Practice Horror Trailer

Above is my practice horror trailer from when I first started A2 Media - I worked with Brad Lacey who I will be working with for the Cold Blood trailer - we work really well together.

Cloverfield (2008) Trailer

WHICH POSITIVE, CLEVER OR INTERESTING ASPECTS DO YOU THINK YOU COULD INCLUDE IN YOUR OWN TRAILER? WHAT GENERIC FEATURES ARE FULFILLED WELL?

·         This horror/action film trailer delivers that of a scene trailer. This means that the trailer focuses on one scene in the entire film: it’s Robs leaving party where everyone is happy and jolly but that then transform to a very panicky pace when stuff, such as the statue of liberty’s head, are being thrown around the city. Not only is this different to the vast-majority of trailers which visualize the ‘highlight trailer’ (showing the best part of the film that reveals the narrative), which makes it very enticing. But it also doesn’t show that much of the narrative which gives us the mystery of wondering what happens in the rest of the film. This vague approach makes us want to know more.

·         The film is ideal for the 18-15 year old target audience.

·         There’s a handheld section which is stated.

·         Jolly party cut to jerky/jagged shots of explosion, and then it cuts to a slow moving head of the Statue of Liberty so there’s a clever and effective use of collision-cutting.

·         The noise is very intriguing; we want to know what it is and what’s throwing stuff around the city. We never see what is causing this horrific issue accordingly making us want to see it. These interesting moments in the little narrative shown, is a tease because we want to know what has caused this.

WHICH ASPECT OF THE TRAILED DID YOU THINK WERE UNSUCCESSFUL, AND WOULD PUT OFF ITS TARGET AUDIENCE? HOW IS IT DISAPPOINTING?

·         It doesn't deliver horror enough; it’s more of a mystery film.

·         It’s a risky move having a whole scene, which is the more important, in the trailer, when you approach it in the film you’ll know what’s going to happen.

WHAT WAS THE TRAILERS AVG. SCORE IN CLASS? WHY DID IT RECEIVE THAT MARK?

The average class score is 8. Reason being, it appeals to its desired target audience, the trailer showcases and delivers what it said it would, which is horror and action. The trailer doesn't tell us too much which engages us a lot more. And overall, the trailer is really effective.

Toxic Avengers (1985) Trailer

WHICH POSITIVE, CLEVER OR INTERESTING ASPECTS DO YOU THINK YOU COULD INCLUDE IN YOUR OWN TRAILER? WHAT GENERIC FEATURES ARE FULFILLED WELL?

·         This film is a comedy horror, and this trailer delivers comedy more so than horror. In terms of the comedy, it will appeal to an audience with a weird and silly sense of humour due to how strange some of the events shown in the trailer are.

·         The camera shots are okay

WHICH ASPECT OF THE TRAILED DID YOU THINK WERE UNSUCCESSFUL, AND WOULD PUT OFF ITS TARGET AUDIENCE? HOW IS IT DISAPPOINTING?

·         During the trailer there was an overuse of the word ‘toxic avenger’ which was extremely annoying and irritating – spent more time focusing on how many times they said that rather than focusing on the film.

·         The trailer is way too long; it’s roughly around 3minutes and 10seconds long.

·         For me personally, and the vast-majority of my class, found it to be ridiculous rather than funny.

·         The gore effects were so terrible

·         The actors don’t look as though they’re taking the job serious which makes the trailer look all the more as if it’s a joke.

WHAT WAS THE TRAILERS AVG. SCORE IN CLASS? WHY DID IT RECEIVE THAT MARK?

The average class score was 3.5. Reason being, it doesn’t deliver horror aspects at all. Some people may find it funny but the vast-majority of audiences will find that it doesn’t deliver on the comedy aspects either; it’s too silly. The gore effects and special effects were poorly done. And the duration was just too long, after a while you get bored.

Evil Dead (2013) Trailer

WHICH POSITIVE, CLEVER OR INTERESTING ASPECTS DO YOU THINK YOU COULD INCLUDE IN YOUR OWN TRAILER? WHAT GENERIC FEATURES ARE FULFILLED WELL?

