EVALUATION QUESTION 1IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA

PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTS?

MAGAZINE FRONT COVERBefore creating the magazine front cover, research was done into real media texts. I conducted research into Fangloria, Scream as well as Empire. The first two are magazine companies which are specifically made to advertise horror where as Empire is a well established film magazine which covers all genres. We decided to pick Empire as it is a world known magazine, this allows for our own work to be published and available to a larger audience.

Masthead- A common convention in Empire magazines is the masthead, this is usually the largest piece of text on the magazine. We conformed to this convention by having our own media text replicate this house style convention. The majority of Empire magazines keep there masthead red with little effects. There are some cases where the company makes subtle changes to colour or effect of the mastheads to suite the film being advertised. For example in Empires ‘Thor’ cover, the masthead is faded. We conformed to Empire by keeping the masthead red, by keeping it red it also conforms to the other horror magazines which I researched as red is a common convention as it links to the iconography of blood. The changes we made to the masthead was the adding of a distressed effect, this was done by using the eraser tool in Adobe Photoshop’. I also added a lens flare effect inside the letter ‘P’. This lens flare subverts the convention of magazine covers as there is never anything placed within the letters of the Empire masthead. By subverting this conventions I was able to make our magazine link more to our other media texts as the light flare is part of our productions iconography.

Cover Image- When researching into Empire magazine, I found that a majority of the covers have a very busy background. In most cases the background is the set of the movie being portrayed. Our magazine convention challenged this convention by having the model stand in front of a black backdrop. The use of the black background develops the convention of darkness. Darkness can be seen in the Mise-en-scen of Horror flicks, it is also known as a very common movie convention. The use of black is noticeable in magazines such as ‘fangloria’ and ‘Scream’ magazine. In all magazine the cover image is of a character who is staring in the film being advertised. This conforms to the conventions of real media text as we have our protagonist ‘Alex’ as the cover model. The angle of gaze is also directed towards the audience, this is very common within film magazines, as this elements used to draw readers to pick up the product. The cover image is behind the text layers, this is so the text is easily readable, real magazine covers also to this for the same reason.

Barcode- This is seen on all magazines, as this is used for the magazine to be sold and purchased, therefore our own magazine includes its own barcode.

Graphic/Picture- In Empire there is usually a groahic in the form of a plus sign, this is a professional way of saying ‘and’. The use of this graphic is common as it keeps the magazine less cluttered, our magazine includes graphics as it also allows for our work to look presentable ad tidy.Unlike Empire our magazine included a blood splatter. There is not usually an image of the cover image on Empire issues, but our group decided to add this as it adds to the colour scheme and makes the magazine more eye-catching. By adding blood, it links to the genre of horror as blood is a common convention in horror, specifically the slasher sub-genre.

Text- In the magazine you can see that there are only three different fonts, one being the masthead, one being the movie title and the other being the cover lines. In real media text such as Empire magazine there are a very minimal amount of text ths is so the cover looks professional and not tto busy, we conformed to this house style to make our text look as real as possible.

The movie title is always one of the largest pieces of text on the page, we conformed to this as we wanted to make it obvious to target audience members what movie is being advertised.

In real media texts such as ‘scream’ there is a banner, this usually draws the audience in as well as give a hint as to what the magazine issue would be exploring. This feature can also be seen in Empire magazine. We followed this convention by adding our own banner which shows that our magazine is advertising a horror movie through the text ‘BLOOD CURDLING HORROR EXCLUSIVE’.

Another convention we followed was the use of other movie titles which link to the issues theme. As our own magazine is about horror we incorporated upcoming horror movies such as ‘GET OUT’, ‘LEATHER FACE’ and ‘KEEP WATCHING’. We added multiple movies as this can be seen in a lot of film magazines.

The cover lines in film magazines typically include some of the text on the main actors/actresses who were involved in the movie being advertised. We used this by having the actress who played our protagonist mentioned. We also added other horror related text.

MOVIE POSTERWhen researching into horror poster we found that a majority of them were very similar and simplistic.

Movie Title- When looking into real media text we found that the movie titles is always the largest text. This can be seen in movie poster such as ‘Insomnia’, ‘Scream’, ‘The Boy’ and many others. Therefore we conformed to this poster convention as it easily draws attention to audience members what the poster is advertising.

Slogan- There is typically a slogan which is placed near the movie title, in horror posters the slogan is very creepy and entice members of the audience to watch the movie.

Image- When researching into horror a lot of the poster use darkness and shadows. For example ‘Mirrors’ and ‘One miss call’. These poster use a lot of negative space and include large amount of shadows. The use of shadows creates a very mysterious aura. For our film ’The Intrusion’ we were heavily inspired by the movie ’Hush’. When we looked at this movies poster, the antagonist could be seen behind the protagonist. We used this to help our own work conform to real media texts as there are many posters which include the antagonists and protagonist.

Production Company- The production company logos can usually be seen at the bottom of the poster, the logos are small and are not eye-catching. These are used in real media texts to show the companies involved in making the movie. We added this feature so our work can look professional.

Website- We developed our poster by adding the website of our movie. This is not a common convention we decided to add this as we know that our target audience are large consumers of Web 2.0. By displaying a website link it is further advertisement of other sites which could release more information to our target audience.

Date- The release date is always the second largest text on poster, we incorporated this convention as it is one of the main features which makes up as poster; As it indicates the release date of the movie.

Block of Text- In every poster there is a block of text including the names of people and companies involved in the production of the movie, to have our own work look real we added this. We made the text small so it does not distract from the rest of the poster.

HORROR TRAILERInstitution Logo- We added a institution logo near the start of

our trailer. The production companies involved in making a trailer would present their logos at the start of the media text. We did this and by doing so it made our work looks more professional and in line with real media products.

Trailer text- We included trailer texts, the words went along with the action sequences in our trailer. The text matched out trailer title. Trailer texts can be seen in real media texts such as ‘Hush’, ‘The Boy’ or any other trailers. We conformed in adding these as it build suspense and makes the audience pay attention to what is being written. The movie title is shows at the end of the trailer, this was also done in our trailer.

Shots- The trailer use a lot of close up shots of the protagonist, there are also a lot of scenes of Alex hiding away from the killer as well as running. Running is really common in horror, typically audience members see the protagonist run away from the villain, In this case it is Alex running away from the killer.

Soundtrack/Sound effects- In horror trailers there are multiple soundtracks which are used. Near the start of the trailer there is calm music, this typically involves piano keys. The after the disruption of the narratives equilibrium there is a rise in tempo, as the music becomes louder sand more suspenseful. We included this convention as we also included multiple soundtracks, after our production company rolled there was a soft continuous piano key. After Olivia screams there is a sudden drum of music and the soundtrack starts to build up and become faster. In trailers there are also characters screaming. Screaming is a very common convention as well as heavy breathing, we decided to conform and use these soundtracks and effects as they help build suspense and tension, they also create a feeling of anxiety and the audience members don't know what will happen next.

Final Girl- Our trailer includes a final girl (Alex). This is a common trope which can be seen within slasher movies such as ‘Halloween’ or ‘Scream’. The final girl characteristics can be seen in the mis-en-scen of the trailer. So the protagonists room.

Binary Opposition- There is a lot of Binary opposition used in horror movies and trailer. Typically it is Good vs Bad, Dark vs Light. We explored this through the costume of the characters as the characters have contrasting clothing. We explored dark vs light through the lighting. There was a lot of shots filmed in the dark, the antagonist would usually appear when its dark and Alex carry's a torch which can be seen as a symbol to oppose the darkness.