The above screen grabs are of different scenes in our teaser trailer, that we believe, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
1: Genre and how the trailer suggests it. We have chosen this screen grab to show the genre as we believe that the lighting and the shot emphasises that the trailer will be a horror, as the man in the mask is in a darkly lit room with an axe in his hand waiting for his victim to walk by. The use of black clothing and a masked face also highlights the horror appeal to it as concealed identities are very frightening as you can not make any connection with someone's facial expressions through a mask, meaning that everything about them is cold and full of hatred. Another aspect that highlights the genre is the type of shot, as since it is a long shot, you are not able to fully understand who is there, and why they are there, leading to the audience asking loads of questions. Just from watching our teaser, their questions would not be properly answered in detail, encouraging them to go and watch our film to understand everything about this mysterious person. This shot is conforming to the stereotypical view of horror films as we have used the idea of darkly lit rooms and weapons. We have decided to conform to the stereotype in this instance as we wanted our audience to find it relatable to possibly another film they have seen, that they may have throughly enjoyed, which would encourage them to view our film also. The props we have used in this shot are the mask and axe. These props are used to highlight the status of this character, which would be that he is the bad murderer. The location is the house, within a study type room. This location highlights familiarity with our audience members and makes the trailer relatable.
2: How characters are introduced. This screen grab shows our main girl in a mirror with her camera. This is similar to the style of 'paranormal activity' films, but our trailer is not supernatural. We have used a shot of her holding the camera herself, as this introduces her quickly and clearly, and could suggest she knows something weird is going on, so is trying to catch it on camera, but at the same time the bad guy is right behind her, but she does not realise due to looking at her camera and not the mirror. Throughout our teaser, our characters are not introduced in detail, and we do not have any talking whatsoever, as we wanted our teaser to follow the villains journey more than the victims, and focus on the action more than the people.The only characters that are properly introduced and focused on are our villains. By having our victim holding the camera, the audience are put in a different perspective and the teaser is made more personal. It also makes the victim look more vulnerable and incapable as her only way of giving evidence of herself and the situation is by filming it, unaware of the danger behind her. This shot subverts the stereotype of horrors in a way, as usually the camera follows the victims, instead of the victim's filming it themselves. Although if you were to look at films like 'Paranormal Activity' you would see that it conforms to the stereotype of supernatural horror films. We chose to display our film like this as we wanted it to be different to normal horrors, but still similar to things they had seen before. The props included in this shot are the camera and the mask on the villain. The use of the camera makes you feel like you have been projected into the trailer, as it feels like you are there holding the camera with the villain behind you. This makes our audience members more involved in what is happening throughout our trailer. The lighting in this shot is quite dark, but the area around the camera is almost illuminated. This is intriguing to our audience members as you are left to try and work out the room our victim is standing in, and where the illumination is coming from. We used the 'time lapse' tool on this shot to make it very speedy, but still so you are capable of working out what is happening.
3: Setting/location. This screenshot shows one of our villains about to close a door. Where he is standing is lit up with different lights, which suggests that he is in someones house. By showing a door it highlights that he is invading someone elses property, and that his intentions are most likely not good. By having the setting/location being in a house, it destroys any 'sanctuary' you could have, as your home is supposed to be a safe place; but in our teaser, the home is shown as a nightmare you do not want to be in, meaning that anyone watching our teaser would be frightened as it hits home and makes it more realistic. This is because if your house was targeted, murderers could always find a way in, as they did in our trailer. This is similar to that of 'Insidious' as that is also set in a house where you are supposed to feel safe, and especially similar to that of 'The Strangers' as in 'The Strangers' 3 murderers target a couple who are in a house in a very rural area. This shot conforms to the stereotypes of horror films, as the house is a big scary house, on a relatively quiet street, meaning that it is the ideal location for a murderer to strike. When producing our trailer, it was very important to us that we used a convention that is widely used in horrors, so that our trailer would be relatable. The lighting in this shot, is the light that is projected from the inside, so infront of the camera, and the porch light behind the camera. By having no direct light source on our shot, there is more blackness and shadows, making the shot incredibly creepy, and the areas around unknown. The costume in this shot is dark clothing, which keeps our killer's indentity concealed.
