The differences between a teaser trailer and the main theatrical trailer

Here is my own explanation of what I believe are the main distinctions between a teaser trailer and the main theatrical trailer along with an example of each to further explain:

A teaser trailer is normally around 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds long and tends to be released a little while before the main theatrical trailer. The purpose of releasing a teaser trailer is to tease its audience by revealing to its target audience a little bit of the footage taken from the film so that it can get the audience interested in the film and encourage them to want to watch more. They will not reveal any significant details of the narrative of the film so that the audience are left in suspense wanting to know more. Teaser trailers are normally released online so they originally are only seen by an audience who are interested in films or happen to browse through film teaser trailers.

Here is an example of a film teaser trailer:


As you can see from this teaser trailer the editing is made to show a montage of different clips from the film all of which tease the audience so they are left wanting to know much more about the film.


The main theatrical trailer is released after the teaser trailer and tends to be much longer (normally around 2-3 minutes long) and is designed to reveal more scenes taken from the film so that its target audience is persuaded to go and watch the film at the cinema. The main theatrical trailer will reveal much more of the narrative than the teaser trailer will and is also played across a wider range of media such as TV and cinema advert screenings so more people tend to see this trailer than the teaser trailer.

Here is an example of a main theatrical trailer:


A you can see from this main theatrical trailer, the editing is much slower than the teaser trailer and scenes from the actual film are shown in greater detail and last a lot longer than seen in the teaser trailer. The length of the trailer itself is also a lot longer so more of the narrative can be given away, although both a teaser trailer and a main theatrical trailer will remain persuasive so that its audience will go and watch the film in full at the cinema.

Gender Representation Essay

 Carol Clover, in Men, Women and Chainsaws argues that horror’s representation of gender is very interesting because it frequently offers its core target audience of young males an identification with a female character, unlike any other mainstream genre. To what extent do you think horror’s representation of gender challenges dominant representations?

Research of a wide range of media texts has traditionally reached similar conclusions about how gender is represented in the media which has come to represent a ‘classic’ approach to gender in the media. Generally men and women are categorised into their stereotypes that society has put them in so males in the media are shown to be dominant, strong, active, independent and authoritative whereas females in the media are shown as submissive, passive, with a focus on physical beauty, sexuality and emotionally, all of which are defined through relationships with men. Jeremy Tunstall looked at existing research and argued that the representation of women in the media is broken down to four categories of: domestic, sexual, consumer and marital. Women are depicted as busy housewives, as contented mothers, as eager consumers and as sex objects.

In the three horror films we have studied in class, Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980) and Eden Lake (2008) we have analysed both women’s visibility and their roles within the films to see whether they challenge or represent the research on gender in the media. According to the 1992 research, men on screen outnumber women by two to one therefore already visibility itself is an issue when looking at dominant gender representations. In two out of the three films we looked at, men outnumber women in both The Shining and even more so in Eden Lake, so from this you can already see that the majority of films in the horror genre continue to reflect the 1992 research and have the visibility of men outnumber the visibility of women showing a sexist approach towards females in the media. Also, by looking at the roles of the female characters within the three horror films it was apparent to see that women’s roles within the three films all seemed to confine women into one or more of the four categories that Jeremy Tunstall suggested women in the media emphasised.

Clip from 'Halloween' - Mike Myers kills his sister

In Halloween, the characters Annie, Linda and Judith Myers are all shown in states of undress so therefore are placed as sexualised characters within the film and as sexual characters, they all appear to be killed due to the sexual behaviour. This then portrays these characters in the film as women who do not follow the rules that men and society have laid out for them and therefore appear to be punished in the film for their sexual actions, however Carpenter apologises and explains that the only reason why the teenagers in Halloween die is because they were simply not paying attention and were distracted by typical teenage things whereas Laurie had less on her mind and therefore noticed the strange things that were happening. There are also elements within the film that portray the domestic and familial side of certain female characters for example both Laurie and Annie have jobs as babysitters however because Laurie is the main protagonist in the film it pulls her out of being defined simply as a woman  . A similar role is seen in the film The Shining where we see the character Wendy doing both familial and domestic work which appears to confine her again to one or more of the four categories however again Wendy becomes the protagonist and also takes over some of Jack’s jobs, making her the superior character. In the film Eden Lake the main character Jenny again falls into the familial/domestic category due to her occupation of a primary school teacher. The same character roles are also seen within the mothers of the gang members and one in particular who also works as a waitress. The only female gang member also appears to be discriminated because of gender as she has a very passive role within the gang and at some stages is called certain names which instantly discriminate her as a woman.

