The document provides an evaluation of a student's media product, a horror film trailer. It discusses how the trailer uses conventions of real trailers such as not being in chronological order, using suspenseful opening scenes, realistic locations, jump scares, close-ups, text overlays, changes in music and pace, and end credits. Feedback from the target audience found the jump scares, pace, music, characters, and camera shots to be effective at creating suspense and scaring viewers. The student learned their trailer was quite realistic and succeeded at resembling a professional horror trailer.

1. Evaluation
By Jo Penney

2. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• From all the research we have looked at on teaser trailers one thing I
have picked up on is the fact that trailers are not in chronological
order, apart from the opening scene. The opening part of the film
sets the scene and an uneasy atmosphere, as it creates suspense and
tension as they are waiting for something to happen.
This is the opening scene for our teaser
trailer. The opening scene sets the location
but also two of the characters that will be
included in the film.
We made the location look realistic,
picking a cul-de-sac to create realism, as
lots of people live in these locations. This
would make the audience feel like it could
happen to them, which adds to the effect of
the horror genre of the teaser trailer.

3. With all the teaser trailers
we have watched
throughout this project, we
wanted the writing to be
shown on a black
background, making it
stand out. Choosing a
white font and adding a
red glow behind the it adds
From the research and to the spooky effect. From
looking at other teaser
information we gathered, we
trailers we wanted to
noticed a lot teaser trailers include as many
would use clips of text conventions as possible to
through out the trailer. This make it as realistic as we
would help catch the could. With placing the text
audiences eye, and make we wanted it to be directly
them want to find out more. in the middle of the clip to
Many of the teaser trailers which we make it eye catching. One
studied had text clip, one of the most These clips of text were
of the other conventions on
important conventions we found was carefully placed in the trailer
the text structure they chose to use. texts that commonly
to create suspense. The text appeared was the different
The short snappy sentences set the
story for the audience, and added to gives information away sizes of words and
the suspense on the audience, without giving the story away. sentences to make them
wanting to know what happens in stand out from the others.
the film.

4. Jump moments…
When creating a horror teaser trailer one of the main conventions are the ‘jump moments’. All
throughout our trailer we created many of them where you would least suspect it. These
moments target the audience, making them jump and feel on edge. The ‘jump moments’ also
help make the teaser trailer memorable which shocks and scare the audience, making the
‘jump moment’ stay with you.
28s 29s 31s
Here is a step by step of how the ‘jump moments’ work and why they are so effective. For this jump
moments we faded the music out, to create tension. We then used a dip to black which slowly made the
picture appear of Libby (girl holding the candle) and then less than a second later Evie appears. This clip is
very spooky as Libby does not realise she’s behind her which puts the audience on the edge of their seat. The
use of the light flame creates a shadow over the little girl, this creates an eerie feel. The ‘jump moment’
then uses dip to black to fade out . There is a pause of silence and then there is the outcry of Libby yelling

5. In this teaser trailer we chose the genre ‘horror’. From all the
Close ups… research, close ups play an important part. They get your heart
racing and create a greater impact than a shot further away.
Through out our teaser trailer we use a range of close ups to add
to the scariness of the film.
This close up is a very
strong shot. The face is
immerging from the
darkness and has been
picked up by a torch.
The use of the torch
under the little girls face
adds to the possessed
and evil look.
These two close ups are both creepy but have
been created in different ways. The screen shot of
the little girls red wellies is a very strong shot, as
they are used to make the welly image
synonymous with the character of the little girl.
The way the close up has been done is over
powering as it feels like the little girl is gaining
control from the way of the camera angle. The
shot of the girl behind the glass works well. This
clip also creates a jump scene within the teaser
trailer as well as a close up.

6. Short clips…
Most of the trailers we looked at for research followed similar
conventions to one another. They are very short, snappy and show a
range of clips of the film without giving much away .When all the clips
are added together they fit together well creating a continuous flow.
Even though the short clips are not in chronological order, the teaser
trailer still makes sense to the audience.
Dip to black…
Throughout our teaser trailer we have wanted to make it as continuous as
possible, dip to black helped with this. Fading from one clip to another and
out again adds to the tension as you don’t know what's going to pop onto
the screen next. We also added dip to black which fades to a black screen
for a few seconds, this builds up suspense and makes the audience feel on
edge.

