Evaluation
Before making my trailer, I researched a lot into multiple horror films and trailers, to see if there was any ways in which I could make my own trailer better. The three that influenced my product the most were; The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield. The reasons to why I chose these three were because these styles of horror films were what wanted to emulate into my own. The handheld horror/thriller is very popular right now as evidenced from Cloverfield and REC which is why I felt this would be the best genre for my trailer.
In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
My media trailer "The Possessed" fits into the stereotypical generic horror conventions through its use of cinematography, we chose to stick to one clear generic theme to aim at our target audience. Thomas Schatz’s theory on the power of generic convention in selling a film (from Hollywood Genres 1981) helped us decide this
because as filmmakers we then knew what exactly was required to appeal to our target audience.
Our trailer fits the conventions of a handheld horror/thriller trailer as we have included the necessary features you would expect to see. These include; the creepy location; ( when the group are in the woods at night all alone, and when myself and Jordan gone down the stairs of the house ), low key lighting; ( once again in the abandoned basement as there are no lights therefore the only lights to be seen is the flash light ), and the Psycho Killer; ( which is the possessed who tries to attack myself at the end of the trailer.
The whole trailer is shot using a handheld camera this builds tension and suspense, as it creates an illusion to the audience that they are really there. The use of close ups and extreme close ups add an uncomfortable mood to the trailer as the audience are able to see the fear on the face of the main characters, also it is the way in which we created the scariest part of the trailer by showing Elliot leaping towards the camera. The final end close that is created shows his distorted and possessed face, and all the wounds and scratches on it. Editing was important too, the inter title screens break up the shots and adding sound effects help to build the suspense and make the audience jump when they are least expecting it. All these techniques are shown right at the end of the trailer when Elliot jumps out, the mixture of psycho killer, handheld camera, point of view shot, collision cutting and low key lighting all work together to back up that the genre theory does work.
Our trailer was hugely influenced by The Blair Witch Project as it was such a successful film we was greatly inspired from this and hoped to emulate its success with our own trailer ‘The Possessed’. We liked the way this was a different genre style that worked well and seemed to be very popular with horror/thriller fans. It relied more on restricted narration than gore. We tried to re-create the style of The Blair Witch Project within our trailer by using the generic conventions they used, psycho killer, creepy locations, handheld camera, point of view shots, close ups, extreme close ups, collision cutting and low key lighting.
My main auteur influence which we wanted to bring to our trailer was Alfred Hitchcock due to his clever use of montage techniques and the way he creates and builds up suspense through his editing. Also I appreciated the way Hitchcock uses restricted narration to make you imagine what is happening without using body horror itself, and by using restricted narration rather than body horror we could keep The Possessed to a 15 certificate, and reach out to a larger audience.
Before making my trailer, I researched a lot into multiple horror films and trailers, to see if there was any ways in which I could make my own trailer better. The three that influenced my product the most were; The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield. The reasons to why I chose these three were because these styles of horror films were what wanted to emulate into my own. The handheld horror/thriller is very popular right now as evidenced from Cloverfield and REC which is why I felt this would be the best genre for my trailer.
In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
My media trailer "The Possessed" fits into the stereotypical generic horror conventions through its use of cinematography, we chose to stick to one clear generic theme to aim at our target audience. Thomas Schatz’s theory on the power of generic convention in selling a film (from Hollywood Genres 1981) helped us decide this
because as filmmakers we then knew what exactly was required to appeal to our target audience.Our trailer fits the conventions of a handheld horror/thriller trailer as we have included the necessary features you would expect to see. These include; the creepy location; ( when the group are in the woods at night all alone, and when myself and Jordan gone down the stairs of the house ), low key lighting; ( once again in the abandoned basement as there are no lights therefore the only lights to be seen is the flash light ), and the Psycho Killer; ( which is the possessed who tries to attack myself at the end of the trailer.
The whole trailer is shot using a handheld camera this builds tension and suspense, as it creates an illusion to the audience that they are really there. The use of close ups and extreme close ups add an uncomfortable mood to the trailer as the audience are able to see the fear on the face of the main characters, also it is the way in which we created the scariest part of the trailer by showing Elliot leaping towards the camera. The final end close that is created shows his distorted and possessed face, and all the wounds and scratches on it. Editing was important too, the inter title screens break up the shots and adding sound effects help to build the suspense and make the audience jump when they are least expecting it. All these techniques are shown right at the end of the trailer when Elliot jumps out, the mixture of psycho killer, handheld camera, point of view shot, collision cutting and low key lighting all work together to back up that the genre theory does work.
Our trailer was hugely influenced by The Blair Witch Project as it was such a successful film we was greatly inspired from this and hoped to emulate its success with our own trailer ‘The Possessed’. We liked the way this was a different genre style that worked well and seemed to be very popular with horror/thriller fans. It relied more on restricted narration than gore. We tried to re-create the style of The Blair Witch Project within our trailer by using the generic conventions they used, psycho killer, creepy locations, handheld camera, point of view shots, close ups, extreme close ups, collision cutting and low key lighting.
My main auteur influence which we wanted to bring to our trailer was Alfred Hitchcock due to his clever use of montage techniques and the way he creates and builds up suspense through his editing. Also I appreciated the way Hitchcock uses restricted narration to make you imagine what is happening without using body horror itself, and by using restricted narration rather than body horror we could keep The Possessed to a 15 certificate, and reach out to a larger audience.
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