The document discusses the conventions analyzed from horror trailers such as Pan's Labyrinth and Insidious to create an effective horror trailer, including dark imagery, fast pacing, and ominous music. Research was also done on the comedy Dinner for Schmucks as an antithesis for comparison. Conventions from the researched trailers like mis-en-scene, editing, and narrative structure were then used, developed on, or challenged in the creation of the student's own horror trailer.

2. Kerry McGranaghan
And
Hayley Banks

3. Traditional horror conventions we noticed were:
•Dark desolate scenery
•Children are often associated as a link between the
paranormal
The research we did was necessary to understand the •Film title was at the end
conventions of a successful horror trailer, we had to study •No credits shown to make the film seem more realistic
existing trailers which promoted the trailer in the right way. •Ugly imagery and props
The two horror trailers we focused on was Pan’s Labyrinth and •Speed of clips matched the audio
Insidious, however, for comparison we also researched an •Silence can be key
antithesis; Dinner for Schmucks which is a comedy. We chose
•The story line follows the same path indicated by our
to do an opposite trailer to make the horror conventions
more obvious, and to evaluate how an audience would
research on Todrov;s narrative of equilibrium to
recognize them. disequilibrium then left at the climax.
Used: The conventions we choose to
conform to was those of the dark mis-en-
scene, the fast paced edits and flashing
images really enhanced our trailer.
Developed: The convention that we
developed was the use of a family
relationship being the setting, but filmed
as a documentary by the older sister.
Challenged: We challenged the
convention that dialogue was needed
in the trailer, instead we rely on the clips
and music to inform the audience. We
also challenge the use of actors and
producers names in the trailer, in using
new actors and not promoting them in
the credits it will make the trailer seem
more authentic.
While studying both teaser and full length trailers we discovered that the instant difference
between the horror and comedy trailers is the mis-en-scene. Even just from the posters we
can see that Insidious’ themes will only be dark and dramatic, where as in slight contrast
Pan’s Labyrinth portrays a slight crease of light, symbolising there is a battle between the
horror themes and a happy ending. Yet in complete comparison Dinner for Schmucks is
light and the close up emotions portrayed by the faces possibly symbolising the theatrical
happy and sad masks shows that the film is a hybrid of humour and drama.

4. Similarities: The similarities between these to
magazines is the importance of layout, they
both include what other articles are inside, clear
information and typography and the iconic
photo from the film.
Differences: The contrast of colours,;
ENTERTAINMENT is obviously a lighter and
humours magazine represented by its block
fonts and “sunny day” colouring. Where as
FANGORIA uses gothic typography and dark
outlines to represent that it is a specific genre of
magazine. The main difference we believe has
a huge impact on the magazine is the
importance of the films name, The Hangover
is considerably smaller than Insidious which Our magazine cover is presented through
create a completely different effect. EMPIRE, we chose EMPIRE because it is the most
successful film magazine around and therefore
our film will gather a lot of attention. We chose to
Used: After looking at dozens of magazine edit the title by mirroring as a reflection to
covers we decided to use the traditional symbolise the link with the film and the demonic
positioning of Title at the top, combined possession through mirrors, we also gave EMPIRE
with large image, and lesser information at a stain glass shiny effect to enhance the link of
the bottom. We chose to conform to this mirrors.
because it is the easiest format for a viewer We made sure that the use of layers was
to comprehend because it is linear. effective and complimented the cover, eg. We
Developed: We developed on the did not cover the main title only the reflection
separation of the typography such as but the title of the film takes priority over the
FANGORIA demonstrates that there is other photography,
films being advertised in the 35mm wheel. We kept the colour scheme as only 4
Challenge:d We challenged however the colours, red, white, yellow and black. This is
because it makes specific elements of the cover
use of photography, instead of just one
standout such as the red is what the audience in
image we explored the use of combining
drawn to first and then they notice the less
two, we found this effective for the
important information . This colour scheme is also
audience to understand the link between connected with horror trailers.
the girl and the mirror. We were also sure to include the legal
requirements that must be visible on a magazine
such as the date and price.

