3. At the beginning of this project I first researched into existing horror teaser trailer so I could get a good understanding of what was necessary to include in my very own horror teaser trailer. My main research was into the convention of trailers as they are essential into creating a successful teaser trailer. Here is the link to my research: http://horrorbloga2.blogspot.com/2011/02/conventions-of-trailers.html http://horrorbloga2.blogspot.com/2011/02/anaysing-trailer.html
4. In a group one of the main convention we discussed was what type of shots and footage that was going to be used while the film was still in production. This is so the film can be promoted or a back story could be created for the audience to gain more understanding about the film. During my concept one convention I focused on was the protagonists in horror genre. During my research I found out that most film used big, bulky men as the protagonist as they were more effective way into scare people, examples of films are: So during my concept our group decided to go against this typical horror convention of big scary man being a killer, the protagonist and decided to go with a young female. With further research I realised children are often used in supernatural psychological horror films like ‘The Exorcist’, because taking away their innocence and replacing it with a killer instinct is much scarier and more unexpected then a typical ‘alpha male’ serial killer and this is another reason we decided to go with young female.
5. To ensure that the trailer was successful we tried follow closely all the conventions of already films which are in productions. We did this so we did not create any confusion to our audience about the genre or the film and so the trailer met its purpose to serve the audience as a introducing the film. I also did research into costumes, props, character and location. The purpose of our group was to create a teaser trailer that created mystery and enigma. We did this by using a female protagonists and the type of location for example we decided to use the forest as one of our location because it’s a conventional location for a horror genre. The forest is a place where things can hide, a place known to be mysterious if you alone and not safe at all. Examples of this would be ‘The Ring’ as the girl is mysterious and ‘Friday the 13th’ as they use the mask to keep the protagonist a mystery.
6. One convention that my media product challenged is the narrative cliché that good always wins over evil. This is the key feature of Todorov narrative theory, but my film will not have a satisfactory conclusion it will challenge the usual conventions of horror movies, something often done is the saw film. Also another example is Paranormal activities.
7. Sound The most common used technique in horror film is the use of sound in creating sense of mystery and suspense. All horror trailers start of with slow pace background music to create suspense and when the main action comes in the music becomes fast pace this creates impact on a trailer. Here are example Case 39 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wtgVerQuso Day Breakers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYiMygqlfo horror trailer use both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds to create suspense and also tension. As the non-digetic sounds volume increases the tempo of the trailer increase, as the temp of the music builds, so does the audience anticipation. We also adapt this convention into our trailer to increase the audience anticipation.
8. Other Conventions. We used our trailer to introduce the main character of the film which is the little girl. This makes the audience feel more familiar with the character when they go and eventually see the film. This is a common convention used in trailers to promote the film by using their star characters so some audience may be drawn into the film jus by recognising the character. In addition we followed the convention in putting the name of the film and the release date at the end of the trailer. The reason for this is that this information is most important for the audience and so they do not forget about it.
9. Camera shots/other conventions The young girl is firstly represented as a victim of child abuse as seen by the high angle shot. The audiences therefore feel strong attachment to the girl, even when she takes revenge. The fact that the audience don’t know if she’s right or wrong both attracts us to her but repulse us at the same time. A common convention of films such as ‘The Exorcist’ or Norman Bates in ‘Psyco’ Also there is a high vs low angle shot in the trailer. We try to stick with what we learnt from AS about shot types. For example at the beginning we look at the girl from the a high angle shot however when the girl becomes the victim we look at her from a low angle shot. This represent us the switch in power of the girl from the beginning of the trailer to the end of the trailer.
10. MAGAZINE COVER Before the creation of the magazine cover I spent a lot of time researching into existing magazine covers. The reason for this was so I could get my magazine cover to look as professional as possible. I research into the convention that was used in magazine covers and try to include as much of them as possible. This task allowed me to have a basis on to create a good quality magazine cover such the empire etc Research: http://horrorbloga2.blogspot.com/2011/02/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html http://horrorbloga2.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-depth-analysis-on-magazine-covers.html
11. Magazine cover We decided to call the magazine Britcinema as we wanted to target a British audience and also a global international audience. I decided to the tile to be plain while with a a black showdow around the title of the magazine, I wanted this because I wanted the audience to be able to recognize the magazine which just one glance. The font is big and clear and easy to read. I also added a strapline to the magazine to give it a bit of push and to maximize attention. Normally magazine cover adopts a close up or a mid shot of the featured film star on the cover and thus I did the same here. I decided to put a mid shot of the main character from the trailer so that the readers are able to recognize the character straight away. Also by putting a glowing effect on the character it has allowed it to stand out from the magazine cover and this reader are drawn to the magazine. By arranging the main character in the middle of the magazine cover it allows me to have enough space on the sides to add subheading of other article in the magazine.
12. Film poster To go with the trailer, I also designed and created a film poster for my campaign. I did some research into other film poster and this gave me a base and ideas of how my finished product would look like. http://horrorbloga2.blogspot.com/2011/02/conventions-of-film-posters.html http://horrorbloga2.blogspot.com/2011/02/anaysing-posters.html