Textual Analysis; Horror:
As I am analysing different genres of films, as I believe this will help me improve my trailer, and my knowledge of the different film trailers, and the codes and conventions, I have decided to analyse a horror trailer. I have chosen probably one of the most famous horror films ever made 'The Blair Witch project'.

Plot summary: In October of 1994, three student film makers were filming a documentary, and went to film in the woods near burkittsville, Maryland, and disappeared. A year later their footage was found.

Media Representations: This trailer is unique in that we don't actually see the characters in the film, we just hear a female voice-over, and she is reporting the story for a news channel, and by using a news reporter it gives the story realism, and adds to the verisimilitude as we all look to the news to report the truth, and therefore it portrays the story to be a true story, and this increases the fear of the audience, therefore following the main convention of Horror films, to scare the audience. The first thing we see on the trailer is writing, describing what happened on the events in October 1994, by using a date, it adds to the verisimilitude as we start to think did this actually happen on this date, and as it is in the past, and not recently, we can't actually remember what was on the news that day, and we begin to think that this could of been on the news, and it plays with our memory, and the reporter adds to the authenticity of the story, and as it says 'A year later their footage was found', and again this adds to the authenticity as we don't know if it was found, and the next clip reinforces the idea. As the next clip is lots of tapes laid out on a table, this is how things are laid out when they're discovered, like fossils found, and this makes it seem very important, and as it looks very official, it again makes the audience think that it actually happened. We also see the actually camera handled by someone with white glove on, like a forensic scientist and this makes the audience think that if the police are involved, then it is serious and happened. We also see a missing poster of the three people, and this is the only time we see the faces of the characters, and we can see they're all teenagers, and this immediately helps us identify the audience, as to being young adults, and it also makes us wonder what happened, as the missing poster looks very authentic, and it is like the missing posters we see everyday, it adds to the verisimilitude of the trailer and the story. We then see one of the characters running, and it is the female, this immediately creates an emotional response from the audience, as it is a female and they're always portrayed as needing protecting, and it makes the audience want to protect her, and this is also portraying the female stereotypically, as in most films women are portrayed as being vulnerable, and the female in the trailer is clearly vulnerable as she is running away from someone and screaming. Also in the trailer she is all in white and everything around her is black, white means pure and innocence, and it conveys how she is innocent to whatever is chasing her, and as everything around her is black it conveys that whatever it is chasing her is evil, and it also relates to the devil, the thing chasing her is the devil, and is evil, whereas she is innocent, and pure.

Media Languages and forms: The first location we see is a room with the camera, and the tapes from the camera laid out on the table, this is reminiscent of how fossils are laid out when they're found, like in a museum and this adds to the verisimilitude. The room looks like a lab, where things from crime scenes are taken to be analysed, and again this adds to the authenticity as it is what happens in real life. The room is also quite bare, and this is done as we just focus on the tapes, and the room helps reinforce the idea that this really happened. We also see like forensic tags next to the tapes, and they do this in real life with evidence they collect from crime scenes, and again this adds to the authenticity. We also see a forest, and at first I thought it seemed quite peaceful, as you see the tress and the stream, but the reporter then described how they had disappeared whilst shooting their documentary here, and after she had said that I began to notice how eerie it was, its deserted, and also when yous see the shadows of the trees reflected in the stream, it almost makes me think that something is going to pop up any moment, adding to the fear of the audience. Also forests are featured in many horrors, as they're eerie, and spooky and no one wants to walk alone through a forest at night, and also we all associate forests with horrors, as the cliche horrors usually had some sort of haunted house with a graveyard and forest next to it, and this film uses that to create a modern horror. There wasn't many locations in the trailer, as they wanted it to make it seem authentic, and I think it adds to the verisimilitude, as when you start to have a lot of locations it can get confusing and hard to follow, and therefore the audience don't believe the story. We also don't see any of the characters faces, and this is unusual in trailers, as we usually see the characters faces so we can read their expressions, and it helps convey the story, but we do hear the woman scream, and this is enough to convey that she is being chased by something, and something awful has happened. There isn't much music as it is really just the reporter, and the use of the reporter adds to the authenticity of the trailer.

