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

To achieve a well-produced effective teaser trailer of the supernatural horror sub-genre, we had to consider successful existing productions as sources of inspiration in order to decide how we should approach supernatural horror conventions.

Initially, we went through several supernatural horror genre film openings, highlighting the forms and conventions of each. We both decided to specifically look at the film Se7en for inspiration for our teaser trailer, however making it our own. Linking to the seven deadly sins aspect and a serial killer, we modified Se7en's narrative, by making our serial killer a demonic Priest in the role of the protagonist, and the sinners as the antagonists. We also added the supernatural aspect to our teaser trailer, challenging the convention, but taking aspects of the original film that we liked. Below is a YouTube video of the original Se7en trailer:


We then looked at the conventions of supernatural horrors. Below shows how we developed, challenged and conformed to the forms of real media product conventions:

Locations
Main conventional locations within Supernatural Horror films include the main protagonists house, seen in Sinister and Annabelle, or locations that are meaningful within the characters life. This convention is used to create an un-ease for the audience, watching the characters being attacked and terrified in locations where they would normally feel comfortable and safe.

In our teaser trailer, locations that we used were all meaningful places concerning each individual character. The trailer started off in a dark setting of the demonic Priests abode where he is getting dressed and ready to go and target his sinning victims. Changing to the only random place used, a public area full of shops, all the characters can be seen together in one place, linking them together. Then, each shot after that is very meaningful and signifying to the audience about each individual sinner. The lust couple, for example, can be seen in bed and cuddled on a sofa, representing a sense of intimacy and sexual intention. Regarding locations, our trailer conforms to the conventions of real media products in the ways explained.

Storyline's

A conventional plot line for supernatural horrors is when something happens to the main character in the film that forces a spirit/ curse to come to them, this takes place in the supernatural horror Drag Me to Hell.

Again, this plot line is similar to our own, however we have developed this idea by making it so that one entity, the demon priest, follows a group of people, the sinners, due to his own warped outlook on the world and morals that people should live their lives by. He targets them because of the deadly sins that they carry out and must be stopped.

Characters
A type of character collection is to have a group of people, conventionally teenagers, who are targeted specifically by a supernatural being whom of which continually torments them until the end where a final climax finishes the film.

Our trailer conforms to this convention, having a group of people, however not teenagers, specifically targeted by the demon Priest.

Costumes

Costumes in a supernatural horror are conventionally very simple so that the audiences attention isn't taken up by the unusual attire of a character and diverted from the unusual events and weird occurrences that would happen in a supernatural horror film. The main character would wear quite conservative clothing, nothing excessively provocative or revealing. If an adult, the character is likely to also wear smart and sophisticated clothing for work with quite neutral colours so as not to make them look particularly special.

For this, we thought a lot about costumes, intending them to denote to the audience a sense of what sin each character was supposed to portray. This means that the costumes weren't as simple and conservative as conventions state, subverting them, being that the sinners are the antagonists of the film, and are instead used to signify a sin to the audience. This was effective for our trailer as we needed to get a sense of the narrative to the audience in the, limited in time, minuet teaser trailer that we produced.

lighting

Lighting is a large part of Horror films in general, and in Supernatural Horrors, normal shadows created by back lighting are generally distorted and manipulated to add to the supernatural aspect of the film and meet conventions of the genre, as well as add tension to the scene. The visual stimulation of lighting, using different techniques such as under lighting that comes from a source below, used in scenes of desperation of the characters, and blackouts of light, where tension builds as the character has found themselves in the dark with nowhere to go and stuck with the supernatural presence, is very effective for the horror aspect of the film.

In our trailer, the lighting started off light and in day time, and then started to get darker through the scenes, showing a link to the horror genre with low key lighting, igniting fear as the audience started to become un-nerved as to what the demon Priest would do. Lighting is also a large aspect of our trailer as we use it to create one of the supernatural elements, shadow engulfing one of the characters. This was created using back lighting and objects in the way to create a shadow. In the final teaser trailer, arms were used to create this effect, enhanced using visual effects on the computer. We therefore have met the conventions of lighting in our manipulation and distortion of shadow and back lighting to create tension in a scene.

Killer vs Victims and Good vs Evil

The victim is usually portrayed as weak and defenceless, whilst the killer is shown as being clever and strong. The effect this has on the audience is it makes them feel helpless and they believe the victim will get killed. Victim = good, villain = evil. Victim (good) usually triumphs.

