Final Review

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Poster Analysis

Poster Analysis

One Missed Call

One missed called is a supernatural horror. The poster from the film ‘one missed call’ is made from a simple picture with many interpretations. The title is written in red full block capitals which makes it stand out. The fact that it is written in red relates to the genre as it symbolises death, blood and warning.  Death and blood is conventions of a horror which shows that it belongs to that genre. The title ‘one missed call’ is significant because a call is what you get from someone who knows you or knows of you, the fact that the call is ‘missed’ could show that the person is no longer present and how now significant in the characters life. The title also looks as if it fading away which could represent a past or a memory. The connotations that arises when look at the poster is where is it set and who is the person on the front, this engages the target audience as it make them want to find out answers for their questions. The font of the title is an influence that was used in horror films from the 1900s.

The mise-en-scene is the phone which tells you that it is going to play a significant part in the movie. The screaming from the mouth within the eye looks as if it is screaming into phone which shows that the phone is going to alert or symbolise death. The facial expression on the main images is a slight smirk which shows the person is getting pleasure from what they are doing. The eyes of the image is made up of 2 pictures of a woman screaming, this relates to the genre as screaming and loud noises is a convention on horror. The poster shows that the narrative is closed as it doesn’t give you much background information. From the picture you cannot tell the location or the time of day which makes the target audience want to read more.

 The Unique Selling Point of the picture is the face, the eyes of this face is made up from the mouths of a female this reinforces the negative stereotype of females being vulnerable, from this you can tell that the film is going to fall under the horror genre. The face is a pale colour which shows that it is lifeless or an evil spirit which connects to the dead which is also a convention of horror. The use of the mouth forming and eye could represent that this evil creature is watching the females every move.

 The tagline ‘what will you sound like when you die?’ asks the target audience a rhetorical question that they can only answer if they watch the film. This engages them as it makes the want to know who dies in the film and what they sound like.

The colours used is red and black, red could symbolises blood and death with is a convention of horror. Also the red can also show warning. In contrast to red writing, the black background makes the face stand out even more. However, since the face also looks like a human being it could show that the figure was once a person. The black background could represent the unknown and the fear or dark, which is another horror convention.

This film would be targeted at 16-24 year olds as you can see from the colours used.

Textual analysis - One missed call

Textual Analysis

One Missed Call

The film which I am going to analyse is called one missed call, it is a film similar to the one that I will be producing; it was released in 2008 and directed by Eric Valette. The genre of the film which is also the genre of the one I will be making is a Physiological Horror.

Todorov’s equilibrium model is used in ‘one missed call’ the state of normality (equilibrium) starts with a young teenage girl having a phone conversation, the normality becomes broken (disruption) when she gets pulled into the pond and a red ball rises to the surface of the water. The new equilibrium is the victim is saved from the killer and we hear the phone ring again. Similar to the theory of Levi-Strauss, binary oppositions are used in this film this can be seen through the victim and the killer which is good/bad and living/dead.

 The film has a restricted narrative as a lot of information is withheld so you do not know much until the very end. This is similar to ‘the unborn’. Although you don’t know much until the ending the film is in chronological order so you become aware and understand the storyline. By doing this, it gives the audience more time to think how they believe the story will end and more engaged as they would like to know if their ideas were correct or not.

