EVALUATION- QUESTION 1

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

By Ella Ash

Research & Planning

Trailer

Poster

Magazine Cover

Overview

RESEARCH & PLANNING

In the research and planning stages for my A2 coursework, I had to first and foremost watch and analyse existing horror trailers, in the sub-genre of zombie horror in particular. I watched ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘The Dead’ both of which were very different zombie horrors to each other, except shared many conventions. These included a dark colour scheme with eerie tones, excessive use of props and costumes to make the zombies appear realistic, tension building music and an array of sound effects including zombie groans and gun shots etc. Therefore, when creating my trailer I knew I wanted to conform to as many genre conventions as I could so my trailer would be understood and a clear target audience could be identified. As well as looking at trailers for my research & planning, I also began looking at some examples of posters that went with the films and analysed their conventions so I could get an idea of what I wanted my poster to look like and whether I wanted it to conform to conventions or not, which it did but only to some extent. Then finally I looked at some film magazine covers and analysed their layouts and conventions similarly to build a flat plan for my cover.

TRAILER- A VISUAL COMPARISON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=507BIqWpmOA

‘Contagion’ teaser trailer (our trailer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMhrWPkkpjM

WALKING DEAD TEASER TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Ge6Op2mAk

WALKING DEAD FULL LENGTH TRAILER

I didn’t look at the Walking Dead trailer for initial inspiration, however it can be used to as a visual comparison in evaluation with the trailer we created. Firstly, in terms of the Walking Dead teaser trailer, we used a zombie epidemic news report overlaid over the top of our trailer when Megan’s driving in the car to set the scene, and give the reader an indication of the genre and what’s going to happen. In the Walking Dead trailer this is used for the same effect and we made sure we included it in our trailer as a convention, as it Is really effective in setting the scene and portraying the genre to the audience. The WD trailer also used no other dialogue apart from the radio broadcast, which we did in our trailer as I think it has more of an impact with less dialogue and more action. However, this trailer wasn’t very action packed and was very short (just under 30 seconds), therefore we challenged this and made our teaser trailer a minute in length, so we could play the car crash scene out and the scenes of Megan being dazed and confused when she awakes and the sees a zombie approaching her, and the burst into action for the last 30 seconds or so for dramatic effect. A lot of the trailers I researched, including the zombie horrors tended to build up tension and make the audience anxious during the beginning then gradually built up to the action and actual horror where there was then a lack of, or no dialogue at all and an increase in dramatic music for dramatic effect. We used this effect in our trailer and also used visual credits between clips such as ‘It’s Everywhere you go’ as in the contagion, to break up the clips and introduce the action/ chase scenes. I feel this was effective as it gives the audience and opportunity to be active viewers and think about what’s going to happen next, and by also ending our trailer on a kind of cliff hanger, this leaves the audience with something to think about and also is intended to make them want to see more, which is the purpose of a trailer, so they will go and see the film when it’s released.

Similar to this trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJVdqZww9aE The Dead Trailer, the very beginning is calm and the protagonist is walking through a desert weary and confused, and the camera effects and editing of motion blurs and slow motion illustrate this to the audience. He sees a zombie approaching him; perhaps it could be a mirage? This was the kind of effect we wanted to create when Megan wakes up from her unconscious state after the car crash to see a zombie. Overall, I think our trailer largely conforms to the key elements of zombie horror trailers, being:• Excessive props and costumes e.g. ripped clothing, weaponry and fake blood• A variety of urban locations • A variety of shot types e.g. tracking shots to create empathy and action• Transition from calm to action (suspense)• Lack of dialogue • Tension-building music• Cliff hanger

However, to some extent our trailer deviates away from the norms and conventions, for example, in most horrors or zombie horrors e.g. Night of the Living the Dead, the female characters are weak and act as the ‘damsel in distress’ figure and ends up the ‘last girl’, however in our trailer the protagonist is a female character, who takes the initiative and is depicted as strong and brave throughout the trailer and not needing a males help, therefore our trailer challenges this. Also, we used CCTV footage in our trailer and as a theme across my texts. The inspiration from this came from Big Brothers ‘Dead Set’ which is a zombie based programme. CCTV is used extensively and helps to create the feeling that the zombies are everywhere. We developed this and wanted to create the feeling for the audience that the contagion was in fact everywhere and there was no escaping, even via the authorities i.e. CCTV. Our trailer is also original in the fact that it is based on various characters individual stories, with their paths crossing at the very end of the film. This is challenging the narratives of most zombie horrors as the survivors usually meet early on and form a defensive group against the zombies and survive as a whole, however throughout our trailer and film (if there was going to be a film), this doesn’t happen, and this also acts as one of our unique selling points.