This is conformed to but with twisted development on this convention in our trailer. It is unclear as to who the good one is and who the evil one is, the role of antagonist and protagonist interchangeable between the demon Priest and the seven sinners, both portraying traits of being good and bad. This means that there is no clear antagonist and protagonist meaning that the result of the end of the film is more of a mystery.

Igniting Fear

Horror invokes fear which is what grips the audience and makes them want to find out how the film ends. Usually, they fear the killer will kill the victim very painfully, and/or that the killer will escape and attack more people - again, the fear being who will the next victims be.

We did this well, conforming to this convention in the trailer, creating a build in tension at the end with a montage of shots showing the demon Priest attacking the sinners. The final set of shots shows the character portraying Pride asking what they can do to make it right, and the demon Priest with a mutated demonic face looks at her in a low angle shot, making him look bigger, stronger and more dominant, saying you can't. This final climax of the montage of shots leaves the audience in fear as to what the Priest is going to do to the sinners, conforming to the convention of a supernatural horror igniting fear.

POVs from the killer's perspective
This is used to tell the audience the killer is near. Or, from the victim's perspective, showing their horror as they witness something supernatural or are trying to escape something - emphasises how frantic they are and putting the audience in their position.

We subvert this convention somewhat as the trailer is mostly in the Priest point of view, and he is the killer but also the protagonist. This messes up the idea of who the audience should "side with" in the film and makes it more psychological.

Gore
Graphic effects and gore are used to unnerve the audience and make them feel scared and repulsed.

In our trailer, we use special effects make-up to create a graphic stomach open wound to ignite fear in the audience and adhere to the horror aspect of our genre. It also shows the extent of the Priests seriousness of his mission and makes his stalking of the sinners more un-nerving, creating tension in the minuet long trailer. This conforms to the codes and conventions of gore in a supernatural horror film.



Visual Effects to create a supernatural Occurrences
Computer generation is used to create supernatural occurrences that would not happen in reality.

In our trailer, we really conformed to this, taking visual effects on the computer and enhancing the shots that we had collated and footage we had produced. One of the main ones was the black eye effect where our demonic Priests' eyes go black in one of the shots. This was used to shock the audience and also give an idea into the narrative, conforming to the conventions of the supernatural horror genre.

Sound 

Non-diegetic soundtracks are the key way in which horrors create the feeling of tension or suspense. It guides and manipulates the audience to feel nervous and cautious of what is going to happen, this can be contrasted with the use of silence to build the atmosphere.

In our trailer, the first third of the trailer has quite fast paced sound editing, matching the change in shots. The sound is upbeat and sounds like the sound played in a film when someone is on a "mission" with the intent to do something. This links well to the visual stimulation of the shots showing the Priest getting dressed and ready to go and find his sinners. A voice over accompanies this first music overlay, with the Priest reciting a few lines from the Bible related to sins and how one must repent for them- linking to narrative and denoting the idea of sins and good and evil to the audience.

Shot of collating sounds to use in our
trailer

The middle half of the trailers sound starts with the beat dropping and being replaced with a longer, more supernatural "on a mission" beat with strange animalistic, demonic screeching sounds. Each shot is also linked to the beat of the music overlay, linking the audio and visual elements nicely. This is played during the shots of the Priest choosing and stalking his sinners. The music again starts to slow down and drop about 2/3 of the way through the trailer, a high pitched off putting sound played before a deep, loud droning sound ignites, linking to the "on a mission" beat but with a more threatening angle to it to link to the more graphic shots of the Priest attacking the sinners. The final sound heard is a off putting jingle that links to the supernatural genre with its key, leaving the audience with a feeling of unease.

Overall, the sound in our trailer conforms to the conventions of a supernatural horror genre real media product as it creates tension and suspense and manipulates the audience to feel nervous and cautious in the appropriate places effectively.

Theories

Relating to theories, we also created a blog post stating how our promotional package conformed/subverted/developed the theories of real media products, associated with genre. This was interesting and informative to us, giving an idea of how successful we were in meeting conventions, due to previous research having been carried out on Paul Wells genre theory before creating the final product.

Evaluation Question 3- What did you learn from your audience feedback?

To recognise importance of audience feedback in the planning stages of our production, we carried out a number of surveys and focus groups to determine what would make our media product more appealing to the ending audience.

