Our teaser trailer conforms to the generic conventions of the horror genre in various ways.
1. Binary opposition is presented through the comparitive shots of "Mary" looking frightened and "Catherine" looking evil. An example of this lies in the wide shot of "Mary's" hands covered in blood and "Catherine" watching her through the window (0.26 seconds in the trailer).
This physical barrier of the window also seperates the two symbolically, by showing that they are on different sides of good and evil. The comparisson between "Mary's" diegetic sound of screaming and sharp body movements to "Catherine's" stillness and angry facial expression clearly shows good and evil.
2. Gore is also incorporated in our teaser trailer by the use of fake blood, which is another generic convention of the horror genre.
3. The mise en scene also allowed us to show binary opposition. The costume and make-up choices for both of our actresses helped to reflect their character, for example, Alice's neutral make-up represents her evil side. We used a location typical of horror films; an ordinary looking street. The suburban feel of the location reflects other horror films such as "Nightmare on Elm Street", which is set on an ordinary street. We developed this however, by also including forest locations to further push the idea of surburban life.
4. Paranoia was explored in the teaser trailer, shown through the long shot of "Mary" running in the forest, apparently being chased by no one.Vulnerability is also shown in our teaser trailer through the wide shot of "Mary" tied to a drain pipe as "Catherine" watches her through the window.
A collapse of moral order is shown when "Catherine" rows away from "Mary" in the boat in the tracking shot. This is through the idea of her leaving her stranded and not showing friendship towards her. "Mary's" diegetic sounds of shouting after her also reflects the betrayl and situation she has been put into.
5. A taboo subject that we explored in our teaser trailer was the boundaries between life and death in our plot. The idea of one of the friends actually be dead is a taboo subject in itself. Also the ideas of corruption of young adults and innocence is generally a taboo subject.
6. We attempted to make the film continue to play on the viewer's mind through the diegetic sound of "Mary" screaming "Catherine" at the end. This sharp sound occurs quickly and hopefully will shock the viewer and create a sense of unease.
Our poster also uses these conventions to allow the viewer to immediately indentify what genre the advertised film is.
1. The fear of someone watching you is present in the poster through the image of "Catherine" looking straight at the camera. We experimented with many different facial expressions and photographs before choosing a shot. Some of these experiments included her grinning, smirking and just looking straight into the camera with no emotion, which was the shot we chose in the end. This adds an eerieness to the poster and reflects the genre's conventions.
2. We also played on the idea of the audience feeling dread/suspense through the image being in black and white with blood red writing for the title. The combination of red, white and black connotes danger, evil and gore. These are all typical colours used for horror films, as we discovered in our poster research. The contrast between the red and the neutral colours and draws the viewer's eye to the most important part of the poster, the film title.
3. The forest landscape behind our actress also reflects the typical horror location we chose. It creates a sense of being surrounded, through the enclosed space created by the trees. This also serves to reflect our title and the themes of constriction.
4. We also included a review from a specific film magazine, to make the poster as realistic as possible. We chose Empire magazine as it is renowned for it's film reviews, complete with a direct quote on how the film is of the horror genre - "A reinvention of the classic ghost story".
Our website also reflects the conventions of real media texts. Firstly, we were able to put it live onto the internet, making it as realistic as possible.
1. We continued the colour scheme of red, black and white into the website. This allows us to give the message to the viewer that it is a horror film.
2. Further description of the website design can be found here. Only half of our actress' faces are shown on the website, to create a sense of mystery and unease that is often used in horror films, such as in this poster. The themes of dread/suspense is also reflected through "Mary" looking at "Catherine" with a frightened facial expression. The viewer immediately reaslises that "Catherine" will be evil and that there is a reason for "Mary" looking frightened. This also reflects the binary opposition of good and evil between the contrasting facial expressions of the two actresses. These are both central ideas used in horror films.
We also chose to surround the trailer in vines, to clearly reflect the title of the film and the constricting friendship explored in our teaser trailer.
Stef
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