The document discusses how the media product uses and challenges conventions of real horror media. It used many generic horror conventions like gory scenes, creepy locations like asylums, and cinematography techniques like close-ups and quick cuts to build tension. However, it also challenged conventions by having the final girl be a blonde instead of the typical brunette. The media product was influenced by the horror genre and directors like James Wan but also brought its own style through a hybrid genre and strong female leads.

1. EVALUATION PART 1

2. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCT?
The importance of understanding genre of films is important according to Thomas Schatz’s theories outlined
in his book Hollywood Genres (1981). Genre is a really important way of selling films to its target audience,
re-using some of the form of other real media products in the same genre. It’s helpful because the audience
know the generic conventions of what is normal to the specific genre so they can learn what is their
favourite kind of film is. By following conventions, a horror trailer will not mislead the audience into
believing the full film will not appeal to their horror fandom. Our horror trailer used many generic horror
conventions so that it was genre specific and would appeal to our target audience.

3. We decided to make a psychological/gory trailer, as we wanted to appeal to wider range of audience.
To do this we first used conventions of body horror for the gore effects used to fit in with genre. A gory
horror scene to illustrate the gory horror genre is in Evil Dead (2013) shown in the dead Mia
singing/cut it scene. As for mise-en-scene we made sure that we had a creepy location which involved
the main establishing point of the insane asylum/hospital, such as in the horror film grave encounters
which is also set in a similar location. As for cinematography and editing, our uses of close-ups and
collision cutting are used to establish panic and distress of which we used with ours to show the genre
of psychological.
Evil Dead (2013) Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzzlwAFJEhY

4. However, we also occasionally challenged forms of real media products by having a blonde character,
which would stereotypically be the first victim, become the final girl. We did this to challenge depictions
of horror types and create a slightly more unique style, although a few example of feminist blonde
characters did arise in our research. We can compare this to Ana from Dawn of the Dead (2004) as she is
blonde but also the final girl, a stereotypical dark haired girl being the final girl can be seen in Scream as
Sidney is the survivor in the end.
Here’s a link to the top 10 final girls who are brunettes:
http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/ranking-the-top-
10-final-girls-of-horror-cinema
Ana - Final Girl DOTD
(2004)

5. We looked at many different horror trailers to get a feel for what conventions we would like to contain in our own such
as films likes Insidious and Silent Hill. We had first decided as a group that we wanted to do a psychological horror so we
had to look at this type of sub-genre and see what we liked from it and to pick an idea. We looked into the pacing of
horror trailers and decided first that we wanted to build tension. The shots we used to build tension starts off being
longer and then progressively get shorter, we use canted angles and close-ups to make the audience uncomfortable. A
trailer that does this is Dead Silence (2007) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b_HVtHmK30
How does your trailer fit the conventions of horror trailers?

6. Using many close-up shots was vital. They conveyed distress
and makes the audience feel uncomfortable being that close to
a character. We used close-ups in our psychological shots and
when the drugs are taking an effect on Anna. .We used canted
angle to show panic and emergency and used these in various
shots. We used this technique on when we girls are going
insane mostly.

7. We decided to speed up aspects of our trailer to make our
audience feel uneasy and we did this in the psychological
shots where we bombarded the audience with eerie
images of us 3 girls in a cross cut style being in strait
jackets depicted in an insane asylum. To emphasise this we
changed our narrative halfway through planning and
changed it to a unique narrative that we thought hadn’t
been done before which was revolved around drugs. The
plot twist was an experimental drug turned people crazy
and even into a creepy psychopath that it shown at the
end of our trailer. Again, we challenged real-life forms
with this original spin, and the closest film to it would be
something like The Crazies, where people are driven inside
by a virus.

8. For auteur influence I believed we used a similar style to James Wan as he tended to use similar conventions to us in his
films Insidious and The Conjuring. Wan’s style is also psychological films and he uses horror conventions such as tension
building through collision cutting from starting off at slow to quick and scenes of loud to quiet to shock the audience.
This is shown in the scene of when the mother is playing hide and seek. Wan also uses low-key lighting of which we
used into our trailer, this shown in the scene of the exorcism in the basement. The “spirit worlds” in both Insidious and
The Conjuring also evoke our mise-en-scene aspects of locations to keep it eerie and create a creepy atmosphere.
Were you influenced by any real life auteurs?

9. In analysing this, I can refer back to Andrew Sarris’s theory on
auteur style which he wrote in his essay “Notes on the Auteur
Theory” and we wanted to have someone to relate to so that we
could to a real life director. However, I did also bring my own
“auteur” style to the film too through my liking of hybrid genres of
gore and psychological horror films, I even wanted to make sure
we had strong female characters by having the 3 main characters
being women.