Case Study: Shaun Of The Dead

The case study I have chosen is Shaun Of The Dead, it uses synergy because it released promotional materials at the same time to promote the film; combining a film trailer, poster and magazine cover which all promote the film's popularity. Shaun Of The Dead falls into a horror and Rom com genre which add credibility to the film because it falls under a number of genres making it unique. To find out more about the film use this link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/

For my case study I will be analysing a film poster, magazine and trailer.

The Magazine Cover

Shaun of the Dead is being promoted by Total Film magazine above. The conventions within the magazine cover highlights the genre of the film. The title of the magazine is in red and is bold which reflects the convention of blood within the film- which is iconography often used by the horror genre. The main image denotes the main character 'Shaun' who is a man determined to to get his ex-girlfriend back, redeem his relationship with his mother, while fighting his way to safety through an entire community that have returned from the dead to eat the living.

The magazine cover promotes this story as he is wearing a ripped shirt covered in blood, holding a baseball bat and a bandanna. The denotation of the character is that he has a hungry look in his eyes and is determined to win his losing battle. The magazine image successfully portrays his strive and makes audiences want to discover what his determination is dedicated to.

The background is quite bland which makes 'Shaun' stand out more and become the centred focus of the page, which would in turn make readers want to read about Shaun of the Dead boosting its popularity. The clothes in which he is wearing is his work clothes which shows the difficult time he has had with added element of the amount of blood he has on his uniform. You can easy identify the genre of the film because of the imagery used, it could also be identified that the genre also falls under a comedy because of the description beneath the image.

The description on the magazine is less focused on the film, which doesn't make the film stand out in its excellence as much as the strong imagery does. This can have a negative effect on the influence it has on audiences because it does not praise the film but infuses other features within in the magazine to the audience.

The Film Poster

This is film poster for the Shaun of the Dead. It is clear that the convention of the colour red is used in all platforms of advertising the film, which gives the film a trademark. The tag line 'Ever felt like you were surrounded by zombies?' -This adds a comical value to the poster because it is almost pokes fun at what happens in the storyline.

The denotations of the image shows 'Shaun' holding a bouquet of flowers stuck between a crowd of zombies. This adds further comedy aspects because he conveys a puzzled face, this makes this amusing due to the fact he is surrounded by man-eating zombies; the connotation of this is that the zombies around him symbolise the problems he is dealing with in reality, breaking up with his girlfriend, his relationship with his mother and the hatrid towards his step father.

The connotation of the position of the character shows how he is trapped and isolated in the film because he is feeling lonely after being dumped, and he is isolated because of the zombies. The title of the film 'Shaun of the Dead' has a hand that creates the image of an 'A'; this feature is highlighted and used throughout the promotion of the film and is almost a logo for the film title. When filming our trailer, creating our magazine cover and film poster we could convey this type of promotion by using a key feature throughout to make it representable.

The Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDUv3ZjH2k

The production company is shown at the start of the trailer which is useful to know as they invested the money to create the film and distribute it making them have presence in the promotion. The screen becomes static when a voice over starts, this connotes a sense of confusion within the storyline as the voice over stresses, 'this message is for your own safety'; this makes audiences anxious as to what he is referring to. The fast editing shows a montage of imagery consisting of zombies and the general public. The constant flickering, static and pixalating confuses views and makes them feel on edge as to what is happen in the footage.

A medium shot is shown of the two main characters listening to the voice over with dumb stricken looks upon their faces as they look at one another, the voice over warns 'Do not panic' they act contrapuntal to this as they realise there is a zombie in their home. This connotes a comical element to the trailer as you are already introduced to their character traits as they have stupidly left the front door open. They act panicked in a comical way as they scream 'Oh he's got an arm off!' This amuses viewers as puts light on the harsh reality that they could be eaten any minute. The voice over continues throughout the trailer to give advice to citizens which the characters fail to follow, this behaviour is amusing to audiences as they are not acting correctly to protect their own safety.

The diegetic background music is contrapuntal to what is happening in the scene, it is upbeat and almost child like while the scenes show far from child like behaviour as the characters savage man eating zombies in order to stay alive; this adds further to the comedy genre because it is almost poking fun at the situation and how much danger they could potentially be in. The behaviour throughout is comical to watch because they are using inappropriate behaviour like having a phone call in front of the zombies while they are inches away or trying to kill the zombies with music records; however although they are acting this way through pure determination they do succeed only using a few people along the way.

