The document summarizes the media student's horror trailer project. Some key points: 1) The student created a horror trailer with elements of gore and comedy, drawing inspiration from films like Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead. 2) Conventionally, the trailer uses techniques like jump scares and montages to build suspense. It leaves some plot details ambiguous to generate interest. 3) Influences include the auteur styles of Alfred Hitchcock and George Romero. The student aimed to create a unique hybrid style drawing from multiple influences. 4) The student's contributions included camerawork, concept input, and design work, while other skills like editing are still being

1. Callum Greenslade Candidate Number: 3201

2. In what way does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms of real media
products?
Section A
For my overall trailer, I have chosen to base it around a more Gory horror with slight
aspects of comedy involved. This has been done as it is a basic genre that is popular
amongst many people. Our trailer fits into the horror genre in many ways, from the
main antagonists being the Zombies which are one of the main horror sub-genres to
the ways in which they are dealt with. We have worked with many different methods
of killing off the Zombie characters as it is shown that most people enjoy watching
something un-original as to something just being shot with a handgun or hit with a
bat. The overall gore in our trailer is basic but gives the audience an idea into what
basic standard to expect in a full film. I found a gory horror to be more difficult as
having a low budget can’t get you the best gore effects, but can have things that look
believable and gruesome.

3.  One of the main movies the overall structure has been influenced by is
aspects of “Dawn of the Dead” (2004) by George A Romero. We’ve done
this through the use of our central character being an average person with
few life skills who develops through the story into our main protagonist. I
liked the overall idea that there is comedy throughout his film, which can
draw in a larger target audience, so there are elements of comedy
throughout the trailer which vary from zombie killings to the overall structure
of the characters and how they are portrayed to the audience. Another film
that we could relate to would be elements of Shaun of the Dead. This can
be seen through its use of comedy and gore. A personal favourite scene
which I wanted to re-create was in the Winchester where David is ripped
open at the window. This is a good scene as it starts out comedic and then
has a Collision Cut to him being ripped apart (Found Here).
Image of Michael and Ana (Dawn of the Dead (2004).

4. Butchered can link in with Thomas Schatz’s theory of
genre. We see this through the fact that there is a male
protagonist, in a confined area of the world being a
small town with a local butchery where he is working.
He is met with a conflict from a problem that occurred
with him involved in slightly by not disposing of the
tainted product properly and brings it on himself to aid in
the survival of humanity by killing off the zombies now
confined in the town with him. We have challenged his
theory on endings by not giving out information on
whether or not the protagonist lives or dies, making
possible sequels possible and boosting marketing in the
sense of people who are interested in the product will
be looking to watch the second edition to find out the
possible cliff-hanger.
An image of Thomas Schatz
“Hollywood Genres” book.

5. Section B
When looking at the horror conventions in trailers, I believe we have stuck to them
quite well. We can see this for starters by the way that we have chosen to do our
trailer. For it, we have done a hybrid of a highlights trailer and a scene trailer, giving a
variety and applying Collision Cutting to it by having a sudden jump of action when
the Equilibrium is disrupted. The trailer doesn’t give out too many hints on what
events will occur but sets a basic style of the original setting allowing the audience to
know exactly where we are, what the characters back stories are and whether or not
they’ll like them characters or not. I prefer to do things this way as people will already
pick favourites and start discussion on it and monitor their development with what has
been given to them.
Like all horror trailers, we’ve incorporated a jump scare at the end as it is a way of
freaking out the audience. This is through the way that the audience assumes when
the credits appear that the trailer is over and relaxes slightly; only to be scared
straight after when they’ve let their guard down. The use of inter-titles through the
trailer have a comedic aspect to them and also give breaks between each image,
allowing a montage of killings to be split up with a tagline for them instead of placing
text or dialogue over the image. There have been multiple trailers that have given us
ideas on how to create our overall project and from using their ideas; we have
developed a mixture of them to create something of many popular trailers that an
audience will enjoy.

