Analysis of film magazine, Sight and Sound- Cover analysis

Sight and Sound as a film magazine targets it's articles and features to more of an experienced film viewer. Sight and Sound centres it's text around reaching out to those of a more 'artsy' nature. Readers which may be a part of film making or are interested in the logistics behind making a film. The magazine promotes the film in a different way compared to other magazines like 'Empire' as they interview more people on the set of the film rather than the actors. Interviews with the Director and producer of the film are included in some of the articles which gives the reader more of an insight as to how the film is made and constructed rather than who is in the film and what it is about. 

More of an in depth and detailed exploration of the films themes and how characters and settings are developed are included in articles of Sight and Sound. This also targets the magazine to those who work in the media already, what the latest trends and patterns are for a type of filming or editing. Sight and Sound promotes more independent and niche market films than blockbusters.

The front cover has a simple layout, as the title is in a bold black font against a yellow background it makes the title stand out. The main image takes up most of the front cover and as the image is of a famous actor John Cusack it attracts viewers with that image. As the image looks painted and textured it gives the whole magazine an element of sophistication and aiming the feature to a more mature audience because it looks 'artsy'. 

The subheadings on the cover appeal to somewhat an established or informed audience because they are suggestive in that the magazine and it's readers are established enough to know what some of the more complicated and not well-known articles are about. Such as "Amores Derros II- On set with Mexico's hottest director", as the director is not well know it suggests that the readers of Sight and Sound are informed enough to know about the up and coming directors or the ones that are not as famous.

Evaluation of the Second attempt of filming

When discussing the different shots we could include in our teaser trailer in order to make it scarier these are some of the ideas that we have come up with:

1. Take out the shot of when the twins have dialogue, this is due to both Louise and I believing that the impact of the "dead" twins will have more of an effect if we don't hear them speaking. Therefore making them seem more paranormal and less of apart of the living world.

2. In order to include more horrific shots we have drawn on the inspiration of the teaser trailer of "Paranormal activity", and want to incorporate a shot of the twins almost running straight at the camera. However we will have the shot very zoomed in, not allowing the audience to focus too much on their features still leaving room for questions. This particular shot is literally only going to last a fraction of a second and we are going to include it after the title "The Illusion". The reason we are going to position it here is because, once you have reached the title of the film the audience are left feeling at ease, so by including another horrific shot which is also unexpected hopefully will lead the viewers wanting more.

3. Another shot we would like to include will be of a window slamming shut, as the character Katie is attempting to open it. This is due to the success we believe the slamming of the door had. Yet this time when Katie will be banging on the window, unlike the scene with the door we will be able to see the horror on her face as the window is transparent.

4. The final shot we would like to create is much like that seen in the teaser trailer of "Amitytville Horror". From the outside of the house we will have a low angle shot, with the lights flickering on and off with the digetic sound of a women screaming. The impact we expect this shot to have is to show the audience that it is the house that is causing all these unfortunate events and you just can't escape it's wrath.

Paranormal Activity Trailer

We decided to analyse a teaser trailer which had similar conventions of the horror genre which we wanted to use for ours. Paranormal Activity bases the whole movie around a supernatural presence. Where this film uses a demon, our teaser trailer will use unsettled spirits and ghosts. However despite the difference between this teaser trailer and ours, the makers of Paranormal Activity have successfully used the 'psychological' aspects of horror to scare the viewers through various things. Most psychological horrors use simple shots to create suspense and unease throughout their film. This is useful because its based around ghosts or a supernatural presence and therefore you cant necessarily show what the 'presence' is. Throughout the teaser trailer for Paranormal Activity there are medium shots which leave a great amount of space within the frame which creates suspense because as the viewers we expect something of a nasty ilk to fill the space. These shots are usually held for a longer amount of time then we would expect in a typical teaser trailer, but this gives the trailer more of an edge because the suspense is held for longer as there is a build up.

Initially the beginning of the trailer opens with a black screen, it is held for a few seconds before the loud, almost screeching noise of television interference intersperses with it. As viewers are left in confusion and suspense of the black screen they are waiting for some form of titles or image to start the trailer. However the loud, crackled noise of the interference signifies that there is a supernatural presence. This is because on ghost hunting shows and other horror films the television turns on when there is a paranormal being close by. The beginning of the trailer specifically makes a statement because of the immediate loud noise and action, as the frame opens of the empty bedroom tension is building as the viewer waits for something to appear. The audiences are shocked by the body flying and smashing into the camera, this is a good technique because of the contrasted plain shot with silence to the crashing body. Also the idea that the body is coming towards the camera makes it nerve wracking for the viewers because it becomes too close for comfort, that its coming towards them and the idea that as we cant see the face of the body we are confused as to whether they are dead or being pushed because of the positioning of the way it hits the camera. However the quick edit of this shot makes it almost disorientating between the change of the empty room to the sudden crash of the camera.

