The Asylum 'Certificate'

All films have what we called a certificate on it. This rangers from PG,12A,15,18. 

PG- Parental Guidance, this means that a parent is advised to follow the child to watch the movie.

12A is usually only in America, we dont really get 12A films in Britain.

15 - this means that no child under the age of 15 is allowed to watch this film.

18 - This means that no child under the age of 18 is allowed to watch this film in the cinema, , this may be because there might be explicit scenes or sexual content.

In The Asylum the certificate, reason being is that due to there being quick flashes of a 'ghost' of a little girl, she is going to look dead with make up. This is not a PG. However it will not be an 18 there is not much violence in the movie to make it an 18 and there is sexual scenes init also.

Target Audience

Target Audience is a huge part of creating a horror trailer. We done some research, what age group would watch our film, what hobbies they would take part in. Doing research on my target audience helped us decide the route we went down in terms of choosing our film trailr.

Possible Filming Locations

In media we had the opportunity to go to a part of the school which is destroyed and is bombarded with rubbish and old computers. This exercise helped us because it gave us ideas as to what and where we would like to film or film trailers. In our horror trailer the spirits leave messages on the wall which read things such as 'leave now' or 'beware'. In this room there is graffiti on the wall, this could be very good and effective in our horror trailer. The notes on the wall is exactly what we want portray in our horror trailer.

The dark and cold location is perfect for the type of atmosphere we want to create when our target audience are watching our film in the cinema. The dark lighting screams violence and fear. The grey colors on the wall goes perfectly with the atmosphere we would like to create in the asylum, reasoning being is that if the walls were painted in rainbow colors it would portray fun and happiness which is the opposite we want to show. 

The Asylum Characters

The main character (Protagonist) is played my Flynn Sager which is where we got the name 'Dr Sager' from.
Dr Sager - Dr Sager is a psychologist who has been asked to conduct research on why the previous researchers are now patients in Brook House Asylum. Dr Sager is a family man who has been married for 7 years, he grandfather was also a psychologist and her takes his work very serious. When Dr Sager is not at work he enjoys socializing with his friends whether that be going to a football game or going to the pub. Dr sager can be described as an ordinarily man, he dresses casually however he knows how to dress fancy when needed. He lives with his wife and child and has lived in london all his life and does not ever plan on leaving.


The stock characters in 'The Asylum' are patients in Brook House Asylum, the stock characters would be played by our friends, these stock characters are: the jock, the popular girl, the wanderer. This will be easy to show because the setting is in an mental asylum school.

Applying Mulvey's Theory

Mulvey's theory talks about how women are portrayed and are seen in movies. In this post I am applying her theory to 2 horror trailers and lets see if her theory is true.

The 1st trailer I will be testing out mulvey's theory to is 'Grave Encounters'. This film is the sub genre of Horror-super natural, a film crew decide to find out the truth behind a mental asylum which many have complained about the spirits and weird things happening to them and the building. From seeing this horror trailer it tells me that it supports mulvey's theory. The film crew are going around catching there reports on camera and the women is the one holding the camera, because of this we do not see her. We also hear her screams, this just shows her fear and venerability which is different to the men who are portrayed as brave and fearless. . Through out the trailer we see many men, they are portrayed as brave men and they have taken the lead roles. There is also a shot when a women is shown, instead of her wearing a night dress covering her arms and legs she is wearing a skimpy night dress from which her legs are exposed. From learning about Mulvey's theory and watching this trailer is tells me that this film and other many horror films support her ideas.

The second trailer I applied Mulvey's trailer to was 'Tucker dale vs Evil' and very similar to 'Grave encounters' maybe even more it supports mulvey's gaze theory.

In 'Tukerdale vs Evil' we already know that it supports Mulvey's gaze theory from the 1st few lines. One  of the protagonists who is a female said "Did you see the way those guys looked at us" this tells us that maybe she wanted them to look at her is such a way. This supports her theory of women be looked at like sex objects. Through out the flim the men are portrayed as strong and inferior sex, the idea that women need be saved just inhances the idea that women are looked at like helpless people. Much like ' Grave encounters' there are shots with women wearing skimpy clothes such as a bikini, this just proves her theory that women are seen as helpless, sex objects..

Applying Burton's Theory to 'The Asylum'

Researching into Burton's theory has allowed me to think about movies in different ways. In this post I will apply Burtons theory to our horror movie synopsis. 

