1. B Y E M M A N U E L L A H A G A N H A G A N
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP
OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCT?
2. • During research I noticed that the convention of
most horror genre posters had a certain convention
to them. As for the posters it would be either the
protagonist or antagonist that would be put in
placed on the poster however in some cases it is
not so as we have examples like Cabin in the
woods and SAW II.
3. • Also from looking at other posters like Cabin in the woods,
SAW II and Alien I noticed that there was a similar concept to
them except this was a different side to the type of
convention where the protagonist or the antagonist is shown
on the poster finish. These movie posters showed that there
are also other ways of getting the audience’s attention with
an object that is significant from the movie or a location in
which the movie shall be placed in which is makes the
audience wonder what it would be about.
4. • Cabin in the woods is a twisted up house that is
hanging in the air from this the audience who
analyse the poster wondering what it is about and
what the house has to do with the movie.
• Saw II used a broken fingernail that looked damaged
and extremely battered and had made the symbol
of the II to indicate that it is the second version of
Saw, this is a very simple idea which really did make
an impact, and from first glance the audience will
automatically detect its genre.
• Alien is also another poster that had this convention
and it had a spaceship egg, kind of glowing and
mysterious looking at this the audience may think
that this poster is an Action Sci-Fi however when you
read the tagline it does change the concept of the
genre “In space no one can hear you”.
5. • Taking these examples I decided to base my trailer poster on
the combination of one concept, which is having the
protagonist or antagonist.
• Looking at my poster I kind of went for the concept of Alien
where the background is dark and having something that
attracts the attention of the audience, with a tagline line that
insinuates what the movie is about.
6. • I decided to incorporate these ideas from the
research; I ended up testing a lot of shot from my
photo shoot which was:
7. • But for my I selected a photo of the antagonist to
be the photo, as at first I really didn’t know how I
was going to make it scary or relating to my trailer
but as I started getting into the usage of Photoshop
the ideas followed.
8. • Looking at the different posters I invoked the
conventions of keeping the poster dark and making
the poster have a mysterious feel to it. From what I
had analysed I kept the background dark and
lighting the lighting on the photo itself with a
mysterious touch. I added the eye colour and
redness of the skin to make the antagonist look evil
to make the audience feel like it is watching them
to create the enigma and encourage the
audience to go watch the film.
9. • The eyes took a while to conform to, as I added this
effect because I thought the original photo wasn’t
grabbing enough so adding the colour and effect
to the face I thought would make it more grabbing
to the audience.
10. • When creating my magazine front cover I tried to include conventions
that I had seen in the real media text that I researched during my
research period. Like “Magazine of the year” that I saw in the Tron
Legacy magazine cover, a barcode, date, price and the magazine
“Empire” title. By adding these different features it made my magazine
look more realistic and professional. I made the date and price to go
down in sequential sizes from the smallest big to the smallest small
because as looking at the other real media they have this code
however the size is as small it is because the rest of the text on the
magazine is to attract the audience and for the person to not be
discouraged by the price but feel eager to buy it because it is
interesting and information giving.
11. • Also in other horror magazines they feature a
person from the film so this is either the protagonist
or the antagonist or a significant character in the
film, but I realised that it would be better to use the
protagonist as I had already used the antagonist in
the poster, and I didn’t want to reveal too much of
the antagonist identity. A convention of a horror
magazine is for the front cover to have eye contact
with the audience to get them interested into
buying the magazine.
12. • The added text and picture that is located and the right of the
magazine cover are of exclusive interviews and an upcoming
movie blockbuster which was Star Trek: Into the Darkness. Normally
some of the magazines would have the pictures and preview of
certain films however Ii broke from that convention and went with
INTERVIEWS to attract the audience as some people would like to
see more of what goes on BTS. Also with the Star Trek section there
is the preview of the Star Trek addition to the magazine and this
implies that there may be more surrounding the magazine they are
buying than they thought.
13. • As the title of the movie is “Captured” I made the
text white for it to stand out of the magazine as the
biggest text on the page, breaking away from the
normal convention of dull colours for the text.
14. • As the protagonist face is the main selling point of the
magazine I didn’t want to cover the detail of her features
because normally the “Empire” would be covered by the front
photo but in this case I put it over to be more professional.
• Empire knows that they can cover their master head because
they are sure that their audience know their name very well so
they don’t have to caution with the hiding of the mater head.
15. • Before planning my trailer I did some research into
the genre of Horror and Thriller movie trailers to
make further my understanding of the codes and
conventions of them so I will be able to incorporate
it into my trailer. Some trailers like HATES and the
Stepfather which has a confusing but clear story line
at the beginning then the horror being unleashed.
16. • Watching these clips showed me the importance of
horror and effects that have to be in the trailer and
it also opened my understanding to the importance
of lighting in the trailers. It is clear that dark lighting is
used very much in horror trailers, there is also a used
of high key lighting that is used to present and show
the twist of the story and allow the audience to
understand what is going on an looking at this as
one of the important conventions for horror genre-d
films it has been put into account and present in my
trailer.
17. • Analysing HATES and the Pact had the codes of
representing the clash between good and devil
with a puzzling storyline and showing most of the
characters to the audience for them to try and
guess the storyline themselves. However in my trailer
I wanted to keep the storyline hidden but yet
understanding so the audience will want to know
what happens, also the showing of good and evil I
showed in my trailer.
18. • Looking at the linearity of the Pact and HATES and
the Stepfather I noticed that it was pretty neat with
the characters and what they are there for,
however the revealing of the story is still hidden in
somewhat way and no evidence of how it would
end.
19. • For music I found that it is a very key convention in
building certain suspense and atmosphere for the trailer.
Eerie, heavy and tension building music is present and a
significant convention in horror trailer and also diegetic
music. Non diegetic sound and diegetic sound
combined are extremely import to be able to build the
narrative of the story and atmosphere in any horror
trailer.
• The jump scenes which are present in most film trailers
were only included around the ending of my trailer this is
a convention that I changed up a bit as my storyline is
kind of diegetic at the beginning however the enigma
and tension is not lost in my trailer.
