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

Most films have codes and conventions that contribute to identify the difference genre. Over the years films have mixed with code and conventions  to create division of genres known as sub genres. , being slasher one of those. It usually involves generally consist of a psychotic killer who stalks their victim. Over the years horror films have been challenging the traditional codes and conventions to entertain their audience.  By   subverting a traditional elements of the horror genre , however still keep key elements  it helps keep the film look different , new. Furthermore the audience will be able to identify that it is a horror genre.

There is a final girl  who is usually the only person who survives ,  she is considered as the virginal and innocent type who are tormented by basic promiscuous girl teenagers.this is very conventional in slasher films. This term has been introduced by carol j clover who commented that in these films, the audience begin by sharing the perspective of the killer but later experience a shift in identification to the final girl. A common plot line in most horror films includes a final girl.  This convention has been observed in many horror films like, “Halloween” , “scream” and many more. The final girl is usually quiet and pure and gains confidence towards the end of the film. In slasher films they convey being virginal and innocent is the key way of surviving and that being promiscuous is not. Therefore creating a binary opposition between the two.

Results day represents this in the trailer, you can see a final girl.  In our trailer you can see jane (final girl) being looking quite intelligent as you see her with books indicating that she cares about her education. She is also seen as a bit quiet person looking through her body language. The theorist Carol Clover wrote a book called Men Women and Chainsaw which talked about the gender representation in horror films. she said that the final girl can be conveyed as social outcast from others in her group , and also she is the character that helps develop the narrative forward. We wanted to represent the final girl  in this conventional way , so that horror fans can identify with our story line as they can  the similarity with other horror films , this was especially important  that Jane was identifiable.

The final girl can also be seen as the monstrous  , although being seen as a her they can be represented as evil. The Freudian theory can be applied. When the final girl kills the monster they can be described being castrated , who the killer is mostly always a male. This idea is from where a mothers male child leaves the pre oedipal space which is virtual world where child is connected to their mother in a deeper level and takes place in a symbolic order where it becomes traumatic for the child as he finds out his mother does not have the same genitalia. , this will lead the male to thinking their masculinity will be stripped away. They feel threatened by the mother. We represented this our trailer by conveying our final girl as monstrous.

Another we have convention we have is the sexually promiscuous girl in film but not included in our trailer.  she is friends with the final girl Jane. There is binary opposition between her and final girl. She is conveyed in a sexual way , by wearing short skirts ,  tightly fitted clothing in general , the sexually promiscuous dies first in our film , this is conventional of that in other horror films.

We applied Tzetan Todrov theory in our trailer which suggest that every story begins with a equilibrium where the

opposing forces are in balance , a disruption is caused in the event,  which sets in chain of series of evens formed  , a recognition of the disruption is found which leads to an attempt at resolving it.. Eventually a new equilibrium is formed. Those are the 5 stages are conventional in every slasher film and also be found in my mine.

We based this theory into our trailer , the beginning of the trailer we see a close up of the schools logo implying that the characters are students. This represents the equilibrium of the trailer , the start of the story it is quite formulaic sound as from that , in the next shot we two teenager  talking, this enables the audience to identify that it is a teen based horror genre and in that portrayal horror genre is conveyed. Furthermore this helps convey the narrative. After a while the equilibrium is disrupted seen by the teens find themselves getting chased by the killer and getting killed one by one on the victims list. The equilibrium is restored to the normal state as Ahmed manages to get away from the killer but this is not shown in trailer because this is a plot twist. This is a basic element in every  film trailer therefore w used this well so the audience can easily identify with.

In the beginning of the trailer see establishing shot of the forest with the killer at the left waiting for his victims to arrive. There is an opposition between life and death illustrated in the shot , the green leafs represent life , nature however a contrast to this is the killer wearing all black convey the draining of life therefore implying death of the victims.

My trailer was mostly filmed in the forest which is a conventional location to portray the horror genre. We have tried make the best use of the forest to emphasis such as the killer hiding behind the tree while jack and lamar are talking about the their party arrival. The black clothing of the killer represents death therefore it is implying that they are likely to die. This emphasised through the mise en scene. 

However our trailer challenges one of the students death , of the black character. It is mostly conventional in slasher film that the only black character  gets killed first or next after the promiscuous sexual girl. In slasher /horror films.  This is always a binary opposition as the killer is predominately white creating a colour division between the two.

I have used a number of editing techniques like matched action , in this part you see john running away from the killer in corridors ,  there is a cut made between the 2 shots in which action has been overlapped. With the use of editing it makes the trailer much smoother for the best possible experience.  With the help of editing it is important to include for non linear trailer.

I used Roland Barthes semantic coding which points to any elements in the text which can connatate any extra meaning . For example jack in the beginning of the trailer if shown running through the forest through point of view shot ,  the helps engage the audience by putting them in the position of the jacks character. The audience can help and identify and relate to his survival.

One of the most important conventions of typical horror convention are the use of logos, commonly found at the beginning of the trailer. We used this to develop the common convention of our horror trailer.  we added the logos of companies who were involved with the  development  and making of our film , this was added in the beginning of our trailer.  we added the name of our  film “Results Day” in the end of the trailer this was done so that the audience naturalize with ther film better.

My film poster i created is very conventional as we have the picture representing the name of the film Results day.  i have included film credit ext at the at the bottom of the poster which is very conventional in horror posters, it includes the  crew ,cast information and age rating of film etc. By including this helps be easily identifiable that it is a poster and not a front book cover for example.  

Due to my  film being independent low budget i do not have the best means of industry technology however i used the best of what i got. 

I have used black and white to help show the killers bloody knife dripping down on the floor , this helps convey the sense of slasher genre as knife are conventional in almost slasher's , it also can show the killers state of mined as he is lonely.

 my magazine is based off from fangoria which is a conventional magazine. The image showing Results day helps reinforces the horror genre with the use of blood. I used blood in order to convey the sense of danger and death. The placement of my film typography has changed due to not being able to control the placement of the layout of the magazine , as you can it is laced at the near the bottom right.
 i have used banners on top of the magazine to help advertise a feature film , yellow is used throughout the magazine which give the representation of the video nasty poster. This helps the audience allow identify that this is horror magazine.
 i have used buzz words to attract my audience like "Win" which helps gain attention from the reader , it reads Win Sundance Festival Tickets , therefore the reader has a reason to read the magazine.
Another convention i used was the film feature stories as you can see , this helps gain attention from the reader.