Through research on genre conventions, the document found that most horror films use similar settings, technical techniques, and iconography to create fear in audiences. These include dark, confined settings and the use of close-ups during jump scares. Narrative theories, such as those from Propp and Levi-Strauss, were also examined to determine which could best fit different horror genres. Representation of gender in horror was discussed, noting common tropes like the "final girl" and victims. Finally, the document analyzed how marketing, like posters and interviews, contributed to the success of films like The Woman in Black in attracting audiences.

1. How Research has Impacted our Ideas

2. Key Genre Conventions
Through research I found that most horror films have the same conventions. The setting is
always in a dark and eerie place, by doing this the audience will feel scared as anything
can happen while the setting is like this. the technical codes are all often the same in
horrors (such as close ups, over the shoulder shots, etc..) this is because it creates a small
space on the screen where the audience has to focus on, if there is a jump scar then the
audience wont see it coming. This creates the purpose of the film which is to make its
audience scared. The iconography is always the same in most films, the colours are
usually dark this gives the film a sad and dull feel it. The main colours used in horrors are
colours such as blacks, browns, whites and red. Red would be used as it links to blood.
Themes in horror films are always opposites such as ‘good and bad’ this could be used to
show the types of characters used in films.

3. Narrative
Through looking at narrative theory's by Propp, Levi-Strauss, Todorov, Bordwell
and Thompson this show me how different styles affected the characters and
which would work best depending on the type of horror genre. Propps theory of
8 characters didn’t really apply to me as there wasn’t that many of the characters
in my horror trailer, we only used few from it. This could be considered as making
our trailer unique. By looking at the theory of binary opposites by Levi-Strauss I
soon found that this would be a good idea to apply to my trailer as there is ‘good
vs evil’ the good in my trailer is the detective and the evil is the killer.

4. Representation
Representation is shown in the different types of characters in a film, for example
In the cabin in the woods there is two different representation of women. These
would be the dumb blond girl, who is more focused on sex then the environment
around her. This female is more likely to be killed as she isn’t paying attention.
Whereas the other females or the ‘final’ girl often has dark hair and male-like
aspects of her such as controversial dressing, this female is also intelligent and
isn’t driven by sex. There are films that challenge this representation such as
Jenifer's body where the evil in the film is a dark haired women and the final girl
is a blond haired female.

5. Audiences and Institutions
A good example of this would be The Woman In Black, this is because of the way
that this film was advertised. The Women In Black was a well marketed horror
film, usually horror films don’t have near as much advertisement as this film did
this helped in the success of it. Also the main actor had a wide fan base of
teenagers and adults this would also attract people to go and watch the film as
they want to support the actor. There were different types of advertisement such
as posters, the trailer and the cast did a lot of interviews.
To research my target audience I sent out questionnaires, this helped me to know
the age range of who would want to watch my film and whether or not my idea
for my trailer was any good. This helped me to know whether or not my film
would be a success.