The Asylum Synopsis

Inspector Sager is an ordinary man who lives in London with his wife and child and works as an inspector. He is currently investigating why there has been an unexplained death and Brook House School secondary school which was once an asylum for mentally ill children.  Inspector Sager decides to investigate and interview students in order to discover the truth and find Harriett’s killer. Strange occurrences start happening to him such as the light flickering on and off, door slamming shut, objects breaking by themselves.  He decides to interview students in order to find out information about why this is happening and who killed harriet. Students alert him to the fact that ‘Grace’ (a former patient of brook house asylum) is warning him to leave immediately. He ignores their advice and carries on investigating.  Grace starts tormenting him. Eventually Inspector starts obsessing over Grace and finally comes face to face with her. Will he survive to tell the tale or will he surrender and end up a helpless man tortured by the ghost of dead mental patients.

Settings
Protagonists
icons
Stock Characters
plot and Stock situations

The Asylum Storyboard

The Tagline for 'The Asylum'

What don't they want him to find out? - This creates curiosity within our target audience.
How far would you go to discover the truth? - This makes the audience think what does he want to find out.
Adjectives that best describe my film is: Revenge, Torture and Discovery.
Revenge indicates that someone or something is out for revenge and they will get it.
Torture indicates what someone is going to get tortured, this ties in with discovery, what are they finding out that they are getting tortured for.

Film's Cool

From our weekly sessions of Film's Cool I have learnt many things; other than helping me with what path I should go down concerning what career i should take, it has also helped me my coursework. In the planning process Hayley, Sophie and I have come up with many idea as to what out horror film should about so we can create and outstanding trailer, however is guests in film's cool helped us change our idea to make it much better. They gave us the idea of the main character having a background, they gave us the idea as to whether we would like our target audience to like or hate him; whether the audience should be happy that man is getting tortured or they feel sorry for him. Film's Cool has helped me a great amount and I look forward for the next 7 weeks.

Film trailers similar to the Asylum

Gothika is similar to our horror film in the sense that they are both set in a mental asylum and both doing research, however where our film is different is that the spirits with the organisation actually makes contact with out doctor and tortures him.

Paranormal Activity is similar to our horror film because because they both belong to the genre of Horror- supernatural. They evil spirits tormenting both the antagonists .

The Asylum

The Asylum Synopsis

Inspector Sager is an ordinary man who lives in London with his wife and child. He is currently investigating why there has been an unexplained death and Brook House School secondary school which was once an asylum for mentally ill children. Strange occurrences start happening to him such as the light flickering on and off, door slamming shut and he wants to know what is going on.  He decides to interview students in order to find out information about why this is happening and who killed harriet. Students alert him to the fact that ‘Grace’ (a former mental patient who was murdered many years ago) is warning him to leave immediately. He ignores their advice and carries on investigating.  Grace starts tormenting him. Eventually Inspector starts obsessing over Grace and finally comes face to face with her. Will he survive to tell the tale or will he surrender and end up a helpless man tortured by the ghost of dead mental patients.

Applying Todorov's Theory

I am applying Todorov's theory to Mel Gibson's apocolypto which is my favorite film.


The film is set in the Aborigine times so the setting is unfamiliar, 


The EQULIBRIUM of the film is that everything is fine, they are hunting food the amazon which is normal for them.


Then the DISRUPTION is that they are invaded by another tribe and they are taking as hostage, however the main character saw this coming and hid his pregnant wife and child in a safe place in order for them to be safe.


The RECOGNITION is that he needs to find a way to escape from the kidnappers so he can rescue his wife before she gives birth and before the kidnappers kill him.


The REPAIR is that he finally breaks away from the kidnappers and one by one he kills them off using different methods in the jungle.


The RESOLUTION is that he gets to his wife and child before something bad happens and they go back into the jungle and start a new life.


By using this theory it always me to look at films different and allows me to identify the 5 steps. It also is helping me and my group with our coursework; allowing us use this theory to help us with our horror trailer.

Todorov's Theory

Todorov's theory suggests that conventional narratives are structured in 5 steps: Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Repair , Resolution. 


Equilibrium - This the beginning of the movie, when everything is normal and as it should be. Nothing is wrong at this stage.
Disruption - This is when the equilibrium is DISRUPTED and things turn to bad and turn for the worst
Recognition - They have realized that something has gone wrong, they have RECOGNIZED the situation.
Repair - Now they have acknowledged that something has gone wrong they make an attempt to try and REPAIR the situation. Events occur to try and restore what has gone wrong.
Resolution - Everything has been restored, they fixed the situation and all has been restored and is back to normal.


From looking at todorov's theory i have applied it to many films i have watched and i seen that his theory is correct.

Mulvey's Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey's 'gaze' means how the audience views with the people presented in the cinema.

