EVALUATION QUESTION 1:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media texts?
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media texts?
Conventions introduce the genre of the film to the audience which will help them to see and choose what their expectations are for the film. To answer this question, we, as a group, will compare it with real media texts that we took reference from and were inspired by which will help us to analyse during the evaluation, why we chose these examples for our trailer and how we achieved this by giving examples. For a convention to be successful, it'll be seen as a easily recognisable feature of the genre, which will help the audience familiarise themselves with these conventions. However, in some cases, conventions may not be followed which will achieve a different purpose where the film isn't as predictable.
By Elif Cengizler
By Elif Cengizler
LIGHTING By Elif Cengizler
Throughout the trailer, it can be seen that the majority of lighting used is generally low-key which is undeniably used in every horror trailer to set the tone and atmosphere of mystery as this is what is associated with the dark. This makes the audience vulnerable and threatened like the characters as people generally fear the 'unknown'.
However, light can also be used as a symbol in horror films which is frequently used to symbolise hope, death, transition and escape. In many horror films we're able to identify that once the sun comes up, there is more hope for life and this is when everything typically is over, for example in 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown'. After all of the events, we see the main character walking whilst the sun is coming up at the end of the film. In our trailer, you can see flickers of bright lights which may symbolise that there is hope at the end. you can see in the GIF above that the lighting in this medium shot of our protagonist has low-key lighting, however, the character is back lit, creating a rough silhouette of the character. This creates suspense as the audience do not know who the silhouette may be of. |
There are many examples of low-key lighting being used in the real media texts that we have referred to for inspiration. Low-key lighting creates suspense and tension as there is the constant fear of the 'unknown', if the protagonist doesn't know what to expect, neither will the audience, creating adrenaline and fear. As you can see in the above GIF, for the trailer of 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown 2014', there is a very short shot of a scarecrows silhouette which is back lit by the very bright moon. The contrast of both low-key lighting will small amounts of high-key lighting may confuse the audience and low-key lighting connotes fear and the unknown, whereas, high-key lighting connotes hope. This is where we challenged the conventions of a typical horror trailer, as this trailer was the only other real media text that had included a scene with an object/person back lit.
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SETTING By Elif Cengizler
In our trailer we decided to set our film at Erith Yacht Club in order to show decay and emptiness as the location is deserted; therefore by setting it in a corroded location, it is shows the characters hardships. We challenged the convention of setting as real media texts are usually set in a quiet, suburban town with a small amount of residents. One example can be seen in 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown.' We decided to challenge this convention as we did not want our trailer to be predictable, by keeping the location/setting from the audience will make them curious as to what kind of atmosphere there will be in the film. However, some of our footage is also shot in an old, abandoned police station where there were many cells as well as an old, rustic bathroom. This is inspired by the Saw series as one of the settings/locations in a Saw film used a toilet as one of their torturing rooms, this gave the image of contamination and dirt, making the audience very restless.
CAMERA TECHNIQUES By Elif Cengizler
A tracking shot is any shot where the camera moves alongside the object/s it is recording. In our case, we used tracking to give the audience an insight to what it would feel/be like to be following the actress, making it more realistic for the viewers. I did this by using a hoverboard whilst following the actress which gave a smoother look to the final piece of footage, rather than being shaky if it was held whilst on foot.
We used an establishing shot around the beginning of the trailer, this type of camera technique is usually the first shot of a new scene, this is designed to show the audience where the action is taking place. It is usually a very wide shot or extreme wide shot, using a wide shot/ extreme wide shot allows the audience to see all of the surroundings in the film/trailer. We did this buy setting the camera onto the tripod and slowly tilting the camera upwards, allowing the audience to see the full building in the footage. This type of shot can be seen in nearly any horror trailer, however we chose to take referrence from the film 'Billy Club' which can be seen in the GIF above.
We also used a close-up shot is when the camera tightly frames an object/person which once again, can be seen in the trailer for 'Billy Club.' Our close-up shot is actually a texture shot of one of the cells in the police station. This can help set the scene for the audience, giving an insight of the different settings/locations that may be used in the trailer/film.
SUB-GENRE By Elif Cengizler
The link down below is the link to a Prezi Presentation that I created giving information on how our group used Sub-Genre.