 

The Male Gaze

In addition to the roles of women in the media, another important area is to do with how the camera “looks” at women. It has been argued by many critics that in mainstream visual media the camera routinely objectify women which denies them any subjectivity/identity and instead treats them like objects to be looked at by the subject, who is almost always male. Many theorists including Laura Mulvey have suggested that much commercial cinema puts the spectator into the position of an ‘appraising heterosexual male’ by adopting technical camera strategies which objectify women. By the use of close ups, point of view shots and reaction shots of the male, it encourages him to be identified as the subject whereas the use of long shots and tilts up the body of a woman often from a male point of view, encourages the audience to look at her as an object rather than a subject. In the film ‘Halloween’ at the start, a point of view shot is used to put the audience into the killers eyes, however this could also be an example of the male gaze in action as the audience is made to look at Judith Myers with no clothes on from a males point of view which instantly objectifies her. A similar scenario is also shown further on in the film which could again be an example of the male gaze where again it appears to be a point of view shot from the killer looking in through a window at Annie who is also in a state of undress. This is an example of Laura Mulvey’s theory as it encourages the audience to look at the woman as an object rather than a subject. There is also an example of this shown in both the films ‘The Shining’ and ‘Eden Lake’. In The Shining, we see the main protagonist Jack looking at a naked woman in the bathtub, however this is then challenged when the attratcive women turns into an old corpse, therefore challenging the male gaze. In Eden Lake, we see the leader of the gang Brett looking at Jenny in a bikini through a pair of binoculars, both of which portray the idea of the male gaze as again the audience is lead to objectify women and deny them of any subjectivity however this is slightly contradicted in the Eden Lake scene as after the make gaze is shown the camera then goes straight back to Jenny making her the subject more than an object.

Despite the horror genre portraying elements of a sexist ‘regime’ of viewing women, it does however tend to portray a different regime of viewing when it comes to looking at the figure of the “final girl”. By having the figure of a final girl within horror films it exchanges the sadistic objectification of women seen in the male gaze and instead invites a masochistic identification of women. In the film ‘Halloween’ the main protagonist and also the final girl is the character Laurie. Her character in particular is an example of a female character that isn’t objectified by the camera and instead shows androgynous features such as a gender-free name and less feminised clothing. This is an example of horror’s representation of gender challenging dominant representations as Laurie is not a character affected by ‘the male gaze’ and is also not confined to a particular stereotyped gender category and although she is not a strong character, she does however overcome the monster and ultimately survives in the film. A similar situation is also shown in The Shining as Wendy is also the main protagonist and not only defends herself from the monster Jack, but also manages to escape with Danny.

Overall I believe that because there are a majority of horror films that do contain the figure of a "final girl" it doesn't particularly follow the most dominant representations of gender and instead challenges them in many ways, therefore putting across a more positive attitude towards gender in the media. However, I believe there are still many horror films that will still tend to follow the most dominant representations of gender in the media however looking at the three films we have studied in class I believe there are elements which show that this is starting to level out. 

The Role of the Distributor

Distribution Plan

Distribution is the highly competitive business of launching and sustaining films in the market place. In order for films to become talking points in society, it is the distributor's challenge to bring each one to market in various different ways. One of the most predominant and important ways is to first identify their audience as it is the task of the distributors to identify and deliver the largest possible audience for every film. They need to be able to create a profile of the audience they are aiming at and consider reasons such as why they would go and see it. The idea is to deliver the largest possible audience so that it increases the distributors chance of creating a film that becomes a talking point. As well as identifying their audience they need to estimate the revenue potential across all the formats of its release and create developing plans and partnerships to build awareness of and interest in the film. The aim is to convert as much interest as possible into cinema visits so that it will persuade exhibitors (cinema operators) to play the film.

Marketing Plan

To compliment the distribution plan, every film will have come up with a detailed marketing plan. The marketing objective is to create visibility, raise awareness and engage interest in order to compete in the competitive market today. Without a clear marketing plan, the likely hood of a film becoming successful would be very low as it is important to establish how the film makers are going to reach their audiences in compelling ways so that they are persuaded that it is a must see film.

