To what extent can Reality TV and the modern rolling news exemplify Debord's theory of the spectacle and Baudrillard's theory of Hyperreality?
Guy Debord's theory of the spectacle states: "The world we see is the world of the commodity... [the spectacle is] a social relationship between people that is mediated by images to compensate for the crumbling of directly experienced... productive activity." The theory is that what we see in the media is a false representation [a spectacle] of reality. We're being sold a fake, something "worthless to fill our empty lives." Baudrillard's theory of Hyperreality is claiming the distinction between media and reality has collapsed and we now live in a reality defined by images and representations - a state of simulated reality. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some "pure" reality that exists before the image represents it - this is the state of hyperreality. There are many examples of this in Reality TV and rolling news.
One major example of Debord's theory of the spectacle is the reality TV show made in chelsea. This is something called scripted reality, they are given a rough script to stick to and then they improvise most of it with how they would in their normal lives. This gives a sense that it's real but the truth is that it's all staged. They almost manipulate the audience in this way because they get the audience to connect with all the different characters and convince them they're real despite most of it being fake. The advertising for instance on the site YouTube for made in chelsea is all targetted at the audience of made in chelsea, adverts for Burbery and Chanel etc. The fact that people think the actors in this show are real creates a problem and makes it something called postmodern, where there's no longer a line between media and reality and so people don't know what's real and what's not, creating a state of simulated reality, which links in with Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality. Another example is the TV show, which in a sense is also a reality TV show, X-Factor. This show has three judges and lots of contestants who perform in front of a live audience. However it's not that simple as the audience is told what to do and when, so if they boo a certain act the show is trying to get you to be against the contestant as well, or for cheering root for that contestant. They also edit the shots so that if someone was shocked about a certain act they could take the audience being shocked and put it to another act to again make you not like that contestant. This show basically manipulates the audience without them knowing into rooting for or against different contestants, real people. This is a good example of how the media is selling us something fake, to fill our "empty" lives.
An example of Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality is adverts today. Adverts such as underwear or perfume from celebrities like David Beckham and Madonna. As well as the actual representation of celebrities like Jade Goody and Chanelle Hayes. With the advertising we are being sold a product by the advertising companies "sexualising" people like David Beckham and Madonna to make you buy it. We see Beckham in his underwear with a significant "bulge" and muscles, which may or may not be photoshopped/faked. This convinces boys and men alike that this image is what you are supposed to look like and gives us a twisted view on reality, a state of simulated reality. This is almost exactly the same with Madonna and other celebrities selling perfume or underwear, convincing girls and women that this is what you should look like. The celebrities being represented by the media is slightly different but still can be applied to the theory of hyperreality. The celebrity Chanelle Hayes has been represented by the media in a completely sexual way, being topless in magazines like ZOO and acting provocative in her music video "I want it", even the title hinting at something sexual. This is completely twisting our view of her as for all we know she could be very innocent and sweet but all we are shown by the media is her looks. She was in big brother 8 and probably mainly picked because of her looks. The celebrity Jade Goody has also been represented by the news and media in a bad light, but also a good one. She was also in big brother and very much hated by the media. She then went on the big brother in india and was told live on air that she had cervical cancer. This is an example of how cruel the media can be in showing someone's life changing bad news live on a show for everyone to watch. After this news the media completely changed their views on her and only gave her good press, but still reporting on her every step of the way. This is an example that once something is on the news it stays on the news because people want to know what happens next. Her entire life from when she was told she had cancer was documented, giving us all a sense of simulated reality as we were literally watching this girl die step by step with the media in her face every part of it. The relationship with both these celebrities for the viewers have been completely manipulated by the media. For example most people believed Jade wasn't a nice person because of all the bad press she got but when the media changed their mind after the cancer discovery most people changed their minds as well.
