Summer WorkAnalysis of 3 Film Trailers

Grave Encounters (Horror)

GENRE NARRATIVEGenre theorists Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress argue that genre controls the behaviour of the producers of any form of media, and that it influences the expectations of potential customers. This applies greatly to the horror genre in the film industry as producers are under a lot of pressure to make the film scarier than any before it. In Grave Encounters the producers have combined different aspects of stereotypical horror to achieve something different. For example the use of paranormal beings is widely used. In Grave Encounters this is accompanied by the used of an old, haunted mental asylum, along with simpler horror clichés such as darkness and night vision filming. The expectations of a customer who would want to watch this film are very refined, the title in itself suggests the theme of horror and the consumer will automatically expect to be scared whilst viewing it.

Claude Levi Strauss examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. Exploring this, I think it fits very well with this particular film trailer. In the movie, surgical methods (such as lobotomies) are exploited and used to scare the viewer, by showing the negative effect they could have on patients between the 1930’s and 50’s. Strauss believes narrative is effected by underlying themes, and this is evident in Grave Encounters. The use of a real life medical procedure scares the audience as it makes the film seem more real, as thought it actually happened. In addition to this, being set in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, it enhances the sense of fear as they are widely renowned to be horrible places- the type of place an evil spirit might appear. This reflects the values of modern culture: the patients were treated extremely badly in a place where you’re supposed to be ‘looked after’.

REPRESENTATION AUDIENCEThe Branston and Stafford theory suggests that representation has characteristics such as categorising and evaluation of the group being stereotyped. This fits in particularly well with Grave Encounters, as we can see from the trailer the film is about a group of people who investigate the paranormal. There is only one female, who throughout the trailer is seen to be looked after by the males, especially the main character ‘Lance’ who takes on the alpha male role within the group. As the trailer goes on we see that the physically larger man is one of the first to be attacked by the supernatural, along with the younger, brave man and the older more vulnerable man. Branston and Stafford also believe the evaluation is often, but not always a negative one, which applies especially in the horror genre. 9/10 times, the final moments of the film are negative, whether the hero dies, or the villain comes back to life and regains power, it is almost always not a stereo typical happy ending, unlike Mean Girls- in which balance is restored.

Using the Hypodermic Syringe Model theory, we can directly relate to the film Grave Encounters. By just watching the trailer, someone who doesn’t believe in the supernatural at all may change their mind due to the many text pieces which are used to convince the viewer that it’s all based on true events, making it far scarier to its audience. In addition to this, it could change the mind of someone who is interesting in contact spirits, and they may decide that the film has fulfilled them and them no longer have the want to do so. In contrast, it may make a consumer want to attempt to contact paranormal entities even more, to test the reliability and accuracy of the films storyline.

The Fourth Kind (Psycho Horror)

GENRE NARRATIVEAndrew Tudor argues that genres are only what we collectively believe them to be. When we think of ‘psycho horror’ we automatically come to the presumption that it will be a scary film that makes us think, a plays with your mind, which as a result dictates Tudor’s theory. The Fourth Kind is the most recent of the ‘alien abduction’ themed films based upon the scaled created by J. Allen Hynek- the first kind being ‘seeing’ and so on. The Fourth Kind is centred around physical abduction but the film cleverly uses a mix of horror aspects to convey more psychological effect, rather than fear. Broken footage, in which an old film is crackly, jumpy and sometimes hard to make out is used as it seems more realistic than perfectly modern technology.

The narrative in The Fourth Kind can relate to the narrative in Grave Encounters through use of Claude Levi Strauss’ theory that stories reflect the beliefs and myths of a culture. Aliens are a very controversial topic, however at the beginning of The Fourth Kind, a short notice is proclaimed by Milla Jovovich in which she says that the footage is all very real, and if the viewer thinks they will be affected by what they see, the should not continue watching. Whether this is true or not, it completely changes the outlook the viewer has on the movie and it’s overall narrative. If they believe it to be real, the psychological aspects are even more effective.

