This document analyzes how the media product, a horror film trailer titled "Perplexed", uses, develops, and challenges conventions of real horror film trailers. The summary discusses how the trailer begins with distorted titles to set an unsettling tone, features an everyday victim to make the scenario feel realistic, and communicates threat through social media rather than a phone call. It also analyzes the trailer's use of lighting, music, sounds, editing techniques, and other conventions to develop suspense and scare the audience.

1. Q1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
Reece Vickerage

2. Introduction
When we decided on a Horror trailer, we
researched existing horror films – slashers in
particular, for example: ‘Scream’ and ‘Halloween’.
All of the films that were controversial and
redefined the horror genre were what influenced us
the most, because they had the biggest impact on
the audience. We watched specific trailers and
noted the key parts within them that really make
the audience feel involved and grabs their
attention. Therefore we used, developed and
challenged this.

3. For example, a horror trailer always begins with the opening titles, which is usually
the film making company, e.g. ‘Warner Bros.’ However, extra effects are added in
visually and acoustically, to define which genre a film is in.
To distinguish the fact that the purpose of this is Horror, the titles in our trailer begin
all fuzzy and distorted, with a flickering white against the font. This shows the damage
to the text, making the audience feel at edge and disorientated. A long with this some
eerie music plays in the background to build up along with the title to make the
audience feel insecure, already sticking to it’s intended purpose and conventions by
making them feel scared and setting the tone for the rest of the trailer.
Scream Trailer (1996) - Example Perplexed - Trailer

4. From extensive research it is clear to see that most horror trailer begin with a vulnerable
young woman, who is alone. Therefore, we used this distinctive convention in our trailer.
Examples of this would also come from Scream, which begins with a blonde, dumb,
vulnerable woman who is about to meet her untimely death. However, our trailer developed
and challenged this by creating a character that seems more laid back and normal, e.g. just
getting back from work, all relaxed and ready to eat and watch some television. This is rather
than the stereotypical ditsy, blonde, teenage girl, which almost everyone is familiar with and
has seen countless times. This makes the audience feel as though these horrific events could
happen to anyone, rather than just a specific type of person. This will make the audience
more tense for the scenes to come, as it has already established that it has broke certain
conventions, meaning anything could happen to anyone.
Scream Trailer (1996) - Example Perplexed - Trailer

5. During research we found that a Horror film needs to be realistic to develop the plot and
many Horror trailers hit home with the audience as it is a much more realistic concept
than something in a Sci-Fi film, etc. We used this within our trailer, developing a
heightened sense of reality with family photos etc. at the back of the shot, developing
the character’s background discreetly. This further constitutes to the fact that this is an
everyday working class young girl, who is alone on an ordinary night at her family house.
This will relate to the audience, as many people will live like her themselves and have
horrid scenarios of this happening to them. It creates a warm, homely feeling where
everyone thinks they are safe, in contrast to what is actually about to happen making
the audience even more scared and in anticipation as to what’s going to happen next.

6. In a horror trailer, the killer always communicates with the victims in some way,
before they die. Whether it be through a phone call, a knock at the door or a bang
from upstairs. As we are now in the modern age and everything is technology
based, the mainstream way of communicating is virtually. Therefore, we decided
to develop and challenge this by having the killer stalk the victim on her Facebook
account, rather than a Horror films typically conventional phone call, etc. This
interacts with the audience by redefining the way someone dies in a horror film,
keeping up with the modern times. This creates a serious, dreading atmosphere as
almost everyone has some sort of social network account, showing that the trailer
is relating to a modern audience and it could happen to them at any given
moment without realising the dangers of it, making them feel anxious.

7. This lack of awareness makes the atmosphere
change dramatically in less than ten seconds, as
a figure appears at the side of her. The first
appearance of the killer begins with a huge
bang to make the audience jump and feel the
killer’s intended creepy looking presence. Now
the audience know what the person behind the
phone looks like giving an added sense of
reality that you could be talking to anyone and
not know who it is, making the audience
frightened.
This convention has been developed in our
trailer, however it has been used numerous
times in trailers such as Scream, when the
victim’s lack of awareness to who she is talking
to creeps up on her. However, in Scream, the
character suddenly becomes aware of the
situation that someone is watching her.
Whereas the character in our trailer continues
to watch television, taking the killer’s clue as a
joke. This challenges the natural forms in
horror trailers to instantly panic and instead,
stays calm and laughs it off showing a
misconception of reality.
Examples:

