Evaluation Question One

Evaluation Question One

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

IntroductionIn order to show how our media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products, I have taken nine frames from our own trailer and compared them with nine frames from real trailers to compare how we have used or challenged forms and conventions of a trailer.

Title Pages

By having a short clip of the title of the film at the end of the trailer, it not only highlights the name of the film being advertised to the audience but it is also a typical convention you would expect to see in a film trailer. I have displayed the title we used in our own trailer 'Off Campus' with a title from 'Jeepers Creepers' as they both have a similar font which consists of the letters being cracked and broken away slightly which is a conventional font you would expect to see in a horror trailer.

Monster/Killer

Often seen in horror trailers is a short clip of the monster/killer, normally a close up or a long shot. This establishes to the audience who the villain is whilst also briefly showing what they look like without giving too much away but at the same time scaring the audience enough to persuade them that this is a good horror trailer to go ahead and watch in full at the cinema.

Off Campus Trailer

Production Title

The production titles normally featured at the start of film trailers, are a typical convention of a film trailer as they highlight to the audience things such as who directed and produced the film, which can sometimes also have an impact on whether a particular audience will go to watch the film. By including a production title at the start of our own trailer it helps it to follow typical trailer conventions than an audience would expect to see and make it appear to look more like a real film trailer.

Intertitles

By having a title after a bit of footage, it divides the trailer up to tell a bit of the narrative as well as show clips from the film. The purpose of the titles is to build suspense at the beginning of a trailer which leads up to a faster paced ending. We included titles within our own horror trailer as they explained very briefly part of the narrative whilst also slowly building up the tension whilst the editing was still slow-paced before it reaches the faster editing clip towards the end of the trailer. These titles are conventional of a film trailer as they are used to divide up sections of footage and also build up suspense within the trailer.

Off Campus Trailer Sorority Row Trailer

Over the Shoulder

I have compared these two images as they are very similar in terms of the context of the shot as in both scenes a female is seen hiding behind something, looking over her shoulder. Although the shot I have chosen to compare with is used for the film poster of the thriller ‘Eden Lake’ it does however connote the vulnerability of a woman in a horror film as they are often seen as very vulnerable and the most likely to be killed. However, both of these characters have ‘Final Girl’ features as they are attempting to fight and survive which is why we chose to include this shot in our horror trailer.

Off Campus Trailer Eden Lake Film Poster

Newspaper Clippings

By including shots of newspapers clippings within our horror trailer it enables some of the background story to be shown so that our audience can connect with the narrative of our trailer and have an understanding as to what has happened. Shots of newspaper clippings also connote ‘The Return of the Repressed’ meaning something coming back from the past which is what I believe makes our horror trailer more scary as it is about something from the past haunting the house and the people in it. Although the image I have compared our shot with is a photograph, it still connotes the past as both clippings have aged in colour or damaged which all suggest something being brought up from the past.

Off Campus Trailer Paranormal Activity 3 Trailer

Jumpy Scene

At the end of our horror trailer, we decided to include a jumpy scene in order to make it an effective trailer that would scare our audience. We chose to show a girl about to drive off who then gets strangled by the killer who emerges from the back of the car. A very similar and effective shot is seen in the film ‘Halloween’ where the character Annie is strangled and killed by the villain Mike Myers who as well emerges from the back of the car. This we believe was a very effective element of our trailer as it made a jumpy point that scared our audience as well as gave us the chance to relate our trailer closely with other real horror film trailers.

Off Campus Trailer Halloween Trailer