evaluation question 1

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

In my research I used different media products to see what real trailers and movies were like and get inspiration from them. I got a lot of inspiration from the films ‘Insidious’ and ‘The Conjuring’ and developed my own characters and storyline from this inspiration.

My Trailer goes along the lines of the typical codes and conventions of existing trailers, showing a normal family and the boy starts getting haunted and possessed. It also enforces the fear in people as it shows a real household and real people, showing that this could happen, bringing out the fear in the audience. It also looks a little on religion, showing possession, and haunting.

I changed my trailer slightly, focusing mainly on the young lad in it, him being the main character, rather than the whole family, to make it more intense and to show how vulnerable and scared the boy is.

I tried to make sure that my media product followed the media codes and conventions when creating them. This way my media products seem more realistic and professional and would fit in with the existing products that are made for my target audience.

Conventions of a horror film;

In horror films there are typical conventions to make them recognisable, such as; Bursts of sound or music creating tension or slow slightly creepy music throughout the trailer or a use of both for an effective trailer. Scenes, or indications of death to make the genre clear. The colours black and red are often used to indicate darkness or evil and sometimes white as a comparison showing pureness. Todorov’s narrative theory is used in horror films to indicate clear character roles. This genre don’t reveal much about the film just hinting at the storyline to intrigue the audience. Also dark, shadowed off settings such as the woods or a basement are used again indicating the genre, or a natural family environment such as a family home are often used to show how an incident changes peoples life creating more fear in the audience as its more realistic. These are just some of the main codes and conventions horror trailers follow in order to make it an eye catching, re-memorable and realistic product.

Making my trailer follow these conventions;

In my trailer I tried to follow the codes and conventions of a typical horror trailer because they are what make an appealing trailer and make the audience want to watch the film. I used a family home environment as the setting in my trailer to make it seem more realistic and to bring out the fear in the audience. I filmed most of my trailer at night showing the disequilibrium of the trailer and to indicate something is happening, also making it more scary and effective, although I filmed some of my trailer in daylight to show normal life before the disturbance of the disequilibrium. Filming the equilibrium section of the trailer works filming in daylight but the disequilibrium section works best filmed in the dark showing why I chose the lighting for different sections to make it more effective and following the conventions.

I feel that one of the most important conventions is not giving the storyline away and just giving hints of the story to tempt the audience as, tempting the audience is what gets them interested and by giving away the storyline would mean no one would need to watch it. But getting the balance right with not showing them too much but not showing them too little to make the trailer confusing. I also think Todorov’s theory plays a big part in horror trailers as it shows the clear characters in the film so that it isn’t confusing, making it unsuccessful.