I like this magazine cover for The Da Vinci Code. The layout and the concept is great. The main character (Tom Hanks) with a villain behind him, seen over his shoulder. I like it because it makes it very clear who the protagonist and antagonist is, the lighting is very good, covering part of each character's face, implying a traditional good versus evil struggle. It seems as though Hanks' character cannot see the antagonist, but he knows that he is there, hidden somewhere.

I would consider using a similar layout with my mag cover as I found this to be very effective, preparing you for the VERY basics of the story (the antagonist and protagonist). The Da Vinci Code is based on a book of the same title, which is very popular and the film was long awaited by fans, so these people may know immediately who the characters are, and their relationship in the film. This would have been very exciting for an audience member.

I love this image of Lily Allen, the fact that you can see the back of her head AND her face in the mirror is very clever. To me, if we had Violet in a similar position, but fully clothed and dirty, as if looking at herself after her ordeal. This implies reflection, making the audience delve deeper into the emotions of the character. It implies that there is more than one side to a character.

I want Violet to be seen as a victim, but for the audience to be wary of her. Not because the character is evil or a villain, but because I want the film to make people feel uncomfortable, and this will alert the audience to this hopefully.

It implies that Violet gets away unharmed, without giving too much plot away.

This image inspires me. Though the film it is about (Harry Potter) is very different to my film, Fire Hills, the magazine's cover has similar elements to that of my poster. Which makes me wonder whether or not to use a similar image for both?

I love this magazine cover for Sight and Sound magazine because it resembles my movie poster, an image of a young woman, presumably in distress who looks as though she has been struggling against someone or something. The text is very simple with a conventional horror theme of black and white text, like many horror POSTERS. It makes me feel unsettled as I feel as though the girl is staring at me, a very clever example of good photography, especially for a horror genre as the whole point is to feel unsettled.

The white text represents purity and possibly hope, whereas the red contrasts this message and repsresents blood and danger. The girl is wearing red, which enforces this message. The black 'passion' contrasts the red clothing and sticks out brilliantly, catching my eye as soon as I saw the cover.

I chose to have a close up on Violet (Grace Leaney) for my movie poster. I found this image to be simplistic and raw, much like the film itself, as it is filmed in a very shaky, raw style. I like the cuts on Violet's face, it tells the audience that if they wish to come and see our film, there will be blood and gore. I chose to use Violet as my poster's character as she is the one character to survive. I like the fact that she is surrounded by darkness, implying hopelessness and makes the poster feel claustrophobic.

This poster is excellent in my opinion due to its special effects/ graphics and the fact that it is very mysterious, there isn't much plot or storyline given away. I like that we can literally see part of one of the character's body (the eye) and only the back of another through HIS point of view. I find this very inspiring. We know that one character is disabled and that there is a large house involved, as we can see this through the eye. I'm guessing that its run down as there are dangling, overgrown plants above the disabled character. The character whos eye we are seeing is made to seem inhuman as we cannot see his actual eye. At first glance the eye seems like that of an animal such as a snake or a cat, implying that the character has an inhuman personality. Many say that the eye is the window to soul. So what does this mean? Is this the killer lusting for the blood of this disabled victim (I am presuming he is a victim). The character is watching or thinking about the victim which promotes the question 'why is he thinking about him/ watching him?'. The image in the eye is in sepia and the young man (I presume he is male) is wearing braces, a piece of clothing not often worn by younger people nowadays. Both of these elements say to me that the film is set years ago. The shot of the house is a low shot looking up at it, making it seem big and scary. We can see a greying eyebrow that is slightly bushy. This makes me presume that the character is an older male, in many horror films such as The Texas Chainsaw Masacre, older males are used as villains. The text is not very clear and an undeterminable colour, adding to the theme of mystery that runs throughout the poster. The 'E' in 'Key' has been replaced by a dollar sign. This implies greed. The writing is readable but doesn't distract from the sinister image.

Various Movie Posters

This poster for 'One Missed Call' is very sinister and has the ability to both make a viewer cringe and gasp at the same time. The bottom half of the face has a smug smile on it, and it is obvious to me that it is the smile of the villain or antagonist of the film, as he is holding a phone. In place of eyes, the 'face' has open mouths and noses. Presumably of a victim, implying that he or she kills more than one person in the duration of the film. The darkness surrounding the face once again implies utter hopelessness, that this figure is maybe unstoppable. This is very unsettling for an audience member. The text above the head is written in red, the colour of blood, implying that the film will be gory. The majority of the text is white, sticking out against the black background. This could imply hope against this ruthless force. The top of the character's head is not shown, making it unclear as to whether it is male or female, adding an element of mystery to the character, this is needed as you cannot see an unseen caller, which is what the film is presumably about.