Analysis of Survey to Determine the Name of the Film Trailer

Before beginning the production of our trailer, we created a surveymonkey questionnaire in order to allow us to question our target audience on what name we should choose for our film trailer.

The original survey produced was in aim that we would be able to determine a name for our film trailer. Explaining what our initial idea for our film trailer was, we gave our audience a choice of five different names, or another, that would be appropriate for our film trailer. Below is a screen shot of the user input data entry for this:

And this was the end result of the survey:

Taking the three names Hail Mary, The Deserving and Subsequent of Sin (SOS), I carried out another survey, again, trying to determine the name that we would use for the film trailer finally. The reason for choosing to use Subsequent of sin in this next survey was because Raman and I had realised that we could turn it into an anagram, SOS, which related to how the demonic Priest in our narrative was "saving the souls" of those who had carried out one of the deadly sins. Below was the results of this, clearly showing that our idea for this was good and that we should use this name and anagram.

Audience Feedback Improvements Carried Out

special effects transition added

black eye effects applied

From verbal responses during the end stages of our project by people we asked advice from, we added more supernatural visual effects and cut down on unnecessary shots, cutting our trailer down to one minuet rather than a minuet and a half. 

Here I have changed this shot to be of a darker lighting than
the original harsh bright lighting that looked too
different to the rest of the trailers footage.

Some of the shots were also edited so that they matched the darker toned shots using a tool on Final cut Pro called "colour matching".


Results from a focus group on the sound that we had at that point also. The overall consensus was the voice overlays were a bit shaky and not demonic enough. To resolve this, we recorded new voice overs, matching them up with the footage already shot.

We then collected audience feedback at the end of developing our production, carrying out a focus group using YouTube and also putting our product on social networking sites such as Youtube, Tumblr and Facebook to determine what the audience think of the end product, learning what went well and what could have been improved.

Audience Feedback of Final Edited Teaser Trailer

Uploading our trailer to social networking sites

Screen shot of our trailer posted on Tumblr

Screen shot of our trailer posted on YouTube

Publishing the final edited version of our teaser trailer on YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook, accompanied by a few further questions based on what we had produced, allowed us to understand the reception we would receive from audiences now that we had submitted it as our final coursework piece, using convergence to collate these reviews. Collating a focus group, we used the YouTube video to answer the questions that we wanted to ask, collecting feedback ready for analysis, learning what was good and what could have been improved in our final product of our teaser trailer.

Questions that we asked our audience included the following:

1. How identifiable was the genre, can you tell that it is a supernatural horror?
2. As a teaser trailer, does it give you a sense of the narrative?
3. Was the typography created and used effective?
4. How persuasive is the trailer to entice you to watch the film?
5. What are your favourite moments of the trailer?
6. Any overall comments?
7. Even better if?

The responses were given to us in hand written form. A range of the responses that were received are shown below with scans of some of the hard copy evidence.

1. How identifiable was the genre, can you tell that it is a supernatural horror?

• Most of the responses that we got were that yes, the genre was identifiable, and that it was a supernatural horror.

 Others made more detailed comments as shown below:

• Yes, mise en scene makes genre very clear that it’s a supernatural horror
• Clearly horror

2. As a teaser trailer, does it give you a sense of the narrative?

• Varied shots and location used to explain narrative
• Yes, serial killer
• Yes, murder, seven sins etc
• Yes, from the typography, it was about the seven sins
• Yes, use of editing and mise en scene explained it well
• Demon person goes out to kill those involved in the 7 deadly sins
• Yes, the religious scenes propose a “spookiness” throughout the trailer. It is very effective at the bit where the priests voice is deepened and supernatural- giving the narrative to the audience.

screen shot of a response

3. Was the typography created and used effective?

• Yes, the red colour linked to the idea of evil, etc.
• Very, colour red and repetition of the sins are effective.
• It went in time with the sound. The usage of colour was good too- black and red.
• Matched the genre really well.
• The typography was done really well- matched genre well
• The SOS at the end was so good! Really effective.

4. How persuasive is the trailer to entice you to watch the film?

• What's the cause of him hurting the other characters about? Makes me want to watch it more.
• The special effects were detailed and realistic
• It kept you on the edge of your seat- was quite disturbing: weird special effects
• Made the audience intrigued in what would happen next- it was very tense
• Horror fans, there's a lot of blood which attracts them.
• There was blood and gore (appealing to horror fans)
• It has a mystery about it and the blood/music means that it appeals to horror film fans
• Very engaging
• The final shot montage is highly effective and engaging.