Tuesday 24 September 2013
Character - Kate EA/JB
Dana
An example of a character that we would like to base our character profile on would be Dana from Cabin in the woods. Dana is a young and innocent girl who is forced to fight against the monsters in the cabin in the woods. Dana is a student who went on a trip with her friends. Typically she is an intellectual who will advise the group on what to do however they wont listen, she is not particularly a popular character however because she seems to be the runt of the group it makes it more gripping when she emerges victorious at the end. She is also friendly, caring and always trying to help. Her costume will be much like that of our characters. The main thing we've taken from her is her personality which we've applied to Kate, but we've based our character around all of her. She is pictured below.
Grace Andrews
Grace is played by Sophia Bush in a film called The Hitcher. She's also a fairly young female in the horror film. She's very strong but also fairly vulnerable until the very end where she acts much more brave and eventually saves herself, after having lost her boyfriend to the crazy guy who's the enemy in this film. She looks much like our character would, same sort of clothes and maybe a bit older but same sort of age. We've based Kate around this character as well, the stereotypical heroine girl who is useless at the start but then becomes stronger. She is much like girls from other horror films for instance like Dana above and so we've stuck to this film and made our character much like this. She's pictured below, like Dana with a gun in her hands, this shows that both of these characters are very strong, even though at the start they aren't very helpful and are very scared.
Kate
Kate will be partially based on dana, we would like to use the aspects of her which make her really adjust to her stereotype. The traits we will take are how she is young because this makes her seem more innocent. Innocence is a key part of her character because it makes the audience connect in a different way to her and support her more. Another trait would be how she is the "runt of the pack" this will make us feel sorry for her and make the film more dramatic. However as you can see she also can fight against the monsters quite well which we will also apply to Kate. In our film Kate is pretty much forced to go into the woods with her group of friends and then when everything goes wrong she is eventually saved by the Ghost Hunter Darius and they have a slight romance going on which helps us connect with this character.
Our characters costume will be fairly casual, and that of a teenage girl. She will be wearing fairly normal clothes and have the same costume throughout the film as once she enters the woods she doesn't change clothes and that's when you're introduced to her. Her costume will be jeans or leggings, a casual t shirt or top and then a jumper or coat with trainers. Vague ideas for this costume are pictured below, subject to change as to what is available to us.
Our characters costume will be fairly casual, and that of a teenage girl. She will be wearing fairly normal clothes and have the same costume throughout the film as once she enters the woods she doesn't change clothes and that's when you're introduced to her. Her costume will be jeans or leggings, a casual t shirt or top and then a jumper or coat with trainers. Vague ideas for this costume are pictured below, subject to change as to what is available to us.
Monday 23 September 2013
Character - Darius JB
Ed Warren
This character stars in a film called The Conjuring. He is a kind of hero and saves all of them from the witch haunting their house. He is very similar to our character and like our character he doesn't die at the end. He is also brave and fairly strong as well as being smart at dealing with ghosts. The only noticeable difference from our character is the fact that he's a bit older and maybe our character wont be religious. He will have a completely different costume and look as well. We've taken mainly the tone and personality of this character to apply to ours.
John Hartigan
This character is from a film called Sin City. The thing i've taken from this character is his costume. His costume is pictured below. He wears a suit and a leather jacket which is mainly what I want my character to wear. However the actor will be much younger in our film.
Curt Vaughan
This character is from a film called The Cabin in the Woods. He is the jock type character, well built and young. The part of this character we're applying to ours is the general look, fairly young and strong. Looks brave and tough. He is pictured below.
