Evaluation OneA2 MEDIA :POPPY ROSE

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

Part 1 Our horror trailer fit the horror genre as it contained several conventions it needed to be a classed as a ‘horror’ trailer. Thomas Schatz a well known theorist created the ‘genre theory’. The genre theory stated that the best way to analyse and evaluate films is through genre. The use of genre theory gives realistic expectations into what a film is going to be about or aimed for. I think that these conventions mentioned by Schatz in this theory are demonstrated in my own trailer Ring Rosie. The conventions we made sure to include to perfect our own ‘auteur’ style like Schatz suggests includes low key lighting, over the shoulder shots and high angle shots, graphic text effects and stereotypical horror themes. An example of the low key lighting convention is when the audience sees Rosie in the woods looking around scared and frantic with zombies on the approach. I was proud of our mise-en-scene, the graveyard and the woods scenery automatically gives the scene an eerie unsettling feel, this could be due to not being able to see everything clearly therefore giving the audience the sense of expecting the unknown. Dark colours seen in the scene connotes a negative feel, these are associated with horror films and the horror genre. For example comedies include bright elevated ambient lighting which gives off a more positive feel to the film; a film that does this well is Step Brothers (2008). This mimics a real life trailer that you would see in the media; it is shown here in Warm Bodies (2013).

Warm Bodies; illustrates how low key lighting is used effectively in horror films to convey certain feels or themes.

Ring Rosie; This clip shows our use of low key lighting to create emotion.

Part 1 continued.. Another convention explored includes various shot types that are included specifically in horror films. One of the most common shots is an over the shoulder shot. This is shown when Rosie’s friend gets bitten; this is effective because it can create suspense in the scene, it can also create a sense of vulnerability because it can be used to show characters emotions, show action happening and it can be used to create dramatic irony; all these uses help built upon the plot line. The use of an over the shoulder shot is commonly used with either a slightly tilted high angle shot or a very high angle shot. The use of these shots combined can help portray more vulnerability and innocence as they are commonly used in scenes with women. They can also help the audience know who should have more power in the scene, these shots automatically can show who is in control in the scene. This mimics a real life trailer in the media; Girl House (2014). The horror genre and its conventions like to stick to stereotypical old-fashioned gender roles.

This scene from Girl House automatically implies that the camera angle and shot portray innocence and vulnerability because all the characters in the scene are women.

Ring Rosie; this shot helps create tension because our view is blocked.

Part 1 continued… Another convention explored includes stereotypical character costume choices. Horror films are notoriously known for portraying a certain ‘image’ or ‘personality’ of a character through the choice of the clothing he or she wears. For example normally a psycho killer is shown to be in some childish costume which normally reflects a childish state of mind and the reason behind their killings. This is shown in Ring Rosie by having ‘Rosie’ wearing stereotypically tomboy clothes consisting of; jeans, a hoodie and a beanie hat; with Rosie’s costume being very basic and practical automatically portrays her to be the female ‘badass’. The use of Rosie’s friend having blonde hair and more feminine clothes clearly shows how Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory ties in with Carol Clover’s basic horror conventions in men and women. The use of the clothing to help the audience determined who plays what role in the film is very effective because it quickly establishes a plot line, this element is key in an action horror. The use of stereotypical costume choices is reflected in Zombeavers (2014) clearly showing which characters are more likely to be victimized in the film by just showing the opening scene to the trailer.

Zombeavers; the horror convention of clothing choice is expressed clearly in this scene.

Ring Rosie; this image clearly shows two different female clothing choices in the style of a stereotypical horror convention.

Part 1 continued…. Another convention explored includes graphics used in films and trailers. The use of specific fonts and effects in trailers can automatically give a feel to a trailer without seeing any other content of it. This is shown in Ring Rosie at the end when it shows the title and ‘coming soon’. I think that the font in films is very crucial because if it is a popular film the font becomes associated with that in particular film. For example the large ‘boxy’ iconic sci-fi writing included in all the Star Wars films. I think that using another different font helped make our trailer unique and helped maybe a future audience associate that font with Ring Rosie. Also the use of the font and a fade in/fade out effect helps it the name of the film with the audience as well as intriguing them with the effects used.

This is mimicked in Oculus (2013), it concludes the trailer with a font fade out with the name of the film, I think this looks really effective and made me want to copy this look in my own trailer.

Oculus shows how minimalistic font can look very trendy and appealing by the use of transitions.

Ring Rosie uses transitions like Oculus

Part 2I believe the trailer fits the conventions of a horror trailer by; the use of colour, its unique selling point (USP), diverse camera shots, speed of editing and the music.

The use of colour is linked to the conventions of a horror trailer because the main colours are dark greens, greys and overall dull colours which automatically tells the audience that the genre of this trailer is horror. The dark colours act as pathetic fallacy for the trailers genre. The only moment the colours in the trailer are more vibrant is at the beginning when all is 'okay‘ in an equilibrium and the trailer is setting the scene.

The unique selling point to the trailer also makes it fit into a horror convention. I believe the use of two main female characters facing something physical (facing zombies and saving themselves from them) makes the trailer very unique. By showing these two characters to be badass shows a whole new league of feminism within horror films, whereas normally you see girls being victims 'Ring Rosie' shows the element of death as well as the 'fight'. This does however stray from the genre theory but I feel like the want to live by the characters is our unique selling point.

