Media Coursework

1. MS2: Media Production Processes

2. Horror/Thriller Film Trailer
For my MS2 production I am going to be directing and producing a
Horror/Thriller Film Trailer of a Zombie film called “Cadaverous”.
It will be about a few people who have survived a zombie apocalypse, my
target audience at the current time being male 15 and over.
“Cadaverous” will be a modern film with the teenagers being able to relate
with the teenage audience, as with every Zombie film there will be suspense
building scenes and one or two funny moments.

3. Industry Research

4. George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero
(born February 4, 1940) is
a Canadian-American film
director, screenwriter and
editor, best known for his
gruesome and satirical
horror films about a
hypothetical zombie
apocalypse. He is
nicknamed "Godfather of
all Zombies."

5. Films directed by George A. Romero
1960s Night of the Living Dead (1968)
There's Always Vanilla (1971) · Season of the Witch (1972) · The Crazies (1973) · Martin (1977) · Dawn of
1970s
the Dead (1978)
1980s Knightriders (1981) · Creepshow (1982) · Day of the Dead (1985) · Monkey Shines (1988)
1990s Two Evil Eyes (1990) · The Dark Half (1993)
2000s Bruiser (2000) · Land of the Dead (2005) · Diary of the Dead (2007) · Survival of the Dead (2009)

6. Research into a wide range of
competitors/intertexts

7. Zombieland
Zombieland is a 2009 American zombie
comedy film directed by Ruben
Fleischer from a screenplay written by
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film
stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse
Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail
Breslin as survivors of a zombie
apocalypse. Together they take an
extended road trip across
Southwestern United States in an
attempt to find a sanctuary free from
zombies.

8. Visual Codes
• Wide angle shot of earth, suggesting an alien planet watching over the earth and therefore connoting that something
unusual is about to happen
• Zoom’s in slowly onto part of earth and ends up at a wedding.
• Man raises cup to indicate toast, woman wearing wedding dress runs into man, stereotypically the wedding day is the best
day of a woman’s life and so because it looks like she hates it, it connotes that something is wrong.
• Quick transitions to indicate panic
• Car crashes into other car, overweight man running away for a much fitter man, children clawing at side of car with blood all
over their faces and a man with a sign saying ‘THE END IS NEAR’ running away from the ‘Zombies’ in slow motion all
connoting a sense of unbalance in the world.
• Pan up tough man, looking quite relaxed.
• Cut to younger, scrawnier man creeping slowly through an alley way looking un-nerved and crouching.
• Girl looking past the camera with a worried expression
• Cut to young girl playing with her hair with a devious expression
• Cut’s back to tough man walking with an overly-sized gun, connoting he’s the head masculine figure and he’s powerful.
Show’s many cut’s of him using tough weapons such as large clippers, chain-saws and pistols, which he is then shown killing
the Zombies with.
• Cut to old frail woman outside church pulling chain with a Zombie running up to her, as he gets to her, piano falls on him,
classic comedy clip used to create a sense of unusual hilarity in the actual event where frail old women wouldn’t be as
confident as her.
• Matching the music, lot’s of cut’s to small, Appealing to a male audience with action shot’s.

9. Audio Codes
• Eerie music along with a man speaking in a low voice connotes that something bad
is going to happen.
• Music changes when bride runs into groom, the music is upbeat and changes the
mood so that you know the film is a comedy
• Second change to music commonly found in adventure films suggesting they are
about to go on an adventure
• Third change to rock music which connotes that the implied audience of the film is
male
• There are also pauses which focus’ attention on the person speaking at the time
for example when the music stops and the Eisenburg asks if everyone wants an
imperial mint.

