Essays

Question 1B: Genre

The media production that I am going to write about is the theatrical horror trailer ‘Carrie’. The genre of the trailer is horror which has been established using Graeme Burton’s theory. His theory states films from a particular genre will contain all the recognisable key conventions that have been continuously repeated to create a formula for the particular genre. In the trailer ‘Carrie’ recognisable elements such as the protagonists, stock characters, stock situations, icons, background, and themes have all been used to establish that the genre of the trailer is a horror. Although it is a horror trailer, it falls under one of the 9 subgenres of horror which each have different conventions which differentiate them from one another- in this case the sub-genre is supernatural/psychological horror. In this trailer stock situations such as religious prayer, levitation and possession are all seen in this trailer; for example an extreme close up of Carrie’s mother’s feet is framed which shows that she is levitating. These are all key elements seen in most supernatural horrors and will therefore establish the genre of the film to its target audience. Body transformation, in this case puberty is also seen which will appeal to a teenage audience and also establish the genre of the film. The stock characters include the jocks, teenage girls who are more superficial than Carrie and engage in sexual activity and drugs, for example Sue Snell and her boyfriend are shot kissing in the trailer which already identifies her stock character as one of the girls who engages in sexual activity and is therefore going to be punished; these are all conventions which will make the genre of the trailer immediately recognisable as a supernatural horror. However this trailer also subverts the conventional elements of a classic supernatural horror trailer. According to Christian Metz, film genres go through different stages and develop through time; the experimental stage, where conventions are first introduced to an audience before they have been fully established, the classic stage where the conventions have been repeated various times and has now been made into a formula that is recognisable to the audience, the revisionist stage where some of the conventions of the genre are challenged and finally the parody stage and finally the post-modern stage where the genre is used in a parodic fashion. In this trailer classical elements have been used such as the final girl, however the classical attributes have been revised, for example, conventionally the final girl is a girl with masculine qualities who does not partake in sexual activities or drugs. In this trailer however, the final girl is very feminine, this can be interpreted through her appearance, she has long blonde hair and blue eyes; as well as this she has a boyfriend and takes part in sexual activity, she also becomes pregnant. This completely subverts the classic features of a final girl and could be conveying a social message which is empowering females and subverting Laura Mulvey’s theory that women in film are only defined as man or ‘not man’. In addition the protagonist is a young teenage girl who is around the age of puberty, she is isolated and different from the other girls in the sense that she does not go to party, have sex or take drugs; this is usually the attributes of the final girl but in this case, the young girl becomes to the threat which takes a revisionist approach to supernatural horrors. According to Metz, genres have to go through these different stages in order for the audience to stay entertained and not get bored, this links with Steve Neal’s theory that pleasure is derived from repetition and difference, he argues that there would be no pleasure without difference which makes revisionists elements essential in the making of an exciting horror trailer. This trailer also follows classical conventions of the role of a female in supernatural films, Carrie is a young woman who possess telekinetic powers; this theme of possession links to puberty and has sexual connotations suggesting that teenage girls having sex is wrong.

Question 1B: Narrative

Narrative refers to the way the story is told in the film using different devices. Todorov came up with a narrative theory; he states that every trailer is made up of an equilibrium which is the state of normality, dis-equilibrium which is when normality has been disrupted, and the resolution when the state of normality is re-introduced, which suggests that the narrative to all horror films is going to be told in a similar way.This is clearly demonstrated in my chosen trailer; at the beginning of the trailer, an establishing shot of a normal looking house is framed which reflects the normal everyday lives of the average person. The equilibrium is further established in a wide angle shot of a normal school and a two person shot of Carrie and her mum which suggests that they have a normal mother-daughter relationship. Later in the trailer, the disequilibrium is introduced, this is shown through quick cuts between Carrie and the door she is locked behind, a close up shot of the door is framed and a crack appears in the door which is when Carries telekinetic powers are introduced and the state of normality is disrupted. In the trailer, we do not see the resolution as the viewers will  be persuaded to watch the movie as they will be intrigued to see how the story plays out.