·         The shots and editing fit well with the fast faced music; parallel music makes it more effective. The fast paced music links with the high intensity horror sequences.

·         The girl’s voice over plays the titles while cracks and darkness consumer the font – brilliant editing effects – clever connotation with how it corresponds to how the zombies eat other humans.

·         There’s a decent amount of gore that’s brilliant because it connects to the horror genre – there is genuine horror bits such as the tongue cut and the eyes on the girl.

·         There’s some narrative revealed, there’s still the mystery of the rest of the narrative, this in turn makes it all the more enticing; draws us in, because we want to know more.

·         They’ve made a clever and effective use of collision cutting, sequences from slow > quick, alongside quick flashes of action – this refers to the rapid speed of the scenes played in the film, fast zombies killing of humans quickly. Not only this, it makes us feel adrenalin.

·         The music fits the writing very dramatically; the inter-titles reveals some of the narrative with a dramatic approach.

WHICH ASPECT OF THE TRAILED DID YOU THINK WERE UNSUCCESSFUL, AND WOULD PUT OFF ITS TARGET AUDIENCE? HOW IS IT DISAPPOINTING?

·         The duration of the trailer is 2:20 which is very long so some people may argue that it reveals too much of the film.

·         Tthey'vea few unrealistic factors, such as the puke, which some may fund humorous rather than horrific.

·         Gore isn’t everyone cup-of-tea so the fact that this trailer has a lot of gore scenes may possibly put people of viewing the film.

WHAT WAS THE TRAILERS AVG. SCORE IN CLASS? WHY DID IT RECEIVE THAT MARK?

The average score in class was 9. Reason being, the inter-titles were good. They’ve used plenty amount of clever and intriguing collision cutting. The music is brilliant; it corresponds to the trailer perfectly. And lastly this horror trailer is genuinely scary so it’s very effective.

Favourite Image Analysis

Taking my horror research into account, I’ve decided that my favorite choice of scene is from The Last House On The Left (2009). The scene from Chapter 13 is the one I’m focusing on, where John and Emma find Mary on the patio porch, realizing that she’s been physically and sexually abused. We can see how horrified they are; how desperate they are for Mary’s survival - a year prior to Mary’s attack, the Collingwoods suffered a loss of Ben Collingwood, Mary’s brother. Subsequently depicting their fear of loosing another child, which makes this photograph very touching.

Furthermore, the way in which Mary is holding John’s arm, it conveys how much love there is in this family, it’s extremely heart-warming to see – denoting that no matter how old you are, you always need the love and support from your family.  

Converging my thoughts to characters and representation, this scene visualises the male hero and the female surival (‘final girl’). Focusing on the male hero, I find it extremely promising how John is a doctor. Up until this point in the film we had only little faith in Mary’s survival but from this point onwards, we as an audience feel a sense of hope as we know that she is in safe hands with her parents. Not only that, Johns face in this photo visualises not only his anxiety for his daughter but also his sheer determination for saving her. Subsequent to this, he and Emma work together in revenge tactics in order to bring justice to their family. In terms of Mary being the female surivor, it’s extremely shocking because usually in horror films, the blondes are always the victims and the brunettes are the survivors – her brunette mate, Paige, was the female victim -  so this goes against generic expectations, making the film all the more surprising.

This film plays on male gaze a lot, which is a theory that Laura Malvey focuses on. This image illustrating it perfectly. Mary’s a young girl, very pretty with a lovely figure and blonde hair, which is commonly thought to be extremely attractive so this film has used male gaze in order to entice males for their own pleasure. She also said that films are predominantly showcasing male gaze due to the overwhelming amount of male producers, and in terms of The Last House on The Left, is is the case, the producer is Dennis Lliadis.

Psycho 1960 - Image 3 Analysis

Norman, shortly after Marion’s arrival, invites Marion into his office for a chat. In his room he has several birds, that he stuffed himself (his hobby taxidermy – stuffing animals with the intention of preserving their bodies), hanging downwards from the top of his wall.

This corresponds to the context involving Ed Gein’s sadistic act of digging up his own mothers corpse and preserving it. Focusing on the birds, the “bird of prey” hanging from the wall, looms over Marion (Marion is also a birds name) which depicts that Marion is the prey; this connotes the danger that Marion is yet to face.

