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

All films contain formulaic codes and conventions that help the audience understand their genre. Over a period of time, films have combined their codes and conventions which generate sub-genres, and one of these sub-genres is the slasher genre.  An example of one of the first films that have used the codes and conventions of a traditional slasher film is Halloween. Many films today have used the traditional slasher codes and coventions within horror films, however some slightly challenge conventions and tried to develop them to entertain their audiences, although they still maintain elements of traditional conventions so the audience are still able to recognise the genre. For my film, I have also used traditional codes and convention with slight challenges, and this was to suit my target audience’s needs.

 

Trailer – 

Slasher films are codified with certain codes and conventions in order to recognise the genre. There is usually a psychopathic killer who is usually seen as male, however we have challenged this convention and made our villain a female. We primarily did this due to the fact it suited our narrative better, and majority of our responses from our research were shown from a female’s perspective. However, by covering the villain’s face, a convention usually seen in the form of a ‘mask’, we have still kept this convention by keeping our villains identity hidden by using the characters hair to cover her face, which is a replacement of the mask. We have therefore made an intertexual reference to The Ring, and we are therefore using the success of this film to benefit our own film, which will help boost the popularity of our film. Throughout our trailer we have also kept to traditional conventions by not revealing the villain’s identity, and this can be seen by us shooting shots from behind the villain, and from the sides, which both hide her identity.

There is also the convention of a group of teenage friends, who are killed off in order depending on their character, for instance the ‘black boy’ would die first, which is Trey in our film. There is also a conventional final girl who is usually seen as the solitary survivor, who is usually seen with dark brown hair, and who is perceived as innocent and virginal, and this is something we have maintained with our final girl Frankie. We chose the name Frankie as this can be seen as a masculine name as well as feminine, and this reinforces that the final girl comes across and strong, brave, and power, and reinforces binary opposites compared with a conventional girl such as the sexuality active girl, which is another formulaic character within the group of friends.

 Although the final girl is viewed as a hero within the slasher films as she defeats the monster, she can also be viewed as evil, reinforcing castration. This theory is a development of Laura Muley’s Male Gaze and built on the basis of Freud’s psychological theory, which allowed Creed to suggest that women are presented as monstrous within the media, and this is mostly seen throughout horror films. The idea of this theory suggests when a male child leaves their home where they are connected to their mothers; they are extremely traumatised when they finally acknowledge that their mothers do not own the same genitalia. This is where castration is introduced, as they feel threatened by their mothers; fearing their masculinity will be taken away from them. This therefore reinforces the reasons as to why the women symbolises castration and women being presented as evil.  However, my group and I realised that we have slightly challenged this theory, as our villain is a female and not male, and usually it is women who are generally portrayed as monstrous, and in relation to horror films it can be seen as the villains mother who is seen as monstrous, hence the villains psychopathic behaviour. Although, we can still relate our villain to this theory as our villain is female, who has a weapon of a knife, and therefore she can be perceived as monstrous, with her knife reinforcing a males genitals.  Usually the villains own knife against characters is seen as a convention within slasher films, and therefore as our villain is a female, the final girl comes to represent that fear of castration.

(House of wax sexually active girl and black ethnic boy example)

We have also followed codes and conventions of a formulaic character of the sexually active girl. She is one of the first people to be killed off within a slasher film and is seen as the most promiscuous. This character formulaically has blonde hair, which is what our sexually active girl portrays. She is also wearing tight revealing clothes with a red coloured blouse on the top.  This colour can maintain connotations of sexual, death, blood, which all reinforce the role of the sexual active girl. We have included this in our trailer as seen as she is shown being sexually active by leading her boyfriend Trey into the bedroom, in which the audience automatically know what is going to happen next. The sexually active girl is seen to die first due to hegemonic values that everyone should be virginal and not promiscuous, hence the reasons why the final girl survives due to her virginal aspects, and the sexually active girl who dies due to societies norms and values, and this is therefore seen as a functional analysis of the generic conventions of slasher films. This also brings in the idea of the Male Gaze a theory made by Laura Mulvey that suggest women are portrayed in the media to suit the needs of men, which is exactly what this scene is doing as it is showing Chelsea leading her boyfriend upstairs, wearing her tight revealing black clothes, which puts her in a vulnerable and submissive position.

