Enigma Code

The Hermeneutic code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader. The truth is often avoided and the purpose is to keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the loose ends are all tied together. This applies to my film trailer as the audience have to think about what is going on as there is not a voiceover telling the story. I decided not to have a voiceover as I think it sounds very cheesy and does not do the representation and justice. Although I have followed most conventions of a horror trailer including colour theme, fonts and sounds, I have steered away from the cheesy stereotypical horror trailer and decided that silence is more affective than a voiceover that is just feeding the information to the audience without them having to think about it. In recent studies I have found that most viewers of the horror genre like to work things out for themselves and find a film more interesting if they have to think about it rather than have every detail spoon fed to them. This shows the post modernism of society and that we are more intellectual that the media world thinks. My target audience is the age group that tends to think of new ideas and opinions for themselves. This means that they may not apply to the 'Two Step Flow' theory by Paul Lazarsfield that shows how younger audiences can be influenced by what other people say and their opinions are filtered through which are then shared by them to other audiences. This can be anybody from family and friends to celebrities. This also means that my target audience are more likely to negotiate with media texts and add their own ideas to them to understand what is going on. This is a positive thing as I would not want my preferred audience to be oppositional. The Referential code touches on the cultural aspects of narrative and shows symbolic features that link to certain calssics. An example of this would be using nursery rhymes in a horror film to create anticipation and fear of the unknown for the audience, as nursery rhymes are seen as innocent which juxtaposes with the sinister element of the storyline.

An example of a typical cheesy horror trailer would be 'Devil's Due'. I think that when watching this film trailer, the audience is spoon fed too much information and the whole story is basically told during the 2-3 minute trailer. This is what I am trying to avoid and what I think I have avoided when editing my psychological horror trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G9Ce7e-gws