Theoretical Evaluation of “FATE”

Genre is the kind of film classified by its content and narrative. We decided to select horror as our genre as it allowed us to experiment with more camera angles and tension building techniques than any other genre would. We used typical key themes for a horror film through out our trailer . For example blood on the tree and blood on the villains hands after the murder. We also used fast tempo music near the end of the trailer to help increase the tension leading to the climax at which point there will be a big bang to complete the sequence and then silence as we show the dates of release and so on.

We also used key mise en scene to establish genre such as the car breaking down which lead to the murder and following events. As well as the blood which has direct connotations to murder and death .

Genre

Representation can be of any topic used in the storyline such as race , sex , socio-economic class . In our trailer we chose to represent two different socio economic classes and then used a modern hegemony to create a image for each character. Character 1 was a wealthy upper class business man who lived in a nice house had a car and dressed smartly and spoke correctly. Character 2 on the other hand was of a lower class and dressed scruffily using the mise en scene of hoodies and jeans to represent his background.

The victim had to look innocent and harmless which is the image which we tried to portray. We did this by using non threatening clothes therefore no hoodies , baggy trousers , scruffy shoes and so on. Instead we dressed the character in smart clothes trying to give off the impression to the audience that he is well educated and not looking for trouble.

The villain had to look frightening and intimidating so a large jacket/ hoody .baggy trousers and trainers to suit the current hegemony of a thug. All the different accessories are what someone would associate with a thug so it was paramount that we established every single one to make it easier for the audience to recognise the characters.

Representation

When we were thinking of how to represent our characters to an audience we had to take into account the meanings of the signs being portrayed to our audience. This links to Roland Barthes and his theories on semiotics. He studied the effects of connotation and denotation. For example the denotation of our villains clothing in our film is that he is scruffy. This is the obvious view. However connotation is the views associated with the symbol. Therefore the scruffy villain is associated with a thug due to his clothing.

This gave us a good idea of how to dress our characters as so they complied with Roland Barthes's theories and suited the modern hegemony.

Representation

The narrative structure for our trailer is a very original narrative where the trailer is made up of two characters, the victim and the villain. The trailer documents the movements of the two characters and establishes how the cross each others paths. The victim is introduced to suggest equilibrium in the plot. However the trailer then cuts to shots of the villain running away from something in the woods in a number of fast paced shots which establishes roles of the characters. The trailer continues to switch between the two characters maintaining the same calm to high intensity theme. In one of the shots the villain rubs his hands on a tree revealing blood which helps to establish genre and fits the modern hegemony of what a horror film should include which also helps to attract a target audience. The narrative is continuously fed bit by bit to the audience via a number of text shots which give brief and mysterious information about the villains back ground and how he murdered his previous victims . This also helps the audience to establish key themes as they realise that the two characters are bound to cross paths. They will then be drawn in as the victim is represented as an innocent business man who does everyday activities and has done nothing to deserve what is about to or not about to happen to him. The victims car then breaks down in the same surrounding as the villain has been running in which increases the tension and shots begin to get vastly shorter. The villain then spots the victims car where he then attacks the victim.

narrative

We address our audience in a number of ways trying to keep to the main audience theories to help us grab attention and learn how audiences would relate to our trailer.

Firstly we tried to make at least one of the characters relatable to the audience so that they could create a personal bond with the trailer. So the victim was dressed and acted as an everyday business man who was not violent nor threatening and we tried to make the character as normal and mundane and possible so that from whatever angle the audience saw him they could relate . This links to Stuart halls reception theory. Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model stated that an audience could interpret the same texts in a variety of ways, as each are individually influenced by several factors. (gender, class, age and ethnicity)An individual may wish to interpret the text straight, e.g. the code which the producers are trying to convey is recognized subconsciously by the audience. However some may interpret the same text in a entirely different way.

We aimed and hoped that the audience would interpret the character “straight” as to make the villain more obvious. I believed we achieve this by making the victim seem innocent and therefore the audience would not see him in any other way.

Audience

Filming - mise en scéne French term from the theatre which literally means 'what's put in the scene'. Often iconic to represent a certain narrative . In our case horror and the mise en scene of blood on the villains hands.

Editing- (The process by which shots are put together into sequences or scenes.) Dubbing , adding sounds to an existing film. For example we used different sounds to influence tension and tempo of the trailer.

Media Language