1. Kate Sutton

2. Main Product – Film Trailer
 Our main task of a horror film trailer has the aim of enticing a target
audience (of the ages 15+) to want to watch a film that we are
advertising. As well as following and challenging the typical conventions
of horror films and trailers to allow it to put them on edge as an audience
and give them the emotional connection to the characters and fright of the
storyline that they expect to feel and want to gain from the experience.
 One of the ways that we knew what to include to achieve these goals was
not only research into horror films and their trailers, but also conducting
primary research of our own to people from our minimum target age of 15
to around 20 years old. We handed out questionnaires to see what they
expect and want from a horror trailer experience and the sort of storylines
that they would find interesting and in fact, scary. We believe that this
would give us more of an insight into what our potential audience want to
get from us, and us finding this out means that we can give this to them,
also meaning that the effectiveness of our main product is more valid and
increased.

3. Questionnaire:

4.  The questions asked in this
questionnaire link to a prezi that
we made in the research
process of our course work. It
focused on asking the audience
a series of questions about their
likes and dislikes within horror
films, their contribution to
existing ideas that we already
had and gave them the chance
to give constructive criticism to
improve our ideas. It also asked
for their opinion on existing film
trailers so it gives us an idea of
the techniques that seem
popular with our target and
potential audiences, which
helped to give us ideas for style
models to follow.

5. In order to make our trailer effective, we had to follow some of the typical
horror conventions so that the audience could understand the build up and
progression of the trailer. This means including the dark setting for the
mise-en-scene aspect, as this makes the audience focus less on the
character and more on his surroundings; this means that they may be more
likely to jump at the character doing something unpredictable as they
haven't been following his movements in order to expect it.
This makes the trailer effective as it gets the reaction from the audience
that we aim for, and what we would expect from a pre-existing trailer.

6. Concept Areas Contributing to
Overall Effectivness
 The concept areas of mise-en-scene, camera, editing and sound all
form together in order to create the right mode and register for the
style of trailer that we were attempting to produce. This contributes
to how effective the trailer is as it means that it is serving its
purpose to entertain and advertise.
 The mise-en-scene of the trailer has general dark lighting with an
added greyscale over the top to give the effect that all happiness
has been taken away which the audience will interpret by
connotation and denotation that something bad is going to happen.
 The camera includes extreme close up and lose up shots which are
used to get in the characters way and make us feel as an audience
as if we are invading their personal space. This makes it feel
uncomfortable and paranoid, as well as allowing us to show the
characters emotions that may perhaps not be so obvious without
these uses of camera shots.

7.  The concept area of editing enabled us to place the greyscale over
all of the shots to give the impression of a dull, grainy backdrop
which reflects the progressive horror element of the trailer. It also
enables us to add in typical trailer conventions of the use of title
pages. Even though these do not add to the horror progression or
element of the trailer, they make it seem more realistic and
professional as we see them in near enough every horror trailer. It
makes it more effective by making it appear real and it breaks up
the horror aspect and therefore gets a bigger reaction from the
potential audience as it means that they do not know what to expect
from the next sequence of shots.
 Sound plays a really important role in the build up and overall
effectiveness of horror trailers. Even silence (which we have used
in our trailer) gets the audience thinking and puts them on edge as
it adds an unpredictable element within the trailer so they don’t
know what to expect and it is more likely to get a physical and
emotional reaction from them.

8. Ancillary Tasks – Magazine
Cover
 As a part of research for
making my horror issue
magazine cover I looked into a
number of pre existing ones
and noted down the typical
conventions that reoccurred
and used some of these within
my own work.
 I also decided to go with a
colour scheme of black, white
and red as they are all typical
colours emphasised in horror
films and trailers to add to
typical connotations
understood by the audience.
For example: love = red.

9. Conventions of Horror which
add Effect
I used Photoshop to stain and taint the sticker at the top of
the page as a method of making it look relevant to the
theme of horror, as well as giving an insight into the idea of
bloodshed which links to the feature film itself.
The title, also created on Photoshop, is made to
look like dripping blood which is layered over the
images at the bottom. It links to the sticker in the
top right hand corner and also gives away the
theme of the film, as well as including a memorable
title and font for advertising purposes.
Eerie sounding film names are included down the side to
reinforce the fact that it is a horror edition, it shows extra
information that the audience may want to read. This makes the
magazine appear as if there is a lot that people are getting for
their money which makes it even more effect to them.

10. The idea that the consumer can have one of three different film posters unique to
the issue number, as well as specific to the horror edition and feature film makes it
have a USP in comparison to other magazines. As the target audience is
interested in this genre this would give it the upper hand in comparison to others
and therefore make it more effect in not only sales but for the audience themselves
too.
Stating that this is an exclusive, means that it is a one time thing and will not be
appearing in the magazine again. This makes people think more on impulse and
wanting to know more as opposed to thinking that they can read about it later
any way, making the magazine seem more important and interesting./
Advertising the reviews are inside will not only promote the film upon its release
but also make the magazine have another USP as they offer something that
other magazines aren’t likely to, seeing that this one is an exclusive.

11. Ancillary Tasks – Poster
 As a part of some of the
research for my film poster,
(similarly to that of my
magazine cover) I looked at a
number of horror posters and
noted down some of the
typical, reoccurring
conventions.
 This enabled me to see what
works well with advertising
films specifically and they
acted as a sort of style model
for these conventions.
 It also enabled me to see who
was named or
featured/mentioned to make it
more realistic and convincing.

12. Conventions of Horror which
add Effect
The CVI used has been edited in Photoshop to change the hue
and saturation of the original image to make it appear more
relevant to the horror genre. I used a red tone to make the sky
appear eerie and overcast, yet to give hints to the audience
about the content of the film.
I used the same title as shown on the magazine
cover to keep them in conjunction with one
another, as well as making it more memorable to
a potential target audience. This makes them
more likely to recognise the title and want to see
the film upon release to make sense of the title.
The credit roll at the bottom of the page is a
typical convention of film posters which includes
any credits that need to be paid to actors, and
companies involved in the making of the film.

13. The date at the displayed on the poster is so that any potential audience for the
film will know the release date and are more likely to want to go and watch it. This
also means that they know how far in advance they are made aware of the film
which means that they will be more exposed to any future marketing for it and are
more likely to see it more than once. The date specifically adds to the
effectiveness of the poster as the month in which it is release is October – with the
Halloween holiday, and the date is the 13th, linking to the whole aspect of Friday
the 13th and other pre-existing dates and films of a horror content.
The film companies named in the credit roll are displayed at the bottom of the
poster through their use of logo’s. as this was a typical convention that I noticed
on many others I decided to include it to add to the verisimilitude of the poster. It
encourages people to want to watch the film as it appears professional and
realistic, serving its purpose to advertise and therefore making it effective overall.