A2 Media Blog

For my media portfolio, I decided to make a film trailer promotion package with a poster promoting my film as well as a magazine front cover featuring my film. The film genre I chose to create my promotion package around was horror, as I believe that horror would allow me to be more creative due to the more surreal conventions behind the genre. With each genre of movie come several different conventions which help clearly indicate to the audience that the film is that genre. Normally these differences are very distinct and noticeable, several sometimes exclusive to that genre. The genre I am choosing is horror, yet there are many more out there to choose from. The genre of horror is rather straight forward using the typical antagonist, protagonist rules. The antagonist in horror films can come in many different forms, for example masked serial killers, demons, monsters and sometimes the antagonist doesn’t even have to be a living being, for example wide spread disease. Typically in horror films the main antagonist will be someone young, about the age 18, and more often female. This helps indicate the weak state of the protagonist as the protagonist is usually the one being hunted down by the antagonist. Furthermore, horror films also have predictable shooting locations, for example a run-down old house or a forest. Other conventions of horror films also exist, such as shock scenes, violent deaths, dark or shadowy lighting, Isolated locations, disruption of the norm and also a sub-plot of a male and female relationship. Shock scenes and violent deaths are two of the main conventions, as they are the conventions that actually strike the horror into the audience. Shock scenes are normally used in an attempt to make the audience jump. An example of a shock scene is a girl is walking through a house, there is quiet if no music and then something or someone jumps out normally with the music picking up. Violent deaths are used to strike disgust into the audience and violent deaths usually follow shock scenes, as demonstrated in this video. Isolated locations indicate to the audience that the person in this location has no way of escaping, for example, in the film The Hills Have Eyes (2006) when the protagonist is locked in a box with severed body parts. Not only would this make the character feel isolated but also the audience, if the shot is taken within the isolated area with the character. Disruption of the norm is the thing that shakes up the film, for example this could be an alien landing on earth, or a serial killer escaping the police. The male and female relationship sub-plot adds more than just senseless violence to the horror film. It gives the audience a reason to get attached to the characters due to the emotional attachment between the two characters. On most occasions the main characters are teenaged people, primarily in serial killer films. This is because this indicates that they are young and weak, or the underdogs. For example, Scream (1996) where the main character is 17 years old and still in education. My video is set within a forest, which is a conventional setting for a horror film. Due to shooting on location, I had to make sure it was a suitable time when I did my filming to make sure there was plenty of light, which proved a problem earlier on in the year due to dark nights, but as the year went on that problem was eventually solved which allowed me to be more flexible with my filming. I specifically chose the forest i shot in due to the fact around it there was plenty of grass land, suggesting that the forest is in the middle of nowhere. This would increase the feeling of isolation which is a convention of horror films. Isolation of a character is an important convention of horror films, as this is what helps create the tense feelings within a horror film. Another reason I used the forest was due to the size of the forest. As it is a large forest it was uncommon that the same setting would be featured twice throughout my film trailer, furthermore, the size of the forest would suggest to the audience just how lost the characters in my trailer are. A further reason I chose it is the size of the trees to create a dense canopy, which helps keep verisimilitude by making it dark and shadowy. When it came to my cast I intestinally aimed for them to be teenagers aged 17 to 18, as this is a convention of horror films. Furthermore, I asked them to dress as if it was a normal everyday situation, further keeping verisimilitude and to emphasise the fact that they are teenagers. The antagonist featured in my film trailer is a female, which goes against the conventions as females are portrayed as helpless and weak in most horror films, especially in the “slasher” sub-genre of horror. Throughout the entire trailer you only ever see her shoes, and I asked her to wear black boots. The colour black has negative connotations which makes suggests to the audience that she is the antagonist. Furthermore, I asked her to wear boots as they are heavier making the sound of her walking more dominant, suggesting her higher status over the protagonists. When it comes to cinematography close ups and establishing shots are very conventional in horror films. An example of an establishing shot within my trailer is at 0:28 as the characters walk through the forest complemented with a panning shot to establish the scene. This is a clear indication to the audience that the trailer is going to take place within the forest. Furthermore, I used several point-of-view shots throughout the trailer to represent the antagonist watching the protagonists. This shows that the antagonist is there but still keeps mystery behind the identity of her. Sound is a good way to add mood and connotations to a film trailer, and mine is no exception. The song I used and edited in my trailer was “Slip To The Void” by Alter