10. Narrative Codes
• Props theory is applied here for when there is a switch in characters, for example
the hero is not the main character and the princess are the people who are being
chased after the zombies.
• Equilibrium: The zombie apocalypse hadn’t happened
• Disruption: Zombie apocalypse and everyone is dying
• Recognition: Find out how to kill the zombies, finding equipment
• Attempt to Repair: Fighting the zombies back
• Reinstatement: there is none, however you could say that finding the ‘Twinkies’
was their reinstatment

11. Technical Codes
• Edited an Earth to make the audience feel like this is an alien planet.
• Zoom into earth at the beginning builds up tension in the audience to see
where and what’s going on, connotes alien falling to earth.
• Slow motion editing on certain parts to emphasise destruction.
• Edited cuts are of commonly fades apart from the music changes for the
first time, the cuts are quick to which connotes around the amount of
action in the trailer.
• No text on screen apart from when a guy running away from zombies is
wearing a sign with writing on it.

12. Ratings/Box office Ratings
Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports 90% of critics gave the
film positive write-ups based on 184 reviews, with a rating of 7.3/10, and a
generally positive 88% approval rating from "top" critics based on 29
reviews.
The film debuted at No. 1 at the box office in North America, with ticket sales
of $24,733,155 on the opening weekend, matching its production budget.
As of October 29, 2009, the film grossed $75,590,286 domestically and
$102,133,700 worldwide. It was credited as having the second highest-
grossing start on record for a zombie film behind the Dawn of the Dead
remake and as "the first [American] horror comedy in recent memory to
find significant theatrical success". The film grossed $60.8 million in 17
days, becoming the top-grossing zombie film in history; the record was
previously held by the Dawn of the Dead remake.3

13. Diary of the Dead
Diary of the Dead is the fifth
film in Romero's highly
acclaimed Dead series of
zombie films. It is not a direct
sequel to previous films in the
series.
Diary of the Dead follows a
band of people making a horror
film at the time of the first
outbreak who decide to record
the epidemic incident
documentary-style and end up
themselves being chased down
by zombies.

14. Visual Codes
• In this text the Zombies wear everyday clothes, either bright
or dark and this connotes that they weren’t bad but when
they died and came back to life they had make-up showing
scars and blood which connotes that they have turned on the
Living.
• The Characters are wearing dark which would be used to hide
them in the event but however connote that they are the bad
people rather than the Zombies and that filming the events is
wrong.

15. Action Codes
Because this is a film designed to look like the
characters filmed it and they are being attacked,
fighting is often used such as people trying to get
Zombies off them
Even though in the Trailer no weapons are used (which
is more realistic) you can tell from when the cuts in the
scenes are that there will be weapons used in the
actual film

16. Audio Codes
Also in Audio they needed to create the effect of the
characters filming the documentary, most of the sound
they use is diagetic, apart from the music.
Sound effects such as the breaking camera make the
film effective by giving it the effect of the camera being
broken, the camera man being killed at this moment
and usually when this happens they place the sound on
it aswell.

17. Narrative Codes
• The Hero = The project director Jason
• The Villain/s = The Zombies
Equilibrium – When the characters get the chance of shooting the
documentary when the dead aren’t coming to life
Disruption – Maxwell stabs Ridley in the head with a sword, and Debra shoots
Jason.
Recognition – Debra watches the video on Jason's camera and sees his last
message, about his happiness to be documenting the events, apparently
filmed right before his attack.
Attempt to Repair - Debra decides to continue the video
Reinstatement - A hunting party shooting zombies of people they previously
left tied to trees, leaving them to die and reanimate and using them as
shooting targets. After seeing this, Debra wonders whether the human race is
worth saving.

18. Technical Codes
• Quick Transitions matching the “camera running out
of battery” effect.
• By actually using a documentary camera (sometimes
by hand) they create the effect wanted of it actually
being a film made by the characters.
• Blurring Camera effects to create a tense atmosphere
for the audience.

19. Ratings/ Box Office
George Romero won a 2008 Critics Award for Diary of
the Dead. The film received mixed reviews, with a slight
majority being positive. Most reviewers acknowledged
that Romero is still the master of the genre, and that
the film was as enjoyable as Romero's previous entries,
and that it also retained Romero's social commentary,
including American's new-found reliance on the media
for information and community. The film currently has
a "fresh" rating of 61% on Rotten Tomatoes.

