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

Comparison of my media product and genuine horror trailer shots.

I think these two shots a very similar as they're both shots of an evil spirit chasing through a corridor. It also has the similarities of both being red filtered to represent some sort of evil spirit. This is a very common theme in horror movies which involve an evil spirit chasing someone around. These shots are good because it puts the audience on edge and makes them think about what could possibly be chasing and what they're chasing. The shot I have compared mine to in from a film called 'long time dead' as this is also about an evil spirit possessing someone. This is a very usual shot in horrors as it puts you in the eyes of the mysterious monster, so you don't see it but you see what it's chasing.

 I chose these shots as these are both showing what you would first believe to be the protagonist. I have chosen to compare these two shots as they're both mid shots of the two. As this shot is the first you see of someone running a mundane life you believe they're the protagonist. I also felt as if the shot I compared it to from the film 'scream' as I believe when the trailer starts and you first see this girl you also, very similarly, believe she is the protagonist. It is a very usual shot to start with making everything seem normal and then suddenly change e.g. in ours the book changes everything but in Scream the phone call does.

 I believe these two shots are very similar as they're zooming in on the paper which the person is holding. They are both point of view shots from whoever is looking at them. They both slightly zoom into the paper making it take up the screen to get a better view of it. We used this scene to give the audience a better view of what he is looking at and so they would recognise it at the place when they arrive at in the film. It is very usual to have someone looking at something in a book or on a piece of paper linking in to the place or the monster of the film.

I believe these shots are very similar because they both watch the door closing and opening. There is a significant to the door and this is why they're both zoomed in on it. We did this for our production as it had a label on it, so when they monster followed the boy into the room you could see that the door he had taken is the same as the one the boy had gone into. We done this shot to make it clearer for the audience to see he is being chased. Doors are very good for horrors seeing the open and close as it makes the audience wonder "what's on the other side? Is he alone?".

I like these shots because they both show a character running away from something which then makes the audience wonder what it could be that they're running away from and why running and not contacting anyone. It gives a sense of them being in the wilderness with something evil. I like the shot because it's a clear shot of the person as they run towards the camera likes as if they're coming your way. We chose it to show something mysterious happening at the start of the production. These shots a very good as you see the character running towards the camera but nothing behind them. This makes the audience wonder what could possibly be there.

] I chose these two shots as they're both of something evil and unusual. They are both close ups of the evil thing and both look like the antagonist. We chose this shot and put it at the end of our production after the credits etc. We do this in order for the audience to think the trailer was other but then suddenly some evil quick close up of something very unusual appears which is used to stun the audience and be intrigued what it was. This shots a very typical for flash shots of the monster to put the audience on edge.

 I feel these shots a very similar as they're both distance shots of a very significant place in the trailers. I got a shot from the film 'the thing' and the shot I chose was of the significant place where all the evil unleashes. I felt this related well to my shot as it too is showing the place where all the evil will be residing. We chose this shot as zoomed in on the picture of the place and then zoomed out and it was there. I felt this worked well as the picture came from the unusual book so it shows that the picture of the water tower had a good relevance to the story. These shots are very typical to get a distant shot of where the evil will take place. It lets the audience see all around the main setting of the place.

 I chose these shots as they're very clear views of the protagonist. We chose this shot as it made the protagonist stick out during the montage we played. We did this as it's an important and almost crucial element to a good trailer by showing who the audience should be paying more attention to who will be the focus of the film. I also linked these shots as they're both arcing shots around the protagonist. They are very usual to show what's around the protagonist and to see what area they are in.

The chose these two shots as they are both of the antagonist of the production. They're both very dark and dull and which makes the antagonist stick out and makes the audience realise who the antagonist is. I believe (like the protagonist) this is a very important shot and it separates the pondering question of who should have the main focus upon them and for what reasons. This is a very typical flash and distance shot to show the audience what the actually evil in the film will be.

Horror Conventions

It is important to have actually typical horror conventions within a trailer. 'Typical' is a bit general, it includes the setting, clear shots of protagonist and antagonists usually. This is why we used a forest on dim dull days because it made it more mysterious looking like the horrible whether went with the genre. We decided to mix it up a bit by bringing the devil into the modern day society rather than have it in ancient roman times etc. We used the setting of college to first being our trailer. We did this in order to create normality which keeps the audience questioning the possible storylines and keeps them pondering. We used the woods and water tower as the picture of the water tower burnt and ripped up looked well for a horror setting. The picture made the place look scary so the actually scenes were relatively frightening. The begining scene of a character running into the woods is used to suggest it's a place of which you cannot escape as this character is no longer in the trailer apart from in the woods. I believe, due to camera work, even though a wood is very dull because it's typical of a horror movie to be set in. I think as we created a sense of not being able to leave and trapped within it, that it worked very well.

We use plently of 'stereotypical' horror shots with the camera, for instance a point of view chasing shot from the antagonist, or an arching shot around a singled out character in the mysterious setting (woods). We use flash shots of the antagonist and protagonist, although it is a criticism of the trailer that we didn't do this well enough with the protagonist and it was hard to distinguish who it was. We have a very exorcism feel to our film as it's about an evil spirit rather than slashers slicing the characters up, although we do give hints of violence through blood on the tree and the final character getting struck in the face by the camera (eyes of the beast). We had debates whether we should follow the usual 'final girl' stroyline, but we decided it creates more of an enigma to the audience if there was no girl in it. This would leave them pondering whether they escape? if not then who survives if there is no girl to beat the all powerful monster no one else seems to beat.

We did use young 'teens' like most horrors on the basis that these are the most likely people to study into the storys and mystery behind the water tower picture.

The reason we show the audience the water tower and bits of the setting is to get them to understand roughly the basic storyline without spoiling it. We show the 'scary' setting of the forest and interesting shots of different characters, like the protagonist walking to the water tower, from different un-explainable scenes, (without watching the rest of the movie) to interest the audience and make them want to know more. For example they might want to know "what's in the water tower? why is it significant". We tried, excluding the beginning, to make the trailer roughly follow the time line of the actually moive e.g. them in school the boy finding the book then they find the picture and so on. We were fortunate to slow down some of our productions rather lengthy and 'un-neccasary' shots by adding transitions such as dissolve to make it look more like a bluring demon type vision e.g. when the monster is following the boy to the bathroom, the shot was rather long so we put the dissolves to make it still an available shot for that particular moment and yet also look like professional shot and also builds up the anticipation of the audience for what is coming next as we speeded up the shots after every dissolve. 

We have quite a silent movie with no uses of narrative. We did this because we believe it draws the audience in more if they have to take notice of what's infront of them (the inter titles) rather than being told. We didn't really get any diegetic sounds, we rely completely on the audio of our background music to create suspence in the audience. Also when it comes to diegetic sounds it's actually reletively complex to choose what may give away too much of the storyline and sometimes it could be seen as irrelevant to the audience. So we decided to focus more on making a suspence building and anticipation grasping soundtrack.