In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our trailer maintained most conventions found in slasher horrors. However our trailer does not feature a voice over as in many Horror films, when I looked into existing horror trailers like Paranoid
(http://youtubevideos.me/index.php/1010110A/e69f547213b6454890c0444595aaa0bb038fa0db1023c963371bfb08097dfb86a290c0ec8c3c5aab17408)
where there is a voice over, I found that the use of the voice takes away the verisimilitude and detracts from the stark imagery. I did however put in computer graphic style text through out the trailer to keep the viewer engaged and tie in with the theme of the slasher Horror. The use of text was useful in setting the tone and indicating where the disturbed virtual reality meets reality, specifically towards the end the words “Error Connection Lost” reflects the slashers loss of connection to the real world.
I decided to keep the moment of attack or any gory details, as well as narrative out of the trailer to keep an element of mystery and to “tease the viewer. This is a conventional method of horror trailers so it gets the title out and gets people interested in the forthcoming film with out giving anything away. “Less is more” is often true, the scare factor is heightened when the threat is ambiguous. It is an effective technique for a teaser trailer like this one.
The Poster accompanying this film follows along the conventional lines of most slasher promotional material, a strong use of dark imergary along with a red filter and menacing text. This has a strong impact and is recognized as a horror film instantly.
The Magazine cover had much of the same conventions as the Poster, stark image and bold text. The Magazine title and font itself was based on other film magazines out at the moment, from Fangoria to Empire. The playful title Spooktacular is approachable but obviously relating to the horror genre. The Bold use of text and layout were arranged to fit well with the main picture.
