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

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

Reece Vickerage

Introduction

When we decided on a Horror trailer, we researched existing horror films – slashers in particular, for

example: ‘Scream’ and ‘Halloween’. All of the films that were controversial and redefined the horror genre were what influenced us the most, because they had the biggest impact on the audience. We watched specific trailers and noted the key parts within them that really make the audience feel

involved and grabs their attention. Therefore we used, developed and challenged this.

For example, a horror trailer always begins with the opening titles, which is usually the film making company, e.g. ‘Warner Bros.’ However, extra effects are added in

visually and acoustically, to define which genre a film is in.

To distinguish the fact that the purpose of this is Horror, the titles in our trailer begin all fuzzy and distorted, with a flickering white against the font. This shows the damage to the text, making the audience feel at edge and disorientated. A long with this some

eerie music plays in the background to build up along with the title to make the audience feel insecure, already sticking to it’s intended purpose and conventions by

making them feel scared and setting the tone for the rest of the trailer.

Scream Trailer (1996) - Example Perplexed - Trailer

From extensive research it is clear to see that most horror trailer begin with a vulnerable young woman, who is alone. Therefore, we used this distinctive convention in our trailer.

Examples of this would also come from Scream, which begins with a blonde, dumb, vulnerable woman who is about to meet her untimely death. However, our trailer developed and challenged this by creating a character that seems more laid back and normal, e.g. just

getting back from work, all relaxed and ready to eat and watch some television. This is rather than the stereotypical ditsy, blonde, teenage girl, which almost everyone is familiar with and has seen countless times. This makes the audience feel as though these horrific events could

happen to anyone, rather than just a specific type of person. This will make the audience more tense for the scenes to come, as it has already established that it has broke certain

conventions, meaning anything could happen to anyone.

Scream Trailer (1996) - Example Perplexed - Trailer

During research we found that a Horror film needs to be realistic to develop the plot and many Horror trailers hit home with the audience as it is a much more realistic concept

than something in a Sci-Fi film, etc. We used this within our trailer, developing a heightened sense of reality with family photos etc. at the back of the shot, developing the character’s background discreetly. This further constitutes to the fact that this is an

everyday working class young girl, who is alone on an ordinary night at her family house. This will relate to the audience, as many people will live like her themselves and have horrid scenarios of this happening to them. It creates a warm, homely feeling where everyone thinks they are safe, in contrast to what is actually about to happen making the audience even more scared and in anticipation as to what’s going to happen next.

In a horror trailer, the killer always communicates with the victims in some way, before they die. Whether it be through a phone call, a knock at the door or a bang

from upstairs. As we are now in the modern age and everything is technology based, the mainstream way of communicating is virtually. Therefore, we decided

to develop and challenge this by having the killer stalk the victim on her Facebook account, rather than a Horror films typically conventional phone call, etc. This

interacts with the audience by redefining the way someone dies in a horror film, keeping up with the modern times. This creates a serious, dreading atmosphere as almost everyone has some sort of social network account, showing that the trailer

is relating to a modern audience and it could happen to them at any given moment without realising the dangers of it, making them feel anxious.

This lack of awareness makes the atmosphere change dramatically in less than ten seconds, as a figure appears at the side of her. The first appearance of the killer begins with a huge bang to make the audience jump and feel the killer’s intended creepy looking presence. Now the audience know what the person behind the phone looks like giving an added sense of reality that you could be talking to anyone and not know who it is, making the audience frightened.

This convention has been developed in our trailer, however it has been used numerous times in trailers such as Scream, when the victim’s lack of awareness to who she is talking to creeps up on her. However, in Scream, the character suddenly becomes aware of the situation that someone is watching her. Whereas the character in our trailer continues to watch television, taking the killer’s clue as a joke. This challenges the natural forms in horror trailers to instantly panic and instead, stays calm and laughs it off showing a misconception of reality.