8. In terms of Mise en scene our trailer abides by the standard codes and
conventions of Horror, using appropriate locations for the genre such as: Dark
woods and big empty houses. These are the most common places where the
killer would most likely prey on young victims. It also forms a feeling of
isolation from the rest of society, creating suspension with the audience. This
is because knowing that something is going to happen, but not knowing when
creates physical effects towards the audience, e.g. adrenaline rush.
Examples:

9. The time of day that we filmed the trailer was equally important, as this sets the overall
atmosphere and tone of the movie. Most horror films are filmed at night, to create an eerie
effect on the audience. However, we developed and challenged this with our trailer, as a lot
of our shots were filmed in the day and were edited by me in post-production with the
brightness and contrast on Final Cut Pro. This was to make it seem darker than it actually is,
which proved to be much more effective than filming at night with a usual horror trailer as
we looked at it from an audience’s perspective and altered the lighting until we thought it
was most fitting for the audience and genre. We also changed the RGB colour of the
footage, and changed most of the dark scenes a shade of blue, to give a claustrophobic
feeling of terror towards the audience. Overall, the picture is still clear, yet dark at the same
time creating a ghostly effect to add a sense of isolation and dystopia.
Examples:

10. The main convention in a horror trailer is the suspenseful
music, which is also used in ours with mainly strings, matching
the characters movements on screen. The music changes
many times during different scenes to depict the different
emotions and events taking place, such as in our trailer when
speaking to the counsellor using sentimental, yet haunting
music to keep in touch with the purpose and genre.
Throughout the trailer there is an increase in tempo which
builds tension, such as the Facebook messages being sent at
the beginning. During the fast montages it has a low pitch and
a strong beat to it, when running in the woods, etc. This
establishes that the audience are being pulled into the trailers
story and soon it quietens down and the audience can relax -
this is the cue for the sting, which is a typical convention in a
Horror trailer e.g. after the title ‘Perplexed’, a character moves
towards the camera to give the audience one final surprise, to
scare the audience into watching the film.

11. Our trailer also uses diegetic sound, as we found that Horror
trailers always use this within the ‘film world’ e.g. a door
opening and used this in ours with a victim screaming. Horror
trailers have to be suitable for all ages, therefore cannot show
any violence, etc. in too much detail. Instead, the media
products have to rely on sounds and effects to make these
elements evident. For example, we used this in our trailer
when you can hear the scream without seeing the oncoming
attack just before the title ‘Perplexed’ appears.
Moreover, our trailer uses Non-Diegetic sound as well. This is
because much of the sound in the trailer was added during
post-production such as the spooky effects to create tension.

12. Usual conventions of camerawork in Horror trailers include beginning with long camera shots
and minimal camera movement, which is seen is ours. The cuts are still sharp as the camera
jumps from one scene to another. The speed of editing and the music also keeps increasing as it
reaches the fast montage where the speed of editing is at it’s peak.
The main camera shots and editing techniques that are used in our trailer and other horror
trailers are fast cuts, over the shoulder shots and mid shots. In terms of our trailer the shot
being used the most is the mid-shot, to allow the audience to see the character and setting at
the same time, which is vital in a horror trailer to create a scary atmosphere, e.g. In our trailer, it
shows a young girl (character) entering a house all alone at night (setting).
Examples:

13. The typography of our text is red and white, which are typical colour
conventions within the Horror genre. The red represents blood, gore and
violence, whereas the white is ghostly and cold, to match the personality
of the villain who is neglected from society.
This text is on the blackouts which are shown throughout the trailer to set
the narrative. On the blackouts there are commonly used phrases which
are used in horror trailers, such as ‘Who’s next?’ This sticks to the classic
forms in Horror trailers to give the audience a ‘who dun it’ perspective,
which entices them through mystery.
Example:

14. Typical Horror trailer conventions
In horror trailers there is an appearance of authority, which we used in
ours with e.g. a news reporter and school counsellor. This gives
denotations of good vs. evil.
All of the characters in our trailer are teenagers, which is conventional to
horror films as this is the killer’s meat.
The conventional horror villain in our trailer is powerful, clever and
cunning from using things such as Facebook to connect with his victims.
The killer is masked to hide the identity, which makes the person feel
invincible. In most Horror trailers there is a history behind why a character
becomes the villain – usually because of a social breakdown and fear of
feeling different and going against the norm, which is hinted within our
trailer.