The document analyzes how the media product uses and challenges conventions of real horror films. The trailer challenges some conventions, such as starting with a suicide scene rather than a positive scene. It also uses longer shots of the antagonist than is typical. The poster conforms to color scheme conventions but challenges conventions around color use. It also develops conventions around the cover line. The magazine cover conforms closely to conventions for clarity, such as consistent font and placement of title and cover lines. It challenges conventions less due to lack of examples in the horror magazine genre. Overall, the media product strategically conforms to and challenges conventions to create an intriguing product while still communicating the intended horror genre.

1. EVALUATION Q1: IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?

2. TRAILER:

3. In the trailer there are many locations
used including the woods, an attic and
the house. As seen in “The Grudge” a
woman is searching through an empty
house and eventually goes into the
attic. The attic is used as a location in
many horror films since it provides a
dark, cramped and mysterious
atmosphere. We used the attic since it
helped provide a scene which made the
audience feel uncomfortable. The
kitchen is the first time Lily sees the
ghost. We chose the kitchen since it
makes the audience relate to Lily. A
horror movie that uses a kitchen is in
the “Scream” opening therefore we
conformed to another location
convention.
Many horror films do include a house,
but our house is in a well built area
unlike a house which is remote (The
Woman in Black). We decided to
challenge this convention because we
wanted to add a sense of reality to our
movie. By using a normal house it
shows a supernatural phenomenon
could happen to anybody.
LOCATIONS:

4. MAKE UP & WARDROBE:
In many horror films the ghost is seen
wearing a white robe (such as “The
Ring”) and has a contrasting black-on-
white makeup scheme. We decide to
challenge the wardrobe convention
since we wanted to give the ghost a
modern twist and leave the audience
with questions (Is the girl really dead or
a figment of Lily’s imagination). However
we used the makeup convention to be
safe.

5. EDITING & CAMERA:
One convention I decided to develop is how long you get the antagonist for; in most
supernatural horror film trailers the ghost is seen towards the end of the trailer or have
glimpse cuts of them. In “Annabelle” there is a scene where a supernatural being leaps at
the mother before the scene cuts. This only gives the audience a short amount of time to
comprehend what happened; I developed this convention by having a shot reverse shot on
the ghost and Lily. Since the ghost was not fully seen till the end of the scene, the shot
reverse shot helped create tension as well the ghost being not fully visible. The first scene
of the trailer is of an unknown person committing suicide. Unlike other horror trailers which
start instantly on a positive note such as The Conjuring which starts with the family moving
into the house. I chose this as the first scene so it will instantly grab the audience’s
attention if they were watching the trailer on YouTube.

6. Background music:
Long suspenseful notes with contrasting short sharp notes help create shock in the audience. We conformed to
this in the attic scene, since we had a elongated drone background music with electric static over it. Isolated
instruments are often used just before the main character occurs which helps presents the idea of vulnerability, to
the audience. We instantly see the main character at her birthday when a peaceful piano piece is being played
over.
Dialogue:
The tone of a voice helps show what sort of character they are. In the Saw franchise, Jigsaw (antagonist) has a
unique tone to his voice compared to the other characters, which shows he is intimidating. We applied tone to our
main character. By having her speak softly when she is talking with her friends it shows she is kind, but when she
is screaming in the field in shows her fear and confusion.
Sound effects:
We used numerous sound effects that conformed to the horror genre. When Lily is first haunted we used crows
cawing; crows are used a lot in horror movie since they are related to death. The gunshot towards the end was
the sound of a door slamming with a muffled audio effect placed over it. Loud noises are used to surprise the
audience, which I used in our product.
SOUND:

7. POSTER:

8. We used the convention of a black, red
and white colour scheme, this a common
colour scheme seen in many horror
posters since the colours represent
darkness, blood and the innocence of
the main character. There is no certain
font style that supernatural posters
have. It can either be bold and blocked
(Woman In Black) or thin (Sinister). We
decided to use the latter since we
thought it suited the overall plot of
Mirage – a sense of mystery.
FONT:

9. We decided to use a mainstream convention found on
the majority of horror posters, a close up of a face or
focus on a certain item, which we did by having the
poster being a head shot of the main actress.
However we decided to develop and challenge the
convention of colour on the poster. Almost all
supernatural posters have a black background so we
decided to conform to this convention. But when a
poster has a black background they usually make the
rest of the poster white-on-black or add an effect that
will affect the whole image. We subverted this idea by
making one half black & white and the other half
coloured. We challenged this convention because we
wanted a way to show contrast between the two
characters.
IMAGE:

10. COVER LINE:
Almost all cover lines in supernatural posters involve a hint to the plot and usually break
the 4th wall by using 2nd person to talk directly to the audience (Carrie: You will know her
name). We instead developed this convention and used 1st person but the way we did it
made it sound like the main character was talking directly to the audience.

11. MAGAZINE COVER:

12. Magazine covers do not change the font
style of their title to maintain their brand,
but they change the colour of the font to
synergize with the movie they are
advertising. We kept this convention the
same since it would have been
unprofessional to change it.
We decided to put our movie title in the
bottom third of the cover since it does
not take the attention away from the
magazine’s title. Therefore using the
convention of the magazine title and
movie title being in the top third and
bottom third.
FONT:

13. Our main character takes up the majority of the
magazine cover. This a mainstream code seen
in a lot of film magazine covers, such as the
Avengers.
Instead of using a screenshot from the movie
we did a separate photoshoot. This another
common convention seen in media since it
makes fan want to buy the magazine as it is
seen as exclusive.
IMAGE:

14. By using cover lines we also conformed
to another convention. Cover lines are
used to attract an audience that wouldn’t
much care about the image on the
cover. We wrote about interviews and
celebrities therefore using the
conventions of real media products.
We also have included an issue number,
date and barcode. Nearly every
magazine has the issue codes on the
front of cover or on the back, this does
not help advertise the film but it’s a
common code and conventions on a
magazine therefore we had to use it.
COVER LINES:

15. CONCLUSION:
• The narrative of our product did subvert some common conventions since we wanted
our trailer to seem unique. Our trailer challenged and used certain conventions of
real media films.
• However, the magazine did conform to a lot of conventions since it is rare to find
magazine covers on horror films so it made it hard for us to imagine what a horror
magazine cover would look like. We decided to use the conventions as we wanted to
be safe with our product.
• The poster did conform and subvert the conventions because we wanted to be
unique and new yet obvious enough for the audience to realise the genre of the
movie. Therefore we developed the conventions of the poster.