Gothika Trailier Deconstruction

I decided to look at the Film Gothika because it has a similar narrative to ours. The main character who was a psychiatrist wakes up in the mental asylum that she works in and has no memory of why she is there or how she got there. She starts to see a girl who she is not aware and becomes posessed by the ghost of this girl. Doctors and friends do not believe her therefore she cannot trust anyone and in the end the truth is discovered.

Anchorage, Credits & Title

The three main colours that are used on the text are black, white and red. Black and red are normally associated with blood and anger, and darkness and the unknown. When the anchorage appears they are in white then a certain word at the end is highlighted for example, 'sane' 'logical' and 'rational'. These certain words all relate to the character before she has been put in the mental asylum. This informs the audience that the character will become the opposite of sane and rational. This anchorage appears slowly so that the audience have to time to read it, and it also fits with the pace of shots.
The credits of the actors names are in white and red so that they stand out against the black background. They appear after a shot of the actor so that the audience know who they are.
Finally the film title appears in an eery font that look almost like a child has written it. It first appears white then flashes red and finally fades out to black. I like this effect because it intrigues the audience, it emphasises the connotations that red and black have and lets the audience know that this is a gory and dark film
The Dark Castle logo has been faded in to the actors eye which is accompanied by a flash of light and a stab of music which instantly catches the audience attention.

Shots

The first shot of the characters is filmed behind a metal fence emphasising that the patient in the trailer is isolated and could be dangerous. It also establises the locaction of the mental asylum. The pace of the shots are slow to fit with the slow music and the anchorage. The audience are instantly shown who the main character is and what her profession is. The pace then quickens as the protagonist is driving her car in the rain. The camera zooms at a fast pace to a pale blonde girl standing in the middle of the road who is highlighted by the car lights. This intrigues the audience into finding out who this girl is and what she was doing in the road. A close up shot of the strange girl shows the protagonist as a shadow in the background, this makes the audience want to see what the strange girls face looks like as it is hidden by her hair. The audience are then made aware that the protagonist has been put into the mental asylum, you can tell she is distressed by the close up shots of her face.

A lot of close up  shots are used to show the expression on characters faces. A long shot of a dark hall with a door at the end uses lighing to highlight the shadow of a girl. We are introduced more to the face of the strange girl by quick close up shots that show her looking dirty and tired. A close up shot the protagonist bending down shows the strange girl standing behind her which scares the audience and makes them fear for the main character. The audience are instantly intriuged by the strange girl and also fear her, a shot of her walking along a hospital corridor in a robotic way shows that she is not normal or human. The shots gradually come to a climax.
Quick and clever editing has been used in a long shot of a hallway with a door at the end showing a shadow of a girl and then the girl disappears. The final shot shows the main character and hands appearing to grab her. All of the shots excite the audience because they want to know what happens next.

Sound

The dialogue throughout is soft and very quiet, to emphasise the quiteness of the asylum they might be whispering to hide something. A stab of sound and a lightening sound breaks the silence and fades into a slow piano. The audience then hear a scream and car screeches and glass smashing without seeing the actual crash. The sound of the rain, lightening and thunder is used quite a lot in this trailier to that it is not a sunny happy day but a dark gloomy day. Eeery screeches and sounds are used when the main character is shown in the asylum room to emphasise that it is an uncomfortable place to be. The dialogue gives away some of the narrative such as 'your husband is dead you killed him' which excites the audience into finding out what happened. The music changes from  slow piano to fast paces almost action like music as the shots get faster. There is a shot of the stranger girl which a close up, we cannot see what she is doing but we can see her moving and the sound of knife slicing to show she is dangerous. With the shot of a man closing what looks like an asylum window, it is accompanied by a sound of a jail door closing to emphasise she is trapped and alone. With the credits, the music gradually comes to a climax and then goes silent. The dialogue 'you should be' is whispered which draws in the attention of the audience as they want to know why she should be scared.

Location Ideas

Main Gate

Our narrative is set in a number of different places, one being the mental asylum that our character is situated. We have found a closed asylum in Barming near maidstone. From the pictures we think that this will be an ideal location because it looks eery and looks like a typical horror location, i.e tall, large, dark building in the middle of nowhere. Iron gates emphasise the isolation of the builing and also the feeling of being trapped. We could use this to our advantage and show that there is no sign on escape for our main character.

