The document summarizes the conventions and technical elements of psychological thrillers and trailers that will be used to create a trailer for a psychological thriller film. It identifies the target audience as 18-32 year olds, who are majority female, working class students and workers. To appeal to this audience, the trailer will use well-known actors and a main character similar in age to the audience that they can relate to. It will include exciting action, constant tension, and a clever ending, along with trauma and emotional struggles that females tend to enjoy in psychological thrillers. Technical elements like costumes, lighting, editing techniques and sound design will adhere to thriller and trailer conventions.

1. +
Research Presentation
Task 1

2. +
Conventions of genres and forms
 From the research into similar products and the target audience
I have discovered that conventions of both a psychological
thriller, and the form of a trailer.
Conventions of a psychological thriller Conventions of a trailer
Mind
Death Identity
Black Comedy
Existence
Reality
Perception
One main
character
Confusion
About 1 minute
and a half long
to 2 minutes in
duration.
It shows the
equilibrium and
disequilibrium
but no
resolution
Fast paced
editing
Voiceover
Non diegetic
music.
Diegetic music

3. + Use of technical elements
Mise-en-scene
Props: Weapons such as knifes and guns.
Masks
Makeup: Light and pale makeup to look ill
Blood, Scars, scratches and bruises
Lighting: Low key lighting: for the thriller side of things
high key lighting with psychological parts which signify
thinking and being alone.
Location: Normal setting for equilibrium, in the disequilibrium
more isolated settings and then which could lead to a mental
home for the resolution or even prison.
Costume: The characters would be mainly have normal casual
clothing, but during the disequilibrium the main character might
start to wear more tatty clothing, with rips and more dirty like they
don’t care about their clothing, also the clothing would be dark
and of blacks, browns and grey colours. If the resolution is that the
character goes to a mental home then the charter could be
wearing white clothing.
Camerawork
Close-up: To show the identity of the main character and to also
allow the audience to know what emotion the character has easily
which helps them to understand.
Mid Shot: The audience would be able to see the mask
combination with the costume so you can closely see the upper
actions of the body.
Long shot: To show the character from head to toe, which allows
you to visualise the costume fully, and also the actions the
character is making.
Two shot: This is normally used to present two characters fighting,
but there could also be a two shot to show one character creeping
up behind another character to scare them.
Establishing Shot: This is usually used to show the location and
setting. This allows the audience to see where the main character
is and what there intentions are.
Sound
Voice over: In this the thoughts and feelings of the main
character are presented through a voice which allows the
audience to understand what the character is thinking when
he/she is maybe still and looking at something in the distance.
Non-Diegetic: These sounds are normally added into the editing
as sound effects, these are noises that the character cant hear
themselves but the audience can, this allows the plot to not be
disturbed by the added music.
Diegetic Music: This sound is basically what the characters can
here so this would enable the conversations to be made and the
plot to make sense. Added sound effects could be added which
are diegetic for example in a psychological thriller maybe slow
knocks on the door, which another character could hear and
change their emotion.
Editing
Fast paced Editing: This is used within a trailer to allow many clips to be
shown but at the same time to not give to much of the clip to ruin the plot
but just enough to interest the target audience.
Shot reverse/shot: This is used to show the transition between two
characters mostly when they are having a conversation.
Fade to black: This is used to create darkness and mystery to the trailer,
signifying death, darkness, and curiosity to think what is lurking in the
darkness.
Eyeline Match: This is used to show what the character is looking at,
mostly within a psychological thriller it could be either a person or weapon.
The transition within an eyeline match normally allows a build up of tension
created due to the fact you first see a character staring at something but
gradually are able to see what they are looking at.
Ellipsis of time: This could be used within a psychological thriller trailer
because normally throughout there is a narrative that moves forward in
time, but parts could be taken out to shorten the time but so the audience
can still understand what is happening in the plot.

4. + Who is your Target Audience?
Reasons to why they are the target
audience:
The reason my target audience is above
the age of 18 is because all
psychological thrillers have a 18 and
above age restriction because they can
be scary and not appealing for a
younger audience.
The reasons why there is the majority
percentage of female viewers in the
target audience for psychological
thrillers is because females tend to be
attracted to interesting story lines that
have conflicts of the mind, this is
because they involve more emotional
struggles rather than physical.
What my target audience enjoy
doing in their spare time:
• Shopping
• Going out with friends
• Listening to music
• Watching Films
Demographic
Gender: Male- 43%
women-
57%
Age: 18-32
Status:
Student/workers
Class: Working Class
Psychographic:
From the results that I got
from the questionnaire to my
target audience I found out
the following:
Interests:
• Sports
• Films
• Music

5. +
How will you appeal to your target
audience?
Having well known
actors that is
appealing to the
audience.
Make sure that the
main character Is
roughly in the same
age gap of my target
audience so they
would be able to
relate well.
Make sure it is
exciting with lots of
action.
Having constant
tension throughout.
Make sure there is a
clever and exciting
ending.
I would make sure
that within the plot
there would be a lot of
trauma and emotional
struggles.