. The following week in a special lesson with Mr Mazzocchi (30/06/10), Pete Frasier, a media specialist came in the lesson and showed us the basic ropes on how to create a good video. We firstly started off with small exercises to do a drawing portraying our thoughts of Media AS so far. When we finished the teacher then stuck them on the wall and told each student to have a look at each others drawing of how they visualize media studies. Each one was very different and creative showing different thoughts and feelings towards the subject.

We then got into groups and drew what we would see as a 'Full English' breakfast. Every groups drawing turned out completely different to each other and can relate to how media is seen in many different ways. At the beginning of the lesson we were mainly told the main points of planning a successful trailer and were showed a music video by year 13 students who received high marks for their use of creativity which inspired us all to create a very good trailer.

I also did research on the internet browsing through many horror movie trailers, most of which have been released in the cinema. The iTunes website is very good to look at thousands of trailers from any movie genre.

Filming 'The meeting'

In this lesson with Mr Rosen we were told to be put into groups and film a short movie scene consisting of as much camera techniques and skills that we have learnt. It had to take place on the Burghley school grounds and we had 40 minutes to complete this exercise then upload it on the macs. Before getting practical, me and my group [Eleona and Sam] drew out parts of the scene on the storyboard and also discussed the story line for roughly 5 minutes then we started filming. We had to cut and do a few takes due to people appearing in the frame and such but apart from that, the trailer came out okay.

When we watched each others trailers as a class on 09/07/10, we were given both positive and negative criticism from the class and Mr Rosen. There were many things that could have been done differently whilst filming.

This also made each individual realise how much work we are going to have to do in order to make a successful trailer. It was a good advantage that we did this work now with helpful advice from Mr Rosen so we ourselves could practice more over the holidays

Evaluation key Points:

• To study the use of shot types in consideration of filming
• Use a different storyline, which could be seen as a Unique Selling Point
• Make more use of media technology i.e. iMovie