Mortuary

The worn old buildings of the asylum would also be a good location to emphasise the isolation of our character and  seperates her from the outside world.

We need to visit the location to get permission to use the building in our media

Previous narrative ideas

This is a scanned A3 piece that we did before we had chosen our final narrative. We had 3 very brief ideas that we mindmapped and these were all different subgenres of horror; slasher, supernatural and psychological.

The slasher idea was based on two girls being kidnapped and tortured by a sick man. We got our inspiration from films such as nightmare on elm street, wolf creek etc. It would be set at night, in an isolated road and their car would break down.They have to find help from the nearest house and they would stumble upon a mentally ill man who was evil. However, we thought this idea was too typical and wasnt very realistic as looking at the codes and conventions of a slasher, would have to involve a lot of gore, blood and disturbing circumstances which we didn't want to include.

Our second idea was another horror sub genre; supernatural. We would use elements such as the devil, spirits, ghosts and 'the unknown'. This narrative would be about a boy who had been contacted by spirits who would tell him what would happen in the future. He was bullied at school because he was able to guess what would happen and people would tease him for being psychic. Throughout the film, he turned evil and would get revenge on all the people that teased him while he was growing up.

Our third idea was a psychological horror that had elements of voodoo in it. Our story was based on a girl that was very lonely and liked a boy at her high school. She got very jealous of the boys girlfriend and would always leave the girl notes to her which would threaten her. One night she found out where the girl was babysitting and went to the house to tell her to leave the boy alone. She threatened her and used voodoo to try and get the girl to obey her but the girlfriend ended up dying.

Narrative

After a lot of thinking and research, we have decided to do a psychological horror based on a girl from a mental institution. Our idea is based on films such as Carrie, Shutter Island, Girl Interrupted and Gothika. We will use a teenage girl, aged 16 or 17, as our main protagonist who lives in a mental asylum and she runs away. It is a story from her point of view and therefore the audience sympathise with her. Her story is that she is neglected by her parents, very depressed, she self harms and her parents have lied to the police and social services and put her in a rehabilitation centre so they dont have to put up with her. Throughout the time in the asylum she has flashbacks of a fire, candles, running water, graveyards where she has visited a tombstone with a certain name on it and nightmares about a girl who is the same age but she does not know who she is. She escapes from the mental institution because she believes she is innocent and she wants to figure out what the nightmares and flashbacks are about. At the end, there is a twist and the audience find out that the protagonist killed her best friend in a fire and this is the girl that she keeps dreaming about. She started a fire in her best friends room while her friend was in the shower because she was jealous of her family life and took it for granted. Her parents put her in the mental asylum because they found out about the fire through her diary and she was there for 1 year and 3 months before she ran away. She had erased the fire and her best friend from her memory, it was in her unconscious mind.

Deconstruction of Hostel teaser trailer

 

As our chosen genre is horror, here is a brief deconstruction of Hostel teaser trailer; looking at mise en scene, editing, sound and camera work.

Sound:
The sound for the trailer starts immediately and this is diegetic music that is in a minor key. The instruments playing are string which fits with the conventions of the genre as it is typical horror music. The diegetic music builds tension as soon as the trailer starts and sounds 'scary' which tells the audience what kind of film it is. The non-diegetic sound of the dripping water creates an anxious feeling for the audience and informs them about the setting e.g. run down, not taken care of, isolated. 25 secongs into the trailer, the diegetic music has added pace to it and the audience start feeling more tense knowing that something is about to be revealed on the teaser. There is dialogue from a man in who is tied to a chair, crying, pleading with unseen people to 'let him go'. The audience then know that it is a film about hostages. Further into the trailer we hear a man screaming when his toe gets cut off which makes the viewer jump and become nervous-they are aware that the film will be gruesome and jumpy. After the screaming the sound goes quiet and then gets loud all at once which builds up tension quickly for the audience. The non-diegetic sound of the electric screw driver makes us know how they torture people and how gory the film will be. The music throughout the teaser trailer has a fast pace rhythm and people screaming.

