Texas Chaisaw Massacre Trailer analysis

I may be seen as a touch obsessed with the film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, however its just simply because its such a good horror and for the work me and my group are dong it seems perfect to analyse and maybe even absorb some of the techniques and elements and apply them to our media piece.

The use of sound n the trailer isn't very loud or have many notes, the sound throughout is very subtle, the main reason for this is throughout there are a few loud noises, you recognise them and they have much more significance and effect when the rest of the noise is not so loud. The suspense throughout this trailer is maintained, you are given a taster of the film however the taster is watered down because allot of the noises are covered up through editing, my point being there is allot you see but there is even more you don't.
When the children are travelling in the car its basic, indie radio music very light in the background so you can clearly hear their speech above it. This music ends when they come across a girl/hitchhiker, then the music turns into heartbeat, this heartbeat although it isn't fast its a thumping beat, you hear this in the background when the hitchhiker says, "they're all dead." while the heartbeat noises are going on there are various shots of the group starting to conclude what to do next, what moves to make, also right at the beginning of the heartbeat, like in most horrors, they show some strange scenes, one is of a doll, a skeleton, a record player, the signature house, each shot perfectly matched with each heartbeat.
When one of the females is in the house, is when she hears a loud bang which is when the heartbeats end and after the bang, an eerie noise is played, then not so long after there is the noise of the chainsaw which is only a couple of seconds. The eeriness remains while the group explore and come across some strange things, you get two views of what is going on from the trailer as the group split into 2 smaller groups.
When the strange and eerie noises become revealed, each shot from then till the end of the trailer is ended with a photographic effect, snapshot of their faces for example, faded out in bright light then the next scene snapshot, fade out in bright light, the noise of the camera snapshot editing is very effective as the noise the camera makes is matched with the fade out light. This fadeout techniquee increases in speed till the credits at the end of the trailer begin when u hear a running girls footsteps and screams over the credits, u think the trailer is over then u hear slow footsteps and then it jumps back into the trailer where u see a chainsaw and many panic scenes of the children.
Although the trailer is very fast pace after the first introductory scenes, editing such as the camera effects added in slow the pace right down.

The editing techniques throughout the trailer are ones which i think are very effective also ones which i am hoping to have in our media piece to add the same effect.
The representation of people throughout this film is interesting, because you have two groups of people. One group who are used to the crazed "Leatherface" and then the tourists who get caught up in all of it. The extreme clash of reactions physiologically gets into your head, you  have the tourists who are being slowly butchered, the one remaining tourist in the end seeks help from the occupants of the county, yet it is the occupant's who are sheltering "Leatherface." When she comes across the first of the people the state she is in is an extreme state of shock and fear, yet the reaction she got from the people was an extreme state of calm, when the two emotions clashed, the atmosphere was never at equilibrium, both parties where continuously trying to win each other over, the tourist trying to convince them "Leatherface" is coming and them talking about "Leatherface" as a local and that he wouldn't come into their home and disrespect them. Further into the movie you realise some of the characters are family members of this beast and feel very sympathetic and have no remorse for the lives he takes, again the clash of emotions, the antagonism of the tourist clashed with the sympathy of the family.
It shows men nor women to be more brave, mentally/physically stronger, the contrast of 2 groups of people, those in Texas who know and are used to this crazy man and life, and those who are faced with this alien and crazed ways of this county. On both sides you have men and women, if there is one change throughout the movie, it is the main female character from the tourist group, she seems the very innocent and needs taking care of type, however in the end she is the only one remaining, not only does she soldier and make it through the rain and escape, she along the way tried to save two members of her group and wasn't successful however then realised a baby had been stolen from the hitchhiker form the beginning and so she saved the baby. So there was a big transformation in her character from the beginning to what she was in the end, the last one standing, managing to hack off "Leatherface's" arm during the manic.

Personally i think the cast used to make the film, the tourist group, are the age group who this film is aimed at, the target audience, the age of the tourist groups is between 18-20 i would say, this is an age where when you do something, your more daring, you have those who don't for example Erin, from the movie but then what makes it a horror, even when you make good decisions bad things can happen, picking up the hitchhiker ended with most of them being killed in brutal ways, is when they don't want to do something but then they end up doing it anyways because most of the people you are with are doing it, peer pressure, not wanting to be left alone, all these things are the small things that lead up to the main thing, the main story where things always tend to go wrong and then they talk back and regret.

