Media evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Media evaluation

At the beginning of this project I decided to do a film trailer of horror and slasher genre, which would be effective to attract the audience and promote the concept horror and slasher to the target audience.

In order for my trailer to be successful and to promote the genre clearly I carried out some important research and analysis on horror film trailers to get an idea, which was significantly relevant to the construction of my film trailer.

Media evaluation

First of which I had a look at the forms and conventions of existing horror trailers to identify what to include in my own such as sound, mise en scene, cinematography and editing. I had a look at Halloween 2007 (remake) and other trailers of the same genre to gain an idea of what props and items of scenery – mise en scene to include.

Media evaluation

First I had a look at the costumes.

I saw that the killer is wearing dark clothing in Halloween so therefore I decided that for my trailer it would look better if the killer wore dark clothing compared to light-coloured clothing.

Halloween Vendetta Face (my trailer)

Media evaluation

I also had a look at which item of props to include for my trailer to match the conventions of horror and slasher as close as possible. They include:

Knife Mask

Media evaluation

Black parka jacket Black glovesThese are all props that match the conventions of horror and slasher and would fit in well. They can also be genre signifiers because they convey in a number of ways to horror and slasher particularly the knife as that is the main representation of slasher films, without it being shown on posters viewers wouldn’t think the film will be a slasher genre and the genre of ‘slasher’ wouldn’t exist if it weren't shown in films. These props are consistent throughout my trailer to promote the genre of horror and slasher and create narrative.

Media evaluation

Media evaluation

The way in which I have established the characters in my trailer is similar to existing trailers such as Scream 4. There is a clip establishing the characters hanging out with each other at school socialising with one another whereas, in my trailer I decided to film them being at one of the characters; David’s house playing PlayStation 3 game, FIFA 14. I established them in this way because since they were all male characters FIFA 14 and the game console PlayStation 3 are two aspects mostly popular to males and they enjoy playing. Therefore, this develops a convention and the idea of including football game FIFA 14 represents a stereotype of men being obsessed with football.

Media evaluation

Scream 4

Vendetta Face

Media evaluation

However, I have challenged a form and convention of a real media product by establishing characters in my trailer. In every horror film trailer I saw as part of my research I noticed that they all contained female characters who were victims of the killer. My trailer consists of all male characters, which shows that I have challenged a convention of not including any females in it but have spotted a niche in the horror film market as from what I researched there aren't any horror films consisting of only male characters, which is why I think this idea will succeed as it is unique.

Media evaluation

The editing in my trailer consists of cuts and fades in between the different scenes shown at a pace of maximum 3 seconds per clip. This is because to give the audience a clear structure of the dialogue, what’s going on and leaving each clip at a cliffhanger to make them want to go and watch the film in the cinema. I noticed in my research that most horror trailers have fast cuts in between the different clips shown but however, I believe that exposing more of the clips would sit better with the audience as they wouldn’t get confused to an extent that it would put them off from wanting to go and watch the film.