QUESTION 1 : In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

When producing my three products, I had to follow some conventions to

help make my products look professional with the influence of real

media texts, Also, some of the typical conventions used in a magazine

and trailer such as the banner at the bottom of the magazine was included in our magazine, when researched I found that this was not used and for the trailer the best scenes are usually used throughout to grab the audience from the beginning. However, we have kept the best scenes for the

end, also our location is not in an isolated setting as demonstrated as

one of the key element of horror genre in order to create fear of being

alone. This means the conventions has been challenged by our group in

the making, this was done in order to differential between the real media text and ours so that it is recognized as a unique piece.

MAGAZINE

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1. As previously mentioned, the use of the banner on the magazine was a vital element to included in our magazine because I believed that as this was not used in many empire magazine therefore it would help to establish a new look. On the banner we have used a background colour of blue mist which we have taken from our titles in our trailer, this was an initial idea we developed to establish a link between our three products. Upon research I found the only other magazine that used this format was ‘Sherlock Holmes 2’ and ‘Sin City’, this was an inspiration to create a something similar that is effective to the eyes. However, we have placed the banner much lower on the magazine so that the image is well exposed to the audience, also by have ‘VS’ between the three films feature on the banner shows that these are similar films to our that we are trying to promote and that there is competition among them to be the best seller within the society. There is an empty place below the banner so that more of the information can be written, we decided to subvert with this as the magazine would seem more like a letter than a magazine therefore having limited information and only having an image would allow us to not reveal much. Therefore by having this feature promoted we have challenged the convention of magazines

2. ‘The world’s biggest movie magazine’ is a typical convention of

magazine, this portrayed in many other existing magazine such as the ‘Sherlock Holmes 2’ and 'The Hobbit’ by having featured on the magazine represents how popular they are, this allows the company to grab more audience s attention to sell the product effectively. There are other taglines such as ‘Movies biggest years ever’ or the ‘Limited edition covers’ . The limited addition often uses the colour light pink and blue with sliver which are not typically used as it can be portrayed as a childish. However, there are not many horror magazine out therefore it was much harder to take inspiration from but having an idea of what we wanted the audience to see the most from the magazine, we were able to promote magazine which was successful. It also allows us as producers to attract a global audience by maintaining their brand in order to create a place for my magazine.

3. ‘EMPIRE’ is our chosen promotion/marketing logo that is widely used to produce magazines, this brand has been used by many film makers in order to promote their film, this can be horror, comedy or action. A brand that is dominating other film magazine allows our audience to I give our product more priority than other magazine which had been put out on the market via a unpopular brand, these can be ‘scream’ or ‘film’. Therefore , as a group we described this was a great idea as audience are more aware of the ‘Empire brand’. Moreover, majority of the magazine such as ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Hellboy 2’ and ‘Potter 7’ have the character’s head over the Empire text whereas some have it under so that the brand name is over powering the magazine . By hiding the brand some audience may not prefer this as they might not be familiar with it, therefore would like to see the ‘Empire’

4. The image displayed on the magazine is a mid shot of our character who would come across as a villain but actually a victim, however, my magazine leaves the audience in an illusion because of the ghost contact lenses and by the blood on her clothes and face. The tear drop down her face can represent the pain by her as she is possessed by the audience are an unaware of this fact because they are mostly likely to have seen image of villain for the front cover. Especially for a horror movie magazine the villain is dominating the cover such as ‘ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and the ‘Evil Dead’ magazine. Due to the fact there are not many horror magazine out there, I had to compare my magazine to a other genre film magazine in general to illustrate a link and as a result I found that mid shots were widely used because it shows the character but does not reveal much yet is proven to be less scary. And as for a long shot the audience would feel disengaged.

The Evil Dead magazine similar to ours because the fact that the person shown on the magazine is portrayed as the villain who is a ghost but is possessed by the existing ghost in the film. This is an effective type because the audience are left in enigma, wondering of what is ‘this’ all about. Keeping this in mind we have used this idea and also because there is no other character in our trailer. The use of mid shot is extremely popular as it dose not expose to much yet pulls attention, this shot we have used was proven effective because the eyes are looking down. This convention was kept the same in order for the audience to recognise as they are familiar with it so makes it more appealing.

POSTER

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1.Element of poster usually establish a shattered or a crack view or a distortion of the image to symbolise qualities of the character or a splits side for example: if they are possessed this is something that was out of their control therefore they had a life before it was perfect or in other circumstance such as some illness that has caused the character to have difficulties in their life.

