A2 Media - Horror Trailer

1. Construction
Linked to Theories
and Storyboard

2. The storyboard we created helped the construction
of our trailer massively, as we referred back to it
throughout. However, we did make slight changes to
the shots which we thought should and shouldn’t be
used. Even though we shot all the scenes illustrated
on the storyboard, we chose to take a few shots out
and keep the ones that were easy to see, as lighting
was an issue we had during filming. Therefore, we
chose not to include the scenes which had less
lighting and were hard to see. Also, in our final
trailer, we added titles in between the shots, as from
the research we carried out on real media texts, we
analysed that the scenes cut to titles which were an
enigma to the story. Hence, we decided to follow
conventions and include this in our final trailer.
Furthermore, we changed the order of the shots
from the order on the storyboard, as we didn’t want
to show the trailer in a narrative order. Therefore,
we put the scenes in a random order, so that the
storyline of our trailer wasn’t obvious. Overall, by
making the decisions of what scenes to include and
in what order to include them, the final result of our
trailer was, in my opinion, really good as we used a
variety of shots and scenes, yet didn’t give much
away to the audience.

3. The narrative for our trailer followed Todorov’s Narrative Theory. In our trailer, we have shown an
equilibrium when the girls move into the house. This is then followed by the disruption stage, where one of
the girls gets possessed. The realisation phase in our trailer, is when the other realise that something is
wrong as the monstrous feminine is behaving differently. We have also included scenes in which one of the
girls is trying restore order by reading form the Bible, as she figures out that the monstrous feminine is
possessed. However, in our trailer, we deliberately chose not to include the new equilibrium stage as that is
the enigma of our story. We left this stage a mystery as that is what would intrigue the audience to find out
what would happen next i.e. whether the final girl survives or not. Also, we followed conventions as real
media texts don’t tell everything that is going to happen, in the trailer. Therefore, we also did the same and
let the audience use their imagination, as to what they think will happen next.
Todorov’s Narrative Theory

4. In our trailer, we have shown scenes which consist of religious representations. For
example, the scene where someone is holding a crucifix with blood all over it and also our
film title, which has a cross next to it. We portrayed this to show the concept of no one
being safe and giving the benefit of doubt that even religion may not be able to cure the
evil. On the other hand, this could be perceived differently by our audience as they may feel
that religion is being disrespected. However, this is not the case as we are trying to create
an enigma as to whether or not religion will overrule evil. Furthermore, it may be decoded
that we are representing women to be evil and pitied upon, however, our intention of
having a female antagonist is to create fear and show women to as powerful as men.
Stuart Hall’s Encoding and Decoding

5. We chose to use this theory as inspiration, for the gender
of our villain. From the research we conducted we
noticed that the majority of antagonists in
exorcism/paranormal movies were females, therefore,
we chose to follow conventions. Another reason why it
was suitable for us to have a female villain was because
we could easily and quickly arrange for someone to play
that character. For example, the person who we initially
wanted to play that part wasn’t able to film. However,
due to the villain being a female, we could find someone
else to do the part, without difficulty. Furthermore, in
movies such as ‘Carrie’ (1976), the monstrous feminine is
the main character. Even though Carrie is the villain, the
audience also feels pity towards her due to her being
represented as a threat to everyone because of her
sexuality. We have portrayed a similar concept in our
trailer, as the monstrous feminine had been murdered by
her husband and therefore, can be pitied upon.
Barbara Creed’s Monstrous Feminine

6. We chose to include a final girl in our trailer as we wanted to follow conventions of real media
texts. Whilst carrying out our research, we noticed that the majority of horror films included final
girls, hence, we chose to do the same. According to Clover, the final girl’s characteristics are that
she is unavailable or virginal, avoids the vices of the victims and sometimes has a unisex name.
We took these characteristics into consideration, however, we portrayed these characteristics
briefly, rather than explicitly in our trailer. The final girl on our trailer is shown to be religious,
through the scene in which she is reading the Bible, which conforms to the characteristic of being
unavailable or virginal. However, we chose to subvert from the characteristic of the final girl
having a unisex name. This is because the audience research we previously carried out, regarding
the names of the characters, we found that our target audience preferred us using the real names
of the actors in the trailer. This was because the audience could relate to them more, as they
would know them.
Clover’s Final Girl

7. Our trailer consisted of this theory mainly due to our villain being a female. According to
Cohen, a moral panic is when the media amplifies an event to refer to its consequences to
much wider social issues. In our trailer, we have tried to create a moral panic of women, as
our antagonist is female. We have portrayed the idea of women being feared of, as in our
trailer the gender of the possessed character is female. Another moral panic in our
production work, may be of religion due to the repeated use of the crucifix in our trailer and
on both our poster and magazine. This could be a moral panic as it could be perceived that
religion is a powerful source, hence, it has the ability to control the supernatural and things
which are beyond our imagination.
Cohen’s Moral Panic

8. This theory has been used throughout our trailer, in order to add suspense and intrigue our target audience.
The biggest enigma we have is the name of our film, ‘The Forbidden’. Our film title acts as an enigma
because it makes the audience ponder what is forbidden in the film. Initially, we chose to give our movie
this name because in regards to our narrative, the monstrous feminine forbids anyone from living in that
house and ends up killing them, as that was the monstrous feminine’s house where she had been
murdered. However, the audience are unaware of this and only find this out after they would see the film.
Another enigma in our trailer are the black and white stills we have included in the beginning. These images
act as an enigma because the it intrigues the audience, as they would want to know what the pictures mean
and who may have been murdered. Also, the titles we have included in our trailer raises questions about
who ‘she’ is and what her motives/ intentions are for her presence.
Roland Barthes’ Enigma Code Theory