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

conventions of real media products?

Whilst creating my magazine cover, film poster and theatrical film trailer, I understood that
there were certain conventions I had to conform to when creating my main product and
ancillary texts. Horror films are movies that strive to bring out the emotions of fear, horror
and terror from viewers. To ensure that the message of my media products reached my
target audience, I did some research on other film posters and film trailers as this gave me a
better understanding of the codes and conventions that needed to be included in my
promotional products. I did research on other psychological horror films, such as 'Orphan'
(2009). Beth and I, as a group decided that the genre for our film trailer was going to be
psychological horror. After doing research, we realised that the equipment we had available
would allow us to create a conventional horror trailer to the best of our ability. In addition
to this, we started doing research for our trailer around the time of Halloween, which meant
that more horror trailers were being released. This allowed us to do more research and see
what we needed to include in our trailer to meet the needs of our target audience.
The first way we followed the codes and conventions was by casting a
teenage girl as the protagonist within our film. This is because she
would be presented as vulnerable and would be stereotypically easier
to scare than a male character would be, which gives the trailer a sense
of realism. This also allows the audience to picture themselves in the
characters position, creating a sense of Blumler and Katz personal
identity. However, we have challenged key horror conventions by
having a female antagonist as the antagonist is usually male. An
example of another film that does this is The Woman In Black (2012).
There is a new developing trend for female antagonists. Obvious
examples include Carrie (2013), which stars Chlo Grace Moretz as
the antagonist and Orphan (2009), which stars Isabelle Fuhrman who
plays Esther as the antagonist within the film, which are both very
successful films. However, we also had physical restrictions of being an
all-girl group and therefore have a female antagonist.
In many horror films, the antagonist is revealed at the end of the
film. They are usually killed off at the end, or in some cases left
wounded to make room for a possible sequel. We decided to do
this to present the audience with an enigma and to allow the
audience to always expect something to happen, as you wouldn't
normally expect this from a female character within a film. One
example within our trailer is when Melinda appears behind Lucy
in the woods (1 minute 33 seconds into the trailer). We decided
to have a female antagonist and protagonist as we wanted to

create a false sense of security for the audience and create a unique selling point as it
differentiates our horror film from all other horror films because you wouldnt normally see
a female antagonist scare a female protagonist, encouraging more people to see the film.
The idea of this was also based around Levi Strauss theory of binary opposition. We wanted
Lucy as a nave, innocent new girl within the trailer whereas; Melinda would be presented
as the evil, scary character within the narrative. We decided this because we wanted the
idea of binary opposition as the driving force behind our narrative.
We conformed to conventions by having an isolated wood
setting and a high school setting within our trailer. Horror
movies enjoy placing their characters in a location where there
is no one around to help them, as this always presents the fear
of the unknown. However, a horror movie requires an audience
to face the unknown to ensure that they understand the
narrative within the film. The woods ensure a feeling of the
unknown as anything can be hiding behind the trees. Cabin In
The Woods (2012) is an obvious example of how horror can be
established from the location. The main location of our film is
set in woods. Many horror films, such as Orphan (2009) are set
in the woods.
The other primary setting that features within our trailer
is the school. An example of this is A Nightmare on Elm
Street (2010) which features a Los Angeles High School.
However, we challenged conventions by having a British
secondary school within our trailer because we had the
physical restriction of going to a school in Britain and we
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) school setting. had to also think about time constraints when
considering locations. The setting of our trailer had to be in a location that was easily
accessible for us to film on a daily basis and the most appropriate way for us to do this was
to incorporate our school into the narrative. We decided to use the school as one of the
main locations within our trailer because it allows the audience to relate to the film more
and makes it more realistic to a modern day audience who have experience of going to
school every day. In addition to this, a horror location normally has a hidden past and we
therefore thought that a school would be the best place to do this. As Lucy is the new girl in
the school, she could find the school more daunting and essentially, she would feel isolated
as it would be new to her. This can create a sense of tension and depict her loneliness within
the film.