  

Along with the sexually active girl dying first, it can also be a different race, such as the black ethnic character. This can be seen in many films such as ‘House of Wax’ and ‘Scream’, where we can see the black character being killed first. However the reason for this convention can be argued to be the cinema industry coming across as racist, which can be combined with a Marxist view that suggests those who own the media are middle classed white men, who’s ideologies are said to be passed on to slasher films with the conventions of black people dying first. Therefore, we have chosen to use this convention in order for our audience to recognise the genre of the film as they will be used to this convention within horror films.






We have also followed the ideology of a typical teenage boy life style between our two characters, Jason and Alex. We have allowed for personal identification amongst boys aged 15 and above the clothing and style portrayed between the two characters. We can see Jason, the drive who is wearing a hoodie underneath a which is seen as a typical teenage clothing which falls under their ideological idea of a dress code. Alex who we can see is wearing an over sided hooded jacket which reinforced the teenagers ideology of style, and could also reinforce the idea of gang membership, which is popular amongst teenage boys, allowing them to personally identify themselves through these two characters. 

The killer within our trailer is a female named Ruby. She shares a similar appearance to the villain in ‘The Ring’, instantly reinforcing intertexual reference to the film. We know that a common convention for a villain is usually a male who covers their identity, usually in the form of a mask. However we have slightly challenged this convention as we have used a female instead of male, and this was primarily due to the fact this suited our narrative better, along with wanting a change from the traditional male killer. However we have still kept to traditional forms of covering the killer’s identity. We have used the villains own hair to cover their identity, which works in the same way as a mask. This can also be reinforced in ‘The Ring’ which shows we are still keeping to traditional conventions so the audience are still able to identify the genre. 

One of the most important conventions within a trailer is to have the production logo displayed at the beginning of the trailer. Due to our film being an independent film, we included our production logo ‘Grizzly Productions’, along with ‘Splice Films’ and being associated with Film4. By including these we have made it easier for the audience to recognise that this is a formulaic trailer.

Todorovs theory of narrative suggests that every story begins with an equilibrium, which is then somehow disrupted by the villain; the recognition of this disruption is noticed, usually from the final girl, who then sets off to attempt to repair the disruption. Eventually, a new equilibrium is produced but is not the same as before due to loved ones being killed during the process of the disruption. These stages are portrayed throughout slasher films and are often seen as conventional, and therefore my group and I have ensured we have included elements of a few of Todorovs stages, so the audience are able to recognise the form of a horror narrative. During the first stage of the equilibrium we have shown our characters living their daily everyday lives, and living the lives of typical teenagers. We have expressed this with our group of friends attending a party, where they perform typical teenage behaviour of taking ‘selfies’ in which they will later intend to post to social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook, and play typical teenage games such as spin the bottle.The sound to join this scene is also party music, which is something my demographic listen to.  This is something that my
audience can feel they are able to relate to as this is a norm in my target audiences lives. However still images are not a part of trailers and therefore we have challenged conventions. Although this is relevant as it means my audience are able to personally identify themselves throughout my trailer. This is also the first time that we introduce our final girl. however we have slightly challenged the formulaic way of clearly introducing the final girl as we have presented her in the same shot as her twin sister who plays Amy, which may question the audience as to who is the actual final girl. Although, we have also kept to conventional characteristics of characters such as the final girl having brown hair, and the sexually active girl having blonde hair, so therefore this can act as a guide to the audience figuring out who the final girl is.

We then introduce our villain in the beginning who is firstly not perceived as a villain, but an innocent little girl. The way we have shown the villain’s innocence before being neglected by her family is by showing her on a swing from a high angle shot which reinforces her low power. She is also wearing pure white dresses which have connotations of innocence, which is what she was at the time. We also have shown her on a swing, where she is facing a house which is supposing her own, where she is also surrounded by a fence, which also reinforces the idea that she is trapped, and has no way out. This idea of her on a swing trapped within the frame suggests her childhood wasn’t a pleasant experience, which also tells a lot to the audience about the narrative. As shown in the example image, we have decided to shoot this shot by using the rule of thirds, and this is simply because this rule creates more tension, energy and interest to the shot, and therefore increasing the attention to this particular scene.

