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1. EVALUATION QUESTION 3
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?

2. MAGAZINE FRONT COVER
Before creating the magazine front cover, research
was done into real media texts. I conducted
research into Fangloria, Scream as well as Empire.
The first two are magazine companies which are
specifically made to advertise horror where as
Empire is a well established film magazine which
covers all genres. We decided to pick Empire as it
is a world known magazine, this allows for our own
work to be published and available to a larger
audience.
Masthead- A common convention in Empire magazines is the
masthead, this is usually the largest piece of text on
the magazine. We conformed to this convention by having
our own media text replicate this house style
convention. The majority of Empire magazines keep there
masthead red with little effects. There are some cases
where the company makes subtle changes to colour or
effect of the mastheads to suite the film being
advertised. For example in Empires ‘Thor’ cover, the
masthead is faded. We conformed to Empire by keeping the
masthead red, by keeping it red it also conforms to the
other horror magazines which I researched as red is a
common convention as it links to the iconography of
blood. The changes we made to the masthead was the
adding of a distressed effect, this was done by using
the eraser tool in Adobe Photoshop’. I also added a lens
flare effect inside the letter ‘P’. This lens flare
subverts the convention of magazine covers as there is
never anything placed within the letters of the Empire
masthead. By subverting this conventions I was able to
make our magazine link more to our other media texts as
the light flare is part of our productions iconography.

3. Cover Image- When researching into Empire magazine, I
found that a majority of the covers have a very busy
background. In most cases the background is the set of
the movie being portrayed. Our magazine convention
challenged this convention by having the model stand in
front of a black backdrop. The use of the black
background develops the convention of darkness. Darkness
can be seen in the Mise-en-scen of Horror flicks, it is
also known as a very common movie convention. The use of
black is noticeable in magazines such as ‘fangloria’ and
‘Scream’ magazine. In all magazine the cover image is of
a character who is staring in the film being advertised.
This conforms to the conventions of real media text as
we have our protagonist ‘Alex’ as the cover model. The
angle of gaze is also directed towards the audience,
this is very common within film magazines, as this
elements used to draw readers to pick up the product.
The cover image is behind the text layers, this is so
the text is easily readable, real magazine covers also
to this for the same reason.
Barcode- This is seen on all magazines, as this is used
for the magazine to be sold and purchased, therefore our
own magazine includes its own barcode.
Graphic/Picture- In Empire there is usually a groahic in
the form of a plus sign, this is a professional way of
saying ‘and’. The use of this graphic is common as it
keeps the magazine less cluttered, our magazine includes
graphics as it also allows for our work to look
presentable ad tidy.
Unlike Empire our magazine included a blood splatter.
There is not usually an image of the cover image on
Empire issues, but our group decided to add this as it
adds to the colour scheme and makes the magazine more
eye-catching. By adding blood, it links to the genre of
horror as blood is a common convention in horror,
specifically the slasher sub-genre.

4. Text- In the magazine you can see that there are
only three different fonts, one being the masthead,
one being the movie title and the other being the
cover lines. In real media text such as Empire
magazine there are a very minimal amount of text ths
is so the cover looks professional and not tto busy,
we conformed to this house style to make our text
look as real as possible.
The movie title is always one of the largest pieces
of text on the page, we conformed to this as we
wanted to make it obvious to target audience members
what movie is being advertised.
In real media texts such as ‘scream’ there is a
banner, this usually draws the audience in as well
as give a hint as to what the magazine issue would
be exploring. This feature can also be seen in
Empire magazine. We followed this convention by
adding our own banner which shows that our magazine
is advertising a horror movie through the text
‘BLOOD CURDLING HORROR EXCLUSIVE’.
Another convention we followed was the use of other
movie titles which link to the issues theme. As our
own magazine is about horror we incorporated
upcoming horror movies such as ‘GET OUT’, ‘LEATHER
FACE’ and ‘KEEP WATCHING’. We added multiple movies
as this can be seen in a lot of film magazines.
The cover lines in film magazines typically include
some of the text on the main actors/actresses who
were involved in the movie being advertised. We used
this by having the actress who played our
protagonist mentioned. We also added other horror
related text.

