Our theatrical trailer was from the genre horror, which is
widely known as having a great number of usually unchallenged conventions, such
as darkness, blood and the supernatural. For this reason it is fairly easy to
create a film which can be easily linked to the genre, attracting an already
established audience. We opted to use a villain which is never shown on camera,
therefore giving it a psychological edge. Many horror films such as ‘Paranormal
Activity’ never actually show the ghost/spirit, leaving the audience free to
use their imagination to fill the gap, which will also
allow them to get more
engaged with the plot. We opted to use a female as the ‘victim’ to the demon’s
plans as stereotypically females are the victims in horror films; examples
include ‘The Babadook’, ‘Alien’ and ‘Scream’. In a ‘slasher’ film, which is a
sub-genre of horror, the protagonist is almost always female, this is because
stereotypically females are weak and in need of protection, this representation
follows from films which were directed in a more sexist era. There are many
theories for this; one is down to the ‘male gaze’, which claims that films
often put the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual male, thus seeing
a ‘damsel in distress’ is stereotypically going to resonate with the audience.
This convention was adopted in the making of our film as films often play on
stereotypes whether they are true or not, we wanted to make it obvious our film
was of the horror genre.
Stereotypically
horror films are set in small, isolated areas, dark streets and alleyways, yet
our film primarily takes place in a house and in a school. This highlights how
in this aspect the film strays away from conventions, it is worth noting there
is a small section with ‘Professor Culkin’ laid down in the middle of a road,
this is sticking to conventions as the scenery is dark and the area appears to
be deserted. There are possible
environments which may have improved our film, we considered shooting a scene
of Summer being chased through the woods, however we opted for other clips. We
used a shed as the setting for the scene where Summer finds the book, when we
were planning the film, we hoped to use an abandoned building of some sort so
it would create an eerie tone, however during the filming phase we opted to use
a shed as it was adequate for the purpose. In general having darkness and
ghostly elements is important, and our setting definitely did this so I think it
was effective.
The use of technical codes in the trailer also followed
conventions; the camera was from high and low angles throughout to connote
fear. Furthermore the use of close-ups allowed for the audience to see the fear
on the characters’ faces, primarily Summer. Sounds were used like heartbeat
which is non-diegetic, but also diegetic sounds like the beating of a drum,
this was important in setting the scene and communicating how the characters
felt. The editing was also typical, with a high intensity montage scene at the
end. A piece of editing we included which was uncommon was the part where the
protagonist, Summer, was thinking about the death of her teacher, Professor
Culkin, here, we used an overlay to have the picture be semi-opaque so it was
clear she was thinking of him. This was used more as a narrative tool than a horror
tool though.
The poster for Lacerate generally followed conventions of
other Horror posters, after careful research it became evident that a striking
or edited central image would be vital. In addition to this some text was
required to accompany this, hence “do you dare to decipher” was included, the
movie’s tagline, along with endorsements, all of which featured in the trailer.
At the bottom was the credits, which is typical of all film posters, not just
horror. The use of colours in the in the poster follows conventions, especially
as red resembles blood, whereas the white simply stands out on the background. The
title being the largest piece of text is also conventional, as this is what you
want the audience to remember.
The magazine cover follows the conventions of Empire
magazine, with the masthead being written in the same font across the top, the
date, issue number and price can be found in the curve of the M. The magazine also
has several cover lines which is found in virtually every magazine. Other
components I used are puffs, barcode and a central image. The use of colour doesn’t
particularly
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