We did this to let the audience understand the reasons as to why the villain turned into a psychotic killer, and what had driven her to this. We did this by having a voice over a scene where the villain’s mother, who she was adopted by, sat stroking an imagine of her, reinforcing that she is not around anymore. We show this through an over the shoulder shot so we are able to see from the eyes of the mother in a point of view shot, to understand exactly what she is feeling, which is also a part of Roland Barthes semantic code. Semantic code refers to putting the audience in the position of the characters, which automatically allows the audience to see the narrative from characters points of view which therefore puts them in a manipulative position. For instance the characters could be experiencing the narrative from the villain’s perspective and therefore would feel helpless toward the character as they know they cannot do anything to help them. This also represents part of the narrative, so the audience understand the sequence, and therefore understanding the relationships between the characters, which is also a part of the equilibrium stage in Todorovs theory.

Here we are able to see the disruption stage within Todorovs theory as we are shown the villain ‘returning’ to her home, and back for revenge, which is a clip we play consistently throughout the trailer to portray this message. We are able to link this scene with the caption ‘it was all fun and games, until she returned’ which creates mise en scene and also juxtaposition of the shots and captions put together as it show a contrasting effect, which also means this shot includes elements of montage editing  due to the two shots being placed together to create meaning such as that this is the villain, and she is on her way to destroy the normality of the group of friend’s lives, therefore reinforcing she is no longer innocent. It can also be seen as part of montage editing as We can see this through the rips and blood splatters on her dress, which can also portray that she was once innocent on the inside, and is pure evil on the outside. This scene is also shot in a location which seems to be a long road that does not end, which can reinforce the idea that the teenagers are trapped, and have nowhere to run, leaving them in a vulnerable position, leading to the villain Ruby gaining back her power.

We have also used a sequence of matched action that is used to show Jay’s (Nitin) death. This was done to show a simple transition to show his death, which is done through three continued shots.  It creates a visual effect which draws the audience’s attention from noticing the editing between the three shots. The use of matched action also creates more tension to the scene, as it leaves the audience in suspense as to what is going to happen to the character until the final clip, which raised excitement amongst the audience. The clip shows Jay in a forest which is a conventional location for slasher films, where he is looking vulnerable and isolated, as he is being watched on by the villain Ruby who is hiding amongst the trees, which puts the audience in a helpless position as they fear for the character. This is what is portrayed in the first shot as it shows a medium close-up, which is allowing us to explore the location around him, which is therefore when we shoot a close-up, to explore the characters emotions, where the audience are able to identify the fear the character is facing. The last shot is then where we are showing the villain disrupting the normality of the characters life by killing off one of the group of friends.

Also, we have shown elements of Juxtaposition between the villain and the final girl shown in the shot below. This is done by showing the two characters hands that are both performing the same action which is by sliding along a post, and one along a stair case. They are both seen to be wearing the colour red such as the protagonist wearing red nail varnish, and the villain’s hand being covered in blood.  These two colours have connotations of death, blood and evil, and therefore reinforce the villain’s evil nature, and the idea that the final girl could be facing death. This can also connect the two characters together and could reinforce the idea of women being monstrous.

There are also other elements that are a part of Todorovs theory, which is suggested in his fourth stage ‘The Repair’, as the final girl and the villain come in direct combat, or even share the same frame, which shows the audience that binary opposites between the two characters which is a theory created by Claud Levi Strauss. We are able to identify the bravery from the final girl, and she is seen as the only person to survive when sharing the frame with the villain, who shows the power and evil nature the villain, has. However this scene has been slightly challenged as the final girl is unaware of the villain’s appearance within the frame, which is to caught fright and excitement for the audience.

We have also expressed many shots to show the fear the characters have over the villain, and the power the villain now has. We are able to see through this first shot between the fades within the trailer the villain walking towards the characters that are seen running in the opposite direction, reinforcing their fear to run away. There is also a clip of the sexually active girl walking up the stairs, were we are able to notice between the fades of editing the villain walking into this characters heart, reinforcing the idea that the villain now controls the heart of this character, and therefore decides if this character dies.

