1. Evaluation Question One
‘In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms of real media products?’
Before starting my media product I made sure to educated myself on the key
aspects of the horror genre, alongside much research onto what horror
conventions work the best for successful trailers. This research of both horror
films and horror trailers allowed me to have a clear understanding of what does
and doesn’t work well within our particular medium. Our media product has a
strong use of contrapuntal music to build up the tension and create a dramatic
feel. Music became vital for our trailer due to the fact when we were looking at
our style models the music was the aspect that withheld the most tension and
provoked the feeling of panic more than anything else in the trailers. This was
partly inspired by the music in the insidious trailer, it was very creepy and the
pace gradually got faster.

2. Our horror trailer was mostly a psychological thriller (a sub-genre of horror) with
only a few aspects of gore added in to connote danger and death. I was
influenced into this particular part of horror due to the fact I have studied the
auteur Alfred Hitchcock after analyzing his use of shots in PSYCHO (1960). I
believe his talent for building suspense within his films works significantly well,
and this is no doubt why he is nicknamed “The Master of Suspense.” I tried to
mimic this in my own work so that the buildup of tension contrasted with startling
moments of violence or action would shock our audience. We can see an aspect
of this when Frankie is slowly crawling along the floor and then she suddenly gets
pulled back. This represents the hope of her escaping against the entrapment that
she is forced to be surrounded by.

3. I also took on board Thomas Schatz “Genre Theory” set out in his book Hollywood
Genres (1981). I understood how important genre was for the development of my
trailer, and therefore researched into who my stereotypical fan was and what they
would conventions they would be looking for if watching our trailer. We understood
that by using a few aspects of gore we were eligible to appeal to a wider audience
(both psychological and gore fans) we were able to do this by using makeup and
then editing the look of the makeup and costumes. These helped us to signify a
personality of each person, for the normal everyday characters we had basic
everyday clothes. However while the teenagers were affects by the cold, damp
weather (pathetic fallacy for sadness), we were able to automatically make our
psychological killer stand out as she was dressed in a long white gown which any
other person would be frozen in. The gown was originally a pure white, however had
been destroyed by black and red that connote danger and darkness.

4. We researched that many horror trailers like to indicate a series of generic horror
features to show to the audience that their generic expectations will be met. We
used low-key lighting and parallel music that both automatically suggest to the
audience that it is within the horror genre and therefore automatically starts the
trailer off with a memorable starting point. This suspense allows us to start the
beginning of a terrifying sequence of events that are about to occur.

5. Our trailer also followed the traditional structure of horror trailers. We started by
making our trailer have a disrupted beginning forming into a broken down suspense
and emphasizing the equilibrium being destroyed and normality no longer being a
security. This follows the Classical Hollywood Narrative by (Tzvetan Todorov and
Vladimir Propp.) As this suggests that the equilibrium gets destroyed and they have to
find a new equilibrium. The thought of the four teenagers being lost in the woods and
getting further and further away from home helps convey a very uncertain and sinister
mood. As a group we wanted this mise-en-scene to be dark and mysterious and
therefore did our best to edit the setting to make it look eerie yet anonymous.

6. Our beginning plot allows us to emphasize the work of Hitchcock from his
film ‘PSYCHO’(1960). Hitchcock also begins by using an unnerving setting
of a young girl travelling alone and a feeling of disorientation being forced
upon us from the lack of normality from Norman and his mother.
Loneliness is a key horror convention that many auteurs use to relate to a
feeling that many people have experienced and therefore creates a
sympathy with a wider audience. This is ideal for the more mainstream
psychological thriller/horror genre, which can also be seen in films such as
‘THE WOMAN IN BLACK’

7. For my personal research, I did an in depth analysis from the INSIDIOUS trailer, and
therefore some of my inspiration from my own trailer comes from this. Within the
INSIDIOUS trailer I liked how it started off with a basic story line, and then something
occurred that disturbed the equilibrium. I thought that by using this method it
automatically draws the audience in and makes them curious as to what is going to
happen in the actual film. The INSIDIOUS trailer worked very well at building up
tension due to the fact it starts of slow and gradually builds pace. The music is also a
key contribution to why it’s so affective. The strong use of contrapuntal music at the
beginning of the trailer immediately gives the impression that something isn’t right,
and it is distinctive for horror fans to notice.

8. Ending with a jump scare is most typically found is psychological thriller trailers and we
conventionally decided to use one in our own trailer. The jump scare is used to leave
the audience wanting more and has to be explicit but also affective. The trick is to cut
to black before we find out what has happened to the character. This part of our
trailer also shows me realizing that the antagonist has taken Frankie’s place and
therefore leads us to be more on edge and unnerved about what is happening. This
inconclusive last shot leaves us on a cliffhanger, and makes the audience desperate to
know what has happened. As a media student it is important to be aware of not only
the part of media we are studying into but also the influences that help to promote it
on social media, and therefore we added in an intertitle of a hashtag (#GOCRAZY).

9. Due to the fact we had a female dominated group it made us
unconsciously challenge some of the media genres. Normally males are a
very active role throughout and the females are normally relatively
passive (apart from the ‘final girl’) and due to the fact we only had one
male in our group it made it easier for us to challenge this genre
convention. We emphasized this feminism by showing that no ‘male was
present ( because the male character Ryan was seemingly killed off) and in
fact three blonde haired girls were representing a different depiction of
the stereotypical ‘bimbos’. We also researched that the final girl normally
has dark hair that is tied back or short so we decided to keep a part of this
convention and make the blonde girls have their hair tied back throughout
the majority of the trailer. Our psychological killer is also a female
character.

10. When researching into the horror history, statistics show that the majority of
psychological horror killers are normally male, yet we also challenged this aspect of
horror. Our killer was a female and was still able to bring fear to the audience. I believe
that due to the fact we were a female dominated group it made it easy to reveal our
key female protagonists that embrace the strength of the role of a female and are not
afraid to challenge gender stereotypes.

11. I am a keen leader and understand the importance of organization, and this
particular aspect contributed well to the scheduling and making of my trailer.
Alongside this skill I also have an ability to recognize if shots work well or if they
needed to be edited/reshot. The shot with the blood on the wall was shot many
times to get the full gore affect. Andrew Sarris’ “Auteur Theory” (notes on the
auteur theory in 1962) suggests that directors put “their soul” into the producing
of their films. I believe that despite the fact I am only a student it still doesn’t
prevent me from putting everything I have into making the trailer to the level of
success that I have in mind. I was able to recreate styles from existing auteurs
alongside adding in our own individual female driven narrative. There are only a
few female horror directors, Kathryn Bigalow is an example of one with her film
“near dark” but mainly they are dominated by male directors.
As a group we opted to create a psychological horror dominated by a feminist
viewpoint and therefore I believe that we were successful in our aim to challenge
the stereotypical gender roles within horror.