Advertising
There are many ways in which the film makers can market their film through different advertising methods. The most predominant ways used to advertise films today are:

Word of mouth: Social recommendation can create high levels of awareness and strong interest in a film. However, negative word of mouth can be extremely difficult to overcome, so it is important that post-release will give the film a positive buzz and further advertising will also help to sustain the film and make it more appealing.
Posters: These can be a very important factor when it comes to advertising a new film as there are often a dozen or more different posters on display in a cinema at any one time, so therefore it is vital that the distributors and their designers must work hard to make sure each poster really stands out to an audience. The main image or artwork is what really needs to catch the eyes of the target audience whilst its stars, genre and ratings of the film are also vital factors of the posters.
Trailers: These are the single most cost-effective marketing technique which are played on the big screen to a captive audience of active cinemagoers and also on TV and online for any interested viewers to see. Whether it's an early teaser trailor (typically up to 90 seconds) or a full trailer screened shortly before a film opens, both give the audience a chance to see glimpses of the film which will need to encourage the audience to go to a cinema and watch the film. They will be representative glimpses of the most dramatic sequences but early in the production, so that the editing and the special effects will not be quite finished at this stage.
Online and mobile: Most films have an official website where audiences can view things such as: trailers, stills galleries, production information and behind-the-scenes footage. By having a website for a new film, it helps the distributors to start building awareness for the film at an early stage where they may post updates online such as news snippets or teaser images, seeding interest among fans. By keeping the audience up to date with things such as video diaries and blogs from the set, it makes the core audience feel part of the film making process.
The immediacy of social media: Once a film has been screened, comments are shared instantly and constantly around the world where opinions and feedback will be shared. This can be an important factor as distributors are eager for their films to be part of the conversation in online networks.
Broadcast, ambient and print media: Media proliferation has enabled advertisers to have a multitude of options when it comes to deciding how and where they want to advertise a product/service. Poster sites, local newspapers, radio stations and hundreds of digital TV channels are a few of the main places where promotions may be placed.

Publicity

By having a really good publicity team, it will allow a media product to receive good publicity and get people talking. Publicity teams, often supported by specialist agencies, arranges media interviews with available members of the film's cast which creates good publicity for both cast members and the film itself as both will be gaining publicity. Film publicists compile press kits for journalists, containg cast lists, biographies, notable facts about the production and a synopsis, all of which will create publicity whilst also presuade target audiences to connect with the making of a film and be presuaded to go and watch it. Also, by having a selection of images taken from the film approved for publicity use to be disseminated via online pressrooms, it allows distributors to devise 'hooks' or 'angles' for feature articles and media promotions.

Promotion
The promotion of a film can have a big impact on how successful a film will be. Promotional partnerships generate displays for the film in places where conventional advertising cannot reach such as shops, restaurants or on packs. They also enable customers to interact with the film characters by collecting premium items or entering a competition.

Other ways of promoting a new film include: merchandising, premieres and experiences, preview screenings and festivals.

Paranormal Activity 3 Trailer

In this horror movie trailer I particularly like the use of camerawork as predominantly throughout the trailer a handheld camera is used which not only makes a more personal connection with the audience and the characters as the characters as the ones who are filming it but it also can relate the audience with the atmosphere and the pace of the characters for example when the character is filming their children at the start, the atmosphere seems calm and slow paced but towards the end when strange things start happening the atmosphere changes and the pace picks up which also increases the audiences pace therefore creating an efffective horror trailer. I also like the use of CCTV footage within the trailer as it captures things that perhaps wouldn't be seen by the characters themselves. There again is also the use of Levi-Strauss' binary opposition theory as at the start of the trailer the audience can see innocent children playing, however we are then shown a shot at around 0.37 of a photo of one of the children which is slightly burnt and torn which connotes that something wrong has happened or is about to happen.

Insidious Trailer

Again what I particularly like about this horror trailer in terms of its horror conventions is the shot at around 0.44 where again a shot of a woman is shown followed by an eyeline match of a child's rocking horse in the corner of the room which is rocking by itself. This also can be related to Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposition as a rocking horse would normally be asscoiated with innocent children however in this case it is seen as evil and scary as it is moving by itself. I also like the particular narrative that is used within this trailer and the clips shown where the main characters are shown with another figure/face standing behind them over their shoulders which look creepy and would give the audience chills as they know they can see the monster but the character cannot which I believe is a good horror convention within the trailer.

