Advanced Media Portfolio : In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Research -

To understand my project (Film trailer for independent horror film), I had to look at ones that already had an impact on audience in order to see what the conventions were, but also to get inspiration. First I started with looking at a wide range of horror/thriller film trailers including:

The Sixth Sense
The Happening
Prom night
Friday the 13th
An American Haunting
The Exorcist
And many more…

After looking at these I found that they differed greatly depending on what type of horror they were. Psychological horrors tended to lack music in their trailers, making it seem more realistic. Teen horrors tended to focus a lot on the story before things went bad, they also tended to have the main characters the same age as the intended audience and use a wide range of music.. Others, like “Slasher horror” used access amount of fake blood in their trailers.
The camera use also differed greatly with teen horrors being more flowing (by using a camera on a track) with smooth movements of the camera, but still cutting greatly. While slashers are less stable but still don’t have as much handheld camera use as the psychological horrors. Many of the Slashers tended to have a narrative, but it was usually short and to the point, using many of the actual actors to tell the story as it happens, this technique was greatly used in all the horror trailers I had watched.