Question 1 evaluation

Question 1 evaluation

• 1.
  Laura Bruce
• 2.
  Trailer The media productthat I created was a horror trailer. I researched into existing horror trailers and analysed them to point out typical conventions of a horror trailer. I analyses two horror trailers “The Strangers”(2008) and “Ouija” (2014.) When analysing theses and watching other existing trailers I realised most opening scenes of horror trailers start with a happy equilibrium. For example in “The Strangers” the Mise-en-scene portrays a happy couple who are staying in the house. The opening scene for my trailer is similar as the Mise-en-scene portrays a group of teenagers exited to be staying in a house together for the weekend. There is then typically a disruption for example, in Ouija the girl’s friend dies and they then find her Ouija board. In my trailer the disruption is a trespasser found in the house. My trailer is in non-chronological order and uses mostly short clips from the actual film placed together. This gives the audience an insight into what the film will be like and makes the audience want to know what happens.
• 3.
   When doingmy research and planning I noticed it is a typical convention of a horror trailer to have a final scare at the end of the trailer. I had a long build up at the end of my trailer which led to a final scare after the text screen was read. Roland Barthes enigma code theory is represented in my trailer as I only show short scenes from the film which doesn’t give away the narrative of the whole film which will make the audience interested and wanting to know what happens in the movie. This was also represented in the existing trailer for the movie 30 days of night (2007.)
• 4.
   When thekiller wears a mask in the trailer I felt it gace a sense of mystery and it scares the audience as whoever is under the mask is unknown. Masked killers are typical in horror trailers. Masked killers are also represented in movies such as scream(1996)and Friday 13th (2009)
• 5.
  Ancillary task When doingmy ancillary tasks I looked into existing film posters to get an idea of what conventions they use. For my film title I used a red font with a white surrounding. The red has connotations of danger and the white surrounding made the title stand out on the dark background.
• 6.
  Ancillary Task It isa typical convention of posters to have credits at the bottom of the poster such as production companies and actors/actresses names. When looking at existing posters I noticed similarities in the font used for the credits. I wanted my poster to look as professional as possible so I found a similar font on 1001 fonts called moviefont.
• 7.
  Ancillary Task For theimage I wanted it to be taken at Beamish Hall as this is the location of the trailer itself. The poster denotes the ‘trespasser’ in a mask which gives my poster a sense of mystery. I darkened the image and added a Smokey type effect to the image to give a spookier atmosphere. Slogans are also a typical convention. My slogan is shown on my poster as well as in my trailer. . Roland Barthes enigma code theory is represented in my poster. The enigma code is represented in my poster as the main draws the audience in wanting to know what the film is.
• 8.
  Ancillary task For mymagazines masthead I used the ‘Empire ‘logo to make my magazine look more professional. As well as a masthead my magazine also included other typical conventions of a film magazine such as a barcode and taglines.
• 9.
  Style model  Iused this issue of Empire as my style model for my magazine cover. I chose this issue as my style model as I wanted the structure of my cover to look like this.
• 10.
  Narrative  When creatingmy trailer I watched a lot of existing trailers to understand typical narratives for a horror trailer. My narrative also follows conventions as it is typical that a horror movie will include a group of young teenagers usually in place secluded from anything else as it portrays them as vulnerable. This genre of horror film is teen/slasher. Many other movies follow this pattern of teenagers in a house such as scream (1996) and sorority row(2009.) It is typical for a trailer to show a “Final Girl” which my trailer does, this is also represented in the scream movies. I followed Todorovs narrative theory however there was no return to state of equilibrium as this would give away the end of the film, instead is poses a rhetorical question to the audience of “what happens next?” and to answer that the audience has to go and see the movie.
• 11.
  Music  The non-diegeticsound plays a big role as it makes the horror trailers intense and creates a scary atmosphere. When picking out my music I wanted to start of my trailer with a slow tune which reflects the narrative of equilibrium. The music then changes half way through to a sharper tune which builds up to the intense loud music which goes with the disruption in the trailer.