Movie poster analysis

Images: the images used in this poster along with the title are a clear give away of what the film is about, you have "Leatherface" walking down a Texas road with his chainsaw, you can see he is wearing something that looks a lot like an apron which is a shade of green, you can tell this due to the light coming through it, chainsaws are heavy bits of equipment used for logging etc, how the main character holds it in one hand and walks with it suggests that he may be quite strong. The typical horror colour conventions have been used but altered, its not the strict black background with the red writing swiped across it, blood, dripping, the cloudy skies have been given the colour of the dusty Texas plains.

The bottom right section where "Leatherface" you can see the camera image was edited as were "Leatherface" is walking the sky is of a lighter colour so you can see the back of the main character whereas the rest of the sky is seen to be charcoal grey. Right at the top of the poster where the sky is seen to be charcoal grey is where the title has been written in the colour of the sky in the bottom right section.

 

 

Although the title and the image give away the main ideas of the film, very cleverly underneath the title is written "The Beginning", so when you immediately see the poster you think you've got most of it worked out however when you see the writing below, it gives the effect that there is so much more to come which is very effective. On some movie posters they have certain magazines ratings on the film etc, on this particular poster they don't have that, which gives it that raw UN-rated effect, personally i tend to read or browse reviews when i am going o watch a film but with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre i didn't read and didn't see any ratings however still thought id watch it.

Everything on this movie poster is an indication of the genre, the colours, the props, the font in which the title is written, the strap-line, these are all indications that this is a dark, bloody horror. The way all of these things have been put onto this poster which is of high deffinition quality, but been given that old rigid effect that tops off the whole idea you can get from the poster, big built male walking casually down a deserted road splitting the Texas plains holding a chainsaw, old, ridged, rough, these are the word which come into mind when looking at this particular poster, the idea gained from the image of the main character is that he doesn't care, its clear he doesn't fear anything, but is that just because he has a chainsaw? Anyone could have a chainsaw, its the mindset that sets you aside from the rest, there is a clear case of that with this character, not just alone but in a city or busy town, in the middle of Texas, certain form of isolation.

The way the character is walking along, casually, doesn't give the impression he is in a hurry, and the fact that he is just walking down a road that seems so bleak, suggests that hes not really walking towards anything. This gives the impression that there is some sort of connection between man and location, hes a crazed man with a chainsaw..in the middle of nowhere, he doesn't seem to be walking to anywhere..there is nowhere to walk to.

The strap-line plotted right in the centre of the poster, "Witness, The birth of fear." suggests that this is where the fear begins, this is well co-ordinated with the way they wrote "the beginning" underneath the main title, when a film is released, and there are plans for a sequel, they don't tend to write the beginning or anything of that sort because right at the end of the film there is a scene which suggests there is going to be another one. "the beginning" and "Witness. The birth of fear" are both lines that give the effect that this is something else, not quite like any other horror you may have seen, not any other film or thought that has made you fear something or someone, gives it the "one of a kind" identity which is what i believe is this movies USP (unique selling point).

When you put all these thought and ideas together along with the poster of course you can clearly tell what kind of film this is and what target audience it is aimed at. The language used in the title is very strong, powerful yet rigid, just like the effect of the poster, old, rigid, slightly faded effect. They have set it as a real true story by adding "The" before the main name, when you think there could of so many other names for this film, even if the name remained this long there are so many other words that could be used to substitute, however they have matched up the poster effect with the style of the writing, the positioning of the character, the colours and the text perfectly, these all come together to back up the message that the text gives, there isn't a horror quite like this one.

Horror magazine front cover analysis

A horror magazine i found through research.

This magazine I found through research for horror magazines to analyse I found to stick out most because with each edition they have a certain film producer and all the films of that producer are in the edition.

Going along with the horror conventions of things being dark and bloody/gory they have kept the magazine cover dark with the killer on the front holding his blade. They have chosen more than one colour for the writing but made sure that all the colours used stand out against the background, some magazines such as Empire magazine tend to have one colour backgrounds and one main focus however because there are so many focuses on this magazine they have had to use many different colours for all the strap-lines and text.

The left third which is green has an orange coloured text similar to the main title; however on the left side of the magazine you will see it is sort of the other way round, green writing on a beige backing where the sub content of the magazine is listed.

