All three of my media products are aimed at a young audience, aged 15 - 20. Because I researched each of the forms I was to produce, teaser trailers, posters and film magazines and lifestyle magazines, I was able to make good use of their conventions.
Teaser Trailer
Conventions of a psychological horror :-
- Shots that create danger, fear and a sense of being trapped.
- Characteristics create discomfort, mentally affecting the audience.
- The genre relies on the characters fears, guilt, beliefs.
- Strange and weird sound effects, to increase the tension and further the plot.
- A troubled character, who is going back for revenge.
- Group of people who are known to be in danger.
My teaser trailer "Sweet Dreams" has subverted the conventions of a psychological horror, as I wanted to make it appealing to a niche audience, due to it being an independent film. The Hide and Seek trailer is one of which that has inspired me throughout the production of my own trailer. I have replicated the character of the girl, who has a child like appearance.
Both have an innocent, but sinister look to their character. In my trailer, a panning shot of her bed is inter-cut into the scene to punctuate the dominant ideology. This leads up to her appearance in the final shot of the trailer. Through the use of mise-en-scene I have shown the characters innocence, by placing pink duvets and soft teddies surrounding her.
However, the use of inter-cutting creates a sense of discomfort as the audience become suspicious about the protagonists character. Throughout my trailer I have challenge typical conventions of a psychological horror. These follow as, non-diegetic sound and female as the protagonist character. I have used a sound track that is very repetitive rather than using dramatic sound effects, which creates a more comforting atmosphere. However, I have relied on the images to tell the narrative and to create a sense of discomfort, which would keep the audience engaged and would slowly increase their tension.
Overall I chose the protagonist character to be a female as I wanted to subvert the mainstream ideology because they are most likely to be a male character.
Hyperdermic Syringe Theory - This theory states that massages, morals of the story are being injected into the audience. The audience of this media are viewed as passive recipients. In relation to my teaser trailer, I have used images and text to inject messages of the protagonist character into the viewers. This has helped by telling the narrative of the story, making it more understandable for the audience. Through the use of sequencing I have only shown and given the audience one side of the story, making it a bias view. The audience are not able to make much out of the information that is given to them.
Reception Theory - This theory stats that the audience receive a media and make many meanings from the same media. In relation to my media, the teaser trailer, the audience will have different views on the characters. For example the protagonist would either be viewed as a negative character who has some sort of magical powers, or be viewed as a positive character where the audience have sympathy, and feel like they can relate to the characters. This is due to the way in which I have represented the protagonist through the conventions of the genre.
Cultivation Theory - This theory states that the audience begin to believe what they are shown, which then results in stereotypes. looking at my teaser trailer, the protagonist resembles the character of an underdog. The narrative suggests that she goes on a journey to find herself, were she overcomes obsticels put forward by the three chacartes. I have challegend the strereotypes as the protagonist first appears as a sweet inocent girl, but at the end of the teaser trailer we come to know that she has a dark side, just like every innocent one does. Therefore the protagonist is stereotpyed as the underdog hero, by its veiwers. The three other gilrs who are shown as issolated in the shots, are known as the "popular girls" who are represented as mean. Therefore they are stereotyped as the typical teenage girls, by the viewers.
Post-modernism Theory - This theory states that someone is choosing what the mass audience would prefer to watch, rather than targeting a niche audience. In terms of my teaser trailer, I have chosen the clips that I feel would pull in my audience and make them want to watch more. As my teaser trailer is aimed at a niche audience, I have had to use the feedback that was gathered from my audience research to help in finding out what they find the most interesting in the genre of a psychological horror.
Poster
Typical conventions of a poster :-
- To show the genre through the use of colour, text and image style/size.
- Use text that stereotypically replicates the genre.
- Positioning of the text and images. For example if it's a mainstream film, an actors or directors name will be placed at the top of the poster.
I have used a typical style of text, that relates to the genre of the film. Further more I have printed it in yellow, which adds to the mysterious feel of the genre. When I was deciding what colour my font should be in I thought to use yellow as it is similar to stars. Stars are usually seen in the dark, this has a connection with the narrative of the film. It gives the audience a hint of the narrative.
The colour black is typically used for the horror genre, therefore I used it as a background gradient around the image. This creates a shape similar to a halo, around the girl, again giving a sense of innocents making it seem as if she is the victim and is seeking comfort in her bed, curled in the foetal position. This suggests a sense of not being able to see and vulnerable, something is hidden and we the audience have to find out. It also links back to the narrative, the story is told through the girls dream.
The names of the main actors are placed at the top of the poster, not in any particular order. In comparison to the ones that I had research, they had used well-known actors to increase the target audience. But on the other hand they would only use one of the most popular actors name. Therefore my teaser trailer being mostly an independent film, I have placed all the main actors names on the top. Closely looking at the order of the names, I have placed them starting off with the three actors that play a negative role, with the protagonist at the end of the list.
I have also used other text in the poster to give a hint of the narrative to the targeted audience. Below shows what the style of the text is. In other posters that I have researched, I have noticed that they use a tag line that will persuade the audience to watch it. Therefore added this to my poster, increases the target audience's intention on wanting to watch the film, as they have been given a slight insight on what to expect from the characters involved in the film.
Magazine Front cover
Typical conventions of a glossy magazine:- rule of thirds - three colour palette
- main cover line - image is normally placed over the top
- a well-known star used as promotional material
- many tag lines used as on what the readers should expect to come across in the magazine.
One example of this, is that the image has covered the title, which suggests that its a well-known magazine. Although it not completely covering the title in the middle, it just slightly covers it, making it more readable than well-known.
I have also used the three colour palette colour scheme, by coding it with the colours that Rashmeet is wearing. 
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