The Strangers Trailor

What I particularly like about this trailer in terms of its horror conventions is the clip at around 0.28 where a shot is shown of the woman looking out of the window which is then followed by an eyeline match showing the swing in the garden swinging by itself. I believe this is an effective convention for a horror trailer as it is showing something moving normally like it would if a child was playing on it, yet it is moving without anyone to be seen in sight which creates the eerie atmosphere that someone is there but the audience cannot see them. The narrative of the horror movie is also very effective as the audience is following the two characters who are happy together closely until their lives are disturbed by stangers who are entering their house and interfering with their lives. This I believe is an effective narrative because it reflects the idea of the moster coming into people's own houses and scaring them from inside their own home. What I also particularly like about this trailer is the music that has been used as it becomes a repetitive noise which picks up in pace building the suspension within the trailer, making it more scary to watch.

Narrative Theory

We applied the theories and ideas of four narrative theorists to the film The Shining. These narrative theorists are Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov, Claude Levi-Strauss and Bordwell and Thompson.

Propp was a Russian critic who explored the underlying structures of folk tales and proposed a set of universal character and narrative functions which he thought were the basis for all stories. All together he identified eight character roles and thirty one narrative functions, all of which he believed would fit any narratives of films in some way or form. The eight character types that he identified are:
1. The villain(s)
2.The hero
3. The donor - who provides an object with some magic property.
4. The helper who aids the hero.
5. The princess (the sought for person) - reward for the hero and object of the villain's schemes.
6. Her father - who rewards the hero.
7. The dispatcher - who sends the hero on his way.
8. The false hero
In The Shining, the majority of these character roles do fit in with the film with only a couple that don't, however there is a confusion within the film as to which characters would fit which character roles. For example, at first glance the clear villain of the film would be Jack as he is gradually turning mad and wants to kill his family, but it could also be said that the hotel itself is the villain who is possessing Jack to do the things he is doing by playing tricks with his mind.
However I believe his ideas on the narrative functions are an uneasy fit with The Shining as the film does not follow the same structure as his narrative functions suggests as well as goes against the order in which he has created for each function.

Todorov's theory suggests that stories begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is then disrupted by a chain of events causing a disequilibrium, which is the resolved into a new equilibrium by the end of the tale. In The Shining there is both an equilibrium and a disequilibrium as the film begins by a family moving into a hotel to stay whilst it closes for the winter season which is a disrupted by a disequilibrium where Jack starts to turn mad whilst other strange things are happening around the hotel. Although this theory does fit to The Shining, I would say it is not the best fitting narrative theory there is.



Levi-Strauss is a theorist who looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. Examples of the binary opposites he looked at are:
Good/Evil
Normal/Abnormal
Past/Present
Known/Unknown
Earth/Space
Humans/Aliens
Natural/Supernatural
Again some of the binary opposites that Levi-Strauss has included in his theory do link in with The Shining. For example, the binary opposite of past and present is used throughout the film as the audience is shown visions of Danny's mind where he can see things happening in both the present and future, giving the audience a wider sense of time, whereas we are also shown glimpses of the past where who we believe is the caretaker back in the 1930s is actually the man who killed his own family in the 1970s. By relating this particular theory to The Shining the audience can vaguely see how the time layout within the film can relate to the way Jack appears to be confused about the time himself. Despite this I still believe there is a better fitting narrative theory that relates to the film.

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". Although they didn't create a full theory of narrative, they did however come up with interesting ideas such as a narrative typically begins with one situation, moving on to a series of changes occurring according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally ending with a new situation arising that brings the end of the narrative. They also suggested that narrative shapes material in terms of time and space, using technical techniques to manipulate our awareness of time and space; e.g. flashbacks, replays of action, slow motion, speeding up and jumping between places and times, all of which give the audience and characters within the film a sense of confusion about time within the film.

I personally believe that this is the best fitted theory to The Shining in terms of showing the specific narrative structure as throughout the film the audience are kept in confusion as to what time it is other than few messages appearing on the screen every now and then highlighting either a month or day of the week. Jack in the film is also confused about time and space as on a couple of occasions he wakes up unaware of what the time is and insists he has too much to do with little time. This can then help the audience understand why Jack is starting to go mad and why he appears lost and confused throughout the film.

Return of the Repressed

Sigmund Freud (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939), was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression.

