1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL LIFE MEDIA
PRODUCTS.
Evaluation Part 1:

2. Genre translates to
'type' and this is extremely
important to the film industry in
particular as it helps audiences to
identify which 'type' of films that
they enjoy watching. The most
important theorist in this field is
Thomas Schatz (Hollywood
Genres, 1981) who defined 'genre
theory' as being the best way to
understand media texts as the
audience is able to expect different
elements in each genre of films. We
knew that when created our own
production, we had to be aware of
the conventions of both horror films
and horror trailers.

3. The horror genre has sub genres such as gory, psychological
or actionhorrors.
Based on our own
preferences, our trailer for
The Hanging Tree is a
psychological horror such as
Paranormal Activity (2007).
This sub-genre of horror is
usually rated at a 15 rather
than an 18 as it tends to
contain less body horror
which is a generic feature of
gory horrors such as Day of
the Dead (1985).

4. We focussed on generic
features such as the
creepy location
and theme of isolation
which we had seen in films
such as The Hills Have Eyes
(2006). These can be seen in
our trailer with the shots of the
dark lake and the shots of the
wide open heath with the
dead ferns thus having
connotations of loneliness and
decay.

5. We briefly used the generic
feature of body horror
within our trailer with the shots of
the naive victim covered in blood,
and at one stage with blood
dripping from her hands. We
included this because we felt that
it would encourage a wider
audience to come and watch our
film because fans of gory horror
would see the generic feature that
is usually associated with their
favourite sub genre. Such as the
infamous scene in Hostel (2005)
where the American male hero
has his tendons in his ankles cut.

6. We used lots of close up
shots within our trailer, the
most successful of which was the
shot of the hanging antagonist
when she opens her eyes. The
proximity to her face feels as
though she is really in the
audience’s personal space and
makes them feel uncomfortable.
This technique was used
famously in The Blair Witch
Project (1999) when the main
protagonist is crying into the
camera, an image that is also
featured on many of its posters.

7. We also conventionally used
expressionist angles and
collision cutting which are
some of the most important generic
features of psychological horror as
they build tension and make the
audience jump. This technique was
used in films such as The Crazies
(2010) in the prison cell scenes
where one of the crazies jumps out
at the protagonist. We used
expressionist angles with the
canted angle on the running
shot of the naive victim character as
this has connotations of chaos and
confusion.

8. Meanwhile, collision cutting
is apparent in the scene where the
male hero falls down the hill and it
cuts from an extreme close up
kinetic shot to a still long shot of him
crumpled at the bottom of the hill.
This “collision” of shot lengths
disorientates the audience this
technique was used in Friday the
13th (2009) When the female victim
is water skiing and there are lots of
loud kinetic shots until the
antagonist Jason appears and the
shots become very quiet and still.

9. Horror trailers have a slightly
different set of conventions to
horror films, they tend to tease the
audience more with implications of
violence rather than showing them on
screen. The purpose of trailers is to
set the narrative and encourage fans
of the genre to go and watch the whole
film. This means that they have their
own generic features, especially in
regard to pacing. Our trailer begins
with a slow happy
montage of all of the characters
laughing and messing around, this is
generic of horror trailers because it
sets the scene and introduces key
characters to the audience.

10. These montages also used in
trailers for The Purge (2013)
and Friday the 13th (2009).
During our section, the tension
is being drawn out within this
slow happy montage as it has
the slow but creepy tune of
'The Hanging Tree' underneath
it, this use of contrapuntal
music makes the audience feel
uncomfortable and slightly on
edge. Initially he pace of our
The Hanging Tree trailer is
quite slow, this is because it is
a psychological trailer and this
draws out the tension and
makes the audience feel tense
and fearful.

11. To contrast with the build-up on
tension, our trailer finishes with an
extremely fast montage with
a high pitched crescendo
underneath it. This sudden increase
in pace should make the heart rate
of the audience pick up and have a
sense of chaos to the trailer. The
intention was this startling change in
pace would ensure the trailer would
stick in the audiences mind after the
trailer has finished. We took this
style of trailers from Saw 2 (2005)
and 30 Days of Night (2007), both
of which finish with quick montages
with shot lengths of less than 1
seconds for a sustained 10-15
second period.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vIxz2SRVo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxC0Um9zSqY

12. The auteur influence that I feel
makes the trailer distinctive is probably
the gory elements of the trailer, such as
the body horror of the makeup on
the antagonist’s face and the blood on
the hands of the naive girl. I think that
bringing the body horror into our largely
psychological horror trailer makes The
Hanging Tree more dynamic and
interesting for the audience to watch as
well as making them 'shudder' . I was
greatly inspired by the work of
George A. Romero and the
way that he uses body horror as a way
of desensitising the audience so that
they are vulnerable to the more political
and social messages of his texts,
Especially his anti-racist views and the
way that he had black protagonists with
high moral standing over white
characters.

13. I was also influenced by the
way that he made the body
horror using artists such as
Tom Savini with the
latex effects. Such as when the
zombies bite out the throat of
one of the bikers in Dawn of
the Dead (1978)This was
something that I feel really
resonated with me and that I
spent a lot of time in bring
these elements (though subtly)
into our psychological trailer,
both broadening our audience
and also marking The Hanging
Tree as distinctive.