1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

By Daniel Martin

While researching the horror genre for ideas for my final product I also used similar codes and conventions that would identify my product as a horror film. Thus in my trailer and posters, I have used similar conventions such as set in the night-time and similar to Halloween there are some shots from the point of view of the villain. Some similar imagery is used, especially in the posters and magazine front covers, while some shots may be cliché they are simplistic and still have chilling effects on the audience. I have been inspired by films/trailers I have researched, I still have remained open to ideas and I believe that have created a unique story with some memorable shots.

Comparisons of the Trailer

The Image freezes to resemble a photograph. For Texas Chainsaw Massacre it reinforces the idea that is an actual past event and is part of a crime scene. I took this idea as I thought it was a clever technique however, I altered this in my trailer. I made it with a voice over from the antagonist. Not only was it a device to make the trailer have a sinister atmosphere, it was the implication that the stalker films and takes photographs of her. I hoped to cross this over with a poster that I intended to create- by having the stalker with a shrine of her, including photos and her belongings. This didn’t happen as I couldn’t create the set that I intended and the actress was unavailable. This technique is used in horror films to create a realism which I was inspired to use. I believe I was successful in recreating this but the sound of the camera would have made the audience understand what happened.

While it has become cliché to make the implication that the killer is about to touch the victim it still seems to impact on the audience after I tested the trailer for them. It seemed creepy but they expected it as it has been repeated through many horror films. It was one shot that automatically came to mind in the storyboarding of the trailer. Yet it does suit the plot of the trailer perfectly and I actually had the actor touch her hair but the next two shots were expected by the audience when she turns and no one is there. It creates a suspenseful atmosphere and I was concerned that this might create the implication of a supernatural force, which I wanted to go against as that has happened in most horror franchises to date.

While thinking of ideas for my trailer, a friend directed me to ‘when a stranger calls’ I was inspired from the idea that the call came from inside the house. It is a clever was to let you know of immediate danger. Plus, stalkers have been known to leave text messages and phone the victims. I was considering using text but I didn’t want to risk the chance of the audience not being able to read it. The scene did get the point across that the call was inside the house however, the scene did take to long and should have been edited to a finer point. I wanted to get the idea of the stalker in the house by him calling first then hanging up. The scene is long but still contains the elements that I wanted to appear

Psycho is one of the most popular horror/thriller film to date and I took inspiration from it at once when thinking of ideas for my Stalker project. The most personal moment of the victim is when their exposed and vulnerable. However because it would be obvious where the idea came from if the stalker came in with a knife, I decided to do my own twist that would make my production unique. One aim of my production was not to include any blood or gore as it have been overdone and used in nearly every horror film and their trailer counterparts. I believe that a scary film can be created just my implication and suspense which has been done rarely. For my trailer I instead decided that the next shot would be that the victim would be fully dressed in the bath. Thus creating the implication that the Stalker has dressed her while she was asleep. It violates her personal space and is terrifying thinking that there was someone there. A cliché shot of a message on the mirror was not original but still sends the same message, I was disappointed with the shot as I had difficulty getting steam on the mirror and it is difficult for the audience to read even after attempts at editing it. I think this worked well as it was unexpected and it was done only through implication.

• There are some films, not just horror that create the illusion that the filming all done from a handheld camera that gives the perspective that it is from one of the characters point of view. I believe I have developed this in the beginning of my trailer by giving the idea that this was footage at party, and as the frame freezes with a voice over, it’s to give the implication that it was the stalker that took the footage which adds to the mystery of who the stalker is. The development of the idea is that it is the antagonists perspective, this creates mystery and also the creepy atmosphere as the footage is mostly of the victim.

• Many horror films feature heavily in Blood, gore and nudity. I planned to challenge that convention by having non appear in my trailer to show you can create a atmosphere of fear without these conventions. I believe that I have succeeded in doing so, this scene in particular. There is no need for blood and gore as the element of fear is created by the fact that the antagonist has been here before and dressed her. Mysterious and creepy without the need for the normal conventions.

• Most of the audience’s favourite part is in the final montage, when the trailer speeds up in a final dramatic (sometimes action) sequence with music to correspond with it. In my research I discovered that this convention was the same for horror trailers. I took main inspiration from the trailers of the reboots for Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010). While following the conventions and inspiration from existing horror trailers, I also used my ideas to make it unique and create a suspenseful atmosphere. Here we see the stalker attack, looking at the victim while she sleeps and a hand on the window. All these create suspense as the audience are curious as to what happens next and this is all done without blood or gore. Plus the final moment when we see the stalker and hear him breathing which hopefully leaves the audience wanting more.

Magazine Plan

I decided on a simple layout for my magazine cover because while the technology was easy to use I felt unfamiliar with it and decided not to do too much with special effects for it. I thought the simple conventional layout of a magazine would be obvious to the audience so instead I focused on the image used, the masthead and the other features placed around the magazine.

This image is of a knife in front of a knife. A simplistic shot but one that has iconography throughout the horror genre, as the shot of the weapon just before the kill. The most famous shot would be from Psycho(1960). I actually took the inspiration from the film poster for Rob Zombie’s second Halloween film. The idea of the knife weapon being raised hints directly to the horror genre. I Thought the lighting would help amplify the image but I was disappointed with the results, as the steel cannot be scene and the outline may be misinterpreted as a stick of French bread.

