Q1 In what ways does your media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products-poster and magazine

For the magazine front cover, we did not challenge the conventions of horror magazines instead we used and developed the conventions of a horror magazine. As our task was to make a horror magazine, we decided to do some research on the theme horror and the main magazine that we found was ‘FANGORIA’. We decided to use this as our main inspiration for making our magazine.

The majority of horrormagazines such as ‘FANGORIA’ use distinctive fonts for the mast head. They also use sharp geometrical shapes as it can connote evil. Also the colour of the fonts is red which stands out to the target audience. The denotation of red is just a colour but the connotation of it is blood, love, danger and death.

We wouldn’t really say that our masthead is very distinctive, but the font helps it to stand out. We used the conventions of a horror magazine as our masthead is a geometrical shape and the bottoms of the letters are open which makes it look sharp. The font also looks like it has been written in blood because it looks like it is dripping. The colour we used for the font is a bloody red which connotes danger, pain and death. The name ‘SLASHER’ also helps to make it distinctive to the target audience.

Our poster also uses and develops the conventions of real media products; however it does somehow challenge the conventions also.

The image that we have used on our film poster is not shown throughout the teaser trailer; in the teaser trailer we have not used blood or ropes and the female is not sitting down either. The reason we have done this is because it draws the audience in to know what the film is about. We have also used this image because it is of someone with their fingers crossed and our film is called ‘FINGERS CROSSED’ and we thought this went together very well.

Many other horror posters do this also, they use an image that is not in fact from the film, an example of this ‘FINAL DESTINATION’ who use a shattered mirror like skull as the image.

The conventions of a horror poster is darkness and mystery and in think we used this convention very well as our poster has that sense of darkness and mystery because you do not know why this girl has her fingers crossed and why she is where she is. Another convention of horror films is to invoke the audiences hidden worst fears, these can include being watched, stalked, alone, trapped or abandoned. We thought we would use and develop this

convention by depicting these elements with the girl to allow the audience to have a deeper and more personal concern for; I believe that we use this convention within our film poster as it portrays fear and loneliness.

Many horror film posters use simple fonts such as copperplate gothic light and Trajan pro, this is because it stands out and makes it look professional, the colour of the font on many posters is either white or red which is used a lot in this genre, because of what it connotes. We decided to use this convention also using a serif font; we realized that it made the poster more realistic and original. The colour that we used for many of the fonts of the poster was white because it stood out more and made the poster come to life.

When making our film poster we greatly adjusted andconsidered the conventions that make a film poster what it is and those that make a horror postertrailer what it is. From doing this we were able to craft an ideal film poster which has many conventions which identify its genre and much which boost its originality and appeal. We believed doing so would give us high reception fromviewers and make our poster as genuine as it can be.

By developing and challenging conventions of real media products i have have been able to develop my creativity skills, My group and I was influenced by different conventions of media products to ultimately create products of our own. Doing in depth research enabled us as a group to challenge conventions which would enforce creativity.

Our trailer and magazine uses, develops and challenged froms and conventions of real media products in a various amount of ways. Firstly with our magazine we decided to develop on the conventions of the horror magazine 'Fangoria', we chose this magazine because we believe it is a really respected and high quality magazine which we be could to analyse and incorporate.

This is a picture explaining our magazine and conventions associated with both magazines and horror.

We really admired the film strip which is places horizontally showing what’s inside the magazine. We decide to incorporate this to add a more authentic feeling to our cover. The convention of an awe-inspiring image you always see on horror magazine front covers is something we noticed. In many horror pictures the character in the image is looking at the camera, we decided to incorporate this convention into our magazine front cover as it adds much depth and intrigue. One way in which our magazine front cover challenges horror conventions is that our cover image is not gory, bloody, violent or fleshy. We decided to have a more simplistic image of Grace staring at the camera with a piercing look which gets to the reader. We know this because we asked a few people their initial feelings on the front cover and their replies all included the chilling feeling the piercing look gave them. We developed on the idea of horror magazine titles being bloody and gory by applying a dripping blood font and making the text red. While the heading does not stand out, our image does and it’s a convention for horror magazine covers to have an image which draws the reader in and allows them to know it’s a horror magazine which is why we decided to do this with our cover. The font of our teaser trailer name on our cover was used because after analysing horror magazine front covers we realized that there is the convention to have an original, fantasy-horror type font for the main heading. The font greatly worked and fits well with the cover so we decided to use it in our final draft. We thought to instead make our heading fit into place at the top next to the date and price box rather than to make it like the fangoria heading which overlaps the film strip. Our reason for this is because we thought it looked cleaner and more professional than the professional magazines composition. We also decided to challenge the convention of having a victim, the killer or the monster as the character on the cover image and have the main actress instead, we thought this would allow people to relate to the story more and sympathise with the emotion she emits from her face and eyes.