In addition to this, Esther in Orphan (2009) also has dark hair, which is juxtaposed by her
pale skin. We have tried to create the same effect with 'Melinda'. This links to the plot of
her as a girl who used to be an innocent school girl. Although her light clothing and pale skin
connotes her innocence, her dark hair makes her look evil. Furthermore, Melinda is also
wearing a white dress that has blood and dirt on it to make her look untidy compared to
Lucy. An unconventional aspect of our trailer is Lucy wearing her school uniform. From
looking at other horror movies that have a school setting, such as Scream (1996) and A
Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). I have seen that many of the students in the school setting
wear their own clothes. We decided to defy these conventions to allow the audience to
identify Lucy as the new girl within the film and to ensure that the narrative is easy to
understand.
Characters in A
Nightmare on Elm
Sreet (2010)
wearing their own
clothes in school.

Lucy wearing her

school uniform.

Furthermore, there is a variation of lighting used throughout

our film trailer. At the beginning of the trailer, high key
lighting is used as Lucy is starting her new school, where
everything is supposed to be happy and the audience dont
know what is going to happen yet. An example of this within
our trailer occurs at 0:33 seconds, where the pan of the
school is showed to set the scene. However, low key lighting
is introduced within the trailer when everything is about to
change and Lucy starts walking into the woods at 1:23. From
that point onwards, low key lighting is used. Lighting is
responsible for significant effects in any film scene. This
shows that we are following codes and conventions as this
can also be seen in films such as Insidious (2010) and
Annabelle (2014).
I decided that I was going to create a film magazine to promote the film 'Melinda'. The
layout of my magazine is conventional. As with all magazines, the masthead is one of the
most important features and conventions of the magazine cover, which means that it needs
to be unique and it must be easy for a reader to easily recognise it and distinguish it from

other magazines of this genre. The masthead of my

magazine is Silver Screen and is the boldest and biggest
piece of typography on the cover of my magazine. I
chose my masthead to be in the colour white because
white stands out from the dark colour background and
allows the magazine cover to look professional and
consistent. The importance of my masthead being one
of the main aspects is that it already gives the reader an
idea of what content will be in the magazine, before
reading anything else on the cover. Using Photoshop, I
then manipulated the magazine title by stretching it
across the page, to make it stand out compared to the
rest of the rest of the magazine front cover. By using a
lighter font as my masthead, it meant that that I could
add darker colours to the rest of my page to ensure that
the rest of the page looked sophisticated against the
white masthead. This also conforms to the conventions
of dark colours used within the horror genre. Darker
colours were also used to establish the genre of my film.
My magazine does challenge the colour of the mastheads on other film magazines because
many of them have a darker colour masthead if they have a white background, to ensure
that they attract the audiences attention. The lighting I used when taking the image was
ambient lighting, which I later edited in Photoshop, making the model look brighter in
comparison to the rest of the page. The barcode, main cover lines and anchorage texts have
also been conventionally placed on the magazine to ensure that the target audience get all
the information that they need about the magazine.
The costumes and props that the model is wearing in my
magazine (Silver Screen) are conventional and correlate
with my other two promotional products, the theatrical
film poster and my film trailer. The model in my image is
wearing a white dress with blood on her face. The white
dress that has connotations of innocence and purity is
juxtaposed by the blood that is on her face, which has
connotations of evil and danger. Melindas dress is also
dirty with blood on it, which is conventional of an
antagonist. For example A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003) as
both girls wear white dresses with blood down them,
portraying that they are children, but also that they are
possessed. Direct address is also used as the model looks
directly into the camera, drawing in the audiences