Towards the end of Psycho, we come to the understanding that Norman digs up his mum’s body from her grave, preserving her deceased corpse in his house and I feel that this is a connection to the birds. The reason is Norman's Schizophrenia – his split personality of himself and his mother. I feel that Norman is always influenced by his mother and the birds indicate this – he preserves his mother’s body like he does the birds' bodies – because they are and his mother will always be above him; will always dominate him.

Not only that, if you see the lighting in this photograph it illustrates that of low-key lighting, the predominant lighting being on the bird at the top left hand corner of the photo as well as the left half of Norman's face – thus representing his schizophrenia of his mother (birds) dominating half of his persona.

Furthermore, considering the shadows from the lighting on the birds, it further corresponds to Norman’s unconscious aspect of half of his personality, overtook by his mother. The shadows not only link to Norman’s forceful influence from his entrapped mentality inhibited by his mother, it also connotes the weakness of himself and the life he lives.

Psycho 1960 - Image 2 Analysis

This image is from the shower scene, just after her murder. The scene visualises Normal – dressed as his mother – killing her; she then falls out of the bath to the floor. The end shot of this scene displays Marion’s blood washing down the drain; this shot is then edited into Marion’s eye – symbolises that of her life washing away.

In terms of montage, this particular scene depicts fast sequence shots – of Marion’s murder -which differentiates from the collision cutting aspects of this shot where the scene changes to very slow which highlights the sad emotion of Marion’s death. This reflects the auteur influence of Alfred because he learnt how to make films during the soviet montage/silent era.

This extreme close-up of Marion’s tears still streaming down her face makes us sympathise for her because this cinematographic technique is used in order to emphasise that her life has just been taken from her. Not only that, with the direct approach of looking right into the camera; right at us, we feel slightly at blame for her death due to how helpless we are.

In addition to this, this whole shot is high-key lighting; it’s very bright and soothing. Expresses that of delicacy and innateness, I also feel this refers to her innocence; granted she stole the money but she planned to make things right and return the money.

Alfred loved to shock his audiences, and he done this extremely well in Psycho when he killed Janet Leigh (the woman who played Marion Crane’s character) – a huge Hollywood star - halfway through the film, thus referencing to the institutional context.

Psycho 1960 - Image 1 Analysis

This scene from Psycho follows Marion's brief conversation with Normal, shortly after she sets off to bed, having decided that she is going to take back the money that she has stolen.

This particular image visualises Normal looking through a small hole in a wall that separates Marion’s bedroom to Norman’s office. This connotes the idea of voyeurism – enjoyment of spying on someone – because he takes down a painting (called “the rape of lucrecia” which is a Greek story of a sex crime to watch Marion get undressed and ready for a shower (using this particular painting was not accidental by Hitchcock, he applied this specific painting in this certain way to add to the effect of the scene - the painting links to the feministic approach of this scene). Norman gave Marion the first motel room which he wanted her to stay in for the night, implicates that he planned to spy on her later on in the film.

In terms of mise-on-scene, the image encapsulates that of low-key-lighting with a back-light silhouette; his whole head is a silhouette apart from the right side of his face. The lighting is coming in from the peephole which suggests that Marion is innocent, and Normal isn’t.

This particular image also represents Norman’s Schizophrenia because the way his face is half-light and half-dark, it connotes that he delivers good and evil acts. He represents his good acts through helping Marion out with a place to stay even though his “Mother-side” is angry. However, this image conveys his bad side through his lack of respect for woman’s privacy, relating to misogyny because he has an unnatural hatred towards woman. Marion has never done anything to him and he is unaware of her crime, yet his mother's jealously causes the “Norma” side of his personality to kill her.

Andrew Sarris – leading critic behind the auteur theory – suggests that the best way to approach a film is to identify the director’s artistic style. Which is true, Alfred Hitchcock was known for being a voyeur obsessed by blonde woman. Although Psycho is historically contextual about the Ed Gein case back in 1957, this idea of voyeurism was personal to Hitchcock himself, which was possibly the reason why he included it into this iconic thriller movie, so this film fully reflects the persona of Alfred to which he depicts in his films.