20. Survival of the Dead
On an island off the coast of North
America, local residents
simultaneously fight a zombie
epidemic while hoping for a cure to
return their un-dead relatives back to
their human state.
The film was directed by the famous
George A. Romero, known as ‘The God
of Zombies’ for his countless excellent
zombie films.

21. Visual Codes
• The Zombies in this text, similar to any other Zombie movie, wear dark
clothing to tell the audience that they are inevitably evil. Dark/Black
connotes an evil character.
• The modern world has been brought down by the Zombies and this is
shown in the way the main characters ride horses instead of using cars,
substituting modern ways of transport for pervious ways.
• Guns and other weapons like the axe are used through out the film to
entice the male audience in, men stereotypically being interesting in guns
and action.

22. Action Codes
• Lot’s of fighting and guns in the film represent the fact that
this is a male focused audience.
• The story line of the film (two sides, one that want to kill the
zombies and the other that want to change them) shows the
two different groups of people, one of them is the action of
the film with the guns and the other is the more scientific
approach which may be more appealing to the women genre.
• Typically in Horror/Thriller Genre films is chasing scenes,
there are lot’s in the film making it referential to the intended
genre of the film.

23. Audio Codes
• There is lot’s of emphasis on the weapons and
killings of the characters in the film, which appeals to
the male audience.
• Extremely common in Horror/Thriller Genre films is a
sound played to create tension, the increasingly high
pitched scream sound which is used in a lot of the
same genre films to “scare” the audience.

24. Narrative Codes
• I do not think there is an intended hero in the film ZombieLand, because
there are two main focus groups and there are lot’s of “heroic” characters,
this then contradicts props theory.
• However it is evident that the evil/bad guys of the film is the Zombies.
• The Equilibrium of the film doesn’t exist because it is a sequel film from
the night, dawn and the day of the dead.
• The Disruption then being the Zombie attack.
• The recognition would be when the two groups meet and try to share
knowledge, one group tries to get the zombies to eat animals rather than
humans.
There is never a reinstatement in a Zombie film unless all the Zombies are
killed, this however is a rare occasion as Zombie films commonly end with
most of the characters surviving an apocalypse and ending with them
content with being in the world with Zombies. This is because the film
becomes more interesting for the audience when the characters are still
faced with trouble.

25. Technical Codes
• There are always edited scenes in a Zombie movie, such as in
the beginning of the trailer for Survival of the Dead where a
man cuts a zombies head off.
• The non-diagetic sound is used to narrate what’s happened so
far in the film, this is used at the beginning to represent a man
telling his story, however he is doing other things on screen.
• The main Diagetic sound used is the “Zombie noises” the
same sound is used through out the film but is un-noticeable
as it is used in different situations of the story.

26. Ratings/Box Office
Survival of the Dead was released to twenty theatres on May 28,
2010 and had an opening weekend gross of $43,757,
averaging $2,188 per theatre.
As of August 1, 2010, the film has taken $101,740 and $41,451
internationally, bringing the total gross to $143,191.
Currently, Survival of the Dead has a rating of 29% on the
website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 82 reviews.

27. Audiences
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
Entertainment – people like to watch scary films
to fulfil a movie adrenaline.
MASLOW’S HIERACHY OF NEEDS
I think that Zombie movies fill the self
actualization needs section because people only
watch these movies when they are satisfied with
every other need.

28. Censorship Issues
Most Zombie films are of the age 12A – 18. Most at 15.
• 12A = Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or
contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them.
• 15 = No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-
one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.
• 18 = No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-
one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video work.

29. Audience Age
When doing my research I found that most, if not all, Zombie films had an age rating of 15 –
18, on the rare occasion 12A. So I would expect the age rating of my film trailer of a
Horror/Thriller Zombie movie to be a 15 because of how most Films of that Genre and Topic
have been set that age. Films under this category can contain adult themes, moderate-
strong violence. I think that also because my audience will be of this age, I will make my
characters the same age so that they will feel more included with the movie, therefore
making it more exciting for the audience.

