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Texas chainsaw massacre original trailer (1974) plan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed5lDfOutw4
Form-trailer
Function-persuade audiences to film
M
Voiceover of male
Camera sounds- sinister
Extreme/Close up of the corpses- scare audiences and create enigma
Girl screaming-convention
Phallic object-hook, chainsaw
Girl is lying in the fridge can connote a coffin because she resurrects from it after the camera zooms up on her face
Low key lightening
Montage editing
I
Bryanstone pictures
Independent
Low budget
G
Horror/thriller/slasher
The Swedish version removed the scene where Leatherface hangs the woman on a meathook. It has since been released fully uncensored on DVD.
R
Psycho killer-mother role picks up girl and carries her away- similar to how mothers carry disobedient children
Final girl- survivor but portrayed as helpless running away from the killer constantly and not fighting back just screaming a lot thus in a way playing the role of the damsel in distress
A disable teenage character
Teenagers- only girls are shown screaming
No adults are present apart from the corpses and psychos
Killer itself is not scary looking however wears a mask made of skin as an iconic element of the genre. Reflects the wider context as Ed Gein wore human skin
The interior of the house shown in the trailer, particularly the room filled with bones, was also based on the crime scene notes describing the inside of Gein's home
A
Mainstream audience
Teenagers
Pleasures for the audience are voyeuristic, masochistic, sadism, visceral pleasures, challenge for being scared, screaming
YUPPIES (young upwardly mobile professionals)
I
Conservative- does not challenge status quotes
Patriarchal to some extent because they use a male voiceover making it more authoritive
Film set in America challenges the American dream
N
Disequilibrium right from the start of the trailer- killer killing each teenage one by one and show the last teenage getting caught and tortured but also running so audience are unsure whether she dies or not
Report style
Non linear narrative
Wider context:
Ed Gein killings- stored organs in the fridge similar to the trailer body stored in the freezer
The house’s residents are a family of weird homicidal cannibals who also like grave robbing and constructing furniture made of bones and skulls alike. The lead bad guy is called ‘Leatherface’. Leatherface likes chasing teen’s around with his chainsaw and wearing the human face mask of his victims.
The connection is mostly with the house, graverobbery and the cannibalism.
Vietnam War
The horror experienced in that was reflected in this trailer by having people killed off
Feminism
Final girl was introduced however still tortured by the killers and not physically fighting the killer
The film was banned in 1984 during the moral panic surrounding video nasties.
Jobs becoming redundant that’s why people in the film turn to canabilism.
Texas chainsaw massacre remake (2003) trailer plan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm5iet9oHBk
M
Cinematography: fades to black which connotes evil,
Meduim close up of teenage girl’s bottom- (laura mulvey) shows she is being objectified, and gives the male viewer the pleasure of fetishisation
Montage/Fast pace editing towards the end which is an convention of modern slasher/horror film trailers and according to Eistein helps the audience relise what they are watching is not real
Enigmatic shots-makes audience in suspense to who the killer is
Only a quick glimpse of the killer is shown
Mise en scene:
sound-screaming- conventional for this genre
Sound of camera clicking- sinster and can be similar/reference to “peeping tom”
The song "Sweet Home Alabama" is played during the opening as the characters are going to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. The film takes place in 1973. The song "Sweet Home Alabama" appeared on Skynyrd's sophomore album, Second Helping, released in 1974. heart beat-links to the viseral pleasure they want the audience to recieve
Typography: font is white and written in sans serif suggest is aimed at teenagers and to give it more of a modern feel
I
New line cinema
AOL Time Warner (largest institution in the world)-Hollywood institution-distributes, promote and show the film (vertical integration) because they control all the stages of production. This institution is American therefore US culture is likely to be forced upon the audience
G
WC: Banned in Ukraine.
Slasher/horror/thriller
Repetition of the killer but variation as they have policeman in this trailer
And a women hitchhiker
As it is a remake in METZ cycle it falls into the 5 cycle as it tries to reinvigorate the genre and can be seen as a homage as the same mask and similar storyline is used however is slightly more modernised to appeal to the new generation of audience who are a lot more desensitised.
R
Adolescents stereotypical representation as they are making out and having a laugh-promoting heterosexual relationships- conservative ideology
Authority figures to be ineffective giving them a negative representation
A
Mainstream audience
Horror/slasher fans- specifically at people who have seen lots old horror films
Audience that are desensitised to the horror films are likely to pick up a different reading to those who are not.
