In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions from real media products?
Frame 1: Our Title Naughty List
My first frame of choice is our films title, we chose naughty list because of its direct to the theme of Christmas that runs through our film, and links to the plot. Also the word "naughty" connotes the danger the guests are going to find themselves in. A lot of the time in psychological thrillers the antagonist will have a dark past that can help the audience to relate to them or at least understand why they might act out the way that they do. This is what we wanted here, Scarllet Rosewood is our main antagonists who dresses as Santa and play mind games and traps her dinner guests that were her childhood friends in rooms. The popular saying that parents will always say to their children is if your not good you'll end up on the naughty list, this is the dread and the fear we wanted to instil here in our title. We encouraged to make this our title from watching other scary Christmas movies such as 'Krampus'.
Our title does follow the stereotypical type of thriller title, being short and snappy with only two words, we chose to make it short because from research into other thriller trailers such as 'Psycho', 'The Gift' and again 'Krampus' we believed it made the title easy to remember, also added with the fact that its a frequently used phrase when in relation to adults telling off their children. It almost acts as a warning to the audience. Especially with the "Naughty List" being red, which we found is a common theme with the thriller genre, it really emphasises the danger the guests are getting themselves into, and how angry Scarlett really is with them.
Choosing the font for our title was really important as it would be used as synergy throughout all three of my pieces. We chose a serif font of 'Times New Roman' this is because we wanted it to look sophisticated, having in mind that we would need to use the same font for our film poster and magazine front poster, we wanted it be a font type that would look professional on all of them. However, the font does help to create the seriousness of the film, if the font was in stereotypical chiller font, it would look too overdone and it would take away from the jeopardy of the film, making it look like a spoof of a thriller film.
Frame 2: Story line/plot:
Our plot challenges most thriller movies of the genre, it's not very common for a film to be about Christmas. This is why we chose to do it about Christmas, we wanted to steer away from the stereotypical conventions of the thriller genre, like a investigation because someones gone missing a murder, a stalker etc. like i found in my research in 'The gift' its about a stalker who keeps leaving presents near the door, that later leads to a terrible experience with one of the victims in the house. 'Psycho' is about a murderer who kills a women when she is the shower, 'The butterfly effect' was about the death of the main protagonists wife and then the events he experiences with his own mentality later on. We wanted to approach the thriller genre with the conventions such as mind games, drugging, revenge etc, but put a twist on a loved holiday, that for many people equates to happiness and family.
Here in this frame Scarlett is sitting at front of the table and staring straight into the camera, whilst all her guests are eating the food and drink that she drugged to make them all fall asleep. I chose this shot for the explaining the plot because this is the moment when everything is gonna change, you have the non-diegtic music playing in the background "Santas coming to town" everyone is talking and laughing, but soon their life's are gonna change forever.
We also challenged the stereotype of the main antagonist being male, by making the antagonist in our film, female. This is because they wanted to empathises that women can just be as evil as men, and challenge the stereotype that women are frail, innocent and always the victim and in this case make the main character in the film female. This we were hoping would attract a more female audience to the film, as stereotypical males are more likely to watch a thriller film. similarly we challenged the stereotype of the male being the most able and the savour in the film, by making a male actor a victim of Scarlett's. We wanted to include this because male violence and abuse does happen in society but is overlooked when in comparison to female abuse and violence, therefore we wanted to highlight that societal issue in out film, that not many other thriller films do from my research into the genre.
In our film we used a variety of settings for instance in our school graphic corridor, our schools music practice rooms, my house and Erin's House.
We made the rooms dark and tried to find small spaces so that it made it seem more claustrophobic for the audience to watch this is what we believed to be rather stereotypical of the psychological thriller genre, when discussing the genre we came to the decision that it would be stereotypical of the genre if the characters were to be trapped in dark small rooms, as it would add to the tension and adrenaline the audience would feel when watching the trailer.
Using our own houses to film a lot of the footage, added to the frightening feeling the audience will feel, as the home is something that everyone should feel safe in, however, the idea that you shouldn't trust the ones you thought you knew the most, and that danger comes from within. This therefore adds to the psychological aspect of the film, as when you have finished watching the trailer the audience will feel uncomfortable in their own home, turning their comforts
around on them, just like our whole plot with the Christmas theme does.