Darius
The character I'll be looking at is the Ghost Hunter. His role in the film will be the hero. You see him near the start of the trailer as he's called in by the police as they can't find any evidence in the death of the man in the woods. When he says something supernatural killed him none of the police believe him and he is mocked. He is sent away from the crime scene and he goes home. Later on you see him again go to the crime scene late at night to see if he can find some new evidence, this is when he hears a scream of the main girl after the group of teenagers have been attacked by this supernatural being in the woods. He goes in to help them and the rest of the movie is about them trying to survive and in the end it's just the Ghost Hunter and the girl who survive, who perhaps have a bit of a romance going on throughout the film. His type of character will be someone who isn't taken seriously because not many people believe in the ghosts but he turns out to be right in the end. This character usually dies in these films but in an attempt to distance myself from the stereotypical horror films i'm going to keep him alive. We shall name him Darius because it sounds like a strong man's name but also that he might have a softer side, like with the girl.
Darius's costume will be very stereotypical of a detective type character. For the part where he's at the crime scene with all the other policeman etc he will be in a suit, trench coat and possibly a trilby with smart black shoes. Pictured below.
His costume when he goes back to the crime scene to investigate more will be more casual. This is the part when he hears the girl scream and runs in, to help and to save them. His costume will be jeans, t shirt and maybe a leather jacket or jacket of some sort with casual trainers, fairly casual and normal. Pictured below.
John Hartigan
This character is from a film called Sin City. The thing i've taken from this character is his costume. His costume is pictured below. He wears a suit and a leather jacket which is mainly what I want my character to wear. However the actor will be much younger in our film.
Curt Vaughan
This character is from a film called The Cabin in the Woods. He is the jock type character, well built and young. The part of this character we're applying to ours is the general look, fairly young and strong. Looks brave and tough. He is pictured below.
Darius
The character I'll be looking at is the Ghost Hunter. His role in the film will be the hero. You see him near the start of the trailer as he's called in by the police as they can't find any evidence in the death of the man in the woods. When he says something supernatural killed him none of the police believe him and he is mocked. He is sent away from the crime scene and he goes home. Later on you see him again go to the crime scene late at night to see if he can find some new evidence, this is when he hears a scream of the main girl after the group of teenagers have been attacked by this supernatural being in the woods. He goes in to help them and the rest of the movie is about them trying to survive and in the end it's just the Ghost Hunter and the girl who survive, who perhaps have a bit of a romance going on throughout the film. His type of character will be someone who isn't taken seriously because not many people believe in the ghosts but he turns out to be right in the end. This character usually dies in these films but in an attempt to distance myself from the stereotypical horror films i'm going to keep him alive. We shall name him Darius because it sounds like a strong man's name but also that he might have a softer side, like with the girl.
Darius's costume will be very stereotypical of a detective type character. For the part where he's at the crime scene with all the other policeman etc he will be in a suit, trench coat and possibly a trilby with smart black shoes. Pictured below.
His costume when he goes back to the crime scene to investigate more will be more casual. This is the part when he hears the girl scream and runs in, to help and to save them. His costume will be jeans, t shirt and maybe a leather jacket or jacket of some sort with casual trainers, fairly casual and normal. Pictured below.
Saturday 21 September 2013
Plot ideas 2 EA
I have decided to use the horror genre, the sub-genre will be either a thriller or a psychological horror. We have researched into a few horror trailer plots and I have come up with some new ideas which revolve around the trailers.
1st Idea: Psychological Horror.
The film would be about a girl coming to terms with her dark past through a series of psychological ordeals which she thinks she is imagining however it turns out to be more than that. Eventually she ends up killing herself to find peace.
Trailer
-A girl is walking through a dark house
- There are quick flashbacks so a happy memory of her playing with her family in the pace of a heartbeat
-You can hear banging and screaming on all of the doors in the corridor
-The flash backs get more violent and more dialog is exposed revealing her background of abuse and become a montage
-There will be a low shot of just her dirty feet and the floor down the corridor
- Display the title of the film
- Jump scare with a creepy face and a scream.
2nd Idea: Horror
A man is being hunted by a serial killer, the film is about the police catching the serial killer and about the man overcoming the difficult situations he is put in. Eventually the serial killer kills the man's wife and is then stopped by the man.
Trailer
- The man is walking through streets and the killer is always in the corner of the shot
- Deep breaths increase tension.
