By Kyle Whittaker

HORROR RESEARCH PRESENTATION

CONVENTIONS OF THE HORROR GENREFrom my research into the horror genre has helped me identify specific conventions that will help me to develop my own horror film trailer. Examples of these conventions include:

• The antagonist is usually presented with a hint of being anonymous and mysterious yet is also quite often the main character the story centralises around.

• The other characters are usually made up of attractive people who’s only job is to be killed in gruesome ways.

• Low key lighting shots are very conventional as a way to build tension in the film and create mystery.

• Use of lots of blood and gore in the films is also conventional to strike fear into the audience and show what the antagonist is capable of.

• The settings of these films are also very conventional usually being in a secluded location cutting off the characters from any chance of help from the civilised world.

EXAMPLES OF THESE CONVENTIONS

Centralised Antagonist

Centralised Antagonist

Disposable castIsolated setting

Isolated setting with low key lighting

Blood and gore

CONVENTIONS OF THE FORM• The trailer usually follows the Equilibrium, disequilibrium and resolution layout trying to

contain the least amount of spoilers for the story so mostly dropping the resolution part.

• The equilibrium of the trailer usually starts with slow paced editing and containing calm non-diagetic music.

• The disequilibrium usually takes up the majority of the trailer and involves the best bits of tension and gore in the film.

• The characters of the film are normally introduced in the trailer with any defining features but the background of the antagonist is usually left out for the film to explain.

I found these conventions to be very present throughout the three trailers I analysed. The “You’re Next” trailer is a very good example of the isolated setting with a clear Equilibrium and Disequilibrium layout with the timing of each section conventional with the disequilibrium of murdering and violence taking up most of the time in the trailer.

EXAMPLESI found these conventions to be very present throughout the three trailers I analysed.

The “You’re Next” trailer is a very good example of the isolated setting with a clear Equilibrium and Disequilibrium layout with the timing of each section conventional with the disequilibrium of murdering and violence taking up most of the time in the trailer.

The “Sinister” trailer takes place in a quiet suburb, in a murder house. The film makes the feeling of isolation however by having most of the scenes take place at night. Again the antagonist is presented as mysterious but his background is revealed in the trailer to show the character off and make it seem more scary. The family in the film is not introduced as they are conventionally not as interesting as the murderer.

The trailer for “Nightmare on Elm Street” also has a lot of atmospheric settings shown with the Equilibrium of a nice family outing to kill a paedophile turned bad when he comes back from the dead. It also shows a lot of tension building scenes which all revolve around the antagonist playing with his victims who aren't as interesting or important in the story as him.

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

Demographic-

• Average age 16-25

• Mostly made up of Males

• Typically Lower to Middle class.

Psychographic-

•Interests include avoiding a comfort zone could relate to extreme hobbies such as extreme sports or thrill seeking such as going to theme parks.

•Typical Personality of this audience involves people who are daring/adventurous. Prefer seeking thrills than other activities.

During my research I found my target audience specifics broken down into Demographics and Psychographics I did this by researching into related horror film publications such as Fangoria Magazine and my questionnaire related to horror films.

AUDIENCE PROFILE

16-25

Mostly Males

THRILL SEEKING!!

HOW I PLAN TO APPEAL TO MY TARGET AUDIENCEI created a questionnaire for my target audience to complete, from these results I found the to want the conventions of the horror trailer to be more of a guideline to follow, they don’t want a completely new set up but something different also. To appeal to this I will probably follow the patterned layout of the narrative in the trailer but use the creative differences more in the camerawork and editing.

My audience also answered the questions to match conventions such as using a lot of low key lighting and threatening representation of the antagonist as the more interesting character

I also created a focus group to analyse three existing horror trailers and identify positive and negative points. They seemed to respond well to the Texas chainsaw massacre trailer and the way it built tension and used editing techniques to make it stand out against other trailers. I also showed them the trailer for “The Innkeeper” which wasn’t as well received saying it had more expected elements of a horror trailer and didn’t stand out as anything different but did its job of showing the film. Full Focus Group interview videos can be found on my blog.

From this information gathered from my target audience I know to focus more on the technical aspects of filming and editing to make the trailer stand out from the rest and more closely follow conventions for the overall form and what the trailer shows of the film.