Narrative: Narrative is a series of actions in a cause and effect relationship occurring in time and space. The narrative is conveyed through the use of a voice over. A female reporter for a news channel tells us of the story and what happened to them in the woods, and this is quite unusual as we don't actually see clips of characters, which usually help convey the narrative, and this shows how the trailer goes against the conventions of trailers, as we don't see the characters and we cant connect to the characters, but I think for this film it is a good idea, because I think it adds to the verisimilitude, because when stories are reported on the news we don't know the people who are involved in the story, we just know what happened, and I think they did this to make the audience believe it was real. Th narrative at the beginning of the trailer is just reporting what happened to the three students, to convey the narrative to the audience, but at the end it changes and we see a female running and screaming, and I think it did this as when it is reporting the story you can put yourself in their shoes, and it allows the audience to create their own opinion on what happened, but then when you see the female running you don't see her ace it is just a figure running, and I think they didn't show the face so that you can imagine that's you there and it allows the audience to put themselves in her shoes. The editing is not as jumpy as you would expect a horror movie to be, and it doesn't use jump cuts, and I think this is because jump cuts are a convention of horrors used to scare the audience, and I think going against the convention again adds to the verisimilitude as it isn't like other horror films, and it allows you time to process the information from the reporter, and imagine you're there. There is also a use of pan in the trailer to allow the audience to react to what they're seeing, as there is a pan when we see the tapes on the table, and this makes it seem much more real and more official, as we can see there are little tags attached to the tapes, and the trailer is also a montage towards the end, like most trailers, and it shows us different parts of the woods, but it isn't as fast paced as you would expect us to be, and they show you a bit of the woods so that you can see were the things happened, but also it makes you look for things, as they focus on the different parts for quite a while, it almost makes you think something is going to pop up while your looking at it. The end of the trailer becomes much more like a horror, as it is fast paced, but the camera is hand held, to make it seem like its you following the women, and its you chasing her, and it is a point of view shot as you're seeing the women through the things eyes what is chasing her, also the way we see the female is strange as it is almost like night vision except that it shows the female to be all in white, and this conveys that it is night, but it also suggests that what is chasing her is not human and is a creature we would not recognise, therefore increasing our fear of the thing. There isn't a use of taglines on the trailer, which I have found to be a convention of most film trailers, but there is the text at the beginning and this type of technique is used in many recent film trailers such as 'The fourth Kind' and 'Paranormal Activity', and this is used in each film as they add to the authenticity and make it seem real what happened, and therefore it entices the audience into what actually happened and makes them want to go and watch the film, and this is the main purpose of trailers, to engage the audience and sell the film.

Genre: The genre of the trailer is horror and I think it is quite unidentifiable at first, as it doesn't follow many conventions as there aren't any characters in the trailer, and there isn't any music on the trailer, it is just the reporter, but the text we see at the beginning is now used in many trailers, but when this film was first released it was quite unusual and therefore it went against the conventions. Also when it shows us the tapes and camera, they're being handled by forensic scientists, and because of this the film also represents the crime and thriller genre, therefore making the film hybrid, as it mixes the genres. The end of the trailer allows us to see it follows the conventions of horrors, as we see the person running screaming, and it is at night, which is the scariest time of the day, and it is the time when most horror films are set, therefore following the conventions of the genre. The three people cast for the main characters were Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams, and these three actors were unknown before they did this film, and I think this again makes it seem more authentic, as if you had famous actors in the film such as Brad Pitt it would be obvious that the story wasn't true, as we would have heard about it in the media if it had happened, but using unknown actors make us think it could have happened, as we don't know who these people are, and Joshua Leonard has gone in to star in other horrors such as 'Prom Night', therefore associating him with the genre.

Media Institutions: The film was produced by Haxan films, an independent company headquartered by Disney's Hollywood studio, and it is not a well known company and its most famous film was 'The Blair Witch Project', I think the use of the independent film company again adds to the authenticity, because as it is little known it makes you think that it is real, and that this small company has picked it up to tell the story, and also it makes it less commercialised than if it was produced by Universal, which is one of the big six. The film was very popular and brought a lot of revenue to the institution, therefore bring international acclaim to the company.

Media Values and Ideology: The ideology is scaring the audience, and it is also different o other horrors as the producers want to make it seem like it really happened, and it also follows the ideology of crime and thriller films, as we see the tapes in some sort of lab room, and it also follows the ideology of documentaries as we see the story through the characters own filming, as the film is set like a documentary. The film follows the values of horrors as a horror is made specifically to scare the audience, and to build suspense, and this does this in the trailer as it creates suspense when the reporter tells us what happened, and then it creates fear when we see the woman running.

Media Audiences: I have found during my research of horror films are usually young adults, from around the age of 16-25, as young adults are the ones who usually go to see horror films, and are looking for excitement. I also think the film is particularly aimed at females, as we just see the female character running and screaming, and the young females in the audience can relate to her, as everyone would scream and react like her if they were being chased by something. I also feel it is aimed at young people as the story is told from the point of view from three different students, and therefore older people would have trouble with understanding their feelings and experiences, whereas young people would be able to understand, and I also feel the film could be aimed at people who can use a camera, and young people who study this, as people studying something like this have to create films, and it allows them to imagine that this could happen to them if they went filming in the woods. The film I feel is aimed at both genders but more female, as also the reporter is female, and again I think this adds to the authenticity because I think people rely on women to tell the truth and be honest more than men.