We have also shown other elements of this where Jason one of the group of friends alongside best friend Alex are driving alongside in a car, where Jason looks into his rear mirror to see Ruby sitting in the back of his car. This therefore is shown between another fade between two shots were we are able to see the villain Ruby’s eyes in the same place where Jason’s brain is, which reinforces the idea the villain is in his head, and therefore control him, which is what causes his death.

We have also shown towards the end of our trailer further intertexual reference to ‘The Ring’ as we show a tracking shot of an empty forest which suggests there are no survivors, to where we then see the villain standing in the forest unexpected, which reinforces the idea that the audience are next to die, which is what is reinforces at the end of ‘The Ring’ where the villain is seen coming out of the TV, reinforcing the idea she is going to come out of the audiences TV, to kill them next. This is seen to be viewed in a fearful way as we are now able to view the villain’s face, which creates a buzz to want to see the film to know what is going to happen next. This is seen as conventional as it draws in the audience’s attention to wanting to see more.

Lastly, an important convention towards the end of trailers is to include an end card, which contains information of the name of the film, the release date, the website and any other additional information that allow the audience to find out more about the film, which could create a buzz and help our film go viral. We have also posted a social networking site which is commonly used by our target audience, where they are able to access further information about our film, which could also be a further form to help promote our film. social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can include fan pages and hash tags of ‘The Return’ which can help with the promotion of our film, and also encourage interactivity. The use of YouTube also can help encourage the idea of exchange, which is also another form that can help market our film. The end card also includes rewards and reviews, which is popular for independent films as it is a further attempt to market the film to help gain a wider audience. We have also included information of the cast and crew, members of the production crew and our production line, along with Film4 who helped associate our film. Non-diegetic sound is also being presented over the trailer which works together with our scenes to help the audience understand the genre of the film, and this is seen as a vital convention which we have kept. Throughout the trailer we have included low and high toned scary music to encourage excitement and fear amongst the audience which is seen as formulaic within a slasher film trailer, as this build tension to scare the audience. We have included as the last sound to be heard on the trailer is an extended echoed scream from the final girl that continues until the end card is shown, and this is done to create fear amongst our audience, which is also seen as a convention.

Sound within our trailer is used throughout, which is seen as a convention for formulaic trailers. A particular track that we have used continuously throughout our trailer was the sound of a heart beat which was shown high pitched and low pitched at times in order to create tension amongst the audience, which is seen as formulaic within trailers in order to create excitement for the audience, and therefore creates a buzz for the audience in wanting to watch the film. We have used a range of diegetic and non-diegetic music within our trailer in order for the audience to understand subjective sound for each character and therefore understand what the characters are feeling, which automatically relates to Roland Barthes semantic code. Non diegetic music has been placed throughout the trailer such as a voice over at the beginning of the trailer which is there to help the audience understand the narrative such as why there is a mother sadly stroking an image of a little girl, in which the voice over explains the little girl went missing, and never returned, and this automatically reinforces the main elements of the narrative. We have also echoed a number of screams from characters which are shown high pitched, and this is done in order to fright the audience, which will therefore lead to excitement amongst them. This is seen as conventional within a trailer as it helps build tension amongst the audience and this would lead them to wanting to watch the film due to the excitement they received from the trailer itself.

This therefore shows how I have used formulaic conventions within a trailer which is conventional so that the audience are able to identify element so of the narrative which helps them understand what they are watching. I believe my trailer contains both formulaic and conventional aspects and this decision was made amongst my group and I due to the fact it is easy for the audience to identify traditional forms of trailers, and therefore would recognise our trailer. Although we have included some challenges within in our trailer in order to suit the needs of our audience, which is seen as beneficial rather than risky.

Poster –

I believe I have created my poster that contains many formulaic aspects a poster needs. It contains the

main image which includes iconography of the genre as it is of the villain within our narrative who appears to be hiding, which is exactly what she is doing throughout our narrative. I have also decided to go for the black and white effect to reinforce the negativity within the narrative, as this grey and black effect contains connotations of a dull, lifeless nature. It also reflects the two personalities our
villain contains, reinforcing binary opposites. This is good to have on the poster as it is easy for my audience to identify my film through a single image that reinforces elements of my narrative. This is seen as conventional as this helps boost the idea of the audience recognising our posters.

