Textual Analysis- Thomas

Thomas' Textual Analysis

Film Teaser Trailer Textual Analysis – Thomas Eastment

Film: The Descent Part 2

Director:  John Harris

Producers: Ivana Mackinnon and Christian Colson

Production Company: Pathe

Length: 85 seconds

Release Date: 2^nd December 2009

Genre: Horror/Adventure

Actors: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Douglas Hodge

Origin: Sequel to “The Descent” which was released in 2005

Synopsis: Sarah Cater managed to find her way out of the cave from the first film, however she cannot recall most of the events that happened in the cave, so she has to go back down there with a team to help find her missing friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXf1BCYtcgI

 

The trailer starts off with credits to the companies that made and produced the film, (Warner Bros, Pathe and Celador films) these last for 5 seconds. Non diegetic music is played over that to give a moody tone to the trailer. Then while that plays, you hear the diegetic sound a group of girls shouting, and then a camera shutter, which is emphasised by giving it a louder echo. The non diegetic sound of a voice over starts to play for 13 seconds, telling the audience that The Descent has been classed as one of the “most terrifying monster movie since alien.” The narrator’s voice is quite dull, yet eerie. The same style of voice you get on most horror films. When he says “critics call the descent most terrifying since alien,” it comes up on the screen, and tells you where the quote comes from; the daily star. It has a black background with grey text to keep that dark feel to the trailer. Also you hear the non diegetic sound of a slight ringing noise, like when two blades scrape together.  There’s a lot of echoing in the sound effects, not only to give more tension, but to connote where the film will take place, in this case it’s in a cave, where you hear water echo and rocks falling. You also hear the sound of the monsters that are in the cave, they give a crackling, hissy noise, which sounds quite horrible. This draws in the audience because they want to find out what’s making this noise.  When the monsters finally appear in the trailer, the music intensifies and gets more dramatic. You also hear the diegetic sound of the people in the cave screaming, to show how scared they are, and that they know they need to escape.

After the image of all the girls is shown at the beginning, there is an establishing shot of the area which the film is set. The mountains are covered with trees, so you know that the characters are going to be placed here. It doesn’t however show that they will be in a cave until you see the characters go down in a lift, with props on which make it obvious. When the characters are going down the lift, there is a mid shot of the main character, this shows her fear and that she is very anxious. She is also in a lift which connotes that she feels trapped, which links in to the characters end up being trapped in the cave. It then cuts to a close up to show her fear is getting worse.

 In the beginning of the trailer, there are about 11 fade in/out transistions, these give the movie a more creepy feel which builds up the suspense of the trailer. When the monsters appear in the trailer, the pace gets faster and  there are a lot of quick cuts. With a mixture of mid shots and close up shots to show the characters trying to escape. The close up shots reveal the emotions that the characters are having and in this case it’s fear, anxiety or pain. What also strikes me is that there is no dialogue apart from the voice over. This suggests that possibly there is some hostility between the characters.

The props and costumes that are used give you an idea that people are deliberately going into a cave and not that they got lost. They wear special suits and hardhats with lights on them. There is also a pick-axe covered in blood seen in the trailer which is something that someone going into a cave would take with them, however it wouldn’t usually be covered in blood, so this shows that film will be of the horror genre because of the goriness. There are also torches and radios seen, which connotes that some of the people going in to the cave are experts at mountain climbing and going into caves, so they’re not expecting problems.

The trailer doesn’t give you a full synopsis of the story, but it definitely gives you the idea, like in most horror films that something is going to go wrong. However this is a sequel to a previous film, so the audience that saw Part 1 will have an idea, but the newcomers, will only get a brief idea of what’s going on which adds to the suspense. I feel that the editing used gave the trailer a fast pace to it, once the monsters had been shown in the trailer, this to me gave it more of a thrill, and would make people want to go to the cinema to see it.

Film Poster Textual Analysis – Thomas Eastment

 

Film:  Texas Chainsaw Massacre-The Beginning

Release Date: 13th October 2006

Genre: Horror

Director:  Jonathon Liebesmen

Producer: Michael Bay

Production Company:  New Line Cinema             

Actors:  Jordana Bewster, Taylor Handley, Diora Baird

Films Origin: A prequel of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The first thing that stands out to me when looking at this poster is the blurry image. It doesn’t allow you to see the person in the image clearly.  There is also a sepia grainy tone to the poster, this is geometrical connotation, the dark tone, and the blurriness is used to create a dark ominous feeling around the poster, which is conventionally used in the horror genre.

You can vaguely see the chainsaw that is in the hands of the person in the image, this links in with the title of the movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre).  The blurriness of the image also ties in with the storyline, with the main character, Leatherhead, not having a proper face, and in this film, cuts off someone else’s face and sews it over his.

The layout of the poster has been properly planned, everything is in equal space and the colours of the font tie in with the background, with this sepia tone. The “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in the title has been made bigger than the rest of the words so that it is obvious that is part of the same series of films. There is also the list of the cast, crew members and companies in partnership with this film at the bottom, you see this in a lot of posters, it is a convention that you see a lot in the film industry.

