EVALUATION: QUESTION 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of the Horror Genre?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of the Horror Genre?

In our horror trailer after conducting stock characters research we decided to use common conventions of stock characters in horror films. We used the common stock character of “The Wanderer” using the couple that wanders off from the group to go to the toilets to ‘get off with each other’ and conventional as “The Wanderers” they experience the horror of the killer first and the girl in the toilet dies first which is indicated by her scream.

We also use the conventional character of “The Final Girl”. Although they were all the main characters Bess was shown the most in our trailer to let the audience know she was “the final girl”. We also gave her own long scene at the end which was of one of the scariest parts of our trailer, when she wakes up on the bed batter and bruised.

We also adhered to stereotypes of London youths:

• That they are irresponsible

–         as they break into a school

–         they are smoking and drinking

–         the boy and girl go to get off with each other is the toilets

We used different stock characters of London youths in order for our audience to relate to our characters. We used:

• The average girl (Bess)

Very relatable. The stereotypical young working class English girl. Smokes, drinks. A genuinely nice person, quite attractive but not absolutely gorgeous.

We represented this using mise-en scene, the clothes she wears aren’t very glamorous however, she is wearing patterned leggings and a jacket with fur on it and not plain clothes which shows she is into fashion and is making a fashion statement. The ‘average girl/final girl’ is used in almost every one of the movies I researched. However these films represent her as very plain. In both When a stranger calls and Scream ‘the final/average girl’ both wear jeans and a plain top. However those are American films and we feel that in a UK film it will attract more of an audience if the final girl is wearing leggings as this is what most teenage Londoners wear.

• The Tom boy (Jay)

The girl who wears tracksuits, baggy jeans and boyish clothing, has a lot of attitude and can be quite aggressive.

• The hooded boys (Jack and Louis)

Boys that like to cause trouble, can be quite anti-social, very rebellious and can often find themselves getting in a bit of trouble with the police. In UK society hooded teenagers are stereotypically considered to be the extremes of these things

• The ‘pretty’ boy (Adil)

Not necessarily good-looking, however cares about his appearance alot and is very self-centred and vain.

These are all characters a teenage London audience can relate to and see themselves in, making the trailer scarier as they can see themselves in these characters, but also satisfying a use and gratification that audience often seek:

The audience will use the trailer for ‘Diversion’ to escape from the problems and routine of reality but also socially. Teenagers are extremely social and will talk about our trailer with their peers which will also help advertise our film further, using word of mouth. It will also satisfy the use and gratification of surveillance as it gives information about the movie.

To teens their mobile phone is their everything so I think our scene at the end when the boy is trying to reach for his mobile but it pulled away just as he reaches out is perfectly suited to our audience. The phone symbolises his life and him being dragged away shows that his life is now over. We used a blackberry as is it a very popular phone amongst teenagers of London and we knew our audience would be familiar with this exact phone. We even ensured that the phones red light was flashing, indicating that some was trying to get in contact with him, making it just that little bit more tragic.

Our trailer is set in two places: a park and a school. Our trailer is set in a school which is supposed to be a very safe place, if not one of the most safety places in the world however this is happening, this creates more fear in the audience. 

In our planning you can see that we initially decided that our killer would have a clown mask and was former children’s entertainer. We at first had the idea that he would be a crazy man obsessed with children, toys and games, hence why he breaks into a school.

However we then began to feel that this type of iconography was very cliché and had already been done before therefore would not be scary. Instead we decided to keep it simple stupid by using a hooded man in the hallway. This is very ironic as in today’s world, in London especially its teenagers we associate with hoodies.

Conventionally we used sounds like heartbeats in the beginning of our trailer to help build suspense as heartbeats are often used in film trailers, and the film itself, to show fear.

We also used other types of non-diagetic sound to create suspense. As trailers usually do the beginning of our trailer had soft, slower music with string instruments (such as the violin)to create suspense and make the audience feel anxious. As soon as the characters realise there is someone else in the building the music suddenly changes and becomes very fast paced actiony music to show the conflict, struggle, horror and action of the film.

To adhere to conventions further in terms of Mulvey’s Gaze the screaming in the horror film is done by both the women in the trailer, when the girl is in the toilet cubicle and when the other girl is tied to the bed. However, when the boy is being pulled away at the end there is heavy breathing but he does not scream. Our trailer represents women as defenceless, weak and vulnerable.

The camera movement and framing in the beginning of our trailer give a sexual suggestion adhering to conventions of horror trailers, according to Mulvey’s Gaze.  The camera moves in an upwards movement when showing Bess climbing the wall, following her buttock. 

We also use the ideas of Muvley’s Gaze in a sense that women in our trailer are presented as sexual objects (to an extent) as there is a women tied to a bed, which has some sexual implications.

There is only two pieces of dialogue in our trailer. We felt that dialogue was necessary in a horror trailer and facial expressions, body language and other types of sounds would be more effective.

“What was that?” this dialogue was necessary to help tell the story and make the audience ask this question themselves, building the tension and making them anxious.

“Oh Sh@#!” this dialogue was used to create some humour in our trailer as also it is a horror movie adding some humour to it will make audiences want to watch it even more as it is not just 1 dimensional, but entertaining over all.

Our Narrative structure adheres to Todrov’s Theory of plots and stories. The ginning of our story starts with the equilibrium of teenagers out in the park drinking and smoking, which is probably something normal to them, then the equilibrium carries on until the girl and boy in the toilet hear a noise. That is the disruption. When the guys goes out and sees the killer is the recognition of the disruption and everything else afterwards is the conflict. However because this is a film trailer not the actual film we do not include the resolution because we still want people to go and watch the movie.

We used the long shot of the hooded boy shaking the gate and medium and close-up shots of Bess banging the window to literally show the action of our title ‘OutBreak’ in different ways. When Bess is banging on the window a close-up is used to show the expression of fear and desperation in her facial expression and the fast and persistent banging. Inside where she is it is very dark representing the fear isolation and terror, while outside the window it is light, representing hope and freedom.

We purposely decided not to use any two shot while at the stage of conflict in our trailer to show the isolation and seclusion of our characters to further provoke fear.

We also decided not to very minimal dialogue (this is why we have a story board alone and not a script) because we felt that non-diagetic, other types of sound and images is what creates fear, rather then the characters rambling on. And rather than using loads of images of the killer we decided to show only a shadow and the hand of our killer because looking the trailers we’ve watched like in the trailers for Are you afraid of the dark and When a stranger calls, to make the audience anxious about who the killer is and want to watch the movie to find out.  Other movie trailers I researched like Saw 4 and Final Nightmare on Elms Street do show their killer however these are iconic killers as Saw 4 is part of an extremely popular series of films and Nightmare on Elms Street is a remake of an extremely iconic film. Both killers in these films are already extremely well known so by showing these killers audience will immediately recognise the film and since the films have been successful in the past, will attract pervious lovers of the films.
Our trailer is a great marketing tool as it does all of thee above, satisfies most uses and gratifications, has related characters, settings and mise-en-scene and is extremely entertaining and memorable.