4: Title of the film. We have chosen the name 'The Unwelcome' as it gives a slight insight into what our teaser is about. As soon as you read the word 'unwelcome' it suggests that bad people are trying to invade somewhere, where they are not welcome. Against our title, we put a mask, that fades in and out. This is because our trailer is all about masked villains, so by putting a ghostly, eerie looking mask, it again suggests bad intentions. Our title is similar to that of 'The Devil Inside', 'The Last Exorcism', 'The Grudge' etc. By putting 'the' before 'unwelcome' it suggest more than one person, and is sometimes more effective than one word horror film titles, for example, 'Below.' When thinking of our title we racked our brains through many different possibilities that had links to our nursery rhyme, but in the end we decided that something that had nothing to do with our soundtrack and music would be much more effective.
5: Special effects. This screenshot shows a 'CCTV' kind of effect we wanted to create. As the villain is looking up to the camera, we wanted it to suggest the victim has CCTV in her house, and it is recording everything the villains are doing upstairs, without her even knowing they are there. The grey/sepia colour that is created and the slight fuzz gives the effect that it is trying to capture darkness, and struggling. Although as soon as the bad guy appears he is seen clearly from his dark clothing, making him look even more frightening due to the lack of bright, cheery colours around him. Some other effects we used included 'fade to black', 'fade out' and 'fade in'. These transitions were used to make our scenes run more smoothly and flow better, so that there was no harsh cutting as one scene ended and the other began. We wanted all of our scenes to follow on from one another smoothly to not cause any confusion and to keep our audience interested all the way through. Also by the use of 'fade to black' it can create the feeling that something may jump out at you during the blackness, and creates uncertainty as to what will appear on your screen next, as you have no prior warning as to what it could be about. This special effect of the 'CCTV' is sometimes used in horrors, as it gives the sense of cameras watching all the activity in the house. This is more common in films like Paranormal Activity as the characters in these films intended to capture the 'activity' in their house on camera. In this way the shot conforms to the conventions in horrors. The mise en scene in this shot, is a high angle shot with the killer wearing dark clothing, and the grainy grey/light brown colour. This shot makes the audience members feel above the villain, but the absence of light colours makes the whole surrounding area much more sinister and frightening.
6: Camera work and editing. Throughout our teaser, we have tried to be experimentive and original with our shots. In the screen grab shown, we have used a low angle/ olique/canted angle shot. This was to give the idea of a 'point of view' kind of shot, where our victim could have been looking up at the dark, hooded figure, whilst still trying to hide. The use of the reflections around him highlights exactly where he is, and makes the darkness around him seem much more spooky and puts you at unease. Other shot types we tried to use included eyeline shots, low angle shots, high angle shots etc. By using different shot types it showed different perspectives and gave the idea of everyone being watched some way or another. One shot that we worked hard on to perfect is the shot shown in picture 1. This shot was of our villain spinning around in the chair, and then suddenly, he's gone. We edited this shot so that the two together fit perfectly, and it just appeared to be that he had vanished. We spent plenty of time trying to do this, as we felt it could create more tension as no one can just vanish. It also leads to questioning as to where he has gone, and how he has managed to disppear so quickly. A different form of editing we did, was to create a really blurry scene in the snow, which could connotate our first victim being knocked out and dizzy, and watching one of the villains enter the house. This shot was taken from ground level so it appeared as if she was lying on the floor, leading to more questioning about what was happening, encouraging audience members to go and view our film. An effective shot we found was the very end car one, for this shot we postioned the camera on the dashboard of a car, and the way the shot appears is that the victim has a camera already set up in her car. This shot feels more personal as it is taken inside the car and she appears very lonely as there is no one around. The lighting is also effective as it is simply from the interior light of a car, so the dimness of it is relatable to audience members. By watching this shot, it could potentially reach out to our viewers, as if someone was to hide in their car and wait for them, they would be in exactly the same situation. This shot conforms to the conventions of horrors as it is a low angle shot showing the killer with a hidden identity. By the shot being a low angle, the killer is made to look superior and powerful, which is how the villain is always percieved in horrors. In this shot we have used a few props on the window sill to give the audience a homely feeling. The use of small, personal possession type props, makes the audience feel safe and protected, but coupled with the face staring throught the window, makes the audience feel vulnerable and under attack. The use of the light reflecting on the window also conceals the identity of the villain a small bit more, as the reflections detract your eyes from seeing everything about the villain.