EDITING By Thajjay Thompson
MONTAGE
When editing our trailer, we made sure that only cuts to black were used as this is a typical and crucial convention used in nearly all horror trailers. The cuts were all close together so that the pace of the montage was fast and effective. The use of multiple cuts during the montage was necessary for the success of our trailer because there are many 'Real Media Texts', such as the conjuring 2 which utilises the very quick cuts during the montage sections of the trailer. The reason each of the cuts were to black, is due to the fact that it symbolises a sudden death within the horror genre and it also helps to build tension and suspense. The building of tension and suspense is necessary to the effectiveness of the trailer because it allows the audience to engage emotionally with the trailer; it acts as a sense of visceral pleasure. In the teaser trailer for the Conjuring 2, we see that the montage clearly starts at 0.48seconds in because the transitions change from slow fades, to cuts to black and the pace of the cuts gradually increase, along with the soundtrack being played; the sound and footage are edited in sync in order to make the trailer effective and this is why we then recreated this in our own trailer. Our montage clearly starts at 0.33seconds due to the use of cuts to black and the pace at which they occur.
When editing our trailer, we made sure that only cuts to black were used as this is a typical and crucial convention used in nearly all horror trailers. The cuts were all close together so that the pace of the montage was fast and effective. The use of multiple cuts during the montage was necessary for the success of our trailer because there are many 'Real Media Texts', such as the conjuring 2 which utilises the very quick cuts during the montage sections of the trailer. The reason each of the cuts were to black, is due to the fact that it symbolises a sudden death within the horror genre and it also helps to build tension and suspense. The building of tension and suspense is necessary to the effectiveness of the trailer because it allows the audience to engage emotionally with the trailer; it acts as a sense of visceral pleasure. In the teaser trailer for the Conjuring 2, we see that the montage clearly starts at 0.48seconds in because the transitions change from slow fades, to cuts to black and the pace of the cuts gradually increase, along with the soundtrack being played; the sound and footage are edited in sync in order to make the trailer effective and this is why we then recreated this in our own trailer. Our montage clearly starts at 0.33seconds due to the use of cuts to black and the pace at which they occur.
CHARACTERS By Thajjay Thompson
The link down below is a Prezi Presentation on how we used characters.
LENGTH By Thajjay Thompson
Length is really important when composing a horror teaser trailer as certain scenes shouldn't be played for too long as it could begin to reveal aspects of the story which is not what the audience is looking for when watching a teaser trailer. The length of each section of our trailer was important because it helped us ensure that we were using the same conventions from existing horror trailers. An example in our trailer where 'length' was taken into consideration was during the composition of the establishing/texture shots. We used, many other real media text when trying to decide the length of establishing shots in order to make sure we 'followed' the typical conventions of horror teaser trailers. An example of RMT that was used is the Conjuring 2. This trailers establishing/texture shots make up approximately 25seconds of the 1st section of the trailer and this is similar to our own trailer as our establishing shots last 23seconds.
TENSION/SUSPENSE By Thajjay Thompson
The film trailers that we followed in order to develop our teaser trailer included 'Cabin in the woods', 'Friday the 13th' and 'The Conjuring 2'. These films use slow panning or tilting establishing/texture shots in order to help set the mood of the trailer, hence building up fear and tension in the audience. An example of when tension was built in The Conjuring 2 is when the camera slowly zooms into a mystical object in the teens room. This built tension because the pace of the zooming was in perfect sync with the sounds that were being played as both gradually began to speed up. At this moment, a sense of suspense was built because everything suddenly stopped cut to black, this left the audience wondering what was going to happen next. In our own trailer, we built tension by using slow tilting establishing shots of a derelict building as in creates the fear of destruction and isolation. This is shown within the first 10seconds of our trailer. We also used the convention of suspense in the first quarter of our trailer as there is a scene where the victim is shown out of breath, covered in blood and then it cuts to black which leaves the audience wondering whether she had been caught or had died. The use of suspense and tension is very important in horror trailers as it leaves the audience wanting to find out more after watching the trailer, like a cliff hanger, therefore the audience will ultimately want to watch the film in order to fill in the plot holes and find out what happens.
PLOT By Olivia Middleton
The film trailers that we used to influence our horror teaser trailer were ‘I Spit On Your Grave’, ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Cabin in the Woods’, ‘Billy Club’ and ‘Scream’.
