Pyschological Magazine Analysis

Psychological Posters Analysis

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Codes and Conventions of a psychological thriller

Themes: 
Psychological thrillers and to follow certain themes which builds up to creating the narrative of the story, for example:

• Reality
• Death
• Innocence
• Existence
• Purpose
• Mystery
• Drama
• Makeup

The major sub-genres of psychological thrillers, help develop the plot of the movie, shaping the characters' personality. 

Conventions of A Psychological thriller: 

• Black and white colouring- to increase the effectiveness of shadows/ mysterious effect 
• Low key lighting - creating a sense of tensions and fear
• Soundtrack/ music- louder when the tension is high 
• Flashbacks- time disorientation  to confuse the audience/ showing the past of a certain characters making the audience understand the character
• Claustrophobic spaces- entrapment of the mind/ showing the struggle of a unstable character
• Quick edit and change in camera angle- builds emphasis of certain clips in the trailer, increases fear usually in high tension scenes
• Props/ Mirrors- Used to portray the use of reflection of a characters inners self and a representation of 'the dark side' of certain characters 
• Binary opposites- good vs evil

Characters in psychological thrillers:

• Usually presented as 'normal'
• awkward characters/ anxious/ hiding something 
• scary/ mysterious characters
• violent/ abusive
• Incapable of controlling there minds- slashing out

Typical Mise en scene in psychological thrillers: 

The location in a psychological thriller is very important, as the majority of the scenes are set in modern places and urban cities. House/ mansion/ school would be common conventions of where a psychological thriller would be set.

Psychological- Movie Trailer Research Analysis

Audience Research

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Narrative Ideas

Narrative Research

Trailer Research

This is the research I constructed using the presentation site 'amaze', and I applied this information from The media magazine of April 2014. 

Research Overview

• How and why do these products combine/ link together?  

In both of the films that I have researched, The woman in black and Insidious, the posters  follow the codes and convention of any other supernatural thriller movie, which is what both of the movies are categorized in. The two movies link together as they are based around ghosts and children's. In the woman in black 3 young girls are spotted playing in their room, and in insidious trailer the young boys are spotted playing in their house too. The use of children in horror movies could be linked to innocence are how the opposite of innocent/good, is evil- such as the ghosts and spirits.
The products in both of the films, are linked together so that they are easily  noticed by the audience, as this way it makes it easier for the audience to remember what cover is for which film.

• What links do they have in common? 

After researching both movies, I found that their were many links between the movie posters and trailers. In the movie posters, the colours mainly used are black, red and white. In the movie trailers, the fast but creepy music is used at certain parts of the trailer to build up suspense and tensions. Also another link between the two movies is the location of the film is shown on the posters.
The products are linked together as usually the same movie poster for a film, is the same cover used on a DVD cover or magazine cover, this is so that the audience can easily spot what film that product is based on, as it would be recognisable because they would look similar.

• Why do they have these links in common? 

The sound used in both movie are used to scare the viewer. This is a common convention in thriller horror movies as it shows the audience when a thrilling part in the trailer is so to come. The location for both movies is presented on the posters and DVD cover's because it is a common convention of movie trailer to show the location, as in most other horror movies, the film is based in one location/area, such as a haunted house, a hotel or mansion. In both of the movies, the location is set at an house, one being deserted manor and another being a brand new house a family moved into.  This is used to keep the viewer curious about what could be around or even inside the settings, and as the characters in the film are also unaware  of  what's to expect from the houses, it build's even more fear as everything is unexpected.

• What purpose does the combination of products serve?  

Separately in  each of the films, the products are linked together so that the audience are able to recognise a cover as it would be similar or the same to the poster of the movie. This purpose is used because this way the audience do not get confused, and therefore remember the poster/ covers easier.

• Who benefits from this combination of products and why?

The audience/ viewers benefit mostly from the combination of products because it is easy and memorable for them to spot a cover or magazine because it would look like the poster. This is also beneficial to the producers too because they don't have to create too many different posters.