Structuralism

Structuralism is the study of how the narrative is constructed in media texts. There are many different theories of structuralism and following the completion of our media products we have come to realize that some of these theories apply to our work. 

Roland Barthes' Theory of Enigma Codes

Barthes theorized that media texts function because they rely on enigma codes. Media texts give away small pieces of information which are just enough to hook the reader, this entices the reader to buy the product which is advertising the media text (e.g buying a film magazine) or buy into the media text itself (e.g going to the cinema). We feel that our magazine and trailer conform to this theory and that they are good examples of how enigma codes are used in media to sub-consciously persuade the audience to buy into the product. On the cover of our magazine we have tried to entice the reader to buy the magazine by stating there is an 'exclusive' on a film nominated for best horror - hopefully readers will want to read the exclusive and therefore buy the magazine, we believe this will make them more likely to also watch the film. This is an example of how we have used enigma codes in our text and how Barthes' theory is evident in our ancillary and main products.

Genre Theory

The Genre Theory describes how specific types of media text follow the same patterns and structures, our main product is a good example of this theory. We wanted to create a product which conformed to the defined rules of the horror genre as audiences are able to identify with this and will know what to expect. We believe we have achieved this well in our main product and poster ancillary task.

Hermaneutic Code

The full truth of the story is not revealed until right at the end, this keeps the audience in suspense. We identified this as an important feature of trailers as they are used to get the audience interested in the film but don't give too much away about the story that would allow the reader to guess the outcome. Using the Hermaneutic Code will cause those who watch the trailer to speculate about what they believe will happen in the story, this would be a good way to get word of mouth advertising which would increase the amount of people likely to watch the film in the cinema.

Proairetic Code
Proairectic Code refers to created events which the audience assume will have a consequence, our trailer incorporates many of these such events, an example is the sequence of shots leading up to the car driving away, it is evident from these shots that the characters are going to investigate the disappearances.

Storyboard

Green Room Update with Video & Images

These two images are from the green room photo shoot that we did to improve our ancillary tasks. We have chosen not to use either of these images on our ancillary tasks because we feel it is important to have both of us present in the same photograph to show we play equally important roles in the film. The trailer poster only features an image of Kate and therefore we felt it necessary to have an image of Lana to balance exposure across the different media platforms.

These two images clearly show they are set against a green background, this was intended to be easy to edit so we could change the background to suit ourselves however in practice it was not so easy. After we edited the image and removed the background of the picture we chose to use for our magazine front cover, we discovered that the 'green' had created an undesirable tint to the edges of us once cut out - this had the opposite effect of what we desired and made our magazine cover look unprofessional. We changed the hue of the image to help the green blend in more and it looks more acceptable now.

Adobe Premier Pro

Click Here: Simpsons Movie Trailer

Photographic Techniques

Soundtrack

We stumbled upon this Youtube clip whilst looking for inspirational material, we watched the clip and found that the soundtrack was really good at representing the horror genre as non-digetic sound. We knew instantly that this would be a really good piece of music to use for our horror trailer as it is climatic and sets a good pace for the trailer. We particularly enjoyed the last 47 seconds of the soundtrack and feel that this would be the section we would like to use in our production. We thought that the editing technique displayed in this video was excellent as it shows how easily a film of one genre can be transformed into another with some clever cuts and a brilliant supporting soundtrack.

Pulp Fiction