Genre research

Genre is the way that films, TV shows, music, etc are categorised by the content within them (themes, characters, plot). Genres are arguably one of the most important factors for films effecting their popularity long before their release. This can be seen when the theorist John Fiske said that genres are convenient for the audiences and producers of films. They are convenient for producers as the genre is the deciding factor for who will see the film so using a very popular genre such as horror will attract a greater audience than if they choose the film Noir genre. This means that more people will go to see the film making the producers a larger profit. Genres are also important for the audiences for a similar reason to the producers as many people see certain films depending on the genre that they are as not all people will enjoy a horror film but they may enjoy a Sci-fi film.

I'm also going to analyse a film trailer so that I can get an idea on how trailers from the horror genre are filmed so that my group can use this as reference when we create the film trailer.

A distorted version of the paramount logo
(notice how the stars have been replaced by the ring)

This the trailer for the 2017 film Rings the 3rd film of American The Ring film trilogy. Immediately as the trailer starts we can tell that it is a part of the horror genre through the costume of the character as we see that she has blood stains on her face. Suddenly we see a bright light from the TV while a music sting plays this is so that the audience is caught off guard as there was no build up to the sting what so ever. Furthermore, we see that this is actually is a psychological horror film which is a sub genre of the horror genre which was stated by theorist Barry Keith Grant who has also said no matter what genre a film is there will always be a sub genre for it. Also, throughout the trailer we see jump cuts cutting to footage from the ring tape a key item in the film series this is done to create a sense of tension making us feel that we are never truly safe. Another way that the trailer builds tension is the way that the footage is edited together makes it so that everything happening to the characters gradually gets worse and worse as the week progresses. This is reference to how Samara (the films antagonist) kills her victims seven days after they watch the tape.

After watching the entirety of the trailer the feelings that I got from the trailer vary from start to finish. At the start of the trailer I got a sense of mystery and confusion as I had never seen a film from The Ring trilogy so I didn't know what I was getting into when I first watched it. As the trailer progresses I got a rough idea of the plot you watch the video and die seven days later this gives of a ominous vibe. As I mentioned earlier the trailer gets more horrific as it progresses this includes more brutal scenes for example during the trailer there is a clip where Julia (The films protagonist) pulls a clot of hair from her throat this makes me feel sickened and disgusted as while there is no blood it's a very disturbing scene especially when I noticed that the hair was a different colour to the woman's implying that it wasn't hers but Samara's.

Many popular Slasher antagonists
including the likes of Chucky, Ghost face, Pinhead,
Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger

The conventions of the Horror genre can vary depending on what sub genre the film goes under. For example the convention of the slasher sub genre includes the antagonist being an unstoppable killing who kills a majority of the the films cast showing no remorse. Another thing is that the antagonist never truly dies always coming normally having something to do with the supernatural (resurrection, possession, etc.) An example of this would be Chucky from the film Child's Play (1988) as he is killed in the opening of the film but comes back after his soul possesses a doll allowing him to continue his killing spree this is also seen in later films in the series as he returns even after his doll body (still containing his human heart) was shot and destroyed.

VHS footage from the above trailer

However if we look at a psychological horror film such as the Rings we see that they have different conventions. Firstly, One of the main conventions is that the film plays with your head as you watch it. This can be done in many ways such as distorting the footage so the audience can't focus, include dream sequences as they are not meant to make any logical sense. This can also be seen in the trailer as throughout the trailer as footage from The Ring VHS tape is shown showing random images with no real meaning. This footage also has a static effect and all the colours are dull and washed out distorting the clip, The clip also happens very briefly so the audiences will not be able to clearly see what it contains unless they re watched the trailer and focused on this point.

Mark is turned into paper an torn
apart by Freddy

There are also horror films that take conventions from multiple different sub genres allowing the films combine them to make their films unique. An example of this would be The Nightmare on Elm Street film series as all the films have conventions from both the Slasher and Psychological sub genres. We see the Slasher conventions through most of Freddy Krueger's victims as they are all teenagers who are commonly killed in Slasher films more than any type of person. Furthermore, Freddy also is shown to be nearly unkillable as he can't be killed in the dream world which is where he kills all his victims ever only appearing in the real world if he is pulled into it against his will. He also shows conventions from the psychological horror sub genre as he uses his victims greatest fears and desires against them to mess with their mind this can be seen when he kills Mark Gray in Dream Warriors (1987) who is a fan of comic books so he kills him by dressing as a super villain and turns Mark into paper drawing of him self in a comic book art style and tears him to pieces.

Handheld camera,
Over the shoulder when we see the
writing on the wall

Now i'll look at the trailer for Rings to see what conventions are used. The first thing that stands out to me is throughout the trailer a handheld camera is used in scenes where the characters appear to be exploring an abandoned house and noticing some very sadistic signs (shackles on the ground and messages written on the wall). What this does is makes the audience feel like they there with the characters which is further shown through the use of a over the shoulder shot which can be seen in the GIF to convey that we are right behind her. This is used to scare the audience as it places them in this situation where something could jump out out of nowhere which creates suspense.

Possessed Woman twitching

Another way that I have seen camerawork used to make the audience feel like they are in the shoes of the characters is the use of a P.O.V shot of Julia looking at a woman. While this sounds normal we immediately see that she is twitching in an unsettling way. This is actually a convention of supernatural horror films as when a character in the film is possessed by a ghost/demon they will start to twitch/shake uncontrollably as they are slowly taking control of. This is used to prepare the audience for a scare as it will most likely lead to a jump scare of the possessed woman attacking someone while screaming.