5. What are your favourite moments of the trailer?

screen shot of a response

• Effective special effects and sound
• The montage of sins, bathtub
• At the beginning with the arm and blood pouring out of it
• The special effects make up was really good, typography and sound as well as fast paced editing
• The typography at the end, the shots of blood and bodies
• The lighting was effective(in the shadow scene)
• Range of shots

6. Any overall comments?

• Loved the make up, looked creepy and realistic
• Whooo!! That was AMAZING! I really want to know what happens next!
• Original and interesting, special effects are really good
• Make up and blood, voice-over, the shot where the eye goes black is very effective.
• Special effects make up

7. Even better if? 

• Lighting of shots bit brighter, slightly unclear. Sound could be improved, build more tension
• The sound was clearer
• Some of the voice overs sounded a bit strange
• Sound could be improved
• Two righting parts where they go too fast
• Some shots could have been darker to create more tension
• The camera angles- maybe more variety

Below are images of some of the responses:

Analysis of Responses and what we have Learnt

Analysing the responses of each question, overall, it seemed that the audience thought that the final product was very successful with minor things that could have been improved. Below is an individual analysis of each question asked, highlighting responses and explaining what our group learnt from them:

1. How identifiable was the genre, can you tell that it is a supernatural horror?
Every one of the responses agreed that they could tell that the trailer was advertising a horror genre, which was the desired effect, however they didn't all state that it was supernatural.

2. As a teaser trailer, does it give you a sense of the narrative?

Every response for this question indicated that each person who watched our teaser trailer could get a sense of the narrative that it depicted.

3. Was the typography created and used effective?

All our audience viewers commented that they really liked the typography and that it matched well with our choice of genre.

4. How persuasive is the trailer to entice you to watch the film?

Each response indicated that people would want to know what happens in the rest of the film, enticing them to want to watch it. They also commented about how the blood and gore aspect would entice horror fans.

5. What are your favourite moments of the trailer?

People had a range of favourite moments in the trailer, but most involved the special effects makeup and the typography, the two features of the teaser trailer that seemed the most successful.

6. Any overall comments?

Most of the overall comments referenced the special effects and visual effects of the trailer- the supernatural aspects- saying that they were really effective and realistic. 

7. Even better if? 

The overall "even better if" comment was on the sound over-voice, saying that it sounded a bit strange and crackly. This was an issue for us at the time of editing, of which we optimised to the best of our abilities with the technology that we had. This, however, was something that they mentioned could be improved upon to make the teaser trailer even better.

What we learnt
Our group has learnt that the trailer produced for our final product was very successful, highlighting aspects such as the typography, special and visual effects and the anagram SOS which was commented to be clever and memorable. The only major point stated, that could have been improved if developed further, included the voice over sound being slightly strange- due to the recording not being of the highest quality.

Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Sound:

To create the music for the teaser trailer, we used existing non-copyright sound that we found on a free music website and overlapped these on Final Cut Pro. We overlapped music and sound effects such as the rustling of clothes when the Demon Priest is getting dressed. We chose different sounds for different scenes in order to create the appropriate atmosphere - for example, we included a simple fast-paced drumming sound at the beginning when introducing the Demon Priest because the main focus was on what he was saying so the music could not overpower that. We also used GarageBand to overlap some sounds together as we preferred certain aspects of each musical piece, and so we edited it into one audio file.

Some of the audio from the character's speaking was hard to make out so we put it into Apple Logic to enhance it, however, to create the Demon's low voice, we asked a teacher to put on a demonic voice and recorded that by putting the microphone on a camera near him as it was easier than recording him in a studio.

Editing:

To edit the teaser trailer, we used Final Cut Pro as we had used this for our AS work and we accustomed to the software and knew how to add effects and edit clips well. We used many different effects to enhance the colours - for example, we used a darkening effect for the stomach wound to highlight the wound and not the person. We also added an angelic light effect for the flash appearance of the Demon Priest behind a victim to conceal the camera shift because, even though the camera was on a tripod, when the actor stepped into the shot then out again, the camera had moved slightly. However, this effect was beneficial as the white backing light juxtaposed the Demon's darkness, as well as his symbolic black clothing.

