Evaluation part 1In what ways does your media product use developed or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?

By Dayna Pendergast.

Section A

My trailer is called Ring Rosie and I would say that one of our biggest horror conventions is body horror. Because our horror trailer is about zombies we thought we would defiantly need somebody horror to attract the right audience to fit with our film. Just like Thomas Schatz talked about how the genre sells the movie to the audience of fans. He goes on to talk about how the horror genre conventions help people to understand and what to expect in a horror film.

We used liquid latex and red blood and tissue to create a flesh ripping effect. We used the neck as a prime place just like in the scene at the beginning of Dawn of the Dead (2004), when Ana’s husband is bitten.

Ring Rosie

Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

We also used archetypes with the final girl idea. The “final girl” in our horror trailer was strong tough and brunette. Even though our final girl was brunette there are a few final females that are blonde, for example Kill Bill, which adds to the surprise factor for the audience.

Ring Rosie Kill Bill

For our music we went with parallel as we wanted to create an intense feel. And not have contrapuntal as it may make the trailer look like a horror comedy. For example like Shaun of the Dead.

https://youtu.be/W4tVH7BPb-Q

We also used the mise-en-scene of props and genre with an axe and a gun. As it was a zombie movie they needed things to protect themselves with and to create some damage. We had an equal balance with the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. For example screams and a dramatic soundtrack were put over the top of the clips however the running and rustling noises were captured during filming.

Section B Whilst reviewing trailers in class we

thought it was crucial to get the intertitles right. This is because we felt that they were needed to create an understanding and fit in with the trailer without making it look messy. The font style we used was taken from Dafont resembled intertwined twigs because a lot of our trailer is set in the woods. It also created suspense by adding those deadly pauses.

We used collision cutting to create suspense with pacing. We started of the trailer as slow and then got faster towards the end finishing off with a jump scare however the jump scare was only a sound of a gunshot. The slow build up created tension.

The copyright free, parallel music of the “Ring Rosie” theme linked with the concept that everyone is getting killed off because of a deadly Plague. In our trailer was represented as the zombies that was spreading the zombie virus. The music created the suspense as it got quicker towards the end when all the zombies were closing in.

Also in that scene we used handheld shots to create the feel of panic as Rosie is surrounded by zombies and has no idea of what to do or where to go.

A major influence on our film was Dead Snow, because this also has the right amount of shots of zombies to people and the pace quickens towards the end when the zombies are awakened.

Hand appearing from the snow in Dead Snow.

Hand appearing from grave in Ring Rosie.

Section c

Andrew Sarris was the leading critic behind the auteur theory, which he wrote about in his essay “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962.” He said how film directors turned film into a style and an art. The “auteur” that I brought into it would be George A Romero. He created a lot of zombie films and challenged racism in Dawn of the Dead (1979) because Peter is a black hero. Instead of looking at racism we went with the idea of feminism with Rosie as the heroine.

The types of body horror scenes that George A Romero can also be seen in Ring Rosie. We included looks of flesh biting scenes.

The feminism is also a distinctive thing in our horror trailer, the fact that we changed the archetypes and had a female “final girl” and got rid of having a male hero. This then changes the stereotype and shows that girls can fight and be strong and survive a zombie apocalypse.

In terms of a sub-genre I would say Ring Rosie is classed as an action horror as running away from and fighting zombies is where the action comes from. This is similar to the Resident Evil films.

Tom Savini was a huge influence for our makeup art as he was the makeup artist for Day of the Dead. He worked alongside George A Romero who was our primary “auteur” influence.

I would say that our horror trailer did reflect its historical context from now. Not so long ago we had the Ebola virus going around which everyone in the world was worrying about as it was spreading from country to country. Things to do with zombies is very popular in our historical context, as we can see from the praise that has come from the TV series The Walking Dead.