Dawn Of The Dead 2004 - Image 3 Analysis

This particular image expresses a news reporter talking about terrorist attacks; his face is very pixellated to indicate he is using a satellite phone that is common on channels such as CNN and Al Jaziera. In the back of the mise-en-scene we can see minarets, mosques and riots in the background, referring to the terrorism and a Middle East diegesis. This is a visual metaphor suggesting that terrorism spreads like a virus (like the zombies) from the Middle East.

This particular footage would be relevant to American audiences because present to the time this film was released, 2004, the Americans was involved in a land war with Iraq. Subsequently, corresponding to the importance of audiences in a film - wrote about by Janet Staiger: to fully understand a film you need to understand the audience to which this film consider their audience profoundly, this is what makes this film a lot more effective and succesful.

Dawn Of The Dead 2004 - Image 2 Analysis

This particular scene visualises both Kenneth, a police officer and Andre, a supposed ex-criminal who fits the negative black stereotypes – gangster factors of side-on-gun work whilst shooting. Kenneth isn’t particularly keen of Andre, he makes that clear in this scene when Kenneth questions how Andre can’t figure out why he’s in this place because he’s not innocent, but we see a sensitive side to Andre that he expresses to Kenneth. In this scene Andre says how he desperately wants to turn his life around - in an interracial relationship - with Luda and his unborn child. He protects them with all his willpower which made him gets killed by the old; this conveys sheer hope in how he wanted another chance at life, so he could have a happy family life. Converging all of my thoughts to the aspect of an interracial relationship, the original Dawn of the Dead (1979) denotes a supposed interracial relationship between Fran and Peter who were the only survivors, this caused a lot of uproar in the 1970s because it was shocking to see, it was frowned upon a lot. However, context has changed so this isn’t shocking any more. Dawn of the Dead film challenges stereotypes where black people, men in particular, are concerned – Kenneth is a black heroic character who’s a police officer; who’s brilliant with a gun and helps put himself and the rest of the characters to their survival act. Subsequently, Kenneth represents the improvement of representation of black people in films as they’d usually be portrayed as criminals in the vast-majority of films.

This particular scene visualises both Kenneth, a police officer and Andre, a supposed ex-criminal who fits the negative black stereotypes – gangster factors of side-on-gun work whilst shooting. Kenneth isn’t particularly keen of Andre, he makes that clear in this scene when Kenneth questions how Andre can’t figure out why he’s in this place because he’s not innocent, but we see a sensitive side to Andre that he expresses to Kenneth. In this scene Andre says how he desperately wants to turn his life around - in an interracial relationship - with Luda and his unborn child. He protects them with all his willpower which made him gets killed by the old; this conveys sheer hope in how he wanted another chance at life, so he could have a happy family life. Converging all of my thoughts to the aspect of an interracial relationship, the original Dawn of the Dead (1979) denotes a supposed interracial relationship between Fran and Peter who were the only survivors, this caused a lot of uproar in the 1970s because it was shocking to see, it was frowned upon a lot. However, context has changed so this isn’t shocking any more. Dawn of the Dead film challenges stereotypes where black people, men in particular, are concerned – Kenneth is a black heroic character who’s a police officer; who’s brilliant with a gun and helps put himself and the rest of the characters to their survival act. Subsequently, Kenneth represents the improvement of representation of black people in films as they’d usually be portrayed as criminals in the vast-majority of films.

This particular scene visualises both Kenneth, a police officer and Andre, a supposed ex-criminal who fits the negative black stereotypes – gangster factors of side-on-gun work whilst shooting. Kenneth isn’t particularly keen of Andre, he makes that clear in this scene when Kenneth questions how Andre can’t figure out why he’s in this place because he’s not innocent, but we see a sensitive side to Andre that he expresses to Kenneth. In this scene Andre says how he desperately wants to turn his life around - in an interracial relationship - with Luda and his unborn child. He protects them with all his willpower which made him gets killed by the old; this conveys sheer hope in how he wanted another chance at life, so he could have a happy family life.

