In constructing their horror film trailer and ancillary texts, the document discusses: 1) How they followed horror genre conventions in the trailer and challenged conventions for the magazine cover. 2) That audience research found an engaging trailer requires a consistent theme across tasks. 3) Various media technologies were used in planning, including Photoshop, video clips, social media, and images to document the process.

1. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real
media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation
stages?

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real
media products?
Trailer
For the film trailer, me and my partner tried to follow as
many conventions of the horror genre as possible. This was
done through the use of misc-en scene and specifically
through location and costume. The deliberate choice of
choosing a house to set our trailer was very
successful, because it allowed us to experiment with
different parts of the house; for example the bedroom, stairs
and hallway, which where key places we decided to film. This
setting also allowed me and my partner to film specific parts
of our trailer we were not quite happy with repeatedly
making the job simpler when it came to editing.

3. • We discussed different locations we could use to film
the trailer, for example outside on the street near the
house, or even at a graveyard. However, I did not feel
these different locations were necessary for our trailer
and may have gave us trouble when trying to convey the
storyline. This was one of the reasons for our emission
of the first seen, which was in the front garden, where
we tried to set the scene and give our audience a view
of the house. This however, I felt hindered the trailer, as
it was not very eye catching and made it look like we
were trying to consume time to fill the allotted two and
a half minutes we targeted. I feel these decision were
crucial in making our trailer as strong and engaging as
possible.

4. • The editing element of our trailer was very much a
trial and error; deciding to play around with the order
of the trailer was extremely effective and followed the
conventions of a film trailer. This is because film
trailers do not usually occur in chronological order, so
that you don’t give the audience the entire film
storyline, making them want to go and watch the film
more. We used many straight cuts in our trailer and
this was to give the trailer a sense of naturalism
making it more likely to connect with the
audience, because it is more realistic. I worked with
splitting various clips, so that our trailer wasn’t all in
chronological order, to match the conventions used by
many different horror trailers. Furthermore, I use d a
number of fades to black during my trailer, which give
the audience a brief moment of relief, before the next
horrific scenes comes up; another convention used by
horror based companies.

5. • Moving on, sound was what I found the most challenging
part of the process in developing the horror trailer. This was
due to the fact, we found it hard to find a sound that
matched and suited the trailer. This lead us to having to
make our own unique sound that complimented the trailer,
therefore making it a more terrifying horror piece matching
the media conventions of a horror trailer. The sound we
used was created on ‘garage band’ and I feel it gave the
trailer more impact, because there arte certain highs and
lows of the music, indicating to the audience what is going
to happen next, or whether or not something scary will take
place.
• Link below is of trailer.
[youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD2A2mQfF9M&w=560&h=315

6. 2) How effective is the combination of the main
product and ancillary task?
• I feel that my main product and ancillary task are very
effective, because all three products match and look
like they belong together. They also having a running
theme through all and specific tag lines are used to
make sure that they are unique and different to any
other. I think my main product of the horror trailer has
worked very well due to the way me and my partner
worked together and split the responsibility. The
editing was what I feel is the most effective part of our
trailer and looks extremely fluent and professional. The
ancillary task compliment the trailer, as they show the
main images and message of our trailer, therefore
making the combination very strong.

7. • I feel the trailer’s narrative told a coherent
storyline that was easy to follow my
audience, which is important as you want them to
stay engaged all the way through. My ancillary
tasks. I believe the fact me and my partner had
conflicting ideas on how the trailer should look at
times had a positive effect on the eventual
outcome of our trailer, because it helped us to put
our best ideas together and showcase what we
were trying to represent. It also made it easier for
me when it came to designing my ancillary
tasks, because I knew how I wanted it to display
the same message of: innocence, mystery and a
tormented young girl.

8. Poster
My poster I feel matches many of the conventions of a media
product. This is because the image is the focal point of the
poster and is directly in the centre of the page. It also has a
tag line which most horror posters have, creating a theme
and something for the reader to remember. The colours also
follow the conventions of a horror poster, as they are
black, white and red which all connate with the genre of
horror. I do not feel I challenged any of the conventions of a
horror poster, as I feel this may have led to my poster not
looking as professional and appealing to my audience.
Throughout the development of my poster, I looked at many
different horror poster to see if any would suit my poster. The
poster I found looked the best and most effective was that of
‘The Exorcist.’ This made me try to create a poster similar to
this, as I thought it looked incredibly original and also very
modern.