attention. The antagonist featured within my magazine is very conventional. Although I only
have one model, I think that it is more appropriate to have one model and to make the
magazine look professional and consistent, rather than having lots of people and having to
balance the magazine out equally between each person. My magazine is not the only
magazine that features just one person on the front cover. Magazines such as Total Film
and Empire, often only feature one actor on the front cover. The model featured in my
magazine is 17, which is important as the magazine is aimed at people around this age.
More importantly, she is the antagonist within the film. When creating a house style for my
magazine, I researched other magazines to see what they do to stick to a certain style
throughout the whole media product. The house style of my magazine, is very bold and has
capital letters. The colours used were red, black and white. In addition to the house style of
my magazine, the layout of my magazine has a big impact on how my target audience sees
the magazine.
In terms of my film trailer, although we knew that the
quality of our shots played a big role in creating a
professional trailer, we also understood the
importance of editing. Editing can create unsettling
tension and suspense. We created this within our
trailer by allowing the trailer to start at a slow pace
and then allowing the pace to gradually build up
FADE TO BLACK
throughout the trailer, building up tension for the
audience and putting them on the 'edge of their
seats'. For example, the pan of the school at the
beginning of the trailer is very slow whereas, the shot
of the camera moving around Lucy in the woods at
1:50 is a very fast, snappy shot. In addition to this, we
used fade to black to move from one shot to another,
which is used in most horror films. An example of this
is when Lucy is last seen in the school holding the
missing poster (1:17), a fade to black appears and a
new shot of Lucy walking into the wood appears at 1:22. Hand held shots make it very
difficult for the audience to make out what is happening to promote the feeling of terror
and the unknown. An example within our trailer is the long shot which shows Lucy running
away from Melinda in the woods at 1:45. This gives the film a sense of realism. We also used
shots such as close ups, particularly on the protagonist Lucy, to allow the audience to see
her emotions. A close up of Lucys eye is shown at the very end of the trailer 2:33 to create
an enigma and to leave the audience wondering what is going to happen next. Although we
were able to change the speed and cut shots during the editing, we were also able to add
different conventional visual effects to our shots. The mid shots of Melinda in x-ray at 1:33
and night vision 2:12 are obvious examples within my trailer.
Night vision and X-Ray
visual effects within the
trailer.

Music adds tension to a film. There is an audio sequence that is conventional to horror
trailers; it is a long eerie musical build-up. Whenever the audience hears the build-up, they
know that something is about to happen. Within our film trailer, there are two different
piano soundtracks that play. The trailer starts with a slow paced soundtrack to set the scene
and allow the audience to grasp a better understanding of the narrative within the film and
create the mood. This soundtrack is played from 0-1:19 seconds within the trailer. When
Lucy walks into the woods, a faster piano soundtrack starts to play which is louder and more
conventional of a horror movie. As the shots goes on, this piano gets faster and louder to
build up tension for the audience as they are waiting for something to happen.
Furthermore, a non-diagetic heartbeat comes in after the third intertitle "once you see her,
there's no going back" (1:44) this is also a fast heartbeat to show how Lucy is scared and
can't get away from Melinda. We also recorded a voice-over that is played and is
accompanied by the diary entry at the beginning of our trailer, to ensure that the audience
have a clear understanding of the narrative. Furthermore at the end of the trailer, a voiceover of Melinda saying the nursery rhyme a teddy bears picnic is played and is in sync with
the movement of her mouth. Finally, there are many conventional sound effects that we
added later in post-production to link to the shots within the trailer and to exaggerate
particular actions shown on screen. The main sound effect that we added to the trailer is
the loud bang. This is played when Melinda appears behind Lucy in the woods and when a
close-up shot of Melinda is shown at 2:04. These sound effects were vital within the trailer
to contribute to the realism and help to create a particular mood within the trailer.
Finally, my film poster follows the codes and conventions of
other theatrical film posters. The antagonist features on the
front of the poster, which is clear as she has blood on her
face. The antagonist that features on the front of the
magazine is conventional because she is the main character
within the film and this is conventional of any film magazine.
The title of the film is situated underneath the main image on
the film poster to ensure that the image draws in the
audiences attention and the name of the film stands out to
the audience as soon as they see the image. Furthermore,
high key lighting is used on Melindas face to ensure that she
is the main focus of the film poster. The tag line used in the
banner of the film poster, is "they told her not to go into the
woods" this also gives the audience another hint of the
storyline and what to expect from the film.

Overall, my media products use and challenge the conventions of real media products. I
follow most codes and conventions however, I have challenged some to create a sense of

identity to differentiate my products and appeal to the target audience. I challenge real
media products as I don't have any authority in my film. Most films have character that has
higher authority than any other character in a film. For example, a parent has more
authority over a child. Normally in horror films, there a parent that plays a particular role
e.g. the mother of a child within the film. However, I wanted to focus on the main
characters; the antagonist and protagonist within the film to ensure that the teenage target
audience are interested in the film.