In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
Media Evaluation

2.  The definition of a convention suggests the standard way in
which a media product is usually portrayed. This has been
portrayed in the media in almost every form, such as posters,
magazines, trailers and the film itself. Through my own
research carried out on horror trailers, such as “Get Out”,
“Lights Out” and “Split”allowed me to understand the
necessary convention required for my horror trailer. This
research has allowed me to recognise that there is usually a
“3 act structure” involving laying out the context, establishing
a problem and ending with a dramatic climax and a montage
of key moments throughout the film. This structure was used
as a template to make the trailer as professional in
appearance as possible, which was the goal for a successful
trailer. The context is laid out in the first 4 scenes in which
there are 4 establishing shots of the town in which the film is
set, of an empty forest, dark grey house, play park and empty
school hallway. Not only this set the context, but also
throughout the trailer there was text explaining the storyline of

3.  The trailer also follows the convention of having a
montage of key moments throughout the film, for
example in the forest, “the creature” starts chasing
two young people, and children and a mother going
missing in a play park. This can also relate to Annie
Kaplan’s theory suggests that “In Hollywood films,
women are ultimately refused a voice, a discourse,
and their desire is subject to male desire”, which is
represented in the trailer as the only females
portrayed in the trailer have the least amount of
screen time in comparison to the males, as well as
disappearing almost as soon as they are introduced
on screen, which refuses them a voice.

4.  The problem was established throughout the trailer, portrayed
visually with people consistently going missing and being
attacked, while also having text suggesting these mysterious
disappearances. Another convention is the transitions are
typically jump cuts, as it increases the tension and sense of
danger in order to thrill our target audience of young adults,
which is why it is the main transition used within my trailer.
Sounds in horror trailers van vary from silent scenes with
eerie background music, to sudden loud music to create
jumpscares. The idea of a loud noise followed by a visual
jumpscare is a very common convention within the middle of
the trailers I researched, which is why I developed the
convention by putting the jumpscare at the end of the whole
trailer, even after the end movie title with cast names, as I
believe it will catch the audience of guard and scare them.
Lastly every trailer conventionally has a narrative that is
clearly demonstrated consistently through the trailer, without a
voice-over as in the modern day this has been removed from
trailers, as it is suggested that it decreases an element of