Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of existing media texts.

For our A2 media portfolio we were asked to create a trailer for a low budget horror film as well as a poster and magazine front cover to promote the trailer. We acknowledged the codes and conventions of existing media texts from the same genre and decided to follow many of the traditional conventions about the form of each text however we also challenged many conventions in order to create something different from the norm.

 'Eve' the trailer follows many basic codes and conventions of traditional slasher films. The camerawork has some elements of handheld camera which adds to the documentary realism of the narrative. Other ways in which this is shown in our trailer is by the use of a voice over in the voice of one of the characters within the film. The voice over is important as it helps the trailer along by giving a sense of the narrative, in doing this it also projects a sense of the genre. Also with the captions that come across in a 'typewriter' style reminiscent of police reports. This helps to tell the story and guide the audience through the trailer. The overall effect of this is that the narrative appears more factual. Although it is conventional for captions to appear in a trailer the fact ours is presented as a typed message reinforces the documentary realism. The handheld effect is reminiscent of other slasher films and is also seen in films such as 'Paranormal Activity' to boost its claims that it was a true story. Another camera technique we used were point of view shots. We decided to have a 'stalking' shot through the eyes of our monster in order to put our audience in the position if the monster. Similarly Spielberg did this in jaws, placing the audience in a position of discomfort.

The shot from jaws where we are placed in
the perspective of the shark. In short the audience
are made to feel as if they are the killer.

The use of the name 'Eve' is important in reference to our film because although it is easily recognized by the audience as a shortened version of 'Evelyn' which is the name of the little girl in our film who also turns out to be the 'monster', thus conveying a sense of narrative. 'Eve' is reminiscent of night and symbolic of the end of things. In this case, the end of the teenagers lives. Also, Eve in the story of 'Adam and Eve' brings on the fall of makind.

 Because our film is a low budget British horror, we needed to ensure the name of the film was something catchy that would be easily remembered by the viewer of the trailer. Other films have also done this in order to gain a large audience. Films such as 'Dead mans shoes' and 'Halloween' also have short minimum-syllable titles in order to make the audience remember the name of the film after they have watched the trailer.

Our Trailer is filmed in the woods which is an iconic location for horror films. Other locations that were mentioned in our questionpro were; a desolate house, an abandoned warehouse, an empty school after dark etc. The reason we chose the woods is because as a location it was more readily available and also it fit more suitably in with our narrative.

Another convention of trailers is montage editing. This is when several shots from the film are placed together in a non-chronological order in order to create meaning and build up the pace of the trailer therefore adding tension. The conventional form of a trailer incorporates a montage sequence which builds to a climax, examples of this is seen in trailers such as that for 'Queen of the damned' Our montage editing starts with the character Tony saying 'You go this way, I'll go that way' this puts the audience on edge as its something typical of slasher trailers for characters to be in danger once they are alone. then the pace starts to build as we see many characters running and then shots of Eve running as well  no shots are shown of eve actually attacking any of the teenagers however we focused on using the juxtaposition between the shots to help the audience understand that Eve is the killer. One example of this is the 'dragging' piece. This is when three shots were used to create the understanding that 'Eve' has dragged the body of one of the teens and thrown it into the lake.

The first shot of this sequence shows the character 'Keith' being dragged through the woods. Around him the grass and plants are quite clearly dead which gives reference to the fact that he himself has been killed. The fact we cannot see Eve dragging him and cannot fathom a little girl dragging a teenage boys dead body adds to the idea she is some sort of 'supernatural' force.

The next shot is of Eve in the woods. The scenery around her is reminiscent of German expressionism as the branches of the trees are twisted and slanted which is reminiscent of Eves twisted mind. The fact she is wearing red symbolises gore and danger.

The last shot is of a large splash in a lake. The surface of the lake seems to be black which is again symbolic of death. Subliminally the audience has understood the created meaning of these three shots and understands the dead body has now been dropped into the lake by Eve.

One way in which our film breaks conventions is the use of the character 'Eve' as our monster. Usually in slasher films the monster is an older masked assassin. We decided to go against this norm and use a little girl. This is important as little girls usually represent innocence and childhood which is something the teenagers in our film are on the verge of losing due them coming to the age of sexual maturity. The overall binary opposites of our film are innocence and evil. Many shots in our trailer reflect this.

'Dont Look Now' 

This shot on the left for instance mirrors the juxtaposition of innocence and evil in our film. On the left of the frame there is a playground. Playgrounds are generally representative of childhood and innocence, there is also aspects of yellow on that side of the frame which has connotations of life, sunshine and happiness. However the red bars seem to be separating 'Eve' from that. Red has connotations of evil and danger. Her jacket is also red, this is vital as it has intertexual reference to 'Don't Look Now' an 1973 film by Nicholas Roeg in which a father tries to come to terms with the death of his daughter who drowned wearing a red coat. He then thinks he sees her all over Venice and desperately tries to track her down only to be dissapointed. The right side of the frame shows tree shadows in slanted angles. This is reminiscent of German expressionism as the crooked setting is resemblent of the monsters crooked mind. It could be described as a 'psychological landscape'.

Another convention of slasher trailers is the use of 'the male gaze' this is when women are portrayed as weak and vulnerable in a sexualised way as if we are seeing them 'through the eyes of a man'. In this shot we see Tracy running. The camera is at a high angle putting her in a vulnerable position. Also the fact she is wearing a low cut top and is showing cleavage shows how even though she is in danger we are seeing her in a sexualised way. The fact she is wearing a lot of black alerts the viewer to the fact she is inevitably going to die. However due to the language of film being controlled by the norms of our patriarchal society this death doesnt affect the viewer as much as the message is subliminally telling us her death is punishment for her being sexually active.

Another way in which we developed pre- existing conventions of slasher films is with the use of 'typical' characters within the group of teenagers. 'Crystal' who is played by Susie Corquin is typically dressed revealingly and has a sultry attitude about her whilst on camera. Because our film fits into British social realism we decided not to go with the typical 'blonde bimbo' as this is not an accurate reflection of british society. Although she has brunette hair she still is quite clearly recognised as the supposed 'whore' character who we expect to die during the film.

Tony is the 'Athlectic alpha male' character of our film, he is played by James Morissey. His appearance also reflects the changed social ideologies that make up British social realism. Being of dual heiritage he has 'afro' hair. In earlier films it was quite common for the black male character to die during the film as there would quite often be a white main male character who ended up in a relationship with the leading female character. Representations of black men being 'sexually powerful' meant he posed imbalance to this new equillibrium. However in our film the 'black' male is the leading male character this also reflects how societys views have changed.

 

Our 'Final Girl' character is Nora who is played by Harissa Sheikh. As she is of Asian ethnicity we can associate her easily with being the book-worm type due to stereotypical representations of young Asian girls being very studious. The fact there is a mixture of ethnicities within our film goes against typical slasher films in which there is a predominantly white presence. Also, this again adds to the British social realism aspect as many areas of Britain especially London are very racially diverse.