The Role Of The Distributor.

The role of the distributor is to make a distribution plan for the film. This is vital to the overall success of the product, and most importantly this should make the product even more appealing for the target audience. In order for this to be successful the distributor has to make decisions on where it will be released and in which media format it will be released, this will maximise profits, boost sales and increase the films popularity. When doing this it is important that the distributor thinks about specific things, market knowledge, commercial experience and statistical research. The distributors look at what they believe the film will likely make, and always have a budget plan. 

The distributor must perform audience profiling, specifically looking at age group, gender, lifestyle, media consumption and social networking, this helps the distributor learn a lot more about the audience, it also shows the distributor the different forms in which the audience are consuming the media, telling the distributor where when and how to launch the film, in the way that it will be most successful. One problem that the distributor faces is the ever changing taste of the audience, it changes with technology and other things, suggesting that traditional methods don't always work, to counteract this further research must be done so that the film is promoted and marketed in the bet ways possible. Competition has a big effect on the release date of the film, because there will be several films released at the same time, and within quick succession of each other, some may be completely different genres, but other could be the same, and be targeting the same target audience as the distributors film. Another factor that effects the release date of the film will be holidays, school ones, and religious ones, but most importantly holidays that effect the lives of their target audience. The distributor will be looking for space within the media market, a time which will allow the success of the film.
  

Distributors produce a trailer for the film, this is the most cost effective marketing technique, and generates the most interest for the film out of all the marketing techniques, therefore it extremely important that it is done well. They will do this after being given content from the film itself, they can then use this to make the best trailer possible, it must make the audience want to see the film, and also film marketing raises awareness of the film, it creates interest in it and attracts the target audience. Distributors have to complete against other distributors for popularity of their film. 

 

As well as the trailer the film will be promoted by using posters and billboards. Posters are sometimes brought about before anything else, these are called teaser posters, these let the audience no that the film is coming soon, and this will create excitement in the target audience before the film is released. Posters usually include the film title, name of the stars, an image that relates to the film and genre, a tag line and names of everyone involved in it which make up the billing block. The most effective things about posters are all the places they can appear in, for example in cinemas, this is part of expanding the audience, so that it does not just include the target audience, because people going to see other films could see that poster and then go and see that film at a later date. This is why posters are so common when it comes to marketing. On the online website for the film will be the trailer, information about it's production, exclusive stills, interviews with the actors/actresses, and other things. All of this contributes to the online awareness of the film, this is another way in which the audience are excited by the distributor. The distributor has a publicity team, they arrange interviews with the cast and crew that were involved in the film, making up press kits, these are done for the journalists, and give facts and the movie itself and how it was produced. Film festivals are held world wide, and are very popular events. Journalists and film buyers and sellers attend them, which means that marketing here is very important in promoting the film. 

The distributor is responsible for putting together promotional partnerships, allowing the film to be displayed in places that it wouldn't reach through conventional marketing alone e.g. shop. Competitions are a common thing that are used to help gain interest in the film, they are effective because they allow the audience to interact with characters from the film. 

This trailer uses several horror conventions to make sure that it is a success among it's target audience. IT takes place in a large isolated house, which is a conventional setting in horror, known as the 'haunted house', it is usually a big a creepy old house, with one place that you can't get into. In this trailer we see this exact concept. "There are more than 30 rooms in all", this gives the audience a clue as to the scale of the building, the main protagonist, or 'final girl' then goes on to say, "there's a door in the attic, it doesn't open". This has now confirmed in the audiences mind where the horror is to be found. The genre of horror often plays of disabilities, and we can also see that in this trailer, "he can't talk at all". This immediately makes the audience want to no what happened to him, and therefore they will keep watching. They find out that "it happened a month ago, up in the attack". This is the room which the "Skeleton Key" doesn't open. This will make them want to see the film, because the automatically need to no what’s inside that room that’s so horrifically terrorising that it caused the Man to have a stroke. This trailer uses the past, and voodoo to add a sense of ancient terror. All the unanswered questions are used specifically to make the audience go and see the film. The lighting is very dark in this trailer, and the Mise En Scene consists of old objects that look like they haven't been used for years, especially in the 'voodoo' room, and in the majority of the house. I like the sound at the start of this trailer, it's not conventional for horror, but does work because it creates a representation of the place they live in and that their may be spells at work. Towards the end of the trailer we hear some more conventional type sounds, for example, bangs and lighting strikes to match the cuts, and high pitch strings to build the tension.

What's different between A Teaser Trailer and A Theatrical Trailer?

Teaser Trailer:

This type of trailer is much shorter than a full theatrical one, the usually last between 30 and 60 seconds, never usually any longer than a minute and a half. This is because the primary objective is to and excitment about the realease of the upcoming film. It wouldn't give a release date like a theatrical trailer, and wouldn't contain a large amount of footage from the feel, they are designed to leave the audience a bit confussed as to what they saw, which will give them a sence of wanting to see more, and this is why teaser trailers are such a popular device in making the target audience go and see the film. 