7. Different shots and High angle Adding a range of
angles… shots and angles
adds to the teaser
trailer. This makes it
more inventive than
just using similar
angles all the way
through. The way we
have completed
Close up some of the shots
and angles have
been done to make
them overpowering
Tracking shot for the audience.
For example when
the camera is
showing a high
angle of the little girl
All our shots and angles have walking across the
been carefully thought out to stairs, it makes the
make the best out of out horror audience feel over
teaser trailer conventions powered, as the little
making the best impact and girl is above them
adding realism to the storyline. looking down.
Low angle

8. Music and sound effects…
One of the main conventions of a horror trailer is the choice of music and sound
effects. We carefully chose the music to fit in with the stages of our teaser trailer.
Rather than just choosing one piece of music in particular, we took sections of
songs to try and make the most impact on our horror trailer.
At the beginning of the trailer we used slow creepy music, to build up tension.
Throughout our trailer we had parts which are silent, this builds of the suspense
for the audience watching our teaser trailer.
In the middle of the trailer the pace starts to pick up, to fit in with the fast pace
clips. We found this was a typical convention of a horror trailer.
Special sound effects
Through out the horror trailer we added sound effects to add to the scariness
making the certain ‘jump moments’ scarier adding tension and suspense with the
audience. Some the sound effects which were used are; the door creaking,
screams, the sound of the door handle shaking.

9. End credits…
A lot of thought went into how to finish off the teaser
trailer and how to make the end credits fit in with the rest
of it.
The title
The title is one of the most important conventions of a
trailer. It informs the audience what the film is called. We
wanted the title to take up the whole black screen, to make
it stand out to make it eye catching and memorable.
Date
From looking at many examples before we made our own,
we realised that many of them did not include the release
date of the film, we felt it was more effective just to put
‘THIS WINTER’
Production company
Teaser trailers always have the convention of mentioning
which production company was used. We made our own
one up called ‘GP productions’ this makes the trailer look
more professional.

10. How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?

11. The aim…
The aim of all my ancillary tasks are purely focused on our specific target audience, to make it eye
catching to them, so we included all the conventions that would best suit them. I decided to
choose a film poster and magazine front cover, I thought this would be the easiest way to attract
my target audience to our horror film. I thought these ancillary task would also let me show my
creative side using Photoshop.
From researching film
posters, a lot of them
had a striking central
image. Being placed in
the centre of the page,
makes it eye catching
to the audience. With
all the images that
were taken I thought
this one suits the genre
of the film well. Here is a close up of the main
Making the little girl in image edited. I decided to edit it
the mirror in colour in this way to make it more eye
and to stand out more catching.
from the background
and gives it a 3D feel.
I wanted the writing to be put in the middle of the poster to
make it stand out. The use of the colour red indicates blood
and danger and the poster has a creepier feel to it.

12. Magazine front cover…
I wanted to include as many magazine front
cover conventions as possible to make it look
professional.
Most of the magazine front covers had very
simple layouts , this works well as it’s not over
crowded and easy to read.
Conventions of a music magazine:
o Name of the magazine
o Taglines
o Date
o Price
Etc…
Competitions was also one of the main
conventions that would pop up on magazine
front covers. This convention works well to
persuade readers to pick up my magazine.
I feel my magazine front cover has been
successful as it includes all the conventions of a
professional one.

13. Colours used…
I wanted to keep to the same colour shades through out my
ancillary tasks, this would help give a clear link between them. I
chose to use red and black through out my poster and my
magazine front cover. Red and black are the traditional horror
The shades of white
colours, they create a creepy atmosphere.
have been done to
create a ghostly
haunted effect.
We used the traditional colour of the Changing the opacity
Empire logo. The colour shows the level to make it look like
its floating through the
readers that it’s an Empire magazine.
page.
I wanted to slightly change the
colour red from the Empire logo.
This was because I wanted
The colour black particular parts to stand out, for
stands out well from example ‘Evie Watkins’
the white background.
The circular shape is
bold and catches the
readers eye, making
sure you don’t miss out
on the deal!

14. Tagline and font
styles…
All the font styles have been done to
make a bigger impact on my poster and
magazine front cover. Some of the font
styles elaborate on the horror genre and
gave them a creepier effect.
I didn’t want to over do it with the
amount of different font styles so I only
picked some of the main bits of writing
The taglines could
to change and make different from the
represent a child's
others.
play ground game,
We carefully chose the I wanted the writing around the central
hide and seek, with
tagline to fit the genre of image to be similar fonts as I did not
the tagline trying to
our ancillary tasks. The want it to distract you from the image.
fool the audience of
one that stood out to us the her innocence.
most was ‘you can run, but
you can’t hide’

15. What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
Our target audience was for young adults, people our age and getting audience
feedback from them helped us conclude whether our film trailer was a success with
our peers.
From looking back at our audience feedback we can see that our teaser trailer and
ancillary tasks were a success for our target audience. But the feedback also helps us
understand what our strong areas were and what we would need to work on more if
we did this project again.
The ‘jump moments’
We felt one of the main conventions of a horror trailer were the ‘jump movements’.
Through out our teaser trailer we tried to add a suitable amount of ‘jump moments’
to keep the audience hooked to our trailer. With our feed back we can see which
‘jump moments’ worked successfully by keeping the audience hooked. ‘I love the
"jump" moments which are both visual and soundtracked’