A further convention that I have followed is having the title at the top of the page, which is eye catching due to the design on the typography. This typography was created using the two colours red and white to reinforce two things; firstly, the idea of blood on the innocent reinforces the villain and the group of friends, which represent a part of the narrative. Secondly, the idea that these two colours together using a splashed effect created the look of flesh, which gave off a gory image, which therefore reinforces the genre. This also stands out as it is the biggest typography on the page, which stands out against a black and white background, which is seen to be a conventional rule. By having a brand identity throughout my poster and magazine, this is seen as conventional as it is easy for the audience to recognise my film. I have also reinforced my caption to have intertextual reference to films such as Halloween, as it expresses the night 'She' came home, which is similar to Halloween as they express the night 'He' came home. I have also made reference to the Halloween poster by presenting this caption in a similar way as illustrated below. 

I have also included important conventions such as including institutional companies that will help promote my film. I have included my own production line such as Grizzly Productions and Splice Films, along with including Dolby Digital and the age restriction for my film so the audience are aware of our target audience. Including the cast and crew as seen on the end card of the trailer is another convention that I have included, which is followed by my tag line which included intertexual reference to the film ‘Halloween’ as it states ‘the night he came home’, however to fit in with our narrative we have changed it to ‘the night she came home’, which also has a link to our synopsis as our villain does return to her home town, to seek revenge, which is also further linked to our title ‘The Return’.  Therefore by using the success of the film Halloween, this can therefor help my film gain similar levels of success. I have also included film festivals which are only usually found conventionally on independent film posters to help with marketing. I have lastly included social networking websites on my poster which is commonly used by my target audience, and therefore this is beneficial to my film as it can help with promoting my film, creating a positive vibe and spreading this by word of mouth, which creates a buzz for my film.

Therefore this has shown that my poster contains both formulaic and conventional elements due to the fact I have codified my poster in relation to the conventions so that my audience are able to identify my poster, and also the formulaic conventions for a generic horror film, which will altogether help my audience personally identify my horror movie poster.

Magazine –

I have also created a rather conventional magazine that includes important features. I have chosen to use Fangoria to promote my film as my film contains gory images that would relate to Fangoria, and it is conventional to use gory images on Fangoria. Firstly, I have used the red and yellow colour scheme that is seen as conventional for Fangoria magazines, as these two colours put together create a horrible, obnoxious effect which reinforces the genre of the magazine. The colour red reinforces the idea of danger, blood, death and fear, whereas the colour yellow could convey the idea of hazards and danger, and this therefore relates to the generic idea of horror film. I have also included a film reel that is formulaic on Fangoria magazines, which include featured stories of other films. I have also included an ear piece which states a free blood giveaway, and this is conventional to include as it can create excitement at the idea something is free if you purchase the magazine, and therefore creates more chances for our film being recognised. The main image is the most important convention for a Fangoria magazine as their images contain a lot of blood and gore, and can contain disturbing images. However I have slightly challenged the idea of disturbing images due to my age restriction of the film, and therefore only used an imagine that contains our villain, who is covered in blood. This therefore still creates a link to the conventional idea of gore for Fangoria magazines.

I have used further conventions such as including the barcode, price and issue date which can be seen formulaically on posters. I have further used banners which promote other horror film, which is conventional to include as Fangoria promotes more than one film at once, however concentrates on one more than others, and in this case is ‘The Return’. This is done so the audience are drawn into seeing popular known films such as Halloween and Scream, which are popular slasher films which increases the chances of our film being recognised by the viewers, and by using the success of these films enables us to take advantage of this. Lastly, I have also included the name of my film and the caption, so my audience are able to recognise and identify my film easier, which can help with promotion.

I have used a similar image to my poster, which can be also identified within my trailer, and this is usually formulaic so my audience are able to easily recognise my film across all three products, and this can be done through the colour scheme, brand identity, the image, film title and the caption, which are all clearly displayed across all three projects. Therefore this has shown that my poster contains both formulaic and conventional elements due to the fact Fangoria, who is promoting our film have their own conventional way of laying out their magazine, and therefore following this layout will automatically help my audience recognise the conventional look for Fangoria, and therefore know my film is a generic horror film. This is why I decided to follow conventional and formulaic aspects of a poster.