In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? In creating the trailer, I had to view the values and themes that are represented in the production. The traditional thriller/horror trailers use captions of text, titles in the trailer help entice the viewer to watch the movie. I also looked into the codes and conventions of the thriller/horror. The codes and conventions from editing in the production, which are typically fast also analysing the camera shots and lighting effect upon mood in the scene and costume analysis. The genre of the trailer fits in with the range of sub genres in the piece of work, these included the main category of thriller with horror features and functions in the production. From the research and planning stages, the industry uses a range of genres in movies, this allowed me to position my movie trailer within these categories. This is also allowed myself to be creative in using, developing and challenging forms and conventions of real media products. Common conventions in the trailer I had to oblige to in accordance to Steve Neale “genre is a recurrence of fundamental patterns of variations” (Neale, Genre and Hollywood, 1999) following existing features had to be presented such as thus allowing the present audience to recognise the piece of work but this allowed the production to be imaginative with the ability to challenge the use real media products of an disturbing and unsettling location in the movie trailer with the use of college as the setting, The use of location was an education establishment. Kingston is an affluent area this gives the illusion of an upper class, low crime area that others may perceive. The initial sequence of the building shows and reflects escaping is problematic. The grey and dark effect shows negative aspect on the depressed emotion on the scene, a marketing strategy differentiated the product to the potential market as traditionally other movie production use a small village, town or house. The use of forms and conventions are parallel to other products in the marketplace, the perception of an innocent, safe and remote location is similar to other movies. Typically director Wes Craven known for huge blockbuster slasher films, uses “props in movies causing a heighten sense of tension to the viewer.” In my trailer I tried to broaden and challenge these generic conventions, the use of grabbing of the victim thus subverts the conventional prop themes in real media products, changing the stereotypical killing scenes. This twist develops the audience in questioning the death of the victim in the trailer.
For my film trailer, I decided upon the imagery from adapting film methods and techniques of other filmmakers have used in targeting the viewer. Director Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho has practiced and used emotion in the ability to form anxiety and sorrow amongst the audience. Hitchcock has used the placement upon the camera in its positing in order to construct and generate these feelings at an specific occasion and period. Hitchcock has used this from point of view shots on the fictional characters eyes, showing the viewpoint of the characters visual.
Hitchcock governs the intensity of the mood from the placement of camera shifting to a long shot (LU) would disperse the emotion in the scene. An unexpected and abrupt cut in editing from a long to an close up would astonish the viewer. The director uses the concept of proximity in order to plot individual scenes. Having these initial ideas, the use of an point of view shot in my trailer follows the conventions of Hitchcock’s work thus monitoring the intensity of emotions from the audience following the female victim in the scene. In my production looking through the villain’s eyes and the hand eventually grabbing the student in an close up shot controls and heightens the anxiety of the attack-taking place. The soundtrack is parallel to the scene in my film clip, which is similar to Hitchcock’s work combining the music to the violent scene about to take place in increase of tension from the non-diegetic sounds unpredicted aggressive instrumental to follow in the scene giving suspense which is reflected
In developing the codes and conventions of clothing I used typical outfits parallel to other film thriller, horror products on the market. The ability to use light colours in clothing from khaki, blue, white and grey help connote and symbolise innocence, purity and virtue in the terms of the students mise-en-scene costume following other media products.
But in terms of developing my thoughts and ideas of costume on the villain character I decided to change and challenge the perception other thriller/horror films have used in terms of clothing. The use of an one piece black robe in Scream (1996) used by director Wes Cavan used this technique in order to fully hide the identity of the villain. I challenged this particular notion of costume in order to use normal teenage street clothing from a use of an black jacket connoting evil and mystery upon the colour but this changes from the use of white shoes and blue jeans giving the perception of psychologically empty yet deep down a normal student.