Samara's appearance

Julia having a nosebleed

Another convention to the supernatural horror genre that I noticed was through the use of Mise-en-scene and more specifically the use of make-up/costume which has been used to show Julia having a nosebleed. This is a convention in the horror genre as nosebleeds are used to show the mental strain on a persons body which can be used to foreshadow a characters death. In addition, they are also used to make a character become weaker as the nosebleeds also lead to headaches and dizziness. These nosebleeds are seen in all of The Ring films as they are a part of Samara's curse and Julia is shown to be effected by this curse as we see her having a nosebleed after watching the video tape. Make-up is also used as part of the antagonist costume, by looking at Samara's face we see she has old, wrinkly skin and many dirt patches on her face. However one of the most noticeable things for me is that looking under her eyes and around her mouth we see what appears to be scars and dried blood. This has been done to make Samara resemble a corpse which ties in with her origin story being a vengeful spirit which makes the audience fear her more because of the way that she looks. However, when we see the blood on one of the protagonists face such as when Julia has a nosebleed we don't fear her like with Samara but instead we feel sympathetic towards her as it shows her being in a weaker state than what we normally see her. Furthermore, as I previously mentioned that a nosebleed can foreshadow a characters deaths this implies that Julia may die later in the film making the audience more sympathetic towards her.

I believe that the target audience for Rings should be for Young adults and above. I think this because the film contains many psychological scene that are for the audience to think about as the film progresses so younger audiences may not be able to fully understand what they mean. Also, by looking at the BBFC's website I see that they have rated it 15 because of moderate violence and the supernatural and physical threats seen in the film. What this tells me is that the film will be great for thrill seekers as they will enjoy the tension and suspense which will be seen throughout the film. The film is also targeted to fans of The Ring film series who will want to see more after watching the previous films in the trilogy. In addition I believe that people from both ABC1 and C2DE will be able to enjoy the film as many horror films follow a basic plot so that everyone can follow it but later expands on that as the film progresses so that people can adapt to it while they watch the film. I will try to make my film trailer have a similar audience so that it will cover a wide variety of people from many different lifestyles who will hopefully enjoy are films.

 While watching the trailer I also noticed more questions such as how does the tape kill people?, where did it come from? and who created it?. This conforms to a theory created by Rick Altman in 1999 where he states that genre offers audiences 'sets of pleasures' these pleasures are either visceral (physical), emotional and intellectual. During this part of the trailer is giving us an intellectual puzzle through these questions. Furthermore, there are many jump cuts showing footage of the ring tape with somewhat random scenes making us question their meanings and if they are linked in any way. I will now talk about the other two pleasures. First off, Emotional pleasures can be clearly seen throughout the trailer. Firstly, when we first see the distorted footage of VHS tape fans of the other films may get a nostalgic feeling as the last Ring film to come out before this was The Ring Two (2005) which was released twelve years ago. Also, directly after this Julia suddenly knocks the TV to the floor only for Samara to lift the TV up and climb through the screen. This will scare the audiences, if the audience physically jump when seeing her appear it would be a visceral pleasure.The Visceral pleasures that can be seen throughout the trailer. Firstly, when Samara jumps out of the TV it may make some of the audience jump in fear as there was no build up so they were caught of guard this may also excite some audiences if they are thrill seekers and want to be scared as they will build up adrenaline so they will enjoy other scary scenes in the trailer. When we create our film trailer i'll try to implement as many of these pleasures as I can so that the audience will be entertained throughout it.

As I briefly mentioned at the start theorist John Fiske said that genre was convenient for both audiences and producers. After research the Horror action genre I have looked back at his theory to see how it applies to the Horror action genre. The first thing I notice is that Horror action is a hybrid genre which means that is a combination of two genres in this case its the horror and action genre. This is convenient to the audience of both genres as it is a fusion of a genre that they really enjoy to watch either for to have fun or immerse themselves in them escaping from reality , Blumler and Katz (1974), and another genre that they may not be familiar with and may of never been interested in watching them but as a hybrid will include parts of a genre they do enjoy it may convince audiences to give the film a try which could lead to them seeing films of the other genre. This is also useful for producers as it would mean that are larger audience is going to see a film due to is being a hybrid genre making them a larger profit this means producers would start making more hybrid genre films as they would attract larger audiences to their films making them more money.

When I picked the brief I decided that the genre would be part of the Horror action genre. I've chosen this as I will be able to take inspirations from a wide range of films and see how they film specific scenes (camera angles, editing, music, etc). One of the biggest sub genres of the horror that i'll be focusing on is the Slasher genre as they contain many action packed scenes while still making them terrifying to watch so they will be perfect to analyse when we make our film trailer.

Overall, I believe that the trailer is very conventional for the horror genre I believe this because many of the conventions used throughout the trailer such as the handheld camera and the music stings are seen in a majority of horror films released including the trailers for these films as it raises the tension to scare the audience which make them want to see the film when it comes out. In my opinion, the music stings and jumpscares are the most conventional parts of the trailer as stings have been used in horror films for decades ever since films started having sound the most famous sting in a horror film is from the opening of Psycho (1960) where it is used as the woman is murdered to scare the audience. In addition,  jumpscares are very conventional to the horror genre as they are one of the most easiest ways to scare audiences and can be done in a variety of ways such as building up to it with suspenseful music or having a false scare to scare the audience putting them into a false sense of security only for the real jumpscare to happen.