Narrative structure.

Every film has a Narrative structure, this is the way in which the story is ordered and presented to a reader, listener or veiwer, in this case veiwer.

There has been a many different theory’s made about Narrative structure. I have decided to look in to a few of the thoery’s, to help with my research:

TODOROV’S THEORY-The Simplest form of Narrative, Referred to as the ‘Hollywood’  or ‘Classic’ narrative.

Stage 1 : A state of equilibium is defined. (Calm Period)

Stage 2 : Distruption to the Equilibium by some action and crisis.

Stage 3 : The characters recognition that there has been distruption,setting goals to resolve the problem.

Stage 4 : The characters attempt to repair the distruption obstacles need to be overcome to restore order.

Stage 5 : A return or restoration to start a new equilibrium. (Bringing chaos to an end)

PROPP’S THEORY-This theory was formed in the early twentieth century. The theory states that in stories there is always 8 different characters that would appear.

The Hero – a character that seeks something

The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest

The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties

The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message

The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims

The Helper – who aids the hero

The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots

Her Father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort

Levi Strauss

This theorist came up with the idea of ‘Binary opposites’ where two oppisites values are placed in to a story, for example when looking at horror the binary opposites that would go with my story could be good and evil.

Teaser Trailer plan.

Genre

Firstly I looked at the different types of genre including :
Supernatural,  Slasher and Psychological.

I came to the conclusion that supernatural was the horror genre I would like to use, because I liked the idea of using ghosts and putting a sense of mystery in to the story.

Storyline

Penny Brown has just turned 9 years of age, and from now on she is in for a different kind of lifestyle.  A ghost concurringly appears, it’s like she’s trying to tell Penny something, but Penny is scared by the ghost and try’s to block her out of her life. What Penny doesn’t understand is that her family is cursed and every daughter that is born into the family has to die on their 9^th birthday, Penny’s older sister looks back over archives she finds in the local library to see if the curse can be broken, finding that it must be broken by 18th November, otherwise Penny will have to face her fate, and become what is right in front of her, just a ghost.

 My main influences.

The films/ TV series  that I feel gave me the most inspiration are  ‘Marchlands’  and ‘Paranormal Activity’ both in the genre category ‘Supernatural Horror’. I like the sense of mystery in both of the story’s and how ghosts can have such an effect on a person.

 Characters.

Penny– This character is the main character, she is usually a very happy child but after the appearance of her ghost Penny gets very upset and scared, especially with her mother not taking any notice of her.

Mum– This character loves Penny very much but knows that Penny does not always tell the truth, she dosen’t take notice of Penny when she comes to her about the mystery ghost, and starts to believe she is going crazy.

Lilly– This is Penny’s sister she also starts to see the ghost and begins trying to find out about what’s going on, by looking back over archives to get to the bottom of the ghost’s appearance.

Penny’s Ghost – The ghost  may seem bad, but is only trying to warm Penny of what will happen to her if she dosen’t try to break the curse.

 

 Costumes and make-up

Penny, Mum and Lilly all wear casual everyday clothes to appear as a normal everyday family.

Penny’s Ghost- White nightdress, ballet tights, pale face and dark eyes.

 

Deciding on a Film Studio

From my research into Film Production Company’s I have decideded to produce my film by my own Independant British Film Company ‘Ford Films’ for the reasons that I am a British Citezen myself, and when being an Independant Film Company I can focus on a niche audience in this case being Horror lovers. When researching Film Production Companys I found that ‘Film 4’ and ‘Celador Films’ needed help when producing films such as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ so thought it would be sufficient to look in to being in conjunction with a major film company. On the bases of how well these major company’s have done when creating Horror Films I decided that Universal Studio’s had made some extraordinary Horror Films and my Film would benefit from their help in the production side of the Film and in costs.

Target Audience.

I have decided from my research that my film shall be classified as a 15. By my film being classified as a 15 I am able to aim my film at young adults, which from my research I can see that most of  the ‘Horror lovers’ were under the age of 18, meaning my film trailer would get good publicity from this target audience. Because of my film being classified as a 15 the violence will not be as strong as it would be if it was an 18, and because I hope for my film to be a supernatural horror it would not include this sort of violence as it would if it was a slasher film. The film should be aimed at a mixed audience of male and female, as I can see from the questionaire results that it was popular with both,  because of it being a lot less violent than an 18 and with a sense of mystery involved,  this would lure the females aswell as the males, because it is usually the males that like the blood and real horror.

Audience.

Each film that is produced is made for a particular audience. When creating my own horror film I will have to take into consideration the Age, Gender and Class primarily to succeed in making a satisfactory Film Trailer.

The British Board of Film Classification

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-govermental organisation, it is funded by the film industry and classifys films within the United Kingdom, They are responsible for what is shown in cinema’s and the rating, this has to be done to enforce that the audience must be the right age to be watching the film.

