Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?

The distribution of a media product is incredibly important when it comes to the success of the product. Film distributors are responsible for a lot of the marketing, looking at identifying the audience as well as reaching them, deciding a release date and then promoting the film within this timespan, until release. Film distributors decide how much the film is going to be advertised as well as when and where. This is crucial as it needs to gain interest from people to create an audience, not only this, but it needs to draw the correct audience. For example if the target was young children you would advertise the film up until the school holidays, to have it released within the holidays so they are more likely to go and watch it. Distributor’s methods for promoting can vary for each set film and company.

When it comes to advertising there are several different platforms that can be made use of. This includes things like posters, bus signage, billboards, TV adverts, radio adverts, having its own website, social media advertising, trailers and may more. Without any of these no audience would be made as there would be no talk about the film itself, no one would even be aware about it. By covering such a large variety of platforms the doors to a larger audience are open, enabling them to get the biggest reach that they can. This is because people who tend to watch little TV won’t necessarily see the adverts; however they may spend a lot of time on social networks and see from it here. This is where audience research becomes a very important aspect, the distribution company need to know and understand their audience as the marketing will differ depending on the demographics and size of the audience. Looking at the trailer I have produced, for example, when advertising the trailer on TV it wouldn’t be shown during the day as this is usually a time in which children will be watching TV so our target audience would not have watched it. Once more has been discovered about their audience they can then optimize attraction for the product. Examples of this are as such –

Here you can see that for children’s films bold and bright colours are used, as well as displaying the main character in the centre of the poster with some form of over exaggerated expression on their face. You also have other characters behind them. This is because often children can recognise the characters, for these examples Lego and SpongeBob are both incredibly recognisable. Now comparing these to the horror posters we can see that they are more dull, main characters are not given away too much and there is no specific action occurring on the poster as they do not want to show too much of the story line.

Distributors work along with a marketing plan which can take action up to a year before the official release date of the films. This is because they need to build the audience by releasing teaser trailers, posters etc. As the release date gets nearer they often try to build themselves into other advertising campaigns to create even more talk around the film.

A recent ad campaign that has been effective is the recent film release of 50 Shades Of Grey. The film is based on a book itself, so it therefore already has an audience. Due to this it is easy to find out even more about the audience. By releasing a film more talk was brought up about it, firstly being the uproar about who was going to be Mr Grey. The film had a budget of around $40 million however so far has made a domestic total of $161,377,000. This is due to how much talk was made about the film before its actual release. Promotion for the film started incredibly early, with the release of the cast, soundtracks and small teaser trailers, as well as new book covers for the film.

When it comes to merging the promotional material with the products it is incredibly important that a narrative and theme has been kept. This is important as it links all of the products together, creating an instantly recognisable identity. Looking at my trailer and promotional products I have tried to stick to using a similar colour scheme, as well as keeping the lighting dark to create a gloomy atmosphere. 

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Final Products - Film Poster and Magazine Cover

My Film Poster

My Magazine Cover

Finished Trailer

Rough Cut Of Trailer

Poster And Magazine Cover Plans (Planning)

Magazine Plans

Poster Plans

Risk Assessment (Planning)

Locations for 'Figure' (Planning)

Release Form (Planning)

Location Release

Release Forms (Planning)

Production Schedule (Planning)

Production Schedule

Prop List (Planning)

Figure

Here are the props that we need for the trailer. 

Prop list

·         At least 1 mannequin

·         At least 1 morph suit

·         1 large fake kitchen knife

·         1 camping kettle/stove

·         1 set of camping gear

·         2 rucksacks

·         Multiple generic cans of food

·         Multiple water bottles

·         2-4 sleeping bags

·         1 saw/chainsaw

·         2 LED lights (blue/red)

·         1 car battery/old old computer/TV

·         4 sets of dirt covered clothing

·         Candles/torches

Initial Planning (Planning)

This is the start of us producing and imagining our trailer. To help us initially start we broke the story line down into 5 scenes, this then helped us to break it down further into the shots we want to include in our trailer. Here we included the type of shot, sound and location in order for us to continue on to draw storyboards.

'Figure' Script (Planning)

This is the script for 'Figure'. We decided not to have too much speech within our trailer, but felt some was needed to allow the audience to get a grasp of our characters.

