Explanations Of Theories

So far we have decided to use four different theories in our trailer: Barthes Enigma Codes, Propps Character theory, Levi Strauss - Binary Oppositions and the Final Girl theory.

I have decided to use binary oppositions to show the light vs dark, inside vs outside and life vs death. The mise en scene used in my trailer will subvert from the typical colours used to represent good vs evil and the villain vs the innocent. The villain in my movie is the dead person, she's wearing white with blood down her. Typically a villain in a horror wears darker colours as the colour black connotes mystery but this time both the villain and the victim are wearing white. The victim will wear white to show the binary opposition and show how she's the innocent character as the colour white connotes purity and innocence.
Barthes enigma codes will be used in the trailer to make the audience question a lot of things that happen. The enigma code theory influenced my work because I feel it's better when an audience doesn't know the whole narrative of the movie by watching a one minute preview through a trailer. The trailer will hopefully raise a lot of questions about the main characters and the audience will have to put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure it out.

Propps character theory is involved as we've used two of his character types to display in our trailer. In horror films there typically tends to be the villain who is the killer as that is an important ingredient in making a horror film scary, the villain has no morals and they struggle against the hero, in our narrative there isn't really a hero. The second character type is the helper who helps out the victim by warning her of certain dangers that could arise.
The Final Girl theory will be applied as typically in horror films, there is a final girl. The final girl is courageous and that's what the main characters name represents; the name of the main character is 'Riley' which connotes strength. We used the final girl theory as the final girl represents strength and they typically survive in the end which is what our final girl will do despite being stabbed.

The theorists and their theories I have chosen to do have influenced my horror trailer as the different theories help highlight the horror genre by using villains and night time settings to show the iconography involved. It also adds mystery to the trailer by not giving away too much detail of the narrative but yet still keeping it interesting to an audience. The enigma codes has the most influence in my opinion as it will make an audience want to watch more or even a movie which is the sole purpose of a trailer: to make an audience want to watch the actual movie after watching the trailer as they're intrigued by what will happen.