Evaluation part 1

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

Throughout researching the genre of horror i found similar links between productions and i have used some of these intertextual references in my production .Too conclude findings i found that horror uses many stereotypical characters such as a stereotype of a 'blonde bimbo' and an 'intelligent brunette', however we slightly twisted these conventions which i will go on too explain later. I found music too be one of the main contributors too a horror film trailer as it helps set and change the mood for the audience between different scenes. Colour is also specifically chosen, white,red and black are the most common colours too be found on posters along with a serif font. Too research all this i used websites such as IMDB, wikipedia and for more detail i typed in specific google searches, i also used YouTube too watch some of the trailers in the initial trailer research.

Representations

For the main protagonist Lucy we mixed up the codes and conventions of her stereotypical character within horror films. As she has brown hair she is stereotypically meant too be intelligent, subtly dressed along with being sensible and quiet.We got the idea from this based on Tammy in Donkey Punch (there is more on this in the casting section of my blog).However with the narrative enigma we wanted in our preferred reading of the production we didn't want too make it obvious that she was such a strong and powerful character.Although Lucy at first is seen as sexually available with wearing a low top, wearing the colour red (this colour is seen to represent sex)and lots of shots of her putting makeup on etc; this challenges forms and conventions of real media products.For our company logo we focused on a red dress, this links in with what Lucy's wearing within the trailer.We also developed forms and conventions of media products by using scenes of her at the bar which show that shes left out, quiet and doesn't get any attention from the opposite sex. In many ways Lucy is a juxtaposition of her female friend character Sophie (who is costumed to be blonde and busty) as when she enters the bar she is centre of attention as well as getting the males attention too. The contrast in the two characters help relate the audience too what genre the film is as film addicts will be aware of common conventions of horror films, it also allows the audience too decide between two characters a 'goody' and 'baddy'. In our trailer we wanted too give the preferred reading that the brown haired main protagonist was the innocent one in the film therefore wanting the audience too side with her until the narrative un-ravels, we created the binary opposition of the two on purpose as in most scenes in the trailer the audience are made too feel sorry for her. By having Lucy as the main protagonist i feel challenges forms and conventions of real media products as its un-common too have a female killer; however Kill Bill have a blonde female killer which develops this even further and contrasts to the 'blonde bimbo' stereotype that horror/thrillers usually include.

For our male character Theo we once again mixed up and challenged forms and conventions of real media products. We based him on a character out of Friday 13th ,(Marcus Nispel 13 February 2009)Clay Miller in Friday 13th is a tall brown haired attractive character who remains the final boy.Theo throughout the trailer and the film also remains alive. Clay is a wholesome family orientated male and is worried about his missing sister and although Theo is seen to be in between three girls in the bar scenes he later on rejects Lucy as he likes someone else therefore showing his loyalties. The idea that Theo is portrayed as a 'player' in the bar scenes and then goes onto contrasting scenes where he says he likes someone else helps with our narrative enigma; not fully giving away all of the characters individual characteristics will draw the audience in too wanting too see the full production.We did challange the forms and conventions of a teaser trailer as i feel we gave away a little too much detail about the narrative and if i was to re-shoot i would take this into account.

We used intertextual links too the famous killing in the film 'physco' where Janet Leighs character gets killed in the shower, the original features 77 different camera angles.Both Janet Leighs and Fran are blonde haired and i feel that this killing had strong links too the one in psycho.

All of our cast have Yorkshire accents and we are fully aware that this aspect of the production does challenge forms and conventions of media products as it may limit our appeal too a wider audience (such as Southerners). If our film was successful it would also struggle too make it internationally however regional films have been successful such as The Fully Monty. If i was too do my production again i would consider loosing the Yorkshire accents or if our budget was bigger i would have trained actors who can professionally control their accents.

All of our cast are also 18 or under, this challenges codes and conventions of real media products as most productions include some older characters,especially within the genre of horror such as family members.We could of included this as it was a young cast, parents may have easily been able too help us out. However the teenage image that we wanted to show by the two girls drinking,scenes of kissing and discussing 'slaggy' clothes would contrast too a teenage life where parents are heavily involved; we therefore found it better too keep it a young cast.It may also appeal too teenagers more as its giving teenagers a sense of Independence and as our target audience was 15-24, we weren't trying too attract audience members in their 40's.With our cast again we have challenged codes and conventions by having a all Caucasian cast, if this was a high budget film that could go internationally we would be loosing a lot of possible audience members. However as its a indie film, with a regional cast it is already limiting possible audiences, if i was too re-shoot my production i would include characters of an ethnic minority too increase its appeal.

Narrative

Todorov's 5-part narrative formula; was that every narrative can be broken down into three basic stages; Equilibrium,dis-equilibrium and new equilibrium.

1) A state of equilibrium - This was included when the teaser trailer involves shots of the two binary opposed girls getting ready for a night out, deciding what too wear etc.

2) A disruption of the equilibrium by some action - The main protagonist cuts herself whilst shaving

3) A recognition that there has been a disruption - The bar scenes shots focus on Lucy's face looking sad that shes sat on her own and no-ones talking too her
4) An attempt to repair the disruption - When the other girls go too the party Lucy and Theo are now alone therefore Lucy is trying too get some attention that she missed out on earlier
5) A reinstatement of the equilibrium- After the three killings the main protagonist returns back too her normal life and she survives through the production, however this isn't apparent in the trailer.

I feel that our narrative is rather unique; referrin too ideas such as cutting the victims out of the picture as I'm un-aware through researching where this has been done before. However some ideas of the narrative such as the girls getting ready to go out and meeting members of the opposite sex can be compared with Donkey Punch. The idea of a strong female killer can also be taken from Urban Legend (Jamie Blanks 1998) when brunette Brenda Bates stays alive until the end and is a female killer, which is un-common in horror films therefore this is another aspect we have challenged.

Soundtrack

Through research i found that music was vital too a good production. The up-beat techno music we used as an intertextual reference too Donkey Punch relates too our youthful target audience.This techno music is a common code and convention of a film that is targeted at a young audience and can be found in many examples not only in the genre of horror but in social realist films such as Adulthood. The first few scenes in the trailer of Scream don't include music, they include limited dialogue therefore we used this convention, however we developed it by adding music when one of the characters puts a CD in the CD player.The Strangers trailer(Bryan Bertino 2008) starts off with high pitched single toned music similar too ours, i feel that we have kept too the codes and conventions of soundtracks within horror films as this kind of music sets the right tone and gives the audience more anchorage for the genre.

We produced a teaser poster and a poster, we decided too do a teaser poster as this is a common marketing campaign which is used too get the title of the film recognised and only very brief details, the poster is then released with the official details such as release dates and this is built from the foundation of knowledge gained when viewing the teaser poster. Through research it was common that most British films don't go through theatrical release and end up being straight- to DVD. This therefore immediately narrows the audience, low budget films also rarely get a front cover page on a magazine article as our production did on our magazine; unless it was especially focused on low budget/indie movies.

We haven't re-used a tagline that we have researched. However we did find a film called ' A thin line between love and hate'.This wasn't influential too our production at all as the narrative was completely different and although it was classed as a thriller, it also fell into the categories of 'comedy' and 'romance.

If the killer is being kept un-known, as we wanted to portray in our production, then they commonly hide by some sort of mask as in Scream and Black Christmas.If i was too do my production again i would develop this convention so the narrative enigma is alot stronger.For example in the scenes of the picture being cut out i would have Lucy wearing gloves so the audience would be un-able too distinguish if it was male or female hands.However we did slightly challenge this idea of the killer by having it as a female opposed too a physically strong and masculine man.