16. The Pace…
‘This trailer keeps you hooked
In our horror trailer we wanted to make sure on wanting to watch more’
the pace of the film was right for the genre. This feed back shows that our
Throughout the teaser trailer the pace went constant change of pace
up and down, making sure the pace made an throughout the trailer keeps the
impact on the haunted/ creepy feel and to audience hooked and one of the
keep the audience wanting to watch more! main conventions of a horror
‘A great pace of up and down, climax and
trailer has worked!
resolution takes the viewer on a wild ride
in a short amount of time’
‘I like the use of the different music
The Music… that you've used as it builds tension,
especially when there's the classical
With all the research of horror trailers sort of music as your waiting for the
we found that one of the main action to speed up’
conventions of a horror trailer was the ‘the music is quite calm at the start, but
music included and where you place it invites you into a false sense of security’
to make a greater impact with the
The music we chose goes in stages from
audience.
the first part being very slow paced, this
We decided to use 3 different types of
creates an eerie effect and puts the
music through out the trailer, the music
audience on the edge of their seats, then
we chose added to the creepiness of the
we re-used it again to add to the ‘jump
teaser trailer and added suspense.
moment’ at the end of the trailer.

17. The characters… This is the outfit we
chose the little girl to
We wanted our main character to play an important wear. From these two
role in making the horror trailer shocking and creepy. images you can tell that
we have made a distinct
We chose the main character to be a little girl. We felt change with the clothes
the little girl resembles innocence, we thought that this they are wearing.
would trick the audience into thinking she was not evil.
The storyline is all based around the little girl haunting
the two girls, scaring them away!
We thought long and hard to make the little girl’s outfit
fit with the horror genre and also the time we set it at.
As the girl was killed ten years or so before we wanted
the fashion to stand out from the other girls, making a
strong indication of who is who.
The characters were a success from our audience feedback and
shows us that our main character help create the spooky
effect through out the horror trailer.
‘I can tell that you have thought about the outfits of the actress'
especially the child’s dress.’
‘the little girl is really scary.’ We wanted the two older girls
to be dressed casual everyday
wear. We did not want their
outfits to stand out more than
the little girls outfit.

18. Camera shots and angles…
‘How you've used the different
angles to really utilise the
conventional horror trailer
concepts.’
From the audience
feedback we found that
the range of camera shots
and angles really stood out
throughout our horror
trailer. Looking at One of the most
previous horror trailers we dramatic shots we
found out that they used was when the girl
created much more came out of know
dramatic scenes by the where and hit the
way they have shot them. window, creating a
‘jump moment’. The
way the camera backs
away from the window
has been done to show ‘The use of camera angles through out the
the ‘hand held camera trailer is very effective.’
look’ making it look
‘The way the camera moves away gives
realistic and shocking
me a scare.’
the audience.

19. How realistic was our
horror trailer…
We felt that our horror trailer was as realistic as we could get it. From adding as many
conventions of a professional horror trailer as possible, we tried to include it in our own one.
From our audience feedback we found out that everyone was impressed with our work. From
our peers evaluation we found out what bits were our strongest points and which parts impacted
on the scariness of the horror trailer.
‘This teaser trailer has everything it needs
too be too resemble a realistic trailer for
film in this modern day. It has everything.’
‘One of the best teaser trailers I've seen all year!’
‘Well done! This is a really good teaser
trailer.’
‘This trailer keeps you hooked on wanting to
watch more, It's a trailer that seems to take you
on a journey.’

20. How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Throughout out the making of our teaser trailer we used adobe premier pro to edit and putting it all
together.
Razor tool
The first thing after uploading
the footage onto adobe was to use
the razor tool. We had to go
through all the footage we
uploaded and choose which bits
to keep and get rid of.
Arrow one 1 is showing the
1 footage and arrow 2 is where
2 you can find the razor tool. By
clicking on the razor tool, you
move the curser over the
footage bit you want to cut.
This separates the footage,
After cutting up the footage you may find part that are making it easier to work out
unwanted. To delete certain bits drag the mouse over the where to put each individual
footage and right click it and press delete. bit of footage.

21. Dip to black
To create this effect you would
use the dip to black tool,
which can be found on the left
hand side. By holding down
the mouse and dragging it to
the correct clip you drop it. A
purple line will then show at
the top of the clip, this is the
length of the dip to black. By
clicking on the end of the
purple line you can slide it to
make it shorter or longer. In
most of our clip we added a
dip to black at the end of it,
this helped make specific
clips run smoother than
With the amount of research we did, we found trailers were others and to create tension
continuous and flowed from one clip to another smoothly. From for the audience.
this we found a certain tool on adobe premier pro that helped
with this conventions of the horror trailer look. In some parts of the trailer we
made the dip to black longer
The dip to black tool made the clips continues and look to add to the suspense.
professional.

