The document discusses how the media product challenges and adopts conventions of real horror media. Screenshots from the trailer are compared to Hollywood trailers to show similarities. The titles, villain, lighting, and establishing scene are discussed as examples of following conventions - the titles use simple black text as in Sorority Row, the villain shares characteristics with The Shining's but has a different motive, the lighting mimics Hostel with little light, and the establishing scene resembles The Graveyard. It's noted the villain challenges conventions by not having a single killing style. Overall the trailer aimed to follow horror and normal film trailer conventions while adding something different with the villain.

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

2. We felt our trailer both challenged and adopted
typical horror conventions of real media products.
To show this I have taken screenshots of our own
trailer and other Hollywood trailers to compare
how we have or have not used these real media
product conventions.

3. Titles
Own trailer Sorority Row trailer
I chose to compare our own trailer titles to that of Sorority Row’s as I felt they
were extremely similar and displayed our use of horror convention. Both titles
are simple and on a plain black background. I think this simplicity makes the text
clear and does not draw away from the rest of the trailer. I feel our font is a
conventionally good font and is simplistic yet bold. The text is shown in capitals
to be striking. I feel our title sequences have worked extremely well in our trailer.

4. Villain
Own Trailer The Shining trailer
I chose to compare our own villain to Jack from The Shining as I felt they shared many
conventional character similarities. Although they are different age wise, our villain is slightly
younger than the villain from the shining (although not completely different) we felt there were
many similarities. We felt both characters shared similar appearances, both seemingly normal,
both well dressed and well kept and obviously both characters are male. Both have psychotic
breaks. However we felt, compared to Jack, our villains motive and killing style was not
conventional and challenged these conventions. We felt our villain challenged this as he did not
have one style of killing or particular victims which is usually seen in horror.

5. Lighting
Own Trailer Hostel trailer
I chose to compare the lighting in this scene from our own trailer to a scene from
the hostel trailer as I felt the lighting and the scene itself was extremely similar.
Both scenes are located in a dark basement at there is only a small amount of light
coming from a source (natural in hostel, artificial in our own trailer), this effect of
little light in the dark makes the room appear dingy and shadows are large and
make large sections of the scene completely black (playing on the fear of the
unknown). I also felt the set up of these two scenes was extremely similar and
showed well how we followed typical horror conventions in our trailer.

6. Establishing Scene
Own trailer The Graveyard trailer
I chose to use this particular scene from The Graveyard trailer as I felt it was
very similar to one of our own establishing shots. Both shots show a character
making their way through a graveyard. Both shots show a large amount of the
surrounding area and establish the scene and location. Both shots are later in
the day (however The Graveyard trailer scene is at night, which would perhaps
be more conventional for a graveyard scene). Both shots work well in beginning
to loosely establish a story.

7. To conclude; throughout the planning of our horror we knew it would
be wise and would make our trailer stronger if we followed horror
conventions. We also felt that we should go against some conventions
(the villain) as we needed to have something different about our trailer
that would be attractive to our chosen audience. As well as focusing on
the conventions of a horror trailer we had to include the conventions of
a normal film trailer, such as using intertitles, music, release date, film
title and a variation of shots. I feel all of the above were included well in
our trailer and we followed both conventions well.