This Friday the 13th poster is a great example of how special effects can alter the effect on an audience, e.g. the smoky, glowing effect is very eery, with the image of a man standing at the centre of the poster, with a weapon, the poster is extremely sinister and would make an audience feel uncomfortable, as if the man can see you or can see straight through you, as if he is an all knowing character... and somewhat un-human. The scene is also set in a woods,

much like our film. The black surrounding the scene implies hopelessness and an impending danger that cannot be avoided. The text, similarly to One Missed Call, is above the villain's head. It is a deceiving 'Welcome to Crystal Lake'. I see this as insincere and even sarcastic, which adds to the sinister theme of the poster. Also, like the One Missed Call poster, it has red writing, implying blood shed.

The deaths of the principles...

Alfie and Roxie will die together, when they sneak ooff from the group for some 'fun'. The others begin the wonder where they are, they begin to look for them, presuming they have gone home.

They return to the camp and find that their tents are on fire. Taylor saves his bag which contains his car keys, being the only driver. He opens the bag to find that his phone and keys are gone, and the girls' mobiles are inside the burning tent. Taylor begins to panic and becomes infuriated, shouting to whoever has done this to 'come out'. The unseen villain appears and drags Taylor into the woods. The girls lose him, resulting in the film's most poignant line ''shall we run?'' said by Violet to Darcie.

Character list.

The remaining characters are called:

Alfie: (Played by Charlie Legg) - Innocent and naive. The sweet and funny one who is the first to die. Taylor's best mate.

Taylor: (Played by Louis Rolfe) - The cocky, arrogant guy. Good looking and rich, a classic private school rebel. Romantic involved with Darcie.

Darcie: (Becca Boswell) - The pretty snob. Clever and sexy. Goes to private school with Taylor. Romantically involved with Taylor.

Violet: (Grace Leaney) - Funny girl, best friends with Darcie. Slightly loserish in comparison to Darcie and often compares herself to her. The only one to survive.

Roxy: (Verna Colosi) - Fun loving mutual friend to everyone. Often takes drugs. She dies after Alfie.

Vertigo Films

Vertigo Films is a UK Film and Media production and distribution company, founded in 2002, with the aim of producing and distributing commercially driven independent cinema

Vertigo Films are also a partner in the International sales company Protagonist Pictures, a joint venture with Film 4 and Ingenious Media.

Vertigo have produced and distributed twenty seven films to date and secured the company's position as the leading UK low budget production company through an unprecedented string of profitable films in our first six years. From the huge selling success of Nick Love Films such as The Football Factory (the biggest selling independent UK DVD with 1.3M units to date), The Business and Outlaw, to the critical and award winning releases of titles such as Its All Gone Pete Tong (Best Film Toronto Film Festival/Best film HBO US Comedy awards) to the multi award winning London to Brighton and In Search of A Midnight Kiss

In 2009 Vertigo will release a diverse range of product from the much anticipated The Firm (Nick Love) to Bronson (which played to much critical success at Sundance 09), One Day (the UK's first hip hop musical), The Cove (2009 Sundance Audience Award Winner) and Humpday (2009 Sundance Special Jury Prize Winner).

Movie trailer analysis

Doghouse – Movie Trailer

Again, it is a narrative trailer. I feel that it gives far too much away to begin with, it shows a lot of action which is appealing, but they might even show too much.

The soundtrack reflects the chaotic, fast, action packed pace of the film.

It is a Virtigo film.

The Blueprint

The Location: Fairlight Firehills. We chose this location as it is isolated and has both clear, vast fields and heavily wooded areas. Also the cliffs and sea adds to the sense of isolation.

The Filming: We will film it by giving a basic plot to the actors and then let them improvise, using handheld cameras. The filming will be just as though they are filming their party, for fun.

Sound: On the trailer we want a song that will start slow, gradually getting faster as the pace in the trailer grows.

Text: Small text will be used. 2 lines at maximum throughout the trailer, as we do not wish to give too much away.

