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

real media products?

For my research and planning I had to analyse three existing horror teaser trailers. As for my main task I had to produce a teaser trailer myself that conforms the conventions of real media products. There are a couple of convention which I have developed and there a couple of conventions which I have challenged. I had analysed ‘Insidious’ ‘Saw 3D’ and ‘The woman in black’.

Camera Shots

Conventions of a horror teaser trailer, in terms of camera shots include close ups of the main actors and actresses to focus on the facial expression and for the audience to really connect with them. Close-up exaggerates facial expressions which convey emotion.

In all three teaser trailer I have analysed, there are multi close-up shots of the actors and actresses. Here are some examples. Also, no names were stated in these teasers; this is a convention of horror teaser trailers. We can see how the close-up in these images emphasise their emotional state. For example, the top image; we can see the actress is worried as she is looking down with a straight face.

Close-up shot of my teaser trailer

Here is close-up image of the actor and actress in my teaser trailer. Similar to real existing products, I didn’t state their names in the teaser trailer but instead had a close-up to show who they are. We can also see their emotional state, that they are both happy by the smile on their face.

Lighting

A key convention of horror teaser trailers are dark lighting and bright lighting. Lighting plays a big part as it is expressive and non-naturalistic. Lighting creates suspense and the climax of any action.

It is clear that all three teaser trailer I analysed have used dark lighting. This was to create suspense at when actual horror parts were. Dark lighting is a key convention when it comes to horror films.

Lighting in my teaser trailer

This image displays how I used lighting in my teaser trailer; I decided to follow the convention of dark lighting. At this part of my teaser trailer is where a ‘horror’ scene takes place, and the dark lighting helps set the mood and builds suspense.

EditingEditing is one of the most important parts when it comes to horror teaser trailers. For my teaser trailer I had static transition from scene to scene. This creates a more creepy feel to it.

I also used an effect called “cast” this is how I made my scenes blue. I used this effect to have a some sort of night vision effect.

These three images show the release date for the teaser trailers I analysed. In all three, the release date are shown at the end of the teaser trailer. This is purposely done so that the last thing the audience see’s is the release date.

In contrast, my teaser trailer states “coming soon” instead of having a specific date like the teasers I analysed. However, the dateline is positioned at the end of my teaser trailer like the other teasers. It also includes a eerie soundtrack towards the end.

The woman in black and Insidious have a shot in the teasers trailer showing the setting. I have broken this convention as my teaser trailer setting didn’t look as creepy as these two settings do. Also, my teaser trailer was filmed in an apartment.

Sound

My teaser trailer follows key conventions in terms of sound. Horror teaser trailers usually consist of eerie sounds and music, high pitch sounds, heartbeats, door creaking and screams.

In my teaser trailer I have included a heartbeat that starts off very quiet then goes louder and louder till it cuts to the next clip. Then at the end of my teaser trailer it has a eerie soundtrack to finish off the teaser trailer.