Converging all of my thoughts to the aspect of an interracial relationship, the original Dawn of the Dead (1979) denotes a supposed interracial relationship between Fran and Peter who were the only survivors, this caused a lot of uproar in the 1970s because it was shocking to see, it was frowned upon a lot. However, context has changed so this isn’t shocking any more.

Dawn of the Dead film challenges stereotypes where black people, men in particular, are concerned – Kenneth is a black heroic character who’s a police officer; who’s brilliant with a gun and helps put himself and the rest of the characters to their survival act. Subsequently, Kenneth represents the improvement of representation of black people in films as they’d usually be portrayed as criminals in the vast-majority of films.

Dawn Of The Dead 2004 - Image 1 Analysis

Horror movies predominantly encapsulate elements that scare us in current time. Dawn of the Dead (1979) was historically contextual that focused primarily on consumerism: the rise of shopping malls – Americans being obsessed with money – which was illustrated when Peter and Roger are taking the money from all the tills. It’s extremely bizarre that they’re still fanatical over money even when the world is overrun by zombies and their lives are at risk. Focusing on Dawn of the Dead (2004), the starting credits include a diverse amount of imagery and video-footage referring to terrorism and Muslims. In terms of the Americans they was still in shock and terror over the 09/11 attack that happened in 2001 – three years prior to the release of this remake, which would have extremely terrify the Americas; leave them paranoid of it happening again – this corresponds to Janet Staiger’s theory regarding audiences: to fully understand a film you need to understand the audience.

The starting credits display terrifying imagery in conjunction with “The Man Comes Around” song which is about ‘Judgement Day’, linking to the Old Testament 'Revelations” section about Biblical Armageddon. Subsequently, this links to the quote “when there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth” so the film plays on religious implications that results in the paranoia that the Islamic terrorists will attack again.

Horror movies predominantly encapsulate elements that scare us in current time. Dawn of the Dead (1979) was historically contextual that focused primarily on consumerism: the rise of shopping malls – Americans being obsessed with money – which was illustrated when Peter and Roger are taking the money from all the tills. It’s extremely bizarre that they’re still fanatical over money even when the world is overrun by zombies and their lives are at risk.

Focusing on Dawn of the Dead (2004), the starting credits include a diverse amount of imagery and video-footage referring to terrorism and Muslims. In terms of the Americans they was still in shock and terror over the 09/11 attack that happened in 2001 – three years prior to the release of this remake, which would have extremely terrify the Americas; leave them paranoid of it happening again – this corresponds to Janet Staiger’s theory regarding audiences: to fully understand a film you need to understand the audience.

Dawn Of The Dead 1979 - Image 3 Analysis

This is the last scene of the movie where we’re left with a blonde final girl and a black male hero, back in the 1970s the majority of American people (especially in the South, where Dawn of the Dead (DOTD) was likely to be shown in drive-ins) was still racist, only a minority of people was coming to terms with black people.

Romero, through bad experiences himself as a half-Cuban man, loathed racism. He found racism horrible and distasteful, which is why his films look at race a lot; he was trying to express how atrocious it was.

In terms of DOTD, he challenged conventions through having a black male hero, Peter, rather than the white Stephen or Roger. Subsequently, at the time of the film release, it caused a lot of uproar; a lot of people didn’t like the fact that the male hero in the film was black but this is what Romero wanted because his films reflect his auteur influence; his own personal creative vision. This is written about by Andrew Sarris’ in his essay “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962” where he argued that by identifying the best directors and decoding their cinematic style would be the best way to analyse films. This works very well in regards to Romero’s films. In addition to this, a blonde haired woman who has sex in a horror movie is usually the female victim. However, Romero has characterised her to be the final girl, again testing horror's conventions.

This scene is also interesting because we have a hint of an interracial relationship. The open ended narrative finishes with Fran and Peter being the only survivors. Subsequently, this further links to the uproar because there was a mass of racism back in the 1970s and interracial relationships were frowned upon so this would have been extremely shocking to see in a film. This reflects Janet Staiger’s Audience Theory (outlined in her 1990 book “Understanding Films”), were she believes that to understand a film, you must understand the context of when the film was made, and this Dawn of the Dead caused stronger reactions  due to the racist era in which it was created. 

