The document discusses how the student's media project, which included a teaser trailer and promotional poster for a horror movie, used and challenged conventions of real media products. The student researched horror movies, trailers, and posters to understand conventions. Limitations during filming meant the trailer did not fully follow the storyboard but still used conventions like ominous music. While the poster followed color schemes and taglines from researched posters, it challenged conventions by altering the background and emphasizing the release date.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. The brief of this project was to create a teaser trailer for a horror movie as well as a promotional poster for it and the cover of a film magazine promoting it’s release.

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Teaser Trailer The preparation for my media project started back in October 2010 where I started doing research by watching a certified range of horror movies. These horror movies helped me understand the conventions of a horror movie and how they are used. For example; Nosferatu and The Shining are completely different from each other but they are horror movies, they’re just portrayed in different ways. I also watched horror teaser trailers before I started my planning for my project. This was needed as it was necessary to understand how the conventions of horror are used in a horror teaser trailer to engage the audience and how I could use this knowledge for my own teaser trailer. More of my research that I did before creating the trailer was watching a trailer of a film that I could relate to my project. As my film synopsis was based on a modern day snow white but with horror, I managed to find a film similar to this. Snow White: A Tale Of Terror. There was no teaser trailer, just a full length trailer. However I still used it as it proved to be very useful to me and my project.

3. After I did my research it was time to start planning. I got part of my Idea to do a fairy tale horror from the film Halloween. This is because the film Halloween had a child as the killer. When we think of children and halloween we think of them dressing up, trick o treating and having fun. The fact that Michael Myers killed at such a young age takes away the innocence of halloween. So having a childhood innocent fairy tale but with an horrifying twist is what I think appeals to the audience. I also got the idea from the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland . Even though it’s not a horror film, it was directed by Tim Burton and he always brings a dark artistic element to his movies and so he did I Alice in Wonder. That is what I was hoping to achieve. The fairytale/horror to still have it’s innocence but in a dark artistic way. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Teaser Trailer

4. When I planned my teaser trailer, I think I set the bar too high. I originally planed to have more different shots in my trailer. But when I filmed, it still had some of the same ideas but the trailer is unidentical to the storyboard. One of the key conventions of horror is that the scenes are mostly set at night. I was unable to do this due to the fact that the camera quality wouldn't of been that good and the cast were unable to do so. I also had problems arranging the cast on a set date. Most of them were busy, so it effected the storyboard and the synopsis, and so when there were a cast to film it had to be shot in an unreserved location. This meant that I had limit the width of the shots as unwanted scenery and people were being included. Also costumes were limited due to low budget funds. Where the main girl was meant to be dressed up for a fancy event, I just had to make do with what she was wearing. It didn’t effect the trailer that much but it did when it came to the magazine cover.In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Teaser Trailer

5. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Teaser Trailer Even though my filming didn’t go as well I hoped, I still think it works well when portraying the conventions of a horror film . For example, the music soundtrack. The most important thing with a teaser trailer is the backing music/soundtrack. It helps set the genre and the mood. With a horror teaser trailer it needs to create suspense and intensify the tension for the audience. The key piece of music that I used on my trailer was ‘The House of Leaves’ from Royalty Free Music. This piece of music is simple harp refrain plays a child’s melody, but is torn apart by discordant screeching noises, thumps, growls, and mechanical noises. Its dark, eerie and unnerving, everything it’s suppose to be for a horror movie trailer. From my research I found that a lot of weather noises are in use with horror movies such as rain or thunder and lighting. With the sound effects on imovie I decided to use thunder sound effects for certain parts in my trailer. This made the certain parts seem more dramatic as if it was making a statement of a terrifying change.

6. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Teaser Trailer As I stated before, a key convention of horror is darkness. Even though my trailer was shot in daylight it still gives a off a haunted eerie effect as I filmed this just after winter where the weather is still cold and the trees are bare. Instead of following the convention, it’s challenging it. People will still address this as a horror trailer. Plus it cooperates well with the additional idea of my film. It is still a horror trailer but people can identify it more as a fairytale horror as it is not set at night. The fact that it’s not set at night allows the conception that horror comes from innocence. ( this references the article I found by the article on fairy tales to horror).

7. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Promotional Poster I first did research on promotional film posters before I started my own. As the trailer that I looked at was Snow White: A Tale Of Terror I decided too look at its promotional poster as well. As the film came out on TV release the poster was different from a usual promo poster for a horror movie. However I still analysed it as it was relevant. It still portrayed the conventions of a horror poster. When analysing that poster I found that it did convey characteristics of a horror poster promoting a horror film. It gave off a dark aspect and it was in some ways quite chilling. For example, the shard of glass in the bloodied apple. Plus it had a tagline which related to the film.

8. What I took from the Snow White: A Tale Of Terror promotional poster was that I needed it to contain key features from the trailer. For example, the snow white poster had the apple and the shard of glass. Both were featured in the trailer. I also thought it was crucial to have colour coordination. The snow white poster is mainly red, white and black/dark grey. They all stand out and make a key statement in there own way. It was noted that I had to keep it simple but effective. Plus the tagline was another important feature of the promo poster. ‘The fairy tale is over’ . This was also used in the trailer of this film as well. It is important that everything is linked together. I acknowledged the techniques that were used on the poster, it really helped me through my planning on my promotional poster. I have used some of there style in my poster but the issue is that this poster is 14 years old and I needed something more modern so it could appeal to the audience sophistication In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Promotional Poster

9. When researching for another promotional poster to analyse I came across another film based on a fairy tale. It is Red Riding Hood. It is a new film coming out this year which is based on the fairy tale but is also a thriller movie as well. Compared to the snow white poster, this one only has one figure, presumably, red riding hood. This is what I thought about as a way to go when deigning. This poster also has a tagline ‘Believe the legend, Beware the wolf’. That was an important feature to add to my poster as it seems to be an effective way to engage the audience.In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Promotional Poster The promotional poster for this film is similar to what I had in mind for mine, so I used this to my advantage. Even though it’s a fairytale/thriller rather than a fairytale/horror the poster still conveys a chilling, haunting, eerie aspect to it, which is what I hoped to achieve. This poster also refers to the snow white one, as the colours used are black, red and white. This told me for certain that I should use the colour scheme for my poster. The red represents blood and the black represents darkness which is what I hoped to portray in my teaser trailer.

10. From using the research and information that I found, I was ready to make my promotional poster. The conventions to create this was planned out and I used Photoshop to help. Following the technique from the previous posters that I looked at, I stuck with the colour code of black, white and red. I made sure that the red stood out the most as it is an important feature in my trailer. What I feel maybe a problem is that I used Photoshop to change the contrast of the background so it looks like it is set at night. It fits in well with the whole poster but it doesn’t carry the same convention as the trailer. I did include the tagline that I used from the trailer into my poster, which fits in well, but the date of the release went the other direction as I made it in large font just to fill up space as it looked like it needed it. This challenged the typical convention because usually the release date is small. I also challenged the convention by using more then one figure, I felt that the poster needed it so the audience could be able to identify with the concept and the scripture of the film. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products: Promotional Poster