Question 1

QUESTION 1 : In what ways does your
media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?

When producing my three products, I had to follow some conventions to
help make my products look professional with the influence of real
media texts, Also, some of the typical conventions used in a magazine
and trailer such as the banner at the bottom of the magazine was
included in our magazine, when researched I found that this was not used
and for the trailer the best scenes are usually used throughout to grab the
audience from the beginning. However, we have kept the best scenes for the
end, also our location is not in an isolated setting as demonstrated as
one of the key element of horror genre in order to create fear of being
alone. This means the conventions has been challenged by our group in
the making, this was done in order to differential between the real media
text and ours so that it is recognized as a unique piece.

1. As previously mentioned, the use of the banner on the magazine was a vital
element to included in our magazine because I believed that as this was not
used in many empire magazine therefore it would help to establish a new
look. On the banner we have used a background colour of blue mist which we
have taken from our titles in our trailer, this was an initial idea we developed
to establish a link between our three products.
Upon research I found the only other magazine that used this format was
‘Sherlock Holmes 2’and ‘Sin City’, this was an inspiration to create a
something similar that is effective to the eyes. However, we have placed the
banner much lower on the magazine so that the image is well exposed to the
audience, also by have ‘VS’ between the three films feature on the banner
shows that these are similar films to our that we are trying to promote and
that there is competition among them to be the best seller within the society.
There is an empty place below the banner so that more of the information can
be written, we decided to subvert with this as the magazine would seem more
like a letter than a magazine therefore having limited information and only
having an image would allow us to not reveal much. Therefore by having this
feature promoted we have challenged the convention of magazines

2. ‘The world’s biggest movie magazine’is a typical convention of
magazine, this portrayed in many other existing magazine such as the
‘Sherlock Holmes 2’ and 'The Hobbit’ by having featured on the
magazine represents how popular they are, this allows the company to grab
more audience s attention to sell the product effectively. There are other
taglines such as ‘Movies biggest years ever’or the ‘Limited edition covers’.
The limited addition often uses the colour light pink and blue with sliver
which are not typically used as it can be portrayed as a childish. However,
there are not many horror magazine out therefore it was much harder to
take inspiration from but having an idea of what we wanted the audience
to see the most from the magazine, we were able to promote magazine which
was successful. It also allows us as producers to attract a global audience
by maintaining their brand in order to create a place for my magazine.

3. ‘EMPIRE’is our chosen promotion/marketing logo that is
widely used to produce magazines, this brand has been used by
many film makers in order to promote their film, this can be
horror, comedy or action. A brand that is dominating other film
magazine allows our audience to I give our product more
priority than other magazine which had been put out on the
market via a unpopular brand, these can be ‘scream’or ‘film’.
Therefore , as a group we described this was a great idea as
audience are more aware of the ‘Empire brand’. Moreover,
majority of the magazine such as ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Hellboy 2’and
‘Potter 7’have the character’s head over the Empire text whereas
some have it under so that the brand name is over powering the
magazine . By hiding the brand some audience may not prefer this
as they might not be familiar with it, therefore would like to see
the ‘Empire’

4. The image displayed on the magazine is a mid shot of our
character who would come across as a villain but actually a
victim, however, my magazine leaves the audience in an illusion
because of the ghost contact lenses and by the blood on her
clothes and face. The tear drop down her face can represent the
pain by her as she is possessed by the audience are an unaware of
this fact because they are mostly likely to have seen image of villain
for the front cover. Especially for a horror movie magazine the
villain is dominating the cover such as ‘ The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre’ and the ‘Evil Dead’ magazine. Due to the fact there
are not many horror magazine out there, I had to compare my
magazine to a other genre film magazine in general to illustrate a
link and as a result I found that mid shots were widely used because
it shows the character but does not reveal much yet is proven to be
less scary. And as for a long shot the audience would feel
disengaged.

The Evil Dead magazine similar to ours because the fact that the
person shown on the magazine is portrayed as the villain who is a
ghost but is possessed by the existing ghost in the film. This is an
effective type because the audience are left in enigma, wondering
of what is ‘this’all about. Keeping this in mind we have used this
idea and also because there is no other character in our trailer.
The use of mid shot is extremely popular as it dose not expose
to much yet pulls attention, this shot we have used was proven
effective because the eyes are looking down. This convention was
kept the same in order for the audience to recognise as they are
familiar with it so makes it more appealing.

1.Element of poster usually establish a shattered or a crack
view or a distortion of the image to symbolise qualities of
the character or a splits side for example: if they are
possessed this is something that was out of their control
therefore they had a life before it was perfect or in other
circumstance such as some illness that has caused the
character to have difficulties in their life.
‘ Based on a true story’this was an element used on poster to
convey to the audience that the story we are portraying is
based on real life, an example of this would be the poster
of ‘The Possession’. Having this on the poster attracts
more audience because whilst researching I found that
films that were based on true story had a bigger audience
and great response

Films such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’the use of
handheld cameras and posters that was not a typical
type. This puts the audience into wondering how are they
going to turn this life story and present it to a wider
population. Especially the poster it showed real people
missing which seems like a report rather than a poster
but was catchy as it was different. Also, majority of the
audience are aware of a true story but not all the
elements therefore the film will be a way for them to
obtain more information on the true they are aware of.
Also having the stars shows that this film has got 5 star
rating and this reassures the audience the film is good,
even if they are not a fan of horror, they can consider to
watch it.