- When he gets home there are loads of little changes to his house he does not notice to shock the audience
-Pace increases between cuts and you see a woman die
-Title displayed
- jump scare
Post by Eliot Ashton
1st Idea: Psychological Horror.
The film would be about a girl coming to terms with her dark past through a series of psychological ordeals which she thinks she is imagining however it turns out to be more than that. Eventually she ends up killing herself to find peace.
Trailer
-A girl is walking through a dark house
- There are quick flashbacks so a happy memory of her playing with her family in the pace of a heartbeat
-You can hear banging and screaming on all of the doors in the corridor
-The flash backs get more violent and more dialog is exposed revealing her background of abuse and become a montage
-There will be a low shot of just her dirty feet and the floor down the corridor
- Display the title of the film
- Jump scare with a creepy face and a scream.
2nd Idea: Horror
A man is being hunted by a serial killer, the film is about the police catching the serial killer and about the man overcoming the difficult situations he is put in. Eventually the serial killer kills the man's wife and is then stopped by the man.
Trailer
- The man is walking through streets and the killer is always in the corner of the shot
- Deep breaths increase tension.
- When he gets home there are loads of little changes to his house he does not notice to shock the audience
-Pace increases between cuts and you see a woman die
-Title displayed
- jump scare
Post by Eliot Ashton
Tuesday 17 September 2013
Audience Focus Group EA/JB
Our focus group is 15-21 males so I will ask them the questions below.
- What is your favourite genre of horror?
- What are your three favourite horror films?
- How often do you watch horror films?
-show film trailer below-
- What aspect of this film would make you want to watch it the most?
- Explain the plot to us, do you understand it, are you reading the words on the screen.
- Is the age of the actor part of the selling point
- How important is gore, do you need gore or just frightened by suspense.
- Do you like comedy with horror
- What TV programs do you watch regularly
- Do reviews or awards mean a lot to you? If so which one matters more and why?
- What similarities between your favourite horror films have you observed?
Below is the Audience focus group interview. We use two males aged 18 and 17. We asked them the questions above and got some good feedback.
Most of what they said was what we expected but some of the things gave us very good information we wouldn't thought of. They didn't seem to take in the words on the screen, however we think that we'll still put words on the screen as they added to the trailer's effect and split up the scenes well. They noticed the stereotypical characters in most horrors.
- What is your favourite genre of horror?
- What are your three favourite horror films?
- How often do you watch horror films?
-show film trailer below-
- Explain the plot to us, do you understand it, are you reading the words on the screen.
- Is the age of the actor part of the selling point
- How important is gore, do you need gore or just frightened by suspense.
- Do you like comedy with horror
- What TV programs do you watch regularly
- Do reviews or awards mean a lot to you? If so which one matters more and why?
- What similarities between your favourite horror films have you observed?
Below is the Audience focus group interview. We use two males aged 18 and 17. We asked them the questions above and got some good feedback.
Monday 16 September 2013
Plot Ideas for trailer JB
The genre I've decided on is horror, with the sub-genre either being thriller or psychological. Therefore I've researched some of this genre's plots and come up with some new ideas inspired by some of these. A lot of psychological horrors contain things like possession and ghosts/ demons.
1st Idea:
- A troubled old man rocking backward and forward in his rocking chair, smoking and drinking, quietly humming to himself.
- You see hints that something is with him in the room, or outside through the window.
- There's some build up then it eventually kills him and leaves him there, still rocking.
- Police investigation scene about the murder. They find nothing.
- Cuts to a family moving into the house and them being happy they got a new house.
- Then fast edits through different scenes in the house where the family get terrorised by this demon.
2nd Idea:
- A man is walking in the woods listening to his iPod, you see hints that something is following him and he is getting a bit nervous and keeps looking over his shoulder.
- Eventually he stops and turns off his iPod, shouts out something like who's there and then it kills him.