5. The use of a film poster is to advertise to a percentage of the audience that perhaps may
not be able to access the media advertisements, so posters can be arranges in public
places for the world to see. The Insidious poster is very interesting, especially with the use of
location and typography. The darkened shirt makes it easy for the text to be read and the
positions of the upside-down title suggests evil and destruction are going to be elements of
the film. There is also reference to pathetic fallacy which enhances the tension of the poster.
Used: We decided that like most posters we were going to conform by having the
protagonist as the centre of the image. We also took from the Insidious poster to include
ourselves as producers so that the audience can have something else to judge what genre
of film it is.
Developed: We developed the use of also using a child as the protagonist but facing away
from the camera, we think this creates anonymity and suspense.
Challenged: However we challenged the use of only one carefully set up picture, but
instead used a multitude of images to give an insight of what is to some in the film.
Our poster is relevant to our film because it is another
level of effective advertisement that also contains
information the audience needs such as the date it is
released and the BBFC rating.
The title is bold and demonstrates the difference
between light and dark but also the reflection in the
mirror which is why the white half of Anna is backwards.
Static as the background is considered to be the sign of
the paranormal and this thought is enhanced by the
heart monitor line.
We also included a slogan but we made sure that the
text was smaller and less demanding then “ANNA” as to
not take the point of focus away, we included a slogan
to tick in the audiences mind.

6. How effective is the combination of
your main products and ancillary
texts?

7. The media industry is very competitive, so the importance of “branding” a
production such as the films name or slogan means they can legally copyright
it: ©. By copywriting your work it makes it illegal for another party to copy any
part of your work, eg: These companies
are branded by
How they can be there logos, which
created. attracts a wide
Our main task is represented by our ancillary texts( poster and magazine cover) audience
effectively by the connections between each of them. Although each piece is suitable because it
for the format it is in attempted to keep the focus of similarities especially in the title: represents their
ANNA. What we found was effective was that an audience was able to recognize that standard.
the trailer and the poster was linked just by the use of typography, colour schemes and
grainy backgrounds. This is important when advertising to keep consistency so that the
audience does not get confused.
We made sure that in each media
product we created we had to keep
the title of the film very similar, the
name will be remembered for the
backwards reflective lettering and
the colour scheme of black, white
and red. We also tried to incorporate
the heart beat line in both titles ,
however we changed the
background on the poster because it
created a better effect then the
animation we used in the trailer,
however the similarities are still
obvious.

9. We surveyed 10 people after watching our film trailer and these were some of
the results-(the people were kept anonymous to keep confidentially)
 We have shown our film trailer to several different audiences that belong to
both genders and a wide range of age groups. The majority of the feedback
that we received was positive.
 “the film trailer was very well put together and I could definitely see that this
was a trailer for a horror film”. This quotation from an audience member
shows us that we have included traditional horror conventions when creating
our trailer so that the audience can clearly see that this film will be a horror
film.
 “I liked the fact that this film looked really realistic”. We found that our trailer
was successful as we were aiming to make the trailer look realistic so that it
will have a bigger affect on the audience.
 Although the majority of our feedback was positive, there was some criticism
to consider.
 “the trailer could have included more characters”. We found this criticism to
be useful to us as we have learnt that showing only two characters in our
trailer may not be enough to make it look interesting, and also that in the
future we may need to include more characters in the trailer.
 “the trailer was good but it was a bit too long to keep my attention”. We
again found this criticism to be very useful as we have now realised that
many people do not want to watch a long trailer, so in the future we need to
keep the trailer short so that the audience can keep their attention on the
trailer.

10. Out of 10, what rating would you give our Was it clear from the trailer that this was a
film trailer? trailer for a horror film?
10
9
8 Yes
7 No
Would you want to see the film from Do you think that this trailer is too long?
watching the trailer
Yes Yes
No No
100
80
60
40
20 Male
0 Female
Ages-…
Ages-…
Ages-…
Age-1-5

11. How did you use new technologies
in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation
stage?

12. Final Cut Pro was our main use of editing
software, we found it so much easier this year to
work with it because we had all of last years
experiences, we found practically no problems in
using it which meant we finished editing a lot
faster.

13. Text Edit was the software we used to create
our titles, we experimented a lot in Text Edit
because there was such a vast amount of
possibilities, however we found it easy to use
and in the end decided that a simple form of
text with a few layers of movement and
texture would be most effective.