This is our first evaluation question, answering "In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products"

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

2. SAME AS
Our trailer is consistent with a large amount of
films in the horror genre. With the sub genre of
found footage. The hand held, point of view
camera work is coherent with that of our
inspiration (The Blair Witch Project). Other
similarities include our location being set in the
woods and the start of the trailer including block
text.
Blair Witch Project
Blair Witch Project

3. There is also a clear light to dark
mood change which is also consistent
with that of the Blair Witch Project.
The genre technique allows the
audience to gain a greater
understanding of the feelings of the
characters. Other films it is used in
are films such as Paranormal Activity
and Panic Button
SAME AS

4. Like The Strangers, our antagonist does not have a
recognisable face, meaning that our character is not
linked with an actor, making the scenes with the
Slenderman more realistic and scary. We also show
our antagonist at the end in the same sort of way
The Strangers have, in order to imprint the picture
of him as the last thing the audiences sees due to
this being a pivotal moment in the decision making
process when deciding if this is a film they would
like to see. This creating a symmetry with the
genre.
SAME AS
The
Strangers

5. Todorov’s theory of equilibrium
predominantly always appears in the
physiological genre. Our trailer is no
different. It starts off as “a bit of a
laugh” but then gets serious. The state
of equilibrium is restored once more
when they find him trapped in the
container at the end
SAME AS
Going into the
woods
They start to
notice things
They find
the
Slenderman
Back to
how it was

6. In our trailer we have developed the
idea of The Slenderman. Due to him
already being a well known mythical
creature, the platform for the audience
has already been set. Meaning that a
fan base for our film has already been
generated. We have also continued the
look that is associated with The
Slenderman but at the same time made
him look more human in order to
make the character more believable.
DEVELOP

7. The POV camera work that we adopted
during our trailer has been developed in
a way that is accessible to everyone. This
is because unlike in films such as
Paranormal Activity we did not use any
proper filming equipment. This making
the experience of the story more
believable due to the nature of the
filming. As well as this whilst filming we
didn't want to be limited to the basic
shots that were expected to be obtained.
Instead we felt it necessary to gain shots
such as an establishing shot, two/three
shot and shots of high and low angles to
give an overall better movie experience.
DEVELOP
Birds
eye
view
Three
shot
Low
angle

8. Unlike most physiological horrors, the
men in this film are the damsels in
distress. Not only this but they must
also be the heroes in order to save
themselves. It is also not often that a
film will have four main characters
that are all men. Although this is
strange due to the genre being aimed
at both genders anyway the ratio of
male to female is less important as
numbers in the audience will still be
equal.
CHALLENGE

9. Age is always an important factor when
marketing any film. These days most main
characters are typically mid 20’s (Blair Witch or
Paranormal) or teens at school (Harry Potter).
For our film we have gone in the middle at
around 19. This is so we still hit the target
audience age of 16-24 but at the same time
offer something different as we haven't
conformed to the “Hollywood formula” i.e.
having female characters as the primary target
for the antagonist, audience see the villain
before the characters do and using high tech
equipment when making a horror. This enables
us to present a character in a non stereotypical
way, although we still understood that all the
characters must own different traits such as
being scared, being the hero or even the one
that gets taken (these are the kinds of things
that were shown in our character profile as well
as in the trailer).
CHALLENGE