9. Exorcist poster My poster, Z.O.E

10. Magazine Cover
My magazine cover challenges the conventions of most
horror magazine covers. This is clear through the use of
the image which is a long shot and normally magazine
front covers are close up shots. I chose to challenge this
convention, because I felt that this shot allowed me to
get all the features in that I wanted to portray; including
the prop of the teddy bear in her hand, the white dress
and the cuts on her legs, which would not have been in
the shot unless I used the long shot. The cover lines
however, do follow the conventions of a horror
poster, as they are images related with horror on one
side and some things to do with film on the other.

11. • Also there is a competition which the audience could
win by buying the magazine, which again is a
convention of a horror poster. The magazine cover
includes the date of the issue and a barcode, with the
price below, another key convention of not only a
horror magazine, but all types of magazines. By doing
audience research I was able to find out what makes a
magazine cover enticing and used my own experiences
to produce my final product. One influence for my
magazine cover was ‘Fangoria’ which you can view on
the next slide. If you compare mine and this magazine
you will see various similarities, such as colour
scheme, but also some differences, e.g. the image shot
type, which I already stated challenged the
conventions

12. Fangoria
magazine cover
Rated magazine
cover

13. 3) What have you learnt from your audience research?
• From my audience research I learnt what elements make the
best horror trailer, poster and magazine cover. This was
through questionnaires and group interviews which are all
featured on the blog. The group interviews helped us to gather
the general opinion of how to construct a trailer and which
ones they felt were the most effective. As well as this the
interviews helped us understand what we should not do in our
trailer, such as setting it in many different locations, as they
said it did not show fluency and makes it harder to follow. Our
audience was those who are from the age of 16-18. This is the
age group me and my partner decided to target, because we
to fall into that bracket, therefore we felt we had an idea of
what this age group would like and find interesting.

14. • Our questionnaire was needed as part of our
research, because it shows specific individuals
opinions, therefore meaning our audience could not be
swayed by their peers. The questionnaire was more in
depth than our group interview, as we asked the
audience to give us their own examples of what trailers
they like instead of me and my partner giving them the
options of what they might like. Both of these ways of
finding out what our audience wanted helped us to
create all our tasks and the main concept we were
delivered with by our audience, is that they wanted a
running theme throughout our tasks, as it makes it look
more professional and would entice them to come and
see our film.

15. 4)How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation
stages?
• I used various media technologies to construct my
research, planning and evaluation stages. To construct my
research and planning my main use of technology was mainly
through Photoshop, as I this was the best way to show the
development of my poster and magazine cover. I also used
video clips to show my development, as I think it makes it easier
to hear some sort of audio and visuals to convey the points that
I was trying to convey, especially through audience research.
One of my favourite ways of presenting video clips was through
YouTube and this was the main way in which I presented the
development of my trailer, which is evident on my blog.
YouTube allowed me and my partner to share what we had
done and also gave other people in my class to view how our
trailer was looking and give us feedback and critique.

16. • Moving on, for our group meetings, during
our research and planning me and my partner
used media technologies to portray what we
going to do in terms of costume, props and
location. This was done through having
conversations on Facebook, messaging and
twitter, which is showcased on the blog. This
helped us create our media products, so that
even when we were not working on our
constructions together we were still able to
communicate in other ways that would
benefit our trailer.

17. • Slideshare was yet another way I decided to present my
research and planning and also this evaluation. I feel
Slideshare enables you to create easy to follow
information that you need to convey. This is because you
can organise it in a way that shows fluency and leads from
one part of your concepts to another. Furthermore, I used
pictures as part of media technology to construct my
research , planning and evaluation throughout. This was a
great way to give people who viewed my blog visual
representations of how my work had developed. I
uploaded all my images through jpeg, and the pictures
which I did not take myself were found through the search
engine Google and helped me to show all my research
and planning such as poster and magazine covers
research, which were crucial in helping me develop my
ancillary tasks.