The use of different diverse camera shots is also a stereotypical horror trailer convention as well as the quick use of editing in-between these shots.

Part 2 continued..The different amount of shots include; various close ups, a few extreme close-ups, long shots and the most common shot type; mid shot. The use of all these diverse shots placed together in such a short amount of time gives the audience a feel to how intense and action-packed the film would be. The use of all these shots I feel will intrigue the audience into being more excited about the film. It also helps us fit our genre of an action-gore horror.The speed of editing is crucial into making our trailer fit the horror conventions. The quick editing and flicking between helps us effortlessly create a build of tension in the trailer, making the audience become more 'excited' to see the ending of the trailer.

The music in the trailer is specifically designed to give off an eerie atmosphere, the use of this all the way through even underneath other sound effects is to make the trailer seem coherent. I think this is a good way of showing the conventions in a horror trailer as they are designed to make you feel uneasy.

We worked on pacing by creating collision cutting throughout the trailer; these contrasts in quick to slow to quick and quiet to loud allowed us to create a feel of suspense and shock effortlessly. The suspense and shock was heightened by the use of the droned out creepy soundtrack that played the whole time in the background. The main scene that created the most suspense was the cut of Rosie’s face looking very serious at the camera cutting back to action shots of zombies, this was very effective and I think it worked really well in keeping the audience ‘tuned in’.

The end of the trailer which shows many zombies crowding round Rosie is effective because it creates suspense right before the end of the trailer, this suspense would enable more people to go and watch it to see how it turns out. This cliff-hanger gives a perfect end to the trailer.

We also created shock through sound effects, this was done by gunshots with no visible video, this helped because it was cut away from the rest of the trailer therefore it was sudden change from action to silence. More sounds used include screams and shouting of the name Rosie.

Part 2 continued… After studying many films and trailers in our research I had seen two trailers that I wanted to mimic the style of and the effects they had used. These trailers were the Resident Evil trailers and Godzilla. The first trailer Resident Evil includes a main female character in all the trailers of this film series. I wanted to include something like this in my trailer because I felt that it went against basic horror conventions but still felt like it was in the horror genre. This was created by making our main character Rosie alike a main male lead character as much as possible to make it feel more realistic.

The second trailer that I had looked at was Godzilla. This included fast paced collision cutting towards the end of the trailer. I thought that this worked really well in the trailer as it created tension and suspense; we have tried to recreate this style by cutting and sticking loads of clips together that vary drastically but also fit in well with the narrative. I thought this worked really well in our trailer.

Resident Evil – Afterlife (2010) Godzilla (2014)

Part 3When making the trailer we didn’t use one specific auteur for out influences, we used little ‘snippets’ from all the ones we studied this includes; Alfred Hitchcock, David Cronenberg and George A. Romero.

Alfred Hitchcock influenced us by his unusual use of the themes violence and murder. By making a action gore horror we decided that the way we framed shots would mimic how he did as he framed shots to manipulate the audiences feelings to maximise emotions such as fear, anxiety and empathy. Hitchcock also used specific shots to emphasize details of the scene. We have shown this in an over the shoulder shot of Rosie’s best friend being bitten in the neck. This was done to emphasize the body horror used and make it more shocking to the audience when they watched it.

David Cronenberg was another auteur we studied. Cronenberg includes dark backgrounds, references to flesh and the same location for many of his films (Canada). We have included all three of these styles in our own trailer; by using dark backgrounds throughout, including body horror that featured the ‘ripping’ of flesh and the same location throughout. This is effective because it helps the trailer ‘flow’ if its shot in the same location, the trailer then coherent.

George Romero had a specific style in his works; zombie films. We decided to mimic Romero’s auteur style this includes using strong female characters. A strong female presence is shown in Romero’s ‘Hungry Wives’ (1972) which follows an unhappy suburban housewife Joan and her journey into witchcraft magic. We have included a strong female character in our own trailer; this is effective because we are going against stereotypical horror characters and we are making our trailer more interesting to all audiences.

I think what makes our trailer distinctive is firstly, the gore effects used. We thought we would be adventurous in the types of effects used. The ones that were featured in our trailer was a gore covered eye, a large neck bite, sound wounds on the face and some large cuts on the arms and shoulders. I think this makes our trailer distinctive because we have tried to go over the top with our effects rather than just placing small wounds in obvious places we have tried to explore with effects and how they would best look on camera.

Part 3 continued…Another feature that I feel makes our trailer distinctive is the use of sound effects. We decided to include various different sound effects including, a repeated gunshot sound, a zombie 'grumbling' noise and a repetition of the name ‘Rosie' being shouted. I feel these sound effects made our trailer very distinctive because they were created by ourselves and edited to be the sound we wanted instead of taking them from somewhere else. The sounds being distinctive makes the trailer very distinctive and different as we made the sound effect of the zombie noises based on how we thought zombies would sound rather than how they are shown on every horror movie.

I think that Ring Rosie reflected its historical content very well. In recent years many films containing zombies and zombie apocalypses have become popular such as Zombieland (2009), the series of The Walking Dead (started in 2010) and Dead Snow (2009). Also including two lead female roles will also reflect its historical context as feminism and the use of it in films has increased dramatically over the years. This is reflected in other similar films such as Resident Evil (2012) and Day of the Dead (2008); which show women as more ‘badass’ and shows them as having more power just like we have shown Rosie.