We thought it would be good to put stars in between each subheading because this is something more commonly seen on action movie magazine covers and so challenges the convention of horror magazines. Many magazine covers are color co-ordinated, we use this convention by keeping our colours down to just red, white and black which go well together. It is a convention for horror magazines to have low key lighting so we thought we would make ours original by challenging the convention by having high key lighting but also with parts which are low key. We decided to go for a mix of using conventions and challenging and developing them so that we could create something which is original yet still identifiable as to what genre it represents.


With our teaser trailer we decided to take an alternative take for the final production, we at first filmed much shots where our camera was stationary or on a straight track inside our college building. In our reboot we took our setting to an abandoned children's school at the back of our college, we thought that the building had a very horror-like feeling and was unclean and damp. This is what we were looking for as abandoned run down places are a convention for horror settings such as the Saw series and it really complimented our new-born vision for our trailer. With our trailer we decided to challenge the convention of Horror Teaser trailers by having a less bloody and less gory trailer, we done this because we wanted the horror of our trailer to be less physical and more psycological. This helped our trailer to be less predictable and more original, an example of this type of Horror is The Silence of the Lambs.

In our trailer we do decided not to have too many quick cuts, instead we chose to use fades and transition effects to change shots. Our reason for this is that we thought it would better create a feeling of horror through a rising suspense rather than through a quick tension. An example of a quick cut, high tension horror film trailer is The Collector:


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Another common convention of horror films is to have a female lead actress, we decided to follow this convention as we believe it authenticates our trailer and allows the audience to connect more by having an innocent, female, distressed character who they can relate to and have sympathy for. Also, at one point in our trailer you can briefly see a female following our actress, we decided to make the follower a female instead of a male as we wanted to challenge the convention to give our trailer an added sense of originality and for it to be different. An example of a horror film with a lead female actress is the film [REC].


We also challanged the horror convention of our film taking place at night, we done this to make it alternative to the usual horror which takes place at night. With it being daytime there is a better sense of abandonment and desertedness when it is morning but no one else is around and you are all alone. It also adds tension about the actress being alone and the killer being anywhere, possibly watching her every move.Another convention of horror films is to invoke the audiences hidden worst fears, these can include being watched, stalked, alone, trapped or abandoned. We thought we would use and develop this convention by depicting these elements with the girl to allow the audience to have a deeper and more personal concern for. Which would ultimately make them recept our trailer more positiively.
Horror films also have the convwntion of captivating and entertaining us in an emotional way. We used this convention by our trailer being a sequence of the actress, by hearing her distressed and desperate words and her body expressions which captivated our audience.
Horror films genreally tend to shock, scare, entice and alarm viewrs
A convention of teaser trailers of all kinds is to have very little plot or storyline given in the teaser. We decided to follow this convention as we wanted to ensure a sense of confusion, awe, unknowing and enticement.
During a teaser trailer snippets of infliction of pain are introduced to attract and ensure that the horror representation is implied, we decided to go against this convention and to have longer shots which are out of the ordinary which will intrigue the audience.
When making our teaser trailer we greatly revised and considered the conventions that make a teaser trailer what it is and those that make a horror teaser trailer what it is. From doing this we were able to craft an ideal trailer which has much conventions which identify its genre and much which boost its originality and appeal. We believed doing so would give us high receptions from viewers and make our trailer as authentic as it can be.