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MY TRAILER/STORY LINE

I used other trailers and research into their structures to help me structure my own trailer.

- From my research I noticed that the majority of horror films have male monsters and female victims, but when the monster is of a mental institution or some how associated as crazy the monster is female. I tried to challenge these conventions. So I have both a male monster, of a mental hospital and a three male victims.

- I think my film is more concerned with challenging conventions that back up and develop stereotyped than pleasing a mass audience, so I wasn’t afraid to go against the norm.

GENRE

I chose to do a psychological horror as I think this is the genre of horror that has been used in the past to challenge conventions more than other genres. I think this is because of its focus on scaring and trying to dig into the audiences fears rather than entertain in a visually pleasing experience, in terms of giving the audience what they know.

- I also felt it was fitting because my questionnaire results pointed toward this being the most popular genre of horror film.

- I am also a fan of these kinds of films myself and felt like I would be able to produce something more fitting to what the target audience would be looking for.

GENRE 2

If we look at the conventions of psychological horror:

- Beliefs (eg religious)

- Guilt

- Character fears

- Emotional instability

- Supernatural

I went against some of these and followed and developed some of these.

I used religion in my trailer and film. In my trailer I show how society looks to grab ahold of religion when they are in need, using it as a security when they feel they need it but leaving it when they don’t.

Emotional instability I followed as I feel like this is a big fear in society and people in general, being afraid of insanity.

GENRE 3

The supernatural I also followed for many of the same reasons as above. It is a fear and an unknown and therefore is more scary, and plays on the mind.

I went against the convention of the storyline usually being based around one of the characters fears. This was to show that sometimes our fears are not placed within the right areas and the danger can come from things that are very familiar to us

I also didn't’t follow the convention of guilt being part of what drives the audience crazy or for it to play a part in scaring them. This is because i feel like it would take away from the impact I want it to have on the audience.

FORMS

Some common forms in horror films are:

- Gore

- Revenge

- Religious beliefs

- Serial killer

- Ghosts

- Demons and exorcism

- Haunting

I decided to go with a mix of two of these. Religious belief and haunting. I went with these as I believe both of these are either very real ways of connecting with people. Religion plays a big part in society in terms of the function it serves and the debates and question that it brings up. And the fear of being haunted is one of the biggest and most commonly shared fears across society. I believe that the more realistic and relevant the topic and form is, the more you will connect to the audience.

GRAPHICS I followed a lot of the conventions when it came to the graphics of my

products. This is because this is one of the main ways in which you actually attract the target audience. Changing these conventions could confuse the target market in the genre of the film. Looking at my product along with products that I researched, it is clear that my colour schemes and placement is very similar to some of them.

SETTING

The setting for horror films are generally either set in or closely related to places that are isolated. I followed this convention. I really tried to make it feel like the location where my film was filmed was as isolated as I could make it. My characters went all the way to berlin to go explore an abandoned mental hospital. Nothing about that sounds enticing does it? Probably not. This is because it is again a common fear amongst people. We feel anxious about these kinds of setting because of a fear that something would happen and no one would hear you shouts for help or cries of pain. It’s the vey helpless aspect of this situation that makes us feel anxious and using this to scare and audience, especially psychologically, is very effective.

OVER ALL

Over all I would say that in my horror trailer I have challenged used and developed some of the forms and conventions of psychological horror films. I challenged the ones that would matter and followed and developed the ones that would be effective in really attracting and drawing the in the target audience.