REPRESENTATION AUDIENCEThe Fourth Kind is a very interesting and different film, and defies almost every representation theory as it’s filmed in a clever, indirect way. It especially opposes the Branston and Stafford theory- which Grave Encounters abides by almost perfectly. The hero of The Fourth Kind is a strong willed woman from what we can tell in the trailer. Unlike most horror, or subgenres of horror, in which its most likely that the hero is male. Also, we can see that the group is not stereotyped, a mix of people are affected by the ‘aliens’, and are changed from normal people into the stereotypes to fit the theme. This in itself should be as its own representation theory in which ‘normal’ people are transformed into the stereotype of the film, for example, a zombie film would fit into this theory.

The Two Step Flow theory could be used to explore aspects of The Fourth Kind. The Two Step Flow suggests that raw media does not flow directly into the minds of the viewer, but it is filtered by opinion leaders who then communicate it to the viewers. Saying this, it could suggest that within the film, the audience is only seeing what the producers want them to see, and that each piece of ‘real footage’ has been chosen specifically to influence how the viewer feels and thinks about the particular subject. What if there were more solid evidence of ‘alien’ life and the audience weren’t being shown, to avoid the media wanting to know more. Throughout the trailer no actual ‘alien life’ is shown, only the affects of it, this leaves it up to the audience to decide whether they believe it or not.

Mean Girls (American Teen Comedy)

GENRE NARRATIVEComedy as a whole is hard to produce specific theories about, as it’s such a wide, vague genre in itself. However Mean Girls is sub-categorised into ‘American Teen Comedy’ which begins to put a limit on the films potential. This begins to sound like John Hartley's genre theory, in which he argues that genres are agents of ideological closure; but I think Mean Girls relates better with the Andrew Tudor theory, just as The Fourth Kind does, too. Both are small categories belonging to a larger ‘umbrellas’ of genre, and are more restricted as to what they can be about, or based upon. Tudor says that genre defines a moral and social world, and this is more than identifiable in Mean Girls. The American teen comedy genre is almost definitely going to include students of a typical high school, with obvious social status being detected and highlighted throughout the trailer.

Just by watching the trailer, we can already tell that Mean Girls is taking on Vladimir Propp’s narrative theory, in which characters can be classified into roles and functions throughout the text. In the trailer we see Regina George being lifted by the stereotypical American jocks, symbolising her importance, and the voice over reads ‘and evil takes human form in Regina George’ so immediately notified of her stature and relevance in Propp’s theory as the villain, but with a comedic affect. Characters introduced as Janice and Damien take on the role of friends of the main character, as in the trailer they give her advice about the high school and take it upon themselves to ‘look after’ her. In addition to this, the love interest makes an appearance as Cady Heron (the main character, or hero) makes her attraction to him obvious to her new found friends.

REPRESENTATION AUDIENCEAs with the other two trailers analysed, the Branston and Stafford theory can be applied in some way. It actually defines Mean Girls accurately through the idea that representation has characteristics such as categorising and evaluation of the group being stereotyped. In the first half of the trailer we are already presented with a clear split in groups within the high school setting of the film. The character Janice begins to list off some of the groups such as: ‘Cool Asians, Burnouts, Jocks, The Greatest People You Will Ever Meet…’ In addition to this, evaluation of the group being stereotyped is applied heavily within Mean Girls. The ‘popular group’ as seen in the image above is automatically seen as rich, snobby, and loved by all, whereas the group Janice and Damien are in, is instantly seen as weird, artistic and different.

Every viewer of this film will be able to associate themselves with at least one character in the film, just by watching the trailer. The mix of people shown dictate the audience that the film is targeted at, and this means the consumer is more likely to watch it, as they will be able to relate to the age group and situations the characters face. The Hypodermic Syringe Model theory can be applied, in the way that the consumer is vulnerable from consuming media texts and are easily manipulated. For example, in the trailer we see that the main character Cady Heron begins to hate Regina (the villain) after she takes the love interest, once the audience realise that Cady hates Regina, they will hate Regina too, as they want to be on the side of good.