Bridge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PABO3RC2c7k The track begins with an unsettling and low guitar sound, which I used several times throughout the video. This suggests to the audience that the equilibrium is going to happen and disrupt the norm, which is all apart of the narrative in my trailer. The narrative within my trailer is the basic cause and effect narrative but is also an open ended narrative which is a convention of all film trailers. This is because the trailer doesn’t want to give away to much of the narrative, but wants to entice the audience into seeing the film. When the song picks up, it is clear to the audience that the norm is now no longer there as the aggressive tone of the song mixed with the narrative happening on screen indicates it. As well as the song, I made use of non-digetic sound in the form of voiceovers. Voiceovers are a key convention of a horror film. As I only found this out nearer to the end of my deadline, my voiceovers lack quality, the definitely do add to the dramatic effect of the video. The voiceovers help give some context to what is happening on screen, for example where it says “Being at the wrong place at the wrong time has never being so deadly.” This indicates to the audience that despite the equilibrium not happening yet, something bad is going to happen. When I combined my main task with my ancillary texts, I believe that I have managed to keep continuity all the way through. For example, the main font in all of the texts is Charlemagne Std in a beige colour which drops a red shadow. I chose the beige colour for my text as it is easily visible against a black background. I also used the red shadow as seen in my blog I discovered that it was a conventional colour of a horror film. The colour red represents fear and blood, which are both also conventions. I also kept a strict main colour code of black and red throughout my texts for the same reasons listed above. In my poster the main image is the boots of the antagonist which helps introduce the character. The image would entice the audience to see the film, as the audience would want to know what the boots represent. To further keep continuity throughout my texts, in my poster I used reviews and ratings from newspapers and well known film magazines, which are also featured in my trailer. I also used to logo for my film throughout all my texts, to indicate that they are all promoting the same thing to the audience and to help keep continuity through my texts. The main image on my magazine front cover is one of the main protagonists looking back as if he is being chanced. This picture is backed up with the cover line “The hunt is on” to help give a minor bit of back story to the image. From my audience feedback, I have learnt several things. To begin, several people who I asked for feedback expressed that they would have liked to see 2 male protagonists and 2 female protagonists instead of 3 males and 1 female. They said this as several believed one female character isn’t enough in a horror film. Everyone who I asked said they enjoyed the female protagonist, as they said it was something new and different in a horror film, breaking the conventions. I also asked them what they thought about my location. Most people liked the fact that I set it within a forest as due to people being more media literate they were able to understand for a forest was a conventional place for a horror movie to take place. When I questioned them about the song, most people said I shouldn’t have used a song and instead used smaller cuts of sound, one example given to my is using violins on a part where a character is being chanced down. Despite this, I stuck with using the music track as I believe that the track its self was suitable. Media technology played a huge roll in the construction of all my texts. To begin, research would’ve been a lot more difficult without the use of the internet, more specifically the video Website YouTube. YouTube helped me find other film trailers to analyse and write about, which gave me ideas of what to do and what not to do for my trailer. Furthermore, image websites like Google Images helped me locate magazine front covers and film posters to analyse which again, helped me understand the codes and conventions I should use or break within my own texts. As well as the internet. When it came to planning, one thing I did was create an animatic which helped me get a basic understanding of how my finished trailer would look like after I got all my shots and put it together in Sony Vegas. This was not only good for giving me an idea of what my trailer would look like, but it was also good practice and helped me grasp the basics of using Sony Vegas. For example, for my animatic I had to cut up the song I used which at first proved difficult, but when I came on to editing my actual trailer it was a much easier task due to the practice I received. Moving on, I also had to get to grips with using a video camera and a tripod. As I have used a camera before in the past, it didn’t prove much of a task, but on some occasions I made mistakes with the camera, for example forgetting to stop recording and wasting tape, but as the shooting process went on I began to stop these habits. Photoshop was also another key component of my project, as I used it to create my magazine front cover and my advertising poster. Again, at first I was very inexperienced as I rarely used Photoshop but as I was creating my ancillary texts I began to learn how to do new things, for example how to use the “transform” option to resize and manipulate your picture/text. I also gained experience in using the blending options to add shadows and glows to text, which I used on several occasions. For example in the writing featured throughout all my texts had a red glow or shadow added to it, the keep with the conventions of a horror movie.