In horror movies there is always a lead character which ends up as the survivor and ends u defeating the killer. The genre of the film is represented through the characters as the majority of the victims are young teenage females this shows the stereotypical representation of females being most vulnerable. Teenagers are seen to be vulnerable due to society of that era thinking adolescences are immature and cannot look after themselves. However, you could say ‘one miss call’ challenges this as not all the characters act irresponsible so they would not necessarily be targeted as vulnerable. The characters speak in an informal way which suggests that they are all from the same social backgrounds. For instance, if they spoke in a formal way, you would then see the contrast between different characters and would be able to see who is more vulnerable. Facial expressions are typical of the genre as they would be quiet frightened when the tension in the story builds up, an example of this from ‘one missed call’ is when the characters hear the diegetic sound of the phone call. This is also similar in paranormal activity when strange things happen in their house their facial expression change. The body language before the second death was normal stability, however, after the second death when the phone rings the body language would be quiet limp and the movements were slowed down to the show the status of the characters due to the fact that the characters are limp shows that they are weaker than the killer. Hair and makeup and costume relate to the representation of age as they are college students their dress sense was similar to one another as it shows they all from the same era and have the same fashion influences. I.e. Females; Jeans, top and shoes or trainers, with minimal make-up and their hair tied up or down. Males; Jean and top with trainers. Costumes are made simple to reduce the risk of the audience’s attention diverting. ‘One missed call’ also challenges the typical characters of the genre as the killer is also a young female teenager. This is seen as absurd as it is normally a male character which targets female character which could link to a sexually fantasy. The killer is typical of the genre as she gives them a date and time of their death; this creates moral panic for the character as they try to find way in which to cheat death. This is similar to final destination as they have premonitions before the death and try and change it or stay alive. The killer’s costume is similar to the other student’s .e.g. black hoodie. This could show that that is what she wants to be and something stopped her which explains her actions. The storyline is typical of the genre as there is always a main plot; they tend to all focus on death. Examples of this is ‘the unborn’, ‘paranormal activity’, ‘insidious’ and ‘psycho’. Similar storylines which is typical of the genre tend to incorporate evil or after life, a form of a demon or phenomenon and the killer always scares and attacks humans.

The mobile phone ringtone is a diegetic audio sequence that the audience recognise when something starts to go wrong; the mobile phone shows when the killer is trying in interfere in the characters lives. Non diegetic eerie music is used to build up tension when the victim approaching an area which is seen as isolate where she then becomes vulnerable. An example of this is when the female character receive the call an approaches the bridge which look as if a possible death could occur, the eerie music is play to build tension. Cinematography is used to highlight significant part in the film to show a variety of things, Facial expression which shows how the characters feeling, long shots to pick up on the killer or victims body language. An example of this is when the phone rings and there is an extreme close up on the phone and another one on the character to show their facial expressions this shows that they were afraid because they knew who was on the other end of the phone. Low key lighting is used to enhance the genre as it allows the character to see less which makes them more vulnerable.

Film Reviews

The Film review which I will be analysing is from the ‘Time Entertainment.’ The Film which is contained in the review is Paranormal Activity 2. The film was reviewed by Mary Pols.
The mode of address used throughout the review is slightly informal due to a number of words that she uses. The film review is targeted at a general audience rather than a niche one. The critic briefly summarises each aspect of the film – directors, narrative actors etc.

Firstly, the critic talks briefly about the narrative in paranormal activity 2. ‘’ I retained almost no memory of its narrative content’’ she then breaks down the narrative from the previous paranormal activity, in informal tone.  As explained above she used the word ‘dope’ which lower in register of the review. As the review progresses she then brakes down the narrative structure of the second film and how the movie opens. 
 The film critic clearly contains the actor’s names in brackets with the characters that they play. She describe (Micah Sloath) as a dope which is a slang/informal discourse.
Pols mentions that the director from the previous film had been replaced by a new director. (Todd Williams) which she goes on to say she had doubts about that change. Later on  in the review she talks about the writer and director from paranormal activity (Oren Peli) she went on to talk about the budget of that film and said ‘it’s the kind of budget you could use to get a pretty used car’ this statement is non-standardised as she uses ‘pretty used car’ meaning a really old car. She later on explains she thought the budget in this current film had increased.
Lastly, towards the end of the review, she talks about some of the camera shot in the film. For example the surveillance shots in the film. She said it brought thrills and chills throughout the audience.

The Second review which I analysed was from Empire magazine, by Kim Newman. In comparison to the first review, her review is organised into 3 Sections; plot, review and verdict. Also an image from the film was added. It is short compared to the first, and uses both formal and informal language, to reach out to a wider audience. The USP in the review is the Narrative as it is included throughout the whole review; however, Newman makes references to the change of directors in the sequel and the actors who play in the film.
At the end of the review Kim, also makes reference to other films that the viewer may also enjoy which also reaches out to a wider audience.

The last review which I looked at was from the Chicago Sun Times. A common factor which all the reviews contained was the same image from paranormal activity.
In the introduction it contains an informal tone, when describing moments of the film as ‘Gotcha moments’ in this case meaning moments where the film is loud and scary. Unlike the other to review Roger talks about camera in the middle of the review. The review is organised well, with the cast and credits in a section.

Links.
1) http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2027132,00.html
2) http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=136856
3)  http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101022/REVIEWS/101029991

Review: In the making

Teaser poster