22. Sound- fade in and out
Fading the music in and out at the right time in one thing
that you may not pick up on in professional trailers.
2. A purple bar will then appear, by
dragging the bar you can make it
longer or shorter. To create tension
you can make the fade out longer so
it ends up being silent, this makes
suspense as your waiting for
something to happen.
1. Fading sound in and out is pretty much the same as the dip to
black process. On the left hand side find the cross fade and
scroll down until you see constant power. Drag and place at
the beginning or the end of the sound clips.

23. 3.
Adding texts
One of the main conventions of a horror After editing the text
trailer is the adding of the texts and how you want it to
where about they place it to create appear, you close it and
suspense and tension among the your text with appear in
audience watching. the top list. To make it
1. easier to know which
text is what you can
rename it to what ever
you want.
By left clicking it drag
and place where you
At the top of adobe click on title, then we scrolled down want to put it within
to new title, by clicking this a box comes up on the right your clips.
hand side. Here is when you choose what option you
2.
want. We chose default still and decided to use this all
the way through. We made sure all our
After we clicked on default
still this appeared on our text were easy to read
screen. To add text you and stood out from the
click on the ‘text here’ box. black background. To
On here you can choose add to the creepy effect
what font you want by we added a red glow
clicking on a font style
underneath.
behind the writing, to
To make sure the text was capture the eeriness of
in the right place, we used the trailer.
the box in the left hand
corner. We decided to keep
all our text in the centre of
the screen to make it stand
Here are the stages we out and eye catching to the
made to add text into audience.
our horror trailer.

24. Increasing sound By increasing the sound at
different parts, you need to go to
By adding another convention we made sure throughout our teaser
trailer there were parts of the music/ sound which were louder than
the correct audio bar. When you
others. have found the correct one you
will see a yellow line which
represents the volume of the
sounds. To make the sounds
louder you would hold the yellow
bar and move it up.
By changing the sound increase
at certain parts of the trailer, it
will add to the tension of the
trailer. Also if a clip is being
shown as well, it adds to the clip
making it creeper.

25. Different sound tracks We wanted to include a range
of sound tracks throughout,
to make it interesting and
watchable. To add a range of
sound tracks, you need to just
put them on different lines on
the audio timeline. Then you
can move your sound track to
where ever you want. In one
or two parts we made specific
parts overlap to make it
continuous.
From all the preparation leading up to making our trailer, we looked at a lot of trailers, lots of
them helped us gather ideas and helped us understand the key conventions of the horror genre
teaser trailer.

26. Reverse speed
One of the techniques we used
was the speed of clips, making
some of them speed up to add
to the horror or to help go
with the music we added.
The main time we used this
was when the little girl walked
down and back up the stairs.
From the editing it gave it a
zombie feel to it and made the
girl look possessed.
To make this technique you
click on the clip and select it.
At the top of the screen click
To get our peer audiences attention we wanted to include a on ‘click’. Scroll down to
range of techniques that were either commonly seen in speed/ duration. After clicking
trailers, or ones which were unusual. this a box appears on the
screen. You can now choose
how much you want to speed
up or slow down the clip.

27. Your clip will now
be copied, to
unlink the sound
Splitting sound from footage 3. and the footage,
right click it and
1. First of all you need to scroll up to
copy and paste the clip. ‘unlink.
Right click the clip you The clip will
want and select copy. appear in two
Make sure the red line bar sections, delete
is not on any of the edited the footage and
clip. On the top tool bar you will just be
click paste. left with the
sound. Drag and
place to the
correct place in
your edited
footage.
4.
Some times when we were filming
certain scenes for the trailer, we
captured some sound which would be
helpful to add into the horror trailer.
We also found that some footage we
shot was not up to scratch but the
sound we got was useful and handy to
use.
This is one of the easier techniques
which was on of the most handiest
ones to know. 2.

28. Sites I used…
Blogger
Throughout this project blogger was the most used site. Blogger was used to help store all my research and
information gathered. One of the main reasons was to show the process of the project coming along. I posted
my work and my thoughts on how the filming went. I also uploaded pictures and relevant videos that I
analysed to make sure I have been including all the main conventions of a horror teaser trailer.
Da Font
Da Font was the place where I got many of my font styles from. They had a range of interesting and eye
catching fonts which I thought ties-in with my theme ‘horror’. The fonts I chose were unusual and had a
horror/ gothic look about them.
YouTube
YouTube was also one of the ways I watched professional teaser trailers. I used it to collect ideas and
information about the conventions which I needed to include. One of the other ways I used YouTube
was to upload my finished teaser trailer, which was then transferred and uploaded to blogger. From
uploading it to YouTube we could share it and get a range of peoples feedback to help us understand
what to change, if we were to do this project again.