The trailer then leads on to various shots of different rooms in the house, they are broken up with the television interference noise and screeching zig zags which makes the editing quick and the viewers in suspense because each room is empty. For established viewers they will recognise the familiar setting of the same house from the first film. The trailer then pauses on a high angle shot with the camera placed into the corner of the room but from the ceilings height. The stance of the camera and the grey and green colours of the shots from the room almost make it seem like its CCTV. That someone is watching what's happening in that house, or that we as the viewers are watching helpless from behind a camera and we are witnessing something we're not supposed to. By using the dog and its awareness of something going on or something being there, it is a classic horror convention by using an animal and their senses to detect something is there, along with the loud bark from the dog it makes the viewers on the edge of their seats because they know the animal is barking at something but because of the half-shut door we are unable to see what is there. But as the shot flickers and changes we are transported back to the same room except the dog has gone and the dark figure of the woman is in the hallway. This is combined with a loud banging noise signifying her presence which makes the audience react and jump because of the noise and the appearance of her.

The quick edits and titles throughout the film make the audience raise questions as to how they are going to carry this film as a sequel and how scary it will be. The fast pace of shots almost disorientate the viewer to want to know more about the film and therefore it successfully teases them to want to know more about the film.

The Grudge trailer

While looking at different conventions t use for our teaser trailer we looked at previous horror films which have used a curse on a family or a house. The Grudge is a particular film which has influenced our trailer because of the idea that a curse has been left behind from another family, the blurred titles have been a main feature which we have used in our own titles as well as the ghostly presence. The heavy breathing and suspense building noises behind the shots has also influenced us to have a constant sound running throughout our trailer.The series of quick edits are particularly useful to us because they almost disorientate the viewer to not know whats going on but to just hear and briefly see the horror.

The AmityVille Horror Trailer

The newspaper clippings at the beginning of the trailer is a convention which we considered to be particularly useful when making our own teaser trailer. They give the viewer some insight to the basic plot of the story but still leave room for questions. The newspaper clippings also make he film seem more eery because newspapers broadcast things which the public should be informed about. A story of such a horror will scare viewers into the theme that it could be a true story and it raises the "what if?" questions which are a desired effect after watching a teaser trailer.

Analysis of The Amityville Horror Poster

As said throughout, The Amityville Horror has been a huge influence on the making of our teaser trailer. While the familiar story line of family moves into the 'unusually' cheap house which no one seems to want to talk about due to its history may seem simple, it takes a lot of different conventions from the horror genre itself to make it scary.

The Amityville Horror does not only use the haunting of the ghosts to scare the audience but one of the key themes throughout the film is that the house on its own possesses evil which no one can escape. Above are two official posters of the film which were released before the trailer. They are both interesting because they play on different aspects of the film to tease with. The first one uses a simple layout of the clouded, almost illuminated half of the house to tease the audience into wanting to know what is inside that house. This poster raises questions because of its simplicity. The black background with the dimly lit house gives an eery feeling as if the house is its own presence, erupting from the darkness with the ivy plant creeping up the side of the house. Almost showing its abandoned, stand alone feel from its unkempt appearance. The viewers eyes are immediately drawn to the house emerging from the darkness because it takes up the top 2/3 of the poster.


The contrast between the white house and the black background makes the front of the house which is shown stand out. The surrounding darkness from the house, clouding at the sides could illustrate as if the house is being consumed by darkness, or consumed by evil. Combining the dimly, pale white/grey house and complete darkness around the house it highlights the fact that that only the windows at the top of the house are lit, as if something is happening there. While the windows at the bottom of the house are dark, the lights being off could symbolize death, or evil as horror movies tend to use darkness to portray a type of villain or the unknown. With the windows at the top of the house slightly rounded and lit up it almost personifies the house with the windows being eyes, as if the house is watching, or the evil within the house is watching. The title of the film uses quite a simple formal font, although the graphics of making it look slightly smudged or flickering like a candlelight gives an uneasy feel as though the candle lights represent the supernatural and paranormal presence. The blurred aspect to the font also uses the illusion factor of the film. The blurry font almost symbolize whether to believe the spirits or ghosts are real.


The second poster still use the house as a key attribute of the film except as the image is shot from a low angle it makes the viewers of the poster feel vulnerable and intimidated by the sheer size of the house. This low angle shot makes the house seem like its looming over us, towering and closing in around us as if we can not escape. The man's stance in front of the house looks determined, his shoulders are squared with his head bowed as if he is preparing himself with something. The gun in his hand makes the viewers confused as to whether he is the hero or the villain this is also because the way that the man is positioned looks as though he is up against the house, in competition to defeat the evil.


The colours in the poster are not as contrasted as in the first one, they are more dimmed and light greens and greys. The font of the title of the film is also different than in the first poster, the use of red colour is a traditional convention used by horror movies signifying blood, violence and death. The enlarging of the Y letter in the title could symbolize a trail of blood, or a trail to hell as the colours at the end of the letter lighten to more fiery yellows/oranges. Finally the slogan of the film is hand-scratched into the wall which immediately creates unease because of the idea that it is some one's attempt to convey a message. The 'katch em and kill em' slogan purposefully spells the word 'catch' wrong, this plays on the idea that a child may have scratched the message into the wall. The way the slogan is spelt creates a short and prompt order to fulfil which teases the audience to want to know who is the killer and who is being killed.


Both posters specifically use that the film is based on a true story, they write this under the title of the film as if it is the headline of a newspaper, the horror which took place in this house is portrayed and then reminds the viewers of the film that it is a true story which can attract viewers because it may scare them more to know that what they watch is not fiction and that it actually happened.