Revision - Component1a - Advertising

Component 1 - Section A

Kiss of the Vampire Poster & 'US' Movie Trailer
Explore the ways in which these adverts use representations to position audiences.
You should make reference to:

• How groups are represented
• Intertextuality
• Genre Conventions
• Viewpoints and Ideologies

Use the bullet points given in the question to make reference to as a plan, write a paragraph on each bullet point to ensure discussion of all topics to make sure nothing is left out and everything has been explored.

• Underline
• Underlining the key words in the question will help from keeping you going off on a tangent.

• Knee Jerk reaction
• Your immediate response is the one you have familiarised yourself with the most and there is certain aspects that would jump out at you.

• Plan
• All key words/theories need to be written down.

• DAC
• 12 marks or higher you need an introduction. For this question the introduction should be shorter than normal. DAC - Definition, Argument, Context.

• Paragraphs

Knee Jerk Reaction

• Binary Opposition between the bunnies and the chaos and darkness that has been happening in the trailer. 

• There are similarities in how representations position audience through horror paradigms, however 'US' focuses primarily on a black family, which is highly subversive/atypical.

• Normally a movie uses black people as a token character however this trailer is subversive and a few white token characters are used.

Plan

• Binary Opposition - Claude Levi Strauss

• Semiotics - Roland Barthes

• Mise-en-scene - Lighting - very low key lighting a generic paradigm of a horror movie.

• Stereotypes

• bell hooks - feminist theory

• Ethnicity

• Hermeneutic code

• Symbolic code

• Genre/horror conventions

• Judith Butler - Gender Performativity

• Character Archetypes

• Intertextuality - Of the music at the beginning is a remix of a classic which could be seen as a binary opposition

• Referential code - Jaws T-Shirt

• Representation - Stuart Hall

• Paul Gilroy - Post-Colonial theory

DAC

D - Positioning is an essential technique for producers, as it allows the audience to be placed in a particular situation. One of the most effective ways to do this is through representation, the re-presentation of a group, issue or event.

C - In order to explore this idea, I shall be referring to the theatrical poster for the 1963 British Hammer horror Kiss Of The Vampire, and the 2019 theatrical trailer to the modern horror film US.

A - There are similarities in how representations position audiences through horror paradigms, however US focusses primarily on a black family, which is highly subversive/atypical.

Content

• KOTVP 
• The stereotypical way of a man controlling a woman is portrayed in the poster but only on one side of the poster, it is shown on the left hand side as we see the woman laying lifelessly whereas on the right hand side we see a binary opposition as it is the woman controlling the man so the left side and right side have switched roles showing the movie is subversive but not too subversive that it would upset the audience in 1963 as the ideas of woman having power was unheard of.

• MES of darkness, the night setting is connotative of the horror genre and is highly typical. Positions the audience as fans of the horror genre.

• Gesture and performance of the women reinforces their role within the film, and conforms to patriarchal hegemonic norms and standards.

• Woman on the left takes the role of the 'damsel in distress' archetype, positioning the audience in the role of a heterosexual man.

• Van Zoonen - Male Gaze: MES of the exposed skin, is a combination with the stereotypical attractiveness of the women assumes a heterosexual male target audience, and reinforces ideas of patriarchy.

• Iconography of the full moon hints at the supernatural elements of the film, positioning the audience through the use of hermeneutic codes.

• While the film is set in exotic eastern Europe, the actors are predominantly white and British, which reinforces patriotic viewpoints.

• US
• Almost exclusively black cast would be unthinkable in 1963, purely because the film could be seen as being financially unviable.

• Therefore for a horror film, a very atypical situation.

• Father wears a Harvard, connotative of wisdom, intelligence, and middle class identity subverts the stereotypical middle class family through the main characters ethnicity.

• Ink stains function as a hermeneutic code, and are highly paradigmatic of the psychological horror genre, to target a specific audience.

• All black cast positions audience as a young, middle class black person, subverting the expectation the audiences are predominantly white.

• Over the shoulder shot of walking along the beach, MES lightening functions as a proairetic code, suggesting bad things are going to happen.

• Extreme close up of woman's crying face is connotative of the horror film, and positions the target audience directly with the young, black protagonist.

• Referential code to the Directors earlier film Get Out, allowing it to target a pre-existing audience.