Evaluation Question 1

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

Following up on the traditional conventions of a teaser trailer, we tried not to reveal the whole story to the target audience, but left enough material within the trailer for the audience to recognise that our media products were of the horror genre. This was all for the sake of creating a buzz around the film; a typical technique used all throughout the film industry to make audiences aware of the film, as well as having them talk about the film up untill the exhibition. The poster was then constructed having in them same character as the one seen clearly at the end of the trailer, this shows the use of synergy, the process by which a media institution tries to use its various products to sell one another. The magazine on the other hand wasn’t made to have a similar look to the teaser trailer and poster; it showed an image of a character that would have been infected later on in the film which would have also had a part to play in synergy when more posters and magazines would be released leading up to that point.

Planning and research towards the production of our teaser trailer was taken care of surprisingly quickly, the group agreed for the sub-genre of our trailer to be about infectious zombie-like creatures. Because such a sub-genre was chosen there were many conventions that we would have liked to have changed, but if we did then we would have no longer kept the original zombie feel to our trailer. While researching the following titles: -

Dawn of the Dead (2004) – Director: Zack Snyder

Night of the Living dead (1990) – Director: Tom Savini

Shaun of the Dead – Director: Edgar Wright

28 Days Later – Director: Danny Boyle

Zombieland – Director: Ruben Fleischer

Land of the Dead – Director: George A. Romero

Resident Evil: Afterlife – Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

We took note that the key conventions that could not be changed were the costume and props. Following these titles it is clearly seen that the costumes the zombies are wearing aren’t anything special but is simply what they would have been wearing before they became a zombie. Since in most, if not all zombie titles the only way for a zombie to pass on the virus is through biting the skin, there was never any need for zombies to carry any props. These conventions were followed in our teaser trailer with the zombie wearing casual clothing and not having any props throughout the trailer, there was also an emphasis on the zombie’s mouth and teeth towards the end of the trailer, which connotes the method it uses to infect others.

Zombieland: Still image of typical zombie clothing

As seen in most zombie movies, it’s the zombies that are either chasing the humans in the open, or are hiding in the shadows ready to catch the humans off guard. Examples of this are within the following movies:

Zombieland

Night of the living dead (1990)

This was a big convention that we partially followed, but then again we developed it so that we would be able to challenge it, and while challenging this convention we also used it as a display to show the originality in our teaser trailer. So in our teaser trailer we made it so that this time there are humans that have control over their situation in this outbreak, if only a little. The way in which we achieved this was through the use of de saturation and noise. This gave the footage a kind of look that seems as if someone else was watching from behind a security camera, a convention that we have yet to find within not only a zombie horror trailer, but also any zombie horror movie.

(Adding noise to the shot gives a bad camera effect, showing a pixelated image. The de saturation effect takes away the colour in the shot, leaving a kind of greyscale.)

The use of editing within our teaser trailer was kept very traditional, following the forms and conventions of more successful titles; there were mostly quick cuts so that too much of the story doesn’t get revealed. There were limited transitions, which occurred when a shot faded out and then faded back into a shot of the zombie, but this was the limit as we felt that since it’s only a teaser trailer, too much would be released with the application of too many transactions. The shots that needed to be filmed in the day time went quite well, but there were a couple problems regarding the shots that needed to be filmed in low key light, since we couldn’t get the lighting exactly right at most angles, but this was overcome by not allowing the zombie’s face to be seen until towards the end, this gave the same effect that we were initially looking for as we do not truly see what is lurking in the shadows till the end of the trailer.

The teaser trailer setting occurs in a rundown building where the infected zombies are lurking; a zombie is seen bending down over someone and soon after a hand covered with blood is seen, which leads the audience to think that the person on the floor must have been slaughtered. The clear shots are what are going on in real time, while the shots that were made to look like a security camera showed what happened before the shots in real time. In my opinion this challenges the convention of just randomly putting together pieces of the movie to form a trailer, it seems that this is done with some trailers:

Looking at our poster it follows the typical conventions of a wide variety of horror posters, having a single character as the main, and in most cases the only focus of the movie poster. This has been seen within many horror movies such as: The Collector, Friday 13^th, Orphan and Saw 5. The character on the front cover is most likely always the one that plays the biggest part within the movie, the photos used for each of the posters all follow the convention of having the main character on the poster although they vary as they were taken from different angles. We also followed the style of these posters by keeping the photo as simple as possible, Friday 13^th not so much as there are effects that have been added to the background, but the rest of the posters all follow the convention. As well as keeping the movie poster as simple as possible, I found it just as important for the text to fit in with the photo along with the theme of the trailer, be it zombies, slasher, psychological or splatter. Friday 13^th as a slasher has a red times new roman font, which gives a sharp and defined look to the poster, the title being that shade almost seems as if it’s the same colour of blood.

The lighting on the ‘Orphan’ and ’Saw 5’ posters above are more or less spread across the photos while the lighting on the ‘Friday 13^th’ and ’The Collector’ posters is light at some parts and has low key lighting for the most parts. This is a convention that we followed as we also kept the bottom half of our posters lighting low key. This style of lighting gives an emphasis on the head of the character where the scars and eyes can be seen more clearly, challenging the conventions of other posters that only show a standard image of their main character. We developed the convention to give greater interest to the audience, as the light of the props in the background was reduced and left just visible enough to see that they are there.

As much as we would have liked to have developed our own conventions, we didn’t feel that there was much we could do. The poster is a vital part of our products, more important than the teaser trailer, if not just as important since it’s what the audience would see first before even going online to view the trailer. The audience would usually view the poster in various places that would easily catch their attention such as: billboards, buses, and also in cinemas on the walls saying ‘coming soon’. If the poster is not appealing enough to the audience, then people wouldn’t even think to go online to find and view our teaser trailer.

Overall when making a horror poster I don’t think the typical conventions should be challenged; it will vary for other genres such as action, comedy etc. But in my opinion the simplicity of the poster while keeping the mystery of the horror is what truly attracts an audience to such a poster without them actually thinking about it.

Our magazine came out very different compared to our poster, challenging the convention of the magazine advertising the movie showing something similar to what the audience already would have seen. The photo used for the magazine shows an image of what another character would have looked like further on in the film, had it actually have been produced. This would leave the audience in even more suspense as they may wonder if it is a totally different film altogether. This would encourage people to talk about the poster and the magazine almost in different ways as if they were different movies creating a ‘buzz’ around the movie. This would then lead the audience that show greater interest to go and research the movie which will lead them to finding the teaser trailer on youtube.