Article main image planning

 MODEL

The model I have chosen for my main image is a 17 year old boy as I feel this is an accurate representation of the typical type of person to be playing video games. Also one of the messages to get across in this article and new film is that most parents are unaware of what their children are accessing and most of the time people are playing video games and watching films underage.
 In the main image showed in the timeline article of the Empire it shows several actors in the film such as Seth Rogen which is done to attract an audience as he is a well known actor. The film I am creating however is not so much about the actor but about the storyline and also the message that children are no longer victims, but are turning into the villains. This is also going to attract people as in today's society there are stories of 'evil children' and cases such as the killing of James Bulger, the child killers were said to be influenced by violent films which they had seen.  Therefore this new film is going to be a more up to date representation of the real world and the impact of new media and technology.

LOCATION

I felt the most appropriate location for the main image was in a bedroom as that is the main place in which teenagers play their video games and watch television. This is also an area which is private and therefore most parents do not know what their children are getting up to or what sorts of games they are playing and therefore there are very little or no restrictions. Also the bedroom is going to give away information of the character as I am going to make sure there are stereotypical male related objects in the room for example a football and some items of boys clothing.

ALREADY EXISTING IMAGES

I have found some images online which have given me inspiration on the type of shot I want to have such as this one. This was the first picture I found and it was part of an article named 'do video games make children violent?' From this shot you can see the face of the teenager and you can see by his facial expressions that he is very concentrated on the game. The background of the image is very dark which could suggest mystery and it could also connote that something bad is going to happen and the boy at the centre of it. In this image you can see the face of the child however as I do not want the article to give too much of the film away, I have chosen to have my models face hidden to create the sense of enigma. This is why I have chosen the over the shoulder shot. Also I would like the readers to be able to slightly make out what sort of game the teenager is playing so that it is more relatable to people who play games similar and also to parents who know that their children play that type of game also.

This image is one that I found which is very similar to the type of shot I would like as you can see what sort of game he is playing and you can only see the side of the face. Even from the side of the face you can see that he is very concentrated and his facial expressions are very serious.

Timeline content - History of Horror films

The main focus of my article is going to be about how the representations of victims and villains have changed and how horror films no longer seem to represent the real world. Constantly we are seeing women and children playing the victims and men playing the villains and hero's.

The timeline is the main section of this article and this is going to go through the history of horror films and demonstrate whether the gender and age representations of characters have changed through the years or not.

My timeline is going to start in the 1960s as the first film will be Psycho. I have chosen to start with this film as it follows a very common representation of women in horror films, playing the victim. It also shows a man playing the villain which is also expected. Psycho was a movie by Alfred Hitchcock and he brought out another one 3 years later called 'The Birds' which again saw a woman playing the victim. This showed that a common stereotype of women was that they were 'weak, vulnerable and helpless'.

In 1973 The Exorcist was released which began the 'nightmare decade: in front of the children' as we started to see children starring in horror films. In The Exorcist in particular children were immediately stereotyped similar to women; 'naïve, weak and defenceless'. 

Shortly after The Exorcist in 1976 'Alice, sweet Alice' shocked people with the villain character being placed onto children. This immediately made people look at children's behaviour in a different way than 'weak and helpless' and saw them in a more domineering way. In the same year Carrie was released which again followed this representation of a child villain as it saw a young, abused and timid 17 year old girl pushed to her limits after being humiliated at a school prom.

In 1979 things changed slightly as we saw one of the first horror films where the female character showed dominance and rejected the common representations from other horror films. Alien showed the main character Ripley as independent and capable of protecting herself. In the film a group get called to an unexplored planet after a distressed phone call and after searching for survivors, the crew heads home only to realize that a deadly bio form has joined them.
In the group there are many other males who attempt to defeat the 'alien' however are unsuccessful and Ripley is one of the only characters to come out alive. This showed that women are not only victims but can also be just as strong as males.

Although many people thought that may have been the start of a different type of horror film, females soon went back to being the victim of male dominance as a spiritual presence influences the father into violence in The Shining released in 1980. Also Scream was released in 1996 which saw a group of young high school students fall prey to a serial killer.

