This document discusses the conventions used and challenged in the creation of a horror film trailer. It examines the use of handheld camera shots inspired by films like Blair Witch Project. Research was also done on camera angles, sound editing, locations, and costumes. Inspiration was drawn from real horror trailers and magazines for the creation of ancillary texts like a movie poster and film magazine. While conforming to some conventions, the trailer and its marketing materials also aimed to be unconventional in hopes of intriguing audiences.

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

2. what I found out from my research
From my research I found out the following things:
• That my target audience would like a horror movie.
• Most of the effective horrors are done hand held
• I then researched some Handheld horrors:
 Peeping tom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwNMeCgnFpU
 clover field:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSFCV4uATpI
 The Blair Witch Project:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D51QgOHrCj0
I discussed which shots were effective within each of these trailers to give me some
insight into the shots I could use for my trailer and I also commented on how hand
held cameras have an impact on the trailer.

3. the theory of trailers
Trailers were made for advertisement purposes in order for the
film makers to promote the film before it comes out and it will
give them a rough idea whether people will like the film or not.
Or whether it targets a niche audience or a large audience.
Conventions of my trailer
I personally think my trailer challenges and is similar to other conventions with in the media
world for example in my trailer I took a lot inspiration from the film Eden lake where it was
based is forest/ field area. A lot of my film was filmed by handheld which I took this element
from the film Blair witch project. Although it does challenge other movie trailer because it
has quite a confusing story line the plot is a lot different to other conventional horror films.
Some of the shots especially the panning shot at the end is very different because what I did
was I made this shot go faster so it makes the audience feel disorientated And also ending
blankly with a loud scream is also very different as normally the end shot of horror trailers is
there climax point. I did this because I want people to think what happens for that girl to
scream like she did so the audience will go and see my trailer.

4. Camera Angles
Within my trailer I have a variety of camera angles and a mixture of
different shot for example:
• The canted angle of Alice and Leonna’s feet is quite different as you
don’t see this feature in many other Horror trailers.
• The back shot of Alice being followed is very effective and although
this effect isn't used in many other horrors they do actually have the
scenes where they feel like somebody is watching them which
builds the tension up within the audience.
• Another camera shot is the medium shot of Alice and Leonna with
the voice over saying “ what’s that” this is quite conventional to
other horror trailers because they turn around suddenly like they
have heard something or seen something which is used in most
conventional horror trailers.
• The ending panning shot is quite interesting because it is really fast.
Compared to real horror trailers this is very different as I have given
nothing away and it normally ends on a climax point where you see
what happens but I don’t really use this effect in order to make sure
I don’t reveal too much within my trailer.
• Obviously some of the camera angles are not as technical as the
ones on a real movie trailer but they do look real and work really
well together.

5. Sound +Editing
I did quite a bit of editing in order for my trailer to be effective and successful. The things I edited
were:
• The camera shots- some of my shots had to be cut because there was laughing or smiling, I had to
edit this out because I want my trailer to look as real as possible and conventional to other horror
films. The difference between my trailer and professional trailers is that they have professional
people who edit there trailers and they also have better equipment and technology for editing
where as we used t adobe premiere pro which is suitable for what I need.
• I didn’t edit the lighting because I wanted It to be a more believable trailer which compared to
real trailers they edit their lighting to make it darker in order to make the film darker and
mysterious.
• The sound within my trailer Is quite similar to a real trailer because I used a nice piece of music
called churched throughout my trailer which created the eerie feeling. I also added sound effects
to my trailer like most horror trailers have a banging noise or a scream this is there for effect to
make the audience more engaged to what they are watching, well my trailer has a scream at the
end when it goes black this leaves a sense of unknown to what happens and who scream it is and
also I included the heartbeat sound getting faster as Alice is being followed which again creates
tension.
• So I believe my trailer has a great use of sound and is a main element within my trailer. Compared
to other trailers It is quite similar.

6. Mise en scene
Mise en scene is about the location, costumes and props. My trailer had 2 locations
the first location was a field and the second location was an enclosed public footpath.
I chose these two locations because they have open space and they are public. This
made my trailer feel like a real trailer because it had a good location and I actually
thought about what was in the background e.g. houses and other items.
My characters wore very normal and stereotypical cloths for teenagers this would
make my trailer look like a real trailer because they are just normal average teenagers
wearing what they like to wear the only think I asked Alice to wear in the wintery
scene was a coat and scarf and this was for an audience point of view to make it seem
like it is a cold and chilly day.
Although the locations in most horror trailers are based in a House or private land.
For us this is really difficult to do unless we get written permission from the owners
and then you have to be really prepared on the shots you would like to do.

7. Inspiration for ancillary texts
The Friday the 13th movie poster
was the inspiration my movie
poster I like how the whole of the
man can been seen, I also like the
writing underneath the title.
The magazine I took inspiration
from was this empire Magazine. I
used the magazine name empire
and the massive preview special
but I changed the writing to how I
wanted it. This magazine was
inspirational to me and stood out
because of the picture, font and
colour scheme.

8. Research
For my research I looked at two magazines:
• Empire- is very simple, but very effective, I like the fact they listed film. The font is
simple but readable which is what you want for a magazine
• Total film – this magazine seemed to be more arty and it also has a clear colour
scheme which I would like to see in my magazine.
Arty
clear
Font
Good clear
image
Blue
White
red
Bar code found Colour
on all scheme
magazines.

9. For my research of movie posters I looked at the following movie posters:
• Blair Witch Project- the Blair witch project poster was very simple but is very
effective because of the back drop of the forest and the close-up of the girls eyes
looking terrified. It is very different from other horror movie posters because of
the writing in the middle (telling us about the background of the story.)
• Friday the 13th – the Friday the 13th movie poster is the one that I based mine
around because I really like the whole image of the poster the full image of the
person, and I used this effect on mine. I also placed my title at the bottom like the
Friday 13th poster so you can see the full image.
• Prom Night -The prom night poster is very arty and the emphasises the Word
prom in the title with the image of the sparkly tiara.
• The ring 2 –the ring two emphasises the word ring because the shape in the
background is of a ring and the image of the girl with the hair in front of her face it
make it remain unknown what she looks like.

10. Conventions of ancillary texts
For ancillary texts I had inspiration from the empire magazine and
I took some of the features and adapted them to my magazine
from the magazine for example the colour scheme I used red
and white but this is because the title of my film was red or
white.
For my movie poster it had the same style as the Friday 13th
poster I used the full image of will on my poster with him at an
angle looking down which was the same style and format as
the Friday 13th poster but the convention that’s different is the
colour I chose to make my poster black and white which is very
different to conventional horror movie poster because they are
stereotypically in colour.