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

The CCTV shots in my horror trailer are very conventional to horror because of the realism that is created. It also creates a sence that something could happen any time and this is what keeps the audience on edge the most. The blue filter over the top of the cctv shots we used were inspired from the film 'paranormal activity' because we thought that it created something quite different to the norm and gave a sense that something wasnt quite right.

Facemorphing is something we used as the main shock tactic in our trailer because throughout the trailer there isnt any special effects and this helped to create a stronger impact to the audience when watching. Special effects are quite common in horror films, especially the modern ones where scenes of fake blood and silicone wounds have worn themselfes out. Special effects are recently used to emphasise horror in a film and step up the horror film industry to a whole new fright level, this is also required due to the general gore tollerance of the public in presant times, for example, films such as Frankenstien (1931) would of scared the public senseless but then if you were to show this film to a modern day audience they wouldnt find it remotely as frightening. 

Swings create innocence at the start of our trailer which also connotes children which is the main basis on our film. Another reason why these shots can be so eery is due to the way they are shot, and how the camera is zoomed in on the chains which join onto the main frame, instead of focusing on the whole swing. This sends questions into the audiences head and makes them question who is actually on the swing, or if its something paranormal.

The shot of the main untagonist standing at the end of a corridoor is very alike to the twin shot from the film 'The Shining' which is a very famous horror shot. The way that the camera is positioned so you can only just make out the girls empty facial expression. The unknown the main thing which creates horror in this shot because there is next to no information being given to the audience and the questioning is left to those who are watching the scene.

Old newspapers and diarys are very steriotypical to be part of the narrative in horror films because they are a very easy way to explain the story and usually are linked to the return of the repressed, in which something from the past repeats itself. These textual items are usually found in the house somewhere (under floorboards, in the attic).

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The teaser trailer that i created is very effective because it expresses the story line in a well informative way with the use of voice overs. It also is effective in a horror sense because it creates a very eery and creepy atmosphere while watching and engages the audience very well, this is accomplished by the combined use of jumpy moments and general creepy music/shots.

My film poster is pretty effective too because it includes a vital image from the film which is the ending scene where the antagonist morphs into some kind of demon. This is effective for a trailer because straight away it gives off a strong aspect of horror and makes you want to see the film and find out what the face is linked to and how it results in this. One possible way that using this image is negative could be that it is giving away one of the key moments in the film. The title is displayed in a pretty simplistic way across the bottom of the page which leaves the talking to the image and doesn't draw to much attention away. The text at the bottom is a list of names which star in the film along with a date of release and website address.

The magazine cover is based on Total Film magazine which is probably the biggest film review magazine around. This cover is very similar to the poster because of the image used but in this case it is torn up and split because it shows how the girl has a spit mind and changes at some point throughout the film. The text which is displayed across the bottom is short and to the point, which avoids boring the reader and makes them want to read more.

Overall i think that the combination of my main product and preliminary tasks are very effective for the marketing and publicising of the film because they all show strong aspects of horror and don't give away too much information.

Exisiting film posters and magazine covers

The poster above is for the film The Ring Part Three which is a horror film. This is expressed straight away through the poster because of how dark and gloomy it is. In the film there is a TV screen with interference which is one of the most significant things in the story line, this is expressed through the poster because over the whole thing is a noise effect which looks quite grungy. There isn't much information given away which in my mind is good because it leaves the talking to the film and in a way makes you curious and want to actually go see the film and go see what it is all about.

Total film is one of the biggest film magazines and the cover above is also based on horror. Jack Nicholson shown on the cover is the man from the horror film 'The Shining' which is from 1980. The shining is a classic horror film and this is shown well on the cover because the images are all black and white with the total film title as red which connotes blood and backs up the horror theme. The way that the cover is montage with images which make up an overall face is really clever and looks like a bunch of Polaroid pictures were bunched and stuck together.

These two pieces of media are really effective because they both have a quite chilling feeling and also don't give away too much information which teases the audience. The poster makes you want to see the film and the cover makes you want to buy the magazine and read more into it.

What is the role of a distrubution company?

The role of the distributor is to come up with the target audience to the films that they are working with, this audience has to be large to secure large numbers of sales. They have to make sure they keep with the current times and make sure they understand the ways in which media is being shared across the world and to different audiences. The main challenge in this job is to find the target audience and figure out the best way to distribute the films to them, and satisfy all of their needs. At the end of the day, if there are happy audiences, there is more money coming in.

