In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms & conventions of

real life media products?

EVALUATION PT.1

Section A: How did our horror trailer fit the horror genre?

Our trailer, “Broken Mind” is based on the previous life of a police officer, haunted by something that happened previously in his job, contorting and playing with his mind of whether it was an accident or was it purposely done. As it’s playing with the element of ‘mind-games’, we as a group decided it would be best to make this a psychological horror and add in elements of thriller. However saying this, and completing the trailer there are also hints at including both gore and action elements of horror into the trailer. It pits Olly, our main protagonist fighting what appears to be this fictitious ‘demon’ playing with his mind. Compare this to Thomas Schatz’s ‘Hollywood Genres’ and our trailer fits in rather well. The importance of identifying the genre at even the early seconds is crucial to any particular audience. You’re able to work out whether it’s right or wrong for them, and Schatz’s says under his theory that any lead character should be a male-dominant individual, and that a key plot enigma is that he goes out to fight whatever issue it is that causes a disruption in the equilibrium (Todorov).

Protagonist (Leo) solves the issues through violence, using phallic weapons such as knives and guns to connote both

his weakness of giving in and his overwhelming power.

Section B: How did we get at least 5 horror conventions from horror films into our trailers?

Our trailer, was somewhat influenced by other horror films, both modern and historic in the way it plays on the audience. As our trailer was in fact a hybridised genre of horror, featuring predominantly psychological, but also featuring action & gore, we needed to include a multitude of conventions specific to each sub-genre.

Olly’s character: Leo, was influenced largely on the role of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in the 1960s film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. Both haunted by a previous experience, our character acts almost in a way no person ever would, reacting to events and carrying things out very differently. Our character was also influenced by a paranormal experience, through the use of the shots where Leo is seen drinking his sins away, and taking pills –similar to that of thriller type horrors, most notably Drive Angry where the main protagonist will inflict self-pity on themselves.

From this still of Leo’ lack of control, compared to a scene in Drive Angry where Nicholas Cage’ character loses all control and descends on a rampage, similar to Leo’s breakdown where he loses all control and allows this “psychological” demon into his mind, dictating what is real and what’s fake.

Section C: What makes our trailer distinctive and was it influenced in particular by any auteur directors.

Broken Mind is influenced by two auteur-directors. Firstly, Alfred Hitchock. The master of suspense is fife throughout our trailer, with Leo’ diminishing odds of not letting the demon in becoming less and less likely the further through the trailer we go, and secondly David Cronenberg – the master of body horror. What makes our trailer distinctive is the inclusion of all three main horror genres: Action, Gore and Psychological – making it a hybrid. It’s in particular the gore elements that have Cronenberg’s style on it, they are in your face and explicit in nature. With Alfred Hitchock’s style of the psychological genre included, ontop of the other two sub-genres, we decided to add in elements of Action horror, mainly through the editing style. The fast pace montage sequence help add in where the ‘jump-scares’ would be if our trailer was just solely one genre, and the contrapuntal music goes against all the psychological clips on screen, by creating a tense almost thriller-istic type action film. Finally, we decided it would be best to add a ‘homage’ shot into our trailer, with the final scene in the trailer being Leo’s mouth widening scream that’s of course a graphic match from Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. With it being the final scene, you can leave the audience guessing whether it means that Leo is letting the demon into his mind, or forcing it out.