Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Trailers are necessary when it comes to marketing a film as it's the
best way to get the word out and gain notoriety. A trailer gives your target
audience a first look at the film and showcases some of the key moments that
create a big enough enigma that your audience will want to go and watch your
film. They raise interest. Trailers are published on sites like YouTube as well
as shown on television and at the cinema.
Comparison to Professional Work:
Generic Conventions
of Horror Trailers:
The narrative of
horror trailers often starts with a form of equilibrium, just as Todorov's Narrative Theory does, but is never resolved in the trailer
as it's key to leave the ending on a cliff-hanger that makes your audience
interested. You do however need to give them enough information on the story of
your film in order for your audience to tell if they want to go and see it. The use of narrative in our trailer was mainly conventional to horror, however we did have two different equilibriums that represented different time periods present in the plot (one was 30 years prior) our knowledge of Bordwell and Thompson's narrative theory helped us with this.
Mise-en-scene was
a very important convention as it relates to various aspects. Horror trailers
conventionally use darker colours and low key lighting in order to create a
darker atmosphere and signify the themes of the films. However due to our equipment we had to use a lot of ambient lighting, which seemed to make our plot more sinister as it was happening in daylight. Red is a conventional
horror colour as it connotes to danger and blood, so we used this often. Blood
is a recurring horror theme as blood evokes fear. White is occasionally used to portray purity, like what we did with Lily's dress in the opening scene.
Conventional characters
in horror trailers are ones you see in a variety of films. For example, the
innocent child, used to portray innocence and purity or the final girl. We had both of these aspects, but you aren't made aware in the trailer if Lucy is the final girl as that would give away the ending. You
also get several other character archetypes like the Hero, Villain and
Princess. However, as horror films are conventionally unconventional they don't
often stick to the guides set by Vladimir Propp in his theory, so we decided not to either. One thing different about our trailer was the fact that we had a female hero and a female villain. This makes our film unique.
It's also conventional in horror trailers to see props like knives and weapons as not only to they show the style of the film (eg. Slasher) but they can also say a lot about the characters. One of the weapons used in our trailer was the Rosary Beads, which were used to strangle someone. The beads, in a way, act as a yonic symbol that represent Mary's strength.
It's also conventional in horror trailers to see props like knives and weapons as not only to they show the style of the film (eg. Slasher) but they can also say a lot about the characters. One of the weapons used in our trailer was the Rosary Beads, which were used to strangle someone. The beads, in a way, act as a yonic symbol that represent Mary's strength.
Cinematography in
Horror Trailers uses a lot of close ups to show the pure emotions, mainly fear.
Often Horror trailers also attempt to make their antagonists more threatening
and establish the opposition by using expressionist high and low angles. We did this during the scene on the stairs. Point of view shots are
used to create suspense by using restricted narration so the audience can only
see what the character is seeing. In our trailer we used this, but in order to mislead the audience by making them think someone was sneaking up behind Adam. Handheld camera is also very conventional as
it creates a sense of panic, like in the running through the woods scene.
Sound and editing
can vary depending on the style of horror but certain things stay the same.
Like all of the previous elements, sound and editing is used to create the
atmosphere and tension. Things like stings (which are mentioned in the video) and incidental music that add to the
emotion and connote to the genre. Dialogue is important in all trailers to give
information on the narrative but you'll often find in fairly scarce in horror
trailers as the more dialogue involved the less tense the trailer is. For our dialogue we stuck to simple, but effective lines like "You can't breathe without them knowing". The
editing usually relies on short takes in order to help the pace of the trailer. Our trailer pacing was very conventional: having a slow build up and then a series of short takes. We stuck to this as we found it the best way to create tension.
The preferred reading of our trailer was to create tension
and suspense as we want people to go and see our film because they are
interested in it. It's important to follow the conventions I've just talked
about so that the genre is clear. However, we did want our film to be unique so
we made sure that some aspects of our trailer (like having two female lead
actresses) were original. It's key that we were unique and brought something
individual to our project that makes it different, because that attracts people
to it even more. No one wants to see something they've seen fifty times before.
Film Poster Comparisons
Side-by-side comparison of my poster and two professional ones ('Let Me In' and 'Dark Touch')
Thursday, 18 February 2016
Friday, 12 February 2016
Thursday, 11 February 2016
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Thursday, 7 January 2016
Horror Trailer Analysis
‘American Horror Story: Coven (2013)’,
This is not a full length trailer as it’s a teaser trailer but still conveys a lot of horror conventions and attributes. The teaser is 30 seconds long which gives very limited time to portray the show as watchable and has no voice over, only music, by the choice of having no voice over this means the characters aren’t introduced by name or purpose and can only be seen. The teaser could’ve probably been improved if a voiced over was used, but the soundtrack (House of the Rising Sun – Lauren O’Connell) worked well with the setting to create an intriguing establishment of the show, the use of indie music makes the entrance of the characters melodic but the conventional imagery suggests otherwise with demonic symbols and imagery suggesting witchcraft and voodoo. Another element that was well portrayed to be considered is the establishing shots of a large house, gated, protected, with a large cult-like crowd walking in with people watching them from windows. The main thing that could’ve dramatically changed the trailer would’ve been the introduction of characters, though you do see the main characters entering the house, looking out of the house and standing high above the others, you learn next to nothing about them other than to interpret who they are by which they are seen doing. Although the teaser was shorter than most they displayed horror conventions quite quickly, the demonic symbolism insinuated a ‘Coven’ of witchcraft; the symbolism is shown on the ceiling of the house and the use of a man-bull opening its eyes. Another convention used was witchery itself as it shows woman floating outside the house, cats and black clothing. The trailer used music to establish the mood of the show by using the genre of indie music and the lyrics in the song chosen fit the plot very well about being ‘one of them’, the song chosen is quite slow but gives the trailer a modern sense. The trailer also stuck to the conventions of a trailer as it established the main placement of the TV series.
Carrie (2013)
My second trailer is ‘Carrie (2013)’, the trailer used the build up effect which makes the trailer more intense as it progresses, which captures the audiences attention very quickly but had a very slow start which made it less appealing to the viewer. I liked the use of inter-titles with the voice over together as they establish the plot and story quickly, the fading used on the inter-titles however make it less dramatic and softer than it should be for a horror movie trailer. I disliked the choice in music as it was very slow and when the scenes picked up in pace the music rarely did, it was harsher but did not fully make it as impactful as it could’ve been. I feel that the music would’ve made a dramatic change to the trailer if it has become faster as it would’ve been easier to watch and would’ve portrayed the movie as more of a horror than a romance. The trailer portrayed horror quite easily by showing Carrie covered in blood and her violent outbursts from the famous prom scene, to counter this it was showing her in a much more lit scene making her prom dress with relaxing music on in the background. It was evident that the trailer was for a horror because of the tension building short shots at the end, a common shot list used to introduce horror movies intentions and characters fates. In this trailer it uses most of its time to introduce the characters in depth, a typical convention for a full time trailer. By using most of the time to do this it helps to further the plot and understanding of the mindset Carrie has.
The Woman in Black (2012)
Monday, 14 December 2015
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