Laura Mulvey was a 'Feminist', she looked at 3 points: Who men look at women

                                                                                                       How women look and women

                                                                                                       How women look at themselves. 

The male gaze theory suggests how the male point of view is adopted by the camera. She said that this benefits the male audience. She said that when the camera is 'lingering' of the female body this is an example of this.

The female audience are positioned in a way where the male audience are recognized.  

Criticisms of Laura Mulvey's gaze


She claims that women are being looked negatively, however that was in 1975 and the perceptions of women has changed a big deal over the years. Nowadays it s not only the males that take on the heroic character. eg. Lara croft in tomb raiders and kill bill.


In the film trailer above 'kill bill' women are portrayed in the opposite way of how Mulvey's describes it. In kill bill the herioic character is a female who is portrayed as a strong independent women. She is portrayed as a powerful women.


Using this idea, it allows me to notice for much film has changed and how i can incorporate her ideas and changes into my horror trailer

Killers in Horror Films

By looking at the different types of  killers in the horror genre it allows me to identify which type of killer I will have in my horror trailer. When watching a horror movie I am now able to say which type of killer it is.

Research of Stock Characters

Research of stock characters

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Observations into Burtons Genre Theory

Protagonists -  The protagonist in a movie and often the main characters. The protagonist can either be a hero or the villain. The male protagonist are often loners. 
Stock Characters - The stock characters are minor characters that star in the movies. 
This could be a police officer or the typical jock that gets killed. The stock characters are very stereo typical.
Plots and Stock Situations - Plot and stock situations are also very stereotypical, they are very predictable and recognizable. In romantic movies a recognizable situation would be the heroine not being able to get the boy.
Icons -  The aspect of the genre we immediately recognize and understand. 3 main type         of icons; Objects, backgrounds and sometimes stars. EG. Scream the icon is the mask we automatically understand what genre it is.
Settings - The settings is very important in a movie. They are distinctive for a given genre.


In the 3rd addition to the final destination saga, Wendy has becomes death's new victim. Wendy has a very vivid preminition about how her friends are going to die. However she has discovered a way to cheat death before the next person suffers a horrid,bloody and gruesome death. 


When alone in a house in the suburbs, you never know who is watching you. Kristin and John think there alone until they are being tortured by the murderers who are mysterious people in masks. There friend visits the house but ends up being murdered in a case of mistaken identity. Alone in the house Kristin is trying to escape but they torment her by tying her up and stabbing her repeatedly, she asks " Why are you doing this" they reply "because you are home".  


After a couple suffers a traumatic situation such as still birth there only option is to adopt. When Kate and John decide to adopt little orphan girl Esther from the orphanage they have no idea what they are in for. There other children Daniel and death max have different feelings towards her. Daniel is very hostile and does not really like her but max takes a liking to her. What they don't know is that little Esther is mentally disturbed. Mother Kate starts feeling negative towards her and has an idea that not everything is normal. She calls in the orphanage  to find out who Esther really is and discovers some worrying things. Who is Esther?

From burtons genre theory I am now able to identify all the different stock characters in not just horror movies but all movies. I can think of many horror films and point out the icons,setting,protagonist and many other things. Using burtons theory I now know how to incorporate it all into my horror trailer.

                    
                                   

Ideas for planning

Planning is a bit part of production, me and my group have planned many things such as action, villains and locations. There are many killers in the horror genre, so we had a lot to think about if we wanted a killer in our horror film. Locations is very important, were we want to film is a how we are going to film it. We had to decide which specif genre we wanted to do whether it be comedy or supernatural. Planning is very important part because it allows us to voice or ideas.

In this picture to the left I also used Photoshop to manipulate the picture and made it look horror related. However with this image unlike the other image i used a website called http://www.grungetextures.com and put a texture and added some colour to the original photo. This is showing us how easy it is to change pictures. This is will help us a great deal when it comes to making out final piece of work.

Different Horror Genres

Different Fonts Used in Horror

By using http://www.dafont.com I was able to analyse and notice the difference between all the different horror fonts that can be used for all different genres.

In the font 'Blood Crow' this could be used for Horror Genres such as Slasher, the font looks as if it has been cut in with a blunt knife. This indicates to us that maybe the film invloves  a lot of stabbing and blood. This horror font could be used for the horror slasher movie 'scream'. 

 In the font 'Old typewriter' this could be used for the Horror genre 'supernatural'. This font looks very man made and artificial. In films such as paranormal activity this font would be used. Differently to blood crow it looks more realistic.

This font is very different to the ones mentions above. This font almost looks comical, more for animation. This font looks like ghouls and ghost rather than slasher killers and spirits.