this is for my media coursework.

1. How do your products use or challenge conventions and how
do they represent social groups or issues?
By: Teddy

2. The Genre of Horror - Lighting
In the genre of horror an important aspect that i found when researching was the
lighting of the films/trailers. Majority of horror films follow a dark lighting scheme in
order to set the atmosphere and foreshadow that this is a dark/daunting film. As
this is the reaction that I wanted to get from my audience members I followed this
aspect in my teaser trailer and official trailer, I did this by filming at night so it was
dark when we were filming outside and made sure there was minimal lighting and
created shadows when we were filming inside.

3. The Genre of Horror - Music
After my previous knowledge of horror films from my coursework last year I was
familiar with the fact that horror films tend to use dark/eerie music to entice the
audience and set the atmosphere. I followed this aspect and added dark music to
both my teaser and official trailer. However, what I did learn after watching
examples of trailers such as ‘IT’ and ‘The Boy’ is that at the start of these trailers
the music is neutral and this in my eyes was to set a state of equilibrium. I wanted
to follow this aspect especially, this lead me to having slow pace music at the start
of my official trailer to set the state of equilibrium and then when the montage
starts my music changes and it intensifies which will initially catch the audience off
guard and intrigue them.

4. The Genre of Horror - Posters/Websites
This year, it was asked of us to create a poster and website along with our trailers.
This was very daunting to me as I had never created either before. So I
researched posters and websites that were released along with horror films and it
gave me a sense of direction of what I needed to do so that they both fit within the
genre of horror. For my website I wanted to keep it very simplistic and easy (the
‘IT’ official website inspired me for this look and design) I made it very dark with a
black background and used a dark red for the accent colours and now that it is
complete I believe it fits the genre perfectly and is what audiences would expect.
My poster consists of one main image (again this was inspired by ‘IT’) and I
placed my protagonist as the main image and added shadows and a dark
background, again this was to fit in with the dark colour scheme that horrors tend
to follow.

5. The Genre of Horror - Colour Contrast
Research showed that colours that relate to the genre of horror are very dark and
have shadows. This lead me to adding dark tones and shadows to my official
trailer and teaser trailer to help set the atmosphere and follow the generic colour
bored of a horror film. This was also continued with my poster and website. Dark
colours such as black, grey and a dark red are often thought to spark thoughts of
fear amongst the audience, this gave me the idea to make sure my poster and
website followed the dark colour scheme that horror films tend to follow, again this
was to also to notify the audience that this is a release of a film that follows the
genre of horror.

6. The Genre of Horror - Storyline
Depending on the subgenre of horror the storylines differ but they always scare
the audience. As I decided to follow the sub-genre of psychological and
supernatural my storyline included two normal girls who are haunted by a dead
ghost and are trying to survive a game which they played to try and contact the
ghost. Horror films often follow ‘a three act structure’ the first act is where the
protagonist is introduced, then leads onto the problem and the final step is trying
to solve the problem and survive. I however, did not follow this structure as I
thought it did not follow my storyline and fit in with how I wanted my trailers to go.
So instead I started off with a state of equilibrium to trick the audience into thinking
everything is how it should be. I then introduce the villain through a montage and
leave the trailer with the two main characters waking up and screaming, almost
like none of the action ever happened, in hope to spark interest and curiosity.

7. The Genre of Horror - Representation
In horror films females are more often classed as the ‘victim’ and the ones that are
in danger, they are portrayed as weak and vulnerable, I followed this stereotype
as my main characters are both female and are represented as being weak and in
danger. However, men are usually portrayed as the ‘saviour’ and in my case I had
no male actors and the females were the ones who saved themselves from the
villain. The villain is always expected to do one thing and that is to kill the main
characters. Stereotypically the villain is always male, however over most recent
years females have been introduced as villains, as well as the children and elders.
My villain is female, so once again I have not followed the stereotypical
representation of the ‘villain’ in horror films.