Storyboards For 'Figure' (Planning)

Secondary Audience Montage (Planning)

Primary Audience Montage (Planning)

By creating a montage board we felt that we would be able to get a better understanding of who we are really aiming our films at. We have decided to target late teenage - early 20 year olds. Their psycho-graphics include shopping, and playing games as well as other similar horror texts. Our audience enjoys being scared and gets a thrill from it.

How Research has Impacted our Ideas (Research)

Audience Research And Analysis (Research)

Questionnaire - (Research)

Representation Quiz (Research)

Representation Quiz

Who wrote about the “final girl” in 1992?

Carol Clover wrote about the final girl

In what book did they write about the “final girl”?

She wrote about the final girl in a book called Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

List three traits of the “final girl'.

Three traits include

- Fights back

- Is conservative

- Binary opposition

Who wrote about existing research on women’s roles in media texts in 1983?

Jeremy Tunstall (The Media in Britain, 1983) wrote about existing research on women's roles.

What were the 4 roles mentioned?

The four roles mentioned were

-Domestic

-Sexual

-Consumer

-Marital

In 1992 research showed that men dominated women on-screen, but by what ratio?

2:1

What was the only genre in which the ratio of males to females was more equal?

it was more equal in advertising

Name one of the three problems with the findings?

One of the problems was that men were shown away from the home. 

Why does the reading suggest that Ripley (Alien) is ‘more progressive’ than Lara Croft (TR)?

This is because Lara Croft is sexualised and objectified

What are the 3 ‘C’s when discussing the portrayal of women in some lifestyle magazines?

They are

-Cooking

-Cleaning

-Caring

Who wrote Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema?

Laura Mulvey (Autumn, 1975)

Describe what is meant by the ‘male gaze’

The male gaze is when technical camera work is used so that the audience is the heterosexual male, seeing the women in a sexual way. It presents women as objects.

Give an example

POV and reaction shots

Which magazine removed the male centrefold in the 1980s and why?

Cosmopolitan – The audience found it more amusing than anything else.

Looking At Trailer Conventions (Planning)

Here, as a group we decided to take a look several different trailers, looking at the conventions used. We narrowed it down to our top 3. These are the trailers we found to be extremely effective, but are also relatable texts to our film synopsis. 

The Strangers (2008)
The strangers plot is somewhat similar to ours, in the sense that they are in an isolated area with unknown people attacking them in the house. After watching this trailer we looked back to find that there were certain elements that really appealed to us as an audience. This was due to the editing, how the pace was managed well, with shots towards the middle speeding up and our sight becoming limited created more anticipation. Something that we also found to work well were the titles inside the trailer, these broke up the images and added further tension. 

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)
This film follows similar conventions to our synopsis. In this film the community is slowly taken over by an aliens. This trailer doesn't typically work for audiences today, however it is a very interesting trailer. Shots are slightly slower, with not as much buildup to generate the anticipated, scary feel. But something that we felt worked was the titles. These were used to great effect, and would look good in our film. Specifically because of the hybrid genre, sci-fi and horror we could use these titles to great effect, looking at typeface. 

The Host (2013)
Next we decided to take a look at a sci-fi film, to get an idea of what conventions they use in their trailer, to look at what could also work in ours. We see several chasing scenes, this builds anticipation and creates a fast paced feel. This would work well in our trailer for greater effect. The editing of this trailer is both smooth and sharp, this connotes a very interesting feel. Keeping the audience intrigued. 

Group Film Synopsis (Planning)

External forces plot to destroy mankind; they appear on earth, inhabiting Mannequins. Becoming known as Figures, the mannequins start appearing in every-day places including people’s homes, shopping areas and museums. This external force is growing and the Figures take mankind off-guard. Soon, they outnumber the human race, and people start to question what is happening. Many of the population believe it’s a publicity stunt. When the population of Figures is at its height, people are beginning to be killed. The population is severely affected resulting in collapse of civilisation. The story follows a group of teenagers who find each other when scavenging for food in an abandoned neighbourhood. In desperation the group’s relationship grows and they decide that the only way to survive is to stick together. As the population narrows down the Figures are working harder to extinguish the human race. A group of Figures locate the teenagers and hunt them down. The group are pursued by the Figures, confined with nowhere to go they try to keep hidden. When Alice, one of the teenagers, is caught off-guard and violently killed in the kitchen of their hideout by a figure, the teenagers decide they have no other option but to fight for their survival. When Emily finds Alice’s body, she goes off to search the house for remaining Figures. As she enters the bathroom a Figure is waiting for her. Just as the others run up to save her they go in to watch their friend drown. The two evade the Figure and find themselves in a basement with a strange electronic device. The figure breaks in and during a struggle the two accidentally destroy the device. The Figure shuts down and the two realise this is how to save humanity. In the final scene the Figure’s power light flickers leading the audience to decide if the Figures have been truly defeated or not.