The most important thing for distribution companies to take into account is audiences, which are the most important factor. Not only do distributors have find the target age of their audience but they also need to know a whole list of other things such as gender, lifestyle, working state, destination. All of these things effect a person and therefore effect the choice of target audience. There are many different ways that a target audience can be acquired, the main one being questionnaires and surveys, this way thousands of people who attend a certain genre of film can fill in a survey and then instantly the distributor can calculate his target audience from the data and information received. An example of this would be that it is known that the predominant genre which goes to view romantic comedy films are females and then for action it is male. It is also well known that 15-30 year olds are the predominant users of social networking sites along with other forms of digital media such as web browsing and 3D cinemas. To take all of this in to mind the distributor needs to have a plan, and this is to:

1. Develop a strategy in which the film would be released and then determine a suitable date for this.
2. Show this to film exhibitors who would come to an agreement which would result in the film being classified suitable for screening and the rating would be reviewed.
3. Finally come up with different marketing techniques such as trailers, to get the audience engaged and looking forward to seeing the film by the time it is released. 

Distributors look carefully through a film for things they can single out to publicise the film more, and make it bigger than other films which are also being released. This way, they are keeping on top of the competition which can be a big problem for distributors. This all helps to create the best profit possible. 

Distributors need to be able to think on realistic terms and come up with combined decisions while developing a film because their is no room for mistakes in the media industry and film will just become a failure and henceforth become a waste of time and money. Something which distributors need to be familiar with is the ever changing ways of audiences and how people follow trends, if the distributors don't keep with the trends then they will not hit the mark and not for fill the needs of the audience. A way to make sure they are hitting the mark correctly is to have test screenings in which a certain number of the target audience can go and view the film before it is released and feedback on it. This gives the distribution companies a heads up on if they are going the right way and makes their job a lot easier. Trends are also important in other sectors of film such as Actors, because lots of people go to view films purely on the fact that it includes an actor they are fond of and this is why distribution companies need to keep in check with which actors are in high demand and which are slowly becoming less popular in the public eye.

Overall i think that film distributors have a very  hard job because they are constantly needing to keep updated with trends in the media and need to always keep in time with their target audiences. The main aim of the game in the media industry is to make money which is why distribution companies have such a weight on their shoulders because they are the most important thing about a films success. If a film has a bad distribution company and the film is not made a success, there is not going to be any money intake. Which is why film directors usually go with the larger distributors because of the trust barrier that has been made and film successes which have passed through the same companies.

What is the difference between a teaser trailer and a main theatrical trailer?

 Theatrical trailers are normally longer than teaser trailers because they are usually shown in the cinema to audiences so it engages them more and makes them want to view the film more. They are usually only longer by about a minute or two but in trailer terms, that is a fairly long time. The Theatrical trailer will show much more of the plot and story line than the teaser because a teaser is only there to give little snippets and get the audience excited and wanting to see more. Theatrical trailers are normally released near the time of a film being released because it is another chance to get the audience engaged before being released and is usually the thing which gives a film its premature publicity. Although most big films have teaser trailers, it is not something which all films have, this is for multiple reasons, the main ones being time and money, or just the fact that there isn't really any necessity. There is no clear line which determines which type of trailer is more effective because they both serve a different purpose and in my opinion, including both of these types of trailer is the method which engages the audience the most and gets them hyped up to seeing a film, because after seeing a teaser trailer, there is always the want to see more and a theatrical trailer serves this purpose.

The return of the repressed

The return of the repressed is the term in the media and films in which something has happened in the past and then it returns/happens again at a later date ether in the same place or to the same person/family. In horror terms this could mean that in 1990 a family were murdered by their own child and then for the return of the repressed to have taken place, in 2000 or any time in the future, this child killer could return to kill other people in the same area that the original crime took place. In many cases this could become very repetitive for the audience because it would mean that a story/plot of a film would become predictable and there would be no genuine shock factor or turns in the story. To be fair, there are not actually that many films with returning of the repressed involved, well modern ones anyway. The narrative is something which old films feature a lot more than new ones because film directors are constantly trying to create new plots and stories instead of sticking with the same old stereotypical ways.

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