The document outlines a promotional campaign for an upcoming slasher film called "Weeping Willows". It will include a promotional trailer, film poster, and magazine cover. The three pieces will share a symbiotic link through similar colors and images to maintain brand identity. Slasher films were chosen for the subgenre due to their expansive story possibilities and recognizable conventions like a masked male antagonist. Inspiration was drawn from films like Scream, Friday the 13th, and Halloween in areas like settings, victim characterization, and emphasizing the antagonist's strength. Close examination was also given to other media like posters and magazines to understand how to link the three promotional pieces through consistent branding. The campaign aims to be creative and successful

1. A challenge has been set to make a promotional campaign to advertise a forthcoming horror film with the
subgenre being slasher. Among our package a promotional trailer, a film poster and additionally a film
magazine front cover will feature. The three advertisement pieces will share a symbiotic link which will
connect all three media pieces together through the use of similar colours and images; in order for brand
identity to be recognised and maintained it is vital each piece shares a symbiotic link.
The promotional campaign will advertise our film called “Weeping Willows” which will be based on the sub-
genre of slasher; there are a majority of reasons as to why we chose this sub-genre one of them being the
expansive range of story lines we could base our horror off. The sub-genre is exceptionally extensive in
terms of what conventions are delegated as part of the genre. Due to this we are provided with clear
conventions and also key pieces of iconography which we can ensure to include in our own three media
pieces; for example due to a majority of slasher’s having a masked male antagonist we also will feature a
male antagonist who conventionally will be masked as well. In addition to the simple conventions, slasher
films can provide us with a sense of reality, this is due to the victims being a similar age to the target
audience, therefore making it easier for us to create ideas as we already know what will appeal to them.
Another reason as to why we chose the sub genre slasher besides it being simple, is due to the intriguing
mystery which we can create solely through our antagonist and the way which we structure each of our
media products. There is an unlimited amount of opportunities when creating a slasher as we are opened
to a large variety of conventions and enigma codes, which we can use to experiment and create our own
unique slasher.
Although the conventions for slasher films are simple enough to follow we have gained inspiration from
watching several trailers in class and also watching several horror films in our free time. Some of these
horror films include Scream, Friday the 13th, House of Wax, Sorority Row and finally Halloween. Each one
of these films feature a masked killer who we know is male due to their physical appearance; although we
do not see the face of many of these murderers we are shown masculine figures which allows us to
conclude the killer is male. For example in “Friday the 13th” “Jason” is shown to kill his victims in gruesome
ways which show his strength, in one of the scenes he is shown to strangle a victim whilst holding her up in
the air, this emphasises his strength and masculinity. Due to this running convention of having a strong
male antagonist we took inspiration from these movies especially “Friday the 13th” and are also going to
feature a strong, dominant male character as our antagonist. In addition to this we also took inspiration
from each of the mentioned films when deciding on our setting, many slasher films are filmed in isolated
locations such as a abandoned house/college and lakes surrounded by wilderness, these isolated locations
provide each of these movies with a edge and mysterious effect, therefore in order to achieve similar
effects we have decided to set our films in a suburban area. The slasher “Halloween” is set around an
abandoned lake; with the lake being isolated from any personas it provides the ultimate suspense needed
for any slasher, because of this we plan on setting our movie in a uninhabited forest in order to provide our
target audience with mystery as well as keeping them enticed. Finally from watching several of these
slasher films it is clearly conventional for a group of young adults to play the victims with many of them
being portrayed as being bullies, promiscuous and indulging in the use of drugs and alcohol; this
representation will also inspire how we characterise our victims and their daily activities. Aside from
watching trailers and films we have also closely examined two other forms of media (a film poster & a
magazine front cover) and have taken into account what we will need to include in order to maintain a
symbiotic link between three of the media pieces.
Overall we are looking forward to many things from the basic planning to actually recording raw footage for
our horror trailers and also creating our magazine front covers and film posters. In addition to this, being
able to create a unique idea and developing it into a successful promotion package will also be highly fun
and entertaining as it will require us to get creative and work together. However in order to create a
successful promotional package, a lot of research will have to be conducted during the process of each
media piece. This will help us understand the importance of using conventions, enigma codes and also
symbiosis.