Film Distribution and Marketing (Research)

What is meant by the term film distribution?

Film distribution is the way in which the film reaches its target audience and the process in which allows the audience to know about the film. The film distributer does this. Film distribution is done in several different ways; this can include interviews, posters, advertisement through social media, theatrical release, DVD and Blu-Ray.

What does a film distributor do?

Film distributors are companies or individuals that market the film and are responsible for looking for ways to attract audiences and sell the film to these people. These companies can set the date of the release and have to promote the film within the timespan, up until release. The distributer’s methods to promote the film vary for each company and set film. Distributers are who seek the target audience, finding out who is going to what it and why. They will also value the revenue across all the different platforms and get cinemas to show the film.

How does reach relate to film distribution?

Reach is the way that the film is put out to the public and how many media platforms it is promoted across. If a film as a large reach then that means it has been promoted across a wide range of platforms, such as TV adverts, radio adverts, newspapers, posters, trailers etc. This is expensive as it costs to promote on each individual platform. This relates to film distribution as they have to try and get the film distributed to the audience, through several different platforms and they have to decide how many to promote it on, the downside of this is that they have to look closely at the budget of the film, due to how high the cost of this is. If there is little reach it can effect how many people are going to see the film and therefore decreasing their profit. Film distributors need to find a balance between budget and the cost of reach.

What is meant by the distribution plan?

The distribution plan is finding out the budget for distributing the film as well as looking out to see if there is any competition. It also looks at how the film is going to be released and where the products will be produced.

What is meant by the marketing plan?

A marketing plan looks at the overall plan for the business, involving the organisations marketing ideas. It looks at the materials available, cost, posters, trailers, magazines, premier events etc. This helps to create a budget, which helps to reach out to the target audience, and creates further interest.

What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion?

Advertising

This is what introduces the film to its audience. Adverts consist of posters, TV adverts and online adverts. This has to be paid for by the company.

Publicity

This isn’t paid for, it is simply reviews of the film or general talk by other people or companies, this may include articles about the film or even by the appearance of stars out and about.

Promotion

This is done through advertising. There are five main parts to promotion, which includes personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and publicity. This looks at the merchandise.

Find a teaser poster, main poster and main trailer for a horror film and put them on your Blog – who was the distributor and in how many countries was it released? Can you find how many screens it was shown in on the opening weekend?

Sinister teaser posters - 
 






















Sinister main poster - 

Sinister trailer -

Audiences and Institutions: The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2012) (Research)

The Representation of Women in Relation to The Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2012) (Research)

Narrative Theory In Relation to Halloween (1978) and The Crazies (2010) (Research)

Narrative Theory In Relation to Halloween and The Crazies

There are several different narrative theories that relate to texts. One of them is the Classical Hollywood Theory in which Todorov suggested events take place in a specific order. This looks at the idea of a certain event disrupting something then later following and causing a series of other events. Todorov suggested that everything started with an equilibrium. This is the normality of whatever setting they so happen to be in. An event then occurs to which causes a disruption to their regular equilibrium. He then suggested that after the disruption the characters realise that there is a disruption, attempt to fix it and then there is a reinstatement of the equilibrium or a new equilibrium. Looking at the Classical Hollywood Theory is useful for furthering your understanding of different media texts as it is very often used in films, this means we know what to expect in the narrative. In the first scene of Halloween we see a young boy killing his sister, this is a very unusual beginning and is far from the equilibrium of the story, however after the story is set a few years later, in which we see the small town’s normality, with children going to school etc. This is then later disturbed by the villain. I think the reason for them starting the story with such an abrupt scene is due to the fact that it will entice the audience in. Seeing such a brutal thing being done with no backing story will intrigue the audience, and when they return to the equilibrium a few years later they will be trying to link what happened to what is going on at this moment.

