Evaluation 1

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



Editing - The editing of my tasks was made to fit the genre on purpose so that people would instantly recognise the film as from the horror/thriller genre. For the ancillary tasks, I darkened all of the photos included so that they fir with the monochrome theme I was trying to achieve. This theme was used as a way to keep the colours minimal and dark, while also having a professional effect overall - although most horror magazines use a lot of red, I found that including this would make the quality of the cover decrease. I added smoke effects in the background of the magazine cover to stop the background from just being a solid black and to emphasise the genre as candles/smoke are common in horror films. I made the trees on the poster monochrome so that they blended easier with the solid black used on the bottom half, and blended the edges to give an impression of smoke yet again - keeping the same mise-en-scene as the magazine cover so that the audience would relate them to each other. In the trailer, I used fast-paced editing and fades to black as I found that these were very typical when conducting my research and it automatically makes the audience associate the film with the thriller genre.

Age rating - The age rating of my film is very typical of the genre as most horror films are rated 15 to attract a teenage audience that would relate to the young main characters. The film is rated 15 because it portrays topics such as death and kidnapping in an almost realistic way - which means it can't be a 12 - but is not gorey/psychologically harming enough to be rated 18.

Poster format - The format of my poster is very typical of films in the genre, although I feel as though there's too much on it and it might have been more effective with just Holly and the title because most horror film posters are very minimal with their information. There is a focus on the background and a long-shot of our main character to put emphasis on them and to connote to the audience that they are important to the film. This could be considered typical due to many posters being formatted like this, but could also be seen as different because a lot of posters I saw in my research only focused on either the character or setting, not both. There is a large title as the focus of the bottom half of the poster, which is typical of posters as they are used to make sure the viewer knows what the film is. The title itself is typical of the genre as its vague and makes the audience wonder what the film is about, while also giving them an idea that the film will be a horror due to the use if the word "Shadows".

Settings - The setting of the film are very typical of the genre, as most horror films follow teenagers going about their 'normal' lives before something supernatural happens, but we tried our hardest to make sure we used nothing too clichéd such as a forest or a cemetery. Although we were trying to use setting that weren't too typical, we needed to use a couple of common settings to ensure that the film would be recognised as a thriller, which is why the trees and dark street were used. Holly's house and school were used to give a sense of verisimilitude to the film, as they are places that a typical teenage girl would spend a lot of time at. They are also used to get the audience to relate more to the film, as they would be around Holly's age and would recognise these settings better than an older audience. This is very typical of the genre as almost all horror films are set in a 'relatable' setting in which the audience relate to the characters and wonder what they would do if they were in that situation themselves.

Narrative - The plot of the film is very stereotypical of the genre, but we've tried to mix two common tropes in order to shock the audience. The majority of the film is set around some 'supernatural' being terrorising Holly, which is very typical of horror films and can lead to the film's ending being guessed very easily by the viewer. We are then going to reveal to the audience that the events were actually caused by a jealous friend that's gone too far with his plans. This is also used in a lot of films but we are hoping that the audience would be shocked by this shift in antagonist enough that it makes the plot a bit less typical.

Magazine format - Most magazine covers have the same layout and I've ensured that my magazine is similar to them so that people recognise it instantly as a film magazine. There is a large picture of my film's main character to draw focus to her, even though she isn't a well-known actress that is typically used to sell the magazine. Even though the colours are dulled, I've made sure that she's still the brightest part of the cover so that the viewer pays a lot of attention to her and hopefully recognises her from the trailer or poster. There's also a big title for the magazine - that's been coloured to match how 'In The Shadows' looks - and other new films mentioned, which is what every other film magazine has to grab attention. As mentioned before, the colours aren't bright like most magazines, which isn't typical but fits with the genre of the films featured.

Characters - The characters of our film are very typical of horror films, but could also be recognised as from the teen angst genre too due to their ages. All of the main characters are teenagers that we are portraying as 'average' and relatable, so that our target audience of teenagers would be more likely to see the film. Holly, especially, is aimed at being relatable for a female audience, which isn't typical of the genre as most films are aimed at young males. Although it isn't common in many films to have a female lead, it's more common in horror films but only to sexualise the main character - whereas we aren't using her for that purpose. The antagonist is also very typical as supernatural beings and murderous, jealous friends are used in quite a lot of horror films.

Hashtags/fonts used/colour scheme - All text I used was in a white or grey colour to go with the black backgrounds, so that the audience can read it easier and also so that everything to promote my film looked similar. The fonts used are basic sans-serif to make the film look professional and to also make people associate my three promotional materials with each other, as I used the same couple of fonts for everything. Hashtags are more common in modern films as they allow a younger audience to talk with their friends about it, which is who we are targeting the film at, and would also allow us to monitor the success of our film through how much it's mentioned on social media.

Trailer format - I based the format of my trailer on existing horror trailers, with the pace getting faster along with the music to build tension and ensure that the viewer wants to keep watching until the end. I challenged the typical format by making the trailer seem like a teen angst film to begin with and then changing the style quickly to reveal that the film is a horror instead. This is because our target audience are teenage girls, who typically like teen angst films, and this would make them interested in watching the film by making them curious about what the plot actually is. There are also fades to black used throughout to emphasise the change in pace. I kept the intertitles typical too, with the production company at the beginning and the institutional information/title at the end, but added in an extra shot of Holly when the audience would think the trailer's over to make it different.