- A police investigation scene the following morning and they can't find anything, a special ghost hunter is also there and concludes it's supernatural.
- They ward off the forest to keep people safe just in case it is supernatural even though the police don't believe it.
- Teenagers sneak in at night to drink. It's all happy until one of them gets pulled out of the circle from the shadows and havoc ensues.
- There's 6 of them and they die off one by one with perhaps one survivor. During the last bit of the trailer there's jump cuts and fast edits between different bits of action and tension alike.
1st Idea:
- A troubled old man rocking backward and forward in his rocking chair, smoking and drinking, quietly humming to himself.
- You see hints that something is with him in the room, or outside through the window.
- There's some build up then it eventually kills him and leaves him there, still rocking.
- Police investigation scene about the murder. They find nothing.
- Cuts to a family moving into the house and them being happy they got a new house.
- Then fast edits through different scenes in the house where the family get terrorised by this demon.
2nd Idea:
- A man is walking in the woods listening to his iPod, you see hints that something is following him and he is getting a bit nervous and keeps looking over his shoulder.
- Eventually he stops and turns off his iPod, shouts out something like who's there and then it kills him.
- A police investigation scene the following morning and they can't find anything, a special ghost hunter is also there and concludes it's supernatural.
- They ward off the forest to keep people safe just in case it is supernatural even though the police don't believe it.
- Teenagers sneak in at night to drink. It's all happy until one of them gets pulled out of the circle from the shadows and havoc ensues.
- There's 6 of them and they die off one by one with perhaps one survivor. During the last bit of the trailer there's jump cuts and fast edits between different bits of action and tension alike.
Sunday 8 September 2013
Horror Trailers Techniques and Coventions essay JB
Explore the genre and conventions of your chosen media text. How do you plan to adhere to or develop these conventions?
The genre I have decide on is Horror. The sub-genre of this being either a thriller horror or a psychological. I'm going to focus on 5 trailers; The Ring, Grave Encounters, Paranormal Activity, The Cabin in the Woods and The Purge. Each of these trailers have many different conventions and techniques that I will explore in this essay and how I plan to adhere to or develop them.
One of the main conventions i've noticed in these 5 trailers is the use of words on the screen to give the audience an idea of the plot. This is used in Grave Encounters, The Ring and The Purge. The Cabin in the Woods and Paranormal Activity also use words on the screen but they use it more as a way to introduce extra selling points and less to tell you the plot. The pictures below are examples of these. I could adhere to this convention by explaining my plot broadly to the audience in this way and possible introduce an extra selling point such as "From the director of -insert movie name here-".
Another technique I saw used widely was the use of fast paced short shots cut together with straight cuts. This was used to increase tension and keep suspense and the feel of action. It was used in every single one of these trailers an example being in The Ring at 0:56 until around the end of the trailer. This trailer is shown below. I would adhere to this technique fairly easily by increasing the number of shots I take and editing them together very quickly one after another in an attempt to copy this and keep tension and suspense/the feel of action.
One convention I didn't see much use of was a main actor being in most shots to bring in an audience of his or her fans. However one of the trailers did use the producer as an extra selling point as he was presumably particularly famous, this part of the trailer The Cabin in the Woods is pictured below. This would help because if people have seen another one of this producers films and they liked it it would work in the same way a famous actor would and bring in more audience. Another example of this is in The purge in which they again mention the producer, but instead of mentioning a name they mention he's the producer of paranormal Activity, which might help more as more people would know the film than the producer behind the film. This too is pictured below. I could adhere to this convention by using either an actor or a producer as an extra selling point, bringing his name up on the screen perhaps at a pivotal moment in the trailer.