Dawn Of The Dead 1979 - Image 2 Analysis

Fran and Stephen’s relationship throughout the film is always shown to be very strained; this image supports my point perfectly. In terms of conventional horror themes, this illustrates sex and the taboo. Their relationship envisions that of a break down, this photo visualises Fran and Stephen naked in bed, looking away from one another. We get the idea that they’ve just had sex as they’re both naked, but this photograph conveys how they’re not expressing compassion towards one another, their static body language suggests negative emotions.

In terms of Fran’s nudity, it visualises that of the “Male Gaze” theory; appeasing the male-dominated Cultural Dominant Ideologies – this is the theory most associated with Laura Mulvey whom, through her own experience of voyeuristic men and her feministic viewpoint, examined how Hollowed cinema represented woman, which was prominently for the pleasure of men.

Dawn Of The Dead 1979 - Image 1 Analysis

We’re introduced to Stephen at the start of the film when the ‘zombie attack’ was first being established. He goes to Fran whilst she's at work and tells her to be ready by 10 as they’re leaving the city by helicopter. This gives us the impression, along with his considered to be good looks during the time this film was set, that Stephen is going to be a ‘male hero’ archetype.

However, his character is far from a heroic, he challenges conventional views because he is inept with a gun – this photograph illustrates Roger stepping in front of Stephen to shoot zombies because Stephen’s aim was so poor. This is one of George A. Romero’s trademarks; he liked to challenge horror conventions; taking characters stereotypes and flipping them around. In comparison to one of Romero’s other successful films that plays well with character roles, Night of the Living Dead showcases a black male hero, that being the brilliant actor Duane Jones, which was very shocking in the 1970s due to the high level of racism. In terms of Dawn of the Dead, Stephen, a supposed male hero turns out to be weaker than less likely characters.

Second Film Review - The Amityville Horror (2005)

First Film Review - The Last House On The Left (2009)

Prom Night Poster Analysis

The Possession Poster Analysis

The Apparition Poster Analysis

Total Film Magazine Analysis

Total Film is a UK-based film magazine which was launched in 1997 and is published every four weeks. The magazine entails cinema, Blu-ray, DVD, interview features, and so forth to which help viewers stay up to date with the latest news regarding films. Total film is a printed publication as well as an online edition. In addition to this, the film is also present online: Totalfilm.com website, they’re on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as well as having their own iPhone app.

Lara Croft takes over the 80^th issue of Total Film magazine back in September 2003. This issue predominantly celebrated Tomb Raider 2’s release - as you can see, Lara’s medium shot image dominates the whole cover. Tomb Raider plays on Cultural Dominant Ideologies because woman are supposedly weak, opposed to men, but Tomb Raider entails Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft, to be a strong woman who is brilliant at martial arts, to defend hidden secrets of the films. She’s brunette and extremely attractive. Subsequently, the male gaze theory - studied by critic Laura Mulvey – is definitely used in this issue, which is where woman are aesthetically styled to please that of a male audience. In this case you can understand because Lara has sexual connotations with her showing her chest and cleavage through being dressed in her bra and a blazer. Not only that, the main selling line states “She’s stronger. She’s sharper. She’s sexier...” which textually supports that of the Male Gaze Theory.

In terms of the textual aspects of the magazine, everything is in lower-case form with a bold typeface, besides the main cover line and two subheadings that are in upper-case form (tomb raider 2, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Star Wars Features) which signify the publications most important and interesting factors.

The colouration of the magazine is prominently orange, blue and white with little hints of yellow. I think the orange refers to the action aspects of the publication; yellow and red amalgamate to make orange which suggests that the main feature, Tomb Raider, will be stimulating and energetic. In addition orange is the colour of adventure which definitely corresponds to the main cover line feature. In regards to blue which is the colour that suggests loyalty and trust, I think this refers to Angelina’s character, Lara Croft, because she defends the truth and secrets in the Tomb Raider films; she is probably the only character who is genuinely loyal and puts matters to justice. Blue is often the colour of peace as well, which is what Lara longs for. In terms of the white and yellow, I think these are to just differentiate against the orange and blue - the colours all go nicely together as well.