But one should note the mask is a reflection upon other film trailers that hides the identity but gives an evil look upon the audience, which are Friday the 13 and Scream uses in congestion to my film trailer. The typical conventions which are depicted other horror/thriller trailers is the method of restricting information amongst the viewer e.g in the film trailer Psycho, Hitchcock presents information upon the viewer thus creating tension and suspense from restricting visuals to the fictional character but allowing the audience to view beforehand. If certain aspects of the scene with dramatic parts is eventually taking place let this be begin, develop and this would built the suspense. Hitchcock, The Family plot, 1976 uses this presenting the brake fluids leaking which is unknown by the victims in the scene. According to Hitchcock has state "real suspense is created letting the viewer have information" upon the scene." This technical theory used by Hitchcock was supported and applied to my movie trailer, oncoming the villain the viewer is aware, danger is shown beforehand before the fictional character/victim is known to the problem. In order to generate ideas for the titles focusing the production my initial idea, which was to research various other thrillers, and then allowed me to gain insight into the differing uses of fonts. The research conducted found that the titles were generally prominent and noticeable, whilst directing the audience’s focus to the colouring, which is conventionally white, which had in turn influenced my own work into colouring. The use of white colours for my own title, because white connotes predominantly grief, death and emptiness which all outlined my thriller theme.
When examining backgrounds, I selected a black background in a variety of shots breaking the traditional norms and values of the thriller/horror trailer; this connotes sorrow and death, which also highlights the atmosphere of the thriller production. This is because in implementing these colours the focus group said that the colours were “ distinct” and “striking”. This breaks the traditional conventional thriller /horror film trailers as text is incorporated in shots but mine follows between the shots which heightens suspense and tension for the audience.
I followed the codes and conventions when editing, because it allowed me to control the effect of the work piece for example doing swift, rapid cuts. In doing this I was able to devote a majority of the piece on the timely process, which included various detailed work for example,
when the protagonist seizes the antagonist, in editing this scene I increased the cut shots to 0.2 seconds. Which caused a variety of quick, short scenes, which was to emphasis the danger placed upon the victim. I also reviewed the way the audience was introduced to each character and the impact this had, this allowed me to coordinate the music and sound effects, for example the introduction of the protagonist clutching the antagonist- in which the soundtrack was postponed which generated a climax and increasing the apprehension of the audience. When I edited my trailer I used soundtracks which reflected thriller/horror, the first soundtrack was gripping which highly contrasted to the second in which was seen as rapid outlining the action. This conformed to the stereotypical thriller/horror soundtracks for a trailer, which meets the needs which is parallel to other trailers in the market place within the genre. This technique was influenced by various other thriller trailers e.g. the trailer the Unknown (1927, director: Tod Browning) In editing my piece I found it had taken over two hours to produce the work, however assembling the trailer was advantageous as it allowed me to generate a skilled ‘Hollywood trailer’. Whilst editing I used numerous transitions in order to associate every shot together, a transition which I excessively used within my piece was fade and straight cuts emphasising quick action, the transitions were also implemented whilst the title and sound effect was shown for example a scream whilst also presenting the title “silence is golden”.
The majority of my piece was fundamentally comparable to other thriller/horror work, research into trailers for example The movie Deception, Marcel Langenegger, (2008) and The Happening trailer M.Night Shyamalan (2008) had impacted my piece greatly, and the techniques also added to the accomplishment of my piece. Techniques and methods used in varying thriller/horror trailers were also implemented to create my trailer and also by advancing my learning of the production of a horror/thriller. In effect I believe my trailer was a unique and innovative work piece, which was influenced on expert trailers. In terms of camera angles, to an extent I followed the generic codes and conventions of other thriller/ horror trailers in the marketplace, this allowed the audience to understand the protagonist in the scene with the use of an close up during the beginning of the trailer. In depicting the vulnerability of the protagonist in the trailer production, the position of the camera with the use of a high angle shot for dramatic purpose shown the powerless of the character. This is typical by Wes Cavarne in Scream (1996) showing the villain grabbing the women showing the fear in emotion from the characters aspect, which is parallel to my scene. In following this scene the next shot I abided by the generic rules in using the use of an point of view (POV) shot thus giving tension and suspense on the audience viewing from the perspective of the antagonist eyes. Also the use of a point of view shot for a handheld camera caused the viewer to have a restrictive narrative in order to convey suspense.
