In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Braeden Forest trailer

Click to view annotations of the images. 



















 I will also mention and discuss other horror/trailer conventions here:

• Cinematography
• Eyes of evil (bottom right)
• Music and SFX (top right)

Cinematography

Horror films are known for their use of disorientating camera angles, close shot distances and in some cases, full use of hand-held, POV shooting. We have tried to use these methods to imitate what a real horror film would be filmed like. As we shot our footage in point-of-view, setting up shots with canted angles and extreme close ups was difficult to do. A few examples of shots that show these however are the foot-stamp and the long running scene. The foot-stamp shot was one that we really planned on how it would look, so achieving the canted angle was a goal complete. The only examples of any kind of extreme close-up is of the protagonist Jake as he's crying. This is reminiscent of Blair Witch Project, so it was our aim to have it filmed this way. We only identify with Jake as he is the one either holding the camera or being filmed mostly, so empathise with him. The running scenes were also horror-like in the way that we don't see who the character is or what they are running from and there is lots of motion blur, adding to the sense of panic.

Eyes of evil

Shots of eyes are abundant in horror films, and are often shown in horror trailers. The saying "eyes are windows into the soul" is a good quote when thinking of the audience's fear and unease of eyes. When eyes are showed for scary effect in horrors they are usually deformed/changed in some way or looking directly at the camera (or a combination of the two). Eyes that are changed connotes a changed person. Black or red eyes are often the colour used for these changed eyes - both connoting blood and death, so reflects the monster/person's personality. There is an innate fear of change that we express when something looks grotesquely different from the norm. When eyes look directly at the audience through the screen the diegesis is broken and the audience feels like they are being watched. This technique was used in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning trailer, and with the frames-within-frames composition of the shot, we feel uncomfortable being looked at in that way.



See 1:23 mins for this shot.

Music and SFX

Sounds are often used in film to highten the effect the visuals have on the audience. Trailers often have the most unique, inventive ways if creating tension within the scenes of trailers, and this is largely due to the sound used. Music is used in horror in a way that allows the viewer to relax and very gradually build tension. This is usually done with a melancholic sound being played on strings - very low in the mix, which builds up to become louder, faster paced and often has a single note being drawn out for a long period of time (like the screeching sound in our trailer). Sound effects on the other hand are usually put in during important moments of sudden shock, like the foot stomping or the eye opening in our trailer. The sound used is often just a loud impact or crashing sound, very high in the mix, followed by silence - a mixture very useful for creating tension then letting the audience hear their own heartbeat.