These were very helpful in the making of our film as they helped develop our ideas of what type of genre we wanted therefore, helping us pick a final plot for our trailer. Due to the variety of the trailers we analysed we were able to carefully choose the sub-genre; slasher. From this we could choose a suitable plot, which consisted of an antagonist that goes after the final girl with a specific type of weapon that signifies phallic imagery.
We wanted to give our audience the conventional plot by involving the normal stock characters, rather than challenging the typical conventions. The stock characters were very prominent in the film Scream by having the typical slut and masked antagonist characters. We had the final girl and a masked antagonist.
Also, the film ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ influenced our plot theme of revenge, the antagonist was taking revenge on his victims as he was severely burned in the past.
These were very helpful in the making of our film as they helped develop our ideas of what type of genre we wanted therefore, helping us pick a final plot for our trailer. Due to the variety of the trailers we analysed we were able to carefully choose the sub-genre; slasher. From this we could choose a suitable plot, which consisted of an antagonist that goes after the final girl with a specific type of weapon that signifies phallic imagery.
We wanted to give our audience the conventional plot by involving the normal stock characters, rather than challenging the typical conventions. The stock characters were very prominent in the film Scream by having the typical slut and masked antagonist characters. We had the final girl and a masked antagonist.
Also, the film ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ influenced our plot theme of revenge, the antagonist was taking revenge on his victims as he was severely burned in the past.
PROPS USED By Olivia Middleton
In film trailers that follow a specific genre there are typical icons that represent it clearly. The use of weapons is renowned in slashers, especially ones that indicate phallic imagery. For example, a knife being used to imitate the penetration involved in sex, this of course is not consented if it is the analogy of a knife. In our trailer we used a bat as our antagonists main weapon, this indicates again phallic imagery. However, it challenges the typical conventions as it cannot penetrate the skin as a knife would although it is in the shape of a penis therefore sexualising the purpose of the bat. The trailer Billy Club influenced our decision on our weapon because we wanted to challenge the commonly used weapon in a slasher which is a knife. Therefore, developing our understanding of conventions as we are able to challenge and adapt them. We only used the one weapon as we wanted it to be the dominant icon that viewers were able to recognize as a signature piece of our trailer.
MISE-EN-SCENE By Olivia Middleton
LIGHTING
The mise-en-scene in horror films is incredibly important as it sets the tone of the film. For example, the lighting in any type of genre allows for the audience to understand how they should be feeling. Therefore, in a horror trailer those viewing it should be able to tell from the low key lighting that they should in fact be feeling scared as this indicate that the genre is horror. In our trailer, we made significant use of the low key lighting in areas around us, by always filming in the dark rather than daylight so as to create a growing sense of fear throughout the trailer as the dark connotes death and danger.
Furthermore, the clothing we dressed our characters in as well as the make up we used again emphasized the horror aspect of our trailer. The final girl was dressed in jeans and a red, checked shirt which is typical for this stock character as it shows that she is not a "slut" character but most probably the last survivor, she was also covered in blood, cuts and bruises which emphasized the slasher sub-genre connoting that violence had occurred at some point in the film. Also, the fact that she has blood on her helps the audience understand what type of situation she is in, it is very clear that she is in danger or some kind of trouble. We made sure not to challenge the mise-en-scene of the characters so that they appeared as conventional as possible rather than different or unique. Therefore, our final girl wearing modest clothing shows the type of character she is and makes her very recognizable especially looking at factors such as her hair colour (brown), which again is a common factor.
MISE-EN-SCENE (POSTER)
PACING by Olivia Middleton
It is key for the pacing in a horror film and the sound track of the film to match up correctly otherwise, the film will appear unorganized and disordered. If the visual aspect appears to be slow paced and calm but the music is fast and rapid then the audience will be confused and not know how to react to it. This is why in our trailer the beginning of it shows slow footage with some fade to blacks to initiate the tension building, along with steady background noise to pair along side it. We purposely used the fade to blacks in order to highlight the undisturbed situation at that point of the trailer. We were able to develop this by steadily increasing the speed of both the pace and the sound of the trailer all the way up until the montage. As we have a clear understanding of horror film teaser trailers, we were able to recognize that they all have a montage towards the end meaning that from all of the trailers we watched, we used them as influences to help us improve and develop our trailer into a professional product. It would have been incredibly hard to challenge the pacing of a horror film trailer as this is what makes it identifiable to the specific genre, meaning we could not have changed the order in which we put the equilibrium, disequilibrium, montage or jumpscare because it would not have been conventional.