Frame 4: Costume:
For frame 4 I chose the Santa costume for the costume explanation. Again we challenged the stereotypical plot line with a twist on Christmas, and turning the beloved father Christmas into a satanic murderer.
We wanted the Santa costume to be as realistic as possible so that it would make it more creepy, and so were sure to buy a costume with a mascot head on as that is the aspect of the costume we thought would be the most freaky. The red of the costume also connotes the danger that is to come for the guests in the film.
We decided on dressing the girl guests in dresses with the main guests in a white dresses to connote her innocence and purity, contrasting to Scarlett with a black dress, to symbolise her corrupt nature, and the evil plan she has created. This is stereotypical of of the thriller genre as females are often seen as weak in comparison to men, and more vulnerable, as demonstrated in 'Psycho' as its a girl victim in the shower that gets murdered, along with in 'The Gift' with the wife becoming the victim to the antagonist too, therefore we chose to use them conventions and demonstrate them in our choice of costume.
Frame 5: Camera and Editing:
From doing research into the conventions of a trailer, by looking at London to Brighton, i found that the editing was very fast paced, the shots were short and impact. we found that there was a lot of close ups used in the genre, because it allowed you to either see the terror on the victims face, the sadness etc. Therefore, that's what me an my partner chose to do in our psychological thriller, we tried to take a ,ot of short shot, with a range of camera shots such as long shots when the guests were trapped in rooms, a close up of me waking up here. We also used a handheld camera when I was running down the corridor, with a canted angle, creating the disorientation and panic that the guests was feeling as Santa was running after her.
We tried to use a lot of low key lighting when it came to the shots, of the guests trapped in the rooms, even when the guests are eating the meal its rather dark with the only source of light coming from the fairy lights lining the walls. This is rather stereotypical of the genre, for example in 'karampus' a lot of the film is set in the middles of the night and the houses lights are set down to low, which normally would create that cosy, loving atmosphere but, here it allows the fear of the dark and the unknown that follows it to play on the audiences brain, which is something we wanted to play upon. Homing in whats stereotypical everyone fears and using them against them.
Our trailer is non-psychological order which again is a convention of trailers, this therefore not telling all the story but giving the audience snippets of the best parts to entice them more to watch it, this therefore makes the trailer seem more realistic and professional.
Frame 6: Introducing Characters:
In our trailer, we had 5 characters introduced, which I feel is stereotypical of a trailer, you want to draw the audience i with a lot of action going on and by having a lot of characters allowed us to do this. We tried to make non-confusing from having a lot of characters as 4 of the 5 characters are all guests so don't have too different story lines.
We chose to properly introduce each guest with a split screen of each of them waking up in the rooms they have been put in by Scarlett, all panicking and disorientated, this therefore helps to set the basis of our plot, and allows the whole story of the trailer to progress. We chose to introduce the main antagonist, Scarlett at the very beginning of our trailer in a mid shot as she is looking outside the window, waiting for all the guests to arrive, and them we chose to have a flash back of her as a child and tell her past, this allowed us to not only introduce Scarllet but give an insight into her past, and some reasoning behind her actions.
The fact that we introduced our antagonist right of the beginning of the trailer, does in somewhat challenge the stereotype of the villain being revealed at the end or reaming some what of a mystery throughout the trailer seen in 'The Gift' and 'psycho', however we did include this and that were our enigma code comes in, as the the character who actually plays all the tricks on the guests and traps them in the rooms is Santa, but being in the costume the audience can't work out that its really Scarlet, this therefore does use the convention of the mystery antagonist but develops it by showing the audience who Santa is right at the beginning, and therefore the real mystery is solved right in front of them.
Frame 7 : Inter titles:
I chose to make Frame 7 about our inter tiles in the film. This is stereotypical convention of most thriller trailers, used to draw the audience into the plat of the film, by main them part of it. This is what we did here with using the word "you" we created a direct mode of address to our audience, getting them involved in the film too.
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| ''Krampus' Trailer Inter title |
we chose to keep our inter tiles short and snappy for as you can see in this frame, so that it wouldn't be too much for the audience to read and allowed the shot to be fast paced with the rest of the trailer, so it doesn't disturb the adrenaline kick the trailer creates. When looking at the trailer of psychological thrillers they also all kept their inter tiles short and snappy ans didn't leave them on the screen for too long for example in 'krampus' when they use an inter tile saying "EVERYONE LOVES THE HOLIDAYS".