30. Research into my Target Audience

31. QUESTIONAIRE
Link to my Questionnaire
http://mediastudiesblog46.blogspot.com/2011/
11/blog-post.html

32. Question One & Two : Q1 – MALE OR FEMALE, Q2 – AGE?
I asked these questions to define
what age and gender my audience
would be.
Q1 – Most people that replied
were FEMALE however due to
research on other Zombie films
the audience ratings are more
male. I think that this did not
happen to mine because more
women were asked to answer my
questionnaire and men were less
likely too.
Q2 – All of the people who
answered my questionnaire were
aged 15-18 and this is a good
thing because my film will have an
age rating of 15.

33. Question Three – DO YOU WATCH HORROR/THRILLER MOVIES
OFTEN?
63% of the 8 people answering this
questionnaire said that they watched
horror/thriller movies often, it is my
prediction that most of these people
will be MALE, and all of the 25% of
people that said they watched
horror/thriller movies WHEN EVER
THEY ARE RELEASED would be male
too.
This proves that most of my audience
for my movie (trailer) will be male,
contradicting question 1.

34. Question Four – WHY DO YOU WATCH THEM?
By reading these results I have
gathered the idea that my audience
will be watching the movie (trailer) to
fulfil their need for ‘suspense’ and
getting thrills out of being ‘scared’
and so I know that I need to
incorporate these things into the
storyline of my movie.
By watching other movie trailers I can
get an Idea of how I do this, I think I
have realised that Audio Codes are a
big part of this.

35. Question Five – DO YOU THINK THERE ARE TOO MANY ZOMBIE
MOVIE ON THE MARKET?
This was quite are hard decision to
come across, I think that I placed this
question in my questionnaire too be
sure that my audience would be
satisfied with the fact another zombie
film would be shown and that there
weren’t too many already.
38% of the people that answered this
said there were and so I feel that this
would be quite problematic, however
the majority (63%) said there weren’t
which means that the ZOMBIE MOVIE
would be a good idea.

36. Question Six – WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT TO SEE IN A ZOMBIE
MOVIE TRAILER?
I think that the results I got, people
didn’t fully understand what I meant
by ‘what would you expect to see in a
zombie movie trailer?’ and so
answered, commonly with zombies
and a tension building storyline which
is exactly what I am going to do in my
Trailer.
I think that by having this question I
have secured what I originally wanted
in my trailer to be in it, which is a
positive thing.

37. Question Seven – SELECT THE IDEAS OF THIS NEW ZOMBIE
MOVIE, WHICH YOU LIKE… (multiple answers)
My original idea was to have a group of
people surviving the zombie apocalypse
as a very basic storyline to my movie.
The results I got were surprising, 75% of
the people answering the question said
they would like to see a pair of people
surviving the zombie apocalypse.
From this I decided to make the storyline
as a group of people which is whittled
down by the zombies as a pair, this is why
I came up with the name cadaverous,
meaning “corpselike”, because the title is
cadaverous it means that the audience
will assume like any other zombie film
that it is about the group of people
surviving the apocalypse when is actual
fact the twist is the teenagers will be the
ones who loose against the apocalypse,
therefore making the plot more
interesting.

38. Overall evaluation of the results from the
questionnaire…
From the questionnaire results I think I have now secured the age of my
audience and how that audience will feel about my film.
I have made slight changes to my plot like how there will be a group of
people but it will eventually turn to a pair of people, which is what the 75%
of the audience would like to have seen.
The Questionnaire has really helped me to make some important
decisions, that I wouldn’t have done if my target audience hadn’t
answered the questionnaire.

39. Target Audience Profile
• Age: 15-20
• Gender: Male and Female
• Occupation: Students
mainly, part-time jobs etc.
• Income: Low income can
afford to go to the cinema
• Demographics: E - working
class – Students,
Unemployed, Casual
Workers