‘ Based on a true story’ this was an element used on poster to convey to the audience that the story we are portraying is based on real life, an example of this would be the poster of ‘The Possession’. Having this on the poster attracts more audience because whilst researching I found that films that were based on true story had a bigger audience and great response

Films such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ the use of handheld cameras and posters that was not a typical type. This puts the audience into wondering how are they going to turn this life story and present it to a wider population. Especially the poster it showed real people missing which seems like a report rather than a poster but was catchy as it was different. Also, majority of the audience are aware of a true story but not all the elements therefore the film will be a way for them to obtain more information on the true they are aware of. Also having the stars shows that this film has got 5 star rating and this reassures the audience the film is good, even if they are not a fan of horror, they can consider to watch it.

2. A slogan is a convention aspect on the poster because if they have not seen a trailer or a magazine they can figure out what the film is about by

reading the slogan as it is often a statement based on the storyline . For example in the film ‘Smiley’ the slogan used is ‘EVIL WEARS A SMILE’ this automatically tells the audience that within the film there is a character

who is the evil but is not easily detected because he/she is wearing a mask which is a ‘smile’ . Also in ‘The Devil Inside’ the slogan ‘NO SOUL IS SAFE’ they again shows the audience that everyone is evil from inside therefore you shouldn't trust anyone. This was a key feature on poster therefore we have used this for our poster to make it recognised by what the audiences are use to seeing. ‘What is the true nightmare?, the dream you have in your sleep or the reality that awaits when you awake? This was a long slogan that was not in many poster because it needs to be small yet

catchy yet I believe this made our poster very effective we have left the audience to wonder for the answer tot he question which will only be solved if they watched the trailer , this was a way of promoting the trailer because

to find the answers the audience would willingly have to go watch the trailer.

3. The title is the main attention grabbing feature on the poster because it shows to the audience what the poster is about therefore we have used this

idea from many existing real media text. They consist of different styles and layout but are more likely to use the colour scheme to connote that it is a

horror poster. The title is in white so that it stands out over the blue mist background and over the red cross. Underneath the title there is the credits to show who the film was made by, editor, music by and others. Unlike the magazine the poster has less information on what it contains and more of the film/trailer itself. This was influence from poster such as ‘The Eye’, ‘Mirrors’ and ‘ Drag Me To Hell’. As the typical convention we decided to keep it the

same but developed it future in order to create a unique piece. In order to

do this we lined the credit in a line but made a pyramid and with every line represented a different job done by a group member which was either editor,

produced or music by. However we did challenge it as we had only three people in a our group we have a repetition of names whereas, in areal media text the names would not be repeated as there are many people during production.

4. The image position on the poster was hugely influenced by the latest

film ‘Annabelle’ because having half the face connotes mystery and

includes a cross which was a purpose to create enigma code so that audience would want more. Having the cross over the eye shows that

there is evil but by a cross would mean that the character is trying to

fight off but it is either failing or as defeated. It also represents that there two sides of her as ghost often resist cross and the holy annotations, so it can conclude that she is possessed. My poster uses mise-en scene as

a key for horror genre to be conveyed like the cross and the contact lenses. Likewise in Annabelle the blood is dripping out from the doll’s eye and there is tear drops from my character’s eye shows the link for the audience to pick up so they know it is professional as they have seems a similar poster.

5. The 15 rating classification was something we subverted because we thought that having that would mean that the audience are aware of the content that is included in our trailer. This instantly tells them that is

contains violence or strong language, if nay poster does not include this information would mean that they are being misled because if they have not yet seen the trailer, because few scene might be inappropriate. We have also put image of our production company to

convey that is the company our film is sponsored by, the world wide known company was universal pictures that was decided to use as it used in the film that inspired us ‘ Drag me to hell’. We also put the logo of the production company I and my group member decided to use which was ‘Paranormal Pictures’ .

The colour scheme I used was that black to connote danger, white for a sense of purity and innocence and black for death, these colours

reinforced our narrative. These are a typical colour scheme used in horror poster because they all establish some sort of danger, fear and blood. Such as ‘ A Nightmare On Elm Street’, The Devil Inside’ and Mirrors’. The release date was another

convention of a poster for the audience to see when it is going to release even if they have not yet seen the trailer.. If a release date is shown on the trailer it is ideal to be on the poster to show a link therefore we have kept to this conventions.

TRAILER

During production I had to follow some convention of a horror film such as

setting, typical horror films are filmed in a isolated, deserted location

to create a sense of loneliness that the character as to feel when things go wrong such as in scream, when Casey gets a phone calls and is being chased around, there is no where she can call for help because she is surrounded only by trees. Also in prom night when Wendy is chased in her school there is no one to be to help her and ends up losing her life. Before the production work I watched many films and trailer which were quite popular among the target audience which were my peers, by watching

some trailer if would give me an initial idea of what I should include in my trailer in order to make it appealing to my audience and also to make it

a successful horror genre trailer. The biggest influence I took was from the film ‘paranormal Activity’ as our storyline was based on activities that

are bizarre as there is no explanation behind its occurring. Also from the film ‘Annabelle’ as the doll has a significant influence on the film because the doll was in the first part of the film ‘The Conjuring’ who continue its journey to the second film similar in our trailer where the grandma comes to haunt Casey.

