Characteristics of a horror comedy genre

The characteristics of a horror comedy film are usually contrapuntal music and less than credible antagonist. The diegetic music is usually quite happy when the scene is actually quite scary. An effective Horror film usually starts of with an balanced equilibrium but the equilibrium then gets disrupted and that is when the story begins. This is not the case in the hybrid genre of horror/comedy; the opening to a horror comedy has to get into the disruption of equilibrium more quickly than a horror as it needs time to add in comic effect. At the start of a horror comedy genre film the main character is usually involved in a joke or put into a funny situation. horror comedies in the noughties have expanded as most horror comedy films that are released today, often portray a lot of violence and blood but add a comedic affect to amuse the viewers. Films that portray this kind of humour in the noughties are zombieland, dead snow, Slither and Teeth. There are many horror comedy films that use cross references with other films and make a parody/spoof of them; for example Scary movie 2 have a freddy cruger jumper within the film. This is an inter-textual reference to the film Nightmare on Elm Street. The horror comedy genre uses iconography like heavy make- up for characters such as werewolves, vampires and zombies. There is a difference to the format of a horror film and a horror comedy film as the pattern of a horror film is standardized with the usual same antagonist and protagonist. As for a horror comedy their format is different as they use more than one antagonist and don’t stick to the same routine of having a final girl and a monster fodder.

Case study of Dark Knight promotional material

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqq4j52Fb4

This is the magazine cover promoting the Batman franchise; and the Dark Knight Film poster. They both represent synergy to the promotional package. They do this by using the same colour scheme which is dark and gloomy colours. In both they also use the same main character which is the Joker. They portray him as being run down and glaring at the camera; this gives off a sense of horror within the two pictures. The trailer also uses the same colour scheme by using dark colours within the clip. They use colours such as green, black and blue which is a consistent colour scheme as shown on all types of the Batman’s global advertising. One of the main characters, the Joker is also shown in the trailer to be the main attraction which both the magazine and film poster try to be their icon. The trailer uses phrases and sentences from the Joker within the film to narrate the story of the trailer, which shows how big of a part he plays. The magazine cover was not able to use the Dark Knight logo as it was seen as copyright, but the film poster and the trailer was legally able to use the logo to promote the franchise.

A2 Trailer Research: Dark Knight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqq4j52Fb4

Micro features
This trailer starts differently to the High school musical trailer as it promotes the company’s name and brand. This trailer also starts off with fades at the start; it then gets faster with the editing speeding up. As the trailer goes on there is a lot of location shots to show Gotham city which is the setting of the trailer. There is a diegetic voice over of the Joker within the clip which tells the story and gives off a psychotic feel about the clip. The lighting within the clip is very low key to portray the horror genre within the trailer. The colour scheme within the scene is black and very dark to show off the batman image. The joker says in the clip: ‘Why so serious’, which is the slogan for the joker. This shows off the batman franchise and also gives a sense of horror within the trailer.

Macro features
The antagonist, which is the joker, looks run down to madness; this makes the trailer more gripping as the viewer would want to find out why he has become like that. The edits start to get quicker towards the end of the film to build tension within the film and to make the trailer seem more exciting. The edits reach up to roughly 69 edits which is a lot of edits. The hook within the clip is to keep viewers thinking what happens between Batman and the joker in the film. They don’t film it in more than one place as there are different locales within Gotham city.

A2 Trailer research: High School Musical 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LepPGcEnDw

Micro features
Throughout the trailer of High School Musical they use one transition consistently which is fades. The fades are used mostly at the start of the clip, but as the clip progresses the edits get quicker and the fades stop and it is just consists with constant cuts to the end of the clip. The edits get quicker so that it builds up tension within the trailer. There are 83-93 cuts or edits within the clip. The quick edits are cuts that show a montage of different shots of different characters within the film. It also cuts to different scenes of the film to move the narrative on within the trailer and to show the viewer what the story is about. The lighting is high key to show the viewer what genre of film it is for example: A low key lighting film would most likely be a horror or a thriller film.

Macro features
Each clip is in a different location to move the narrative on but not give away too much about the film. They change the setting through each clip so it doesn’t look boring. The genre of the film is a musical; I know this because the trailer contains bright primary colours and the cast constantly break into song when something big happens in the storyline. The target audience for this trailer is for tweens, which are the age range of 11-13. This is an emerging target market because up until recently tweens didn’t exist. The teenage romance and singing attracts the tweens audience as it is put across in a more child-like manor. High school musical is also part of a franchise so they will have attracted the audience with their other films.