Vladimir Propp is another part of narrative theory. Propp looked over 100 folk tales and picked out from these different character roles which were present. All of these can be applied to any kind of narrative within media text. He came up with a list of 8 different character types, these included

·         Hero  - The main protagonist

·         Villain – The bad character

·         Princess – Often the object behind the villain and the hero’s reward

·         The Princess’s Father – Gives the hero their reward

·         Helper – Assist the hero in their journey

·         Donor – Gives the hero an object or powers

·         The Dispatcher – The person who sets the hero on their journey

·         The False Hero – The person who is believed to be the hero, however they just create problems for the real hero

I feel that although character types are extremely interesting to understand and be aware of, however in terms of understanding narrative I think that it is not too useful. This is because by looking at character types we still are not known of what particular events are going to happen and how they will unravel all we know of is what we expect each individual character to do within their role. Looking at the film Halloween we can see that the Hero is Laurie, She is the main protagonist and is the only one in the film to fight back Mike Myers. Mike Myers is the villain of the film, he kills his sister and then goes back to kill more people. Dr Loomis would be seen as a helper, as he is trying to track down Mike Myers.

Another narrative theory looks at binary oppositions, rather than the order in which events occurred. This was introduced by Claude Levi-Strauss. He looked at opposite values and how we understand what they are against each other. This is what he believed to help develop our understanding of narrative, rather than looking at the events that occurred. An example of this being how we look at natural/supernatural often in horror films.  I think that looking at binary opposition can in a way help us as an audience understand the narrative more, much like Levi-Strauss suggested, what we don’t see is just as important as what we don’t. With us knowing the opposites we are able to see things a lot more clearly, if there is love we can very clearly compare that to another relationship to gather a clear relation of hate. This can help us build our own perspective on characters and relationships, allowing us to decide what we think may happen. Looking at the film Halloween some examples of binary opposition would be good vs evil, this is Laurie and Mike and is the main binary opposition. Past vs present, we see the previous killing Mike Myers convicted as well as him at the present day. Stupid vs smart, this is represented through Laurie and her friends, she is on her feet and aware of what is going on where as other things distract her friends. Unknown and known, this is demonstrated in different ways, one being the known houses and the abandoned house. But also in the fact that we never see Mike Myers’s face when he is older. Innocence vs evil is also another binary opposition used in Halloween, we see what we think to be an innocent young boy kill his sister, but is actually evil and also the fact that is victims are very innocent.

Bordwell and Thomson also looked into narrative; they stated that narrative is defined as “a chain of events in cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space”. This means that events or circumstances can trigger other events, this can be through where or when the event takes place. These make another event occur and so on.  I believe that this may help us understand media texts as it is important for us to be able to link things together, and is something we always do, especially when watching films. By being able to really relate events to each other it gives us as a viewer a way to further understand what is going on, and is a very natural reaction for us.  Looking at the film Halloween an event that we don’t see but know has occurred is Mike Myers being put in an institution to help him. We know this as this is the information we are told by Dr Loomis. It fills the gap we have naturally when wondering what happened to Mikey Myers. Another thing we are informed of through what we see is that the house is later abandoned, we aren’t specifically told this however we see Dr Loomis go in and it is completely empty, as well as the community not wanting to go anywhere near it.

One of the main events that occur in Halloween that then causes other events to happen is Mike Myers killing his sister, this results in him being put in an institution. Another event that causes a different event would be Mike Myers killing Lauries friend, before this she was unaware of what the children were talking about, thinking they were making it up, but after seeing her friend dead she soon jumps on the defence to protect the children, causing her to get in a fight with Mike Myers and Dr Loomis showing up, shooting him.

Horror Genre – The Crazies Questions

Todorov’s Classical Hollywood Narrative looks at how narratives start with an equilibrium, an event then causes a disruption, causing different events to happen and then at the end the equilibrium is reinstated or a new one is created. This is slightly different in the film The Crazies. We are first places in a burning town, everything is on fire and no one is around, this is a very unusual setting, not the normal equilibrium expected when following the Classical Hollywood Narrative. This scene is from the future narrative showing around the middle of the narrative in which everything is burning down, this is in itself is not following the Classical Hollywood Narrative as it is binary and runs constantly forward, not jumping around to different times. We then go to ‘2 days before’ in which we see the regular town at a baseball came. This is then disrupted by an event – the sheriff shooting someone. I feel that The crazies doesn't follow the Classical Hollywood Narrative due to the flashback at the beginning but also as at the end there is not a reinstatement of the equilibrium.

