Question 1 -In what ways does your

media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media
products?
Mitch Price

 Genre psychological-horror.
Mise-en-scene dark, saturated shots following the typical
conventions of my chosen genre relating back to this category of film.
Audience positioning from the POV of Jack (central-character) to
make audiences create an attachment to the character.
The character representation of Jack differs from traditional
conventions of psychological/horror films as I have portrayed a
character with psychological problems as male. This is usually found
in a female character, as seen in films such as Chloe (2009), Black
Swan (2010) and Fatal Attraction (1987) all showing mental illness
through the perception of a weaker female character.

I have named my production Unseen as it relates to the obliviousness

of the central-character. Films of my chosen genre tend be named a
title that relates back to this genre.
As my film has themes of mysteriousness within, I decided to choose a
word which relates to this. I chose the adjective unseen as it relates to
being unnoticed, hidden and invisible.

 Through my analytical work in the Research task, I have understood typical

conventions found in the psychological-horror film genre.
I have aimed to follow typical conventions of my chosen genre as a way to attract
main stream audiences to watch the full film after seeing the trailer. If I have used
the conventions similarly found in real life psychological-horror film trailers, such
as creating tension, it will do this.
I have also challenged and developed conventions of this genre as I have featured
my male central-character to have Schizophrenia, which I have understood is
usually only featured female characters. This choice of featuring a vulnerable
male character as the Protagonist challenges Laura Mulveys gaze theory as I
have gone against the traditional expectations of portraying a weak character as a
female.
I have used typical sound effects and sound track which fits the horror genre.
Some of these sound effects are a creaking gate, which I self-recorded and a
bwoong/angry foghorn which creates a plosive and suspense built tone to the
trailer.

Cold and industrialised colours such as brown and dark blue featured. The
only warm colour (yellow) has been used to lead the audience down to
the central-character with the same coloured bag. This establishing,
opening shot connotes to the audience that Jack is the central-character.
As audience are positioned
from the top of the staircase,
Jack is also portrayed initially
as a weak, inferior character.
This also shows that
something/someone may be
overriding or powerful than
him.

I have used this establishing

shot featured in James Bond
Skyfall (2012) as inspiration
in my trailer and have used it
to show the central-character,
Jack, initially to the viewer.
However the camera shot which I
have used juxtaposes the idea that
the audience are being shown the
frame from behind/over the
shoulder of Jack as I have placed
the audience looking down and
slightly to the right of him. This
connotes his imperfection as a
character.

This C/U shot foreshadows

danger and threat as the
frown present on Jacks face
connotes this. The continuity
which I chose to keep
audiences watching Jacks face
(and not the Antagonist), it
positions the audience
successfully on Jacks side.

As a fan of the Taken sequel, I wanted to incorporate my knowledge as

a member of the Taken audience and use a similar shot in my film. I
believe that the close-up style of this methodical shot successfully
emphasises the body
language and facial expression of Liam Neeson in a very
simplistic but powerful way.
As a viewer of this film, this
shot helps the foreshadowing in the film. I have used this
to attempt to create a similar
reaction and foreshadow
for audiences.

I was also inspired by this shot in the Black Swan during the Research
section of my work when analysing trailers of my chosen genre. I
thought that this close-up shot also achieved huge emphasis on the
facial expression of the actress and connoted a negative underlying
theme during this scene.

This shot challenged the idea of dark colours to be used in horror film
trailers. The beautiful, bright colours of the bridge mast pole is juxtaposed
with the dark colour engulfed by the sky. This chase scene montage
created a faster tempo of
editing and also helped
achieve the features of
Todorovs equilibrium theory.

This shot has followed pre-existing conventions of horror films during a

chase scene between a liked character and a disliked character. I was
influenced by the chase scene in Halloween (1978) as I found that the
dark mise-en-scene during the night created an extreme amount of
fear and tension when the female character was being chased.
However, I chose to go against the
convention of showing the Antagonist
in the frame to create realism as I did
not want to portray the anti-hero in
obvious ways. Instead, I showed him be
in a more psychological form such as
when he disappears behind the train.

I have used this P.O.V shot mainly for narrative context in the trailer. Despite this shot being visually
appealing to the viewer through the focused framing of the phone, I featured this shot in my trailer
to allow audience to understand more about the plot. This shot features the iPhone 6 which displays
an incoming call displays an incoming call
from an unknown number. This
foreshadows danger to the audience as an
element of disguise is being added to the
trailer as the audience do not know who is
contacting Jack. As I have positioned the
audience from jacks Point Of View, they
are likely to feel more threatened as they
feel this unknown number is trying to
contact them.