It is worth pointing out the link between the title and the tagline, which you get in most films. This film is named, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – The Beginning.” The tagline is, “Witness the birth of fear.” This makes it obvious that the film is set before the originals that were made in the past, and that it will portray the story of when Leatherhead started his killings. The fonts and the colour of the fonts between the two are the same apart from the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” being more bold and brighter. The tag line is placed on the top of the poster, near the darkest part of the background. The title its self is on the lower half of the characters body in the image. They are at adequate space apart to see Leatherheads blurred face, and him carrying a chainsaw.

The chainsaw is the main prop in this poster, and as it’s not clearly seen, gives it a more menacing approach to it. This connotes that the other characters in the story might not know that he uses a chainsaw, or that it’s his most iconic way of killing people. The blurred face could suggest the same thing, that no one in the story has seen Leatherheads face properly.

His costume, from what I can make of it is of a scruffy outfit, nothing special, which suggests that he doesn’t really clean or wash properly, and this links in with the portrayal of a gruesome film with lots of gore and blood. It also goes nicely with the colour scheme of the poster, his outfit is not too dark and not too light. Too me, it has a greyish blue tinge, and the greyness compliments the dark sepia colour.

In the characters right arm it looks like his carrying something, and it’s impossible to work out what it is. It could be an animal, or a head, which would go nicely with the chainsaw, or it could be something different. Whatever it is, it has been blurred by the sepia colour so that the audience can’t work it out, and this would therefore entice them to go and see the film, the chainsaw and the scary face in effect may have already done that, but they are making it hard for the audience to see them image so it looks more intimidating, and more interesting. The poster itself is simple, but it’s not plain and that’s an important part of making a poster, sometimes little is more and that has certainly worked with this image in giving it a moody feel to it.

Magazine Cover Textual Analysis – Thomas Eastment

 

Name: Total Film

The cover of this magazine denotes the image of Batman standing in front of a dark gray background, just under the masthead, “Total Film”. It’s been made to look as if someone has drawn over the Batman, and crossed out the cover lines and written a new cover line above them. Instead of “Rough Justice, the Dark Knight Wages war on terror.” It has been changed to, “Complete Chaos! Joker Wages war of Terror.”

On the picture of Batman, the ears of his suit are covered up by the masthead. And in red pen, someone has drawn them on, and over his mouth, made a line with the red pen. This connotes that, “the joker,” from the Batman franchise has taken over the magazine cover and completely tried to demean Batman, also the word “freak” has been written over the main body of Batman, showing that within the story he is seen as an outcast or problem by other characters, but, most likely the same one who has written over the main cover line, “the joker”. The cover line is of the same style you’d expect to see on the headlines on the newspaper, this connotes the probable storyline of the upcoming Batman film that was about to be released is to do with “the joker” working against Batman. Underneath the main cover line, there is another one, telling the readers that there is “in depth access” into the film, this could persuade the reader to buy the magazine and find out more about the film.

There are more cover lines on the right hand side of the cover to tell the readers what else will be in the magazine. All of the most interesting or well known names are highlighted by being bold for example, Ben Stiller, The X-Files and Charlie Sheen, which will make them stand out more, and will make the reader more likely to buy the magazine. This theme is held throughout the whole of the front cover, as the masthead also has a bold work and a smaller word. “Total,” sitting in the top of the letter “F” in film, “total” is also not in white, it’s the same colour as the background to make it stand out more in the whiteness of “film”.  

Underneath and over a bit of the word film, there is a puff, which promotes a free product with the magazine. The word “free!” is written in black so that it stands out more to the audience. The exclamation mark that’s used makes the word free much more powerful, because it makes it seem more important. The word “sex” is made the boldest word though, and this word always seems to have an impact. The nature of the word seems to make people want to stop and read, and this is why the makers of the magazine would have used it on the front page to make more attention.

The front cover also has the same things that you would usually see on the front of a magazine, there is a bar code at the bottom left hand corner of the cover. There is a link to their website at the top of the cover. This means that the readers can go onto the website to find out more about films and other information that you would expect to find in the magazine. The website would also provide you links to other websites which would give you information that relates to similar subjects to that film. For example they may have a link to a website which gives film reviews, or film information, or links to official film websites.

With magazine covers, and just like anything else, there are conventions that are usually followed. For example with movie magazine covers, you are likely to find that the main image on the front page will be from a film, or a character from a film thats about to be released. They all have bar codes at the bottom, so that they can be scanned when they are purchased by readers. There are coverlines to give the reader an idea about whats going to be featured in the magazine. Of course in film magazines, all of the articles in there will be film based, which is whats in this magazine cover. The covers will have a price, usually in very small font, either at the top, or just above the bar code. Mastheads on the front of the covers are usually at the top too, however, it's not rare to see them in the middle or at the bottom. It's not uncommon to see a puff either, these are small shapes that contain text which stands out to the reader, making the cover look more fulfilled and generally nicer to look at.

The magazine cover follows the convention that most other magazines have. The masthead is at the top of the cover, with cover lines, which tell the readers what will be in the magazine. There is a barcode which is on every magazine front cover, so it can be scanned upon purchase. There are puffs to make the cover more attractive and the use of the odd different colour, to make it catch the reader’s eye.