6. When looking at the suspense created throughout my trailer, there are multiple
techniques used to develop shock and suspense throughout my trailer. One of the
methods that I’ve used to create this is through the slow scenes that have a cut into
action. There are certain points were the audience is left hanging waiting to see the
next event unfold which has a suspenseful outlook on it. At one point in the trailer, we
add in shock where our first zombie turns and we see where our hobo first attacks.
The main part of our trailer where the audience is supposed to feel fear is at the jump
scare as this is something that is intentionally put into the trailer to make sure that the
audience is scared.
Overall, I’m not too fond of including too much fear into a trailer as it is only supposed
to be a speak peek at what the full product will be like. I’d personally prefer it to show
characters and the scenery more so the audience can have a better connection with
them. The idea of building suspense and fear in a trailer doesn’t seem to fit into our
chosen sub-genre as well as the audience is guaranteed to be expecting aspects of
gore. If anything, I’d leave fear and suspense to the psychological horror sub-genre
as it is something that needs to be built up over time compared to an expected blood
bath.

7. When analysing my trailer, you can see clear links into other films. One of the main
films that we had used was “Dawn of the Dead” (2004) by George A Romero. We
wanted to re-create the overall gore element while also having slight comedy
involved. For this, Dawn of the Dead was one of the best examples that portrayed this
in a real film. There could also be slight links in with “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) by
Edgar Wright. This is another film where we can see a hybrid of elements in horror
and comedy. It is a well-known film that its overall audience enjoyed, whilst also
appealing to audiences out of their genre. This is a good element to add in as it will
allow anyone creating a trailer to expand its audience to a wider range than beyond
what it had intended for. The overall style around Zombie films is quite basic, but
works every time. We see this in the way that many Zombie films have the same
aspects but all move to different locations with a slight change of plot.
An example of gore in Dawn of the Dead (2004).

8. Section C
For my trailer, I have used multiple auteur influences to create it. One of the main
ones would be Alfred Hitchcock for his ways of developing fear and suspense through
a drawn out period. One of his main features in his films was his female victims,
usually blonde with blue eyes as it created the overall female victim connotations. For
my trailer, we didn’t use a female victim which can always be changed in later times if
necessary. I have had ideas on whether or not to add in a female victim or make her a
survivor; I will more than likely use the female survivor because it is more appealing
to a wider audience and has no aspects of sexism involved.
I have challenged George A Romero’s auteur style by not using a black protagonist
and not having a main female survivor for now. This way, I have similarities and
differences from Dawn of the Dead for an analysis. This is good as it means that I
haven’t stolen from mainstream Hollywood but I have borrowed elements for my own
product. I personally like George A Romero’s auteur style best as it has a variety of
changes from going by something considered “normal” and gives you different
outlooks on characters that you believe will hold the most power in the film. As
Andrew Sarris said, the whole theory of auteurs is that they have a unique style to the
vast majority of their films making them what they are. This is why for my trailer I have
decided to mix multiple well known auteur styles to create a hybridised film.

9. When looking at the skills that I have brought to this production, I have
personally done Camerawork for this trailer, from which I learned a few
years back through doing productions such as BBC News Day. This
was a useful skill when creating our trailer as I was already familiar
with the type of model we were using and had a clear knowledge of
specific shot types that I wanted to shoot. The downside to this is that
our Tripod wasn’t of the best quality and jammed up on regular
occasions, making it harder to shoot a clean shot. As I’m a fan of gore,
I put my personal input into what kind of trailer I wanted to make.
Luckily with our group was that we were all fans of the Zombie sub-
genre and all big fans of gore, making the choice of sub-genre a lot
easier than other groups.
I wasn’t too confident with Adobe Premier, so I didn’t do as much of
that as I could have. I’m quite familiar with Adobe Photoshop so while
Editing was underway I created a custom production logo for our
group which will be displayed to the side. I also had a go at learning to
work Adobe After Effects but was limited to what I could make because
of the font and plugins that I could use so in the end we had to get
some assistance for this part. Overall, the use of second source
media’s such as the Adobe products went quite well and everything
looked good to a decent standard.
My created Production Logo.