Empire Magazine Analysis

Empire is foremost magazine with regards to movie news, film and DVD reviews, interviews, compositions, etc. Hellboy 2 dominates Empire’s March 2008 front cover.

With regards to the masthead, Empire has uniquely changed the stylistics to correspond to Hellboy through the use of flames emerging from the typeface. This is very diverse for empire usually has a plain typeface which they’ve used for the rest of their issues; this signifies that this particular issue is a special issue which will attract the attention of viewers. I believe that connecting the style of the masthead with the type of film - that is the main feature of the magazine - is very effective because it illustrates what the magazine is predominantly going to focus on as well as it making the whole magazine look creative and professional. The colour red in conjunction with flames connotes the danger aspects of the Hellboy 2 movie, therefore this visual hint entices people to buy and read the magazine, with the incentive to unravel more about the movie.

Conventionally, the date and price of the magazine is located within the M of ‘empire’ which constructs within the shape of the top of the M, this looks a lot more professional and neat because it is concisely embedded within the design of the type. In regards to the website name, it is situated below the last E of ‘empire’ which is another traditional trait of the magazine. This visually connotes that the magazine has a specific style to their magazine, which gives the magazine its own identity; its own trademark.

The cover lines are to be found on the left hand side in its own negative space from the main images black background. The colour of the type for the cover lines is white which differentiates from the background, making it stand out more. These are used to give an indication of what to be found in the magazine; a glimpse of what’s featuring in that issue. With regards to the content within the cover lines, they’ve issued you information concerning what films they’re featuring that month as well as interactivity question with the audience through saying ‘well, who would you choose?’ between Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson, this makes the audience feel engaged with the magazines, which is a great selling point for this issue.

Focusing on the main selling line, it’s located at the bottom of the magazine, central in frame. The text is all in uppercase form and is large in size; it’s the largest typeface on the magazine as opposed to everything else on the cover (besides the masthead of course). With the accompany feature of the ‘first look’ typo, it initiates the thought that the magazine entails exclusive information about the newly released film, Hellboy 2, to which would grab your attention for you’d want to know more about the recent film release, the coloration of this feature – gold - links with the film, making it more coherent and professional.

The selling line is located below the masthead which states that “Guillermo Del Toro goes epic”, Guillermo is the filmmaker/director of Hellboy and the indication of him going ‘epic’ suggests that the second sequel to Hellboy is going to be a lot better than the first movie. This not only ties the director to the film, giving him credit for his new work (the filmmakers aren’t usually credited on front covers, the main characters or actors are usually) but also makes you have interest in what’s new for the film of Hellboy.

Located between the ‘first look’ feature and the main cover line is a tagline stating ‘you and whose golden army?’ which plays on the idiom ‘you and what army’ but makes it more personal to the main feature; it correspond to Hellboy through saying ‘golden army’ – therefore making it more iconic and entertaining to the fans of Hellboy.  

Regarding the barcode it is conventionally situated at the bottom of the magazine in the left hand corner. This feature suggests that the film is of establishment and is available for buying (not a false production that’s been made up); allowing us to know that it’s in the mass market.

Considering elements concerning the main image, we can see that Hellboy dominates the whole frame, which signifies his role in the magazine. In addition to this, the conventional aspect of the image covering parts of the masthead suggests that Hellboy is the most important aspect of the issue, commonly in magazines the model of the front cover overlaps the masthead which is a professional looking feature and suggests that the magazine is of some establishment (which empire is). However, empire doesn’t always do this with their masthead, sometimes the ‘empire’ brand lays on top of the image. Subsequently, this portrays that Hellboy2 dominates the whole magazine; it’s the most significant feature as opposed to the rest of the information contained within the magazine. With regards to the image itself, it’s a medium shot that entails a central alignment in conjunction with the rule of thirds concerning composition, which is very conventional. Hellboy is very engaging, looking directly at the camera and therefore viewers. Focusing on the pose and at which Hellboy is undertaking, he’s leaning on his elbows holding one hand with his other, which almost looks like he’s clicking his knuckles. It’s almost like a threatening stance, as if he means business. This is supported with his angry and menacing facial expression.