Mise En Scene:
The mise en scene was very informative in this trailer. The setting is very dark and isolated, giving clues that the film is dark and will be about a specific character/few characters. The camera angle where a man is holding a hose washing down something is very bare, empty and this means that nothing will distract the audience. One shot in the trailer is where a man is tied to a chair in an isolated room where there is no light and one small window at the top which is barred-meaning he cannot escape! As we get to know the 'enemies' in the trailer, we see that they are all wearing red overalls, suggesting that they are doing 'dirty work', red signifying that they are dangerous. In a lot of shots in the trailer, the background consists of shelves with tools on. The setting is a very isolated and derelict place. There are men wearing all black in the trailer and they signify being dark and mysterious. The victim is wearing jeans and a long sleeved top which shows he is a normal, anyday man.

Editing:
The editing in the trailer is also typical of the horror genre. It starts with the advertising the distribution logo and this means that the audience knows who produced it. There are two short length shots to start with and this establishes the setting. The credits then read 'there is a place...where all your darkest...sickest fantasies...are possible...where you can experience...anything you desire...where you can...torture...punish...or kill...for a price.' These credits are spread out between shots and images on the trailer so the words are prolongued and arent read all at once. The text lets the audience know what type of film it is. The trailer also states that it is 'Inspired by true events' and as this makes the film seem more realistic, it encourages people to see it. It also shows the audience that it is made by the same people that brought you other blockbuster films that were successful which gives a clue that this film will be sucsessful,  'from the brilliant minds that brought you "cabin fever" "texas chain massacre" and "kill bill"'.
The editing is also very fast pace, the shots are quite short.

Camera:
The camera work is very effective in the trailer and fits with the codes and conventions of a horror genre. The first shot is a long shot of the location, it looks very isolated and two people are seen walking on screen, they look very mysterious and unknown. The close up angle of the water dripping makes the audience nervous. There is a slow pace shot of a topless man with cuts and bruises on him is believed to have been kidnapped, a bag is coming off his head and he doesn't appear to know where he is. There is a shots of tools which indicate they are dangerous and used for torture. A long shot of a man sitting tied to a chair shows that he is being held hostage and wants to escape. The extreme close of the mans toe getting chopped off with plyers shocks the audience and is typical of the slasher horror that is expected to see.

History of Pyschological Horrors

1930s: Gothic sub-genre
Cultural changes that influenced this sub-genre: Great depression, War, Technology 

Frankenstein



• "monster movies"
• for example: Dracula & Frankenstein
• 'The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari'
• 'Nosferatu'
• 'King Kong'

1940s: Wartime
Cultural changes that influenced this sub-genre: Adolf Hitler, WW2

• 
• The wolfman (Adolf means noble wolf in German)

1950s-1960s: Science fiction & Creature features
Cultural changes that influenced this sub-genre: Post-war effects, cold war, first sighting of a flying saucer, Roswell incident, Technological change, Atom bomb

• threats from the 'unknown' - aliens, mutations of plants and insects (effects of nuclear radiation)
• low-budget films. B-movies aimed at teenage audiences
• zombies for example: Night of the living dead
• demons, the devil for example: Rosemarys baby
• non-supernatural psychological horror for example: Psycho
• 'Godzilla' - monster mutation



Night of the living dead

 1970s-1980s: 'Occult' themes & Disasters

• explicit gore
• symbolism
• for example: The Exorcist
• religion, evil children, reincarnation
• ''body horror''
• slasher films for example: Halloween

1990s: Irony

• mockumentary for example: Blair Witch Project
• ironic, comic
• fictional horror and real-world horror



Saw

 2000s:

• re-releases for example: The Exorcist
• teen centred horror for example:
• zombie films for example: Dawn of the dead

Narrative Theory

Barthes Enigma Code


Throughout the narrative of our film, there are mysteries that the audience will find out at the end, hence the idea being a sub genre of horror; psychological horror. The mystery draws in the audience in and encourages them to ask themselves questions throughout the film.


Levi Strauss' Binary Oppositions

Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict. Looking at the opposites sets values which show the structure of media texts. In our trailer and narrative, there are opposites which tell the audience about the idea.

-madness/insanity

-past/present