Another film we was inspired by was ‘Carrie’ it uses strong religious accounts, knifes, blood, candles and a statue of Jesus is used every time the mother felt she has done something wrong she would ask for

forgiveness. We imported this element because as films are now recognized by this and is liked by the audience

I learnt that storyline was an important part of the trailer as without

the audience understanding the non-chronological order of the trailer they would not be eager to watch the film as they cannot identify

with the characters and feels the tension or suspense of a horror

genre. To make a successful trailer the use of theorists was another

vital component as it helped me to build up character's personality

and a storyline that was reflecting horror. As mentioned above the

theorists I have included in my trailer are ‘Levi Strauss- Binary Opposition’, ‘ Carol Clover’s Final Girl Theory’ and.

‘Todorov’s Theory’

The Final Girl Theory: The final girl horror film pattern that refers to the

last girl/woman alive to confront the killer. She is typically virginal who

sometimes has a unisex name , shows intelligence and curiosity and has history with the villain which is demonstrated in our trailer as had a bad relationship with her grandmas.

•Unisex name of Casey•Long hair•Not covered•Not virginal •BUT survives

Some of the characteristics the final girl is meant to have we have challenged that because we wanted a trailer that challenge the real media text

in order to present to the audience that girls are not always the weak one even

if they are not intelligent but we did give our character a unisex name.

Another theory we used was ‘Levi Strauss’s Binary Opposition’- this a

pair of related word with opposite meaning. For example •Evil /Good•Rich /Poor•Slow /Fast •For our trailer we have kept to this convention of using this thorough out our trailer when the evil overpowers the good. This is

demonstrated when Casey taken be fully possessed by her grandma.

Todorov’s theory was based on the 4 stages we occurred during a film and this was based on equilibrium( everything is picture perfect), a disruption ( when a problem is realised) , resorted order ( when they try to solve the problem) and the last stage of equilibrium ( happy ending). All these stages can be used in a film but as our was a trailer we were

unable to use all these stages but we have included the first 2 stages.

The real media text we shared scenes with was mainly ‘Paranormal Activity’ when the door slams whilst she is sleeping. This was because all the strange things are happening very fast and snappy a convention of a

trailer to continue grabbing audience's attention. But during this scene we could not hear the door slam therefore we further developed this shot and when the door slammed when Casey is watching TV we made sure the

audio level was high to generate a sense of shock as it was too sudden.

The use of masked villain was a symbolic feature of horror however we subverted from this because I thought that having a masked villain would be very typical to use as I wanted my trailer to have its unique style

yet wanted the audience to be really frightened but the evil eyes is

similar as its hides the true identity of the character. But I did include a sense of unknown which was the grandma photo as no one knew what her significant was within the film but as it was shown more than once the audience was able to tell that Casey was possessed by the image, but it does not speak for itself but through its actions of unknown activity, similar to ‘Paranormal Activity’

I have include blood, knife, contact lenses and the use of a cross which again are typical conventions of horror these are recognized as icons.

Without blood a horror film is not established as a horror because it lacks

the ability to grab audiences attention but by over doing this it might put some audience off as it than takes a turn to a more gory slasher film. The

location was subverted from the horror convention as our setting was in a

horror that was not isolated, we had a problem as we were unable to get a house that isolated therefore as a group we decided to do more filming inside

the shot so that the feel of terror is still kept up. This did fit into our narrative as weird activities would not be occurring around apart from chasing , which we have used for one of our shots.

I used a variety of techniques whilst editing to show distortion of her life by cross cutting from one scene to another in a non-chronological way . Also by the angle used such as close up of the phone to highlight its importance, also of the eye. A med shot of her when she is running to nor exposed much of the

area as it was not isolated.

The music that was used for horror trailer were very pounding and fast as the aim of horror trailers are to grab audiences’ attention not by just the image but also by the music. Film makers use varieties of soundtracks

within their trailer to show the steady change of the narrative from the calm beginning to a rapid end. The music we have been influenced by is from the film ‘Carrie’ and ‘Jessabelle’ as they start of slow and relaxed and increase with the change in the narrative. However, I found that when the mood changed within the storyline they adopted to a different music but in our trailer we only consist of one soundtrack that we have used throughout but adjusted the audio levels when the narrative needed to grab audiences’ attention more, for example when the cross is swinging I turned the audio of the sound up so you can tune in with the cross moving and it emphasises its importance. Therefore, we have subverted from this as we only have one soundtrack and right at the end we have a sound effect of the scream. The reason o keep it scream to the end was based on the decision to keep the end scene the one the audience would not forget and remember the particular scene as breathtaking.