Editing: Start off slow and it will pick up as it goes on, it will be very fast towards the end of the trailer, followed by a silent finish.

Film Pitch analysis

I think that my pitch went okay, I believe that the class knew what our film was about and we expressed our points clearly. I made a couple of technical errors, such as forgetting how to turn the music up etc. but overall I am happy with the pitch. I believe that we chose an appropriate, captivating trailer to show the class that related well to our genre and film idea.

'Firehills' Pitch

The Horror Genre

Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain. Films often leave their audience feeling vulnerable and the experience should be thrilling and exciting, an audience should not feel comfortable during a horror film. Another reason is a masochistic desire, a lot of people don’t necessarily ‘enjoy’ horror films, but love putting themselves through watching them, and the rush/ thrill that is brought with them.

Plot/ Synopsis of my Film

A group of teenagers decided to go camping in The Firehills, a valley in a near by village. They go up in three cars and set up camp.
As the party gets into full swing, the group gradually start to disappear one by one, whilst going to the toilet, for walks etc. They realise that something is wrong. Suspicious, they go back to the cars, in the hope that the others will be there.
When they reach the cars they are astonished to see that the cars have been sabotaged and their friends are nowhere to be seen. Realising that the cars are not drive-able they panic and start to turn on one another. They split up, losing their way, they get picked off one by one.
One girl is found the next morning by a dog walker.

Todorov's Theory/ Propp's Theory

Todorov's theory Todorov suggested that stories have an equilibrium, that is always broken by a particular event, which breaks the peace and normality of the piece, this sets off a series of events. The problem is resolved and the normality of the piece is restored.Valdimir ProppPropp was a Russian critic who examined hundreds of folk tales to see if they shared any similar structures. His book, ''Morphology of the Folk Tale'' was first published in 1928. He identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions.

• The 8 character types.
  The villain
  The hero
  The doner
  The helper who aids the hero
  The princess - reward for the hero and object of the villains schemes
  Her father - who rewards the hero
  The dispatcher - who sends the hero on his way
  The false hero

Some of these character types apply to the horror genre. Particularly The first four, all of which can be found in many films. All of which will probably be used in my film. I will also use Todorov's theory.

Review of Eden Lake Trailer

The first shot of the trailer is of a close up of a man and a woman kissing, this immediately lulls the audience into a false sense of security, as if this film could even be a Rom Com or another genre than Horror. These two characters are mid twenties - early thirties, possibly the audience who they are trying to aim at. But there are younger characters in this film, teenagers, so I believe the audience that they are aiming at are 18 - early thirties. There is a non diagetic sound, the main character, Jenny, talking about how her friend is being taken to Paris for the weekend, yet HER boyfriend is taking her to ''a disused quarry'', these final words may begin to create a sense of doubt in the audience's mind.. a disused quarry not being an ideal setting for a Rom Com but a typical Horror movie setting.

The word that sticks out for me is 'disused', this to me suggests that the couple is going to be isolated from the rest of the world, this is a typical theme thats runs throughout many Horror films. There is a quick shot of a town, then of a car driving towards a bridge.. I noticed that this image had more foliage and made it clear that the characters were 'going away' from normality, to somewhere in the country.. somewhere isolated. We then see several nature shots, of trees and their car driving through a forest. This now makes the audience feel more isolated and vulnerable. But shots of the two main characters smiling creates a contrasting image. It leaves the audience unsure of how to feel. We then see thick, white writing appear on a black screen reading 'OUT OF THE CITY', followed by another image of the car driving away from the audience, followed immediately by a shot of their sat nav telling them to 'turn around', this makes the audience feel on edge.. wanting to tell them to in fact 'turn around', but we then see them giggling. This tells me that they aren't going to do so.

Another piece of writing on a black screen reads 'OFF THE MAP'. The sense of dread and danger is thickening. This is followed by a shot of the characters kissing in the water.. telling us that they are blissfully unaware of the danger they are about to face. This is follwed by a close up of the leading lady asleep, but there is a flash on the screen with a non diagetic, unnatural sound attached to it, this could either make the audience jump, or merely break the (brief) illusion of peace and quiet. We then see a close up of a large Rottweiller barking. Rottweillers aren't usually considered friendly animals and often receive bad press, and are often used as guard dogs. This adds to the sense of dread that has been building throughout the trailer so far...