Use and gratification theory- Denis McQuail suggest audience would want to watch this film because for information- satisfying their curiosity and general interest, entertainment
I
Positive values: To educate and inform the audience as it is based/inspired by a true story
Patriarchy
Conservative ideology
Conventional narrative and ML maintain capitalist propaganda and ideologies
N
Uses some of Todorovs’ theory by beginning with an equilibrium where the teenagers are all smiling and making out
But then disequilibrium begins when the audience realise people are dying through the dialogue and the shots of the teenagers running away but these shots are enigmatic as the audience can not see who or what they are running away from which gives them the pleasure of suspense and makes the genre of the film trailer a thriller
Wider context:
Feminism
Similarities:
M: Same camera sounds
N: A group of teenagers getting terrorised by a psychopathic killer
I: patriarchal- because the chainsaw can be seen as a phallic object which is used to kill the victims as a result the killings can be seen as a metaphor for sex. Moreover it could suggest the killer is bisexual as it kills both men and women whereas in films like “peeping tom” the man kills mainly women. It could also bring in Freud theory on penis envy as the phallic object is his chainsaw which is a symbol that represents/connotes strength, victory and power that can defeat and uncastrate men and defeat women who are uncastrated. As it is patriarchal it is likely to reinforce conservative ideology.
Set in America so in some sense promote American ideology and American hegemony
No big stars used shows that it is aimed more at horror/slasher film fans
Differences:
They have a clip of fat women which challenges Mulvey’s theory as well as showing how the result of feminism has managed to get women from off-screen to onscreen because in the original Texas chainsaw massacre there are only two teenage girls and the dead grandmother shown in the trailer. Whereas in the new one there is at least five women alive women shown in the trailer.
More enigmatic shots as audience are desensitised to killers and violence
Hollywood institution so big budget whereas original was low budget so more effects are used in the remake due to the new technology
The old Texas chainsaw massacre foreshadows the whole narrative because at that time it would shock audience more then it would now.
True life murderer Ed Gein was an unusual character, born on a farm and raised by a domineering mother. In the space of a few years his entire family died and he was left to raise the farm all by himself. In the next few years he became a grave robber, a necrophiliac, a cannibal, and also took up arts and crafts in body parts. He is seen as one of the most weird and bizarre serial killers of the twentieth century, and maybe only Jeffrey Dahmer got as close to what Ed did. His crimes also inspired the movies Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs. This page is a documentation of his life and crimes.
In his spare time Ed read books on human anatomy and Nazi concentration camp experiments. He was quite interested by it all, especially the female anatomy. Alone in the farmhouse he thought endlessly about sex, until one day he saw a newspaper report of a woman who had been buried that day.
He enlisted the help of an old friend named Gus. Gus was a weird loner too, and quite definitely odd - he went to the asylum a few years later. Gus was Ed Gein’s trusted buddy, and agreed to assist Ed in opening a grave to secure a corpse for ‘medical experiments’. Gus helped dig the graves.
The first corpse came from a grave less than a dozen feet away from the last resting place of Gein’s mother.
Over the next ten years Ed did the same, checked the newspaper for fresh bodies, always visiting the graveyard at the time of a full moon, got the whole female corpse or just the parts he wanted, filled in the grave and took his winnings home. His experiments with the dead bodies was bizarre. He would construct objects from the bones and skin and would store the organs in the fridge to eat later. He also committed acts of necrophilia on the bodies. He even dug up his own mother’s corpse.
Gein was in a series of examinations at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally insane. He was proven insane. The reasons for his actions were seen; he loved his mother but he hated her, so that is why he killed older women. It is said that Mary Hogan had more of a passing resemblance to his mother.
Ed Gein’s activities certainly inspired the literature and film industry. Because of the true nature of the crimes it gave Hollywood a lot of ideas to work on.
One such early film was Psycho. Based on the Robert Bloch novel and made into a Hitchcock film. The connection being the overpowering mother and horror of the film, it made it one of the first of a kind. Robert Bloch got most of the ideas for Psycho from Ed Gein's life.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was one movie lightly based on Ed Gein. The story is about a group of travelling teen’s who stumble on a horror house. The house’s residents are a family of weird homicidal cannibals who also like grave robbing and constructing furniture made of bones and skulls alike. The lead bad guy is called ‘Leatherface’. Leatherface likes chasing teen’s around with his chainsaw and wearing the human face mask of his victims. There are about four Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies each with the teen’s trying to escape the deadly Leatherface. The connection is mostly with the house, graverobbery and the cannibalism.
