This is my evaluation part 1 for my a2 media

1. Evaluation part 1
In what ways does your media
product use developed or
challenge forms and conventions
of real life media products?
By Dayna Pendergast.

2. Section A
 My trailer is called Ring Rosie and I would say that
one of our biggest horror conventions is body horror.
Because our horror trailer is about zombies we
thought we would defiantly need somebody horror to
attract the right audience to fit with our film. Just like
Thomas Schatz talked about how the genre sells the
movie to the audience of fans. He goes on to talk about
how the horror genre conventions help people to
understand and what to expect in a horror film.
We used liquid latex and red blood and tissue to create a
flesh ripping effect. We used the neck as a prime place
just like in the scene at the beginning of Dawn of the
Dead (2004), when Ana’s husband is bitten.

3. Ring Rosie
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

4.  We also used archetypes with the final girl idea.
The “final girl” in our horror trailer was strong
tough and brunette. Even though our final girl
was brunette there are a few final females that
are blonde, for example Kill Bill, which adds to
the surprise factor for the audience.
Ring Rosie Kill Bill

5.  For our music we went with parallel as we
wanted to create an intense feel. And not have
contrapuntal as it may make the trailer look like
a horror comedy. For example like Shaun of the
Dead.
https://youtu.be/W4tVH7BPb-Q
We also used the mise-en-scene of props and genre with an axe and
a gun. As it was a zombie movie they needed things to protect
themselves with and to create some damage. We had an equal
balance with the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. For
example screams and a dramatic soundtrack were put over the top
of the clips however the running and rustling noises were captured
during filming.

6. Section B
 Whilst reviewing trailers in class we thought
it was crucial to get the intertitles right. This
is because we felt that they were needed to
create an understanding and fit in with the
trailer without making it look messy. The font
style we used was taken from Dafont
resembled intertwined twigs because a lot of
our trailer is set in the woods. It also created
suspense by adding those deadly pauses.
 We used collision cutting to create suspense
with pacing. We started of the trailer as slow
and then got faster towards the end finishing
off with a jump scare however the jump scare
was only a sound of a gunshot. The slow build
up created tension.

7.  The copyright free, parallel music of the “Ring
Rosie” theme linked with the concept that everyone
is getting killed off because of a deadly Plague. In
our trailer was represented as the zombies that
was spreading the zombie virus. The music created
the suspense as it got quicker towards the end
when all the zombies were closing in.
 Also in that scene we used handheld shots to
create the feel of panic as Rosie is surrounded by
zombies and has no idea of what to do or where to
go.
 A major influence on our film was Dead Snow,
because this also has the right amount of shots of
zombies to people and the pace quickens towards
the end when the zombies are awakened.

8. Hand appearing from the
snow in Dead Snow.
Hand appearing from
grave in Ring Rosie.

9. Section c
 Andrew Sarris was the leading critic behind the
auteur theory, which he wrote about in his essay
“Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962.” He said
how film directors turned film into a style and an
art. The “auteur” that I brought into it would be
George A Romero. He created a lot of zombie
films and challenged racism in Dawn of the Dead
(1979) because Peter is a black hero. Instead of
looking at racism we went with the idea of
feminism with Rosie as the heroine.
 The types of body horror scenes that George A
Romero can also be seen in Ring Rosie. We
included looks of flesh biting scenes.

11.  The feminism is also a distinctive thing in our
horror trailer, the fact that we changed the
archetypes and had a female “final girl” and got rid
of having a male hero. This then changes the
stereotype and shows that girls can fight and be
strong and survive a zombie apocalypse.
 In terms of a sub-genre I would say Ring Rosie is
classed as an action horror as running away from
and fighting zombies is where the action comes
from. This is similar to the Resident Evil films.
 Tom Savini was a huge influence for our makeup
art as he was the makeup artist for Day of the
Dead. He worked alongside George A Romero who
was our primary “auteur” influence.

12.  I would say that our horror trailer did reflect its
historical context from now. Not so long ago we
had the Ebola virus going around which everyone
in the world was worrying about as it was
spreading from country to country. Things to do
with zombies is very popular in our historical
context, as we can see from the praise that has
come from the TV series The Walking Dead.