2. A slogan is a convention aspect on the poster because if they have not
seen a trailer or a magazine they can figure out what the film is about by
reading the slogan as it is often a statement based on the storyline . For
example in the film ‘Smiley’the slogan used is ‘EVIL WEARS A SMILE’this
automatically tells the audience that within the film there is a character who
is the evil but is not easily detected because he/she is wearing a mask
which is a ‘smile’. Also in ‘The Devil Inside’the slogan ‘NO SOUL IS
SAFE’they again shows the audience that everyone is evil from inside
therefore you shouldn't trust anyone. This was a key feature on poster
therefore we have used this for our poster to make it recognised by what the
audiences are use to seeing. ‘What is the true nightmare?, the dream you
have in your sleep or the reality that awaits when you awake? This was a
long slogan that was not in many poster because it needs to be small yet
catchy yet I believe this made our poster very effective we have left the
audience to wonder for the answer tot he question which will only be solved
if they watched the trailer , this was a way of promoting the trailer because
to find the answers the audience would willingly have to go watch the
trailer.

3. The title is the main attention grabbing feature on the poster because it
shows to the audience what the poster is about therefore we have used this
idea from many existing real media text. They consist of different styles and
layout but are more likely to use the colour scheme to connote that it is a
horror poster. The title is in white so that it stands out over the blue mist
background and over the red cross. Underneath the title there is the credits to
show who the film was made by, editor, music by and others. Unlike the
magazine the poster has less information on what it contains and more of the
film/trailer itself. This was influence from poster such as ‘The Eye’, ‘Mirrors’
and ‘ Drag Me To Hell’. As the typical convention we decided to keep it the
same but developed it future in order to create a unique piece. In order to
do this we lined the credit in a line but made a pyramid and with every line
represented a different job done by a group member which was either editor,
produced or music by. However we did challenge it as we had only three
people in a our group we have a repetition of names whereas, in areal media
text the names would not be repeated as there are many people during
production.

4. The image position on the poster was hugely influenced by the latest
film ‘Annabelle’because having half the face connotes mystery and
includes a cross which was a purpose to create enigma code so that
audience would want more. Having the cross over the eye shows that there
is evil but by a cross would mean that the character is trying to fight off
but it is either failing or as defeated. It also represents that there two sides
of her as ghost often resist cross and the holy annotations, so it can
conclude that she is possessed. My poster uses mise-en scene as a key for
horror genre to be conveyed like the cross and the contact lenses.
Likewise in Annabelle the blood is dripping out from the doll’s eye and
there is tear drops from my character’s eye shows the link for the audience
to pick up so they know it is professional as they have seems a similar
poster.

5. The 15 rating classification was something we subverted because
we thought that having that would mean that the audience are aware of the
content that is included in our trailer. This instantly tells them that is
contains violence or strong language, if nay poster does not
include this information would mean that they are being misled because if
they have not yet seen the trailer, because few scene might be
inappropriate. We have also put image of our production company to
convey that is the company our film is sponsored by, the world wide
known company was universal pictures that was decided to use as it used
in the film that inspired us ‘ Drag me to hell’. We also put the logo of the
production company I and my group member decided to use which was
‘Paranormal Pictures’.

The colour scheme I used was that black to connote danger, white for
a sense of purity and innocence and black for death, these colours
reinforced our narrative. These are a typical colour scheme used in
horror poster because they all establish some sort of danger, fear and
blood. Such as ‘ A Nightmare On Elm Street’, The Devil Inside’and
Mirrors’.
The release date was another
convention of a poster for the
audience to see when it is going
to release even if they have not
yet seen the trailer.. If a release
date is shown on the trailer it is
ideal to be on the poster to show
a link therefore we have kept to
this conventions.

During production I had to follow some convention of a horror film such as
setting, typical horror films are filmed in a isolated, deserted location
to create a sense of loneliness that the character as to feel when things
go wrong such as in scream, when Casey gets a phone calls and is being
chased around, there is no where she can call for help because she is
surrounded only by trees. Also in prom night when Wendy is chased in her
school there is no one to be to help her and ends up losing her life. Before
the production work I watched many films and trailer which were quite
popular among the target audience which were my peers, by watching some
trailer if would give me an initial idea of what I should include in my
trailer in order to make it appealing to my audience and also to make it a
successful horror genre trailer. The biggest influence I took was from the
film ‘paranormal Activity’as our storyline was based on activities that are
bizarre as there is no explanation behind its occurring. Also from the
film ‘Annabelle’as the doll has a significant influence on the film because
the doll was in the first part of the film ‘The Conjuring’who continue its
journey to the second film similar in our trailer where the grandma comes
to haunt Casey.