The use of an extreme close up (ECU) of the eye breaks the traditional conventions of an thriller/horror this shot through the door hole this shows dramatic tension and restricts the view for the audience with the use of diegetic sounds of noise from the villain this creates a sense of danger and uncertainly for the audience as the murderer is trying to open the classroom door.
Also during the end scene of the feet dragging across the room with blood shown also restricts the audience with the unexpected scene of the victim lower half of the body, this also gives uncertainly of the girl/protagonist. This adds to the suspense with the use of an cliff hanger helping lure the viewer watching to view the movie, not knowing the outcome or result of the final ending. This follows all trailers used by directors. In order to conform to typical editing of trailers within this genre, I followed the use of an black fade to end of the sequence with the mask on the table and the tagline Silence is the most powerful scream follows up with the billboard also enticing the audience.
If I were to dispatch my work to the market my contenders would be to the standard teenage films, which is parallel to the stereotypical generic codes and convention of a horror/thriller and also focuses on the envisioned target. Poster: Throughout my research of posters, I am able to see that there are many characteristics portrayed in many different posters. These are: • • • • •
An image that is in the main focus A large title A billing block The date that the movie will be released A tagline
Within my own poster i had decided to choose colours that are very prominent with the theme of thriller/horror. Therefore, i had resulted in using mostly dark and gloomy colours in order to set the scene of the film. This is because the audience will directly be able to notice what the theme of the poster is and what the poster is trying to signal. I had used the main colours black, white, grey and red. Red connotes power, strength, danger and determination, showing how the villain is on a hunt and not afraid about anything that gets into his way. The colour black connotes death, evil and mystery providing imagery to which the film is a mystery and the colours convey the setting of a thriller/horror film. However, with saying that I used the typical colours of many thriller/horror posters I tried to add features to try and enhance the features of my poster relative to others. For example, in comparison to the scream poster my poster adds extra information and also provides a sense of imagery and intrigue from the audience shown by the multiple exposures of the main image of the masked man which takes the majority of the poster. This in comparison with the scream poster shows very simple and dark poster with the colours white and black shown to be more prominent. Also, compared to many posters such as Scream and Friday the 13th my poster has a muted placement where the main bulk of colours have been toned down with aspects of grey in order to increase the lighting of the image and the overall arrangements of objects within the poster. Therefore, this allowed the main focus of the 'masked man' to be in the most focus and more visible to the audience. In terms of detail I had decided to use the colour red in minimal amounts concentrating mainly on the main title of the film. The main reason I had decided to this is because I wanted the title to stand out more than anything else adding some information to the poster and allowing the audience to remember the name of the film. In my opinion a couple of film posters do use this feature in order to make certain words or objects more noticeable in order for the viewer to take away some information with them. With the majority of posters, my poster compromised a tagline of only six words. The taglines are used in order to be memorised by the audience when they first see them. They should also provide some interest and confusion in which the audience will have questions which they would want answered. Many taglines are memorable due to the small amount of words used, I decided to comply to this feature as it is a very effective way to grab the audiences attention. In many taglines of thriller/horror film, a very big hint or the main story is given away. For example, in Scream 4 the tagline is 'New Decade, New Rules.' Even though this is not an immediate clue to the plot of the movie it still can be interpreted very easily due to the fact that there have been many movies beforehand and therefore the majority of the story has already been given away as it is just a continuation of a series of movies. In another example, Friday the 13th, 'Welcome to crystal lake' is used suggesting to the audience that characters of film will go to 'crystal lake' which will be the main setting of the thriller/horror film. However, the tagline I used is 'Silence is a powerful scream,' this allows the audience to question the movie and personal perception and judgement. Again like with many posters I also included a title which is the main base of many posters as it clearly distinguishes which film is being shown. The title has been positioned near the centre of the poster in order to clearly see the title. I decided to incorporate the image of dripping blood through the title in order to give clues to the audience and to highlight the thriller/horror theme. The title also takes a huge place within the poster as it needs to be large in order to catch the viewers attention. The billing block was placed at the bottom of the poster and like many generic posters it was placed using a centred text. The reason I decided to comply with this general structure is because I wanted to create a uniformed and persistent theme so the audience can recognise the fact that it is a poster for a film. However, i still stuck with the theme and placed the block in