The editing slows down as a scene is shown whereby Shaun reverses to see if the person he has just ran down in a car is alive, the realisation that it is a zombie shows relief on his face this denotes his affectionate side even though thousands of people are dying around him he still stops putting himself in danger to help another person. The title of the film 'Shaun of the Dead' is used again with the logo of a hand in the letter 'A'; this use of a trademark can help with the promotion of the film because it can used within merchandise for the film, displaying it on t-shirts, mugs, DVDs etc.

A parallel diegetic sound is used at the end, which is quite eerie, this portrays the seriousness of the ending in a way, because the trailer reflects a quite successful mission; however lives are lost during the course of getting to safety but this not highlighted within the trailer, this can be seen as positive thing as the trailer does not reveal the whole storyline and leaves a cliff hanger. This is something to be considered when planning our own trailer, we are interested in conveying the themes that will be shown within the film but not revealing the actual storyline as we think this would be more successful when populating an audience.

Research into Chosen Genre: Social Realism

The three functions of genre are: - To understand how texts are used and produced. - An insight into some of the ways audiences consume text. - Is useful from an academic perspecive e.g. media students. Social realism is a genre that explores the experience of a certain social class, sub culture or various groups in society, often portraying them in an extreme way to entertain audiences. Films, such as, Kidulthood, Adulthood, Snatch, One Day, Shank, Fish Tank and Brassed Off. All these films tend to reflect what people in that certain sub culture is experiencing day to day, usually portraying a life filled with violence, gang culture and promiscuity- this means that they are portrayed in negative ways because the social class often presented are working class, so the portrayal of this group in society is stereotypical.

Both film posters on the left portray elements of the genre social realism. Although Snatch is a British gangster genre it mirrors details of social realism in the way it represents the British and a sub culture of gangsters.

The obvious conventions often found in this genre is violence, sex and drugs- this may be because the stereotyped assumptions revolve around these activities so they are portrayed within the films. For example, in Kidulthood the class represented is working class youth, the activities they condone in is usually, violence, promiscuity, gang culture and drugs highlighting their way of life negatively. We have chosen this genre because we plan to mirror this stereotyped representation by adapting it into our judgements.

Characters within this genre differ in variety, but most social realism films, such as, Kidulthood and Fish Tank do present their characters with anti-social behaviour characteristics, often expressing themselves in violent ways and being promiscuous. Kidulthood was made by Londoners of which the film was set, employing those from a London origin to star in the film gave a more realistic approach to the character types because they knew from first hand experience what growing up in London is like. For example in Kidulthood, the film takes a step in the shoes of eight teenagers in London for 48 hours; the characters within the film have different experiences. One of which characters is 15 year old Trife, he takes central role as a young Black man plagued with the responsibilities of managing his street cred at school, an intense pressure to join the family criminal business and ex-girlfriend claiming to be pregnant. Trife is then dramatically stabbed and unfortunately dies which touches upon the extreme portrayal of social groups in social realism films. Therefore, characters within our own trailer would need to be parallel to those found in previous social realism films and ideally dealing with sensitive issues such as these.

Iconography is an important element when creating a social realism film. The setting plays a vital role in creating both the atmosphere and scene within the film, so it would have to be decided which mirrors the message or portrayal in the film. For example, the portrayal of life in London would need to be set in London in order for the portrayal to take place. Symbolic iconic features should be used in order for the genre to be recognised by the audience, for instance within the horror genre it can be blood or a weapon; however in a social realism film the features may not be as obvious. They are more subtle parts of the story that may reflect this genre, such as, the portrayal of sensitive issues like abortion or suicide and a group of people in society dealing with these issues as well as their behaviour being presented in an alarmist way.

Exploring the importance of the setting further its easy to see that it plays a vital part. Usually social realism films are set within a city that is run down and troublesome, which represents the social group negatively. The area is usually poverty stricken and deals with day to day illegal, violent behaviour which makes residents within that area fearful within their own homes and communities. Within my film trailer I will ensure that my partner and I finding the right setting will be a priority because it sets the mood for the film and highlights further what we are trying to illustrate. When filming we will capture long shots of the area to set the scene to make audiences aware of the setting and what the film will entail, by showing a montage of the setting with fast cuts will convey the dramatic themes that will be shown later in the trailer.