The writing is in red for the name of the film and for the masthead of the magazine although it is in yellow, it’s very bold and been given a dripping effect and although the colour is yellow, we all know blood drips and so it gives that type of effect, Looking as if almost it’s been painted on a piece of wood.

The strap-line listed underneath the title is 3 typical things that you would expect during watching a horror film, "Blood, Guts, Gore and More!" The film Friday the 13th goes along with the convention of, "what happened to those kids." Group of teens off on a trip and one by one get butchered.

Instead of attracting readers with the one main image like Empire magazine tend to do, this says a lot about Empire magazine, you can clearly see with Scream magazine they are trying very hard to shout out and say look how much our magazine contains read it! However with empire the front suggests that they are a lot more sophisticated, established so they do not need to shout and say how great their magazine is because people already know and will buy. Along the side they have other images of different movies with strap-lines the magazine is shouting out how much about how many films is in this magazine. Another small change from Empire magazine is how the barcode is set on the left third rather than on the right hand side yet similarly is very subtle to Empire magazine.

Also this magazine cover shows films and film characters and everything on the cover is to do with film however on the Empire magazine they have things which are slightly separate to the point, for instance on one of the Empire magazine covers there is a gold circle in which is written in large, "40 movies that will get you sex!" This is one the front cover of an Empire edition where the main background colour is red and is in gold. Whereas on the he Scream magazine they’re using all sorts of colours and images to attract your attention shouting out read me, the Empire magazine being subtle and established one small thing like that attracts lots of attention, Empire magazine don’t bombard you with different focuses they give you a few main ones however when looking at the Scream magazine threes so much for your eyes to look at your looking all over the page.

Location and Camera

As I previously mention for location during our first A.S piece we were restricted as to where we could go and film due to school timing, however this year we are able to go out more and filming different outside locations,
We have come across an empty house which belongs to a member of the group which is not only empty but also undergoing refurbishment so parts of the house almost look abandoned which is perfect for what we are filming. Some of the walls have been stripped along with the floors, most of the furniture has been moved so we are left with just a house as a shell at our disposal.
Close to the property also there is an area which we found perfect, outdoors it’s an alleyway which has trees standing tall either side and leads into a woodland where anything is possible, as some horrors say, the things you think that you think you would never see and are only in films, we are able to use this location and although during the day there is nothing to fear or worry about, when the sun goes down and the dark hits, who really knows what happens in this woodland, when dark hits is the time we are hoping to film in and around the woodland, hopefully by using this convention we will be able to catch some footage in the woodland that people would expect to see in a trailer of a film.
The filming we have done and the rest of the filming we are going to do is being done on a camera that is of a much higher quality than the camera that was used to do the last year A.S piece. The camera we are now using is full HD, shoots higher fps and also allows the use of filters for video/photo. so instead of having to pack our footage with editing from the Mac computers we are able to film in for example black and white, the time we use on things such as editing small parts like this we can use working on other parts of the media course, on the camera when something is filmed with a filter it gives the footage a better effect than if its uploaded and edited which is something we found when we looked at two pieces of footage, one filmed with a filter and one uploaded and then edited.

Elements and structures of horror

There are many elements which are used throughout horror, however there are some which are included in every horror and the story/movie wouldnt quite be a horror if they weren't.
The four main elements are:

• Isolation
• Desolation
• Lost Cause
• Redemption

Isolation is the complete separation from others, one dictionary definition stated the complete separation from others to prevent the spread of contagious or infectious diseases, this is the definition of the word quarantine. You can immediately tell the technique of isolation has been used in the movie Quarantine as its part of the definition of the title. However with isolation, it doesn't have to be an individual alone, it can be a group of people cut off from all others as is Quarantine, also in The Cabin In The Woods, a group of people cut off from everyone and everything.

The main shot used in this film is P.O.V, and the only real light inside the quarantined building is that of the camera which isn't allot, although they re in a group the building is very large and in the dark, who knows what to expect, what you are going to come across, the idea of isolation is simple, however put together with all the other necessary elements it provides a very effective scare.

Desolation is when something is very barren, has little or no life around it, for example the desert of the arctic, it also mean deserted/abandoned. Yet another very simple idea, for example the house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in the whole scene , you see nothing apart from fields and one quite large house, in this movie in a short space of time you can clearly see where both the ideas of isolation and desolate/desolation come together, they are isolated as in there somewhere in Texas, cars broken down, far from any real help, in an unfamiliar area, then they approach a desolate house in which they hope to find some sort of help and meet a chainsaw murderer instead.