5. MOVIE POSTER
When researching into horror poster we found
that a majority of them were very similar and
simplistic.
Movie Title- When looking into real media text
we found that the movie titles is always the
largest text. This can be seen in movie poster
such as ‘Insomnia’, ‘Scream’, ‘The Boy’ and
many others. Therefore we conformed to this
poster convention as it easily draws attention
to audience members what the poster is
advertising.
Slogan- There is typically a slogan which is
placed near the movie title, in horror posters
the slogan is very creepy and entice members
of the audience to watch the movie.
Image- When researching into horror a lot of
the poster use darkness and shadows. For
example ‘Mirrors’ and ‘One miss call’. These
poster use a lot of negative space and include
large amount of shadows. The use of shadows
creates a very mysterious aura. For our film
’The Intrusion’ we were heavily inspired by
the movie ’Hush’. When we looked at this
movies poster, the antagonist could be seen
behind the protagonist. We used this to help
our own work conform to real media texts as
there are many posters which include the
antagonists and protagonist.

6. Production Company- The production company
logos can usually be seen at the bottom of
the poster, the logos are small and are
not eye-catching. These are used in real
media texts to show the companies involved
in making the movie. We added this feature
so our work can look professional.
Website- We developed our poster by adding
the website of our movie. This is not a
common convention we decided to add this
as we know that our target audience are
large consumers of Web 2.0. By displaying
a website link it is further advertisement
of other sites which could release more
information to our target audience.
Date- The release date is always the
second largest text on poster, we
incorporated this convention as it is one
of the main features which makes up as
poster; As it indicates the release date
of the movie.
Block of Text- In every poster there is a
block of text including the names of
people and companies involved in the
production of the movie, to have our own
work look real we added this. We made the
text small so it does not distract from
the rest of the poster.

7. HORROR TRAILER
Institution Logo- We added a institution logo near the
start of our trailer. The production companies involved
in making a trailer would present their logos at the
start of the media text. We did this and by doing so it
made our work looks more professional and in line with
real media products.
Trailer text- We included trailer texts, the words went
along with the action sequences in our trailer. The text
matched out trailer title. Trailer texts can be seen in
real media texts such as ‘Hush’, ‘The Boy’ or any other
trailers. We conformed in adding these as it build
suspense and makes the audience pay attention to what is
being written. The movie title is shows at the end of the
trailer, this was also done in our trailer.
Shots- The trailer use a lot of close up shots of the
protagonist, there are also a lot of scenes of Alex
hiding away from the killer as well as running. Running
is really common in horror, typically audience members
see the protagonist run away from the villain, In this
case it is Alex running away from the killer.

8. Soundtrack/Sound effects- In horror trailers there
are multiple soundtracks which are used. Near the
start of the trailer there is calm music, this
typically involves piano keys. The after the
disruption of the narratives equilibrium there is a
rise in tempo, as the music becomes louder sand more
suspenseful. We included this convention as we also
included multiple soundtracks, after our production
company rolled there was a soft continuous piano key.
After Olivia screams there is a sudden drum of music
and the soundtrack starts to build up and become
faster. In trailers there are also characters
screaming. Screaming is a very common convention as
well as heavy breathing, we decided to conform and use
these soundtracks and effects as they help build
suspense and tension, they also create a feeling of
anxiety and the audience members don't know what will
happen next.

9. Final Girl- Our trailer includes a final girl
(Alex). This is a common trope which can be
seen within slasher movies such as
‘Halloween’ or ‘Scream’. The final girl
characteristics can be seen in the mis-en-
scen of the trailer. So the protagonists
room.
Binary Opposition- There is a lot of Binary
opposition used in horror movies and trailer.
Typically it is Good vs Bad, Dark vs Light.
We explored this through the costume of the
characters as the characters have contrasting
clothing. We explored dark vs light through
the lighting. There was a lot of shots filmed
in the dark, the antagonist would usually
appear when its dark and Alex carry's a torch
which can be seen as a symbol to oppose the
darkness.