In 2013 Carrie the remake was brought out which was thought to be another attempt at changing the age and gender representations in horror films to keep up with todays society. They need to take into account different roles certain people play in society and the 'evil child' is becoming more common in todays society as we are seeing more child murderers than there were back in the 1960s. In order for horror films to represent the real world, it is vital that they adapt the representations of their characters in accordance with todays society.

The timeline will end with the new film that is going to be released which the main image is going to represent. This film will see a male become a victim of a teenagers violence as he is influenced by a video game containing shootings.

Timeline planning

LAYOUT

The image below shows the layout of the timeline and you can see that it follows a similar pattern to the timeline page from the empire magazine. The main image is the most important part of the article as it takes up most of the double page spread and as it is in the top left hand corner it ensures that it is the first thing the reader sees when they turn the page.

Below the main image is where timeline is going to be which in this case is going to go through the history of horror films and look at how the representations of victims and villains have changed throughout the years. This is slightly different from the original timeline page in the magazine as the article I looked at was going through the dates of how the film was being made and it was all within 1 year. My article is going to look at many different horror films and is going to go through the years looking at how they have changed.

On the right hand side of the page is going to be a table which includes many well known actors and actresses and it is going to show how many horror films they have been in and whether they have been the victim or the villain. I am predicting that this is going to show that the actors have mostly played villains and the actresses have played the victims as this is a common stereotype.

MAIN IMAGE

As the focus of this article is going to be on the new film which involves children and teenagers being influenced by video games, it is important that the main image is representative of that without giving too much away. The location of part of the image is going to be in a bedroom as that is most often where teenagers are left alone playing their game and therefore are not restricted on what they can access. The main shot will involve a teenager sitting on a bed playing a video game, perhaps an over the shoulder shot so that the readers can see what is on the television. There on the TV will be a game such as 'call of duty' as it involves violence and killing scenes which can influence a persons behaviour.

Also in the room somewhere in the shot there could be something which initiates he is copying the behaviour from the game such as a gun, similar army clothes etc. Although this may not give too much information away, there will be a tagline just under the image which will give the audience more of a clue of what the film is going to entail.

The over the shoulder shot will allow the reader to feel as if they are watching the television and they will have the exact same view of the teenager sat on the bed. You will be able to see the back and side of the person's head sitting on the bed however their face will not be shown to create a sense of enigma. Although you cannot see the face the reader will be able to imagine the sort of age of the person playing the video game as teenagers are the main consumers of game consoles and are known to be the main users.

The caption underneath the image is going to be a question to the reader, targeted towards the parents of children who play video games or have access to uncensored material.

Front page research

IMAGE

Looking at the front page of my chosen magazine Empire, it is clear that there is always the main character of the film which the magazine is focused on as the main image. In my case as I want the main character of my film to be an 'evil child' the main image is going to be of a child looking very powerful and dominating the page.

This image of Ripley from the film Alien is showing her as powerful and dominating by the way she is standing, her facial expression and the gun she is holding. If this were on a magazine cover, without knowing what the film was about, you would know what sort of character she was from this image alone.
This is what I plan to do when I create my magazine cover as I would like the main image to be of a child looking 'evil' perhaps dressed in clothing similar to a character on 'Call of duty' carrying a gun or a criminal from the video game 'Grand theft auto'. This main image would give the readers a slight idea of what film the image was portraying without giving too much information away. This may attract different audiences; young teenagers who are similar age to the character and who play video games, and also parents of those children as they may be concerned about how violent video games and films can influence their children.

FRONT COVER

As I am using the Empire magazine, I will need to ensure I am keeping the house style the same and therefore using the same fonts in order for the magazine to be recognisable.

Above is the logo which empire uses on every single cover of their magazine and most of the time it is in this red colour. In order for me to match this I have done some research on the fonts used throughout the magazine. I have fount a similar one to this named 'EF Kaffeesatz' shown below.

Another font which looks similar is 'Bernard Gothic Heavy SG' which is shown below. A benefit of using this one is that you do not have to pay to download it onto the computer whereas you have to pay for 'EF Kaffeesatz'.