Monday 17 September 2012

Wednesday 12 September 2012

History Of Horror Movies

History of Horror Movies

All horror movies aim to do one thing, produce a negative emotional reaction from the viewer. They relate to humans primal fears, eg. the fear of the unknown. This is why plots will most often revolve around things like; ghosts,cannibals,serial killers, zombies and demons. The first ever moving-picture revolving around horror was in the 1890's. It was shown in a 'silent short' ( a short film with no sound) created by Georges Melies. It was called 'the haunted castle'. When the period of talking pictures began in the 1930's, Universal pictures began to release a range of 'Gothic Horror' movies. Famous releases include 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein'. At this point horror also began to blend with the science fiction genre. During the 1950's and 1960's technology advanced, and so did horror. As people became bored of the gothic sub-genre, studios were able to create contemporary films that were able to relate to viewers fears in the way that the horror films plot could actually happen in real life. These related to illness, serial killers, cannibals ect.. 


Monday 10 September 2012

History Of Movie Trailers

History of movie trailers

What is a movie trailer?
A trailer or preview, is an advertisement for an up and coming feature film, it aims to attract viewers and persuade them to go and see the film.

The first movie trailers?
The term 'film trailer' originally comes from the fact that trailers were shown at the end of movies rather than at the beginning like nowadays. This practice was changed because viewers most often left the cinema at the end of a movie and didn't get a chance to see them. The first movie trailer was actually for a musical rather than a film. It was shown in a US theatre in 1913. It surprised everyone, newspapers called it "an entirely new and unique stunt"

The 1950's?
Until the late 1950's Movie Trailers were created and released by 'The National Screen Service'.  Videos were very basic as technology hadn't advanced as much yet. Basic features would often include:

  • Key scenes from the film being advertised
  • Descriptive text telling the viewer about the story line
  • Text that was shown was extremely large 
  • Most, but not all trailers had a voiceover describing the story line  
The 1960's?
The arrival of 'new hollywood' spurred the movie trailer industry to dramatically increase and change. Individuals became well known for their work within the industry among these were;
Stanley Kubrick for his famous montage trailers, in particular 'Lolita, Dr. Strangelove'
Typical features of a 1960 film trailer would be:

  •  Textless
  • Edited through montage
  • Quick editing
  • Very similar techniques used in TV
An individual well known for producing his own work rather than working with the national screen service was Andrew J. Kuehn. He created the trailer of 'The night of the iguana'. Famed for his taste in using stark,high contrast photography and bringing a new voice over to the industry (James Earl Jones). Andrew was so successful that he began one of the first independent film trailer studios, called Kaleidoscope Studios

Videos,DVDs and Bluerays?
A favored way of showing trailers is through videos,dvds and blueray. Viewers now most commonly see trailers at the beginning of a film they have purchased. It is  more cost-effective and easier to do than adding trailers to the beginning of films being screened. The only issue is that viewers can 'skip' the videos they do not wish to see at home.

The motion picture association?
The Motion picture association of america (MPAA) states that film trailers not exceed 2 minutes and 30 seconds in length, however each major studio is given one exception to this rule per year. Nowadays there are no time restrictions concerning Internet or home-video trailers.