7: Title font and style. This screen shot shows our titles that we have throughout our teaser, that are used to create suspense. The font we used was arial with a simple white aspect to it and quite small. We used arial as our font as we wanted our titles to look spookly simple, so that you are able to clearly read them, but instead of them following the horror convention of font, we subverted it by using a basic font. The use of the white font contrasts again the black background, creating an emptiness around the writing due to all the negative space. This can help lead our audience members to fear the titles, as they do not know what will come after them, or if something could potentially pop out of the blackness around the writing.
8: Costumes and props. Costumes were a main aspect in our teaser. This is shown clearly through our use of masks and dark hooded items of clothing.We used masks and dark clothing, as it entirely conceals identites, so you are unaware of the villains, age, sex etc. The use of the hood covers what colour hair they have, and the use of masks and hoods, suggests that at some point; those features could be removed, to reveal identities, but from watching our teaser trailer, they will have to view the film to find out. Both of our victims were in casual clothing, but instead of putting them in pale, light clothing to show purity and innocence, we subverted the stereotype and put them in dark clothing. We put them in dark clothing as we did not want to conform to any stereotypes, and just wanted our teaser trailer to be original and exciting.
We used a lot of props; including an axe, van, car & rope. In our teaser it was essential that we had props as we wanted it be made clear that our villains were serious and could be anywhere. The use of the van made it seem like they are unstoppable, as if a van plowed into a car, the van would be better off, and the use of the victims car showed that she had an escape route, but that escape route was destroyed down too one of the villains being in the car with her. We gave our villains props like a rope and axe, as these are quite violent weapons. A rope can be used to tie people up and hang people, and an axe can be used to inflict fatal injuries, so these props showed that our victims were never going to escape. The use of dark clothing & masks massively conforms to the stereotypical view of horror films. By having our killer appearing like this, he is patronising and hidden, so no facial recognition to make you associate with him can be found. This is a convention used in horrors as it makes the villain seem much more cold and emotionless. The mise en scene in this shot is quite dark lighting with a mask prop close up in the face of the camera. The use of the dark lighting keeps the audience tense, as they cannot see everything clearly, and the use of the mask right up in the center of the shot makes the audience feel patronised and under attack.
9: Story and how the teaser sets it up. This screen grab shows our victim wearing one of the villains mask. This shot sets up our story as it shows that the villains have not killed her, but instead converted her into one of them, being a cold, heartless killer. This shot leads audience members to question how she ended up like that, and what happens during the progression to her appearing like this. This then encourages audience viewers to go to the cinema to watch our film through the information they have gained from our teaser. This shot also makes you wonder where about's it is placed in the film, making you wonder if she was a villain all along. The use of the high angle shot on her makes the audience feel sorry for her, as she is vulnerable with someone gawking down on her. This shot, in a way subverts the conventions of horror films. This is because usually the victim just gets killed off and the killer moves on, but instead the victim has become the villain. We chose to subvert the stereotype like this, as it engages the audience and gives our trailer a unique edge that may have not been used before. Also it creates questioning around whether she was a killer all along, and what order our film will play out in. Gilbert & Gubar theorised that woman were either seen as 'the angel' or 'the monster'. In this shot, we are showing our female character as an 'unkempt madwoman'. We have chosen to represent her this way, in a negative light as it creates the idea that 'anything could happen' as this woman has gone mad. The mise en scene used in this shot, includes a few personal belonging props scattered around, to make the room feel like somebody's home that has been invaded. The curtains highlight the home setting, and also highlight that curtains are supposed to keep the outside from coming in, but instead the home has still been able to be invaded. The dark lighting could suggest to the audience that the victim turned villain is in a hell type setting, as she is constricted to a mask and cannot escape, so the lighting reflects her feelings and personality. The high angle shot makes the victim turned villain look vulnerable and under attack, making the audience have conflicting emotions about what is happening.
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