Theatrical Trailer:

This is a preview of the film that is going to be released, it will include, the genre, the production values and the title of the movie. There would usually be a mixture of voice overs, and actual dialogue from the movie in this type of trailer. Unanswered questions are a very popular device used when making a horror trailer.Music will be a big part of this trailer, it will be very dramatic, and give us a feel of the genre.

Target Audience research and analysis.

This chart shows the most popular genre of horror among out target audience, this is vital to the success of our trailer, because we need it to fit in with the genre that people from the ages of 18 - 25 watch. The results show that Psychological was the most popular genre, closely followed by Gore, therefore we have based our trailer around these Genres. I believe that our trailer will work in our demographic due to this.

This graph shows how regularly our target audience actually watch a horror film. Once a month was the most common, by almost half, so this will help decide when our trailer should be released, for example at the beginning of the Month, and possibly when no other horror trailers are coming out. 

This chart shows us the amount of people from each sex that took part in our survey, it shew that more Girls answered it, which means that our target audience includes more Women than Men, this will help us in making the trailer, so aim it slightly more at Women, which should make the trailer itself more successful. 

This graph shows the most and least common ages of the people that took our survey, 16 - 18 was the most common age gap. This will aid us when we come to decide what rating to make our trailer.

What are some of the key conventions of the horror genre

   All films are made up of certainly rules and conventions that define which genre and sub-genre they will fall into. I have been studying the conventions of the horror genre and what makes a horror a horror. Elements to take into consideration are settings, technical code, Iconography, narrative structure, character types and themes. Horror settings are typically set out of the way, for example somewhere like, the suburbs, this allows for any kinda of secret organization of evil or mutant race to exist in complete secret. Of course everything needs to happen at night time, or out of hours, so for example someone stays late after work, only to be axed to death with no one there to save them. Secrets, innocence and ‘the past’ also play a big part in the conventional settings of horror. A school has that feel of innocence which is why it remains a popular choice of horror films. There are clear examples of secrets and the past in a lot of horror settings, for example in the “Amityville Horror” the house is built upon an Indian burial ground, this exact same idea is also used in “The Shining”, as the hotel is also built on an Indian burial ground, this helps to show just how conventional the rules of setting in a horror film are.

In horror films the technical code is very distinct. The camera work often uses weird and unconventional techniques of filming, for example strange and expressive angles causing disorientation. POV’s and ECU’s are very common in horror films, because both shots allow us to relate with the victim or sometimes with the monster. The editing is never smooth in a horror film, it’s very jumpy and eerie, adding fear and tension to scenes, and the sound often backs up the cutting, by including a high stab note with the cuts. Musical techniques are also very obvious in horror films, the minor key is always used! For example, when tension is building up in the film, the orchestra would play an ascending scale, incorporating a crescendo, and then end on a non perfect cadence; this leaves the audience with the feeling of, what next?

The horror genre itself is iconic, and this comes from the iconography within the films. The colors red and black directly represent horror, simple denotations of these colors would be darkness, evil, blood, pain, anger, danger and the unknown; all of which are big elements in the genre of horror. Low key lighting is also used to create the iconic idea of shadows, connoting hell, primitive instincts and death. The topic of innocence is also an iconic part of horror; we can see this with the use of nursery rhymes, and songs sung by children.

Narrative structure takes a big role in the genre of horror, many horrors use Todorov’s theories. There is never a simple hero; they are always a victim/hero who is in some way mentally or physically scared.

In all horror’s there has to be a few character types included to make it fit completely into the genre of horror, first we have the main protagonist, which is usually a ‘final girl’ and in slashes she is often a tom boy who is virginal. There’s the ‘Monster’ which is often some kind of beast that doesn’t die, leaving room for a sequel, the monster often has some kinda of creepy past, which has left them mentally scared and often with a desire to kill! Silly teenagers that are anti social and not ‘morally correct’, who get punished for this by being killed. There is also Scientists or doctors that make a mistake in an experiment, the ’have a go hero’, that gets killed, those who refuse to believe, who often finally accept the truth just before there death, children, for the added sense of innocence and useless policemen, or some type of law enforcement, e.g. security guards or doormen.

Lastly I will discuss themes. In the horror genre there is the theme of binary opposites, the most obvious being good vs. evil, which is the foundation of all horrors, but there are more deeply imbedded binary opposites, such as, natural vs. unnatural, known vs. unknown, strong vs. weak, and life vs. death. Horror is often close to sex, this is what a theorist called Freud said, and in most horrors we see some kinda of sexual or maybe rape scene, making sex a big theme in the horror genre. The biggest there themes date all the way back to the three classic novels, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein’s Monster. Those three themes are, what lie's on the other side of death? The hidden evil inside of us, and science gone out of control. Some believe that ALL horrors even made are based on one of these three stories.

The Strangers Trailer.

This trailer begins in a strange way, at first it almost appears not to be a horror, but as the music begins to fade out and change tone to a slightly darker feel we see that it is indeed a horror film. After this the Central characters are introduced, and there relationship, in this case, they are in love. This mood is broken with a knock at the door, immediately reminding the audience that this love story doesn't have a happy ending, then the question, "what is it, like 4 in the morning?" this connotes that it's not going to be your normal average person at the door, and the dark feel of the music helps represent that to the audience. I think the framed snap shots of terror along side the creepy looped "woo" in the music, works extremely well and adds a great sense of fear, this is a technique that I would defiantly want to en corporate into my horror trailer.