The second image is similar to my first idea of the knife. The iconography contained with in it that links to the horror genre. For this image I decided to focus on the knife, the hoodie links to the film because it is the same worn by the stalker. I thought edit the image by having other images taken from the trailer to appear out of the knife like faded memories. However, It was complicated to get the images the way which I wanted and I thought it didn’t fit in. So I decided on keeping it the same way, audience feedback like the image the way it is. I attempted to go back on Pixlr to get the image I wanted but It was difficult to transfer it onto Photoshop

This image may appear to be cliché, especially for magazines advertising a horror film, as there are many covers that show the victim or the antagonist staring at the audience. However while it has been done repeatedly I still think that it is effective. Especially with the torch highlighting the features of the face making the image more sinister. Also the victim wearing the stalker hoodie was intentional as it was trying to put across two characters in one and implies that even the she could be the stalker herself. The dark lighting emphasise the character in the front, a similar technique used in many film magazines advertising a horror film

PostersThis was my first attempt to create a poster as well as my first attempt with the software pixlr.com I found the software easy to use and I enjoyed experimenting with the fonts and the image. I was very happy with the effects I had done with the image, making the face the only thing with colour. This creates a sinister tone. The title was before I decided on a final design for my poster but I thought to keep it in so not the distract the audience. More recent film posters follow

I did experiment with other posters but followed a similar design to the others that I had created so the audience would know what the film is and looked as if they linked together and wasn’t disjointed. I did follow the poster conventions in the layout form but mostly I took the ideas of the more recent film posters of having social networking sites for the audience to learn more. Also the type of font used for the main as well as what is included to make it seem like a realistic poster. However, while I have followed film poster conventions I believe the image, tagline and the main text is original and I believe it is what makes my horror film unique.

Challenged forms and what makes my trailer unique

One of the dominate conventions of horror seems to be blood and gore. Which appears in nearly every horror films as well as the trailers. To challenge this convention I simply built up tension in the trailer. Creating a sinister atmosphere simply using implication to allow the audience to think what could happen. Plus in my idea I thought using blood would be messy and take a lot of time to make, so instead I thought of creating my trailer without it, which turned out at be just as effective without it.

While filming the party scenes and the scene in the hallway, I added the footage that could have been bloopers or footage used when the actors thought the camera was of. This is because it created a more realistic portrayal of the characters and it was a good thing to address the camera. Horror films make it seem as if the camera is not on, but I think it was clever to have words like ‘action’ because it addresses the camera and give a real idea of what the characters of the age group are like

The main fear factor the of the trailer was the idea that it could actually happen in real life to anyone. This does not imply that the audience will have an event like a horror film but it is something very real. It doesn’t need to be about blood and gore but the thought that there is someone there or someone in a very personal setting which shows that fear can come out of the very little things but is terrifying because it suddenly getting very personal to you.

Characters

I chose the main character to be the same age range as the audience and also female, this is because it follows the general convention of a female protagonist. Plus females are often used in horror films as they are thought to be easier to sympathise with. For the trailer I did not reveal a name or more detail about her which inadvertently turned her into a more two dimensional character, the main aim was to leave the impression that the victim could be anyone. The friends in the film only appear for a short amount of time but are just their to identify the age range but still lock into the horror film stereotype. She can be identified as the protagonist and the hero character.

The antagonist of the film was just identified as the stalker, after researching the many iconic horror villains I used the similar technique of having the antagonist’s face hidden. Thus creating fear in the audience as they do not know who it is. However in an attempt to make my production realistic, I simply used a hoodie that hid the wearer’s face. The actions created fear and a creepy atmosphere which suited the purpose. There was no need for violence or blood but just the presence that made the character. Following horror films such as Scream or I know what you did last summer, I created the character to act as a horror mystery for the audience to guess who the stalker was. In the trailer I made several implications to who it was from implying gender to the victim herself.

Genre: Horror• The Horror is optimised by the fear factors. By this everything links together to

create a certain atmosphere that links directly to the genre. My products followed this by using dark lighting, and implication of blood by the typography. For the trailer I used the idea of the victims house, this makes it very personal to the victim as someone has forced them into the victims home. The music follows the genre as it has use of strings for an eerie impact but use of percussion to create and more violent tone.

The camera angles for the genre rand from wide shot to get in everything to a close up to get the audience very close to the character. Rapid shots create disorientation which is normally used in scenes of panic and engage the audience.The posters follow similar conventions by emphasising the protagonist or antagonist, I did the same by emphasising both characters and for two posters I only needed to create the atmosphere and mystery which acted as a bait and hook. An element of mystery has been introducing itself into the horror genre for decades. The magazines act similarly to the poster in creating the atmosphere and again using similar dark colours and blood typography.

One key aspect is the main title, which I thought of the one word ‘stalker’ as it is bold and automatically means to the audience something sinister. I created the title in pixlr.com which was very helpful in doing so easily. I do think that the title is unique and I doubt there is one like it but I do realise that I have followed the horror convention to have the writing in blood. Though it may be cliché, the audience automatically know what the genre is and what the film implies.

For my production company logo, I had already chose the name which I don’t think is an existing company. The rest was simple to create as it would not appear heavily. I just used the themes of the cinema such as the red colour and the camera which introduces the regal idea of what the cinema is. I thought best to use the concept of cinema so it wasn’t applied to just one genre. The term ‘masterstroke’ means a skilful act which is an adjective used for films that have impressed audiences and critics. I liked the idea and took a risk with it. In the end I thought it was successful and unique.

Conclusion

I followed conventions of horror so the audience would identity my products within the genre, I then developed ideas and challenged certain conventions to make my products unique. By being inspired from the Horror films themselves to explore the different ways which this can be portrayed through the different media. Using my own ideas it think that these developments made my products successful and achieved good feedback from audiences