Contact Sheet

I researched about my chosen magazine template which is Fangoria before i decided to start creating my final magazine , Fangoria follows many similar conventions found in other magazine. Fangoria common convention is the use close up shots of the monsters/killer , they also use red colour scheme to convey that it is a horror magazine. it also uses a lot of buzz words to attract their readers.

Final Magazine

Final Poster

Final Trailer

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. 

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

I created a horror  slasher film trailer , a poster advertising the film and a magazine front cover for a 'Fangoria' magazine with my film on the front page. Ancillary texts allow the media product being promoted, for example in my horror slasher film trailer , magazine and poster I have recurring themes in order for my slasher film to be easily recognised for the audience. The magazine cover and poster act as structure which connects to the trailer which helps to create a brand. Using those 3 promotional text together they make an effective and interest in the film as together they create a strong brand identity. I have a consistent mode of address throughout the three ancillary tasks , however the magazine would be slightly different in terms of i would not have control over the construction or brand identity as it is not not created by my marketing team , essentially a distribution company cannot guarantee how a film will be featured in a magazine.

The brand identity of the my typography is effective as it is consistent through the ancillary product, The logo is  used in all purpose marketing strageties ,”Results Day”

uses black and red colours to maximise the slasher theme, black which has connotation of darkness and fear, and red which has connotation of  danger, desire and blood. This makes sure that the brand identity is recognisable and that the genre is being conveyed, displaying that it is a slasher film. The poster and magazine strictly includes black, red and white theme. There is binary opposition created between the red and white colour, white is innocence whereas the red is evil. The font is high school type font which helps symbolise horror films like Halloween.

In my magazine cover, the main image shows a picture of t-shirt lying on the floor with blood covered written in “Results day”. it is located in a forest where the film is based, this is to give the audience a sense of the narrative.  Genre are displayed in ancillary and main products as they have conventional aspect of slasher genre , this is evident of the forest.

Furthermore it is recurrent with the ancillary tasks as well as the trailer. The blood signifies the danger with the arm lying next to it illustrates the consequences of the result.

The identity of the brand is important especially when trying to gain your audience interest, by creating similarities so audience can see similar features with each text, in effective ways so it can reach my target audience. The font was consistent throughout. However the magazine cover was changed a bit since i do not have control of the layout.

I chose ‘Fangoria’as magazine simply because it is a magazine which attracts my target audience alot , it is much more appropriate to my demographic than little white lies, they both aim at a niche audience, fangoria  is smaller than Empire Magazine, it is aimed for people who have interest slasher/horror genre films. My film is a low budget independent British film, I will automatically have a smaller demographic, in addition since my poster displays film festival nominations it will increase my demographic due to this more people will want to see my film because the nomination will give good brand recognition.

I have tried to promote my film trailer by including social network details about my film, there is also a website address, twitter, YouTube and faceboook, Those will direct the audience to pages where they can get extra content in which audience can interact with. This is known as exchange, this is where audience can make parodies and such , this is

enabled by the use of web 2.90. Furthermore there are interviews, competitions, casts, gossip of latest behind scenes and much more, this will allow the audience to be more involved with the film.

Since my film is independent I will not have the benefits from horizontal and vertical integration, horizontal integration is the media companies ownership of several other companies, for example News Corporation owns Magazines, newspaper, television and more. Major films can benefit from this as they can be advertised other different media platforms.  Major films also use synergy , which is a way different elements of media conglomerate work together to promote links between products across different media’s. Conglomerates like universal studios  are able to use synergy which helps boost profits because of their diversity , because they own lots of different companies.  An example is Shawn of the Dead has its own Soundtrack, games which is all owned by Universal studioes.

Vertical integration is when a production company has the ownership of the means of production, distribution and exhibition of the film by the same media company; because of this they generate more profit. For example, 20th century fox owns many film studios and means to distribute the film as well as some of the cinemas in which they are shown.

This is why viral marketing is the key essential for an independent film to become successful if used effectively which is why I have used social network links.  Independent films would have to rely on word of mouth and viral marketing as they are not vertically integrated since they don’t have the means of production and distribution the same way as blockbuster films would have.

Viral marketing is not always successful as it would depend on the way the film is interpreted and whether it is accepted or discarded is up to the audience, for example “The Blair Witch Project” enabled to reach successful measures. Blair witch project used this marketing strategy in order to promote their film.

As well as relying on viral marketing and creating a buzz. The two step flow is important especially for an independent film, they can reach to a large sum of demographics however it can turn out positive or negative depending on opinion leader(s). Theory based on a 1940s study on social influence that states that media effects are indirectly linked through the personal influence of opinion leaders , meaning if an opinion leader likes our film he/she can influence their emotion to a wider audience. Opinion leaders pay close attention to mass media for example blogs dedicated for horror genre films.