Looking at Propp’s character types several can be identified in the film The Crazies. There are very few long term characters due to the nature of the film, characters die off fast. The hero throughout this film would be David, the sheriff. He is the main protagonist in the film and is out to help everyone survive, especially his wife. The deputy, Russell may also be seen as a hero as he is the one that helps David and Judy survive at the end by sacrificing his life to let them past. Russell and David can also be seen as the donors, they are the ones that supply each other and who they are helping with weapons to attack and escape situations. This leads on to how Judy and Russell could be seen as the helpers, they are the ones who follow David along and assist when needed. The villains and false heroes of this film would be the government. This is because the government are the ones that actually caused this outbreak to occur and didn’t react fast enough to stop all of the damage. They may also be seen as false heroes as they try to give the impression that they are actually helping and killing everyone is the right thing to do as it is the only solution however it isn’t as they are just killing innocent people. Judy could also be seen as the princess in this narrative. This is due to how everything David is doing is in the mind set to save Judy. He doesn’t put her in danger; he is the one to protect her and wants her to live.

Binary opposition can be found a lot throughout The Crazies. Examples of these include –

·         Past/Present

o   This looks at how we initially are shown the burning down of the town, with everything on fire and being destroyed. This is in fact from the middle of the narrative to which we are then shows two days before this specific event occurred. This is a regular civilised town. Different links of past to present are made throughout the rest of the film, the idea of this is for us to make links further engaging us, the audience into the narrative.

·         Normal/Strange

o   We see a clear line between the infected (known as the crazies) and non-infected. This represents the normal humans and the infected as their behaviour is completely off, the infected can’t think straight and all they want to do is kill everyone else, which is a very unusual and strange desire. This is also represented through lifestyle, in the scene when we see Judy come home with David and Russell to collect the car and she is taking down the washing on the washing line, she is trying to make it seem as normal as possible however the situation is completely different and wont be the same as her lifestyle before, she was just trying to find comfort in her normal situation.

·         Good/Evil

o   This is a fairly obvious binary opposition in this film. We can see that David and Judy are good they want things to return to normal and are fighting for their survival, helping whoever they can on the way. The government on the other hand are killing off innocent people in effect to try stopping the infection from spreading, when they were the ones to release it in the first place.

·         Freedom/Trapped

o   When looking over the map view we see often, the town is very isolated, it isn't near anything else and no other towns seem to be present. This shows how they small town has some kind of independence, in a sense that they do as they please in their small town and nothing unusual ever happens. When the infection spreads everyone is under lock-down, no one can leave, they start to feel very trapped which is different from what they are used to.

·         Order/Chaos

o   In the town, the first appearance is that it is well run, it has a stable sheriff and deputy, as well as a good set of doctors and nurses and a community that know each other and work together. This is completely thrown upside down when the infected start to merge, they are going against everything that ever stood, people are dying and fighting for their lives. The people in the town have been turned against one another. This can be demonstrated when the people are being placed in the camp by the government but it isn't working as people all around are being killed and others are trying to escape the fence.

There are three main different time durations within a film, these are screen duration, plot duration and story duration. Looking at the film The Crazies these are the following times.

·         Screen duration – 92 minutes, the running time of the film.

·         Plot duration – 3 days, this is from when the infection is first discovered to the point when we see the town blow up and Judy and David walk away.

·         Story duration – Years. This is hard to tell a precise time as you have to think of other aspects in the film, such as the virus being created in the first place – this would have taken months. Judy being pregnant – pregnancy lasts around 9 months. It would have also taken time for the virus to spread when it hit the water. 

Several events take place before the film starts to us viewers, this is because we don’t need to know about that particular event in detail we just need to know it happened as they often cause later events. Examples of this would be the plane crashing and spreading the virus. This event occurs as if it didn’t there would be no infection spreading; however we don’t need to know about the event in itself and it taking place. Another major event that occurred before the film starts to the viewers is Judy being pregnant. This has an impact as she is later separated from David as she has a fever which is believed to be connected to the infection, however its due to her being pregnant but the government army organising the camp is unaware of this.

Looking at the film we can see several different events that occur in a different time and space to what we are shown. An example being when Russell later returns with David and Judy, we as an audience know by the way he is acting that he is in fact infected, and due to previous scenes we know that the government have been searching and separating the infected. Russell doesn't say where he has been but it is clear to us as viewers he was taken by the government to possibly be killed, however he escaped. Another example would be when Judy opens the trailer to unveil loads of dead bodies, we are not shown them being killed however due to our perception we know that they would have been killed in mass by the government in their attempt to stop the virus, they would have been killed if they were infected or not.

