Media evaluation part 1

1. Evaluation
Part 1

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

3. Section A: How did your horror film fit the
genre?
The word ‘genre’ means type or category its an easy way in which we fit things in
and find them easily to remember. Different types of genre of horror film would be
action horror, psychological or thriller. The sub-genres of horror film we decided to
use came from our love of different horror films. We went down the route of
having a trailer which is full of action and suspense but also with added in
psychological horror which gives in that sense of suspense and unknown and really
makes you want to get into the characters heads. Thomas Schatz is the critic
behind this “Genre Theory” (which he expressed through his book Hollywood
Genres, 1981) and he established generic conventions sell the films to the audience
because they attract people to that genre of film this means that they look for films
that follow these conventions this allows you to focus on conventions that you
know are going to interest people allowing a larger audience.

4. Section A:
The primary convention in our trailer is the use of the “final girl” we see
this throughout because we see this blonde girl fighting the killer. This
is also going against conventions because usually the blonde girl is the
victim. As seen in Psycho(1960) and that Marion Crane is the blonde
female victim but we do also see the use of the reverse in more
modern horrors such as in Dawn of the Dead (2004). The use of the
final girl has came more predominant within modern horror films as
this is approached to a wider audience of both women and men.

5. Real life horror films which are
psychological/ action horror films.
• The Purge: • 28 Weeks Later:

6. Section B: How does your trailer fit the
conventions of horror trailers:
The importance of conventions in horror films is to help you
understand what type of film you are watching. The different
conventions need to work together such as the different uses of
pacing. If you were making an action horror film you need a lot of quick
pacing of car chases but if you were making a psychological horror film
you would need more slow pacing this would help the audience get
into the head of the character and cause this messing with your head.
But also even the mix of two paces in order to create jump scares this
is the use of collision cuts so from going slow to quick. This is a
convention we used a lot within our trailer to cause the feeling of panic
and suspense. The key to having a good horror trailer is the
conventions and getting the balance right between it. This is something
we had to take into consideration so by taking out shots so the scenes
didn’t drag out and to get straight into the jump scare. For instance the

7. Section B: How does your trailer fit the
conventions of horror trailers:
The importance of conventions in horror films is to help you understand what type of film you are
watching. The different conventions need to work together such as the different uses of pacing. If
you were making an action horror film you need a lot of quick pacing but if you were making a
psychological horror film you would need more slow pacing this would help the audience get into
the head of the character and involve you psychologically.
In both sub-genres, you still need the mix of two paces in order to create jump scares this is the use
of collision cuts so from going slow to quick. This is a convention we used a lot within our trailer to
cause the feeling of panic and suspense.
The key to having a good horror trailer is the conventions and getting the balance right. This is
something we had to take into consideration by ensuring scenes didn’t drag out and to get straight
into the jump scare. For instance the slow running down the alley way to the scream of the girl. This
causes a jump because you have the correct slow to quick ratio. Also to have the intertitles on for
the correct duration so enough reading time but not too much screen time. The parallel music is
the key to the trailer we had our music fitted and designed for our trailer so it fitted perfectly the
use of the heartbeat when she has a knife to her face causes that suspense and panicked.

8. Films that we looked at in order to make
our trailer:
• Insidious 3: • Mama:

9. Section C: What auteur influence did you
bring into your trailer? What makes it
distinctive?Despite our horror trailer being based on psychological events such as getting into
the mind of a psychotic murderer. There is a very strong belief of this ‘blonde
fetish’ that the murderer has. This is very like some of the things that Alfred
Hitchcock brings to his films. “Blondes make the best victims. They’re like virgin snow that
shows up the bloody footprints.” — Alfred Hitchcock
We had our murderer have this love for blonde hair and its later events which triggered his
girlfriend’s discovery to this bizarre fetish that he had. We took most influence from his films
because he had a good way in which he brought victims and suspense into his films. The use of
suspense can be seen his film The Birds (1963) you can also see in this film his love for using a
blonde female victim. He is the auteur that we used
for the plot of our trailer.

10. Section C: What auteur influence did you
bring into your trailer? What makes it
distinctive?Andrew Sarris is the main critic behind this idea of “Auteur Theory” and this is a theory that I think
you need to stick by in order to make a fantastic film. Auteur Theory shows how well a director can
show there creative side when making a film to make it your own. Like before mentioned with
Alfred Hitchcock and his love for blonde women this is something you see throughout his films and
it means that you recognise it as being his work. Making a film work is like a piece of art an in order
to try to achieve this, we had someone create our parallel music specifically for our trailer. I think
this works well because each clip and each different type of music or effect fits perfectly and this is
like a piece of art. The use of music is effective in the scene when Carrie turns down Tommy in
Carrie(2013). Tommy is the teenage boy who every girl seems to fancy and the music both makes
him seem cool but adds a chilling effect to the scene overall, showing the power of music.