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

The top nine images are stills from our teaser trailer.  The bottom nine are from real, exisiting trailers.

1. Close-ups of the villian/monster are often used. Children are used in horror films to create a disturbing contrast between their stereotypical innocence and the horrific themes used in the films. It is the idea of binary oppositions that imply their opposites. In the case of some horrors children are sometimes cast in the role of a sweet, cute and vulnerable victim who has done nothing wrong. Or an evil and sinister demonic or possessed chracter who plays the part of a the monster/villian which makes the film extremely unnerving and uncomfortable to watch. It seems as though sometimes it is a case of one extreme to the other.

2. Shots taken from further away can be ambiguous as the viwer is unsure as to whether who we can see is good or bad. In the case of an evil character the idea of appearing and lurking in doorways creates elements of suprise and the unexpected arrival of a character can cause jumps. It also brings the idea of being watched and followed.

3. Close-ups of victims allow us to see their facial expressions whether they be ones of pain and/or fright. Gory wounds can be accentuated by using close-ups aswell which is important as gore is one of the key conventions of horror.

4. When characters are unaware that they are being watched or that there is something behind them and the audience can see something that they cannot it creates suspense. We do not know whether the character will notice or if the monster/villian will do anything and so we are left on the egde of our seats and therefore are hooked to the trailer.

5. Extreme close ups are used. Usually of victims because the closeness of the shot allows the audience to feel a connection to the character and therefore are on their side and feel sympathy for them. They also show emotions such as suprise, shock or terror and they can be used to draw attention to small details e.g. to wounds.

6. Horrors set within a familar environment such as a family home are unnerving as they seem less far-fetched. They are more psychologically worrying as the audience could be able to place themselves in the situation of the characters more easily. These screen shots show staircases which are sometimes used in horrors as pychoanalytically they could lead upwards to attics which hold connotations of madness and being upstairs traps people as they cannot easily escape from the building. They can also lead downwards into cellars and basements which are dark and secluded and so connote terror, death and seem very sinister. Hell is also linked to the idea of going down underground.

7. Scenes of horrific and unpleasant deaths are shown to shock the audience. In trailers it creates interest for the film because the audience are curious to find out who has been killed and how it happened. In these pictures someone has been hung.

8. A typical convention in horror films is low key lighting as this creates areas of darkness in which things can hide and so creates suspense. Candles can be used in scenes as they give off some light but also create lots of shadows.

9. Shadows give a creepy and eerie atmosphere as they can distort and change our perception of something or someone. Sometimes it can be unknown as to who the shadows belong to but most of the time we would guess that they belong to evil characters as they appear unexpectantly and it is unclear where the character actually is. Something unknown is unnerving and creepy.

I have used the following conventions of teaser trailers:

- the teaser is just over 1 minute long

- it does not give a specific date for the release of the film but does give a vague one

- the distribution and production company are given but other details such as the actors names are not

- clues are given to the narrative of the film but at the same time not too much is given away and so curiosity and interest is generated