Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation question 1: In what ways does your media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Elizabeth's response

At the start of this academic year we were assigned groups and given three tasks as part of our A level coursework. Between us we had to construct a teaser trailer, film poster and front cover of a magazine all of the horror genre. Our group decided to explore the slasher horror genre. Popular films of the slasher genre include the SAW sequels, Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.

First and foremost, teaser trailers are simply short trailers that are made   to 'tease' the audience. These teaser trailers are used to market an upcoming film (or a number of other media) usually released long in advance of the final media product. Teaser trailers generally last between 30-60 seconds and they usually contain little to no footage from the film. They are created to stir a buzz about the film whereas actual trailers give you more of an idea of what the film will be like.

Before creating our horror film teaser trailer there were a number of things to take into consideration. Firstly, we brainstormed different ideas and then when we had decided on a story line, a storyboard was constructed. After we decided on which of our group members would act in our teaser trailer then when we got hold of the required props we then filmed. As we anticipated, at first filming wasn't as easy as it seemed particularly getting the lighting right. To give us an idea of the type of trailers that are most successful we looked at a number of trailers via YouTube. By looking at these examples we got an idea of what elements worked best in trailers. Taking the SAW 3D teaser trailer for example, it was 57 seconds long which means it kept within the conventional time frames of teaser trailers. This teaser trailer consists of a large number of quick cuts, fades in and out,  close up shots to name but a few. The deep, sinister tone of the voice over helps set the horrific tone.

The film poster we constructed

The poster that was constructed for our coursework stuck to a few conventions of real media products however it also broke a few. Across the top of our movie poster is the tagline for our movie which is 'dreams can come true'. This tag line relates well with the title of our horror project 'A Beautiful Nightmare'. The colours used are also suitable to the genre of film we were working on as red, black and grey are colours that can be related to the horror genre. Similarly, the same red colour that was used for the tag line is also used for the posters masthead, working effectively to create an authentic look. The font used for the masthead is called '...' and it was selected and downloaded from Dafont.com after careful deliberation. It seemed like this particular font was most suitable as the effect on it made it look like blood dripping. This font is similar to that of the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' one. The main image is of a young female victim who is being muffled from behind and therefore enforces her vulnerability and helpless predicament. We don't even have to be told that the person doing the muffling (the killer) is a man.  This is another convention we upheld as in horror movies the majority of the women tend to be portrayed as helpless  and senseless individuals, even the pose of the victim connotes this.  Our teaser trailer does not back up the convention of slashers as the survivor is often female like in the movie Halloween and the killer is a single male for instance in My Bloody Valentine.

 

Movie poster of 'My Bloody Valentine' (2009)

A print screen from the trailer of the killer from 'My Bloody Valentine'

Along the bottom third of the poster, there is a billing block/credits which gives acknowledgment to the media companies that had a big impact on the film and also the names of the actors. Also under the credits instead of actually stating a film release date we chose 'COMING SOON' has been put in a big font right in the centre which draws some attention to it. In the bottom right hand corner of the poster we put the production company's logo and this is definitely a convention of film posters.

 

Right under 'COMING SOON' at the bottom of the poster, the website of the movie poster has been inserted and this is also another convention we upheld. 

Websites from the movie posters of 'Paranormal Activity 3' and 'I Am Legend'

By adding the website of a movie, it can allow people to get more information on the movie in more of an interactive way. The movie trailer will be available on the website as well as photo galleries and general information on the movie.

The film magazine front cover we constructed

One thing we never did was have the victim covered in blood in our poster or film magazine front cover but in the actual trailer we used "blood" as it would not have been of the slasher genre without it. To make up for the lack of blood used in the image, we used a lot of the colour red on both our poster and magazine cover. Using the colour red was necessary as this is the colour of blood and blood is a key thing in not only horrors but particularly in slashers. The film magazine front cover constructed by the group is called 'Slashings' and this is of course inspired by the horror genre we chose to develop. The use of green, red and black (amongst a few other dark colours) is a convention of horror film magazines and this can be seen on well known magazines like 'Fangoria'.

Similarly to the Fangoria magazine cover and many others we looked at, we used only one main image. The victim imitating a scared, shocked expression. She looked rough and her messy hair to create a sense of unease and discomfort. The magazine cover itself mostly upheld every other convention of a magazine cover with a big and bold masthead. This font was chosen carefully as it has somewhat of a sharp and edgy look which was suitable to use as in slashers dangerous objects like knifes and saws are used so there is a correlation.

A main cover line is used with the name of our movie trailer 'A Beautiful Nightmare' in the same font from our trailer and movie poster so it becomes a logo and 'Interview with 'victim' Adeola' in a bold, big size as it should be. There are also a number of other cover lines, a puff which in this case looks like a splash of blood, a bar code, date and issue number of the magazine and of course the magazine's website. Along the top of the magazine cover, a strap line was added.

Additionally, the most obvious convention that we went against was using a black killer as in most of British/ American horror movies it's fair to say that the killer tends to always be a caucasian male. Also as the victim is black too, this may subconsciously affect the audience of our film. When creating our trailer we never chose our actors so as to attract an audience of just an ethnic background but we used them as they were the nominated actors in the group.

