Case Study/2 Features+Associated Marketing

CASE STUDY – Short written piece about audiences. How and why do they like horror? Analyse 2 features and associated marketing

In this report I will be analysing 2 horror features focusing on how and why these features attract an audience. The first feature I have chosen to analyse for this report is horror film ‘Scream’ from 1996, directed by Wes Craven.  Scream revolves around a female protagonist named Sidney Prescott, a teenager coping with the mysterious death of her mother while her friends are being stalked by an unknown killer in town.

The sequence in the film I will be analysing is the ‘chase’ scene towards the end of the film. This scene sees Sidney and Billy having just slept together, Sidney cautiously interrogates her boyfriend leading up to a chase between Sidney and the killer. In Scream, the part i'm talking about is set in the bedroom in Sidney's house.The location of the house is set in Calistoga road, Santa rosa, California, USA. The killer wears a mask throughout the whole film until the end we see his face and that is a prop the main prop in the film. For hair and makeup in this scene Sidney is wearing minimal makeup and her clothes are quite casual.This could relate to the audience because most people wear casual clothing and the audience could feel what she's feeling, such as feeling scared.

In this sequence we see a wide shot of the two characters in the bedroom. Sidney has been positioned closest to the camera whereas Billy can be seen in the background out of focus. This gives the suggestion that Sidney is the main focus, Billy asks her “are you okay?” which only emphasises her dominance in the scene. The camera then cuts to a close up shot of Sidney placing the comb down on her side table, beside it the audience can instantly see a red telephone which completely stands out from the other neutral objects surrounding it. This may have been purposely done as a red phone can be suggestive of danger or calling for help.  It may also give the audience an idea of what’s to come. The camera then cuts to a medium close up of Sidney with the background music slowly fading in as Sidney asks Billy a series of questions. In cuts between medium close up shots of Sidney and low angle POV of Billy. Billy at this point is becoming more agitated with her questioning; this is accompanied with violins heard in the background. As the conversation between the two characters becomes more intense the music changes, the violin becomes harsher and piano is now heard throughout.  The camera goes from a medium close up to a close up shot of Billy saying “what do I have to do, to prove to you that I am not a killer”. This shows that he looks guilty and the audience could not be convinced by his innocence. After he says that, the camera cuts to Sidney’s face and you can see her scared reaction when the killer comes in. The camera cuts back to Billy and now the audience can see the villain behind him. As this is happening the music builds up then Billy turns around then the killer kills him. The music at this point gets louder and jumpy like a pounding noise. The camera cuts to Sidney’s face to see her expression and then back to the killer. This can be effective to the audience as they will feel the way Sidney is feeling.

Scream marketing

Scream have Halloween costumes that people could wear. The mask in the film is the most famous prop. People will instantly know it’s from the movie scream.

Scream the chase scene-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMv6sYvRtFk

The Second feature film I have chosen to analyse is Saw from 2004, directed by James wan. Saw revolves around two strangers that have woken up in a room asking themselves on how they got there and why. They soon discover they are pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.

In this sequence we see a shiny necklace floating about in the water. It then cuts to the strangers face as an extreme close up, he gets out of the water and you see the necklace again and it goes down the pipe. This tells the audience that the necklace means something, its valuable in the movie and the director wants you to remember it because it could be important. The stranger falls to the floor and the music gets louder in a scarier tone. This can make the audience feel tension because they are feeling like the stranger and the music really gets your attention because it makes you feel like you’re in the movie. The camera is always on the stranger and it’s in medium shot, they want us to see where he is from the background and that it is dark. He then hears a voice talking to him while he can’t see anything as he says “who’s that, turn on the lights!”. This makes a mystery has to where he is, why and how he got there. The camera cuts into a high angle shot filming the lights turning on drastically. The camera moves into each light that is switched on while it does that it cuts back to the stranger who is blinded by the light. He tries to open his eyes and we can see what he sees which is blurry. This shows the audience how he is feeling and they can reflect on him. The camera then cuts to another stranger who is on the other side of the room. The camera zooms out of him and you can see the expression on his face. This implies that the stranger there before was not alone and that there is somebody else going through the same thing. The first stranger walks towards the other one, he is walking towards the camera and this makes it look like he is walking towards the audience. The camera then moves down to a dead monster on the floor with blood. They did it this way because they knew you weren’t expecting it they want you to be scared. Also the music had a loud bang and a screaming voice which could make the viewer jumpy. A close up shot of the monster on the floor, they want you to see what he looks like in detail, also a close up shot of the recorder and gun in his hand. This tells the audience that the dead person on the floor has probably been in the same situation as the two strangers have.

Saw marketing

Saw has their theme park attractions such as Thorpe Park. That is the most famous and scariest ride in the park. They also have it in Alton towers a different version of it. This is way of advertising a movie since lots of people go to theme parks.

Saw clip-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNSN6QhIWeA

Overall in comparison, they are both pretty similar films because they both have that similar music. When something is building up in a scene that upbeat loud music will come up to get the audience attention and to warn them that there something scary about to pop up. They are both killing horror films which was typical in those days, there were many of close ups of particular objects. Such as the phone in scream there was a cut scene just of the phone. That was telling you that this part is important. In saw it was the necklace that had a close up shot because it wanted to show you and tell the audience something. They both involved blood, they are bloody horror films. In terms of lighting i think saw had better lighting because you can see clearly of the characters when the light is turned on. In scream the lighting looked dimmer as maybe to give it a more scary look. In my opinion i personally like scream film as it has more action and horror at the same time which is interesting.