Horror Genre – Halloween (1978) Questions

The start of the film Halloween demonstrates several different common conventions of the horror genre; these include POV shots in which we follow the murderer around, seeing from his eyes. This means that we don’t get to see who it is, adding anticipation. Looking at shot type, we always have a very limited view, again creating suspense, as we can’t see everything we wish. This is also affected by the lighting. At the start it is night time, which means very low key lighting; this convention is very typical in the horror genre. Props are extremely important in horrors, in this horror we see the use of a knife. Also the narrative at the beginning tends to follow the common technical code conventions in horrors. We experience a murder first hand, as a flashback, and then we are placed in the real world.

In the film Halloween we see that it is set in a suburban, small town. This connotes the isolation which is very often present in horror films. This makes it slightly more realistic and therefore allows the audience to imaging themselves in the situation. During the film we also see certain places such as the graveyard and mental institution. These are all seemed to be typically ‘scary’ places and used commonly throughout horror films.

The most innocent character that we are introduced to is Laurie. This is represented through several different things. Her clothing is very conservative, we see her, most of the time, in jeans and a turtle neck top, this is very different compared to what her friends are wearing. We also notice that all of her friends talk about boys, having boyfriends and sex. This makes Laurie very uncomfortable and doesn’t wish to participate in the conversations. We learn that Laurie doesn’t have a boyfriend and just the fact that her friend may tell a boy that Laurie likes him makes her panic. When Laurie is in the car smoking she starts to vigorously cough, demonstrating how she is not used to smoking, and then when they approach her friend’s dad she is worried about him smelling the cigarettes. School is a high priority for her, an example being when she forgot to get her books and has to run back and get them.  All of this demonstrates how Laurie stands out from the rest of the characters we see, she isn’t like what the typical teenager is like and is seen as ‘virginal’ an innocent character.

Halloween had a huge impact on the film industry. The film was cheap to make, meaning they didn’t require a huge amount of money for special effects or actors, however it still was a huge success for the ‘slasher’ horror genre and made a large profit. This film also started the craze for slasher films influencing several more to be made in hope of such a great success.

Some of the films that were created after the success of slasher film Halloween includes, Friday the 13^th ( 1980 – Sean S Cunningham), The Burning (1981 – Tony Maylam), Prom Night (1980 – Paul Lynch) and Terror Train (1980 – Roger Spottiswoode)

The film Halloween created a new list of plot rules in which slasher films began to follow, these include

  1. A past traumatic event occurs, in which a psychotic killer is made

  2. The psychotic killer returns to where the event happened
  3. Killer then spots a group of teenagers, of either sex, and stalks and eventually kills them

  4. There is a ‘final girl’ in which one of the female characters survives, however they often have boy like features and are           virginal.

Androgynous characters are often common in slasher horror films, in Halloween this character is Laurie. Laurie dresses very boy like and conservatively, as I stated previously, also her name is unisex. Her features also give a boy like feel, this is because of her square shaped face and sharp jaw, but also due to her tone of voice, which is considerably deep for a female. Her character also gives this effect as she decides to fight back against Mike Myers.

Slasher films have a tendency to have a ‘reactionary sexual agenda’. This is the idea that virginal characters will be the ones to live; any other characters that are having sex will die. However although it may seem as if Halloween follows the tendency with Laurie a virginal character surviving and the rest dying, film director John Carpenter disagreed. He went on to explain how the reasoning behind this is that all the other characters were distracted, not fully paying attention to what is going on around them and therefore easier targets, where as Laurie was very aware of what was going on therefore acted the way she did to save herself and the children. This is also demonstrated in the fact that the killer, Mike Myer is in fact always hunting for Laurie, she is the target where as the others are just in his way. Leading on from this it is questionable as to why Mike Myer in fact killed his sister. Mike kills his sister just after her having sex with her boyfriend, and because of this we can be perceived to believe that she is killed because of her having sex, as well as this being demonstrated with the motion of the knife when Mike killer her, however John Carpenter (the director) disagreed, again focusing on the fact he wasn’t going with the idea of sexual agenda. He states very simply that the reason behind him killing his sister, much like all the other characters he killed is purely because he is evil.