Another film we was inspired by was ‘Carrie’ it uses strong religious
accounts, knifes, blood, candles and a statue of Jesus is used every time
the mother felt she has done something wrong she would ask for
forgiveness. We imported this element because as films are now
recognized by this and is liked by the audience

I learnt that storyline was an important part of the trailer as without
the audience understanding the non-chronological order of the
trailer they would not be eager to watch the film as they cannot identify
with the characters and feels the tension or suspense of a horror
genre. To make a successful trailer the use of theorists was another
vital component as it helped me to build up character's personality
and a storyline that was reflecting horror. As mentioned above the
theorists I have included in my trailer are ‘Levi Strauss- Binary
Opposition’, ‘ Carol Clover’s Final Girl Theory’and.
‘Todorov’s Theory’

The Final Girl Theory: The final girl horror film pattern that refers to the
last girl/woman alive to confront the killer. She is typically virginal who
sometimes has a unisex name , shows intelligence and curiosity and has
history with the villain which is demonstrated in our trailer as had a bad
relationship with her grandmas.
•Unisex name of
Casey
•Long hair
•Not covered
•Not virginal
•BUT survives
Some of the characteristics the final girl is meant to have we have
challenged that because we wanted a trailer that challenge the real media text
in order to present to the audience that girls are not always the weak one even
if they are not intelligent but we did give our character a unisex name.

Another theory we used was ‘Levi Strauss’s Binary Opposition’- this a
pair of related word with opposite meaning. For example
•Evil /Good
•Rich /Poor
•Slow /Fast
•For our trailer we have kept to this convention of using this thorough
out our trailer when the evil overpowers the good. This is
demonstrated when Casey taken be fully possessed by her grandma.
Todorov’s theory was based on the 4 stages we occurred during a film
and this was based on equilibrium( everything is picture perfect), a
disruption ( when a problem is realised) , resorted order ( when they try
to solve the problem) and the last stage of equilibrium ( happy ending).
All these stages can be used in a film but as our was a trailer we were
unable to use all these stages but we have included the first 2 stages.

The real media text we shared scenes with was mainly ‘Paranormal
Activity’ when the door slams whilst she is sleeping. This was because
all the strange things are happening very fast and snappy a convention of a
trailer to continue grabbing audience's attention. But during this scene
we could not hear the door slam therefore we further developed this shot
and when the door slammed when Casey is watching TV we made sure the
audio level was high to generate a sense of shock as it was too sudden.
The use of masked villain was a symbolic feature of horror however
we subverted from this because I thought that having a masked villain
would be very typical to use as I wanted my trailer to have its unique style
yet wanted the audience to be really frightened but the evil eyes is
similar as its hides the true identity of the character. But I did include a
sense of unknown which was the grandma photo as no one knew what her
significant was within the film but as it was shown more than once the
audience was able to tell that Casey was possessed by the image, but it
does not speak for itself but through its actions of unknown activity, similar
to ‘Paranormal Activity’

I have include blood, knife, contact lenses and the use of a cross
which again are typical conventions of horror these are recognized as icons.
Without blood a horror film is not established as a horror because it lacks
the ability to grab audiences attention but by over doing this it might put
some audience off as it than takes a turn to a more gory slasher film. The
location was subverted from the horror convention as our setting was in a
horror that was not isolated, we had a problem as we were unable to get a
house that isolated therefore as a group we decided to do more filming inside
the shot so that the feel of terror is still kept up. This did fit into our narrative
as weird activities would not be occurring around apart from chasing , which
we have used for one of our shots.
I used a variety of techniques whilst editing to show distortion of her life by
cross cutting from one scene to another in a non-chronological way . Also by
the angle used such as close up of the phone to highlight its importance, also of
the eye. A med shot of her when she is running to nor exposed much of the area
as it was not isolated.

The music that was used for horror trailer were very pounding and fast
as the aim of horror trailers are to grab audiences’ attention not by just the
image but also by the music. Film makers use varieties of soundtracks
within their trailer to show the steady change of the narrative from the calm
beginning to a rapid end. The music we have been influenced by is from the
film ‘Carrie’ and ‘Jessabelle’ as they start of slow and relaxed and
increase with the change in the narrative. However, I found that when the
mood changed within the storyline they adopted to a different music but in
our trailer we only consist of one soundtrack that we have used throughout
but adjusted the audio levels when the narrative needed to grab audiences’
attention more, for example when the cross is swinging I turned the audio of
the sound up so you can tune in with the cross moving and it emphasises
its importance. Therefore, we have subverted from this as we only have
one soundtrack and right at the end we have a sound effect of the scream.
The reason o keep it scream to the end was based on the decision to keep the
end scene the one the audience would not forget and remember the
particular scene as breathtaking.

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