Horror Trailer In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? To create a trailer that followed the conventions of a real media product, I used format research so that I had knowledge on what I could do to replicate a pre-existing horror film. As far as conventions go, I tried to stick to what a typical trailer would contain, so that the audience would most likely be able to identify it, and it would follow a basic structure. However, there were some examples where I challenged what you would expect to find in a horror trailer, for example the way that my characters did not fit into the categories that you would normally be able to identify in terms of mis en scene and role. One of the first thing we can take away from the trailer is that it is 1 minute and 46 seconds long, following conventions as it is less than five minutes and does not give us enough time to have too much of the plot revealed to us. Trailers like this are generally more effective as it leaves a lot to the imagination and when we watch the movie we don’t know what to expect and are still surprised by features that are not shown in the movie itself. It is just enough time to summarise what the movie is about and give us a general feel as to what challenges the protagonists will have to overcome.

I started off my trailer with the green band screen which is almost always used in a horror trailer as it needs to be very clear what the restrictions are and who the trailer will be accessible to. Including this at the start of my trailer proves that my product uses codes and conventions as a real trailer, which helps to increase the quality of what I have produced. In a cinema, the implication of a green

band screen is that the production is just about to begin so as well as appearing professional, it can also sub consciously build up anticipation of the viewer as well as reminding them that the performance will be for restricted viewers. Informing the viewer like this has a professional result, as they are likely to trust the green band screen after seeing it so many times in film, and understanding what it represents. After the green band, there are production companies which have been introduced to my trailer. Warner Bros are an infamous production company and have a very high reputation in the movie industry so I selected them for my trailer. This particular production company is notorious for using

big Hollywood film stars and producing a lot of successful films over the years, often being big hits with the box office. A big production company would not support films if they did not believe that it would be successful, they only pick ones that they think will appeal to people and make high profits so this leads us to the conclusion that the film is going to be well worth our time and we are more likely to watch it in a cinema. Film production logos are usually always within the first

part of the trailer as it is a big influence of what makes us go out and watch a movie. The production company's reputation will hugely benefit the film trailer if it has a good reputation, for example if people have watched and enjoyed a film produced by the same company they may link it to other films they have watched by them. When the viewer identifies that there is a high end production company that has invested in my movie, then they would make an assumption that the movie they were just about to watch was of high quality. They may also think of other movies that the production company has also invested in, and if the movie was successful then they may automatically relate that value to the film. I also decided to go for this particular version of the Warner Bros logo as it has a grungy and unsettling feel to it, which I feel identifies with the horror movie trailer that I have produced. The thunder and lightning that interrupt the logo transition set the scene for the trailer, as we often associate this kind of weather with fear and death.

At the very start of the trailer we are shown a typical school environment, and a very slow piano tune is played alongside with the footage. The narrative of my horror trailer follows a structure as it

initially has obvious sub groups that you would expect to see in a typical school environment. The binary opposite of good and evil characters isn’t really so clear in my trailer as the leading female character turns murderous towards the end of the trailer, but only as a subject of being mistreated by the bullies. Without a typical narrative structure genre films would not be recognisable to audiences and equally films would

not be able to break with predictability. I have still used stereotypes with my characters such as the idea that lone wolf typed characters’ dress differently, with the mise en scene of the main character being quite gothic. The bullies in the other hand are wearing quite comfortable clothing, and appear to be generic teenage girls that are hanging out in a clique. Just like a typical horror movie trailer, my narrative follows a chain reaction of bad events which eventually lead to the chaos that is displayed towards the very end of the video. I based a large majority of my plot on the film “Carrey” as the leading main character doesn’t really slot under the stereotype of being evil per say, but more of a subject of her environment. My main character initially shows signs of being very passive, but has an extreme mood swing which we are revealed to later on in the trailer.

In order to give some hint to the plot I used titled that I interjected between footage so that the viewer could begin to understand the narrative. The use of full stops after the statement “In every school there is one” create suspense as there is obviously more to come, and due to

how not a lot of the plot is revealed at this point, the audience would more than likely be interested as to how the plot develops. I later use three more in the trailer which eventually lead to the title of the film, which is put at the very end of the trailer as it is the most important thing that needs to be left in the memory of the audience. Even if the viewer takes nothing away but the title, at least they will have knowledge of what my film is and they would be more likely to advertise my film via the word of mouth. A lot of elements of the trailer give away that it is a supernatural horror, a conventional horror movie trailer will have lots of fast paced camera shots which are there to create a level of tension. For an influence I used “The ring” trailer as it seemed to have a lot of this and since the narrative isn't in a chronological order, it is very unsettling to watch. I based my own trailer off of this and used a slightly jumbled up narrative to add a sense of confusion to the trailer. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Throughout the entire duration of the construction and research of my horror movie trailer I used multiple different technologies to present the research that I had done. I used technology such as slide share, Prezi and survey monkey. Survey monkey really benefited my trailer as in order to produce a successful piece of media, it needs to appeal to the target audience it was intended for. I had my own ideas as to what I wanted to create, but with the opinions of my peers It helped me to make a more informed decision, and I created a final product that reflects their opinions and advice. Survey monkey was a really easy format to work with as well as they had custom templates for a questionnaire, and after I had gathered responses from my peers it gave me an option to analyse the results in the format of graphs/statistics. Youtube also provided me with a different format of presenting various elements of my research, and final product and allowed me to integrate video into my blog. I found that youtube was the best format to upload my trailer as it is the most popular video sharing site, and therefore would have the largest reach when it came to the reach of my customer. Youtube gave me a choice when it came to how I wanted to edit my final trailer, and made it very easy to view on my blog.

how not a lot of the plot is revealed at this point, the audience would more than likely be interested as to how the plot develops. I later use three more in the trailer which eventually lead to the title of the film, which is put at the very end of the trailer as it is the most important thing that needs to be left in the memory of the audience. Even if the viewer takes nothing away but the title, at least they will have knowledge of what my film is and they would be more likely to advertise my film via the word of mouth. A lot of elements of the trailer give away that it is a supernatural horror, a conventional horror movie trailer will have lots of fast paced camera shots which are there to create a level of tension. For an influence I used “The ring” trailer as it seemed to have a lot of this and since the narrative isn't in a chronological order, it is very unsettling to watch. I based my own trailer off of this and used a slightly jumbled up narrative to add a sense of confusion to the trailer. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Throughout the entire duration of the construction and research of my horror movie trailer I used multiple different technologies to present the research that I had done. I used technology such as slide share, Prezi and survey monkey. Survey monkey really benefited my trailer as in order to produce a successful piece of media, it needs to appeal to the target audience it was intended for. I had my own ideas as to what I wanted to create, but with the opinions of my peers It helped me to make a more informed decision, and I created a final product that reflects their opinions and advice. Survey monkey was a really easy format to work with as well as they had custom templates for a questionnaire, and after I had gathered responses from my peers it gave me an option to analyse the results in the format of graphs/statistics. Youtube also provided me with a different format of presenting various elements of my research, and final product and allowed me to integrate video into my blog. I found that youtube was the best format to upload my trailer as it is the most popular video sharing site, and therefore would have the largest reach when it came to the reach of my customer. Youtube gave me a choice when it came to how I wanted to edit my final trailer, and made it very easy to view on my blog.