I have used the Point of View shot found

in my trailer to emphasise the prop of
the iPhone 6 displaying the incoming
call from the Unknown number. I have
used Quentin Tarantinos Inglorious
Bastards film technique and feature of
a P.O.V shot to similar emphasise the phone like he did with the knife
which Brad Pitt is holding.
However, this challenges this convention of the P.O.V shot as we are
positioned from the view of the central-character. The audience of my
film trailer are also not exhibited the dangerous character, like those
viewers of Inglorious Bastards.

This shot features a film review which I made in Adobe AfterEffects. I believe that this shot is most
effective as it shows the believed to be Antagonist who has just disappeared from the other side
of an ongoing train. I believe that this
follows the conventions of my chosen
genre as instils confusion and
psychological fear in the audience. This is
because the film trailer has just exhibited
a potentially threatening Antagonist in
the frame before, then showing a train to
pass fast, then an empty frame with no
character within. I have also got ideas of
this technique from many real life
psychological horror films such as The
Shining (1980).

I have challenged the conventions of typical real film trailers that are in the genre of
psychological-horror. I say this because I have found in my research through
analysing trailers, that film review text is traditionally and usually displayed to
audiences in front of a plain screen, rather than a camera shot.
This is normally used to emphasise the text, making it easier for the viewer to read,
however I have chosen to go against this convention in order to allow to elongate
the camera shot that shows the disappeared Antagonist. If I did not feature the film
review text, I would not be able to make the camera shot linger for as long, but I
concluded that I believe that the text
and the shot combined complement
each other well. I have received
numerous feedback praising this
shot.

I used the film label logo which I created as a bridge to link two camera shots together. I
did this because shot 1 shows Jack boarding the train and then shot 2 shows him going
through the ticket barriers at a different station. I have done this because I have
understood from my research that audiences have a
preference for short, concise, informative
trailers, rather than unnecessarily
elongated ones. I have related back to
the psychological genre of the trailer
by creating a strobing/flickering effect
by cutting the length of the logo
duration into different sections, then
adding black frames between.

I believe that the inclusion of the Vision Films and Black house
Productions follow the conventions of real media film trailers. I have
chosen to create and feature my 2 film company logos to create a level
of development and establishment behind the making of the film
trailer.
In real film trailers, such as a Universal film, the bold feature of the
Universal logo and soundtrack would be used as a marketing tool to
connote to audiences that the following
trailer is made by a popular, mainstream
film company. Audiences may then
relate their ideas of previous Universal
films which they have seen and their
expectation of the following trailer.

This stationary shot shows the character walking down the stairs. I have
used this shot to link my trailer and film poster together. This will then
make audiences relate the
trailer which they have see
to the poster, Vis versa.
The action movement seen in
the blurriness in the legs also
connotes a sense that the
character is running away
from something.

I have formed the deictic link between my film

trailer and film poster by using this shot. I have
also ensured to carry forth continuity by using
the same Adobe
Hebrew font text
throughout my
main and auxiliary
texts.

The filming style of this shot connotes to audiences that Jack is being
followed by an unseen
character. This tracking shot
challenges horror
conventions as we are not
always positioned from the
side of the male victim, but
are positioned as bystanders.

The close-up shot focusing in on the text on the laptop computer

screen creates a sense of
normality between the
central-character, Jack, and
the audience. Using the
search engine Google,
viewers may be able to
relate to this easier as
Google is such a normal,
frequently used task in
mainstream life.

I have featured shots of the fake newspaper cover page as a form of

narrative and subtle
understanding for viewers.
This also structures Todorovs
equilibrium theory as it
shows a level of
unsettledness within the
discourse of the plot. This
close-up shot also
emphasises the significance to the murder as it is accompanied by nondiegetic sound of the news report I created.

The preposition of the newspaper prop acts as

visual narrative for audiences. This is shown in
these films which also act as forms of narrative
and understanding for audiences.

I wanted to create a sense of realism within my film trailer which is why

I took advantage of source lighting in many of the scenes. I specifically
picked positions within my shooting locations that helped focus in on
the focus of the frame.
As my film is in the genre of psychological-horror, the conventions of
this genre allow dark lighting to create mystery and suspense. I
therefore used these codes in my work by filming in afternoon/evening
times during Autumn and Winter to create a dark and black theme.