One more recent and Academy Award winning film is Silence of the Lambs. It’s about an FBI agent who’s tracking down a serial killer and to find him she must get the help of an intelligent cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lector. The serial killer she’s trying to track down is called ‘Buffalo Bill’ because he likes to kill women and make clothes of their skin, also he wants to be a woman, hence the skin costume like that of Gein. There are a lot of connections to this film and Ed Gein, being with the skin clothes, cannibalism, and Buffalo Bill being a transvestite.
Ed Gein was definitely one of the most weird murderers of this century. Even though he did kill only two women and suspected for the disappearance of others he is seen as one of the worlds infamous killers. Its what was found in Gein’s house that made him instantly infamous in the murder world.
News story 1(broadsheet-the guardian newspaper) “Carphone Warehouse divorces Big Brother” 9/3/07: http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2029609,00.html
Continuity: in and out of the news, this issue will be in and out of the news it is likely to pop again when big brother 8 starts in the summer.
Reference to elite nations: cultural proximity because it can appeal to Asians and other people who are offended by the remarks (or found the remarks offensive) made on celebrity big brother this shows the people in the media are taking the issues seriously as “Carphone Warehouse” do not agree with the ideologies of the show so therefore choose not to be associated with them as they do not want a negative representation.
Composition: soft news- this story was not on the front page but on the second page this is because the gate keeper did not see this as very important news on the hierarchy of news.
Personalisation: events are seen as the actions of individuals because of the housemates bullying and making nasty remarks and big brother not intervening and warning the housemates could be the reason why carphone warehouse pulled out their sponsorship with them and moreover because of all the complaints received by the viewers.
News story 2 (tabloid-the sun newspaper) “Is she really a Goody example?” 9/3/07: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001320029-2007110059,00.html
Reference to elite persons: they talk about celebrities and whether they think they are good mothers so in this case the media are paying attention to important people. In this situation it includes arrange of celebrities from A list to C list. However this article particularly focused on jade goody who is now a B list.
This article focuses on English/British celebrities so there is no reference to elite nations.
Frequency: the time span of this event is likely to be very short
It can be slightly meaningful to the fans of the celebrities. Moreover, it can be meaningful to aspirers who aspire to live a life like celebrities.
Again this story would be considered as soft news it is a tabloid story and it’s not something that is important to mass audience.
News story 3 (public service broadcaster-BBC news) “Reward to catch Jessie's killers” 9/3/07: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6430829.stm
Frequency: is likely to go on for a while because it’s about a murder
Personalisation: because someone murdered the boy the event turned into news
Meaningfulness: the article will be meaningful to a mass audience this is because it’s been in the news frequently. Moreover, it was aired on Crimewatch so it appeals to the non newspaper readers. People who view crimewatch are mainstream viewers because everyone can have access to it because it is shown on a terrestrial channel and after the watershed so it is appealed at adults and teenagers. Furthermore as it is a child that has been murder it makes it more emotive and attention grabbing towards the audience.
Continuity: it would be a running story because they are investigating who the murderer is and after the murder is found they would look at why he did so its likely to have a long frequency.News story 4 (broadsheet- the times) “Banned additives in children’s medicines” 10/3/07: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1495075.ece
Unexpectedness: because they are putting artificial dyes, sweeteners and preservatives that are banned from food and drink for the under 3s in childrens medicine.
Meaningfulness: this could be meaningful to a mass audience because lots of parents have children so it would concern them. Moreover, it could be appealing to universty students studying health/medical related professions such as pharmists.
Compostition: this was one of the headlines in the times therefore to the gate keeper rupert murdoch it is considered important and news worthy.
News story 5 (tabloid- the mirror) “EXCLUSIVE: the big brother cover-up” 10/3/07:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_headline=exclusive%2D-the-big-brother-cover%2Dup%26method=full%26objectid=18732760%26siteid=89520-name_page.html
frequency/continuity: this story has been going on for a while since january therefore it has been a running story in and out of the news.
Composituiton: its could be seen as hard news as it was one of the top stories/headlines so for the target audience of this paper would see this as important news
Meaningfullness: this would be considered an important story/ piece of news to viewers of big brother who found jade’s and mum’s behaviours offesive and horrible.
Reference to elite persons: the media focous on Jade a lot as she is/use to be a B/C list celebrity. Her mum on the other hand would be considered as Z list.
