Evaluation question 1

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

Teaser trailers are important in terms of marketing as they are what get the target audience to become interested in possibly paying to watch the film when it is released.  To be a good trailer, the trailer must follow generic conventions for aspects like narrative structure, mise-en-scene, sound, editing and camera work.  These will vary based off the genre and even sub-genre of the film.  Some universal conventions that usual should be met but has been challenged are conventions like the 180 degree rule and continuity editing, these conventions are here to prevent the footage from become confusing.

The horror trailer my group made was called Black Death and aimed to give a more atmospheric experience similar to a movie like The Women in Black.  The horror aspect was intended to be presented in a more mysterious fashion rather than a slasher film.  The aim was to give a more deep connection to the characters rather than being the murderer’s fodder.  Because of this we tried to follow conventions in order to show the audience the main characters.

I am going to show similarities between my groups trailer and other horror movie trailers by capturing stills of both and explaining how they meet the same codes and conventions.

 The still on the left is from a trailer for a movie called The Butterfly Room and share a convention with Black Death because of the close up on the mysterious object giving it a greater importance and plot to the story.

The 4 show a fade transition which is present in both The Butterfly Room trailer and Black Death trailer.  This is a common effect used around more calm part of the trailer and makes for a smooth transition in to the next shot.

The still showing the title is one of the most obvious conventions to include in a horror trailer and has been included in Black Death as well as the trailer for The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh.

These stills are from somewhere in the middle of the two trailers.  The one on the left being from a trailer for The Host and Black Death for the right.  They both relate to the footage that is being displayed and have a visual effect to make them more appealing to read.

The shot on the left is also from The Host trailer and uses a montage of close up shots where if the picture was larger, you could see the common trend that the peoples eyes are a bright blue indicating they have become a host.  In Black Death a close ups are also used for dramatic moments like show here.

Here in these two trailers we have a shot where the supernatural ominous figure appears in the distance they are not very identifiable and are usually shown in this way first before you can get a closer look.  The trailer on the left is for The Woman In Black.

Torture is a common theme in horror movies and is shown in these two trailers here.  The left screen is from trailer for King Of The Ants where the man is holed up in a shed being hit in the head with a baseball bat.  In Black Death the torture element is less focused on but does have a scene where the main characters friend is being cut down the face.

These two stills are shortly captured after each other and indicate some match on action within them.  The first trailer being from Crawl (2013) shows somebody lighting a match then immediately light candles with it.  On the other hand in Black Death the main character is looking through her contacts on her phone.

Finally for the 9th comparison, both of these horror movie trailers have jump scares at the end.  The still on the left is from grave encounters where the bed floats in the air and a scream and loud noise can be heard.  In Black Death you get the closest proper look at the plague doctor and a loud lightning storm sound for more of a dramatic effect.

The use of sound included in the trailer is also similar to that is included in more atmospheric horror trailers for movies such as The Woman In Black.  With no voice over in the horror trailer, the trailer was aiming to aim for a more story driven horror movie then a thriller.