FINAL EVALUATION

Question 1.

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

real media products?

To start my evaluation and inside of this first question I will be comparing our created group

horror trailer with a real one. I will show nine screen frames from real horror film trailers

and nine from our own created horror trailer. I will be going on to explain the similarities

between these showing how they have similar conventions of horror trailers. It will show

how our own created work develops and challenges the forms and conventions of a real

media products which are the screen frames from real horror movie trailers which I will be

showing.

Teaser trailers for films are of such high importance where they are for the marketing of a

film also. The aim and purpose of a teaser trailer is to tease the audience, showing them

very brief footage from the film to give them some idea of what is contained within without

giving anything away except for the genre & title. It teases them which makes them want to

see more footage and then the film when it is eventually released. It makes them excited for

the film to be released and when it is they will instantly go and pay money to go and see it.

This also relates back to how a teaser trailer is very important for marketing a film and

making the film a success to gain a high income. The teaser trailer makes the audience really

want to see the movie and in turn this means spending money so the trailer is a very

important marketing aspect. With a teaser trailer there isn’t really a narrative structure

where audience are only shown brief footage from the film as explained. The trailer really

only gives away the name and the genre of the film and the audience are sometimes

introduced to characters but not all the time. However in a full trailer like our own created

one, the audience are always introduced to the characters in the film and what the

disruption tends to be or what the film is about/based around. Editing within a teaser trailer

is of course very quick. There will be lots of quick cuts of footage as the trailer isn’t very long

and doesn’t want to give away too much. The music in a teaser trailer/sound will also be

very short to last the length of the trailer. In a full trailer again however, cuts tend to be

slightly longer to give away much more about the film and the music/sound will also be

longer to fit in with the trailers length. The music within a teaser trailer tends to fit the

genre of the film very well. It is easier to tell the genre through the music in a teaser trailer.

When creating our horror trailer for ‘Torment’ we had an aim of what we wanted the

audience to identify and understand when watching. We wanted them to mainly identify

the characters of the film as well as the films genre, and nationality. Not only this but we

wanted them to identify some of the narrative as well as the setting and location of the film.

All of this would allow them to understand much more about the movie and make them

want to see it even more. It was important when making a trailer and when we made ours

that we stuck to general conventions of trailers.

It is important that you include conventions like short shots and quick cuts as well as music

and lots of text to become interactive with the audience to ensure that they are excited

about the film and its release. We certainly included this in our own created horror trailer.

The aim of a trailer is usually to tell people when the film is released and for them to identify

themselves whether they like it or not. It is very important that you follow the general

convention of placing the release date on a trailer to prepare the audience. In our own we

have placed ‘coming soon’ at the end which means that overall the trailer would let people

know that the film is going to be released soon. The overall purpose of a trailer is to make

the audience understand what the film is actually about so it is very important that this is

also placed across very well to viewers. It is to make them judge their suitability and comfort

of the movie and to see whether it is right for them.

For our trailer we used one main song throughout. This seemed to work very well within

where the song fitted in. We started to fade the music out in the trailer where the camera is

dropped to floor at the end. This allowed silence inside of the trailer which therefore

created suspicion and more tension within. Looking back on the trailer there are areas

which I would improve considerably for sound. It seems like there aren’t many jumpy

sounds and loud noises in the trailer which I think need to be included to create further

tension and suspense for viewers. We have one jumpy clip at the end with loud sound to

scare spectators however but this is it. There is also lack of dialogue inside of our trailer. The

characters contained don’t talk much at all and overall it seems to be very quiet. The music

layered over the top of the trailer doesn’t make the trailer as quiet of course. There is brief

dialogue when characters shout and laugh. Inside of real horror teaser trailers characters

are shown talking and dialogue is heard despite their being quick cuts and the trailer not

being very long anyway. Comparing this to our own trailer there are differences in dialogue.

Like in real horror trailers our creation has quick cuts and a short length but we have hardly

any dialogue and this is something which I would improve if doing it again.