I used the lighting of candles to create an interior and

warm glow in the shot that shows the landline phone
ringing. I did this to make a domestic and homely form
of lighting within the frame.
I used a lampshade to create a glowing form of lighting
to present the newspaper to viewers. This made it seem
like the audience were reading the newspaper inside
away from Jack who is alone and running outside.

I used the artificial, bright, source lighting which runs

throughout the subway which I filmed within. This
created a sharp and saturated tone to the shot.

 When creating my poster, I used the knowledge

which I formed from analysing film posters in
the Research Task. I then applied the conventions
which I noticed to be in posters of my chosen
genre.
I mostly went with these conventions as the
overall theme of the poster will connote to
audiences that it is in the umbrella-genre of
horror.

I used the colour red to shadow and emphasise

the title. I chose this colour after creating an
audience feedback which showed a variety of
colours. I chose this colour as it symbolises
anxiety, horror and grief through the typical
conventions that audiences understand about
horror.

Romance and
psychological

Gore and
violence

Red eyes and

title text
psychological
and gore

Resembles
horror and
blood

Centred image

Language referring to genre

Film production labels

Main actors

Film title

Credits/legalities

I followed the conventions of the layout of

a typical psychological-horror film poster as
a way to connote the genre to define and
specify my target audience.
I have shown beside how I have followed
traditional graphological features such as
text and image.

I featured the production companies in my poster. This follows the

conventions of typical film posters as a way to connote to the viewer
about who produced the film. This will create a layer of expectations
about the film if the individual has seen previous films produced by the
film company.
The feature of these logos also creates a level of authenticity and
realism as the poster would look incomplete without.

The Dark Knight has been produced by Warner Bros. and the other
production companies above. Warner Bros. connotes a high-budget
production as they are the one of the top production companies in the
film industry. DC will attract comic fans as it primarily produces super
hero genre films.
Sony, Dolby and Fox Searchlight Pictures connote a high-level of
development and leadership in the film industry. Fox Searchlight
Pictures is a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, so are a wealthy, recognised
production company. This connotes success and a high-budget
invested into this film.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are recognised American film

production companies by audiences. As the viewer is likely to have
seen a film produced by either of these companies, they are likely to
reference The Hangover back to that film as high-budget and exhibited
to mainstream audiences so therefore easy to watch and high-budget.

Through audience criticism, I have

received feedback which I believe that
has enabled me to create a fuller, more
vibrant magazine cover.
Feedback which I received was to make
the cover look more packed and exciting,
as there were sections of the first draft
cover page that was not occupied by
text.
I also created a continuous red colour
scheme featured in the text. I chose this
as it relates to the pragmatics of the
horror genre and that it complements
the brickwork found in the architecture.
My magazine follows conventions as I
have featured the date of the edition,
barcode, magazine title text, website
and a number of cover lines.
I have also included a free Unseen film
poster to individualise the edition of the
magazine and as a way to entice
audiences to buy a copy.

I used these magazines as inspiration when choosing the colours that I

am going to use in my magazine cover. I thought that the single choice
of colour in the text in these cover pages worked well at creating
continuity in the page but keeping the visual aesthetics of the page. I
decided to similarly do this when creating my magazine.
I chose to use a blood-red colour in the majority
of the text featured throughout the page. I
decided to also used the other colours displayed
in the shade table beside as a way for variation
within the magazine without detracting
attention to the main cover line and creating a
messy colour scheme.

I also decided to use the colour red as my text shade on the magazine cover
as it relates to traditional pragmatics and conventions of the horror genre. I
understand that the colour related to blood and gore similarly relates to
love and passion in the romantic genre, but by featuring jargon such as
Horror, deranged and psycho-thriller, audiences will understand the
genre of my featured film on the cover page.
Despite this, I have also followed other conventions by creating a genrediverse magazine. I have done this as other cover lines on the cover page
relate back to genres such as action (referring to the films James Bond,
Bridge of Spies and Jurassic World) and historical dramas such as Suffragette
and 71. By featuring diverse genres, my magazine will not be limited to one
specific audience, but those of differing preferences to genres but of current
release dates.

Red and silver

relating to the robotic
genre of Terminators

White and Yellow

Blue

the recognised
Avatar shade of
blue

Gold

Creating a royal
prestige to the
magazine

My magazine cover page is similar to the Avatar Total Film issue as

both show a continuous colour scheme.
I have followed the conventions of coordinating a main colour scheme
in the cover page. My magazine shows red and other
pastel colours such as orange (in the brickwork in
the cover image) whereas the Total
Film issue shows white and blue
colours. This is likely to refer back
to the distinct image of Avatar.