Here is the table which tells you the definition of each symbol. A symbol is placed on each film that is produced. If you are under the age of the age given you are not permitted to see the film as it is not suitable for you:

Symbol	Name	Definition/Notes
	Universal	All ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children over 4.
	Parental Guidance	All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for children under 8.
	12A	Cinema only. Introduced in 2002.Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged at least 18 years, at all times during the motion picture. However, it is generally not recommended that children under 12 years should watch the film. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, commonly used milder swear words, and moderate violence/sex references.
	12	Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating.Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.
	15	Only those over 15 years are admitted.Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong words, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity.
	18	Only adults are admitted.Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and strong violence/sex references along with strong sexual activity is also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context.
	Restricted 18	Can only be shown at licensed cinemas or sold at licensed retailers or sex shops, and only to adults, those aged 18 or over. Films under this category have material the BBFC does not allow for its “18” rating, thus the violence and sex activity will be stronger in R18-rated VHSs, DVDs and films than those rated “18,” however, there is still a range of material that is often cut from the R18 rating. More cuts are demanded in this category than any other category.

Examples of Film Classification

Here are examples of how certain horror films have been classified. We can see that ‘Paranormal Activity’  has been rated as a 15 because it contains strong language and threat and would not be suitable for someone under this age. The film ‘Wrong Turn’ Contains strong bloody violence and horror so has been classified as an 18 because of the amount of detail it goes in to with the violence compared to the film ‘Paranormal Activity’

 

In class we discussed film classification and had the task of writing an essay on the issues that have been raised.  I think that writing the essay helped me to understand more about film classification and how serious it has to be taken.

Film Classification essay

Independant Film Companies.

As well as looking at Major Film Companies, I felt it was important to reasearch Idependant Film Companies as well. I decided to look in to what an Independant Film Company was to help me later on when deciding on a  Independant or Major Film Company for my own Horror Film.
Here Wikipedia gives there definition of a Independant Film Company:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_film

• Twisted Pictures – This Independant Film Company has produced mainly horror films, with their most popular film being ‘Saw’ gaining them wide attention from the public to make 7 in total. This Company was founded in 2002.

British Film Companys:

 

• Celador Films-  This Independant film company is a British film company and is known well for the television programme ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’  The film company also produced the film ‘The Decent’ a 2005 British Horror Film. http://www.celador.co.uk/
•  Film 4-  This is a British film company owned by Channel 4. The company has produced a number of films one of it’s most famous was ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ the film was also helped out by Celador Films. The film was projected to cost US$15 million, so the production companies felt it would be best to combine with a bigger U.S company for support in  distributing and costs. Warner Independent Pictures made a $5 million offer to win rights to the picture. http://www.film4.com/

 

 

 

 

Independant film companies can also be supported by major film companies to help them along with finance and producing the film, this way the film can be distributed to a wide audience and example of this would be the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ both distributed by an independant and major film studio.

Major Film Production Companies.

I have decided to look at 4 major Film Institution companys as research for my teaser trailer:

Universal Studios.  

This Film Institution is one of the major movie companys around today and is also one of the oldest that is still ongoing in the movie world. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, its movies are known all over the world.

There have been a number of Horror Movies that Universal have produced are Frankenstein, Dracula, Skeleton Key and Dead Silence.

http://www.universalstudios.com/ This link gives more information about Universal.

Columbia Pictures. 

Columbia is an American film production, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. One of the leading film companies in the world making it part of the ‘Big Six.’ The studio, founded in 1919 released its first film in 1922 and began to grow by the late 1920’s to later become as sucessful film company. In 1989 Columbia Pictures became subsidiary with Sony Pictures Entertainment.

http://www.sonypictures.co.uk/ Here is another link to give more information about Sony Pictures Entertainment.

20th Century Fox    

 20th Century Fox is one of the major Film Companys and is located inLos AngelesAmerica. The company was founded in May 1935 and is now one of the six major America Film Studios. Some of the companys most famous films include Avatar, Star Wars and Ice Age.

http://www.fox.co.uk/ I have visited this website to find out more about the Film Company, 20th Century Fox.

Paramount Pictures  

Paramount is America’s oldest film company, which was founded  in 1912 and is now currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom. The company although the oldest is still one of the major film institutions around producing some of the worlds favourite movies and currently ranked as one of the top-grossing movie studios!

Some of the horror movies that Paramount have created are Paranormal Activity, Dead Again and Shutter Island.

http://www.paramount.com/dvd Here is the link to the Paramount website for more information about their company.

Film Magazine Publishing Companies.

 Film Magazine Publishing Companies

Bauer Media

   Bauer Media is a large German publishing company who took over EMAP in 2008. They publish a range of different magazines. Bauer Media owns more than 282 magazines in 15 different countries and is also around in the new media including TV, internet and radio.

 

Empire Magazine

One of the Film Magazines that Bauer Media produce (Empire) is currently the world’s biggest Movie Magazine giving readers all the top news about the latest movies around, with reviews and previews. Empire’s first issue was in July 1989. Its nearest market rival is (Total Film) and constantly outsells this film magazine. The magazine is aimed at 76% males. Empire also has Facebook and Twitter as well as its own webpage so viewers can keep up to date with news from the magazine.

Future plc

 Future plc founded in 1985, and in 2006 was the sixth largest media company in theUnited Kingdom. The company produces over 150 magazines in numerous different fields. Future sells over 3 million magazines each month and has become very successful. Future also has its own websites online, like other publishing companies. These websites draw more than 23 million visitors to them.

 

 

Total Film 

The magazine (Total Film) is a film magazine. It launched its first magazine in 1997 and is published 13 times a year. Like (Empire) it gives its readers updates on films, film reviews and previews. Total film is one of Future plc biggest selling magazines.

 

Analysing front pages of Film Magazines.