Research Into Film Trailers: Adulthood

When analysing the film trailer for Adulthood I found several conventions that illustrated the usually found in genre films. I also analysed the micro and macro features found within the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhrJBUMxNMQ


Firstly the micro features found within the trailer show conventions that portray the genre of the film. It is identifiable that the genre of the film comes under a social realism, gangster hybrid, this because it portrays the extreme lifestyle of young adults and the constant use of bad language, violence and sex portrays young adults very negatively. The beginning of the trailer features the company and production names which is important as they fund the film- advertisers would be interested in the production of the film and who supports the film as well as the audiences. A non-diegetic sound is heard which is the film's soundtrack ('From Kidulthood to Adulthood') this makes audiences aware of the calibre of the film, because they have used grime/hip hop artists for their soundtrack. The first image seen is a close of two characters half naked in bed, this immediately strikes audiences as a censored film. A fade is used to split the film to a second location which shows violence and bad language further questioning the certificate of the film, you are made aware that the target audience for this film would be young adults and adults. Close ups and medium shots are used to identify what is happen in the scene and the facial expressions of the characters. Fades are constantly used throughout the film to show the passage of time and move the narrative along. The fades show a montage of images that translate what the film consists of. inter-titles are used to explain the storyline within the film and this adds drama to the trailer by putting quotes, such as, 'Time to settle the score' this makes audiences ponder on how the story is going to develop. Character's dialogue is used throughout the trailer, they are perceived as aggressive character's often using bad language and their body positioning is usually fighting and behaving violent. Quick cut editing is used that is parallel to the non diegetic sound of gunshots, this highlights the conventions found in the film and glamorises gun crime. The imagery of the scenes are put into a montage, along with the non diegetic sound, builds to a climax, to a scene of two arch enemies at gun point. The non diegetic music becomes the opposite to what was previously heard, it is sympathetic and saddening which makes audiences feel differently about the characters within the film, almost feeling sorry for their circumstances. The lighting varies between scenes but the most used lighting technique is high key.


The Macro features found within the film are parallel to the genre of the film. The setting is in central London and conveys the live of young adults living in that area. It is an extreme stereotype of youth, gang culture, with conventions, such as, gun crime, violence, promiscuity. The portrayal of their lifestyle is very negative and partially created from stereotyped presumptions. The genre of the film is a social realism film falling under a gangster hybrid. The narrative portrays the lifestyle of young adults, the dialogue within the film represents one of bad language and abusive words with a restricted code, usually used by the working class and the characters seem to use violent behaviour. All this conventions are used to mould and create the ideal trailer for this genre of film, from the use of music and the characters within the film portray an extreme representation of young adults in today's society, featuring gang sub cultures, crime, violence and sex.

The target audience for Adulthood would mirror the age group seen within the film and the previous fans from the first film Kidulthood would also enjoy watching this film to discover what happens to the characters. Audiences would find it easy to relate to the characters within in the film, although it is an extreme portrayal of this age group, the stories it entails are ones found in real life situations, such as, mourning a death of a friend.

Research Into Film Trailers: High School Muscial 3

To create an idea about what to include in our film trailer I have conducted some research into different film trailers, this will give us basic along with an in depth feel to what trailers try to achieve i.e. present audiences with an overview of the film, capturing the best moments in order to draw audiences in.

The first trailer I have analysed is High School Musical 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUjY1ktigzE. Firstly, the micro features (Mise en scene, editing, sound, lighting etc) within the film portray a lively happy mood which the film aims to produce. The use of quick fades builds excitement up and along with the storyline in the film, making it parallel. In pace of the quick fade, a montage of images from the film flow, expressing the narrative and genre of the film. The audience can acknowledge that the genre of the film is a musical, due to the title of the film and the narrative and storyline illustrated in the trailer. Throughout the trailer, primary colours are used which conveys the brightness and innocence of the film, it would appeal to many audiences that have watched the previous films in the sequel and those who are a fan of musicals. High key lighting is used throughout the film which uplifts the mood of those watching.