grey mainly to produce an ordered structure. This is therefore different from conventional posters as the building block seems to be in the light and quite noticeable. However, as the relative proportions of the other text makes it quite unimportant. For the main image I had decided to use only one individual who would be the main subject in the poster. This is a very common feature used throughout many posters of films. The main reason I had decided to go with this arrangement is because I only wanted the main actor in the frame to give the audience a sense of what the thriller/horror film is about. Also, by using the 'villain' on the poster it also allows the audience to get to know the character and may be intrigued to know if he would ask as they thought, giving a sense of imagery. This is very similar to certain thriller/ horror posters for example Scream also features the simplicity of a very well known mask at the front of the poster and also Friday the 13th. Both of these film posters shows the main 'killer' as very mysterious and not known which is how the film is intended to be, however, I had decided to change the way my poster was taken by allowing some specific characteristics of the main character to be seen in order to create a sort of relationship between him and the audience in which they would be able to notice him. This can be clearly seen through the beard. I also slightly changed my variations compared to the traditional thriller/horror posters as I decided not to keep the main image as simple as other posters therefore incorporated a multiple exposure on the face of the image to connote features of speed, strength and also ambiguity.
Magazine:
For my magazine front cover, the magazine name Reel is in keeping with the codes and conventions of generic movie magazines within the industry such as Film and Movie magazine, the name is parallel of the identity of others in the marketplace, this is successful in terms of targeting and identifying the audience. This new magazine would be placed in cinemas and retail outlets which would help sell the product displayed. The masthead follows the norms of style using a large bold written wording displayed equivalent to others. The rules of placement is challenged due to the nature of the new magazine on the market thus the masthead has been placed in clearly seen by the audience in order to sell, unlike other established magazines such as Film and Movie which is behind the image, My magazine doesn't follow this convention. The main image of the protagonist follows the norms and values of others in the marketplace, the use of the main image being central. But the image doesn't confined to the generic magazines as covering the masthead which is a common feature and convention on front covers, but mine is below the masthead not obscuring the masthead being shown to the targeted market as said beforehand is an new publication on market, but obstructing the masthead would gives problems to the marketplace in giving and selling the brand identity. The mask and blood pouring down the eye gives the genre of the movie helping entice and sell the magazine, this follows the conventions of Film publication using this feature is depicting the cast member on the front cover, also reinforces the horror/thriller genre. The main colours that have been incorporated within my magazine is red, black and white. The colour red has connotations of energy, danger and strength. The use of red allows text to be clearly seen as it is quite a bright colour. The colour black connotes death and evil which is the continuing theme of thriller/horror. Black gives a sense of depth and therefore also also allows phrases to be seen very clearly for example the title 'reel talk' which is one of the most obvious things that can be seen in the magazine due to the colour and the large size. There are also elements of yellow which are not as clearly visible but provide some colour to show the variations in films available due to the fact that the magazine is appealing to different audiences. The use of cover lines in the magazine helps to question the audience in sell-lines, these help entice the audience of the reader to buy the magazine, the generic codes and conventions is used by all publications in the marketplace, during my magazine I went by these methods in keeping the interest of the reader. On the bottom right of the magazine the barcode has been placed which is the prominent place in the majority of magazines. The main reason that the barcode has been placed here is because it is not an important feature of the theme or genre of the magazine and therefore it is placed in a discrete place avoiding distraction. However, the barcode is important for the general arrangement of objects within the magazine in order to be sold in shops.