Representation

Representation

The man at the beginning of the trailer is represented as a strong authority as within the mise-en-scene of his costume is a smart suit and the setting is of an office environment surrounded by others wearing suits. This can suggest he has a high class and status through wealth and professionalism being expressed through his costume which is a stereotype of the average man in which the male audience can relate to through culture of tertiary industry through office work, which is very common in USA. Overall this character is represented in a positive way through having high class and status, superiority and strong authority but this is counted through the performance of the other character clashing into him, him spilling coffee on his smart clothes, which shows lack of respect and this being supported by a long shot, making him look small and inferior.

The main female protagonist Alice (Mila Jovovich) is represented by having high class and status through the micro-element of Mise-en-scene of her costume which is a red dress with a black jacket which shows class and power through the colour red representing danger and power, which the colour red makes her stand out more than the rest of the characters, which creates dominance by her having the most attention from the audience, even though her frame duration on screen is small but she is shown numerous amount of times. Her costume shows more skin than most of the other characters which can suggest the theory of the male gaze which objectifies the character to keep the male audience engaged within the trailer which can create a negative representation through her being objectified and can be shown as inferior through some low angle shots (0.48 minutes) and her duration in scenes and frames. Although this representation could be counted by being positive by her being strong, dominant and have superiority as mentioned earlier, she may be shown in small duration but shown numerous times, the reason being is that the editors and directors want to keep the audience engaged within the visual text by showing small doses of this character at a time, making the male audience want to see more.  Close up shots of the protagonist, making her more dominant as the character is taking up the most of the frame, therefore having the most attention and her costume also supports this as the colour red stands out the most and symbolises danger, also her performance (Mise-en-scene) of her performing action stunts and combat making her seen as strong and engages the audience even more through seeing action on screen as it creates excitement for the audience.

The male protagonist One (Colin Salmon) is represented as strong, high class and status and superior through the micro-elements of camera and mise-en-scene, editing and sound. The camera shots of him are mostly close-up shots, his positioning on screen is within the centre of the frame, and some high angled shots can be identified, which these shots make him seen as strong and superior through the illusion of making him look bigger and have the most attention from the audience within the scenes he is in. For the micro-element sound, his sound of his dialogue is deep and bold which creates a strong sense of authority and dominance which is supported by the micro-element Mise-en-scene of performance as his facial expressions are strong, confident and gives eye contact towards characters and the camera which makes him look dominant as it shows that he takes all situations as seriously and shows no fear.

The protagonist carries a prop (mise-en-scene) which is a gun (0.56 minutes), which a gun symbolises power and danger which is in his hands. This protagonist is represented in positive way as he is represented as strong, high class and status (his authority) and dominant/superiority. Though his race representation of him being of African descent applies to Lenny Henry’s theory of “the lack of number of black, Asian and minority ethnic people working in the television industry ....” which this applies to the trailer has Colin salmon is the only ethnic minority within the trailer, but positively represents his race by being represented as strong, dominant and superior. 

This apocalyptic film subverts the usual conventions identified within this genre as the main protagonist is a female in which most apocalyptic films tend to be quite sexist where the main protagonist tends to be male whereas the female will not form a large influence within the narrative due to the common stereotypes associated with both genders,which is negative towards women.


Resident Evil (2002) trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8AQlUdTFxA


For my theatrical trailer, I will use similar conventions that are identified within the trailer of Resident Evil (2002) such as the main protagonist holding a weapon (prop) to reinforce the convention of survival as the target audience are tribe wired and love the outdoors and the concept of the theme of survival. The prop will represent the character for being more stronger at times when confronted by the antagonists which will make the audience feel more adrenalised and exhilarated as there is an equal match between the antagonist and the protagonist which any one can prevail. 

Genre (Zombie Horror)

Genre (Zombie Horror)

The defining features of the text are the antagonists being dead but alive hence zombies, they have decaying bodies.  There are conventions of gore, isolation, group of people fighting for survival, usually the survivors prevail, people turning into zombies, side characters dying and a solution to the problem i.e. antidote or cure for virus outbreak.

There are some hybridity within this genre as within ‘Shaun of the Dead’; it has the genre of comedy amalgamated with a zombie horror genre. The zombie genre also is hybridised with the genre of thriller and also science fiction. 

Texts of the zombie horror genre are culturally influenced through their target audience and their distributors. Examples of this are 28 days later in which is set in Great Britain in London in which is well established throughout the world in which engages the audience to the film as they have a connection to the setting which intrigues and interests the audience. This is culturally influenced through zombie horror texts being made in and set in the modern era, also being set in first world countries such as USA, UK, Japan and Spain. Characters constructed within these texts are culturally influenced as they base characters on stereotypes that the audience sees in everyday life, the reasons for this are to engage the audience within the text, as they can reflect on their past experiences and connections of stereotypical people they have interacted with. Costumes of characters have been culturally influenced through them representing to the stereotypes of people within the country the film is set in. Technology has been culturally influenced within modern texts as some narrative are driven by technology whereas in the historical texts it was more with the culture of black magic of African culture whereas in the modern texts, technology is used within the text such as technology of cloning i.e. Resident Evil extinction. Also technology is used within texts to create cures for the zombie outbreak which is set in high tech science facilities.

The ideologies of the genre contains the typical characters that would be identified in the zombie horror genre in which is the protagonists ( the strong hero ) usually male, the final girl, children are sometimes identified within this small group of survivors , the vulnerable victims that have the following traits such as disabilities, physically weak, not intelligent or just clumsy. There is also the false hero in which betrays the protagonist(s) and the character in which is bitten by the zombie but stays with the group due to their attachment for the character/person but some characters are in disagreement through the infected victim staying with them (usually the false hero). These characters are ideologies of the types of people that will be identified within the zombie horror genre.  Another ideology within the zombie horror genre is the narrative will be similar in which a group of survivors will form together and fight for survival and try to resolve the situation by either finding the cure for the zombie outbreak or travelling somewhere safe that is unaffected by the zombie outbreak in which the survivors slowly get picked off one by one leaving a few survivors. These ideologies of the zombie horror genre are expected by the audience as these ideologies/conventions are constructed in the zombie horror texts in which the narrative and conventions are expected to be slightly differentiated in a new zombie horror text. 

CGI can be used to create more terrifying zombies/creatures which will scare the audience whereas films such as the night of the living dead, the zombies did not look terrifying compared to the zombies in the later films such as REC franchise in which creates more fear for the audience through the detail of the antagonists.

The use of colour cameras, which was not introduced for zombie films until after the release of the night of the living dead, which makes films for the audience look more aesthetically pleasing and makes the film more detailed in which the conventions of zombie horrors contains gore in which makes the gore more visible by using a colour camera, thus making the audience more frightened and experience a sustained unease feeling.

The use of sound effects in which can be used to create sounds for zombies in which will scare and frighten the audience through the zombies being expressed through the sounds them make through the sound effects being included within the visual text, an example being an aggressive zombie roar in which would be hard to create without the technology of sound effects which this effect will scare and unease the audience through them hearing the zombie making a disturbing sound.

For my theatrical trailer, I will include the main usual conventions of the zombie apocalyptic horror genre as the target audience like and expect to see these conventions within the film in which these conventions will be shown within the theatrical trailer to engage the audience within the text and they will want to watch the film when released. These conventions include: isolation, protagonists fighting for survival, antagonists being zombies and the survivors prevailing. 

I will also include fast pace editing supported by fast paced sinister music within my theatrical trailer to reinforce the visceral pleasure of adrenaline and exhilaration for the audience as the target audience are tribe wired and fun-atics which enjoy feeling exhilarated when watching texts of this genre.