eval q 1

1. Evaluation question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?

2. Locations
Upon my initial research of the
horror genre and the locations of
which horror films take place, I
found these locations to be the
most prevalent within the trailers I
watched.
Both settings 3 and 5 were used
within my trailer, a school
(whereby no other characters are
seen apart from the leads) and a
forest.
The film title ‘into the woods’
already conforms to a convention
of horror films as the setting is
revealed in the title, letting the
audience know what type of film
it is through the title alone.
The setting of the forest or wooded
areas are commonly used in horror
films as this setting leaves the
characters in isolation from
civilisation. Dangerous situations
may arise in the woods as
characters are unprotected. The
woodland the characters enter in
our trailer is also prohibited,
signified by a large locked gate. The
use of a restricted area is also a
convention of horror films as the
characters are placed in a strange,
off-limits situation where they have
put themselves at risk. This adds an
element of suspense as the
audience are aware that they are in
an unsafe area.

4. Equilibrium
A typical convention of horror trailers is the
disturbance of equilibrium. Todorov’s theory of
equilibrium says all stories must begin with
equilibrium, then the equilibrium becomes
disturbed. We have tried to follow this
narrative as we begin our trailer with a
montage of shots of all the main characters
laughing and smiling. We have also overlaid a
grainy, blue effect on these shots to make them
clearly differ from the rest of the trailer. These
grainy blue shots appear as old film, showing
the audience that things were once happy, then
a cut to a dimly sit scene with an orange/red
filter over it disturbs the equilibrium and
follows Todorov's theory. Eg) Mother (2017)

6. Mis en scene
The cast we chose to portray the characters in this trailer are
conventional to horror films in that their age and gender mimic
the majority of horror films. Teenage girls are seen as vulnerable
and also create relatability to the teenage market of horror films.
Our teenage girls went against the convention of beautified
horror where the cast wear lots of make up an glamourous
clothes. This was in order to make the trailer more believable
and true to life.
Women are often the protagonists within horror films as
following a stereotype of women being more likely to be in a
vulnerable position than a man would.
We have followed conventions in that sense however two of the
characters, Imogen and Anna, are very head strong and
deterministic, as seen in their character profiles. This challenges
the stereotype that all women are weak and defenceless in
trying situations.

7. Lighting
Within horrors, the dominating style of lighting is low-key
as this evokes a creepy, mysterious and unknown
atmosphere within the trailer. The dim hue and shadows
within low key lighting fit the conventions of a horror film
as it creates tension due to its mysterious tone, controlling
how much of the surroundings and characters are revealed.
When filming our trailer, we focused on timing the shoots
to take place as the sun was setting, so we could get
several shots with different natural lighting and select
which lighting best fit that scene. For scenes of high
tension (within the forest) we filmed in almost complete
darkness, using artificial light directly on the actors faces.
This technique can be seen in many horrors as it focuses on
the protagonist yet accentuates how dark and ominous
their surroundings are.

8. Music
Upon editing the music and sound of this
trailer, I found that in order to follow
conventions of the horror genre, a lot of the
internal sound from the footage should be
muted and overlaid with scary, slow paced
music. This is in order to, firstly, create a
suspenseful and ominous atmosphere as the
music increases in tempo upon scarier visual
parts of the trailer and secondly, to avoid too
much of the plot being given away through
dialogue of characters.
I used strong drum beats in areas of high
tension and also used clips of sound from the
characters screaming, a convention of sounds
within horror genre.
Moment of tension

9. This film poster breaks most film poster
conventions of the horror genre as there are
more than one main image and there is a
banner separating them.
I did, however research film posters and find
similarities in tag lines such as direct address,
colouring such as red and blacks and fonts such
as serif, old style fonts -I followed conventions
of film posters despite the layout and
composition.
Similar layout Similar font Similar images

10. I created a research
and analysis blog
post for to research
entertainment
weekly’s horror
covers.
I tired to follow the
‘one cover line’
aspect shown in fig1
and fig2 with the
skyline holding more
stories.