Adeola's Response

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

A teaser trailer is made to help create an audience base profile and inform the public that the film is due to be released. 

During our A2 course we had to create three final pieces;  a horror teaser trailer, a horror magazine and a horror movie poster. The horror teaser trailer will be broadcasted via YouTube to the public and the horror poster will be used to help advertise the film.  The purpose of the horror magazine is to feature the horror movie and help market the film to potential viewers. 

Before we could begin our teaser trailer we had to focus on the pre production stage. As a group we knew that we had to research into the codes and conventions of a horror teaser trailer. The first step was to go on youtube and watch the production of slasher teaser trailers. We focused particularly on scream and saw.

Scream was directed by Wes Craven who worked alongside by writer Kevin Williamson. We gained in-depth knowledge as to how to create a successful teaser trailer. We learned that a teaser trailer doesn’t give away too much about the plot of the actual film but it is there to entice the audience and attract their attention as the actual film is in production.

The first step of the production was to film our teaser trailer. This process was quite demanding and difficult but once the group got use to the equipment it became easier. Also as part of the pre-production of our teaser trailer we watched many other teaser trailers and researched a list of their conventions. Some of the typical horror conventions that we found was in most trailers the main character always survives. In our teaser trailer we challenged and developed this convention based on the fact that the main character dies and the villain wins. 

Once we had decided on a plot for our teaser trailer we then had to draw up a story board and create a shooting script. This is where we decided on the camera shots, angels and lighting that we were going to use. Based on our research we came to a conclusion that close up shots and quick cuts are the most effective. This came to practise when editing our trailer and supports the codes and conventions of a successful horror trailer. During our production we decided to challenge one of the most popular conventions and that was low key lighting. As a group we thought that if we went for the opposite it would have more of an impact seeing as horror scenes aren’t normally well lit. 

As a group we believe that by challenging this convention It would create a sense of realism and fear amongst the audience and that was our aim to achieve. The timing rule was one code that we decided had to be followed, this was due to the fact that the timing is one of the only aspects that differentiates a theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer. With all the guidance that we had from our pre-production research we support the convention and  had planned for our teaser trailer to vary between 30seconds and 1minute. 

Through the pre-production stage we learned that pacing was something we had to think about in great depth. As a group we learned that most teaser trailers begin at a slow pace and speed up with a climax to end. We followed this convention as we thought it was most effective and appropriate for a slasher trailer.  Pacing was an aspect that we had to focus on in the editing of our trailer. We used Final Cut Pro. Software for this where we was able to cut shots, speed up shots and add transitions. This was a learning process for all the members of my group as none of us where particularly familiar with Final Cut Pro. 

Harry's response:

Media question 1

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Poster: Jouvan 

Firstly my group’s poster uses conventions of real media products by using a layout style which the majority of real horror posters use. The layout of our poster is very similar to the sub-genre of horror our poster is related to (Slasher). From the images below which show my groups poster and Friday the 13^th poster it is evident that our poster uses real media product conventions by following the same layout of a Slasher poster. From analysing the two posters below you can see that the tagline is at the top of both posters, the main image is in the middle, the title, credits and logos are positioned at the bottom of the poster. 

The poster also uses real media product conventions by having the font of the title in red. It follows conventions as red is a connotation of horror and red symbolises blood, danger, power and pain which are all connected to the horror genre. In addition many Slasher posters use red coloured text for their poster title for example '30 days of night' which is below. ‘Face your fears’ is the name of the font which was used in my groups poster which I downloaded from dafont.com before making the font red specifically  to follow real media conventions in order to make it look more realistic. 

My group’s poster also followed real media conventions by using a tagline. Our poster has a tagline which Slasher posters use to persuade the audience into watching their film. Our tagline followed conventions by being short, catchy and leaving the audience in suspense. 

Another convention my group used was including our company’s logo at the bottom of the poster. My group also included credits in our poster, credit is a common feature included in real media posters and I tried to make the credits on my group’s poster as identical to the real horror credits in order to follow horror poster conventions. From the images below of my group’s and Nightmare on Elm streets poster credits you can see that they both use a small font size and follow a row by row format pattern.

Our poster also follows conventions because it uses low key lighting in the main image and uses a serif font style for the tagline, film title and credits.

My groups  poster challenges conventions of real media products by featuring a black antagonist and a black victim.  Most horror film posters rarely include a black antagonist and mostly include white characters. In addition our poster challenges conventions as the victim in our poster is a female and most horror posters use the antagonist as the character in the main image of the poster.

Our poster developed conventions of real media products by using a medium shot camera angle for the main image, most posters use close ups or long shot camera angles for their main image however my group decided to challenge this to make out poster more unique.Below is an example of a real horror poster which uses a long shot for its posters main image.

The poster also developed convention as it uses 'coming soon' as a date , this entices the audience as they are unaware of when it will be shown.  Real horror posters use actual dates such as Halloween 2007 and  Saw iv which poster release dates on their posters are below.