Evaluation Question 1

Conventions of a teaser trailer

In our media project as a whole, many different elements conform to the codes and conventions of real media products and stereotypical features. For example throughout our main teaser trailer and ancillary texts we have followed a classic horror colour scheme of red, black and white, which we have included in all three pieces. In our trailer we have conformed to stereotypical horror elements such as including a fast paced montage to create tension and to engage the audience, this is common in horror teaser trailers to entice the audience and make them curious about the film itself. We have also inserted titles into our teaser trailer which subverts conventions of horror trailers, but we thought it would give the audience a wider insight into the plot to gain a better understanding as when teaser trailers are very ambiguous a viewer can get confused or just not care for the story.
From in depth research of sound incorporated into film teaser trailers, we found that common conventions of horror teaser trailers were to include an eerie sound clip to create tension and an atmosphere. We decided to include this in our own teaser trailer and play this clip throughout, we researched different sound clips on SoundCloud and YouTube, found an appropriate clip , downloaded it on to iTunes then proceeded to import it on to iMovie. We also did this for the montage section of our teaser trailer, we sampled a range of clips from YouTube and layered them on iMovie to create a fast- paced tension building piece, reflecting the montage; we conformed to the common convention of using a montage in our teaser trailer. We also conformed to common horror teaser trailer stereotypes by including an authentic element such as a news report and a 911 phone call, by using real footage we felt this made the plot seem more real to the audience which subsequently makes it more interesting.

Conventions of subject/plot – subgenre

One way in which we subverted common horror stereotypes of real media products was that we picked a very taboo subject to focus on; we chose a child haunting her mother and seeking revenge for her murder. Murder of a child is quite an unmentionable subject so we thought this would put an interesting spin on our plot. We chose to use ‘Twisted Pictures’ production company in our teaser trailer, the common connotations of it are scary horror films, as films produced previously by this company include all of the Saw films(2003-2012) and The Tortured(2010). Twisted Pictures are an independent production company and are most well known for producing Saw; we conformed to the expectations of the production company, as our teaser trailer and ancillary texts are of the same genre to films produced by Twisted Pictures previously.

Conventions of poster

With regards to our poster we followed quite a traditional horror layout, horror film posters are usually portrait, and as we had a big main focal point for our poster we decided we would also use this orientation. We placed the typography at the top so it is legible and easy for a viewer to see against the background, the credits are normally a more irrelevant part of the poster which we also found so we put the credits at the bottom of the page in smaller font. By following these stereotypical conventions we found it made the poster look more authentic and professional.
The name we chose for our project is ‘Ultionem’ this is a Latin word which translates to mean revenge; we thought this was a relevant name as names of horror films usually reflect the feelings of the main protagonist or the plot; this ties in with our plot as the theme of our project is revenge on a murdered child’s mother. 

A common convention of horror film names is also to have a one or two word title to make a bigger impact on the audience and make the name more memorable. We also thought having a Latin name would be effective, as it tied in with our original ideas of including a religious element in our plot, as this is a common convention of horror films. This also has evil connotations as from our research we found that horror films that included elements such as murder or possession for example, included a religious spin on the plot; this includes films such as The Devil Inside, The Last Exorcism and The Rite.

Conventions of website

From doing research into existing horror film websites, we found that not all horror films have a website; however the bigger, more successful film’s websites follow stereotypical conventions. This includes elements such as a main picture, name of the film, critic’s reviews, hyperlinks, tabs and the main teaser trailer. We decided, to make our own website look authentic we wanted to follow and conform to this stereotypical convention and include the same elements on our website, as not to over crowd the page and divert from the main elements. We also included the main picture we had been using throughout our project on our poster to keep up continuity in our teaser trailer and ancillary texts, another feature we included on the website; which is a stereotypical convention of any film nowadays, is social networking links such as Twitter, Facebook and Google. This is a really good form of advertising and now the internet has become so wide-spread and avidly used by younger audiences especially, it is a popular form of promotion. From our research we found that more modern horror films have incorporated a more clinical and cold colour scheme by using blues, greens and white, we subverted this convention of horror film colour schemes on the website was by using more traditional gothic typography and including more classic horror colours such as red, white and black.