Converging all of my thoughts to the colour scheme, the background of the magazine is black which connotes a dark series of films that will be contained in the March issue. The rest of the magazine is white, red and gold. The white is used to differ from the dark colour of the magazine, this is the colour used for the vast-majority of the type, predominantly the cover lines, including the main. Red connotes that of danger which refers to the horror aspect of the main cover line, Hellboy. And the gold is used to coherently represent the film; it also corresponds nicely within the whole colour scheme.

There’s irony within this magazine, the image in specific, because for people who has never seen or heard of Hellboy before, the magazine conventions they’ve applied to advertise this movie release, such as the colour scheme and the aesthetics of the masthead, connotes that of horror and danger, and the pose at which Hellboy is doing suggests that he’s dangerous and not someone to mess with. However, around his wrist hangs a religious statement, the Jesus Christ cross, which hangs down covering a slight segment of the ‘Hellboy 2’ typeface. Subsequently, this may become confusing for viewers who, like I previously stated, haven’t watched Hellboy before. On the other hand, it suggests that Hellboy is of innocence who’s only trying to bring justice to the world.

Rue Morgue Magazine Analysis

The world’s leading horror & entertainment magazine, Rue Morgue, has expanded over the years to not only just a publication but also an expo, successful film production, broadcast, radio show, film series and so forth. Editor, publisher and film-maker Rodrigo Gudino, was who launched Rue Morgue in 1997.

This was the October 2010 issue of Rue Morgue; celebrating Psycho’s 50^th anniversary – it was released in 1960 - and first appearance on Blu-ray.

The image is of Norman which is a section towards the end of Psycho where he is caught by the police and put in a sell. When we reach this part in the film, we fully understand that Norman is half possessed by his mother - this screenshot shows him as well as half of his mother’s appearance; this is where we see his weakness and despair. This image dominates the whole cover, there’s no other use of imagery on the cover, which corresponds to how Norman is being controlled by his mom. The image is in black and white which relates back to the time it was released, 1960 – no colour image productions.

The textual styling of everything but the subheadings located on either side of Norman’s head, is fairly distressed; the lettering is bold yet shattered, as well as being in uppercase form which automatically grabs your attention. In terms of the styling, the shattered typeface connotes the life of Norman, his life has been shattered into a million pieces which he tries to amend – by still working and trying to act like a normal guy - but due to his mother governing his mind; possessing him, it makes it all the more difficult which results in him getting caught by the police. The subheadings are in a bold and simple typeface, kind of looks like an impact text, which is to showcase what’s inside the magazine but it also helps signify the main aspects of the magazine which is the masthead and main cover line – these are also in different colours, prominently the only colours in orange which highlights their importance. The selling line is located next to the main cover line which is the most important aspect of Psycho’s feature because Rue Morgue incorporated this film into their magazine since the film celebrates the 50^th anniversary.

The coloration is blue, orange, white and black.

In terms of blue, this portrays the aspects of Norman, blue connotes the hatred towards confrontation and fuss; doesn’t like attention. This refers to how shy he is as well as how he hates to cross his mother in bad terms. Blue often refers to the full control of your life, which isn’t supported in this case; in fact it’s the total opposite in regards to Norman. It’s also said that blue is the colour which refers to a spiritual perspective which is 100% the case, he tries to take control of his life but he is mentally haunted by his mom. Not only that, Norman tends to constantly refer everything in his life back to his past, he can’t overcome his horrid past of killing his mom which is why he relates past experiences to the past – he’s predominantly against woman.

In regards to orange, this is usually the colour that refers to optimism and assertive. It corresponds to that of lonesome if you’re not around people. Subsequently, I think this refers to Norman as well as his mom. His mom is very forceful; pushy in regards to her son’s life. And Norman often feels lonely due to having an unsuccessful motel business as well as the fact that he has no one around him apart from his mom’s spirit.

Converging all of my thoughts to the colours black and white, the black signifies the horror aspects as well as outlining the main features in the magazine. The white highlights the people in the publication as well as outlining the photo of Norman which I feel connotes the innocence of his personality, granted he killed his mother but afterwards his life was ruled by his mom to which resulted in more murders. Predominantly though, I think these colours were used for decorative purposes. They sit nicely against the blue and orange.

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