Wix:

Wix was used to make the website; we chose a default layout which we then edited to produce the SOS website. We took the picture from the poster and enlarged it and edited it to fit on the right side of the website with a large black space next to it for us to insert the trailer and critics' quotes. We also added the list of sins and slogan on the left side of the website so the visitors would remember the film's plot as the slogan and list are also repeated throughout the trailer - through the typography and audio. I put the trailer in the middle on automatic so it would start the moment the visitor enters the site so that they can watch it again which will subconsciously persuade them to want to watch the film. Then I placed the four stars on either side of the slideshow comments to make it look presentable and consistent, and the five stars underneath - as seen on the Filth DVD cover.

Filming:

During the production process we used lighting to help create the shadow of the demon's arms as it was about to take a character - in this scene it was myself. We did this by placing the light behind a

group member, and someone helping us whilst the group member held the camera in a point of view shot in one hand and extended their left, and the helper extended their right. This was difficult as they had to extend their arms at exactly the same time, as well as wiggling their fingers the same.

Photoshop:

Photoshop was used a lot during the editing stages - to create the poster, the typography, the quotes and picture for the website, the black eye animation, the movie titles for both the trailer and poster, and making the production companies for the trailer. To create poster, we enhanced the colours and added a reddish tone to the whole picture to fit in with the colour scheme, then we edited the black eyes and blood tears to appear more prominent and shiny to make it appear more realistic. Photoshop allowed us to add glows to the typography and create an animation where the letters change to form SOS and the slogan appears. This took a long time as we had to create each frame and shift and alter the letters in each frame, however the end result was impressive. The same was done for the black eye animation - with each frame the black colour grew. To make the movie titles, we had to download a font called Steel Tongs to make it look like conventional professional movie titles, and then we analysed existing movie titles to decide which to put on the poster and trailer. We also made small production company logos to put under the movie titles on both the trailer and poster as this is the convention. This was relatively simple; we typed out the names then added glows on both companies and changed the font for one to distinguish it from the other.

Planning:

During the research stages, we used Blogger to record our deconstructions and inspirations, and this helped as we used tags to find posts easily, as well as adding pictures to help aid the text. Survey Monkey was also used to decide the film name. We thought of ten names which we then narrowed down to five to put on our survey. Putting a comment box at the bottom of the survey allowed for the respondents to share their ideas of film names, and one suggestion we received as choosing The Subsequent of Sin which could be abbreviated to SOS - which would fit in with the sinners' redemption plot in the film. Even though Hail Mary and The Deserving were tied as the most preferred choices, we liked the SOS suggestion so implemented that idea instead.

We set up another survey asking which was the best from Subsequent of Sin (SOS), The Deserving and Hail Mary, and 100% of the respondents chose SOS which was beneficial because that is what we hoped would get the most votes.

Internet:

We used websites such as Blogger to record our findings in the pre-production stage, then record production processes, as well as write up the editing and evaluating processes. YouTube was used a lot when watching and deconstructing trailers (both theatrical and teaser) as there were many horror/supernatural trailers available there. We deconstructed the Se7en trailer thoroughly as this was the film that inspired SOS.  The mise en scene in the television series Supernatural was also deconstructed using YouTube and their website (www.supernatural.wiki.com) because we wanted the supernatural mise en scene in SOS to be somewhat conventional so the audience were able to identify the supernatural elements easily. IMDB also helped us when finding horror/supernatural films because either horror or supernatural can be sub-genres, so many horror/supernatural films simply label themselves as 'horror' or 'supernatural'. Therefore, IMDB allowed us to find these hybrid films quickly, as well as browse older and more contemporary hybrids in order to form good research for us to plan SOS.

Evaluation:

We collected audience feedback by getting them to watch the trailer on social media platforms such as YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook and write down positives and negatives, some told us verbally as well. We were able to evaluate the responses and revise what parts needed altering in the trailer, on the poster and the website. Uploading these on the internet was beneficial as it reached out to a global audience so we were able to gather feedback from many people. We received feedback such as the Demon Priest's speech is hard to understand - so we had to record him speaking again and insert the audio into Final Cut Pro again. Also, certain lengthy scenes such as the Gluttony character eating and the Sloth walking were not necessary so we cut those out. When we showed the audience an updated version, we received positive feedback that the fast pace added tension and suspense, making the trailer more gripping.