Secondly the Macro features (iconography, settings etc.) were well represented within the trailer. A range of locations were used to illustrate the settings in the film, this gave audiences a good sense of what the film involves and diverse range of locations used. There are many songs, dances and cheers found within the film which further makes evident that the genre of the film is a musical. The narrative entails an upbeat light conversations which portrays a typical American go happy high school which is often a typical stereotypical representation of Americans made by the British.

The number of edits is important when creating a film trailer because the faster the edits the more excitement is formed. Within the film trailer of High School Musical 3 there were 83 edits, this shows that the use of fast cuts was effective when producing a high beat, fun, happy vibe.

The target audience would typically be a younger audience and teenagers because the storyline is one of a teenage love story which would appeal to both young and older audiences. The trailer would easily promote the film to those who would be targeted. It would be targeted to the age of Tweens (12-15/16 years). The film would be the portrayal of typical teenagers in a American, whereas the idea for a film is the representation of British youth but almost to the extreme. We aim to use guns, knifes and sex as connotations of British youth, however it will be an extreme portrayal of this age group.

Research into Film Magazine Covers

Conducting this research I found two magazine covers in which I am going analyse the conventions within it. Magazine covers promote popularity of a film, fans of the film and those interested in watching it will want to buy the magazine in order to gain more information about the characters and the plot of the story. Using a magazine cover would draw in more audiences and make your film more popular.

The first magazine cover I found was 'Total Film' the cover illustrates the popular sequel 'New Moon'. The positioning of the characters portrays the basis of what the film is about, Bella is being protected by Jacob away from Edward. Jacob acts as a dominant factor within the magazine cover and he appears his usual strong, heroic character. Edward and Jacob are back to back, which illustrates the friction they have in their relationship. This is a good element in a magazine cover because even through the image the characters traits are still portrayed and loved by audiences. Under the title there is a strap line which says 'How the Twilight saga took over Hollywood'- this suggests that the saga of both books and film are very popular in America and potentially across the world, this promotes the books prestige and popularity because more audiences will be drawn to a well liked film and would investigate into whether they believe it to be good also.

The magazine cover is dominated by the title of the film 'New Moon'; this along with the characters draws audiences in who are already familiar with the films or books, creating a wide audience. The text and font used reflects the genre of the film, it is Gothic and edgy which parallel to the type of film which is a romantic fantasy. The title is also bright white which resembles a moon. The background shows a dark night with the silhouette of trees which develops the story further with it being a fantasy as the image looks mystical.

The main image of the characters show expressions of anxiety, worrying and fearful, which reflects the storyline and adds an element of mystery because audiences would want to discover what is happening between the characters. The target audience for this film would be teenagers because it represents a teenage love story, also, fans of the novel would also be targeted to watch this film, those who saw the previous films to this sequel would also be interested in watching it to discover what happens.

The second magazine cover I will analyse is from 'Empire' magazine, it illustrates the film Harry Potter 6, however the title in this cover is not as clear and bold as the previous cover, as I found it difficult to discover the title of the film. The title merges into the other writing with the cover and does not promote the film well. This could effect the portrayal of the film, as people are not aware of the sequel, but are still interested in watching the film, would not be able to recognise the character and find it confusing when finding the actual title for the film.

The left side third of the magazine cover shows 45 new must-see movies, Harry Potter is included in this list this shows that the film is popular within the film industry and many magazines, such as, Empire support it. this would entice audiences in because the magazine has named it a valuable must-see film to watch.

The image of the character Harry Potter dominates the magazine cover, the character is injured and he is pictured with blood and dirt upon his face and shattered glasses. This reveals what happens in the film and draws audiences in because they are fascinated by what might happen. The film is from a sequel of books so audiences would be interested in what happens in this story. Harry's face translates a face of anxiety but elements of power and pride still exist, the image portrays his character in a heroic way in the use of battle scars and dirt, it is almost as if they suggest that he will never be defeated.

The title of the magazine is written in red bold writing, this identifies the blood that this within the film. The boldness of the writing reflects the confidence of the character and the boldness he has used in real life to get through his situations. i think this convention was deliberate in explaining the characters motivation and boldness.

Although Harry is portrayed a bold unique boy he is still pictured in everyday, casual clothes which suggests that he has elements of normality within his life and he is not always a fighting, heroic wizard 24/7.