The ways in which our media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

In the production of our horror film trailer we aimed to both use and challenge the conventions of horror film trailers. Although we wanted to create something original, we knew that there were certain aspects of horror films and conventions of horror trailers that we needed to stick to in order to ensure the audience were still aware that our films genre was horror. If we made something too different, many of the target audience wouldn't understand what we were trying to show. "Diederich" sticks to the forms and conventions of horror trailers as it uses a concept of a 'mysterious figure' in an ordinary household to portray horrific events unfolding and uses the traditional 'good vs evil' theme. It includes two innocent characters which is traditional of horror films, particularly as one of them is female and would be considered weak and vulnerable against the gas masked figure. In this sense our trailer does stick to the conventions of horror films.

 

We used night vision in our trailer, as in paranormal activity to create a sense of tension and suspense. We used this technique in the part of the trailer when the pace got faster and when the scariest scenes took place to show the change in atmosphere. Although the night vision in paranormal activity is clearer, due to the quality of the cameras, i think the blurriness of our shot adds to the feel of the clip, as it suggests disorientation and terror. The darkness of the shot also suggests that something could be happening elsewhere but cannot be seen, darkness is often linked with frightening goings on.

The setting of a house implies that old secrets and the past could potentially be unearthed. A home is an everyday place to be and most people would feel safe in their own home therefore it is ironic for a horror film to be set in it and could make the film more scary to an audience. Our trailer is similar to 'the strangers' in this sense as it is also set in a home which is taken over by scary figures.

Although these shots, from the film 'Orphan' and from our production of 'Diederich' are not the same in the sense of camera work and shot types, they are both showing the opening of a door. This is a very effective technique in horror film trailers, as it shows the characters going ino the unknown and the audience would question what they are going to find lurking behind the door. They would then be intrigued to carry on watching the trailer and maybe watch the film.

There are many similarities between the trailer we produced and exisiting horror film trailers, therefore, although we did intend to stop our trailer from becoming samey and conventional, we did stick to the rules enough to be able to relate it to other films, which I think makes our trailer successful.