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Website:

Poster:

Teaser Trailer:

The ancillary tasks include a website and poster alongside the main teaser trailer - all having the aim of conveying a professional-looking supernatural horror film to appeal to a certain audience. To keep the package cohesive, we used the same colour scheme (red, white, black) and featured the main character, the Demon Priest, This was used so the audience could identify the SOS 'brand', thus making the package memorable and, therefore, effective.

Character Mise en Scene

To keep the package focused on the Demon Priest character, his face was featured in all three pieces. In the opening sequence of the trailer, the audience see his eyes turn black and these black eyes are also shown on both the poster and website background. It was imperative to show the Demon Priest in all the texts so the audience could establish him as the focal character. Also, this subverts conventions of most film's centring on the protagonists as SOS focuses on the antagonist, making SOS distinguishable and memorable.

In the poster, we used special effects make-up to make him appear to be crying black blood and in the trailer, his face gradually became more disfigured and his voice gets lower and more demonic-like. We got the inspiration for the black blood tears in the poster from an American Horror Story poster and the close up angle of the shot from the film poster Starry Eyes. By conforming to these conventions of abnormal surrealism (i.e. blood tears, disfigured face, demonic voice), it helped make the poster more effective as the audience were able to identify the supernatural genre, and have a faint idea of the plot - that this man is nothuman and appears demonic, consequently making the audience question what he will do.



The Demon's eyes also turn black to represent his possession, which we got as inspiration from Supernatural where different eye colours are used to represent the different demons that can possess humans. We used Photoshop to change the Demon's eyes by making an animation where his eyes gradually grow blacker, showing the audience that there is something supernatural about this character.

Lighting

Lighting also helped make all the products effective because the horror and supernatural genres both use low key lighting to add mystery and suspense, and to make victims appear helpless and villains ominous. Many films, for example Deliver Us From Evil and Se7en, use this feature because of its representations as well as conforming to conventions as this helps the audience to identify and understand the genre. I also deconstructed a still from the film Halloween because the use of back lighting illuminating the villain and masking the victim was very clever. This helped in our trailer when one victim is taken by the Demon Priest, however we switched it so the victim is visible and the Demon Priest is not - making the kidnapping more sudden and scary.

Typography

In order to make our media package effective and cohesive, we used the same font for the typography in order to make the whole package appear consistent, however we changed the colours and effects on the letters for certain titles to make it look appropriate - such as the main title and slogan on the poster, the list of sins in the trailer, and the quotes on the website. Also, we featured the list of sins on both the trailer and website to add consistency and to reiterate the film's plot - therefore, making the package more effective as it will be memorable. This repetition helped create a 'house style' for the audience to recognise and remember, so if they were to see the poster (in a magazine, on a billboard, online etc) and the website address on it, then visit the website and watch the trailer, they would find it cohesive and professional - thus persuading them to watch the film.

Colour Scheme

The main three colours of the SOS package are red, white and black because this is because of each of their representations. Red connotes blood which is ideal for us to have in our colour scheme because SOS is of the horror genre. Red also has connotations of lust - which is one of the sins, and anger - which is what the Demon Priest is constantly feeling as he avenges sinners for going against God and 'cleanses' the Earth of them. Black is used to symbolise the darkness of the Demon and the consequences of sinning. White is used as a juxtaposition to both red and black because white connotes purity and Heaven - the Priest is symbolically white, however when he becomes possessed the colour black steps in to play. We decided these three colours after looking at Se7en's poster which uses yellow, orangey-brown and black. We did not like the use of yellow against the brownish picture because the titles were illegible, making the poster ineffective, so we decided that to make the titles on the poster, website and trailer effective, they must be white and/or so to be legible.

Genre Theories that our Promotional Package conform to

The idea that genres are constantly changing depending on what is happening in society and culture at the time is the basis of Genre theory. 

Carolyn Miller (1984) said, “the number of genres in any society depends on the complexity and diversity of society”.

Horror genre, for an example, has diversified in recent years to incorporate elements that it did not originally include. The supernatural sub-genre is an example of how horror diversified in the 1960’s during secularisation when people were getting annoyed with the clasp of social control, opening society up to new ideas and concepts such as the supernatural. Our A2 teaser trailer, which is about a demonic Priest punishing a select group of individuals for their deadly sins, is an example of the supernatural horror genre, a genre developing in newer films.