POSTER- A VISUAL COMPARISON

When creating my poster, I had looked at many examples of real posters for both general horror and zombie horror, and found many ideas I could use for mine. I wanted to continue the theme of CCTV surveillance footage and I thought this was effective and could be used as another USP. Therefore, I used this as the main element for my film poster. In comparison with another existing poster for the hit film ‘ZombieLand’, my poster is very different. However, there are some elements that are similar. Firstly the use of dark tones and a dark, rustic colour scheme is similar within both posters as it relates closely to the genre and gives the poster a dystopic feel. I feel this colour scheme works effectively as it doesn’t make the poster appear to busy and isn’t too much for the viewer to take in, which is also why I included minimal text. The mise-en-scene is also similar in my poster and the ‘Zombieland’ poster. For example, the use of pylons in an abandoned field and then the rubbish tip in the background on the ‘Zombieland’ poster, are both urban locations and are both locations conventional of the genre. They also create that dystopic feel which is effective. My poster does conform however to the general conventions of any movie poster:• Large, bold title• Credit block • Film company logos• Release date• Tagline/ slogan

I decided to use the font ‘Scorched Earth’ for my title on my poster as it has a run down look to it like the world would be in a zombie apocalypse. I also used our slogan which I created; ‘It’s Everywhere you go’ underneath this, with the release date below so it’s clearly visible by viewers and is the second thing they look at after the image, which is the main focal point. I also think the images I used relate well to our narrative and go hand in hand with the slogan, as the pylons are what connect everyone, as do TVs to relate news and information, therefore by using these it represents the contagion being everywhere, The CCTV of course represents this too. The pylons are even more effective too as the TV set is positioned perfectly in-between the two, which naturally draws the viewers attention to the main focal point, being the CCTV monitor/ TV set.

Overall, I think my poster generally challenges the forms and conventions of real film posters, as it is visually ‘different’ with the use of more than one main image, doesn’t show any characters like the ‘Zombieland’ poster and is also landscape in its form, rather than portrait, which in itself is unusual, but I feel it works well with the image I chose.

I also looked at this poster in the research and planning stages of the project, which also led to me to definitely decide to make the surveillance footage a running theme of the film and promotional package I was creating. This poster is one whole image however, but I decided I wanted to use four images to make up a CCTV monitor, and wanted to have some scenery on the poster as well. As you can see, this poster contains the conventions that make up CCTV footage including scan lines, a green tint (I chose the traditional black and white however), the recording icon and the grainy effect. When editing my images I made sure that they contained all of these conventional elements too, to make it effective and realistic.

MAGAZINE COVER- A VISUAL COMPARISON

Taglines

Masthead, issue number and

website

Puff & Plug

Film title/ main feature logo

Barcode

Extra info/ other articles

Main image

When planning my magazine cover I looked for ‘Total Film’ magazine front covers for inspiration and ideas on form and layout. I particularly liked the cover sporting ‘New moon- Twilight’ as shown on the previous slide. Despite it not being a horror film on the cover, I still wanted to use it for inspiration as I liked the layout. The previous slide shows the conventions both my magazine and my style model shared. However I added some extra conventions such as a bottom banner with extra information that can be found inside in the form of buzzwords e.g. ‘Interviews’. The use of buzzwords is common in magazine design anyway and are effective to draw the reader in and as a marketing tool to make them want to pick up the magazine and buy it. Most magazines use a three colour scheme of three colours for text etc that run as a theme on the front cover and throughout that issue, and work as a good contrast with the main image/ masthead. However, I challenged this and worked with four main colours; black, white, red and green. In my first drafts of my magazine cover I didn’t use green, but felt that there was something lacking so added another colour, which matched the scheme and was a good contrast with the background. Most magazines also have their own font which is used throughout the magazine. I followed this unwritten rule and chose the font ‘Press Feeling Eroded’. I chose this as it was the font we used for our trailer and I needed some consistency, so all of my three texts worked together, therefore by using this font I created consistency. However, although I mainly used ‘Press Feeling Eroded’ when it came to writing the main headline, it wasn’t entirely readable so I alternated each line from the simple Helvetia font which the real ‘Total Film’ magazine tends to use, and my chosen font so it was clearer for the reader. However, I think this created an interesting effect as it makes it visually interesting for the reader and helps to break up the text so it’s easier to read and grabs the readers eye. Also, as this was the ‘horror edition’, all of the headlines and subheadings are relating to horror, some to Contagion. In keeping with my style model, I also used the effect of a drop shadow and outer blur on the masthead to make it appear to be glowing, which makes it stand out and relates to the genre. I chose for it to be white so it stands out clearly and contrasts nicely with the background image, more so than black would have, which I was originally going to use.

Also the title of main story is written in the stylised font of the film and helps the linking of the film through different medias. I also used this font on my poster, therefore there’s consistency between my three media texts and it’s clear they come together as a promotional package. I also included a convention of magazine covers, being a puff & plug, in my case of my poster. Again this shows the linking of all my three texts, and also works to intrigue the reader and make them want to buy the magazine as they get an ‘exclusive’ poster of the new film contagion, which they wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. I also added a drop shadow to this to make it stand out on the page. When choosing my main image for my magazine, I wanted one like the one on my style model that shows actual characters from the film, particularly a zombie or two. I hadn’t any appropriate images therefore screenshotted the end scene of my trailer of two zombies attacking a survivor. I edited the image before placing it on the cover by changing the hue & saturation so it wasn’t as bright, and adding a slight motion blur to create the effect of action, and to also emphasise the zombies faces which aren’t blurred. Also by using an image from the dramatic, cliff-hanger scene in my trailer, this helps the audience to associate the cover straight away and remember that as being a key scene in the trailer. I feel that the text also fits really well around the main image as the zombies faces are visible and would be the first thing the reader would see if they picked the magazine up in a shop. Overall, I’m pleased with the outcome of my magazine cover design, poster and trailer and feel they all work well together, which was the aim. I think that all of my three texts use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products in some way or another, and I think the balance of this is good, as I have created some original, different products that I’m pleased with.