Examples:

In terms of Mise en scene our trailer abides by the standard codes and conventions of Horror, using appropriate locations for the genre such as: Dark woods and big empty houses. These are the most common places where the

killer would most likely prey on young victims. It also forms a feeling of isolation from the rest of society, creating suspension with the audience. This is because knowing that something is going to happen, but not knowing when

creates physical effects towards the audience, e.g. adrenaline rush.

Examples:

The time of day that we filmed the trailer was equally important, as this sets the overall atmosphere and tone of the movie. Most horror films are filmed at night, to create an eerie effect on the audience. However, we developed and challenged this with our trailer, as a lot

of our shots were filmed in the day and were edited by me in post-production with the brightness and contrast on Final Cut Pro. This was to make it seem darker than it actually is, which proved to be much more effective than filming at night with a usual horror trailer as we looked at it from an audience’s perspective and altered the lighting until we thought it

was most fitting for the audience and genre. We also changed the RGB colour of the footage, and changed most of the dark scenes a shade of blue, to give a claustrophobic

feeling of terror towards the audience. Overall, the picture is still clear, yet dark at the same time creating a ghostly effect to add a sense of isolation and dystopia.

Examples:

The main convention in a horror trailer is the suspenseful music, which is also used in ours with mainly strings, matching the

characters movements on screen. The music changes many times during different scenes to depict the different emotions and events taking place, such as in our trailer when speaking to the counsellor

using sentimental, yet haunting music to keep in touch with the purpose and genre. Throughout the trailer there is an increase in

tempo which builds tension, such as the Facebook messages being sent at the beginning. During the fast montages it has a low pitch

and a strong beat to it, when running in the woods, etc. This establishes that the audience are being pulled into the trailers story and soon it quietens down and the audience can relax - this is the

cue for the sting, which is a typical convention in a Horror trailer e.g. after the title ‘Perplexed’, a character moves towards the camera to

give the audience one final surprise, to scare the audience into watching the film.

Our trailer also uses diegetic sound, as we found that Horror trailers always use this within the ‘film world’ e.g. a door opening and used

this in ours with a victim screaming. Horror trailers have to be suitable for all ages, therefore cannot show any violence, etc. in too

much detail. Instead, the media products have to rely on sounds and effects to make these elements evident. For example, we used this in our trailer when you can hear the scream without seeing the

oncoming attack just before the title ‘Perplexed’ appears.

Moreover, our trailer uses Non-Diegetic sound as well. This is because much of the sound in the trailer was added during post-

production such as the spooky effects to create tension.

Usual conventions of camerawork in Horror trailers include beginning with long camera shots and minimal camera movement, which is seen is ours. The cuts are still sharp as the camera

jumps from one scene to another. The speed of editing and the music also keeps increasing as it reaches the fast montage where the speed of editing is at it’s peak.

The main camera shots and editing techniques that are used in our trailer and other horror trailers are fast cuts, over the shoulder shots and mid shots. In terms of our trailer the shot

being used the most is the mid-shot, to allow the audience to see the character and setting at the same time, which is vital in a horror trailer to create a scary atmosphere, e.g. In our trailer, it

shows a young girl (character) entering a house all alone at night (setting).

Examples:

The typography of our text is red and white, which are typical colour conventions within the Horror genre. The red represents blood, gore and violence, whereas the white is ghostly and cold, to match the personality

of the villain who is neglected from society.

This text is on the blackouts which are shown throughout the trailer to set the narrative. On the blackouts there are commonly used phrases which are used in horror trailers, such as ‘Who’s next?’ This sticks to the classic forms in Horror trailers to give the audience a ‘who dun it’ perspective,

which entices them through mystery.

Example:

Typical Horror trailer conventions

In horror trailers there is an appearance of authority, which we used in ours with e.g. a news reporter and school counsellor. This gives denotations of

good vs. evil.

All of the characters in our trailer are teenagers, which is conventional to horror films as this is the killer’s meat.

The conventional horror villain in our trailer is powerful, clever and cunning from using things such as Facebook to connect with his victims. The killer is masked to hide the identity, which makes the person feel invincible. In most Horror trailers there is a history behind why a character becomes the villain

– usually because of a social breakdown and fear of feeling different and going against the norm, which is hinted within our trailer.