According to Jane Feuer (1992), “a genre is ultimately an abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world”.

This is the case for the supernatural horror genre. Supernatural, horror films first initialised in the late 60’s starting with Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby in 1968. This film intrigued audiences due to the demonic and supernatural aspects, welcoming the audience to question the narrative, featuring the general themes of reality, perception and supernatural presence. These ideas were then developed further with films such as, arguably the greatest entry in the Occult cycle, The Exorcist, 1973, directed by William Friedkin, followed in 1976 with Richard Donnor’s The Omen, both of which resurrect the idea of demonic possession and powers outside of the real world. Throughout the film, The Exorcist, the audience are shown strange incidences that ignite a suspicion into Regan’s’ behaviour, making strange notices, using bad language and exhibiting abnormal strength. This, in turn, leads to her mother consulting a Priest who explains that Regan has been possessed by a demon called Pazuzu and needs to be exorcised. Elements of this type of narrative and conventions can be seen in our own trailer. We replicate these ideas in our trailer as we provide a number of supernatural instances, such as our demon Priests eyes going black in a close up shot, a shadow swallowing up one of the sinners and the Priest appearing and then disappearing behind one of the sinners in a mid shot. Element of religion are also included, the main character being a Priest, however, we have twisted and developed t he ideas of the Priest being the one warding the demon off, making it so that he is the Demon. The supernatural aspects of our film trailer defiantly support Feuer’s theory, being that the strange things that occur that link are defiantly abstract conception of a narrative rather than something that exists.

Steve Neal declared, “Genres are instances of repetition and difference... difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre”(1980), linked also to Todorov (1990), “a new genre is always the transformation of one or several old genres”.

With our trailer, we have shown this to be true, using Se7en, directed by David Fincher, 1995, as a huge inspiration for our films narrative. We repeated the same conventions related to the horror genre such as gore and tension filled scenes of terror, and a similar narrative taking the seven sins aspect of the film along with the aspect of a serial killer. We however developed our narrative, making it different by adding the supernatural aspect to the film, making our Priest a demon. Our film is also different to Se7en being that the film is in the point of view of the demon Priest- a developed twist on horror and supernatural conventions. Taking aspects of the supernatural genre with demon possession and the horror genre of a serial killer, my group and I created a really original narrative for our film trailer, using features of previously done media products, repeating these features, and then making them our own by developing and manipulating aspects. This, as Neal stated, is a very important aspect of each new media product released, ensuring the economy of the genre. If a film was too similar the audience would become un-interested, not investing time in watching the genre, allowing it to "die out".

Titles for the Poster

I started off writing out the title, then began adding the same red outer glow as the titles in the trailer. I put the title on the poster but felt that it looked rather bland so then I decided to add a gradient as that would add some depth and definition to the title when on the poster, against the picture.

I also tested out inner glows as previously I only added an outer glow. I tried out different colours including white, black, red, pink.

I decided that red was the best colour for the inner glow because it softened the sharp white lines of the letters. It also emphasized the red outer glow, resulting in the title looks very vibrant and eye-catching - ideal for a poster.

I typed out the slogan: 'NOTHING CAN SAVE YOUR SOUL' and put the words in a listing appearance so that I could put it by the demon's face in the picture. I inserted a white outer glow to distinguish it from the red title.

Then, I added the date 'October 31' because that is Halloween and would therefore be an appropriate date to release this film. Also, a lot of horror blockbuster films are usually released on Halloween as well. I did the same as the other titles; added an outer glow - in this case I made it red to fit in with the title. However, this time I decided to made the colour the letters black, to make it visible against the Demon's white shirt.

I downloaded the movie titles font - called Steel Tongs - then began inserting the same names from the end of the trailer. However, after deconstructing the movie titles on existing posters, I chose the roles that are conventionally seen on posters, and so some of the names on the trailer are not on the poster titles.



I put the titles on the poster, however it was too big so I clicked on Image on the grey ribbon at the top, then changed the Image Size to make it smaller.

I made a list of sins for the poster and changed the outer glow so instead of it being around the letters, it smudges out and connects all the words together. At first I had put the list of sins horizontally to put above the movie titles at the bottom, and then the slogan vertically like a list. However, after making these, I decided to swap the designs and put the list at the side as it signifies more of the plot to the audience in the poster.

Final Result: