Evaluation: Activity 1

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

We used a simplistic title that connotes both horror (as the genre) and Christmas (when the film is set). It stands out bold white against the black background so it, captures and draws the audience’s attention making it more memorable. This is very typical of teaser trailers as all aim to make their film title stick in the minds of the audience. The contradiction the two colours also creates a link to our good versus evil theme, again common in contemporary media.
The title features at the end of the trailer so that the action and horror of the images before it can entice the audience, creating interest, so they are more likely to want to remember the films name and look for more information by going to see the film, therefore making it a success. Nearly all teaser trailers follow this pattern as if the title was placed at the beginning of the trailer the images that follow could distract and cause the audience to forget the name.
The white of the title furthermore contradicts the themes of the film as white often connotes purity and simplicity, making the film more mysterious, so scarier as it draws on peoples fear of the unknown. This acknowledges contemporary horror styles as a lot of horror films use this simplistic theme for their titles. The slightly splattered look of the title ‘Christmas Presence’ also give a nod to the past as it was, then conventional to have over the top titles that heavily conveyed the genre and were often blood red. This develops the conventions of media title texts as it combines both contemporary and dated conventions.

 

The film is set in an old house, in which our main characters are home alone; we do not reveal much of the outside setting as we wanted to convey the idea that the house is isolated as it makes all other surroundings unimportant and inexistent. Later on in the trailer we reveal the view from the back of the house, which leads on to a wooded area, again portraying the idea of seclusion and no escape. The idea of being trapped in isolation is very conventional and gives an element of threat and danger to the trailer, this puts the audience on edge so making it easy to scare them and get reactions. The inside of the house has a strong green and red theme linking to the Christmas element and reinforcing the happiness that typically comes with this subject, lulling audiences into a false sense of security. Although teaser trailers do typically use contradictions to confuse the audience these are normally smaller, where as in our teaser trailer the two most prominent themes contradict each other completely. The house is very broken up, with all rooms being very separate to each other, this allowed us to use the corners and dark places to create tension and make the audience jump, this is also conventional.

Knives are heavily associated with the genre and are one of the few props that we reveal in our teaser. The way in which the knife is handled implies threat and violence, heavily associating with the scream franchise so making the trailer more effective in putting the audience on edge and enticing them, as many of the scream fans may also be drawn to our film. We haven’t shown any other props as not to give too much of what characterises the antagonist, this creates mystery and tempts audiences to watch the film. This is again a trick that is often used in teaser trailers of the genre.
All the costumes are simplistic and timeless contradicting the themes and making the characters disposable. By not dressing any of them in a particular or bold manner, the characters are seen as mundane, so audiences are unluckily to take particular liking to them, which could cause dissatisfaction in the event of their death. The protagonist’s clothing connotes winter with jumpers, fur, scarves and reds, these characters are wearing slightly more colour and stand out more against the plain black clothing of the antagonist setting her apart and making her seem suspicious. This is conventional as often in horror films the antagonist will be set apart from the others all through the films. Hence audiences become wary of the character making them more formidable when they start to cause trouble.

 

We used camera work and editing to show the difference between the equilibrium and the disruption. It is conventional for horror film trailers to switch from slow paced mundane camera shots, to fast pace exciting and more abstract shots. Moreover, in the same way editing also changes to mirror the change in narrative, shots become darker and more edited as it is less important for shots to be realistic, as long as continuity is maintained. We have done both of these in our trailer, on the outset we have used all light shots that consist of medium, long and over the shoulder shots that convey happiness and normality. As we reach the climax we increase the number of close ups showing the extreme emotions on the characters faces, such as fear, making the panic seem more real to the viewers and make them live the emotions as well. The shots become increasingly darker, but some light shots are thrown in to contrast and make the trailer more diverse. The shots are faster paced and begin to move, making the whole feel of the trailer more exciting, the editing is complemented by the music which also quickens in pace, the editing and music more in time together making the end product of our trailer more polished and maintaining the continuity, which again is common for other trailers of the genre.
It is very conventional for the camera work to be quite unnatural, as to make audiences uncomfortable, we used some hand held shots to make the production seem more realistic, as if it was happening right then, giving more of an effect on the audience.

 

Our trailer uses text to briefly explain the plot of the film, this is conventional of horror as you can’t give too much of the plot away for fear of ruining the ending or revealing too much about the antagonist. The colours and meaning behind the text, of the titles connote the idea of good versus evil and begins to convey the theme of insanity we are going for, as the pure of the white and darkness of the black contradict each other. This is reinforced by the contradiction of horror and Christmas.
The trailer starts slow but then quickens which is common in horror films so implies the genre. The screen shot to the side is the turning point of the trailer as it is the first cold dark shot that contradicts the warmth of the previous, giving the audience the first view of the horror the trailer is setting up for. The trailer only briefly shows equilibrium as it is the action that audiences want to be teased with. Hints of narrative still need to be detailed to show the story has a plot to follow and isn’t just cold blood killing. In our trailer we detailed that the antagonist would be one of the four characters shown in the first section of our product, but not which one. However the clothing, behaviour, editing and absence from the struggle, of one of the characters implies which of the friends it could be. In this way the audience feel like they know enough to understand a bit about the film, however enough is still withheld to spark interest and mystery. This is less conventional as normally in horror trailer we see slightly more of the antagonist, at least detailing a bit of their appearance as the killer and the way in which they pick off their victims. However it is very conventional to withhold the identity of the villain, by doing this the audience have a reason to go and see the film as they are interested in the motives and identity of the killer.

The first images that appear during the trailer do not connote the genre as they reflect happiness and equilibrium, however the eerie slow pace of the foreboding messages imply that something bad is about to happen. The simplistic font furthermore connotes conventional horrors and as the text fades in and out it obscures the audiences view implying that they don’t know everything that’s going on, it is conventional to keep the audience in the dark throughout teaser trailers so audiences have to see the film to find out more. Later on in the trailer the genre becomes very evident as fast paced shots start to show conventions of the genre, such as dark close ups of terrified expressions. The shot displayed shows that the character is under distress as she has makeup dripping down her face, her posture is closed as if trying to protect herself, looking just passed the camera as if something is pursuing her. The heavy beats and differencing in pace is conventional as audiences don’t know what to expect and are easier to scare, the contrast in lighting between the shots of the second part of the trailer adds to this. The tinted red of some of the shots refers back to both, horror and Christmas, however due to the pacing and style of the shots audiences will be more reminded of the horror theme. The flicker of the camera in some shots, gives them a conventional uneven look which again is often a feature of horror films.

 

 

At first all the friends are introduced together, displaying them all as equal, the text tells us that the four friends are together trying to have a good time and despite the imbalance in clothing and prevalence as our antagonist has her back to the camera. Next we see the antagonist on her own, in the first part of the trailer she is the only one that is shown in a shot completely by herself, which familiarises the audience with her and makes her the most memorable, which is conventionally important as it is vital that the audiences remember who the antagonist is.
After telling audiences that one of the friends has a secret we then show our antagonist (implying she will become the villain), we used shot types and editing to completely disassociate her from the rest of the group, making her seem more sinister and dangerous. The other characters are still portrayed as stereotypical and ignorant; the antagonist is set apart making her seem more intelligent, important and less disposable.
We don’t discover much about the teenagers in the trailer making the content of the film a bigger mystery; it is more conventional for trailers to reveal more about their characters and less about the struggler however we are using the uncertainty that surrounds our characters to entice the audience to watch the film.

Conventionally horror trailers show evidence of all the stages of Todorov’s theory of narrative, with exception to the last. We however have shown very little of our narrative but still show evidence of the first stage which is the equilibrium, the third stage being the recognition of the disruption and the fourth stage the attempts to repair. By withholding information on the actual disruption and the restoration of the equilibrium it makes audiences want to know more so making them more likely to watch the full length film.
It is very unconventional to not show stage two, the disruption as often trailers use this to draw the audience in and stimulate their interest in the characteristics of the killer. This then gives greater interest in the film.
On the other hand we stayed quite true to Propp’s theory and this was evident in our trailer, the 3 normal friends made up the Hero, Helper and Donor, with Jordan’s character also being the Dispatcher. The fourth friend was evidently the Villain, this is all very conventional, furthermore as is normal for horror films the Princess is survival. We didn’t have a farther, but it is rare that horror films do.
Our film also follows the typical horror three act rule; in beginning focuses on the main characters, and shows the setting, which is ultimately threatening (in our case home alone), secondly stumbling across something that unleashes a wave of violence, putting the characters at risk and thirdly the climax which generally involves a dramatic showdown between main protagonist and antagonist, then end of the plot often leaves the possibility of the antagonists return. However in our trailer we only see evidence of the first stage, which is unconventional as normally teaser trailers will hint all three stages. Noel Carrol similarly suggested the ‘onset phase’, ‘discovery phase’ and ‘disruption phase’ which similarly fit our narrative but not aren’t all evident in our trailer.

 

We chose not to use very many special effects, which is very unconventional as many horror films, especially older ones, are known for their over use of special effects. We chose to go for a more natural look as we knew that it would make our horror film appear more realistic and so scarier. We know how important it is to protect the continuity of horror films, and as the special effects available to us had the potential to harm this, we chose not the use them. On some of our shots the colour contrast has been tinted red to reinforce the idea of horror and the danger the colour connotes. Furthermore on some of our darker shots we changed the contrast to make the shot more visible and coherent. The effect of the camera made some of the shot look like they were hand held shots to make it seem more realistic and like it is happening as the audience watch.