Freud coined the term "return of the repressed" to explain the existence of neurotic symptoms. He theorized that an unconscious thought/feeling would constantly press for access to the executive fictions of the mind in order to be discharged.

The goal of Freudian therapy or psychoanalysis, was to bring repressed thoughts and feelings into consciousness in order to free the patient from suffering repetitive distorted emotions.

Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness is brought about by encouraging a patient to talk in free association and to talk about dreams. Another important element of psychoanalysis is lesser direct involvement on the part of the analyst, which is meant to encourage the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst. Through this process, transference, the patient can discover and resolve repressed conflicts, especially childhood conflicts involving parents.

In the horror film 'Halloween' a return of the repressed narrative structure is used to show the audience the return of a psychotic killer after a previous encounter is shown where Mike Myers (the main antagonist) kills his sister at the young age of six. The audience then follows his actions as he escapes from a mental home and plots to kill various other people in Suburbia. By using this approach as the narrative structure to a horror film, the audience can not only follow the characters psychotic actions but can also see into possible reasons as to why people who have psychotic minds in films like Mike Myers so the things they do. In this particular film however there is no clear reason given as to why Michael has all these repressed emotions other than the fact he releases them by killing people.

However, by looking into the idea of the return of the repressed, theorists such as Freud can try to understand this by seeing if the reason behind these killings in horror films is due to bad childhood memories that have caused them to repress all their feelings which they take out on others later in life when it all gets too much.

Sorority Row Trailer Analysis

Sorority Row is a 2009 American slasher film and a re-imagining of the 1983 slasher film The House on Sorority Row. The film is about a group of sorority sisters who try to cover up the death of their house-sister after a prank went wrong, only to be stalked by a serial killer.

The trailer for the film represents various conventions of a horror trailer, such as the main setting for example is in the house in which the girls live, a confined space where the girls are trapped as the killler repeatedly enters the house, invading their own personal space. The setting of a mine is also present towards the beginning of the trailer where a girl's body is dumped down the mine along with the tire iron (the weapon used to kill her) to hide their secret after a prank went seriously wrong. Before this an iconic scene is shown where a party is taking place with characters and props the audience would expect to see at a typical end of year party such as girls dancing, pillow fights, loud music and couples kissing in which the prank the girls set up goes wrong and one of their frinds is killed.

The trailer then cuts to a scene eight months later where the girls all receive the same text, an image of the bloody tire iron, the weapon used to kill Megan. Ignoring the texts and believing it is merely a sick joke from Garrett (the person who accidently killed Megan) the girls continue with their lives unaware of the consequences that are about to happen. A series of clips are then shown where each girl who knew about the murder is killed off one by one. This is a typical convention of a horror film as the audience is already aware that there will be a 'Final Girl' who will stand out from the others throughout the film and will have the courage to face and kill the killer. Normally this character shows androgynous features however this film slightly challenges this because despite the character Ellie wearing glasses and being more alert than the others she is still seen as a sexual object for men when her glasses are removed towards the end of the film, challenging the typical androgynous final girl role. However, the other girls in the film represent stereotypical roles of young girls in horrow films and are dressed and made to be sexualised. This could possibly support Laura Mulvey's theory of "The Male Gaze" as they are there for the purpose of the typical target audience for horror of 15-24 year old boys.

In terms of the technical code within the trailer, Close Ups and Extreme Close Ups are repeatedly used on the girls faces throughout to allow the audience to capture their reactions closely. Also, fast paced editing is used when Megan is killed in order to dramatise what has happened and emphasise the panic that the girls are then left facing. Generally long shots are used on the killer to establish to the audience that he is there, however close ups of the covered face is shown when the killer is incredibly close, making the audience feel scared as the killer is then invading their own personal space. At the end of the trailer a long shot is again used on the killer but is placed on a straight angle so that when he throws the weapon, it appears as if he is throwing it directly at the audience. This is a typical convention of a horror/thriller trailer as it creates tension for the audience, creating an adrenaline rush.

The theme of the film is based around the idea of something coming back to haunt the girls "Return of the Repressed" as someone from outside the group has discovered their secret and is out to get them. This works well as a horror convention as the audience is never completely sure as to who is the robed killer who has discovered the girls secret. This is then played out until near the end of the film when the killer is identified, however like most horror films a cliff hanger is always left at the end of the film, normally to create tension and get people to leave talking about the film, as well as leaving an opening for a possible sequel.