Lost cause is someone or a hope that can no longer be salvaged, the films i am now going to refer to is very similar to the film Quarantine, its a film set in Spain, a seriously scary horror about an apartment block which is infected with a demonic illness which is contagious by bite, only throughout the film you find this out, the reason i use this film to describe lost cause is because, in this film to cure the infection they must find a test tube which contains a sample of blood, once they have found that sample in the film, they come under attack and the sample of blood is lost along with all hope.

Redemption is saving yourself or the actions of being saved from something bad/evil. The example i am going to give is from the film, Hostell number 2, an organisation who kidnap people on request for the rich who require them for sick fantasies such as human bloodbaths. In part 2, a girl is being cleaned up in one of the dungeons where the fantasies take place however whilst being taunted and tied up the anger and rage inside her forces her forward into the mans face where she bites his nose off grabs the key and manages to unlock herself. after all the build up of what happens to the kidnapped people and knowing whats going to happen to her, her redemption is breaking free whilst extremely close to torture followed by death.

Previous (A.S) into current (A.2)

                             
                                                        Our end product - A.S Level

At first when we set out to create our main piece at a.s naturally we where very exited and came up with what i now think of as undo able ideas for the time, however throughout the course of the year the skills and knowledge we gained bought us to a much higher level of working and understanding, if we where to i think we id be able to achieve them undo able ideas now without thinking twice. We as a group were happy with the end product but during the filming schedule we had come up with we had mishaps which we did not expect and maybe didn't give ourselves enough leniency for, excess scene filming which allot of didn't get used , as we had school rules getting to locations at the right times of day was also an issue, we had planned originally to set allot of the film in the outdoors at certain times of day as we only wanted so much or so little light. However as we are now dong our a2's we shouldn't have these issues.

My concentration was focused more towards the practical side of the media throughout the first year as i am much better at doing things rather than classroom studying which is why i performed and contributed much better i personally think in practical lessons. This year the same amount of attention and drive is going to be given to both aspects of media as the theories and structures you learn in the classroom side of things are vital to be learnt and then applied for the higher grades in the practical side of the course.

This year we have kept the same group and kept to the same genre, horror, the reason for this being is that by doing horror for our a.s level work we made mistakes and did things which we worked out ourselves didn't fit for certain reasons, we have been studying the genre since also so we are very well equipped i think to make a horror trailer and it be better in all aspects.

With regards to equipment we used the schools equipment throughout a.s however as a.2 is a step up we feel that more enhanced equipment would be better so we have sorted cameras with high definition recording with higher resolution, also enhanced settings for recording in the dark/dark areas. The Mac equipment used to cut, edit and put together the main piece is also allot more familiar to us now, we are able to resort to other programmes on the Mac's other then i-Movie to put various part of the end product together.

For the cast in our a.s piece we only acted ourselves but now after watching numerous horror films and trailer we have seen that with a cast so small there is limits to what you can do with a small cast, the plan for our first a.2 media piece is to fully write our story and then from the people whom we know come up with a cast to suit. As its only a trailer we are making to use other cast wont take to long and will prove effective as there are more people, when there are more people there can be more story, when you have an intense story with the right other ingredients you are able to hook the audience and there is more than one thing for their mind to focus on, without giving them too much to confuse them it keeps their mind working and wanting to know what happens and where the various characters end up.

With location due to school rules etc we were not able to go to far out and due to many other reasons we couldn't film allot of the time, all of the main task for our a.s level work was filmed n and around school, although most people would not know that for me personally i feel if your in a location where you would imagine a dark gloomy scary scene to be filmed then it helps bring out the best, you can make any location scary with some dark sheets and noises however when your in a place where u think something scary could or would happen then your mind automatically starts panting with ideas. So for location we have many ideas in very remote areas which we hope will help set the scene. Remote areas is where allot of movies take place, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wolf Creek, Cabin In The Woods (Horror/Thriller), these films are all set in remote areas where you could expect some UN-natural strange things to happen.

This image above is from the film Wolf Creek, an Australian horror about some children who brake down their and come across a crazed bushman who takes them captive after offering to fix their car.

 

                                                                Wolf Creek Trailer




The image above is an image from the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the house you see is the house where some of the victims meet their killer..Leatherface

 Texas Chainsaw Massacre Trailer