The introduction of web 2.0 has helped me distribute my film across, social media like facebook and twitter  is where everyone come together. There has been a divison of audiences into smaller groups  due to the variety of media outlets.

Another features that runs throughout the ancillary texts, mainly my poster and trailer are logos of the production companies that worked with our film, which includes film 4, this is simply because our film is independent and that there is not much funding as a

blockbuster film which is why there are companies there to support them. I chose film 4 because it is a popular choice for a British company which works with independent films creators in making a film based on the British Social Realism as it reflects on the lives of the teenagers living in Britain and focusses on issues in modern society represented through different ideologies.which is why it is appropriate to choose film4. Their logo has been featured in our end card and our poster alongside the age rating which is important so that the viewers know how old they have to be to watch our film, furthermore we included film reviews on the trailer and poster as it would create more appeal to the audience if they seen the film recieved positive reviews from critics, his was not included on the magazine because it would not be suitable to include these on the front cover.

The three ancillary products work together and create one big marketing strategy for our film to become successful and gain a wider audience , with the help of viral marketing and use of independent distributor I may be able to turn this film into success by covering all aspects.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the coursework, audience feedback was the one of the most important key factor needed for decision making process and they actual creation of our final slasher trailer and ancillary tasks. our focus group for the film   were group of teenagers aged 16 and over so we tried to use sample for our research that related so that so we used a range of people from our college and people on social media sites like twitter and face book to gain a deeper understanding into what our target audience would like and dislike about our product.

I used questionpro which is a online questionnaire  made on the website which allows  to share the questionnaire  on social sites like twitter and faceboook asking people what they like and dislike about horror films . This research helped me in the making of our trailer as it gave an insight of what we should include in our trailer. To make it appeal to our target group. I asked question like which location in horror films do find most scary? , or what weapons in horror films do you find most scary? From the feedback we gained knowledge what our target demographics likes in horror films and we could add aspects to our trailer to make it more appealable to our chosen target audience for example basing our film in the forest as the it was found to be most scary. Because of the feedback from questionnaire we received we could apply the audience suggestion to our trailer, so that it has horror genre qualities that our demographic enjoys therefore they would go and watch it, this research helped me with the decision about the age rating of our film as the majority of the participants were aged 15 to 17 so it not only helped us decide on the content of our film but the audience of our film also.

When I completed the shooting and editing of the trailer it was only right choice to get a group of people again to collect feedback from hem on the finished media product, I asked question in which it could help us. This was to see what they enjoyed about the trailer not, and if there were any room of improvement. We asked 5 questions which we kept open so that they would be able to write down

their opinions about what they thought about the trailer. And so that it made it easier for them to reply detailed answers. I gave them a brief overview before starting of the trailer

1 What do you find the most scary and tense?

2 Did you understand the story?

3 How could we improve?

4 What do you think of the soundtrack?

From Question 1 I asked what the audience found the most tense and scary, and the most popular response we received was built up of diegetic and non- diegetic helped to integrate the effect of the trailer. Other responses were the brutal murders portrayed by the killer. From the answer we received I believe our slasher trailer represents the sense of the genre very well.

From question 2, the participant seemed to understand the story line, they all described as “a group of friends who go out and party and gets tracked down by the killer”, and this question helped us understand the narrative is effectively portrayed to the audience through our editing.

From question 3, we asked what we could improve in our trailer. The answer I received was mixed responses, from the results we received it shows it depends on the viewer as we can only catour on the target audience who enjoy the slasher genre.  Some suggested that much narrative was not displayed in the trailer; others say there was too much narrative shown. Some participants agreed that not much violence and gore and it need it more. The way our trailer interpreted, how it is received by the audience depends by the individual and their preference and taste. furthermore we were limited on what we could do with on-screen gore because of the standard editing software  and average camera type we had , so in the end we could only use those to the best of our ability.

From question 4, the participants answered that the effectiveness of the soundtrack made the trailer much scarier as it creates tension. The sound within our trailer is the one the most important factors especially when creating a horror genre, it can have an effect on the audience perception of the trailer. The response received indicated that genre was conveyed well within the trailer.

I wanted a larger sample, so i decided to share our trailer and questions by uploading them to social sites such as Twitter and Facebook , we received many positive responses such as “Amazing piece of work” , The responses were commenting and picking up the common

conventions they could see , furthermore by indicating what they found the most tense and suspenseful , there not any negative comments which makes it difficult to evaluate and see what can be improved, this was because due to the fact that it was friends who commented and not the target audience.