10. How effective is the combination of your
main product ancillary texts?
Section A
When looking at my poster, we can see that there are a few key
aspects that are noticeable. The main idea I was aiming for was to
have a suspenseful villain that isn’t shown through the trailer. This
way, people who are truly interested in my trailer will do more
research and get hints into who the person on the poster might be. I
used very little text and blood effects to not give out too many
spoilers because I wanted my audience to predict what this film may
have in store, giving starting discussion as to what my trailer is like.
I liked the idea of the darkened room as it gave it a more
suspenseful idea and a darker lighting is more stereotypical to the
horror genre. When designing my poster, I used a lot of the same
ideas as the Smiley (2013) poster. This is because it set in a dark
atmosphere with little information into what the narrative is about. I
included most of these because they all give different effects and
outlooks to my target audience. The use of a variety in the main
villain can attract people from the well-known film Friday the 13th
because of the main villain wearing a hockey mask and holing a
machete.
An image of the Smiley Poster (2013).

11. After reviewing my magazine cover, there are a few key aspects
that I included into this. This can be seen through the use of
fonts mainly. I used very specific fonts to give it a more
professional look. This way, it appeals to the more mainstream
readers of film review magazines. The use of the “smug
director” appears as if he is very pleased about his product and
is ensured that it will do well in the final release. I have focused
my magazine around the main film being Butchered as it makes
it the centre of attention, I’ve also added in many sub-
categories such as “Best films of 2013” because it gives it a
more realistic element to it.
I took the ideas for my magazine cover from Film magazines
cover for Inception. It had the main focus point being the
character, looking overpowered and pleased and then had all of
the basic information about the main film, along with side
stories to make it interesting for others.
I chose a specific angle to have my actor in. having him facing
to the right. This is because in many film posters, the hero is on
the left and many people stereotype media corporations as evil
for giving off a single viewpoint. There is also low key lighting to
indicate that this man is a serious businessman but also
keeping the horror element. The use of the suit gives him power
and respect and is quite iconic to compare it to a butchery.
You can see how this relates to my magazine,
with the common characteristics between the two.

12. Section B
After looking through my trailer and magazine cover, they both have elements in them that
symbolise the horror genre. It can be seen much better in my poster, with many different
examples to go through. One of the main ones being the hockey mask, and how it is iconic
to films such as Friday the 13th which set the horror genre. The knife in my poster could be
seen as a phallic weapon, giving him power and dominance in my trailer. The use of blood
splats gives it a horror outlook and the red connotes danger and death which are the key
points to a horror film. When choosing my font, I wanted something that looked worn down
with a scary aspect. For this I have used a broken font and added a drop shadow to it, giving
it an element of low key lighting.
For my magazine cover, I wanted to aim that more at the higher class mainstream magazine
instead of genre based. Doing this would attract a higher target audience and look more
professional. For this, the actor is facing right meaning he is looking into the heroes spot on
posters, giving him the sense that he’s a villain. The entire cover is more of a low key
magazine, with a mixture of fancy and broken fonts. Having this means that it has the horror
element, but is keeping a professional standard to it.
My target audience is 16-25 year old middle class males who enjoy a horror film. They will
be drawn into the poster because of all the comparisons to real films. I am aiming my poster
towards the higher class and middle class with the use of a professional magazine that
appeals to more people. I would like this to be 16-30+ who are interested in horror films. I
would want the certificate to be 18+.

13. How did you use media technology with
the construction, research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Section A
For my research and planning, I used media technologies to find out what had
previously been done and how that was a success. I looked through lots of trailers to
see how the professionals constructed them, a lot of posters to find the right,
stereotypical layout and a few posters to see what common characteristics appeared
in the majority of them. For this, YouTube and Google Images came in handy quite a
lot.
For the trailers, I looked through a few YouTube trailers and picked out a few that I
thought were quite good, with elements of comedy, horror and action. This set out all
the pinpoints for what I wanted in my trailer and gave me a look at what a variety of
the angles would be like. There is links located below to a few of the ones that
influenced me.