Another technique used widely in these 5 trailers was the use of a tense soundtrack. It was used in every single one of these trailers and i'm pretty sure it'd be hard to find a trailer for a horror in which there is no soundtrack whatsoever. Most of the music is not just a soundtrack but tense music with a lot of effects of for example people breathing heavily and screams thrown in with it to increase tension. The soundtrack is used to help the trailer be more effective by increasing tension and suspense. It's designed to create an ambiance and make it scarier for the audience. I could adhere to this technique by using the sound effects available to me on my editing software or perhaps by recording my own and using these combined with a music track I find or one I could make that creates tension. The trailer with the most notable tense soundtrack is linked below and the track is played throughout.
The remaining trailers that weren't linked during the essay are linked below.
The genre I have decide on is Horror. The sub-genre of this being either a thriller horror or a psychological. I'm going to focus on 5 trailers; The Ring, Grave Encounters, Paranormal Activity, The Cabin in the Woods and The Purge. Each of these trailers have many different conventions and techniques that I will explore in this essay and how I plan to adhere to or develop them.
One of the main conventions i've noticed in these 5 trailers is the use of words on the screen to give the audience an idea of the plot. This is used in Grave Encounters, The Ring and The Purge. The Cabin in the Woods and Paranormal Activity also use words on the screen but they use it more as a way to introduce extra selling points and less to tell you the plot. The pictures below are examples of these. I could adhere to this convention by explaining my plot broadly to the audience in this way and possible introduce an extra selling point such as "From the director of -insert movie name here-".
Another technique I saw used widely was the use of fast paced short shots cut together with straight cuts. This was used to increase tension and keep suspense and the feel of action. It was used in every single one of these trailers an example being in The Ring at 0:56 until around the end of the trailer. This trailer is shown below. I would adhere to this technique fairly easily by increasing the number of shots I take and editing them together very quickly one after another in an attempt to copy this and keep tension and suspense/the feel of action.
Another technique used widely in these 5 trailers was the use of a tense soundtrack. It was used in every single one of these trailers and i'm pretty sure it'd be hard to find a trailer for a horror in which there is no soundtrack whatsoever. Most of the music is not just a soundtrack but tense music with a lot of effects of for example people breathing heavily and screams thrown in with it to increase tension. The soundtrack is used to help the trailer be more effective by increasing tension and suspense. It's designed to create an ambiance and make it scarier for the audience. I could adhere to this technique by using the sound effects available to me on my editing software or perhaps by recording my own and using these combined with a music track I find or one I could make that creates tension. The trailer with the most notable tense soundtrack is linked below and the track is played throughout.
A very interesting take on a horror film is Grave Encounters. The trailer makes it seem like the film is a true story. The film itself is filmed in a documentary style but it's fiction which it's fairly unusual. They've pulled this off by creating a trailer that one would see on TV for a documentary which immediately pulls the audience in as it's something they've never seen before. It would be very difficult to pull a trailer like this off without it seeming as though you've completely stolen this films idea and so because of this and the fact that it would be fairly hard to do I'm not going to do something like this although I might use some of the films other convention that don't like to the plot of the film. The trailer is shown below.
One convention most film trailers use is the introduction of the people behind the film. They usually do this by flashing the names of the producers, directors, actors or institutions on the screen for a second or two. In Grave Encounters this is mentioned at the end very quickly after the title of the film. I think this is because they want to still give the trailer the feel that it's a true story and therefore there wouldn't be things like a director. In The Cabin in the Woods one institution is shown on the screen, Lionsgate, when the trailer goes from a happy start and then it turns dark at this point. This is pictured below. The use of introducing things like the institution at pivotal moments in the trailer is used widely in trailers everywhere and is a convention I could definitely adhere to.
In conclusion there are many different conventions and techniques used in each of these trailers each one being used in a way to sell the film or increase tension and suspense or the feel of action. I could adhere to most of these techniques in my product and perhaps develop a couple if I had the resources, for instance a better soundtrack would require a better sound producing software. It would be fairly easy to adhere to them and would help my trailer look like the real thing and if it were the real thing they would definitely help bring in more audience.
The remaining trailers that weren't linked during the essay are linked below.
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