We also chose to keep the inter tiles in the same font as our title of our film in times new roman, which is simple and clear to read, making it easier to make the shot fast but allowing the audience to be able to read it well enough too. This is something we also took from 'Krampus' as they also have clear sans serif font when it comes to the inter tiles and its also very fast and snappy. It also keeps the Christmas theme with the font being white ans there being falling snow in the black sky. We wanted to take the idea of using white font to connote the innocence as well as keep the Christmas theme, but we Incorporated the red as it connotes the danger that is about to come for the guests and keeps our scheme present throughout the whole of the trailer.
I chose to have the main image the main antagonists which i found was very stereotypical when researching film posters, pulling the audience attention the centre of the poster instead of it being to busy with too many images and being unclear of the plot and message I was trying to put across.
I used synergy and kept the sans serif font 'Times new Roman' so that that they could identify the film easier. It also made it very clear and readable, allowing anyone reading it.
I was careful to keep the review from the times short and too the point, as it would be too much to read if it was longer and make the audience bored. My trailer fits the convention of a film poster with the star rating that follows the rating, however when doing my research into film posters such as 'red lights' or 'secret window' the poster was very plain and simple with the anchoring main image of the main character, and the billing block , a tag line and famous actors names however it didn't include reviews from other companies who had watched the film or a star rating. However, I thought these conventions would be essential to include in my film poster as our film was an independent low budget film, and doesn't come from a well known production company and so the audience would rely on critics opinion of the film before paying to watch it.
I tried to follow the convention of having the actors names on the top of film poster, just like they have in the 'Secret Window', however, usually they include a famous actor/ actress to entice audience into watching it basically using star power, to get people to watch the film, However, again as our film was a low budget independent film, the actors we use were not famous or well known, so i chose to simply include the main characters in the film.
From my research into the film poster ' red lights' The tag line makes a direct address with the audience with the word "your" this is what I wanted to do with my film poster and there used synergy and took a line from our non-diegetic music of our film trailer "you better watch out " and the "you" also created that created a direct address with the audience. This therefore again like our inter titles in our film trailer grabs the audiences attention and bring them into the narrative of the film. I was also careful in keeping it short and to the point like they did in 'Red Lights' and in a clear and readable font
Frame 9: Magazine Front Cover:
Again like my film poster i used an anchoring image of the main antagonist in our film Santa.
This is what i found to a stereotypical convention of a magazine front cover when looking at the film posters of 'Inception' and 'Beauty and the Beast' The main characters of those films are the anchoring imagine.
Again using synergy i used the Time new roman font for the name of our film "naughty list" again making it clear and easy to read for any demographic.
I followed the stereotypical masthead design when it came to my magazine front cover. For example with the 'inception' magazine front cover the Total film masthead is large covers most of the top of the cover, and is bold and clear. This is what i tried to copy when it came to my magazine front cover. I tried to link the masthead with film and so chose motion as in motion picture, which I think is a direct link and its simply just film for a film magazine. I also followed the stereotypical convention of including the date of the issue and the web address of the magazine underneath the masthead, so that the audience can get more information on the film and search up past issues if needs be. I also chose to have Santa's head covering the masthead slightly but not enough that it isn't obvious what the magazine is called, as it is a new unknown magazine. However, i felt by following this convention like they have done in the 'Inception' magazine front cover it made my magazine front cover seem more realistic and professional.
I used the stereotypical convention of a puff like they did here in the 'Beauty and the Beats' magazine front cover. I chose to make mine in a circle similar and chose to make the word "bonus" in white bold font and in all cap, they they have done with "GREATEST PSYCHO'" in the Beauty and the Beats film magazine front cover this therefore draw the audiences attention to buying my magazine as they will want to know what that bonus material is.
I also chose use the stereotypical convention of the cover lines in my film poster, therefore again like the puff catching my audiences attention into opening and buying the magazine. I also took the layout design form the Beauty and the beast magazine front cover, when it came to the cover lines. I have kept them on the sides of my front cover just like they done here, giving scoop on other films such as "Raptus". I also took from idea on the 'beauty and beast' cover as they have the "55" bold and larger then the text that follows it, this i thought looked rather interesting and was one of the first things that grabbed my attention when looking at the magazine, it added dimension to the cover, this is what i tried to recreate in my magazine front cover with the "10" and the ""5" I think it works well on attracting the reader attention on what is included in the magazine/