14. Section B
When creating my products, I used a variety of different techniques to
create them. This can be seen in the way that the entire trailer has been
edited in beat with the sound and how the clips fade from a range of
lightings. I done the majority of this on Adobe Premier. I tried out multiple
title screens with Adobe After Effects but couldn’t make it work to how I
desired. For this, we ended up using a more basic version for our text and
inter titles.
For my magazine and poster, I had to add custom blood packs to it so that
I would get a better effect. I changed most of the text to have an effect, and
the main image of the magazine cover has an outer glow around the main
model. I done this because I believed it gave them more of a distorted look
to the rest of the layout, making them the centre of attention. The rule of
thirds was used here, as the eye is drawn towards the light on a darker
screen and then makes that the focus point of the viewer.
When doing my poster, I wasn’t fond of the eye colour being regular, but
just painting over it didn’t seem right either. I selected the area I wanted
with the Lasso tool and then re-selected the iris to remove it. From there, I
played around with the hue/saturation and lighting of it to give it a
stereotypical horror look. Some suggestions for this were to add more
noticeable veins, but after trying it I decided not to go with that.

15. Section C
When evaluating my product, I used a variety of different media techniques for this.
The main one that was used was my A2 media blog. This is where it was most likely to be
found and was also where it needed to be. I emailed classmates and friends out of class and
asked their opinions on what they thought about improvements, the links to our media trailer
were out on YouTube and could be linked with the title there, so more people would look at it.
As this was not a proper advertising campaign, there wasn’t too much media being used to
distribute information about this. If it was a proper production, a lot more products such as
social networking sites, adverts, promotional contests through the internet would have been
used.
Here are a few of the sites I’ve used, along
with more that I would use in a full production.

16. What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
Section A
When we done the first focus group screening, the vast majority of the class liked it. We
were given positive feedback on the lighting, make-up effects and sound. Although a lot of
people thought that for a gory horror film, there wasn’t enough gore. We agreed with this as
we were already planning on adding in gore later at this stage. We went on to improve this
by trying out some Adobe After Effects work with blood effects but that didn’t go too well.
The trailer was also said to be too short, and at the point of the first screening, we were
short on clips that could be used. We agreed on this and decided that we needed to make it
longer than it was (around 40 seconds at this stage). We improved this by adding in
different shots, more characters and more deaths to go with the gore feedback.
Overall for our focus group screening, out of 16 we scored 13 which we were very happy
with. The group wasn’t actually expecting to get that many from this rough cut, so that
helped us finish the rest of it.

17. Section B
For our last minute changes, we had a couple that had been requested that we strongly
agreed with. The main one here was the length of our trailer, we knew it was short and was
still a work in production. We added a lot more footage of scenery, text, characters and
some random deaths of zombies to make it appeal to our target audience.
We were also told that we needed more gore and with After Effects not being in our favour
we had to improvise. For this, we got one of the scream masks that are around at
Halloween and cut the pump and blood pack off. Next, we set up a camera at an angle that
would make the blood look effective and real, we would do the scene and as the victim was
dying, have them squeeze the blood pack so it shoots out. This came out much better than
anticipated and actually looked better than a few of the effects we had looked into how to
make.
With the mask being quite cheap, this
was a good thing to use for a low
production horror film as the effects came
out exactly how we wanted it.

18. Section C
 When looking through the results of my final cuts screening, I
was quite pleased that we got such a high mark from our target
audience. With the lowest score being 7/10 I would say that the
group has achieved something good here. Our marks averaged
from 7/10-9/10 which is a great thing to see when looking at all
of the problems that occurred when creating our product.
 Overall, I think that our trailer is directed specifically towards our
target audience. We can see this in the gore aspect of the
zombies whilst there is also the comedic elements involved at
certain points (Egg Shot). The audience we were aiming for
would be 16+ Males and I personally think that we have directed
it towards them quite good. The next part would be the
secondary advertising through the use of Media and other
products.
 My personal aspect used in the trailer would have to be the
Make-Up effects. The person who we had doing them wasn’t
very experienced but done a lot of research into the best
materials to use. We used a variety of different techniques to get
different effects for different zombies which unfortunately didn’t
come out too well in the trailer. This links in with some of our
feedback where we were told to include more close ups.
An example of the make-up effects used.

19. My Finished Project – Promotional
Poster

20. My Finished Project – Magazine Cover

21. My Finished Project - Trailer
Link here in the event of technical problems.