This trailer begins with an interesting ticking sound, this represents the sound of a bomb that's about to go off, this noise is used to attract fans of the previous film, because being a sequel it will already have a fan base who knows the plot, which is that a nuclear bomb went off some time ago, contaminating the area, causing the people to mutate and in terms of narrative 'become the monsters'. So they instantly know that it will be the same monsters that were in the last film. As writing appears on the screen we hear what almost sounds like a knife cutting skin, almost representing as if the writing is being carved into the screen. We can instantly see what sub genre this horror is because it gets straight into the gory scenes, making it 'torture porn'. Typical of horror trailers we hear the question "where is everybody?" this makes it conventional and makes the audience want to watch the film to find out the answer. After this the stereotypical conventional heartbeat sound effect comes in, I will be using this in my trailer because it simply works, regardless of what horror film it is.

Narrative Theory in 'The Shining'.

Tzvetan Todorov - At the beginning of the film everything is fine. This equilibrium is then disturbed, when the ‘happy’ family move to the hotel, this starts off a chain of bad events. In the end the problem is resolved, because Jack is dead, and there is no longer a threat to the life of Danny and Wendy, however in the grand scheme of things, there is no clear resolution at the end, because although Jack was a lousy person and a bad Farther, the Dad and Husband has been lost, therefore the family is no longer complete. This is useful because it helps to give a general structure to the film. I feel that The Shining does fit into the classic Hollywood structure of narrative, therefore Todorov’s theory is useful and can be applied to this film, although the ending could be debated slightly.



Vladimir Propp - This Russian critic looked at and examined 100’s of folk tales, and was able to identify 8 character roles. This can be mostly applied to The Shining:

The Villains - Jack, Grady and The Hotel.
The Hero - Danny
The Donor - Hallorann
The Helper - Tony
The Princess - Wendy
Her Farther - N/A
The Dispatcher - Tony
The False Hero - Wendy

Claude Levi-Strauss/Roland Barthes - These theorists presented the idea that all narratives were made up of binary opposites. And in the film there are clear examples that prove this theory to be correct. For starters we notice that Jack is insane and that Wendy (until the very end) is sane, because whilst he is having conversations with ghosts, she is doing all the hotel work and keeping the place up to shape, which is his job title. But as for Danny we remain uncertain, this is because he talks to himself and has this ability to ‘shine’, making his sane, but at the same time not sane. There’s a big contrast between real life and ghosts in this film, and what happens when they meet. Good and evil is simple to see in the Shining, Jack and the Hotel are evil, and on the good side there is Danny and Wendy. Basically this theory works for this narrative, but I believe there is more to this film than simply binary opposites.

Bordwell and Thompson - We can apply this in the shining because the events are between a family relationship and happen over a series of time, as Jack becomes more and more insane, many flash backs in time occur showing the horrific back story of the hotel. Time is a huge factor in this film, and many different ideas, interpretations and assumptions can be made from looking at the narrative. So applying this theory has parts that work and parts that don’t work.

Freud - The Return of the Repressed.

This is the process where elements that have been repressed in our subconscious reappear. Freud states that everything we've ever known and seen we remember, even if we have forgotten it. For example, every second of your life is stored in your brain, but not all is visible to you on a daily basis. But occasionally those things we have forgotten, and that are stored in our subconscious, suddenly return into are conscious state of mind.



This relates to the genre of horror. Because it is very similar to the idea that something returns from the past, which is considered to be one of the three stories that all horror films are based upon. This idea comes from the famous novel of Dracula. Although in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we see this idea of the return of the repressed, because repressed in Dr.Jekyll is Mr. Hyde.


 Freud also states that we have to represee primal urges in order to take our place in culture. These urges may include rage, anger, murderous impulses etc.For example, Freud believes that we all wish to rape, hurt and kill people, in our subconscious, but we choose not to, because we no that it would be wrong to do so.

Horror Trailer. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

This trailer,demonstrated many techniques that are conventional of horror trailers. There is a shot of a back lit staircase in this trailer, connoting , the path way to hell and venturing into the unknown, which I would like to use in my trailer, because it's a great shot that works regardless of the story. I'm also a huge fan of the soundtrack in this trailer, it uses "mockingbird" and "amazing grace", two very old and classic songs, this sets a certain mood that instantly attracts the target audience to the trailer, I will be using this type of soundtrack in my trailer, to give it that creepy feel, that puts the audience on edge. I also love how at the beginning of the trailer the shots are fading nicely along to the beat of the song "mockingbird", but then towards the end when the heart beats come in, the cuts become more abrupt. I think the best bit in the trailer is the creepy noises that sound almost like a creaking door, I think this techniques is very effective in creating the sense of horror. Perhaps the most convention technique we see is where the question, "where are you taking us?", is asked in this trailer, because it sets the mood and due to the question not being answered, it leaves the target audience on the edge of there seat, where they are at the point that they simply must know what happens!